In preparation for my move west to San Francisco my mother gave me a Streetwise waterproof folded map of San Francisco. Something to toss in my bag to always have. Yet, the more I look at the map, or rather don’t look at the map, I realize the obsolescing of this map form factor–and likely a chunk of Streetwise’s and other map makers’ business.

Forgoing Paper for Digital

I have all but abandoned paper maps in favor of web based maps and mobile phone maps. The last bastion of paper maps, of which I carry, are small wallet sized versions of New York’s MTA map and a San Francisco transit map. As in many underground trips, getting wireless connectivity can be a challenge if not impossible–hence these wallet maps can come in handy but their days are probably numbered (BART surprisingly has a decent bit of underground wireless coverage).

Software such as Google’s Maps for mobile, with the My Location feature which repositions the map to your current location, have made orienting yourself utterly simple with no additional hardware needed. Also, interacting with the map via search has made finding any address or business all the more easy.

Even many of the traditional niche maps such as those for transit or bikes, which most people would carry in their pocket, have been converted to mobile device ready versions–iSubway Maps or Khoi Vinh’s MTA map for iPhone. We now have more than just “a thousand songs in our pockets.”

Adding a More Physical Connection to Maps

iPhone Map showing a user’s contact near them

It won’t be long before the mobile versions of maps take on a more social component as well, such as being able to see which of your friends may be in the neighborhood or at a particular restaurant or bar near where you are.

And in terms of wayfinding, people often utilize landmarks to get around. Surely, we’ll be seeing Google add their StreetView feature to their mobile edition of maps. Thus allowing users to get an actual visual of the location they’re seeking.

These are all features which no paper map could ever provide. But there are still a few paper alternatives which deserve a mention.

Hangers On

While I find the wallet maps still somewhat useful, SUCK UK’s Tubemap Wallet takes it one step further by turning the actual wallet into the map–clever. There is also Moleskin’s efforts to throw in a few handy maps with their pint size notebooks.

See you in Savannah!

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge under fog

Our first California destination is the city of San Francisco. I’ve heard a lot of great things about the city and surrounding areas. As a fan of transit systems I’m definitely interested in checking out the BART and the touristy old time trolleys. In fact, we’ll be riding public transportation to the Anchor Brewery for a guided tour of their uniquely San Franciscan brewery. Luckily we’ll have a local, one of Neera’s college friends, showing us around.

The trip to San Francisco is also serving as a taste test in some ways for me, as I am determining whether it is a city I would like to work in.

From San Francisco we’ll be heading down the Pacific Coast Highway to L.A. (where the wedding is being held). Our plan is to do it in two days and make it a relaxing scenic drive.

I’m not sure what to expect from L.A. The comments from those I know who have visited never have anything good to say about the city. But I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt until I experience it myself. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to meet up with my cousin who is living there–possibly providing me with the details of the cooler places to visit.

Opening Plenary

Randy Pausch of CMU opened the conference with a powerful talk on pushing for greater interdisciplinary work. Although, his talk overall was laden with hints at how great CMU is–not to say that was a bad thing. Randy showcased a lot of great work that they were doing, projects which are way beyond what our lab could do at this time.

What I got out of his talk was his ideas about working collaboratively across fields. Artists working with scientists or designers working with engineers and all the other various combinations which could be made. A lot of it comes down to having trust and faith in other people–people who are strong in areas which you may be weak. The challenges we hope to tackle cannot be solved if we continue to only work amongst ourselves.

Sessions

Aside from the presentations from our lab, which went very well, there was some other interesting work presented that I got a chance to hear about:

• An Evaluation of Landmarks for Re-Finding Information on the Web discussed a novel way of basically augmenting bookmarks by allowing the user to make “landmarks” out of specific information on a page. Typically you bookmark a page either because you frequently visit the site or you want to save a particular piece of information. The landmark concept allows you to catalog those bits of information.
• Location Disclosure to Social Relations: Why, When, & What People Want to Share spoke of the degree to which people are willing to reveal information to a person, typically over the phone, based on their location. Not surprisingly people’s managers were the least likely to get the truth from a person.

CHI Reception

Attendees met at the Hilton conference hotel for a police escorted CHI parade, lead by drummers, to head to the reception venue. Confused Portlanders looked on as a socially reserved crowd traversed the city streets.

The reception took place at the Crystal Ballroom, known apparently for its bouncy wooden floor–a floor which creeped me out most of the night. Although, the food and craft beers were enjoyable.

Related Links

• CHI 2005: Off to Portland
• CHI 2005: Day 1 – Arrival in Portland
• CHI 2005: Day 2 – Exploring the City
• My Flickr photos of Portland

Downtown Portland

Portland has turned out to be more urban than I had thought. Being a more modern city, in relation to Boston, the urban planning made getting around quite easy. I still cannot get over how much I’m in love with Tri-Met (Portland’s public transit system). Some of their methods probably would not work in Boston, such as the honor system based fare collection. But, at the very least I think Tri-Met employees actually enjoy their jobs and want to help their customers.

Powell’s bookstore, a location that many Portlanders seem to pride themselves in, definitely was a great place to visit. Aside from the six stories of books there is an art gallery which featured works from some local artists. Art is actually fairly prominent in the city, as there are many sculptures throughout the city squares.

Japanese Gardens

Just outside downtown are the Japanese and rose gardens. While the roses have yet to come out, the Japanese gardens were a beautiful sight. The area also provided a magnificent view of the city’s skyline.

Local Brews

Jun and I headed out to the Hawthorne area of town with another tourist to get a taste of the local brews. At the Bridgeport pub we enjoyed the craft brews sampler–an assortment of their best beers. You can’t beat some good beer with some liberal political talk.

Up Next

Tomorrow, the main conference begins–presentations, meetings, and hopefully some parties (does that happen?).

Related Links

• CHI 2005: Off to Portland
• CHI 2005: Day 1 – Arrival in Portland
• CHI 2005: Day 3 – The Conference Begins
• My Flickr photos of Portland

Flight Madness

Upon arriving at Logan airport this morning for my 7:35 Northwest Airlines flight I was informed of a delay, which in turn meant I would miss my connecting flight. Northwest booked me on an American Airlines flight but I had little time to get from terminal E to terminal B. Just my luck too, I was detained for additional screening at security. Fortunately, I made it to the gate for last call.

The View of Portland

Exploring has been limited mainly to the areas around the Oregon Convention Center, but Portland truly is a “green” city. I cannot believe how clean the streets and trains are. Almost everything says it was made from recycled materials. The train schedules even go as far as to ask you to return the schedule once you are finished.

Our view from the hotel room looks directly upon the convention center. It looks pretty amazing at night with the spires lit up. In many ways it reminds me of I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris.

On Tap for Day 2

The CHI events for tomorrow mostly include workshops and tutorials, all of which require additional fees–fees that the university would not cover. Therefore, I’m spending most of tomorrow doing some traveling around Portland and checking out the city a little more. The main events of conference run from Tuesday through Thursday so Monday will really be my only free time during my stay.

Related Links

• CHI 2005: Off to Portland
• CHI 2005: Day 2 – Exploring the City
• CHI 2005: Day 3 – The Conference Begins
• My Flickr photos of Portland

What is CHI and What are We Doing There?

CHI 2005 is the premier international conference for human-computer interaction.

Peter Tarasewich, Jun Gong, and I will be presenting our work on text entry methods for mobile devices:

• Alphabetically Constrained Keypad Designs for Text Entry on Mobile Devices (PDF)
• An Enhanced Multitap Text Entry Method with Predictive Next-Letter Highlighting (PDF)

Additionally, my colleague, Andrea Grimes, will be taking part in a workshop on Social Implications of Ubiquitous Computing. Primarily looking at privacy concerns in the mobile context.

Portland Skyline

Portland, OR

Flickr provides a pictorial view of Portland which I’ll be adding to during my visit.

I’m still in the processing of deciding what sights and areas I want to explore. Unfortunately according to the weather forecast for next week, it’s going to be raining for the extent of my trip.

The developing agenda includes visiting some local breweries and Japanese gardens, possibly taking part in a walking tour of Portland.

The Hotel

I’ll be staying at the Red Lion Hotel which is in close proximity to the convention center. A9 provides a less glamorous view of the hotel.

Job Searching

With graduation approaching in just under a few weeks, I’m in the process of searching for a full time job. CHI should be a great opportunity for me to network with others from my field, as well as get a chance to speak with some great companies.

What’s to Come

Throughout the conference I’ll be reporting on the events, posting pictures, and most importantly enjoying a long over due trek out of Boston.

Related Links

• CHI 2005: Day 1 – Arrival in Portland
• CHI 2005: Day 2 – Exploring the City
• CHI 2005: Day 3 – The Conference Begins
• My Flickr photos of Portland

It was good to see some of the other aspects of the Niagara area since I had already seen the Falls previously. The Butterfly Conservatory was an amazing sight to see. They’re tough to get a picture of unless if you have a high speed camera.

The Falls at night were definitely beautiful but everything seemed so candy coated with all the colored lights beamed onto the Falls. I can only imagine what coming across these falls were like before all the commercialization.

I took a few photos which can be seen in the photo gallery.

Today we headed into the city and got some chicken finger subs, a Buffalo speciality, and cruised around the city. I’ll give Buffalo credit for one thing, its got a lot of unique shops, something that is quickly fading away in Boston. Granted many of these shops only offered womens trinkets (candles, soaps, etc.).

I also got to check out Buffalo’s subway system in some degree. Unfortunately it is not something to write home about, but since I dig transit systems I will. Pretty much it has stops in the all the places you don’t want to go. From what I can gather the people are afraid of the thing. If you bring a subway stop to a thriving area, it will kill it.

Our itinerary is pretty much non-existant, which is totally fine with me. Although we are thinking we might head up to Toronto for a day.

While on our travels I may drop a post about what’s happening out in B-Flo.

Note: I was hard pressed to find any kind of photo that represented Buffalo.