Musings: Ideas and Works in Progress

• The Messy Desk. (Wason, T.D., 2010). This essay focuses on the users' experience in a technological environment as contrasted with the user experience. A users' experience is under the control of the user in a system that reflects the organization of the user. We often hear about the "user experience." That is quite another matter. A user experience is what has been plotted and scripted for the user. The messy desk is the concept for a user interface presented in The Messy Desk . It builds on research that has found that the desks of many effective people are messy. If people construct their own interface they know where to find things. The model presented is for elearning, but transfers readily into a more generalized concept.
   
• Wason, T.D. (2006). "ZooZooZooZ" (http://www.tomwason.com/docs/ZooZooZooZ.pdf). A concept for a collaboration of television, the Internet and zoos for entertainment and education. The primary target is children, with enough interest to engage adults. Incorporates safe sites and a community of practice.
   
• UbiquiCity. UbiquiCity is a Web navigation system of "parallel cities" based on a constant map. http://www.tomwason.com/docs/UbiquiCity.pdf.
   
• Wason, T.D. (2002). "Community Objects and Meta-Communities" ( A Work in Progress in Word format).
   
• Comet Impact Model and Visualization Methods . A speculative piece about evidence of impacts of very large comets on Earth, with a model of very large comet impacts: http://www.tomwason.com/docs/CometModel.pdf.
       Musings can take you to interesting places. Comets are big snowballs. This is a model of a very large comet impact based on the thermodynamics of the rapid compression of a large, lumpy ice object. Visualization methods using Google Earth are included for illustrative impact sites. This ignores details such as tectonic plate movement and volcanos. Thinking is fun.
   
• Little stories, each with a point. Story Time.
   
• Just for fun, the Space Ball proposal: http://www.tomwason.com/spaceball/index.html