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SUMMARY:Why Communicate? - Dr Richard Harper\, Microsoft Research Cambridg
 e
DTSTART:20110628T164500Z
DTEND:20110628T181500Z
UID:TALK31771@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Professor John Naughton
DESCRIPTION:*ABSTRACT*\n\nWhen new communication technologies are invented
 \, what is the idea that lies behind them? Something to do with what the h
 uman will do with them: the idea that the technology will make them\, the 
 'user'\, more efficient\, for example? Or are the reasons behind these tec
 hnologies to do with the engineering of them\, something that makes them c
 heaper to build\, as an alternative example?  \n\nIn this talk I want to p
 resent a sketch of some of the reasons why new communications technologies
  are invented (and include reference to some developed over the years here
  in Cambridge) and suggest that most often it is an idea about human need 
 that generates them\, not engineering. I then ask what tends to happen to 
 these technologies when they get introduced and ask whether they do\, in f
 act\, satisfy the human need in question (such as making people more effic
 ient). I will show that there is little evidence that communications techn
 ologies do this\, certainly not very often. Indeed\, I will go on to show 
 that there is little evidence that the introduction of new channels in rec
 ent years has led to any improvement in communicative efficiency at home\,
  in work\, in private or public affairs\, one of the claims often made for
  them.  The oft-heard complaint that we are all suffering from communicati
 ons overload seems to grow worse despite these new technologies. Given thi
 s\, I will then ask why people seem so keen to adopt these same new commun
 ications technologies. It cannot be that the technologies do 'what they sa
 y on the can'. So why?\n\n*About the Speaker*\n\nRichard Harper is Princip
 al Researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge and co-manages the Socio-
 Digital Systems group. \n\nRichard is concerned with how to design for 'be
 ing human' in an age when human-as-machine type metaphors\, deriving from 
 Turing and others\, tend to dominate thinking in the area. Trained as a so
 ciologist and with a strong passion for ordinary language philosophy\, he 
 has published over 120 papers and recently published his 10th book\, _Text
 ure: Human expression in the age of communication overload_ (MIT Press).\n
 \nAmongst his prior books is the IEEE award winning _The Myth of the Paper
 less Office_ (MIT Press\,2002)\, co-authored with Abi Sellen. He is curren
 tly working on an edited collection entitled _At Home with Smart Technolog
 ies: the future of domestic life_ (Springer\, due Summer 2011).\n\nHis wor
 k is not only theoretical or sociological\, but also includes the design o
 f real and functioning systems\, for work and for home settings\, for mobi
 le devices and for social networking sites. Numerous patents have derived 
 from his work.\n\nPrior to joining MSR\, Richard helped lead various techn
 ology innovation and knowledge transfer companies\, while in 2000 he was a
 ppointed the UK’s first Professor of Socio-Digital Systems\, at the Univ
 ersity of Surrey\, England. It was here he also set up the Digital World R
 esearch Centre. Prior to this he was a researcher at Xerox PARC's fifth la
 b\, EuroPARC\, in Cambridge. He completed his Phd at Manchester in 1989. 
LOCATION:Seminar Room\, Wolfson College
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