Augmenting text-based communications - VaIL 2007 Discussion Starter
sunny
* Current methods for text augmentation
* Identification of existing tools
* Presentation, visual grammar, and the human-machine interface
* Chat: acronyms and emoticons
* Concept Identification: statistical analysis, term clustering,
definition clustering
* Disambiguation: techniques to maintain context
* Efficiency gains and losses: a model for proficiency, comprehension,
and information density (not just media richness, media richness in
context of application and cognition)
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If we limit communication to a particular mode (audio, textual,
pictographic) we may gain some simplicity in the design of the
information system. We may even gain benefits with regard to
simplified training and simplified and standardized input mechanisms.
But by forcing communications to adhere to a small subset of symbols,
or accepting a specific mode as our sole means of communicating, we
limit what we can communicate. The nature of how we communicate
affects the content. Affects its efficiency, effectiveness, and
content. There are many examples of this. How might one communicate
origami folding via text or audio? Or an electronic schematic? We
can argue that we can simply encode the schematic or paper folding
into a specialized semantic and then decode it on the other end. Does
this really achieve what we want? What is lost in the encoding? Does
increasing complexity without increasing the amount of information
lose something? Efficiency? Robustness? What is the fail-over when
the decoder fails to function? Is this acceptable?
Communication might be shown to always be ' better' in a multi-modal
space, where text, icons, pictures, and other communication medium are
each used in an appropriate manner. Perhaps our communication tools
should not dictate 'what' we communicate, or even 'how', but should
guide us as to 'when' a given communication technique is most
appropriate. What techniques for augmenting our text-based are known
and prevalent? Is a website augmentation? How much coding should be
required by the communicator? With a pencil and paper, very little
encoding is required. Why must we 'encode' our communications when
using a computer network?
Please help us flush out answers to these questions and to find the
right questions.
!! Respond with your thoughts and ideas !!