Claudia Roda

Attention aware systems: Theories, applications, and research agenda

Abstract Human perceptual and cognitive abilities are limited resources. Attention is the mechanism used to allocate such resources in the most effective way. Current technologies, in addition to allowing fast access to information and people, should be designed to support human attentional processes on which they impose further strain. This paper analyses the issues related to the design of systems capable of such support: attention aware systems. We introduce the research aimed at understanding and modelling human attentional processes, including perceptual and cognitive processes as studied in cognitive psychology, as well as rhetorical, aesthetic, and social aspects related to attentional mechanisms. We analyse current approaches to the design of attention aware systems along three major features: detection of user’s current attentional state, detection and evaluation of possible alternative attentional states, strategies for focus switch or maintenance. Finally, we discuss the most promising research direction for the development of systems capable of supporting human attentional mechanisms.

Using conversational agents to support the adoption of knowledge sharing practices

In this paper, we present an agent-based system designed to support the adoption of knowledge sharing practices within communities. The system is based on a conceptual framework that, by modelling the adoption of knowledge management practices as a change process, identifies the pedagogical strategies best suited to support users through the various stages of the adoption process. Learning knowledge management practices is seen as a continuous process, taking place at individual and social level that includes the acquisition of information, as well as the contextual use of the information acquired. The resulting community-based system provides each member of the community with an artificial personal change-management agent capable of guiding users in the acquisition and adoption of new knowledge sharing practices by activating personalised and contextualised intervention. q 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Digital image library development in academic environment: designing and testing usability

Purpose – By reporting the experience gained in the development of a digital image library in the academic environment, this paper aims at providing perspective developers with insights on the main usability issues raised by this type of project.Design/methodology/approach – The paper addresses three common needs in academia with respect to image collections: preservation, access, and reuse. In the framework of the specific project experience, it discusses how usability issues have been tackled at design time, highlights the usability problems revealed by tests on the first implemented prototype, and advances proposals on how these problems may be addressed.Findings – Team formation and high turn‐over impact usability design; collection management functionalities effect final product usability; usability and resource reuse levels are severely reduced if the services are limited to those of classic digital libraries.Research limitations/implications – All usability issues are discussed with respect to the ...

Supporting attention in learning environments: attention support services, and information management

Learners and knowledge workers are increasingly facing environments where frequent interruptions, multi-tasking, information overload, and insufficient community awareness are the norm rather than the exception. It has been demonstrated that this situation hinders learning in several manners. This paper, after introducing two approaches aimed at supporting attentional processes, analyses the services needed to support learners in environments presenting the above characteristics. It also discusses the conceptual and technical problems related to the collection, modelling, protection, and distribution of attention-related information.

The atgentive project: attentive agents for collaborative learners

Attention, which intervenes at many different levels such as the perception of the environment and the allocation of cognitive resources, appears to represent one of the key factors of learning and working performance. This poster presents AtGentive, a project which aims at investigating the use of agent-based ICT systems for supporting the management of the attention of young or adult learners in the context of learning and collaborative environments.

Introduction: A Question of Balance

This book explores the application of a human rights framework to the roll-out and use of digital technologies. The connection between two distinct disciplines—law and technology—allows us to understand more fully the dense, multidimensional nature of the digital revolution and how we are going to live with it. When we speak of digital technology, our focus is often prohibitively narrow; taking our cues from scientific research models, we examine the parts rather than the whole, inadvertently isolating hardware from software, the technological frameworks from their actual use, or the costs of the digital revolution from the benefits. The existing body of international human rights treaty law requires a balancing of fundamental rights and freedoms,1 an exercise which, when applied to technology, encourages us to evaluate and prioritize in a more ethical fashion the ways in which we use the machines that surround us. We define technology both as science and in its original sense, tekhnologia, meaning the study of art, skill and craft. We acknowledge that human rights serves both a moral and legal purpose, one in which the normative development of individual and collective rights is often contested, despite the broad, enabling language of many of the international and domestic legal texts.2 Thus, while it is somewhat risky to predict the outcome of any revolution, our application of a multidisciplinary approach allows us to highlight several of the most challenging aspects of the digital transition and to engage in thoughtful reflection on how to find balance between technological advances and citizens’ rights.

User Privacy in a World of Digital Surveillance

The previous chapter explored the ways in which human rights law may be extended to the architecture and use of digital hardware, requiring states to protect vulnerable populations from the potentially harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation, as they would for any other type of pollution. The digital systems that comprise the Internet are a rapidly evolving combination of hardware and software that enables instantaneous communication, forming the cornerstone of the ‘new economy’. These systems—the entities that capture, process or further disseminate information—generate reams of personal data that may be tracked by policing systems or sold to a third party without the user’s knowledge. Moreover, governments and the private sector often cooperate to monitor or proscribe online content and user behaviour in the name of public interest or safety. Nonetheless, any action—public or private—explicitly directed at the unauthorized collection or distribution of personal data may violate an individual’s right to privacy. Digital surveillance, like pollution, is carefully circumscribed in law and is subject to the recognition of privacy as a human right. In an age of Big Data, privacy enhancing technologies and privacy-by-design are a critical component in the delivery of technology that enhances democratic dialogue and facilitates human lifestyles, while reinforcing the premise of human rights. This chapter will (1) explain the technology necessary to track citizens for policing and commercial purposes, (2) examine the legal framework that protects user privacy, while still enabling the circulation of information that underpins modern social and economic structures and permits state surveillance in an emergency, and (3) explore new ways of thinking about digital privacy that empower the user to have greater control over his or her personal data, thereby contributing to the reinforcement of democracy itself.

Teaching Human Rights and Digital Technology

The preceding chapters have examined the intersection between human rights and digital technology for a variety of stakeholders. This chapter presents a comprehensive approach, one that integrates the lessons learned in the four preceding chapters and brings this knowledge into the university classroom. Educational curricula offer an ideal platform for exploring the relationship between our rights and our use of technology, encouraging a rigorous examination of their complex interstice as part of either a general education programme or a specialized degree. Of particular interest is the blended classroom: this hybrid of the physical and virtual space allows students and teachers to learn by doing, to utilize technology in creative and singular ways that privilege the tangible classroom space, while providing digitized access to materials, people and discussions that are physically out of reach. This chapter examines the potential for blended, interdisciplinary learning through (1) a discussion of the right to access education and to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress, rights that the digital divide calls into question, (2) an analysis of human attention in digital environments and the consequences for higher education, (3) the presentation of a curriculum that blends the traditional classroom and the Internet, and (4) a viewpoint on the future of blended learning in an increasingly digitized university environment.

The Internet of Things

Contrary to the popular perception, the Internet of Things is a physical reality. Often imagined as an amorphous interconnection of machines and people, it generates, stores, transmits and analyses data through physical infrastructure that influences decision-making processes. Decision-making was once the sole purview of humans; today machines organize the bulk of our choices, in an array of activities ranging from an automatic bank withdrawal to putting on the seatbelt in a computerized automobile. This new reality of the physical interconnectivity of machines and data is one that, at first glance, appears to have no precedent in law. This chapter will argue that the legal framework necessary for maintaining our human autonomy and living in harmony with an automated world is already in place. The international human rights body of treaty and customary law provides a principled reference for determining the subordinate place of machines in a digitized environment, but the existing law must be applied to new circumstances. This chapter will present three scenarios of life in a digital world of the not-so-distant future, a future where technology provides relief and autonomy for certain individuals, while subjugating others to subtle forms of discrimination or dependence. It will then discuss the technology embedded in our scenarios and examine some of the major legal principles invoked by the Internet of Things. These scenarios demonstrate the need to engage in a rigorous, comprehensive assessment of ubiquitous technology use in order to preserve our global public goods and individual rights in a digitized world.

Conclusions: Collective Human Rights and Low-Tech

As we reflect on how we are going to live with new technology in the decades to come, balance is a key component in our evaluation of the costs and benefits of the digital revolution. The digital tightrope—a balancing act between breakneck technological development on the one side, countered by unforeseen consequences that may promote or violate time-honoured rights on the other—represents a conundrum for humans, both as individuals and as a collective. This book has explored a series of challenges that require thoughtful reflection, the evaluation of one set of interests with respect to another, all within the framework of binding state obligations to protect vulnerable populations. We have argued that the law necessary to regulate use of digital technology for the greater common good is already in place, situated within the architecture of international human rights law and articulated in the constitutions of most nation states.