[lug] BLUG Meeting Announcement 2009-07-09

[Boulder Linux]

    http://lug.boulder.co.us/calendar.html

The July Boulder Linux User Group meeting is coming up.

   Talk : Model-based user interfaces

Speaker : Bruce Long

   When : 7 p.m. on Thu, Jul 09, 2009 

  Where : Aztek Networks, 2477 55th St, Suite 202, Boulder, CO.

          Aztek Networks is on 55th between Arapahoe and Pearl, just
          north of the Humane Society.  There's plenty of parking, and
          the 206 and 208 busses stop across the street.

    Map : http://lug.boulder.co.us/meetings.html

Summary of 'Model-based user interfaces'
----------------------------------------

The modern way of 'interfacing' with our digital stuff, our friends and
our world can be improved dramatically. Because each kind of interaction
with someone or some data has to have its own application, and
applications vary for each device, there are many things we do not do with
our devices because it takes too much work. We have to remember which
device holds what information, what format it is in, how each application
works, which folders our stuff is in. Some years ago I was struck that it
should be possible to make interactions with people, files, and online
systems much much easier.  If only we could model the things we wish to
interact with, model the devices we have, and model the kind of user
interface we prefer. It could be so easy to interact with something in a
new way or from a new device that we will find all kinds of new, world
changing, things to do that previously didn't cross our mind.

I set out to solve the problem once and for all. After a lot of C++
coding, math learning, some paper writing, and a little PhD working, I'm
still not there. And judging by the iPhone and the Palm Pre, no one else
is either.  But there is a growing technology that I have heard called
"model-based user interfaces" that has the potential to completely change
the way we connect.  It solves the problems I worry about and much more.
Here is a teaser: The idea is to use a model of your social infrastructure
and information stores to make it feel more like directly connecting, in a
sort of "make me part of a giant social brain" way to people and
information instead of having apps and devices as intermediates limiting
you.

I am going to talk about some of the disruptive capabilities that
model-based UI's will give you. Though, perhaps anticlimactic, I'll
demonstrate my own work which is aimed at using model-based computing to
enhance personal independence while increasing our ability to connect
socially. I'll also talk about when we might expect results and how you
can become a part and speed the process up!


Pre meeting food
----------------

Please join us informally for a bite to eat at Panera Bread before the
meeting, around 5:30 P.M.  Panera is in the 29th street mall, east of
Highway 36/28th street near Walnut.


--
Boulder Linux User Group
http://lug.boulder.co.us