Y!RB Brain Jam: Eric Paulos (Intel Research Berkeley) - Participatory Urbanism June 1, 2007

(Free and open to the public - and followed at 4pm with a Social Jam that includes refreshments - and beer. It would be helpful if you mark attending/watching above).

Participatory Urbanism:
Empowering Everyday Civic Engagement and Promoting Wonderment

ABSTRACT:
Our mobile devices are more than just personal communication tools. They are globally networked, speak the lingua franca of the city (SMS, Bluetooth, MMS), and are becoming the dominant urban processor. We need to shatter our understanding of them as phones and celebrate them in their new role as measurement instruments. My desire is to invigorate our mobile devices with new “super-powers” and “super-senses” by enabling a wide range of physical sensors to be easily attached and used by anyone, especially non-experts. In this talk I will present a selection of foundation work in the field of Urban Computing and address an important new shift in mobile device usage from communication tool to “personal-super-computer-radio- station-with-sensors”. I demonstrate how these “instruments” create an influential new paradigm of Participatory Urbanism - empowering everyday citizens to become proactive in their involvement with neighborhood, city, and planet. Finally, I expose the impact of Participatory Urbanism with the design of a mobile tool for authoring, sharing, and remixing air quality measurements on-the-go with a focus on environmental awareness, sustainability, and green lifestyles.

BIO:
Eric Paulos is a Senior Research Scientist at Intel in Berkeley, California where he is the founder and director of the Urban Atmospheres research group - challenged to employ innovative methods to explore urban life and the future fabric of emerging technologies across public urban landscapes. His areas of expertise span a deep body of research territory in urban computing, social telepresence, robotics, physical computing, interaction design, persuasive technologies, and intimate media. Eric is a leading figure in the field of urban computing and is a regular contributor, editorial board member, and reviewer for numerous professional journals and conferences. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley where he helped launch a new robotic industry by developing some of the first internet tele- operated robots including Space Browsing helium filled blimps and Personal Roving Presence devices (PRoPs). Eric is also the founder and director of the Experimental Interaction Unit and a frequent collaborator with Mark Pauline of Survival Research Laboratories.
Eric's work has been exhibited at the InterCommunication Center (ICC) in Japan, Ars Electronica, ISEA, SIGGRAPH, the Dutch Electronic Art Festival (DEAF), SFMOMA, the Chelsea Art Museum, Art Interactive, LA MOCA, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the ZKM, and a performance for the opening of the Whitney Museum’s 1997 Biennial Exhibition.

Official Website: http://yahooresearchberkeley.com