Book Reading #3: Microblog for HCI Remixed Ch. 1, 4, 5 ,18, 20, and 23

Chapter 1
Summary
The author describes his work with digital music in this chapter.While the content of his story is mostly about the machine used to create the music, he relates the moral of the story with the machine having been very user friendly.

Discussion
This chapter was alright, although the author's choice of diction in several places seemed somewhat strange. To say that he was biased in regard to this machine would be an understatement. I am not sure if there is a word to describe love for an inanimate object, but it would be appropriate here.

Chapter 4

Summary

This chapter details the program Sketchpad and its influence on HCI. Sketchpad is a drawing program that utilized unique input devices (for the time), such as a light pen and a display with a resolution nearly as high as modern LCDs.

Discussion

Each chapter in this book seems to have a moral presented by the author for the reader to take away from it. In this chapter, he finishes by telling the reader that we need to be on the look out for the next Sketchpads of our generation so that we can properly nurture them. This mentality is fine I suppose, but I guess I expected something more instructive, such as the content in the book The Design of Everyday Things.

Chapter 5

Summary

This chapter details some of the origins of the mouse and the difficulties Engelbart had finding an audience for it. There is also some reflection included by Engelbart himself in the chapter, where he laments that the mouse has become to easy to use.

Discussion

The nostalgia trip is continued in this chapter by a different author. There are a lot of parallels between this chapter and the previous one, and the moral content is the same. While it may be interesting from a historical perspective, again, I didn't find this chapter particularly instructive.

Chapter 18

Summary

As the title implies, this chapter was largely about the rise of collaboration within HCI. The author describes the 1980's, a period when computer scientists focused heavily on networking. Eventually this focus extended to human interaction across networks.

Discussion

This paper was refreshing coming from the earlier chapters. While I still felt like I was reading a history book to some extent, there was some real content as well.

Chapter 20

Summary

Articulation work is described as the extra layer of programming required when users work collaboratively. The author discusses how an earlier article called Taking CSCW Seriously influenced articulation work, and goes into details regarding early concepts of how to manage team work through CHI.

Discussion

I felt that this paper was more or less Taking CSCW Seriously rehashed with a slightly different name. The vast majority of the dialog is simply summaries and accounts from experiencing that stemmed out of the aforementioned paper.

Chapter 23

Summary

This chapter discusses the use of computers to enhance human-to-human interactions. The author encourages the use of technology in ways it was not intended.

Discussion

I liked this chapter. Unlike most of the other chapters, the moral and instructive content of this chapter was less intuitive, and therefore more deserving of commentary.