[Reader-list] CIS Event Announcements--June 2009

[Sunil Abraham]

The Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, announces three public 
events this fortnight. Entry to all these events is free and 
registration is not required. For more details on the events and 
speakers, please see the links or the abstracts below.

* Dialogue Systems in Education and Learning -- Friday, 12 June, 2009; 
5.30-6.30 pm 
http://www.cis-india.org/events/dialogue-systems-in-education-and-learning

* Art and Augmented Reality -- Wednesday, 17 June, 2009; 6.00-7.30 pm 
http://www.cis-india.org/events/art-and-augmented-reality

* Using Social Media for Mobilisation -- Thursday, 18 June, 2009; 
6.00-7.30 pm 
http://www.cis-india.org/events/using-social-media-for-mobilisation


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* Dialogue Systems in Education and Learning -- Friday, 12 June, 2009; 
5.30-6.30 pm

A talk on dialogue interfaces for intelligent tutoring systems (ITS)

One-to-one tutoring has been shown to increase learning gain in students 
because instruction can be adapted to the student's expertise. 
Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) are computer programs that adaptively 
provide students with exercise problems to solve and a detailed feedback 
once they resolve the problems. However the interface between the 
student and the system is restricted to GUI and therefore detailed 
discussion on what went wrong in problem solving cannot be discussed. 
Dialogue interfaces to tutoring systems resolves this drawback and 
enables the student to have a conversation on the mistakes he/she 
committed. In tutorial dialogue systems, the system interacts with the 
students in natural language either spoken or typed. The system and the 
student engage in a conversation after the student presents a solution 
to the problem. In case of an incorrect solution, the system helps the 
student to solve the problem by engaging the student in a remediation 
dialogue by asking simpler questions and giving clues. Such systems have 
been shown to be more effective than its GUI counterparts. Can such 
systems be used to improve the learning gain amongst students in India?

* Speaker

Srinivasan Janarthanam is a third year Ph.D student at the University of 
Edinburgh, UK. He works in Spoken Dialogue Systems with focus on making 
user adaptive systems. His Ph.D is supported by UK India Education 
Research Initiative. Previously, he worked as a research associate in 
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetam, Coimbatore on English-Tamil Machine 
Translation. He did his M.Sc in Intelligent Systems from the University 
of Sussex, UK and his B.E from Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore. His 
other interests are Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Indian 
languages, application of NLP and Artificial Intelligence for education.

* Venue

Centre for Internet and Society, No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers, 
14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560052 (Telephone: 080 4092 6283)

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* Art and Augmented Reality -- Wednesday, 17 June, 2009; 6.00-7.30 pm

Talk by Jose David Cuartas Correa

The Centre for Internet and Society and the Free Software Users' Group, 
Bangalore, invite you to a talk by Jose David Cuartas Correa on his 
project on Augmented Reality (with Sologico Libre Foundation, with the 
support of Caldas University, CEMA (Center of Experimental Media Arts) 
and Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology). In this presentation, 
Jose David will discuss the concept of Augmented Reality (fusion of the 
real world with the virtual objects and data), and demonstrate how it 
can be used as an alternative model of manipulation, integration and 
interaction for media and information. This new technology gives us new 
ways to create and think; Graphical Interfaces and options for the 
construction of new worlds, environments and alternative spaces. 
Augmented Reality is thus a useful tool that can be used by artists, 
designers and expert users.

The presentation will also analyse the metaphors used in the development 
of previous, present and next-generation Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) 
and look some examples of interaction interfaces developed by different 
research groups around the world.

Finally, Jose David will demonstrate the ATOMIC Authoring Tool, software 
initially developed to create Augmented Reality applications and mind 
maps, created under the GPL licence.

* Speaker

Jose David Cuartas Correa is a student of visual design at the Caldas 
University in Manizales, Colombia, South America. He is at present an 
exchange student in the Advanced Diploma in Experimental Media Arts at 
CEMA – Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, India. 
He also serves as visiting faculty at Srishti School of Art, Design and 
Technology, teaching the course “Interaction and Interface Design in the 
Web” at the foundation level. Jose David is the founder of the Junior 
Research Group in Free Software for Design, Caldas University, and 
current president of the SoLógiCo Libre ONG, which promotes the use and 
development of the free software, free culture and emergent technologies 
for art, design and entertainment.

* Venue

Centre for Internet and Society, No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers, 
14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560052 (Telephone: 080 4092 6283)

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* Using Social Media for Mobilisation -- Thursday, 18 June, 2009; 
6.00-7.30 pm


Panel discussion with Dina Mehta and Peter Griffin

For some time now, blogs, facebook  and other forms of social media have 
been used extensively for rallying people around an issue or a cause. 
However, what makes some of these campaigns more successful than others? 
Does the workability of social media for mobilisation depend on the 
manner in which information is designed and/or disseminated?

This panel brings together two well-known names from the world of social 
media, Dina Mehta and Peter Griffin, to explore "meme engineering" and 
understand what makes some forms of use of social media more effective 
than others.

* Speakers

Dina Mehta is a founder and Managing Director of Mosoci India. She has 
spent twenty years specializing in qualitative research and ethnography. 
She is at the forefront of technology trend research in India and works 
with a global portfolio of companies; including learning journeys, and 
immersions for innovation teams. She brings her unique perspective to 
understanding the emerging social aspects of new technology and the 
impact of new media on youth and mobility. Her work has led her to study 
the impact of technology in rural markets, follow trend-setting youth in 
urban settings, dig deep into motivations and possible triggers across a 
wide range of demographic and psychographic groups, explore and identify 
underlying value propositions and key drivers/barriers in several 
categories.

Peter Griffin is a well-known blogger and has been involved with a 
number of collaborative projects, including the South-East Asia 
Earthquake and Tsunami blog (also known as TsunamiHelp), MumbaiHelp, 
Think Bombay, and the WorldWideHelp group and its associated projects. 
All of these project have been concerned with bringing together the web 
and free tools on one hand, and concerned web natives and public 
goodwill on the other, to assist in disaster relief. Peter is also the 
co-founder, joint editor and co-moderator of the writing community, 
Caferati. He is currently the Special Features Editor with Forbes 
Magazine, India.

* Venue

Centre for Internet and Society, No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers, 
14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560052 (Telephone: 080 4092 6283)

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