The 18 Distinct Functionalities

While doing some web surfing on user interface related subjects I came across the book on amazon.comtitled The Unfinished Revolution: Human-Centered Computers and What They Can Do For Us. In the reviews I saw an interesting comment that referred to “the eighteen distinct functionalities needed for a desktop analysts' workstation.” I then did some more searching to find out what these were. I found the article Information Peacekeeping & The Future of Intelligence: The United Nations, Smart Mobs, & the Seven Tribes by Robert David Steele. He lists them as:

Functionalities for Finished Production
• Realtime Tracking and Realtime Group Review
• Desktop Publishing and Word Processing
• Production of Graphics, Videos, and Online Briefings
Functionalities in Support of Analytic Tradecraft
• Collaborative Work
• Notetaking and Organizing Ideas
• Structured Argument Analysis
• Interactive Search and Retrieval of Data
• Graphic and Map-Based Visualization of Data
• Modeling and Simulation
Data Entry, Conversion, and Exploitation Functionalities
• Clustering and Linking of Extracted Data
• Statistical Analysis to Reveal Anomalies
• Detection of Changing Trends
• Detection of Alert Situations
• Conversion of Paper Documents to Digital Form
• Automated Foreign Language Translation
• Processing Images, Video, Audio, Signal Data
• Automated Extraction of Data Elements from Text and Images
• Standardizing and Converting Data Forms

Wouldn’t you like to have all of these capabilities on your computer and know how to use them?

Insights into the future of Human-Computer Interaction

Lately I have been toying with the idea that game controllers may supplant the mouse and keyboard as an interface to our computers. As the power of game systems’ graphic ability improves and the popularity of gaming increases more young people are going to grow up using these kinds of systems. Do you really expect them to trade their gaming experience for a keyboard, mouse, and a boring interface that contains only text boxes and buttons? We have not arrived at a new paradigm yet, but I found this article on the web that provides some real food for thought. I love the quotes taken from the book The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design. Such as this one:

“If you want to think about the future of the human-computer interface, think about the history and future of symbolic systems. The true antecedents of tomorrow's computers were not calculating machines or electronic circuits, but alphabets, natural and formal languages, and the symbolic language known as science.”

And this one:

“To see tomorrow's computer systems, go to the video game parlors! Go to the military flight simulators! Look there to see true responsiveness, true interaction. Compare these with the dreary, pedestrian office software we see everywhere, the heavy manuals and Help Screens and Telephone Support. The world of work at computer screens is still a benighted world.”

So far, ideas like virtual reality using techniques such as VRML haven’t panned out. Neuromancer was a good book but is only fiction. It may well be up to the next generation, the Millennials, to spontaneously generate the next HCI. If you want a good example of how human behavior can transform technology and be transformed by technology I recommend reading Smart Mobs by Howard Rheingold.

Be Prepared To Be Self Employed

While speaking to my National Association of Self Employed representative he threw out a figure that by 2010 50% of all people in America would be self employed. It made me curious so I did some Googling. I found this link. It turns out that this is a prediction made by Peter Drucker. When Peter Drucker talks people (including myself) listen. Are you ready for self employment?

Until a new economic model is introduced we are in a Market Economy. Why do I bring this up? Because when I break it down a Market Economy is totally dependent on buying and selling. Unless you have a trust fund with an unlimited source of income that means you better know how to sell for the foreseeable future. I have read a few books on sales. Lately I have been reading the Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer. I highly recommend it. It’s no-nonsense and the chunking of information is superb. When I talk about selling I’m not just talking about selling THINGS either. If you want to get anywhere in life you need to be able to sell whether it is selling yourself (like for a job) or selling ideas within your company or as an outside consultant. Maybe at one time all the world was a stage now all the world’s a sale.

As I see it we are in the “Market World” scenario as outlined by Allen Hammond in his book ‘Which World?’. There used to be a wonderful link hosted at Cal Tech that outlined the book but it no longer exists. So all that I can do is give you a link to the book at amazon.com. It’s good stuff. Not only did I at one time glean much of the information off of the now nonexistent website but I also attended a lecture given by Jay Gary on the subject matter of the book at the Foresight 2004 conference which was hosted by Regent University’s School of Leadership Studies. Bottom Line – learn how to sell.

Ubiquitous Television

On WTAE’s Saturday morning broadcast they did a segment on the latest bathroom technology. One of the items was a mirror with a television in it. It was basically a 2-way mirror with a television behind it. This made me think of the ubiquity of television and how this compares with predictions about the ubiquity of microprocessors. Going further back in technology history, we can make a comparison with the ubiquity of electric motors. I have counted 7 motors in my house. I have also counted 7 television displays that I currently use. I may have more microprocessors but they are more difficult to count. Is their impact greater even though I don’t perceive it? Do we need a university study to tell us or do we go with the obvious that television has more impact and ubiquity?

Although microprocessors may be at the heart of many devices containing TV’s/displays I think that the display has the more noticeable impact. Look for animated displays to be everywhere in the short-term future. Already they are being placed in devices that formerly did not possess them (i.e. mirrors, refrigerators, telephones, cars). Really big TV’s first started to appear in sports arenas now they are starting to pop up along roadsides as billboards usurping the static images of the traditional billboard for our attention. A new sports bar opened close to my house. I haven’t been there yet but I hear that they have televisions at every table. I have driven by it and through the windows I can see dozens of televisions mounted from the ceiling. The latest buzz in technology circles is streaming, on-demand video over cell phones. Displays are being developed that can be rolled up like paper. Soon your entire wall could be “papered” with a display. There seems to be no end to where displays will be mounted. In fact, flexible displays will even enable wearable displays to be embedded in your clothing.

In the near future be prepared to find a television display in your field of vision every direction you look.