Scan Monthly No. 055September 2007 |
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Signals of Change
Human Behavior on Cue
SoC261
Independent research initiatives are indicating that nonobvious, minute cues can have a substantial subconscious impact on people's behavior. The findings challenge the notion that deliberate, conscious decision-making processes are the primary drivers of consumer behavior.
Climate Proofing
SoC262
Climate-proofing strategies are becoming a priority for both governments and businesses as the growing body of evidence concerning the impacts of climate change informs policy formulation and business strategies. Developing interventions that mitigate the direct and indirect impacts of climate change while minimizing disruption to prevailing economic, social, and business systems is the goal.
Private in Public
SoC263
A cluster of recent Scan abstracts demonstrates some new twists on the problem of privacy protection in the digital age, as digital technologies continue to erode distinctions between public and private (and formal and informal) realms.
Technologies That Can Relate Personally
SoC264
Novel technologies, many experimental at this stage, could change the way we interact with devices and applications by enabling them to relate to and automatically adapt to a particular user. The SIGGRAPH 2007 conference in San Diego, California, showcased software, interfaces, and robots that take the first small steps toward relating personally to users or other software agents.
New Opportunities in Information Services
SoC265
The explosion of online data, the availability of online video, new customer needs, and the nearubiquity of mobile communications are creating a plethora of potential new service opportunities.
Virtuality Interfaces
SoC266
Virtual worlds still face one major issue that is slowing realization of the true potential of the virtualworld concept: a lack of interfaces that provide a genuine and lively connection between virtual environments and the real world.
Insights
| The 3-D Internet | View full summary |
| D07-2558 | Download this Insight |
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Three-dimensional (3-D) spaces are now proliferating on the Internet, and a variety of signs are emerging to indicate that they will eventually play a primary role in the way users access information using computers and digital devices of all kinds. The world has considerable ground to cover before we see the capabilities of a system that science-fiction writers anticipated years ago. But we now have most of the tools necessary to build a 3-D information metaverse and we know that the vision is practical. The tools just need integration and implementation in a way that people find useful, intuitive, and fun. This study examines the role that virtual worlds, mirror worlds, and mashups may play in bringing 3-D capabilities to the Internet and looks at software, devices, and standards that will be necessary for a 3-D Internet. Author: Kermit M. Patton. 10 pages. |
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| Scan Meeting Digest: 22 August 2007 Meeting | View full summary |
| D07-2559 | Download this Insight |
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This document is a digest of the Scan abstract clusters that participants in the 22 August 2007 Scan meeting identified. The digest includes a description of the Scan process for people who have never attended a Scan meeting, a list of the clusters that meeting participants identified, and a one-page description of each cluster's premise and supporting abstracts. The document has active links that allow the reader to access the supporting abstracts for each cluster in Scan's online abstract database. The document also has links to previously published Scan documents relating to the particular cluster. Clusters of abstracts for this August 2007 meeting include the (ir)rational consumer, blame the fat, technology that supports humans, printing as manufacturing, geo wealth, the great mall of China, Wii are the world, reinventing energy access, virtual schmirtual, robot retail, don't mess with Mother Nature, private in public, food = luxury, and so what will we hold dear? Compiler: Martin Schwirn. 34 pages. |
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Calendar
Scan Abstract Meetings
Scan abstract meetings (in which SRIC-BI [now SBI] staff participate in a free-form discussion of current Scan abstracts) are open for client observation/participation on:
- 17 October 2007 at 9:00 am
- 23 January 2008 at 9:00 am
- 19 March 2008 at 9:00 am
- 21 May 2008 at 9:00 am
- 23 July 2008 at 9:00 am
- 17 September 2008 at 9:00 am.