day 1

Today, I read a little bit on what kind of research is going on in the world out there on social connectedness. I read about a few Microsoft projects on Socio-Digital Systems (SDSs). I tried to list out a few pros and cons (just a personal opinion) of each device.

Digital Postcard seems like a very good way for the younger generation to send status updates to their not-so-tech-savvy parents. It is small enough to be mounted on the wall.

The Epigraph captures the statuses of different family members and displays them all at once by splitting the screen into parts for each member. It also has more sources of inputs-internet and cellular. But, it doesn’t seem to be as compact as a postcard.

Whereabouts clock-Woah! The name reminds me of the Weasleys’ family-clock in the Harry Potter books. And, after reading, it seems to be the same thing! Very cool, easy to understand and can get updates of any member of the family at a glance. But,activity options would be limited. If the member is out doing something different and strange that he wants his family to know, it would not be possible with this device.

I will read up more on Whereabouts clock tomorrow. Looks very interesting!

From my initial reading, I picked up a few phrases that have been redundantly used. These phrases, I realized, govern the features of SDSs.

· -Family presence when they are away.

· -Unobtrusive and non-invasive information sharing

· -Loose tabs between members of the family

· -Virtual nearness