Tricia Wang's Blogs - all RSS Feeds!

ADRIENE’s PHO @ Pho Cadao (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:35:15 GMT

ADRIENE’s PHO @ Pho Cadao (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

Phở, written as pho and pronounced “fuh” by English speakers, is a traditional Vietnamese noodle soup dish. Phở is served as a bowl of white rice noodles in clear beef broth, with thin cuts of beef (steak, fatty flank, lean flank, brisket). Variations featuring tendon, tripe, meatballs, chicken leg, chicken breast, or other chicken organs (heart, liver, etc.) are also available.

The broth is generally made by simmering beef (and sometimes chicken) bones, oxtails, flank steak, charred onion, and spices, taking several hours to prepare. Seasonings include Saigon cinnamon, star anise, charred ginger, cloves, and sometimes black cardamom. The noodles, called bánh phở in Vietnamese, are traditionally cut from wide sheets of fresh rice noodles similar to Chinese Shahe fen, although dried noodles (also called “rice sticks”) may also be used.

The dish is garnished with ingredients such as green onions, white onions, coriander leaves, ngò gai (“saw leaf herb”), mint, Thai basil, lemon or lime, bean sprouts, and chile peppers. The last four items are usually provided on a separate plate, which allows customers to adjust the soup’s flavor as they like. Some sauces such as hoisin sauce, fish sauce, and the Thai hot sauce Sriracha, are popular additions as well. The herb ngò ôm (Limnophila aromatica) is sometimes also added.

Well DONE #18 (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:56:32 GMT

Well DONE #18 (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

I like using wooden chopsticks. they grip better than the plastic ones most restaurants provide. I do feel guilty every time I open a pair - it’s like a tree is being ripped down every time I open up a pack, split them apart at the base and then rub the tips together as some unspoken ritual I hold on to. It’s the truth. But seriously, I should use the plastic ones and just shut the fuck up.

Pho @ Pho Cadao, san diego, california

ssssoooooooo this isn’t PHO but it’s my homemade SOUP with CILANTRO LOVE stre...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:42:15 GMT

ssssoooooooo this isn’t PHO but it’s my homemade SOUP with CILANTRO LOVE strewn all over it. Can we just say OK and pretend it’s PHO?

pho (via woolloomooloo

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:35:51 GMT

pho (via woolloomooloo

)

If you are ever in Torrance, for some odd reason, Pho Hana seems the place to visit. I think I might have to take a special trip for this bowl of PHO. Isn’t Disneyland in Torrance?

ARROW >me< WELL DONE (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:48:59 GMT

ARROW >me< WELL DONE (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

my favorite WELL DONE #18. Pho @ Pho Cadao (where else?).

I love you Cornel West, no I REALLY REALLY LOVE you , like really really

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:17:41 GMT

This reblogged from my quote blog, Dichos y Vida . I am feeling to INSPIRED by Cornel West in this interview with Tavis Smiley. You have to watch the video to really FEEL this quote- I love Cornel West! The entire interview can be found here. He talks about his break with Harvard, the role of academia, and the fetishization of success in America. (thank you Tanya and Jessica)

My favorite part of this interview is this quote below - I also translated it into Spanish.

You have to have a habitual vision of greatnesssssss. You have to believe in fact that you refuse to settle for mediocrity. You won’t confuse financial security with your personal integrity. You won’t confuse your success with your greatness or your prosperity with your magnanimity…..You have to have a vision of something that is luring you all the time that for something grander than you….[What is] the quality of your service to others? Do you find joy in your service to others? Do you actually believe in fact that living is connected to giving?

Now some people may not believe in that. I’m the hedonistic narcissistic individualist type. That’s just not who I am. I am not into that kinda stuff. I say that’s fine, that’s fine. I chose to attempt to pursue this role.

———————-
Tienes que tener una visión habitual de grandeza. Tienes que creer en el hecho de que te niegues a conformarte con mediocridad. No confundas seguridad económica con tu integridad personal. No confundas tu éxito con tu grandeza o tu prosperidad con tu magnanimidad…Tienes que tener una visión de algo que te esté atrayendo a algo más grande que tu…[¿Qué es] la cualidad de tu servicio a otros? ¿Encuentras alegría en tu servicio a otros? ¿Realmente crees en el hecho que vivir está conectado a dar?

Quizás alguna gente no crea en esto. Soy del tipo individualista, hedonista y narcisista. Eso no es lo que soy. No me interesan esas cosas. Te digo – está bien, está bien. Yo escojo tratar de seguir este tipo de vida.

Map-hole: Technologies of the Mundan and Inscriptions of Power

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:29:56 GMT

(reblogged on Digital Urbanims)

this is a great example of how there’s always room for exciting innovation in everyday objects- even the mostly seemingly mundane can become layered with meaning and knowledge. Maphole is a guide to pedestrians (invented by Jiae Kwon). I wonder if a cut will make these real!

IWhat I would love to observe is the use of these map-holes in a city and to see how power and narrative is reinforced through these map-holes.

Who are these map-holes for? Who controls these map-holes? Who makes decisions on what is being pointed to - what kind of information will these show - where will it lead a pedestrian? Will they be for tourists? Will they be for the urban citizen? Will the location specific map-holes, such as in an art district? Who benefits from the map-hope?

how do they maps-holes respatialize the city? How do map-hopes reconfigure pedestrian movement?

I think that these mapholes could work to reinforce existing class-drawn boundaries in city.

For example, when I spent a few weeks in Stockholm a few years ago - for a social welfare country known for its social equality - I had a difficult time finding the low-income parts of the city. When I arrived, with a little online research about the hip-hop and yummy international food scene - I found out that a lot of undergrounded artists were from Rinkeby, a area of Stockholm that has lots of new immigrants, newly accepted Iraqi refugges, and older immigrants from countries such as Turkey. But after trying to look up information on Rinkeby online, talking to local residents, researching local guide books - I still had a difficult time finding any info on Rinkeby other than people’s advice that “you don’t need to go there.” Which of COURSE anytime someone tells me that I always take as a great indicator for me to go there.

My point is that the absence of information on Rinkeby, or any neighborhood can render it an invisible place. I was being told the dominant narrative that local citizens gave to outsiders - here are beautiful parts of Stockholm that you should see and here are the parts that you don’t need to see. But that very narrative is laced with assumptions of what kind of outsider I was and what I valued. My moment illustrates how the dominance of one platial (yes I made that word up) narrative can render another place invisible. Could map-holes work in the same way? By only pointing out some places, other places get left out. Could map-holes become map-hopes - pointing people to a version of the city that you can’t find in tourists books? Or could these map-holes become wired with blue-tooth and tourists could beam the hole for information that they were interested in finding?

Well if I start seeing these pop up in NY, I will put up stickers that say “Bed-Stuy” over the arrow pointing towards “Soho” or stickers that say “yoga center” over “Macys” or a sticker that says “Fresh Food” over “McDonalds.

Here are some other bloggers who have commented on map-hopes, Yankodesign, GIS-Lounge, Inventor spot, and DoGizmo.

oh and I had a GREAT time in Rinkeby. I visited a local school, met residents, ate great turkish sweets, and hung out with some newly arrived iraqis. It was just as great as my day wandering around in Gamla Stan. My photos from a day in Rinkeby and photos from my time in STockholm.

zadi:

culturemodding:

“Map Hole is a new road guidance tool designed to direct pedestrians and travelers to their final destination using existing elements in the urban landscape. It locates the pedestrian with a starting point and provides information on the exact distance or average walk time to the listed landmarks.”

- Yanko Design (h/t The Daily What)

Map-hole: Technologies of the Mundane and Inscriptions of Power

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:27:00 GMT

IWhat I would love to observe is the use of these map-holes in a city and to see how power and narrative is reinforced through these map-holes.

how do they maps-holes respatialize the city? How do map-hopes reconfigure pedestrian movement?

I think that these mapholes could work to reinforce existing class-drawn boundaries in city.

Here are some other bloggers who have commented on map-hopes, Yankodesign, GIS-Lounge, Inventor spot, and DoGizmo.

zadi:

culturemodding:

“Map Hole is a new road guidance tool designed to direct pedestrians and travelers to their final destination using existing elements in the urban landscape. It locates the pedestrian with a starting point and provides information on the exact distance or average walk time to the listed landmarks.”

- Yanko Design (h/t The Daily What)

Mockingbird: Build Web Site Mockups Fast

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:00:37 GMT

WebWorkerDaily

When you’re trying to pull together all of the elements for a website, having a tool that can help you to build a mockup or wireframe in a matter of minutes can make a world of difference. Mockingbird is such a tool: You can drag and drop user interface elements onto a page, rearranging and resizing as you go. You can even link together the various pages within your mockup so that anyone you...

Dining Table Aerial / Fun with Pho (via hen power)

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:59:57 GMT

Dining Table Aerial / Fun with Pho (via hen power)

now this is a serious PHO dining table! I want to know these people!

I am so ADDICTED to rock climbing! Let's Belay together!

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:22:00 GMT

OMG OMg I’m addicted to rock climbing! I am becoming a lizard - my sticky hands scale the wall to reach the mountain top. I am a wolf with magic paws!

This was the best physical and mental high I’ve ever experienced AT the SAME TIME!. I swore I was going to die on the rope - it looks so much higher once you are in the air - but I didn’t! after one climb, I tried another and just kept challenging myself. Liane took me on my first climb and it was awesome! I wish I could do this everyday, everywhere! What I loved that is was all about partnership - when I thought I couldn’t reach my next rock - Liane would encourage me to keep going. On one of the last climbs of the day I had to take a break and hang mid-air cuz my hands were shaking - I couldn’t imagine how to get around the corner - but I did it! I FREAKING LOVE IT!

The crazy part is that I have a slight fear of heights and while it didn’t go away, I did become more at peace with my fear after each climb. I became my own therapist in the air - cuz you’re just hanging in there on the rope and you either say to your belayer that you need come down or you figure out the next rock to place your foot and hands - only TWO DECISIONS and you HAVE to CHOSE ONE.

Everytime I would panic - I would scream outloud - and then I would tell myself that it was ok - life was going to be ok - graduate school will be ok - family will be ok - the world will be ok - just figure out where to place your foot. it was a very practical mind and body excercise. I loved it. absolutely loved it and can’t wait to go back.

Even just by looking at these pictures and writing about this my hands are now sweaty cuz I’m reminded of how high I was in the air. breattttthe

and through it all, I never felt alone. you know how when you do yoga or other sports its’ all about you? or like when I kickbox it’s all about the intensity of taking your opponent down - even in badmitton there’s a competitive aspect to it - just like any point-keeping sport. Well in rock climbing it’s about a partnership. at least that’s how I view it. Your partner holds your life in your hands. your partner has to work with your pacing - or else someone could get hurt - the rope can get in the way. And my partner was my awesome friend Liane - so thanks for being the BESt belayer ever! and it was also really cool to watch Liane scale the wall - I learned a lot from watching how she chose rocks and pathways. Rock climbing is awesome for team building, listening, and loving.

I really felt that I could use my dance and yoga background when I was scaling the wall - I imagined myself floating up through space. Before I rock climbed I wanted a pair of Vibram shoes - now I want them EVEN MORe because they would be perfect for climbing. So now I’m officially addicted to dancing and rock climbing. oh and badmitton.

"When atoms are traveling straight down through empty space by their own weigh..."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:01:56 GMT

"When atoms are traveling straight down through empty space by their own weight, at quite in determinate times and places, they swerve every so little from their course, just so much that you would call it a change of direction. It it were not for this swerve, everything would fall downwards through the abyss of space. No collision would take place and no impact of atom on atom would be created. Thus nature would never have created anything."

–Lucretius 99bc-55bc (quoted in Manuel de Landa’s 1000 years of non-linear history)

Living a PHỞfilling life - be compassionate with yourself.

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:17:00 GMT

I found this old blog post of me having a bowl of pho back in 2006. I was recovering from an emotionally stressful week and I wrote this text accompanying the pho photo:

A friend told me that Rabbi Lisa at UCSD Hillel says that a lot of times its so easy to be compassionate with others that we forget to be compassionate with ourselves. Be compassionate with yourself.

And I do remember that I truly felt better after my pho therapy session at Pho Ca Dao.

That’s why pho is life - having a bowl of pho is equivalent to 3 hours of therapy. The only way to enjoy pho is if you SIT DOWN and spend TIME eating it - it’s not like eating a sandwich pr hotdog were you can shovel it into your mouth. You can’t rush eating pho - it’s got a built in culture that facilitates slow-food eating meditations - kinda like wine - but with pho it’s an actual meal! Casualties can happen if you rush with pho - like burning your tongue. Pho is life.

NASA confirms the presence of water on the moon

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:07:35 GMT

DVICE Atom Feed

It's official, folks: Brita can start selling lunar water filters. NASA confirmed the presence of lunar agua today with a cheeky: "The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water." Oh, NASA!

One month ago NASA's LCROSS spacecraft crashed onto the lunar surface, sending up a plume of moon dust to be analyzed. It's that plume that has yielded the amazing discovery. "We...

Reporting with Mobile Phones: The Experience of Voices of Africa

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:10:03 GMT

MediaShift Idea Lab

This story was written by Anne-Ryan Heatwole of MobileActive.org.

Mobile phones are the tool of choice for a new group of young reporters in Africa. Voices of Africa Media Foundation, a Netherlands-based non-profit, trains young journalists in Africa to create news videos for the web using mobiles.

The foundation currently has programs in Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, Tanzania, Mozambique, and South A...

ARROW RING (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:49:49 GMT

ARROW RING (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

picture of a PICTURE-PHO mixed with Arrow Ring LOVE. Who could resist ?? WHO ME, I can’t!!

Loving the latest Know Your Meme epsidose starring Weird Al Yankovic on the Cultural Phenom of Auto-Tune and T-Pain

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:43:01 GMT

This has to be the best Know Your Meme episode yet! great rhythm with the editing. informative historical contexualization. masterful weaving in of popular culture. and freaking WEIRD AL is in it! COME ON! this is tooooo cool. I grew up on Weird Al!

This is American culture at its best - only Weird Al could exist in America - everything about this episode speaks to the unique experience of growing up with pop culture in the US.

Appreciating this episode requires one to understand the technological feats of audio engineering, iphone apps mania, misogynistic off-tune popularity of *some* rap artists, hip-hop’s intimate yet under-appreciate relationship with technological innovations, Weird Al as as cultural commentator long before South Park and John Stewart, internet memes as a cultural phenomenon, kanye’s popular tantrums, and satiric political commentary with popular media.

Essentially, this episode won’t make sense unless you know where to culturally place/appreciate all these aspects - yes there’s even a place for a rapper like T-Pain who can rap/sing (badly) about his love for the strippas and strippas and more strippas. Oh and T-Pain twittered this Know Your Meme homage to his cultural legacy.

If I EVER forget why I love America - which often happens sometimes when I’ve traveling/living in other countries and fetishizing their health care system or affordable non-organic hormone pumped food or political participation levels or slower non-materialistic lifestyles - REMIND me to watch this episode of Know Your Meme.

it also looks like Sony is releasing a Weird Al compilation album. awesomeness.

elspethjane:

As Jamie Dubs just said, WE BEAT THE INTERNETZ, GUYS! So, T-Pain just tweeted our KYM episode. :)

I'm starting to think about how to visualize my data

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:14:50 GMT

I created this post on my other site, Digital Urbanisms (I just started it a few weeks ago). It’s about my current efforts to begin thinking about how to visualize my data - so it’s relevant for Cultural Bytes since this is where I talk about my research process.

Ever since I moved back to the US from China, I’ve been on a visualization craze - inspired by many of the architects and city planners that I met when I wasn’t doing fieldwork in Beijing.

What’s so great is that one of my advisors, Jim Hollan, actually teaches Information visualization!!! He introduced me to the world of Processing (visualization software). I think I should learn it - at least on some basic level in order to begin imaging how to visualize my data. Even though I want to work with a professional data visualizer, I still need to understand the depths of this software.

My reward for finishing my field exams in April is that I will be allowed to spend some time learning the program. I struggle EVERyday to not open the application. I don’t want to tell my committe that the reason why I dropped out of grad school is because I got stuck in processing world. hmmm I may have to uninstall it from my computer. yes good idea. going to do that……..now.

via Digital Urbanisms

This post is not directly about Digital Urban Mapping - rather it’s a commentary about the state of data visualization in urban mapping. Mario Klingemann (Quasimondo), the creator of this image, made a statement that resonated with me. He notes that the current festish around data visualization may be more indicative of aesthetics being prioritized over data comprehension.

“The goals of data visualization as I understand them are to make complicated issues more understandable, to make obscured connections visible and to reveal hidden patterns in the data. After all these tasks have been solved ideally the result should be aesthetically pleasing as well.

But when I look around what is being done in data visualization today I have the suspicion that in many cases the design is more important than the actual information and that the use of data is more an excuse to justify the use of aesthetics.”

This makes me think about the world of visualization and digital mapping for visualizing urban processes. So far, my only experience with urban mapping has been with architects - professionals who tend to be great at visualizing cityscapes and not so great at observing and explaining human interaction. but hey more reasons for architects and sociologists to team up! One of the reasons why I want to work with architects is because I think sociologists are missing the imaginative, the scale, and the visual. A lot of our work gets stuck under so many theoretical barrels and methodological corners that to even begin to think about visualizing our data when we can’t even explain it in everyday language just seems overwhelming. And the very aspect that Mario brings up - about processing information - well I think that sociological studies overall (there are many exceptions) fail to really make the research understandable to a wider public.

I am afraid of my work falling into that trap as I feel that’s what graduate school has trained me to do - write in obscure language that doesn’t communicate with other disciplines or practitioners. So I’m realllly trying hard to make a commitment early on in my fieldwork to think about how to visually communicate my research.

The difficulties in visualization is that as visual objects they are excellent at showing the snapshot of situations, the state or the result or the change over time in X/Y variables. On the other foot, visuals are not as excellent at communicating processes or motivations - the cultural reasons for why X/Y happened or changed over time (more techniques are being developed to make this easier- that’s why processing is so awesome).

I wonder if all these trends towards data visualization is also a reflection of the information overload that we deal with in everyday life and a desire to just quickly get the facts and jump out before the nitty gritty details come in to overwhelm the moment. There are countless times when I’ve come across a looooooong article and I’m debating whether or not to read it and I then become really happy when I see a chart - even better when it’s a pretty chart! :) My brain just things - “get me the details - I don’t always need to know or have time to know why.”

Nothing bad can happen with trying to make data prettier right? Especially when it’s in the hands of people who care just as much about the data as the color palette.

You can read about his project here.

feltron:

aaronmeyers:

via @lennyjpg

This post is not directly about Digital Urban Mapping - rather it’s a comment...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:43:00 GMT

“The goals of data visualization as I understand them are to make complicated issues more understandable, to make obscured connections visible and to reveal hidden patterns in the data. After all these tasks have been solved ideally the result should be aesthetically pleasing as well.

But when I look around what is being done in data visualization today I have the suspicion that in many cases the design is more important than the actual information and that the use of data is more an excuse to justify the use of aesthetics.”

Nothing bad can happen with trying to make data prettier right? Especially when it’s in the hands of people who care just as much about the data as the color palette.

You can read about his project here.

feltron:

aaronmeyers:

via @lennyjpg

Apple topples Nokia, has Nintendo shaking in its boots

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:08:47 GMT

DVICE Atom Feed

With the continued success of the iPhone worldwide, Apple has surpassed Nokia to become the number one handset vendor in the world, according to a report by the researchers at Strategy Analytics.

What's more, Apple is seeing its handset profits increase, raking in $1.6 billion for the third quarter of this year. Nokia, in comparison, saw its profits fall to $1.1 billion for the quarter. It's no ...

Camera hidden in a tissue box is pretty unsettling

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:38:56 GMT

DVICE Atom Feed

It's official: you can never be sure someone isn't watching you at all times. I mean, just take a look at this tissue box. It looks benign enough. But inside is a camera that takes color footage in the daytime and black and white footage at night, all at a resolution of 720x480 with a framerate of 30fps. It uses SD cards to store footage, and can be programmed to activate automatically at a...

jin ge is in pure basil love - look at his gaze - he has made it to the pure...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:12:34 GMT

jin ge is in pure basil love - look at his gaze - he has made it to the pure amitaba pho-land that even the most aspiring pho lovers cannot reach - come back and take us with you oh pure Basil-Pho Bodhisattva! We are worthy of your pho!

WHA? Vide you say? Erin and her bowl of #18 PHO @ Pho Cadao, 52nd and El Cajo...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:28:22 GMT

WHA? Vide you say? Erin and her bowl of #18 PHO @ Pho Cadao, 52nd and El Cajon, San Diego, California.

More evidence of smaller iPhone on Verizon?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:06:09 GMT

DVICE Atom Feed

The rumor mill's cranking up once again about that smaller iPhone, and this time the story goes that it will have a 2.8-inch screen instead of the current 3.5" display. Apple Insider reports the unconfirmed report from an industry analyst that Verizon Wireless will be rolling out this new iPhone in the third quarter of 2010.

The upcoming handset will allegedly use a dual-system chip from...

In Defense of a Good Night's Sleep | Psychology Today

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:24:16 GMT

www.psychologytoday.com

Disrupt your sleep, disrupt your body and brain. By Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D....

"You have to have a habitual vision of greatnesssssss. You have to believe in ..."

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:22:53 GMT

You have to have a habitual vision of greatnesssssss. You have to believe in fact that you refuse to settle for mediocrity. You won’t confuse financial security with your personal integrity. You won’t confuse your success with your greatness or your prosperity with your magnanimity…..You have to have a vision of something that is luring you all the time that for something grander than you….[What is] the quality of your service to others? Do you find joy in your service to others? Do you actually believe in fact that living is connected to giving?

Now some people may not believe in that. I’m the hedonistic narcissistic individualist type. That’s just not who I am. I am not into that kinda stuff. I say that’s fine, that’s fine. I chose to attempt to pursue this role.

Tienes que tener una visión habitual de grandeza. Tienes que creer en el hecho de que te niegues a conformarte con mediocridad.

No confundas seguridad económica con tu integridad personal. No confundas tu éxito con tu grandeza o tu prosperidad con tu magnanimidad…Tienes que tener una visión de algo que te esté atrayendo a algo más grande que tu…[¿Qué es] la cualidad de tu servicio a otros? ¿Encuentras alegría en tu servicio a otros? ¿Realmente crees en el hecho que vivir está conectado a dar?

Quizás alguna gente no crea en esto. Soy del tipo individualista, hedonista y narcisista. Eso no es lo que soy. No me interesan esas cosas. Te digo – está bien, está bien. Yo escojo tratar de seguir este tipo de vida.

–Cornel West in an interview with Tavis Smiley (thank you Tanya and Jessica)

I’ve always said that biting is fashionable!

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:54:37 GMT

I’ve always said that biting is fashionable!

via cache.gawker.com

Baguette Dropped From Bird's Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really) | Popular Science

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:07:32 GMT

hello typepad

via www.popsci.com

"With freak accident after freak accident piling up over at CERN, the idea of time traveling particles returning from the future to prevent their own discovery is beginning to seem less and less far fetched" (Thanks, Leah)

This high-tech glowing ball lets you wage urban war

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:14:28 GMT

DVICE Atom Feed

Urban Defender has gangs of players putting down the guns and knives and instead reaching for what looks like a glowing dodgeball. The objective here isn't to go after other people, though. You're aiming for buildings.

The game apparently isn't quite finished yet so the multilayer backend I'm about to describe isn't in place yet. Ideally, you should be able to take your ball around the city and ...

flash ethnography: observations of a doctor's use of mobile tech with a patient

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:24:31 GMT

I took my grandma to the doctors for her annual today. The doctor that we have been with for the last 5 years moved to another office. So today we had a new doctor. I gave the new doctor a brief overview of the last 5 years of my grandma’s medical history. Our new doctor was wonderful, personable, and attentive.

During the entire updating process, the doctor was primarily talking to me because I was translating and I have been the primary overseer of my grandma’s health for the last few years.

I noticed that she was carrying around a new netbook. She was typing my notes in the netbook while constantly referring back to my grandmother’s file that contained her entire medical history being various doctors.

I noticed that the entire time we talked, it was very hard for her to have any direct interaction with my grandma. Her back was faced towards her as the netbook was placed on a stationary built in counter. As she typed the notes, she looked at me and then would periodically turn her entire body around 360 around to smile at my grandma and then immediately turn back to her netbook.

When we were done with the exam, I chatted with the doctor for a few minutes about the netbooks. She said that the office was trialing these netbooks out and had rented them for 6 months. She seemed ambivalent about the netbook, as if it was forced upon her. She said,

“Well I can take it with me everywhere and look up notes on each patient, but the file of the patient’s history still isn’t on the laptop so we still have to pull up files and deal with a lot of papework. It just feels like another thing to carry around and keep track of.”

When I asked her how it affected her interaction with her patients, she said that this was her primary reason for not liking these laptops. She showed me that using the netbook meant that she had to spend more time with her back towards her patients. I asked her if she had tried sitting down and putting it in her lap so that she could face the patient, but she said that was also inconvenient because of all patient history paper file. She then want on to explain that she preferred the stationary big screen desktops on carts at her old office because it was on a table that could face the patient or be moved around within the room.

Post observation thoughts?

spatial layout of material objects matters
I think a big fix in the problem would be the way rooms are designed. Spatial layout of an office/room matters for the introduction of a new technology. Therefore, the reception and usage of a new technology, such as this netbook, will vary across different offices. And it’s cool to think about how even minute furniture and room layouts can make a difference.
In this instance, the only place for the doctor to place her netbook in such way that her physical paper files could also be accessed meant that her face-to-face time with her patient was compromised. Imagine if there was an extra cart in this room with a big computer screen and each doctor could plug in their own netbooks. Or imagine if all the stationary computers in each were networked so doctors didn’t have to keep track of their netbooks. This was a such a great learning moment for me in terms of witnessing how the consideration of spatial layout is especially salient for conducting comparisons in technology usage for a new tool across communities.
This reminds me of the time I spent working in the projects of the South Bronx. I had noticed that the layout of a small apartment that housed 4-8 people would’ve made it impossible for a student to use a desktop computer with broadband the same way as a student in larger apartment or home of middle-high income families.

the extent of digitization of info matters
the mobility of laptops were useful for accessing only recent notes because most of the files had yet to be scanned into computers. For all the promises that mobile tools deliver to professionals in service industries, it’s difficult to take full advantage of these tools when the entire information base of an organization has yet to be digitized. As the doctor had explained, she still had to rely on physical paper files for the patient history. The netbook was only useful for accessing recent visits. I wonder what she would’ve thought about the laptop if ALL patient histories was on it. Would she have sat down and put the netbook in her lap so that she could have more time with the patient?

human connection matters
decreased face-to-face time was the primary issue for the doctor. This was such a great example of when a technology appears to offer more mobility may work to compromise other forms of interactions that may be more valued in a certain social setting.

Mobility as a feature is neutral
There is a lot of excitement across HCI and CSCW for studies on mobilites and how digital tools can complement a more mobile lifestyle. Aside from my observation that most of these studies are on elite Western (usually Anglo) travelers or mobile workers and tend to undervalue informal economy workers who rely just as much on mobility - I think this is such an exciting area of research that has pushed me to bring the concept of mobility closer to lived practices of mobilities.
That being said, I think that it should not be considered a priori that mobility is a “good” or “desired” aspect of X. In the case of the doctor’s office, having a mobile laptop seemed to be novel technology that the doctor was obligated to carry around. Of course it was not an ideal office with patient history files still on paper format and badly designed patient rooms - but that is just the point. Rarely are technologies introduced into ideal or perfect settings. So it’s good to think more critically about the role of mobility for a specified audience and what mobility means to them. In this case, increased mobility of note taking and accessing for doctors compromised personal connections with their patients.

One of the ways I thought about this in the past was trying to think about the other end of mobile cellphones as mobility saviours - so what groups wouldn’t want to be as mobile - what situations would mobility as an option not be valued?

What came to my mind?
• cheating spouses who don’t want to be located
• paraplegics
• people who hate cellphones

yah ok this is a totally lame list - I couldn’t really come up with any other groups because I think my problem is that I live too much in a paradigm where mobility is valued and an absolute! I am one of those working professionals who travels a lot and would stop breathing if I didn’t have my cellphone or my laptop on a work day.

ok so here’s some things questions in conclusion:
• How do new technologies affect work flows?
• How do new technologies affect client/patient interaction?
• What are the compromises that are made for a more mobile lifestyle/interaction?
• How does spatial placement of objects affect technology usage?

Useful Links
• Microsoft Research on Health and Wellbing
Ethnography and Healthcare
• Multi-tasking in practice: Coordinated activities in the computer supported doctor–patient consultation. International Journal of Medical Informatics, Volume 74, Issue 6, Pages 425-436. M.Gibson, K.Jenkings, R.Wilson, I.Purves
• Clinician style and examination room computers: a video ethnography. W Ventres, R Marlin, N Vuckovic, V Stewart - Fam Med, 2005 - stfm.org.
• Mapping the integration of social and ethical issues in health technology assessment.
Lehoux P, Williams-Jones B. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2007 Winter;23(1):9-16.
• Making a Case in Medical Work: Implications for the Electronic Medical Record. M Hartswood, R Procter, M Rouncefield, R … - Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 2003 - portal.acm.org

(Image)

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:49:13 GMT

Amy’s PHO (#18) (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:30:09 GMT

Amy’s PHO (#18) (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

amy’s bowl of PHO / doubletake! she didn’t get into the veggies as much as I do, I had to twist her arm to do this much!

Basil (and) Jalapano (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:28:42 GMT

Basil (and) Jalapano (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

getting ready to dress up some PHO! and you know it’s going to taste good, too! YUMMY!

this is one of the Divine Guardian’s bowel movements (via...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:02:26 GMT

FUCK YEAH CILANTRO

this is one of the Divine Guardian’s bowel movements

(via yoursomethingexciting)

Book Review: “97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know”

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:41 GMT

WebWorkerDaily

I think project management books should be on every web worker’s reading list because — like it or not — even if your job title isn’t “project manager,” you still have to manage your own portion of the projects you participate in. Even some informal grounding in project management can be helpful for those “rare” times you are pulled into help bring a failing project back to life.

“97 Things...

beauty of zip code visualization

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:07:01 GMT

I just discovered Eager Eye’s Zip Scrabble Map from 2006. It quickly communicates information about population density and temporal sense of US expansion, and makes for beautiful wall art!

(via Urban Cartography)

This is so awesome. Visualization guru Robert Kosara at eagereyes.org has written a script to visualize the relationships between zipcodes and population within state borders. Check it out:

What would happen if you were to connect all the ZIP codes in the US in ascending order? Is there a system behind the assignment of ZIP codes? Are they organized in a grid? The result is surprising and much more interesting than expected.

The idea for the ZIPScribble came from playing with Ben Fry’s excellent zipdecode. That little applet allows you to explore the ZIP codes interactively, and reveals some very interesting patterns. What it does not give you, however, is an idea of the overall structure of the ZIP space. Jeffrey Heer has reimplemented zipdecode using his prefuse toolkit, and provides a file containing ZIP codes and coordinates. So off I went on a little programming exercise to see what simply connecting the dots would do.

This guy is so awesome. I could spend a whole day on his site. Go there now.

I love my city! Brooklyn this moment makes me proud! During the NYC Maratho...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:50:41 GMT

I love my city! Brooklyn this moment makes me proud! During the NYC Marathon today my friends danced and cheered on the marathon runners from all around the world with a Gospel choir AND a marching band! Brooklyn I LOVE LOVE YOU!

kenyatta:

Dancing at the NYC Marathon with Baratunde, Nora, and the Emmanuel Baptist Choir.

"Anger: an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than..."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Anger: an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.

Ira: un ácido que puede hacer más daño a la embarcación en la que se almacena de cualquier cosa en la que se derramó.

–Seneca (via reluctantbuddha)

Francine Prose, MTA conductor

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:30:34 GMT

nymag.com: Look Book

“I’m 52, and I’m the best dancer ever. I can dance hip-hop, salsa, ballroom-dancing—you name it, I do it.”

SOUP (spoon) (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:27:32 GMT

SOUP (spoon) (via SOFTSERVEGIRL)

there are no leftovers here, nothing but an empty PHO bowl, and my pink lipstick proof my lips were living in ecstasy while PHO passed through my lips :)