This document discusses the changing relationship between computers and people over time. It begins by noting how computers have transitioned from being used primarily by professionals in laboratories to being ubiquitous tools used by billions worldwide for a variety of everyday purposes. The document then provides examples of early computer systems and users to illustrate this transition. It discusses how the field of computer science has long been interested in studying human aspects of computing through areas like artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, and analyzing social networks. The document concludes by emphasizing the growing importance of usability and studying people as computing continues to become more integrated into everyday life and society.
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Computers and People
1. Computers and People
Hao-Chuan Wang
Department of Computer Science
Institute of Information Systems and Applications
National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
http://www.cs.nthu.edu.tw/~haochuan
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2. From Laboratory to Everyday Computing
The use scenario of computers is changing over time.
Very few professional users in early days; Billions of
professional and non-professional users today.
Increasing connections and inter-dependence between
computers and people.
Robotron Computer (1970s) Today (2012)
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3. Computers & People
Since the inception of CS, theres no lack of interest in studying
people, and linking computers to people.
One founding father of Artificial Intelligence, Herbert Simon
won Turing Award and Nobel Prize for this line of work.
Shakey Robot (1970s) IBM Deep Blue (1997) Herbert A. Simon (1916-2001)
ACM Turing Award, 1975
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Nobel Prize in Economics, 1978
4. Computers & People (cont.)
Since 1990s, computers are becoming serious part of
peoples everyday lives.
Computing with human purposes:
communication, socialization, collaboration, education,
health, entertainment etc.
CS concerns these issues too, and considers their
implications to the design of interfaces and
interactions between computers and people.
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10. From Communication to Social Networking
People now can not only communicate with one
another, but also network with them online.
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12. MC
Studying Social Networks CY
Which person is more important,
SC, CY or MC?
SC is likely more important. Why? GH
SC knows more people, and may
mediate more information
exchange.
How to pass information
from one person to another?
SC
SC to GH: SC->TD->PQ->GH
SC to MC: none
Which sub-network (group) a
person belongs to?
13. Identifying the Group a Person Belongs To
Insight: People in the same group stay close together.
People in different groups are further apart.
Edges (roads) with heavy traffic are more likely for
inter-group transportation.
Steps for identifying groups (clustering)
Compute the betweenness value, the extent a node is
required by the transportation between any two people
in the network, for each edge.
Remove high-betweenness edges to identify groups.
Pinney, J. W., & Westhead, D. R. (2007).Betweenness-based Decomposition Methods for Social and13
Biological Networks. Interdisciplinary Statistics and Bioinformatics.
15. Concluding Remarks
The range of topics that computer scientists look at
may be much wider than one considers
Plenty of diversity
Plenty of scientific challenges
Ex. Sustaining tradition and interest in studying people,
such as individual behavior and social organization.
Computing is more and more user-dependent and
socially relevant
Usable and useful HCI designs are more essential
Computational social sciences- new opportunities
and ways to understand people even more, e.g., the
analysis of online social networks.
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