school of information university of michigan 1 addressing the social-technical gap in remote...
TRANSCRIPT
1 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Addressing the Social-Technical Gap in Remote Instrumentation
Erik C. Hofer
School of Information
University of Michigan
2 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
About Me
Member of Collaboratory for Research on Electronic Work (CREW)
Trained as a social scientist Often the lone social scientist in the room Work on a number of collaboratory projects
– “Science of Collaboratories”, NSF IIS-0085951– www.scienceofcollaboratories.org
3 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Overview for this talk
Introducing the social-technical gap The gap in action in remote
instrumentation A few examples Next steps
4 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
The Social-Technical Gap
Technology is rapidly progressing– We can move more bits, faster and over
many types of media What we do with all of these bits isn’t
always that clear How having so many bits at our
fingertips is going to change the way we work isn’t so clear either
Enter the Social-Technical Gap
5 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Wired VS reality
More
Time
Performance
Less
hype
raw performance of technology
“real performance”
“reality gap”
6 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Remote changes instruments Enable the remote control and observation of
instruments does much more than shift the knobs and screens to a distant terminal
Many technical advancements– More data channels– Higher sampling rates– More immediate data feeds– Data streams that can be analyzed on the fly– Increased capacity to store data
7 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Social change is happening too These technical changes provide new
“affordances” to users, allowing for corresponding changes in day-to-day work
Many changes in scientific practice are emerging– Difference between data collectors and analyzers– Synchronization of many instruments– Combination of simulation and observation– Shifting focus from instruments to datasets– And many more
8 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Scope of social change
The behavioral aspects of remote instrumentation system design and deployment will affect all levels of scientific practice
Some different levels of effect:– Adoption– Use– Scientific practice– Future systems
9 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
A few examples
Social factors in system design and adoption
Example: Instrument control room– In order to facilitate remote operation and
expert consultation, control rooms for a particular instrument were outfitted with video cameras.
What happened?
10 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Video in the control room
Three attempts at deploying this video system– Lens scratched, painted and covered with gum– Camera smashed and hidden– Camera never found
So, what happened?– Ninja hypothesis
• No one saw or heard the vandals• Must have been outsiders who snuck through security
undetected…
– Violated organization norms of privacy and reciprocity
11 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Bugscope
Scanning electron microscope at the Beckman Institute– APIs for remote control, observation
Work with K-12 education in outreach activity
“Opportunity” to engage in real-time interaction with instrument makes it interesting to K-12 audience
12 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Bugscope
13 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UARC / SPARC
Several generations of an aeronomy research collaboratory– UARC: 1992-1997, NSF IRI 9216848– SPARC: 1997-2001, NSF ATM 9873025
Enabled remote observation of a number of instruments in geographically “interesting” locations
14 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Sondrestrom ObservatorySondrestrom, Greenland
15 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SPARC
16 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Effects of UARC / SPARC
Much easier access to instrument Broader educational use
– Feb, 1995 student campaign Simultaneous views or many
instruments Combination of simulation and
observational data
17 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
What to do?
We must pay attention to the social ergonomics of new systems and modifications to existing systems
A few factors that matter– Privacy– Reciprocity– Ease of use– Agreed “rules of the road”– Culture– Adoption– Training
18 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Next steps
Use this group as a forum for analyzing best practices from many fields
Use successes and failures to map the design space for remote instrumentation systems
Create standard policies and recommendations to shape organizational incentive structures
Evangelize the social!– Social factors in remote instrumentation systems
are as important as the technical challenges
19 SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Contact Info and Links
Erik Hofer, [email protected] www.crew.umich.edu www.scienceofcollaboratories.org bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu intel.si.umich.edu/sparc