[13589] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: multimedia computing facilities for students
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Thom Kevin Gillespie)
Wed Oct 25 20:27:10 2000
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 09:09:08 -0500
From: Thom Kevin Gillespie <thom@INDIANA.EDU>
In-reply-to: <200010250219.PAA15818@callisto.net.voyager.co.nz>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-to: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
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Since you are interested in shared work space I'd look at 'any' computer
lab designed for shared, meaning noisy, workspace. Multimedia is
by nature noisy and if you look at Dreamcast's Samba Da Amigo, about to
get much noisier and crowded. This music game uses digital maracas (sp?)
to manipulate the screen image. You stand up using these things and also
dance around space. The entire body is about to become the mouse so you
need to make room not just folks folks sitting at tables discussing but
moving and milling around discussing.
You might think: What is this guy nuts? We are a 'library' in a 'school'
and he's talking about 'games'? The game stations such as DreamCast,
Dolphin, xBox and Playstation 2 are and will be significant players in the
multimedia world and in education just because of their ubiquity.
Playstation 2 demand is projected at 300 million units which is the most
explosive growth of and communication device in history. Granted they
can't possibly match the demand with production it should enter any
consideration for environments designing and playing multimedia.
You can plan for the here and now and be totally behind the wave by the
time the space is open or you can get out on the edges and design for a
future which 'probably will be' This is hard to do if it is just
librarians and admin folks but actually easy to do if you invite 'all'
possible audience into the design. The more you expand the audience the
more likely you will be to get it right. The 'all' part is often the
trickiest part because it means inviting people you aren't comfortable
with and giving them a say.
I was part of a group which designed a lab at Indiana University for
multimedia design 5 years ago. The lab is called the da Vinci lab and
possibly the most important technology we put in the lab was a floor to
ceiling wrap around 20 foot white board. We did it because the photography
folks in the design group wanted a seamless corner to do photos in which
would not cast harsh shadows. This board has become 'the work space' for
all collaborative design. I often give a class of 25 white board markers
and let them use the board in any way imaginable to get across an idea.
The result is often so gorgeous it doesn't get erased for weeks because it
explains the idea so well because of the affordance of the technology, a
floor to ceiling wrap around 20 foot white board. We don't get that
without the photographer who demanded that we put that in our multimedia
lab.
We also have 20 Macs, 13 SGIs, video, 3 enormous printers and a projection
system to die for.
You can't be cautious designing the future.
Thoughts?
--Thom
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