Cumincad : CUMINCAD Papers : Search Results

CumInCAD is a Cumulative Index about publications in Computer Aided Architectural Design
supported by the sibling associations ACADIA, CAADRIA, eCAADe, SIGraDi, ASCAAD and CAAD futures

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_id	ddss9861
id	ddss9861
authors	Leusen, M. van and Mitossi, V.
year	1998
title	A practical experiment in representation and analysis of buildings
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fourth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning Maastricht, the Netherlands), ISBN 90-6814-081-7, July 26-29, 1998
summary	The TYPOLOGY project was set up by the Dutch Government Building Agency (GBA) to explore computerised representations of buildings that allow analysis of various aspects of their performance. So far this project produced the RF-model, an abstract computerised representation.Physical elements of the building are not represented as such, only individual spaces and boundary segments along which they are adjacent are represented explicitly. Spaces can have any number of functional properties such as the general category of floor area they are included in, the activities they accommodate, or the particular safety compartment or circulation system they belong to. Similarly, boundary segments may, for example, provide access or view, may be included in a particularcategory, such as interior walls, or in a safety or security barrier.The RF-model enabled the presentation and quantitative analysis of design proposals for large and complex buildings such as courts of justice and prison buildings. The model is also used in a multiaspect analysis of a series of recently erected Dutch prison buildings. We expect that these first results will develop into a rich and professional precedent-based system, to be used in the early stages of design. The strategic goal of the project is to derive from the accumulated models and their analysis a more general understanding of the relations between a building’s actual characteristics and various aspects of its performance.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/08/07 16:36

_id	aaa9
authors	Shneiderman, Ben
year	1998
title	Designing the User Interface (3rd Ed.)
source	Addison Wesley, 650 p. [ISBN: 0201694972 ]
summary	Designing the User Interface is intended primarily for designers, managers, and evaluators of interactive systems. It presents a broad survey of designing, implementing, managing, maintaining, training, and refining the user interface of interactive systems. The book's second audience is researchers in human-computer interaction, specifically those who are interested in human performance with interactive systems. These researchers may have backgrounds in computer science, psychology, information systems, library science, business, education, human factors, ergonomics, or industrial engineering; all share a desire to understand the complex interaction of people with machines. Students in these fields also will benefit from the contents of this book. It is my hope that this book will stimulate the introduction of courses on user-interface design in all these and other disciplines. Finally, serious users of interactive systems will find that the book gives them a more thorough understanding of the design questions for user interfaces. My goals are to encourage greater attention to the user interface and to help develop a rigorous science of user-interface design.
series	other
email
more	http://www.awl.com/dtui/
last changed	2003/04/02 08:00

_id	ddss9833
id	ddss9833
authors	Koutamanis, Alexander
year	1998
title	Information systems and the Internet: towards a news counter-revolution?
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fourth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning Maastricht, the Netherlands), ISBN 90-6814-081-7, July 26-29, 1998
summary	The explosive evolution of the Internet into a ubiquitous infrastructure influences the generation, dissemination and use of information. From a historical perspective it redefines issues that have been central to the news and information industry since the seventeenth century. One such issue is periodicity. The practicalities of news media and news as a commodity have resulted into the periodical appearance of news and, by extension, of all actual information. Integral to periodicity iscontrol of information production by institutions or other authorized channels. With the advent of the Internet we are reverting to an a-periodical information system characterized by personalization anddirect contact between information provider and information user. Rather than relying on the institutional status of the propagation channels, we are increasingly evaluating information quality by the integrity, up-to-datedness and reliability of its source. Moreover, we are able to complement orcorroborate information by linking different sources together in compound representations. The extent and complexity of the Internet make search intermediaries necessary. These collect and collate information either ad hoc (responding to a user query) or as part of wider documentation projects. These projects re-introduce institutionalization but the autonomous, intelligent mechanisms used by such intermediaries promote personalization in information retrieval and facilitate decentralization ofinformation supply into a cottage industry. In addition to a-periodicity, directness and wider availability of information, decentralization provides a new social and technical context for precedent and case-based approaches in designing.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/08/07 16:36

_id	ddss9834
id	ddss9834
authors	Kovács, László Béla and Kotsis, István
year	1998
title	Basic Concepts and Prototypes of a Land Usage Design and Decision Support System
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fourth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning Maastricht, the Netherlands), ISBN 90-6814-081-7, July 26-29, 1998
summary	This paper presents the basic ideas of a computer system for supporting urban design and decisions on land use. We argue, that the high complexity of urban design - inherent in the its large number of interdependent views and aspects - seems to justify a flexible support system capable of reasoning and conceptual modelling. Such a system may be prohibitively resource demanding unless we are able to build it up from smaller and larger modules of different types and functionality and which canbe created basically in an incremental way without a complete plan in advance. Two prototypes concerning urban designs and a small flexible design rule interpreter/handler is presented for free standing buildings.
series	DDSS
email
last changed	2003/08/07 16:36

_id	bf16
authors	Mahdavi, A. and Suter, G.
year	1998
title	On the implications of design process views for the development of computational design support tools
source	Automation in Construction 7 (2-3) (1998) pp. 189-204
summary	The empirical evidence indicates that the computational evaluation tools are not sufficiently and consistently used in the architectural design process. Various contributing factors have been suggested, most of which deal with tool deficiencies in terms of user communication features, stand-alone character, and informational complexity. Without questioning the potential impact of these factors, we suggest that circumstances pertaining to the representation and understanding of the design process must be taken into consideration, if a more in-depth understanding of the problem of tool deployment is to be achieved. Toward this end, we explore the possible impact of alternative design process views on the development of computational design evaluation tools. In particular, we describe how a nonconventional view of the design process can inform implementation efforts that lead to the emergence of new tools for active convergence support in design.
series	journal paper
email
more	http://www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
last changed	2003/05/15 21:22

_id	ddss9842
id	ddss9842
authors	Mattsson, Helena
year	1998
title	Working with unpredictability
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fourth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning Maastricht, the Netherlands), ISBN 90-6814-081-7, July 26-29, 1998
summary	The paper deals with notions of complexity in art and architecture. On the basis of a recent sculptural work by Richard Serra, Torqued Ellipses (1997), the notion of complexity is investigated in terms of how it situates the viewer, and affects our sense of space and time. Serra’s work is analyzed in terms of the artist’s working method, the production of the work, and finally the ”external relations” which connect it to the viewer and the context. In each of these steps, the notions of complexity and unpredictability are shown to have a formative role. The relations between space and time, object and context, are redefined in Serra’s work, which also gives it great importance for architectural theory and practice.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/08/07 16:36

_id	ddss9843
id	ddss9843
authors	Mitossi, Vicky and Koutamanis, Alexander
year	1998
title	Spatial representations as the basis of formal and functional analysis
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fourth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning Maastricht, the Netherlands), ISBN 90-6814-081-7, July 26-29, 1998
summary	The proliferation of the computer in the documentation of architectural designs generates a growing number of computerized architectural drawings. As a result, practice is showing an increasing interest in the utility of such drawings. This interest is linked to a fundamental promise of computerization in architecture, the analysis and evaluation of a building’s behaviour and performance during the design process. The main drawback of conventional computerized drawings is that they are restricted toplotting orthographic or, less frequently, perspective projections. This effectively reduces the computer to a mere electronic drafting table and computerized drawings to unstructured, haphazard collectionsof arbitrarily chosen graphic elements, normally of the lowest possible complexity. The lack of structure and in particular of meaningful, relevant primitives leads to inadequate support even for basic analyses and evaluations. We consider the structure of computerized design representations with respect to the choice of primitives that facilitate automation of analysis and support focused feedback. We argue that current drawing systems are capable of deriving the basic dual network of ‘solid’ building elements and ‘void’ spaces on the basis of user-input descriptions of familiar entities and that this network is sufficient for normative analyses.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/08/07 16:36

_id	sigradi2009_1020
id	sigradi2009_1020
authors	Natividade, Veronica Gomes; Alessandro Ventura
year	2009
title	Arquitetura Algorítmica. Uma abordagem conceitual [Algorithmic Architecture: A conceptual approach]
source	SIGraDi 2009 - Proceedings of the 13th Congress of the Iberoamerican Society of Digital Graphics, Sao Paulo, Brazil, November 16-18, 2009
summary	The current paper aims to a conceptual approach to the widespread algorithmic architectures defined for Terzidis Kostas (2006) through the philosophy of complex sciences theorized by Edgar Morin (1998). It intends to discuss two approaches outwardly contradictory emerged from the theme: on one hand, the conception of contemporary architecture is beyond generation of complex shapes into computer software, on the other hand the overvaluation of logics can lead architects to incur in the same mistake of simplification performed by the modernists.
keywords	new paradigms; algorithimic architecture; complexity; design process
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:56

_id	ga9801
id	ga9801
authors	Soddu, Celestino
year	1998
title	Argenia, a Natural Generative Design
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	Leon Battista Alberti defines the Beauty of Architecture "a concert of all the parts together, performed with proportion and logic in something in which it is possible to find again each event, in a modality that will not allow the inserting, extracting out or changing anything without decreasing its Beauty". With generative art we can approach, directly, this complex paradigm of proportions and logic, and we can directly design the Beauty, or better our idea of beauty, before the realization of each single possible artificial event. This is the heart of generative approach. The Generative Art work for the beauty, in the sense of the humanistic approach of Renaissance, because the generative code, which is the project of generative design, is the real structure of the idea. It defines how to concert all the parts and the dynamic relationship among these parts in the evolution of complexity. The generative project defines which is the law of proportion and which logic the dynamic evolution will follow. All the events that this code can generate will be, in humanistic sense, beautiful, or, if we prefer, will belong and represent our Idea of world. And more. The generative art produces events that are unique and complex. The uniqueness and complexity are strongly related one each other. As in Nature, each event is generated through an artificial life, which, as in the natural life, produces uniqueness, identity and complexity during a identifiable time. This complexity is a natural-like complexity. We can recognise, in the artificial ware we produce through this generative approach, the harmony and the beauty of the natural-like complexity that refers to the Humanistic approach of Renaissance: Man, Geometry, and Nature as references for "the harmony which is not thought as an individual caprice but as conscious reasoning." (L.B.Alberti, De re aedificatoria).
series	other
email
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

_id	14fb
authors	Tah, J.H.M., Howes, R. and Losifidis, P.
year	1998
title	Information Modelling and Sharing in the CO-CIS Project
source	The Int. Journal of Construction IT 6(2), pp. 67-85
summary	Complex information structures are generated and exchanged during the life cycle of large projects. The key to realising improved collaboration amongst the several disciplines involved is in the integration of such structures. Object-orientation has emerged as an appropriate approach for handling the complexity inherent in construction domains. This paper presents a pure object-oriented Integrated Building Project Model (IBPM). The model is a definition of objects and relationships that pertain to the three different construction-related disciplines of architecture, structural engineering and project management. It provides the basis by which software applications can share objects and a means of achieving integration. From the IBPM, the notion of Intelligent Object Classes (IOCs) is introduced, leading to the COllaborative Construction Integrated System (CO-CIS), the development of which is described in terms of its generic conceptual architecture. The exploitation of the architecture in a prototype implementation of the IBPM and IOCs is demonstrated by the generation of construction schedules through the integration of CAD and project management packages.
series	journal paper
last changed	2003/05/15 21:45

_id	ddss9851
id	ddss9851
authors	Torre, Carmelo and Selicato, Francesco
year	1998
title	Consequences of Interdisciplinary Approaches in the Construction ofKnowledge-Bases
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fourth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning Maastricht, the Netherlands), ISBN 90-6814-081-7, July 26-29, 1998
summary	The character of interdisciplinarity in planning approaches create a new, intriguing, emerging complexity (Funtowitcz and Ravetz, 1994) in problems and in knowledge-structuring of contexts of planning practices. The key-role played by information systems (IS) implicates a re-consideration ofcharacter of knowledge to be used in knowledge-bases. The necessity of considering knowledge domains coming from social, cultural, economical, technical, physical and naturalistic approaches means dealing with different scales of value, with non homogenous parameters. The necessity ofmanaging flexible knowledge rises on the fore as fundamental issue for future information system oriented to supporting decisions. Might information systems be useful in this interdisciplinary approach ? It is necessary to contain in a knowledge-base both quantitative and qualitativeinformation ? Three alternatives are available for a conceptual discussion :the possibility of identify new approaches, in order to develop information systems able in managing new knowledge; the necessity of adding new support systems oriented to manage soft knowledge, to traditionalgeographic information systems (GIS); the possibility of non using support systems coming from a technological vision of problem for nontechnical knowledge (Latouche 1996). The first two paragraphs are due to F. Selicato. The third and the fourth paragraph are due to C. Torre.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/08/07 16:36

_id	ddss9801
id	ddss9801
authors	Achten, Henri and Leeuwen, Jos van
year	1998
title	A Feature-Based Description Technique for Design Processes: A Case Study
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fourth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning Maastricht, the Netherlands), ISBN 90-6814-081-7, July 26-29, 1998
summary	In order to develop appropriate tools for decision support in design processes, it is necessary to found them on an understanding of design. Analytical techniques of design processes that have a direct relationship with tool development can enhance design support systems development. The paper focuses on a design support system in the VR-DIS research program. The aim of this research program is to develop insight in the architectural design process and to establish design tools for architectsworking in Virtual Reality. The basic approach for data modelling in VR in this research is based on an extension of the Feature Based Modelling paradigm taken from design in mechanical engineering. The computer model of the design in the system is a Feature-based model. This paper describes design processes in terms of changes in the Feature-based model of the design. For this purpose, a case of a house design is used. Drawings in the conceptual design phase up to the preliminary design phase arestudied. Each state of the drawings is described in terms of a Feature-model. Particular design actions such as creation of spaces, definition of architectural elements, and changes during the design process can be expressed in terms of changes in the Feature-model. Because of the use of Features, the changes can be formalised in the VR-DIS system. The description in terms of Features offers an analytical toolthat leads to a functional brief for design support tools. The paper ends with a discussion of implications and future work.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/11/21 15:15

_id	2a12
authors	Burry, Mark and More, Gregory
year	1998
title	Representation, Realism and Computer Generated Architectural Animation
source	Cyber-Real Design [Conference Proceedings / ISBN 83-905377-2-9] Bialystock (Poland), 23-25 April 1998, pp. 241-249
summary	This paper documents a simple architectural form which, but for computer generated animation, has no ready alternative explanatory process for its complex generation. The subject is a column in the nave of the Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona conceived by Gaudí at the beginning of this century without the contemporary opportunities for animated design exploration. The column is based on a set of counter-rotating mutually interfering profiles. As the column gains height, the profiles increase in interference with each other resulting in an increasingly fluted cross section, a tendency towards the Doric Order. For most, however, there is no easy access to a plausible explanation of the inherent rationale for the column. Animating the generation of the column reveals a unique and concealed sublimation of natural patterns of growth. Animation aids an understanding of the effect of the fourth dimension on design itself by releasing a meaning of time from an otherwise inanimate object. Here animation is used to decipher one aspect of the mystery of Gaudí's design while strengthening another: the source and conceptual power of Gaudí to anticipate this phenomenon. Rather than trivialising this design mystery, the explanatory role of the animation enriches comprehension of the formal concept of mutation through displacement or an evolutionary design paradigm. The paper discuss the implications of this ability to show transition, translation and dislocation without delving too deeply into how the animation was made, nor indeed the subject which, after all, requires animation to fully represent its less tangible qualities.
series	plCAD
email
last changed	2003/05/17 10:01

_id	a96f
id	a96f
authors	Clayton, M., Johnson, R., Song, Y and Al-Qawasmi, J.
year	1998
title	Delivering Facility Documentation using Intranet Technology
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1998.240
source	Digital Design Studios: Do Computers Make a Difference? [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-07-1] Québec City (Canada) October 22-25, 1998, pp. 240-253
summary	Intranet technologies present new opportunities for delivering facility documentation for use in facility management. After the design stage, building documentation is reused to support construction and then facility operation. However, a common perception is that construction documents and as-built drawings are less than optimal for reuse to support operations. We have conducted a study of facility management processes and the information content of facility documentation in the context of information technologies that are emerging into the marketplace. The study provides guidance for facility managers who are implementing and fielding new information technology systems. A better understanding of information needs during operations may also help designers to better structure their own documents for reuse. An analysis of documents that are used throughout the life cycle of facilities has led us to a characterization of operations documents that are distinct from design drawings, record drawings or as-built drawings. From an analysis of facility management processes, we have identified different roles for facility documentation in those processes. Facility documentation may be used as a resource, as input, or as output. Furthermore, from interviews of facility management personnel, we identified facility information that was rated high in importance and low in satisfaction that might be targeted when implementing a facility information system. We prepared software demonstrations that show how the information may be extracted from drawings, entered into databases and then retrieved via Web and CAD interfaces. We suggest that operations documents consist of a variety of information types and require several kinds of information tools, including databases, CAD drawings and hypertext. Intranet technologies, databases and CAD software can be integrated to achieve facility management systems that address shortcomings in current facility management operations. In particular, intranet technologies provide improved accessibility to information for facility management customers and occasional users of the systems. Our study has produced recommendations based upon utility and ease-of-implementation for delivery of information from the design team to the owner, and among personnel during operation of the facility.
series	ACADIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:56

_id	e6ca
authors	Curry, Michael
year	1998
title	Digital Places: Living With Geographic Information Technologies
source	N.Y.: Routledge
summary	The last twenty-five years have seen major changes in the nature and scope of geographical information. This has happened in one way in society at large, where computers, satellites and global positioning systems have made geographical information more extensive, more detailed and more available. It has happened in another way within the university, where rapidly evolving geographic information systems have been touted as tools useful in a wide range of disciplines, tools that will resolve problems as different as the nature of global climate change and the routing of mail. In both settings the move from manual to computer-based systems is viewed as having a natural trajectory, from less powerful to more powerful technologies. These systems are held to be increasingly able to model and represent all that is important in geographical knowledge and behaviour. They are seen as fitting into and supporting traditional scientific and social practices and institutions. Digital Places: Living with Geographic Information Technologies shows that on each score the systems have been misunderstood and their impacts underestimated. By offering an understanding of Geographic Information Systems within the social, economic, legal, political and ethical contexts within which they exist, the author shows that there are substantial limits to their ability to represent the very objects and relationships, people and places, that many believe to be most important. Focusing on the ramifications of GIS usage, Digital Places shows that they are associated with far-reaching changes in the institutions in which they exist, and in the lives of those they touch. In the end they call for a complete rethinking of basic ideas, like privacy and intellectual property and the nature of scientific practice, that have underpinned public life for the last one hundred years.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	8b38
authors	Do, Ellen Yi-Luen and Gross, Mark D.
year	1998
title	The Sundance Lab- "Design Systems of the Future"
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1998.008
source	ACADIA Quarterly, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 8-10
summary	The last thirty years have seen the development of powerful new tools for architects and planners: CAD, 3D modeling, digital imaging, geographic information systems, and real time animated walkthroughs. That’s just the beginning. Based on our experience with CAD tools, analysis of design practice, and an understanding of computer hardware and software, we’re out to invent the next generation of tools. We think architects should be shakers and makers, not just consumers, of computer aided design. We started the Sundance Lab (for Computing in Design and Planning) in 1993 with a few people and machines. We’ve grown to more than a dozen people (mostly undergraduate students) and a diverse interdisciplinary array of projects. We’ve worked with architects and planners, anthropologists, civil engineers, geographers, computer scientists, and electrical engineers. Our work is about the built environment: its physical form and various information involved in making and inhabiting places. We cover a wide range of topics – from design information management to virtual space, from sketch recognition to design rationale capture, to communication between designer and computer. All start from the position that design is a knowledge based and information rich activity. Explicit representations of design information (knowledge, rationale, and rules) enables us to engage in more intelligent dialogues about design. The following describes some of our projects under various rubrics.
series	ACADIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

_id	de62
authors	Eriksson, Joakim
year	1998
title	Planning of Environments for People with Physical Disabilities Using Computer Aided Design
source	Lund Institute of Technology, School of Architecture
summary	In the area of environment adaptations for people with physical disabilities, it is of vital importance that the design is optimized considering the human-environment interactions. All involved persons in such a planning process must be given sufficient support in understanding the information, so that everyone can participate actively. There is an apparent risk that discussions will be kept between experts, due to difficulties in understanding the complex and technical adaptation issues. This thesis investigates the use of computer-based tools for planning/designing environments for physically disabled people. A software prototype, and a method to use such a tool in the planning process, was developed and evaluated, based on the findings from six case studies of real planning situations. The case studies indicated that although such a tool would support the design, as well as the dialog between the participants, a certain level of technical and economical efficiency must be obtained. To facilitate the professional planner's work, an important issue is to maintain a large library of 3D objects. With the latest prototype implementation, it was found that such a planning tool can be produced, even when using consumer-oriented computers. One previous critical factor, interactive manipulation of 3D objects, can now be achieved if utilizing modern graphic cards with 3D acceleration. A usability test was performed to evaluate the prototype's basic operations, involving two groups of future users: five occupational therapist students, and four persons with major physical impairments. It was found that although the usability was satisfactory for the basic tasks, several items needed to be improved or added in future versions. It is important with an integrated support for manikins, in order to evaluate, e.g., wheelchair accessibility, reach ability, positioning of handrails, etc. This thesis reviews and compiles published anthropometrical and biomechanical data into a uniform segment-by-segment structure, in order to aid the design and modifications of manikins. The compilation was implemented as a spreadsheet document. An MRI investigation of the neck-shoulder region was performed on 20 healthy Scandinavian, female volunteers, measuring various musculoskeletal properties. These measurements can be used for further refinements of manikin specifications and biomechanical models.
keywords	Rehabilitation; Disability; Adaptation; Participatory Planning; Design Tool; 3D Graphics; Computer Aided Design; Virtual Reality; Manikin; Anthropometry; Biomechanics; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Cervical Spine Kinematics
series	thesis:PhD
email
more	http://www.lub.lu.se/cgi-bin/show_diss.pl?db=global&fname=tec_250.html
last changed	2003/02/26 09:21

_id	07d8
authors	Garza, J.M. de la and Howitt, I.
year	1998
title	Wireless communication and computing at the construction jobsite
source	Automation in Construction 7 (4) (1998) pp. 327-347
summary	For many years, the walkie-talkie has been synonymous with the construction industry. During jobsite project execution, there are three variables which can either hinder or facilitate successful results, namely, quality, quantity, and timing of information. Wireless data communications technology is capable of delivering just-in-time information within the `last mile' between the trailer and a desired location on the jobsite. This paper reports on a study which surveyed information needs at the jobsite, emerging wireless data communications technology, and assessed the extent to which wireless data technology can fulfill the information needs of the jobsite [J.M. de la Garza, I. Howitt, Wireless communication and computing at the jobsite, Research Report 136-11, Construction Industry Institute, Austin, TX, 1997]. We have organized jobsite information needs into the following ten categories: (a) requests for information, (b) materials management, (c) equipment management, (d) cost management, (e) schedule and means and methods, (f) jobsite record keeping, (g) submittals, (h) safety, (i) QC/QA, and (k) future trends. Each category was analyzed in terms of its appropriateness to take advantage of wireless technology. The four formats considered to transmit information wirelessly were: (a) live voice, (b) live video, (c) batched data, and (d) live data. Current wireless communication technology has been classified into the following five classes: (a) circuit-switched wireless data systems, (b) packet-switched wireless data systems––this class was further subdivided into specialized mobile radio systems and cellular digital packet data systems, (c) wireless local area networks, (d) paging systems, and (e) satellite-based data communications. A primer for wireless communications covering both fundamental and advanced communications concepts has also been included to enable a better understanding of the issues involved in making trade-offs while configuring a wireless jobsite communication system. The example presented in this paper shows how a contractor can define a subset of information needs by choosing from those already articulated herein and determine if a given wireless technology should even be considered as a viable way of meeting the information needs that such company has.
series	journal paper
more	http://www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
last changed	2003/05/15 21:22

_id	6eb1
authors	Lloyd, P. and Deasley, P.
year	1998
title	Ethnographic description of design networks
source	Automation in Construction 7 (2-3) (1998) pp. 101-110
summary	One of the central themes of a commercial design process is communication. Complex design artefacts, rather than being rationally thought out by individuals, evolve through designers negotiating and bargaining with clients and peers alike. Problems are resolved through discussion and explanation. The 'design process,' as a reified entity, cannot be apprehended by any individual. Understanding of the process is spread over a social network, and through the narratives and discourses that are forged from day to day. This is design as a social process. The focus of the present paper is twofold. First, we wish to establish the field of ethnography as a particularly useful method of describing design in its social form. Secondly, we describe the results of a design case study we have carried out, using ethnographic methods, in an aerospace manufacturing company. We observe informal structures determining work activity, and the use of subtle `role' playing in problem-solving.
series	journal paper
more	http://www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
last changed	2003/05/15 21:22

_id	1c6b
authors	Mase, K., Sumi, Y. and Nishimoto, K.
year	1998
title	Informal conversation environment for collaborative concept formation
source	Community Computing: Collaboration over Global Information Networks, eds. T. Ishida. John Wiley & Sons
summary	This chapter focuses on facilitating the early stages of community formation. We spend a great deal of time every day in informal conversations, which are very important for the early stages of forming various kinds of communities. People engaged in conversation will not only share information, but also try to listen to and understand others, and as well as work together to find common objectives. In the early stages of forming the communities, agreement on a common concept through such a process is an essential element in the bonding of the group. Conversation environments on networked computers, e.g., via e-mail, online chat, and news groups, eliminate the spatial and temporal constraints of forming these communities but allow for the reuse of accumulated dialogs from previous interactions. Moreover, a computerized environment can directly support information sharing and mutual understanding. Conventional computerized conversation support systems, however, often force their users to follow some predetermined conversation model, prepared by designers beforehand. Thus, it can be difficult to apply these systems to informal conversations. We are developing a system called AIDE (Augmented Informative Discussion Environment) that facilitates our informal daily conversations. It does not require users to provide additional information in designated forms during a conversation, but rather it provides functionality to enhance and support the informal conversation. AIDE features three main functions: the discussion viewer, the conversationalist agent and the personal desktop. Using these functions, the participants can attain mutual understanding, crystallize ideas, and share common concepts. AIDE is considered to be not only a tool for supporting informal conversation but also useful Communityware, especially for facilitating the initial stage of community formation. This chapter first discusses a model of the group thinking process and applies it to community formation. Then, the structure of the AIDE system is presented using a few example conversations to illustrate how the AIDE system can support communication between people. AIDE displays potential as communityware.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

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