Japan's recent earthquake and tsunami crisis in which the Fukushima Nuclear
Plant was deeply damaged, raised a variety of issues regarding safety
throughout the rest of the world's nuclear power plants. This disaster,
along with the severe amount of casualties and unknown effects of
contamination in the population and environment, bring up several major
questions that are directly and indirectly related to human factors.
For instance, is it possible to predict all risk factors for a nuclear power
plant? If not, is it wise for humanity to use a technology when we know that
its accidental failure can have a dangerous toll on humanity and can
contaminate the environment forever? The Fukushima Nuclear Plant Disaster
illustrates that all risk factors were unevaluated, and that the plant was
not prepared to equip any human help in the event of a nuclear accident.
There are reports of cases where the emergency workers did not even have
basic necessities in such a situation, such as boots. However a silver
lining remains in the fact that this catastrophe did not occur in a third
world country, but in one of the most advanced countries in the world:
Japan.
This accident, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Gulf of Mexico, and other
reports that many active nuclear power plants have shut down and must be
closed, reveal a deeper problem. The ravenous world hunger for energy and
the push to get it as fast as possible while ignoring possible accidents
fails to consider the long term consequences. Isn't it time to invest in
renewable energy and the long term life of our planet, rather than the short
term gains of gas or power energy companies?
A.M.
The Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics International NEWS - April 2007 - Number 1
Monday, April 11, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Book Review: Smart Clothing: Technology and Applications
If you only know a little about Smart Clothing, this book will be a real eye-opener into the concepts of the technology and its applications. If you already know about this area, then this book will be a real resource in providing readers with a good review of all aspects of the technology. In the introductory chapter, the book provides a well-rounded review of smart clothing technology (Chapter 1), followed by an ample explanation of the design processes and development (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 reviews all aspects of the smart clothing standardization, which includes trends, patents, methods, and evaluation techniques. Chapters 4 to 8 go over interfaces, hardware and software, and materials. The next chapter continues on with an evaluation of methods for wearable computing. The last chapter gives a brief overview of solar cell and its usage in the smart clothing textiles that are discussed, providing a good perspective of how fascinating this technology might be.
All contributors of this book offer very well explained chapters with extensive research reviews and reference lists.
Reviewing this book was a very enriching experience, although it occasionally appears as a very futuristic science and technology, though with its authors smart writing manages to convince that it is a real and advancing technology.
A.M.
Smart Clothing: Technology and Applications, Edited by Gilsoo Cho, CRC Press, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4200-8852-6
http://www.crcpress.com
=====================
Published in:HCI International NEWS - January 2011 - Number 45
All contributors of this book offer very well explained chapters with extensive research reviews and reference lists.
Reviewing this book was a very enriching experience, although it occasionally appears as a very futuristic science and technology, though with its authors smart writing manages to convince that it is a real and advancing technology.
A.M.
Smart Clothing: Technology and Applications, Edited by Gilsoo Cho, CRC Press, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4200-8852-6
http://www.crcpress.com
=====================
Published in:HCI International NEWS - January 2011 - Number 45
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Oracle OpenWorld: The Oracle Empire's Customers/Users Conference
Oracle OpenWorld was held in San Francisco from September 19-23, 2010. This year’s particularity was the addition of the “Java One “conference after acquisition of Sun Microsystems. This made the event, according to Oracle, the largest conference in Oracle's history. With more than 41,000 attendees it was too large for the Mascone convention center complex and used many hotels in the area as well. Despite the sophisticated conference organization, going from one location to another proved to be difficult, inconvenient and time consuming. Many JavaOne attendees also felt slighted being at Hilton not Mascone and some even found the experience painful!
On the content side and from Human Computer Interaction standpoint, 5 years after acquisition of PeopleSoft and then Siebel and others, the promised land of “Fusion Applications” with all the best of features from all, sounded still quite like a promise. I was not able to see any concrete demonstrations of human computer interaction illustrating advances in technology or innovations in user interface or user experience.
On the technology side an important theme and hot topic seemed to be Cloud Computing, as one finds in most technology conferences and events these days.
All related sessions on this topic were well attended. Curious attendees struggled to see what is really happening in cloud computing since many presentations seemed to be somewhat light in terms of content. We still need to wait and see what the real results and impacts of Cloud Computing will be. Maybe at next year's Oracle OpenWorld - if one is optimistic!
A.M.
=====================
Published in:
HCI International NEWS - November 2010 - Number 44
On the content side and from Human Computer Interaction standpoint, 5 years after acquisition of PeopleSoft and then Siebel and others, the promised land of “Fusion Applications” with all the best of features from all, sounded still quite like a promise. I was not able to see any concrete demonstrations of human computer interaction illustrating advances in technology or innovations in user interface or user experience.
On the technology side an important theme and hot topic seemed to be Cloud Computing, as one finds in most technology conferences and events these days.
All related sessions on this topic were well attended. Curious attendees struggled to see what is really happening in cloud computing since many presentations seemed to be somewhat light in terms of content. We still need to wait and see what the real results and impacts of Cloud Computing will be. Maybe at next year's Oracle OpenWorld - if one is optimistic!
A.M.
=====================
Published in:
HCI International NEWS - November 2010 - Number 44
Book Review: Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL
In a well illustrated and easy to read book on Social Media Networks, the authors offer in the introductory chapters (1 to 3) definitions and overview of social media networking concepts along with multiple examples of analysis techniques. Then, NodeXL, an interesting open source template for Excel is used to illustrate the analysis techniques. Easy instructions are given through tutorials on how to use NodeXL for social media network analysis (Chapters 4-7). Chapter 8-15 provide ample cases studies illustrating networks analysis for email, Twitter, hyperlinks and more, thus enabling readers to use the tool proficiently to conduct social media network analysis.
With an extensive list of related references, colorful charts and graphs, this book is a valuable resource to all professionals involved in designing, evaluating and researching social media networking. It is also an excellent textbook choice for a social media networking related courses.
A.M.
Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL - Insights from a Connected World, Derek Hansen, Ben Shneiderman, Marc Smith, Morgan Kaufman , Elsevier, 2011, ISBN 13: 978-0-12-382229-1
=======================
ELSEVIER:
==============================
HCI International NEWS - November 2010 - Number 44
With an extensive list of related references, colorful charts and graphs, this book is a valuable resource to all professionals involved in designing, evaluating and researching social media networking. It is also an excellent textbook choice for a social media networking related courses.
A.M.
Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL - Insights from a Connected World, Derek Hansen, Ben Shneiderman, Marc Smith, Morgan Kaufman , Elsevier, 2011, ISBN 13: 978-0-12-382229-1
=======================
ELSEVIER:
==============================
HCI International NEWS - November 2010 - Number 44
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
BP Gulf Oil Spill and its Accident Investigations Report
In a press release dated September 19, 2010, BP confirmed that “Well kill operations on the MC252 well in the Gulf of Mexico is completed”. Before that on September 8th, 2010 BP published its internal investigation of this accident. BP made several documents available at its website that includes a “Full Investigation Report”, slide presentation and summary report along with several appendices.
Despite all the detailed charts, figures and illustrations in these reports and the investigation into a wide variety of different factors, surprisingly there was no mention in any way of human factors issues and the terms “human factors”, "work organization” or “human performance” were never even mentioned. Interestingly the report uses terms such as “failure” (89 instances) but never terms such as "error" (once to describe measurement error range) or “mistake” (0 instance) which is quite astonishing for an accident investigation report.
During a hearing on the Gulf of Mexico spill in Washington, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010. Najmedin Meshkati, a human factors expert and professor at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California, highlighted the lack of human factors approach in the BP report and wondered why BP named its report an accident investigation when it left critical elements out. He asked BP to turn over information on shift duration and worker fatigue.
"How could you call this great work accident investigation ... and not address human performance issues and organizational issues and decision-making issues?" Meshkati asked.
It is sad to observe how human factors issues are so easily neglected in such a major accident that might have lasting effects on our environment. Still a long way to go…
A.M.
=====================
References
BP internal investigation
Experts question BP's take on Gulf oil spill
========
Published in The Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics International NEWS, October 2010
Despite all the detailed charts, figures and illustrations in these reports and the investigation into a wide variety of different factors, surprisingly there was no mention in any way of human factors issues and the terms “human factors”, "work organization” or “human performance” were never even mentioned. Interestingly the report uses terms such as “failure” (89 instances) but never terms such as "error" (once to describe measurement error range) or “mistake” (0 instance) which is quite astonishing for an accident investigation report.
During a hearing on the Gulf of Mexico spill in Washington, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010. Najmedin Meshkati, a human factors expert and professor at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California, highlighted the lack of human factors approach in the BP report and wondered why BP named its report an accident investigation when it left critical elements out. He asked BP to turn over information on shift duration and worker fatigue.
"How could you call this great work accident investigation ... and not address human performance issues and organizational issues and decision-making issues?" Meshkati asked.
It is sad to observe how human factors issues are so easily neglected in such a major accident that might have lasting effects on our environment. Still a long way to go…
A.M.
=====================
References
BP internal investigation
Experts question BP's take on Gulf oil spill
========
Published in The Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics International NEWS, October 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Eye catcher in the News
There were three topics that captured my attention while I was reviewing the press. As an HCI specialist, I feel that one way or another, this might affect our professional life, if not our daily life. The first bit of news was the announcement by Google and Verizon that stated they are nearing an agreement that “could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege”(New York Times August 4, 2010). However this might also mean that access to other content would be slower.
Then in another article Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff (wired.com, August 17, 2010) argues that although the usage of the Internet network (a physical networks of devices) is augmenting, the usage of world wide web would decline due to the shift of usage from web browsing to apps. They write that “You’ve spent the day on the Internet — but not on the Web” because “Over the past few years, one of the most important shifts in the digital world has been the move from the wide-open Web to semiclosed platforms that use the Internet for transport but not the browser for display. “
Though one might argue that this trend might not necessarily happen soon, or that perhaps another eventual technology mutation might stop the life of Apps and create something else, it is noticeable that the building and designing of the application for a variety of features and products is the trend in the user interface design and human computer interaction. This would obviously affect search based user behaviors influenced by Google into a more selective pattern.
From the design perspective a variety of changes can be highlighted, such as the slow conversion to smaller screens. Looking at the multitude of apps on smart phones and their behaviors shows the extent at which learning is facilitated by fewer amount of rules or patterns to learn.
The third story I noticed was an interesting investigation by the Wall Street Journal, which was echoed by other press (National Public Radio network), showing that the fastest-growing businesses on Internet are the ones spying on consumers (Wall Street Journal, July 30th 2010) and how the Web sites (including WSJ) that we are visiting each day are tracking our behavior by using "cookies," "beacons" and "Flash cookies," on our computers. According to this study, an average of 64 tracking cookies were installed from each site by the 50 sites on a test computer used to conduct the study. This study reports that only one site, the encyclopedia Wikipedia.org, installed none and “twelve sites, including IAC/InterActive Corp.'s Dictionary.com, Comcast Corp.'s Comcast.net and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.com, installed more than 100 tracking tools apiece in the course of the Journal's test”.
A.M.
HCI International NEWS - September 2010 - Number 43
http://www.hci-international.org/index.php?module=newsletter&MMN_position=3:3
Then in another article Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff (wired.com, August 17, 2010) argues that although the usage of the Internet network (a physical networks of devices) is augmenting, the usage of world wide web would decline due to the shift of usage from web browsing to apps. They write that “You’ve spent the day on the Internet — but not on the Web” because “Over the past few years, one of the most important shifts in the digital world has been the move from the wide-open Web to semiclosed platforms that use the Internet for transport but not the browser for display. “
Though one might argue that this trend might not necessarily happen soon, or that perhaps another eventual technology mutation might stop the life of Apps and create something else, it is noticeable that the building and designing of the application for a variety of features and products is the trend in the user interface design and human computer interaction. This would obviously affect search based user behaviors influenced by Google into a more selective pattern.
From the design perspective a variety of changes can be highlighted, such as the slow conversion to smaller screens. Looking at the multitude of apps on smart phones and their behaviors shows the extent at which learning is facilitated by fewer amount of rules or patterns to learn.
The third story I noticed was an interesting investigation by the Wall Street Journal, which was echoed by other press (National Public Radio network), showing that the fastest-growing businesses on Internet are the ones spying on consumers (Wall Street Journal, July 30th 2010) and how the Web sites (including WSJ) that we are visiting each day are tracking our behavior by using "cookies," "beacons" and "Flash cookies," on our computers. According to this study, an average of 64 tracking cookies were installed from each site by the 50 sites on a test computer used to conduct the study. This study reports that only one site, the encyclopedia Wikipedia.org, installed none and “twelve sites, including IAC/InterActive Corp.'s Dictionary.com, Comcast Corp.'s Comcast.net and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.com, installed more than 100 tracking tools apiece in the course of the Journal's test”.
A.M.
HCI International NEWS - September 2010 - Number 43
http://www.hci-international.org/index.php?module=newsletter&MMN_position=3:3
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