torsdag 29 september 2016

Theme 5: Design research

In Lundstroms paper they conducted a light weight discourse analysis by analyzing the first 50 forum threads and blog posts related to electric cars on a search for "guess-o-meter" on Google. The collected data is the empirical evidence.
Also several participants who had the experience of driving an electric car was interviewed. The data that was collected was the material from the interviews.

The empirical data in Finding design qualities in a tangible programming space - Fernaeus & Tholander is the study and analysis of the children's interaction with each other in different settings.

1 originating in or based on observation or experience <empirical data>
2 relying on experience or observation alone often without due regard for system and theory <an empirical basis for the theory>
3 capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment <empirical laws>

Can practical design work in itself be considered a 'knowledge contribution'?
Lundstroms presents the methodology research-through-design, which he says involved several steps in an iterative and explorative design process. The concept design sketches and modelling prototypes they gained new experiences and proof which they had not realized before the research. The new experiences generated new knowledge in that field of study through design work. When working with design you get a new understanding of a phenomenon. For instance when you design a topology will get you a visual picture of a system. This visual will contribute to a new understanding the concept of the systems functionality.
A science of the artificial (design science) is a body of knowledge about the design of the artificial (man made) objects and phenomenon. Artifacts. Designed to meet certain desired goals.
Design science is knowledge in the form of constructs techniques and method models well developed theory for perform mapping. The know how creating artifacts that satisfy given sets functional requirements. Design science research is research that creates this type of missing knowledge using design analysis reflection and abstraction.

Are there any differences in design intentions within a research project, compared to design in general?
Design intentions within a project often require pre-work such as collecting data that will answer to specific requirements in an artefact. It often includes an iterative design process, developing prototypes and testing
While design in general is the creation of a plan or convention for the construction of an object, system or measurable human interaction. But design can also be "a roadmap or a strategic approach for someone to achieve a unique expectation. It defines the specifications, plans, parameters, costs, activities, processes and how and what to do within legal, political, social, environmental, safety and economic constraints in achieving that objective" Don Kumaragamage, Y. (2011). Design Manual Vol 1. In general design is about developing a product (real or abstract).

Is research in tech domains such as these ever replicable? How may we account for aspects such as time/historical setting, skills of the designers, available tools, etc?
The time and historical setting is important factors when it comes to research in tech domains. Since technology is growing exponentially the tools must correspond to the development and its conditions.

Are there any important differences with design driven research compared to other research practices?
Design driven research is focusing on optimizing a solution to a problem with certain requirements in a given situation. Research in other fields often focuses on obtaining knowledge about a specific phenomenon with theories and hypotheses. Design driven research uses design practices and experimental processes which often requires to set up a test environment.
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söndag 25 september 2016


Theme 2: Comments





https://u11zdo9t.blogspot.se/2016/09/theme-2-critical-media-studies-2.html?showComment=1474918230878#c7424935739379893039

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Second blog post - Theme 3: Research and theory
We discussed how a theory is a set of tested assumptions. And it could be proven to be true if the result is consistent from various experts. But once again the question of what is the truth arose. Even if different experts get the same results, what if they missed a parameter that is essential to actually display the “real” truth. It could be some universal that is missing.
One thing that is certain, is that you can never be certain.
The lesson clarified the difference between hypothesis and theory. The first is something that is unproven or speculative, while the latter is a set of proposals to identify abstract objects and their relationship to each other.
Theory is designed by us and must be supported by parameters.
The purpose of theory is to seek to explain the world and anticipate what's to come.
Most people in the seminar interpreted the definition of what a theory is differently. One person tried to apply the design and action on a case which clearly did not state a composition of an artifact.
I would have said that the EP (Explanation and Prediction) theory would have been applicable on her case. Most of them had chosen papers that represented a social science research which aimed to examine a behavioural phenomenon which often is an EP case and not related to an artifact.
I got the impression that it is crucial to be thorough when choosing a theory framework before starting the research. This will be the foundation when analysing the data which will lead to the result. This will display how accurate the result is.
Depending on the area you want to investigate, I would say that there are different applications of appropriate theoretical framework.
Scientific theory will try to represent reality. Scientific theories are viewed as scientific models. The scientific theories seems to me to be the most secure theories to rely on because they are build upon raw data or logic.
Philosophical theories are often based on ideas which can be quite unreliable. All humans have ideas and they are subjective. So if the aim is to get a phenomenon proven it would be rather difficult to get a consistent set of results if all of them are subjective. Though these types of theories can explain more qualitative research such as in human behaviour which is in the field of humanities and involves methods such as hermeneutics and semiotics.

With research we try to establish or confirm facts and solve problems. If we apply a scientific method in a research we get a systematic way of collecting data. The result of the research often provides scientific information and theories for the explanation of the nature and the properties of the world. With these framework we can create artifacts that can be a solution to a practical problem.
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torsdag 22 september 2016

Theme 4: Quantitative research
I chose the article “Channeling Science Information Seekers' Attention? A Content Analysis of Top-Ranked vs. Lower-Ranked Sites in Google”. The study examines search engines to see if they are biased in the choice of information that will be displayed in the result list.
By using an automatic tool to collect the links and quantitative data facilitates the process of collecting large amounts of data. The large amounts of unbiased data will often be more accurate, which is preferred.
The limitation of this method is the control of the data that is collected. It’s hard to be certain that these themes and root words are accurate enough to represent reality, though the amount of data can often compensate for these inaccuracies.
The method could be improved by using more search queries and root words and make a more specific division of the themes. Though this would entail more data to be analyzed.
My comprehension of the thesis was that it aims to investigate the psychological, behavioral and attitudinal consequences of thirty six Caucasian peoples body transformation in an Immersive Virtual Reality.
In the experimental condition they were represented either by a casually dressed dark-skinned virtual body (Casual Dark-Skinned - CD) or by a formal suited light-skinned body (Formal Light-Skinned - FL).


Worth mentioning was the choice of VR-avatars and test participants. The avatars were both male even though the test group was a mixture of both genders. This can be an issue that will be displayed in the collected data.
The result of the study could be important basis for many applications such as learning, education, training, psychotherapy and rehabilitation when using IVR.


The benefits of quantitative methods are that the data can be quantified and transformed to statistics. It uses measurable data to create facts. The statistics can be used to discover patterns and deviations. Data can be collected with structured interviews and systematic observations in surveys.
A benefit of this method is that it can be used for generalization and the results are often relatively easy to analyze, since the aim of quantitative research methods oftenly is to develop statistical and mathematical models.
The limitations is that a quantitative research can make it difficult to understand the context of a phenomenon. And complementary data can be a struggle to find. The data must be good enough in order to explain complex issues which might be difficult with quantitative research.
Qualitative methods are preferable in situations when you want to describe specific patterns and phenomenons that are exclusive to one set of participants.   
By using qualitative methods the results you receive can make way for a deeper understanding of a specific question.
The limitation would be that the data that you collect is often represented by a smaller group of participants. It is not preferable to draw generalisations from qualitative methods since it is oftenly aimed to reach more depth in the understanding of a question. Therefore it is difficult to draw statistical conclusions from qualitative methods.


Quantitative Research
Strengths
The researcher may construct a situation that eliminates the confounding influence of
many variables, allowing one to more credibly establish cause-and-effect relationships
Data collection using some quantitative methods is relatively quick (e.g., telephone
interviews)
Provides precise, quantitative, numerical data
Data analysis is relatively less time consuming (using statistical software)
The research results are relatively independent of the researcher (e.g., statistical
significance)
It may have higher credibility with many people in power (e.g., administrators, politicians,
people who fund programs)
It is useful for studying large
Weaknesses
The researcher’s theories that are used might not reflect local constituencies’
understandings
The researcher might miss out on phenomena occurring because of the focus on theory or
hypothesis testing rather than on theory or hypothesis generation (called the confirmation
bias)
Knowledge produced might be too abstract and general for direct application to specific
local situations, contexts, and individuals
Qualitative Research
Strengths
Useful for studying a limited number of cases in depth
Useful for describing complex phenomena
Can conduct cross-case comparisons and analysis
Provides understanding and description of people’s personal experiences of phenomena
Can determine how participants interpret constructs
Qualitative approaches are especially responsive to local situations, conditions, and
stakeholders’ needs
Qualitative researchers are especially responsive to changes that occur during the conduct
of a study
Determine idiographic causation


Weaknesses
It is more difficult to test hypotheses and theories with large participant pools.
It might have lower credibility with some administrators and commissioners of programs.
It generally takes more time to collect the data when compared to quantitative research.
https://www.southalabama.edu/coe/bset/johnson/oh_master/Ch14/Tab14-02.pdf
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söndag 18 september 2016

Theme 1: Comments







https://dm2572-16.blogspot.se/2016/09/theme-12.html?showComment=1474283808031
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Second Blogpost - Theme 2: Critical media studies

During the seminar we discussed the questions from another perspective.
Nominalism liberated the human and changed the structure. With the first approach the king was considered as chosen by God. The new approach that was applied saw all humans as the same, physically.
But after a while nominalism went to the opposite direction and became a movement which preserved status quo.
It states that it is neither right or wrong that wild animals eat other animals. It is the circle of life and nature. But in a human society we let our sense perception and moral take over to set us free. Basically, we must find tools that can liberate our way of thinking.
Human rights is not in our physical perception, it is something that we create in the light of being. We need a vision to set ourselves free.
Benjamin was positive to the reproduction of the arts because he thought it would lead to a more democratic society.
He thought that the reproduction and the technical advancements in our society have made it possible to let everyone influence the subculture.
Kings control technology no more directly than do merchants: it is as democratic as the economic system* with which it evolved. Technology is the essence of this knowledge (Adorno and Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944))
Adorno and Horkheimer had a different point of view than Benjamin after their move to the States. They believed that the americans were fooled by the superficial mass culture the same way as people being fooled by propaganda in Germany. They experienced the society very similar to how we experience it today (K.West in All falls down for instance). We are all chasing superficial phony illusions.

We also discussed Platonic realism. The allegory of the Cave by Plato illustrates his theory of ideas, that all existing objects and properties of a certain kind are part of a common idea. He makes a difference between the material world, where the objects we can observe with our senses are, and the world of ideas, where the ideas are.
For instance, that the objects in the real world are only imperfect representations of the real existing things, the ideas, the same way that a triangle drawn by hand must always be an imperfect representation of the mathematically defined triangle. Knowledge of the ideas get through to gain knowledge about the idea of the good, which is the highest of all ideas.
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torsdag 15 september 2016

Theme 3: Research and theory
I chose the article Securing DNP3 Broadcast Communications in SCADA Systems by Raphael Amoah, Member, IEEE, Seyit Camtepe, Member, IEEE, and Ernest Foo, Member, IEEE, submitted in the journal IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics. It has an impact factor of 3.381 (2013) and today 4.708.
The article presents DNP3 Secure Authentication for Broadcast (DNP3-SAB), which is a new lightweight security scheme for broadcast mode communication.
The paper is the first to present DNP3 Secure Authentication for Broadcast (DNP3-SAB), which is a new lightweight security scheme for broadcast mode communication.

The researchers have made a performance analysis on their scheme and the existing DNP3-SA modes (NACR and AGM) and presents the result of their DNP3-SAB. The result shows that it reduces the communication overhead significantly at the cost of an increase with a constant term in processing and storage overhead.
The article is divided in sections:
Section II presents the related work.
Section III presents the overview of the DNP3-SA protocol.
Section IV presents the proposed DNP3-SAB scheme.
The CPN modeling of DNP3-SAB and its approach are presented in The CPN model description is presented in Section VI.
The formal analysis of DNP3-SAB CPN model using state-space tool is presented and discussed in Section VII.
The performance analysis is presented in Section VIII.
Section IX presents the discussions and conclusion of the paper.
(http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.focus.lib.kth.se/xpls/icp.jsp?arnumber=7506334)

1. Gregor proclaims that a theory could be a mental view or a contemplation and according Sutton and Staw "Theory is the answer to queries of why. Theory is about the connections among phenomena, a story about why acts, events structure and thoughts occur." This is an enhancement of our understanding of the world. The logic of which a theory is built upon must be traceable. The hypothesis is not a theory it is just saying what is expected to occur, but not why.
Referring to something someone else says or a theory without using it, makes references to not be a theory itself. Neither data nor statistics are theories and do not generate theories but “may form the foundation for theoretical development”. Data answers questions to empirical patterns that has been observed. A list of variables and constructs are not theories either since they must be explained why they exists or why they are connected.

2. The theories that are used in the article are of both an explanation and prediction (EP) nature, which says what is, how, why, when, where, and what will be. The theories provides predictions and has both testable propositions and causal explanations. It has also the theories design and action which says how to do something. The theory gives explicit prescriptions (e.g., methods, techniques, principles of form and function) for constructing an artifact.
In the paper they present an existing protocol and provide us with an explanation of the limitations of it. They predict that there will be villains who will attack the systems because of these limitations. They are also predicting that this new scheme will make the process more secure. Then they present the design of their scheme. In the end they set up a test environment, run some tests and analysing the data.
3. The benefits of using the explanation and prediction (EP) theories are that it will give you an comprehension of an existing phenomenon and will in the end provide you with measurable data and test results. The benefits of using the theories design and action are that it proposes how to fix the problem.
The combination of these theories covers the most of it in a research. Therefore, there is no bigger limitation. Using just one of the theories would be a limitation, because then you would not cover all aspects when investigating a phenomenon.
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söndag 11 september 2016

Second blog post - Theme 1: Theory of knowledge and theory of science
During the seminar most of us had a similar understanding regarding Kants and Platos texts about the metaphysical questions on how to obtain knowledge. But when we discussed, more thoroughly in small seminar groups we found that our thoughts differed a little.
Platos method of obtaining knowledge, through dialectic was interesting to compare with Kants Critique of Pure Reason which discusses a priori knowledge and a posteriori knowledge.
It led to the discussion and the analysis of whether people who are highly aware are more depressed than others. Some decades ago, people who was considered suffering from depression was said to be hypersensitive. Hence mentally unstable. Is it possible that their perception of our surroundings is more intense and therefore making them more aware. Because they are analyzing the human existence and puts it in relation to the Universe, e.g time and space.
If everything is relative, who is the judge of the truth?
So how we experience the world and look at everything, how do we know that, that’s the truth? We know it is our truth and it corresponds to what we have learned in our culture. We are the ones who have enacted laws in our society and we should obey them. In other cultures, there are other truths that exists and they have other laws they must comply.
So is there a universal law? And does every human intuitively know about it?
During the seminar, we also discussed Kants 12 faculties that shapes our initial perception and the understanding of an object.
The world known for us humans, would not exist without the human experience of it. Kants faculties of knowledge are the knowledge of the world in itself. Through our perception it is the way the world exists in time and space.
What made the most impression on me was that it is humans who creates God, then we follow the commandments that we indirectly have created ourselves. And so we see God as omnipotent though it is we ourselves who have created him. So initially, is it the human being who is God?
And we must believe that there is another higher power or truth. Because we can not comprehend what we have not created and what is beyond space and time.

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torsdag 8 september 2016

Theme 2: Critical media studies

1. Enlightenment, understood in the widest sense as the advance of thought, has always aimed at liberating human beings from fear and installing them as masters.
Before the enlightenment, myths was used to control people who did not have a better judgement. Enlightenment got rid of myths and superstition and made room for knowledge. Enlightenment was considered as true knowledge in the sense of quantitative, objective and measurable science. 

2. Dialectic is a method of argument when seeking to resolve differences.
It is the way two persons conversate when they have different views on a topic. Dialectic is a way of reasoning through arguments to find the truth. 

3. Nominalism is the doctrine that universals or general ideas are mere names without any corresponding reality. Only particular objects exist, and properties, numbers, and sets are merely features of the way of considering the things that exist.
It rejects universals and abstract objects. An abstract object is an object that exists beyond space and time and a universal describes what objects have in common through qualities and characteristics.
They argue how dangerous it can be to use abstractions and universals that is not up to date. With enlightenment new universals have to be formed. 

4. Adorno and Horkheimer's argues that myths arose while trying to explain the existential problems that could not be comprehended.
Myth was something that arose from subjective and individual experiences. This was false knowledge that was spread to control the people who had no better judgement.
The myth embraces superstition and practice rituals and it was considered as knowledge before the enlightenment.
Enlightenment has always regarded anthropomorphism, the projection of subjective properties onto nature, as the basis of myth. The supernatural, spirits and demons, are taken to be reflections of human beings who allow themselves to be frightened by natural phenomena. According to enlightened thinking, the multiplicity of mythical figures can be reduced to a single common denominator, the subject. 

1. In Marxist theory it is proclaimed that our society consists of two layers. The Base which constitutes the Infrastructure/Substructure and also the Superstructure.
The Infrastructure/Substructure comprises the relations of the production, employee conditions and employers with what they produce to survive.
Superstructure includes what is not directly connected to the production. In the society it includes the institutions, culture and political power structures.
The Infrastructure/Substructure determines and controls the Superstructure while the Superstructure often influences the Infrastructure/Substructure. Though the Infrastructure/Substructure dominates the relationship between them.
The Superstructure has been more reactive (slow) than the Substructure. It takes a longer time for the Substructure to influence the Superstructure than vice versa. The changes in the Substructure during the industrialism led to changes in art and culture because of an increased availability of art.
The purpose of analyzing the subject is to seek to understand the basic conditions in terms of capitalist production to predict the future of capitalism,

2. Photography was considered having revolutionary potential because of its technical reproduction of art. It changed the way we interact with art and how we could document our environment. Superstructure can make an impact on the Infrastructure/Substructure and therefore does culture have revolutionary potentials. Adorno and Horkheimer can not see that development will generate revolutionaries. 

3. Historically has our way of perceiving things changed due to different events according Benjamins. He proclaims that sense perception is determined by historical circumstances and not only by nature.
During the enlightenment the humans perceived things in a way that characterized that epok while today we perceive it differently. We are influenced by our society and our environment which will influence our way of reflecting and perceive things.

4. Aura is described as the originality and authenticity of a piece of art that has not yet been reproduced.
A mechanical reproduction of an art piece won’t have the aura as of an original. Benjamin proclaims that there is a glowing area above natural objects but it is of another sort than the one found in the arts.
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fredag 2 september 2016

Theme 1: Theory of knowledge and theory of science

1. Kant believes that we can gain deeper understanding by letting objects conform to our cognition instead of the opposite way. He wants to use the human cognition to find new conclusions of metaphysical problems.
Kant wants to experiment with what he calls A priori knowledge or justification which is independent of experience,  which is a type of deduction justified by arguments of a certain kind. While A posteriori knowledge or justification is dependent on experience or empirical evidence, as with most aspects of science and personal knowledge*.
A priori knowledge will bring an object into a wider perspective and we will obtain a deeper knowledge. With empiricism we don't know anything about the object a priori. And without a priori knowledge we cannot make associations and assign the object attributes.
Hence, an understanding and knowledge can not just be fed to the human mind. 
He suggests that we can not gain knowledge solely through experience itself. When we gain an experience we must understand it. Experience in itself requires understanding and the cognition that needs understanding is something that we attain a priori.  The problem is that we can't know anything about the objects a priori. We must therefor assume that the objects conform to our concepts and then can the experience be cognized.
Here he uses human intuition to attain an understanding. We can let the objects conform to the constitution of the human intuition. The intuition might turn into cognitions if it can be determined as representations of the established objects.


2. Plato suggests that we see through our eyes and then use our reflections and thoughts to gain our own understanding of an object.
So our understanding of objects is based on both the perceptions from our senses and from our reflections and thoughts.
Each and everyone interpret objects in their own way. Our own experience is our own truth at that moment. What we can comprehend as warm one day could be cold to us the next, even though the temperature itself hasn't changed.
Socrates refuses the thesis that knowledge is purely perception, and his objection is that the mind makes use of a range of concepts which it could not have obtained, and which do not operate, through our senses. In the mind there is a part of thought (knowledge), which has nothing to do with perception.

The theory of empiricism is that knowledge is the theory that all knowledge is based on experience derived from the senses and sensory experiences*.
Each individual have their own reflection on an observation or sensory experience and it will lead to different conclusion according Socrates.
So the similarities of the arguments stated by Socrates and Empiricism, is that they both consider knowledge as something we gain by using our senses.

*http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/apriori/
*http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationalism-empiricism/

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