litmus :: april 2008

Litmus is the monthly newsletter of ACID, the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design

  1. acid News
    • Executive Update: ACID Makes Submission to National Innovation System Review
    • Neural Magazine Reviews Intimate Transactions
  2. Research and Project Updates
    • Data Visualisation for Email Coming to a Web Browser Near You... Soon
    • Adaptive Media at VT2 Exhibition
    • ACID Birds of a Feather Flock Together
  3. ACID Education
    • ACID's Annual Education Day Goes Off with a Bang
  4. ACID People
    • Jeremy Yuille to Speak at Web Directions: UX08
  5. DATE CLAIMERS: Mark Your Diary Now
  6. Industry Tidbits


1. ACID NEWS

:: Executive Update: ACID Makes Submission to National Innovation System Review

Click to view the ACID submission On 28 April, ACID provided a submission to the federal government's National Innovation System Review. The submission makes a number of general observations about the CRC experience as it relates to innovation, but also provides insights from ACID's unique vantage point.

The submission addressed the following key issues within the context of an ACID/CRC viewpoint:

  • Why innovation is important to Australia's future
  • ACID's activities aligned to the innovation aims
  • What the CRC program has done to support these aims
  • Where the CRC program has limited these aims
  • The shape of a future Program to maximise potential for National Innovation
  • Suggestions for an ideal Centre to enhance the Innovation Model

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the development of the submission - your suggestions and ideas were very welcome. It gives us a good starting point for our new CRC bid over the coming months.

Suzannah Conway
Chief Executive Officer

 

:: Neural Magazine Reviews Intimate Transactions

Intimate Transactions cover Italian magazine for new media, hacktivism and emusic Neural Magazine has published its review of the ACID publication Intimate Transactions: Art, Exhibition and Interaction within Distributed Network Environments.

Intimate Transactions is an outcome of one of ACID's primary research agendas: exploring the potential of interaction within multi-user environments. It represents the product of ten years of effort to build critical mass and capacity for Australia's creative industries.

Read the review at Neural Magazine...
Read an earlier review by Ann McLean from M/C Reviews...
Buy your own copy of Intimate Transactions...

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2. RESEARCH AND PROJECT UPDATES

:: Data Visualisation for Email Coming to a Web Browser Near You... Soon

Loupe data visualisation If you find it difficult to manage all that email sitting in your Inbox then you're not alone. Over the past 10 years we have adapted email to our own purposes quite beyond the simple act of communicating with a colleague, friend or customer. These days your Inbox is just as likely to double as a task manager, not to mention being a repository for all those mailing list subscriptions.

ACID's Loupe project, which explores the visualisation of electronic data, could soon solve your email overload problem. The Loupe team is about to deliver a web-based data visualisation prototype for email that will work on any operating system. The prototype will allow you to make sense of your Inbox visually and in 3-D, giving you the ability to look at those emails from a different perspective.

Learn more about ACID's Loupe project...

 

:: Adaptive Media at VT2 Exhibition

Adaptive Media at VT2 Exhibition As part of ACID's work on Adaptive Media, Andrew Brown and Andrew Sorensen have exhibited at the VT2: International Digital Arts Projects exhibition held at The Block at QUT's Creative Industries Precinct. They exhibited a work called "Quanta", an interactive (adaptive) audio visual installation that exploits ACID's research into real-time interactive processes that link video and audio data.

"Quanta" is a live installation with audio and video data transformation occurring in real-time from within the installation space. Participants are encouraged to engage with a reflection of their own visual and auditory input in the hope of providing a more intimate understanding of the particles of light and sound.

VT2 is free and open until 24 May 2008.

Learn more about ACID's Adaptive Media project...
Learn more about the VT2: International Digital Arts Projects exhibition...

 

:: ACID Birds of a Feather Flock Together

Birds of a FeatherACID's Education Program is funding two "birds of a feather" workshops on the topics of annotation and visualisation so that researchers can share experiences across projects and outline a research agenda for each theme.

The workshops will be facilitated by Kate Freebairn and Ali Kerr from ACID Services. Expressions of interest should be sent to michael@acid.net.au for the annotation workshop and to ian@acid.net.au for the visualisation workshop. For more information contact barbara@acid.net.au.

Dates & Places:
Melbourne: 4 June 2008
Brisbane: 11 June 2008 (tentative)

 

Calling all ACID Researchers: If you’d like to let others at ACID know about your work, just send the details to Litmus.

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3. ACID EDUCATION

:: ACID's Annual Education Day Goes Off with a Bang

ACID Education Day 2008 Our annual ACID Education Day was held on 16 April at QUT (Kelvin Grove) and was attended by 16 new and continuing students from QUT, UTS, RMIT and Murdoch University. The day gave ACID postgraduate students an opportunity to get together, learn about ACID's education program, and connect with their peers and ACID researchers.

This year's program covered the student experience at ACID; a workshop facilitated by Ali Kerr and Kate Freebairn on students' projects; a workshop run by ACID's Education Manager, Dr Barbara Adkins, on identifying the knowledge contribution in students' research; and some forward planning for education activities this year. These include further postgraduate training workshops and a session to support students' preparation of papers for the annual OZCHI conference to be held in Cairns in December.

ACID staff and researchers were excited to hear of the innovative work being produced through students' projects. One of the students commented that as an outcome of the day, "we can all feel the clear support of ACID. Looking forward to the next time!"

The next student workshop will focus on preparation of papers for OZCHI and will be held by videoconference on Wednesday 28 May.

Dr Barbara Adkins (front-centre) and ACID Post Graduate Students
Dr Barbara Adkins (front-centre) and ACID Post Graduate Students

 

4. ACID PEOPLE

:: Jeremy Yuille to Speak at Web Directions: UX08

Jeremy Yuille ACID Project Leader Jeremy Yuille has been invited to speak at the Web Directions: UX08 conference held this month in Melbourne. The conference will focus on concepts, technologies and techniques for building great user experiences on the web, with a particular focus on designing for email and data analysis. Jeremy will be presenting research and concepts developed as part of ACID's Loupe Project.

Visit the Web Directions: UX08 website...

 

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5. DATE CLAIMERS: Mark Your Diary Now!

:: Exhibitions

VT2: International Digital Arts Projects

VT2: International Digital Arts Projects 1-24 May 2008, The Block QUT Creative Industries Precinct, Musk Ave, Kelvin Grove, Qld
Building on 2007's Vernacular Terrain exhibition, VT2 presents vibrant, innovative screen-based and photo-media works from international and Indigenous Australian new-media artists.

ACID's Andrew Brown and Andrew Sorensen exhibited "Quanta", an interactive audio visual installation on the opening night of VT2.

Visit QUT's CIP website for more info...

 

:: Professional Workshops 

Pervasive Persuasive Technology and Environmental Sustainability Workshop
6th International Conference on Pervasive Computing
19-22 May 2008, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Visit Urban Informatics for more info...

ACID event Birds of a Feather workshops: annotation and visualisation
Melbourne: 4 June 2008
Brisbane: 11 June 2008 (tentative)
Expressions of interest: email michael@acid.net.au for the annotation workshop and ian@acid.net.au for the visualisation workshop.
For more information contact barbara@acid.net.au.

Creating Value: Between Commerce and Commons
CCI International Conference
25-27 June 2008, Brisbane AUSTRALIA
Visit the CCI website for more info...

Imagining Business: Reflecting on the visual power of management, organising and governing practices, First EIASM Workshop
26-27 June 2008, Saïd Business School, Oxford UK
Visit the EIASM website for more info...

Networks of Design
An international symposium defining graphic design for the future.
3-6 September 2008, Falmouth UK
Email the convenor for more info...

10th Anniversary Conference on Participatory Design: Experiences and Challenges
30 September - 4 October 2008, Bloomington USA
Visit the conference website for more info...

 

:: Calls for Papers

CPRF 2008: The Communications Policy & Research Forum
29-30 September 2008, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Abstracts/proposals: 23 May 2008
Papers: 15 August 2008
Visit the CPRF 2008 website for more info...

Facial and Bodily Expressions for Control and Adaptation of Games (ECAG '08)
2008 IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition
16 September 2008, Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
Papers: 15 June 2008
Registration: 1 September 2008
Visit the ECAG '08 website for more info...

Persistent Conversation Minitrack, Digital Media and Content Track
Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 42)
5-8 January 2009, Hawaii, USA
Papers: 15 June 2008
Visit the Persistent Conversation homepage for more info...

IE2008: The Fifth Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment
3-5 December 2008, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
Papers: 20 June 2008
Demonstration Abstracts: 14 July 2008
Visit the IE2008 website for more info...

OZCHI 2008: Designing for habitus & habitat
8-12 December 2008, Cairns, AUSTRALIA
Long Papers/Tutorials/Workshops: 27 June 2008
Short Papers/Demos/Doc Consortium: 1 September 2008
Visit the OZCHI 2008 website for more info...

Digital Earth Summit on Geoinformatics: Tools for Global Research Change
12-14 November 2008, Potsdam, GERMANY
Registration (early bird): 1 July 2008
Papers: 30 July 2008
Visit the Summit website for more info...

 

:: Conferences

SimTecT 2008 Simulation Conference
12-15 May 2008, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Visit the SimTecT 2008 website for more info...

IIT Institute of Design Strategy conference
15-16 May 2008, Chicago USA
Visit the IIT website for more info...

Web Directions: UX08 conference
15-16 May 2008, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Visit the Web Directions: UX08 website for more info...

CRCA08 Conference
21-23 May 2008, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Visit the CRCA08 website for more info...

Graphics Interface 2008
28-30 May 2008, Windsor CANADA
Visit the GI2008 website for more info...

7th International Conference on Interaction Design for Children
11-13 June 2008, Chicago USA
Visit the IDC2008 website for more info...

3DPVT 2008: Fourth International Symposium on 3D Data Processing, Visualization and Transmission
18-20 June 2008, Atlanta USA
Visit the 3DPVT 2008 website for more info...

New Views 2 Symposium
Conversations and Dialogues in Graphic Design
9-11 July 2008, London UK
Visit the New Views 2 website for more info...

 

:: Calendar Call

If you have an event, meeting or conference date to share with ACID colleagues, just e-mail us the info.

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6. INDUSTRY TIDBITS

Industry Tidbits is also available via ACID's RSS feed. Subscribe to the feed.

Social networking meets GP's surgery

10 Ways the Internet (As We Know It) Will Die

China vaults past USA in Internet users

AT&T: Internet to hit full capacity by 2010

Google App Engine: When will Microsoft field a competitor?

Virtual worlds invade the average business meeting

ACMA welcomes Facebook rules

Services show best prospects

Seeds of disruption

 

About Litmus

Litmus aims to keep you informed about news and events at ACID, the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design.

Contributions are always welcome and past editions are available. Just e-mail us with your story idea.

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