Thinking behind the environment for Making

Construals (MCE)

Construction

• The subjective multi-agent world- picture of multi-agent - vocabulary – LSD oracles, handles, derivates - observable, dependency, agency

• The objective zero-agent world– picture of the single agent – the solitary maker– definitions, functions, procedures

TEDC 2006

An Experiential Framework for Learning (EFL)

private experience / empirical / concrete

interaction with artefacts: identification of persistent features and contexts

practical knowledge: correlations between artefacts, acquisition of skills

identification of dependencies and postulation of independent agency

identification of generic patterns of interaction and stimulus-response mechanisms

non-verbal communication through interaction in a common environment

directly situated uses of language

identification of common experience and objective knowledge

symbolic representations and formal languages: public conventions for interpretation

public knowledge / theoretical / formal

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Supporting a multi-agent perspective:LSD and the ODA framework

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LSDAn LSD account for an agent classifies observables:

oracle - an observable to which it responds state - an observable that it owns handle - an observable conditionally under its control derivate - an observable determined by a dependency

+ protocol = list of privileges of the formenabling condition -> sequence of actions

where an action is a redefinition, an agent invocation or a deletion

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Observables

• an observable some feature of a situation to which a value or status can be attributed. Empirical procedures and conventions are involved in identifying a particular observable and assigning its value. Not all the observables associated with a situation need be present in a particular state.

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Agents

• an agenta family of observables whose presence and absence in a situation is correlated in time, that is typically deemed to be responsible for particular changes to observables. All changes to the values of observables in a situation are typically construed as due to actions on the part of agents.

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Dependencies• a dependency

a relationship between observables that pertains in the view of a particular agent: “when the value of a particular observable x is changed, other observables (the dependants of x) are of necessity changed in a predictable manner as if in one and the same action. The changes to the values of x and its dependants are indivisible in the view of the agent. That is: no action or observation on the part of the agent can take place in a context in which x has changed, but the dependants of x have yet to be changed.”

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Central heating LSD account agent boiler

state boilerOn, currentBoilerTemperatureoracle desiredBoilerTemperaturehandle currentBoilerTemperature, flameNeededderivate

needsToHeat = currentBoilerTemperature < (desiredBoilerTemperature - tolerance)

protocolneedsToHeat -> flameNeeded = true

Can optionally give types to observables: bool / real etc

The single agent perspective

The multi-agent perspective

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Fundamental stance on semantics

• The identification of observables, dependencies and agents and all matters concerning their integrity and status is an informal empirical activity (“What EM is”)

• It is arguably an activity that is implicit in all system construction, whatever development method or programming paradigm is used

Contrasting perspectives

• Giving change / jugs

Two perspectives on making construals:– using procs and funcs – using when’s

cf. the objective single-agent and the subjective multi-agent perspectives

Multiplicity of viewpoints• The Input Window / Script View / Agent?• The content of tabs in the input can be

– expressing the ODA pattern in an environment for action (“script view”)

– listing a narrative sequence of redefinitions– animating a set of actions for automation, as

when composed of ‘when’s– recording a set of possible options for experiment

Traditional programming

Requirements capture and specification

Program design implementation

maintenance

Use affordances interface culture

Identifying agencyin the machine-like

componentsand in the human

context for use

Framing goalsfor the designprotocols for

interaction andinterpretation

e.g. devise UML

constructingand programmingthe machine-like

components

designing programby identifying

objects and functions

technical interfacedevelopment

e.g. writing Java code

human factorsstudy

interface design

empirical studiesof use

prototyping

e.g. goals, operators,methods (GOMS)

evaluation

specifi

cati

on

use

r in

terfa

ce

Empirical Modelling

Requirements capture and specification

Program design implementation

maintenance

Use affordances interface culture

develop scriptsin isolation

as “furry blobs”that represent

the observablesand dependencies

associated withputative

machine-likecomponents

andhuman interactionsand interpretations

identify and document reliably

reproduciblesequences ofredefinition /

chains of “furry blobs”that correspond to

programmableautomatable

machine behavioursand ritualisable

human behavioursand interfaces

exercise, explore,customise, revise

and adaptsequences of redefinition

and interpretationto reflect emerging

and evolving patternsof interaction and

interpretation;extend and augment

observables to supportadditional functionalities

combining scripts