/Voorpagina /Mensen /Nieuws /Opinie /Cultuur /Studentenleven /English page /Reportage /Bestuur /Ruis /Harmpje /Colofon

/Vacatures /Mensa /Oude cursors /pdf formaat /Faculteits Berichten /Zoeken /TUE

jaargang 42, 20 april 2000 English page

Warning: “Make Computers Fit People or Else” ‘Technology will decide the future’, one of the better Dutch newspapers reported last week in a page-long article. Leading voices in computer science are now saying just the opposite. “This kind of technology-centred thinking may cause great damage. People are the centre of our world, technologies are only tools,” says Judy Hammond, the chairman and chairman and Australian representative of International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). She is from the School of Computing Sciences, University of Technology Sydney. “The Internet has enormous potential to make business more profitable and to provide solutions to problems. However, the Internet and computer science in general also have the potential to cause enormous losses because of lack of effective communication with users, and have in fact already done so in many instances I can name.” “Take the Australian bank that invested millions to adapt their automatic teller machines to all kinds of handicapped clients. They wanted to cater to the blind and made special keyboards. Their only problem was that they forgot that the blind can’t see the screen..... I know of another company who spent nine months working on a new computer system. They did not involve their employees, and staff were unhappy with the new system. Everyone got together to make it seem as if they were using the new stuff, while they just went on as before” World Mind Hammond recently chaired an annual two-day workshop held by IFIP’s Technical Committee 13 on human-computer interaction at TUE. The workshop’s 25 expert participants were from the USA, China, India, the UK and the Netherlands. Representatives of the international computer engineers organisation IEEE and the information science organisation ACM were also present. IFIP is a non-profit, independent worldwide platform that reports to UNESCO. Hammond said the workshop’s goal was to “contribute to the world mind” or “to define the strategy needed to make sure the Internet is used in the interest of people and not the other way around.” “To make technology work, the human part of it has to work as well,” Judy Hammond said in an interview squeezed into an extremely busy two-day schedule at TUE. “Technology is not the whole interaction. Users can only get information if they know the web. Millions and millions of people don’t, not only in the Third World, but also in Western society. Most of them don’t have much in common with the people producing the technology, who are mostly reasonably intelligent young white males. Furthermore, many of technologists have no understanding of communication.” “Technologists don’t see that what they think people are doing, is not actually what’s happening. They think, we made this thing, it works, now it’s your problem. We have to ask ourselves if people know what to do and where to go with these new technologies. Are they satisfied? Are they doing what they want to do? We bring our whole beings to our interaction with computers, the way we use computers is influenced by physical fatigue and by our psychological state. People don’t change in terms of emotions. Computers should be made to fit people, and not vice-versa.” Blind Rage “There is a point beyond which people will not go. The frustration arguing with a machine causes is very real, and ultimately gets people into a blind rage.” According to Hammond, putting more enjoyment into the interaction with computers and Internet can be an important factor in solving the problem. “And then there’s the ultimate problem of poverty in our world today. Many people don’t even have a computer. If we’re not careful the Internet will make the gulf between the haves and have-nots even worse. Internet can have a really beautiful potential to make things much better for people all over the world. But we first need to talk to them about what they need.” Scientific Solution Hammond advocates a worldwide basis of people researching the interaction of people and systems, she praises TUE’s IPO for the wide-ranging research they are doing, which she calls truly exciting. “We need to be scientific about this communication problem with users. Find the real problems people have and create solutions,” Hammond concludes. The principle aim of TC13 is to encourage development towards a science and a technology of human-computer interaction. TC13’s main orientation is toward users, especially non-computer-professional users and how to improve the human-computer relationship to their advantage./.

Parents TUimelaar on Warpath Two parents of children at TUE day-care centre TUimelaar have started a campaign to force the centre’s management to resign. This is a reaction by the parents to the suspension of director Tineke Linssen by the management. According to parents, the management is a failure in terms of openness and communication. They think the crisis atmosphere now pervasive is the management’s fault. Management want to sack Linssen. They say she lied repeatedly about a subsidy application to the city of Eindhoven. Management have refused to comment on the letter they received from the campaigning parents. Classical Concert in Blue Hall The Nederlands Studenten Kamerorkest (Dutch student chamber orchestra) is to give a classical music concert in the Auditorium’s Blue hall on April 26. On April 26 the orchestra will play ‘Die Hebriden’ (Mendelssohn), ‘Kammersymphonie Nr.2’ (Schonberg), ‘Sinfonietta’ (Poulenc) and ‘Een Aria Vol Verwijten’ (Ten Holt). Tickets are ten guilders for students and fifteen guilders for non-students. They are available from Studium Generale (phone 4900). TUE Role in Intel Campaign Chips manufacturer Intel is to film on campus on May 10, 11 and 12. The company is planning to tape a number of interviews with TUE lecturers, students and staff. The material will be used for a world wide campaign promoting use of laptops at universities and schools. Intel is filming at a total of six schools and universities in America and Europe where the use of portable computers has become accepted as the norm. According to Herman van de Kuit, head of Notebook Service Centrum, a number of students, staff and lecturers will be interviewed by the film makers. Why TUE was chosen for this is obvious, as a third generation of students in Eindhoven are now tackling their studies with the help of portable computers. “They consider TUE a leader in this area,” says Van de Kuit. The English Page in cursor is written by journalist Paula van de Riet: 4441, engcur@stud.tue.nl