Technology theorist, design researcher, writer, teacher
Last semester I did an introductory lecture on design for the undergrad social informatics class using a Prezi that I spent an inordinate amount of time putting together. Since I finally got it online (long story), here it is: http://prezi.com/kqzlw7dmcnnx/ (It would be really spiffy if I could just embed the thing here. But since … Continue reading lecture on design
I’ve been taking advantage of the Thanksgiving down time to do a bit of filing and shredding, and in the process I came across a book review I wrote for the Social Informatics seminar last spring of Langdon Winner’s Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology. Even though … Continue reading Review of Langdon Winner’s Whale and the Reactor
One of the first topics presented in the undergraduate social informatics course (I202) that I have been helping to teach for the last couple years is technological determinism – a perspective that views technology as an almost unstoppable force that impacts society and forces it to conform to the technology. While it is understandable how … Continue reading Whither Technological Determinism in a Recession?
In a recent Daily Show segment, reporter Jason Jones skewered the New York Times for printing ‘aged news’ rather than ‘real news’: when web pages can be updated moments after something happens, a report that is printed the next day is already old. This digital media-enabled push toward real-time news does seem to sound the … Continue reading Creating Space for Reflection
For the last class of HCI seminar Marty Siegel asked us to draw a picture of our research and explain it in one page. So I tried to illustrate and talk about what I mean by design ripples. Here is my attempt: Design Ripples, Illustrated (I don’t know why I couldn’t get this to show … Continue reading Design Ripples, Illustrated Edition
Last week at CHI 2009 I presented the work Jeff Nichols and I did on the PlayByPlay project. I’m posting a link to the paper and a PDF version of the presentation here. This has been a great experience, and I am grateful to Jeff and IBM for the opportunity to work on the project … Continue reading CHI 2009 paper/presentation on PlayByPlay
I just saw this image at the PostSecret community art project site and thought it was an interesting commentary on the social dimensions of technology.
I’ve always been opinionated. But recently I’ve been noticing that technology is giving me more ways than ever to express my opinionated self, and maybe even encouraging me to be more opinionated than I would be otherwise. Case in point: Pandora. I love Pandora. One of the things I like the most is that I … Continue reading Hyper-opinionated
Disclaimer: I just posted this on my old blog at heatherwiltse.com, but am duplicating it here so this new blog won’t look so bare and empty! I just listened to the 2008 year in review episode of the NPR All Songs Considered podcast, and was intrigued by a reference that the commentators made to technology … Continue reading Technical / musical synergy
I have decided to move my blog over to here from heatherwiltse.com, because I realized that the iWeb software I use for that site is not the best for publishing a blog. More soon. =)
Heather Wiltse, PhD 