Talk at What Comes After CHI: Technology on the Trail, Virginia Tech., 2-3 March 2017 http://alandix.com/academic/talks/tech-on-the-trail-2017/

1. Getting Nowhere Slowly
learning from a thousand miles
at walking pace
Alan Dix
http://alanwalks.wales/

2. Tiree
Tiree Tech Wave
23-27 March 2017
University of
Birmingham

3. it’s all about
a walk
1058 miles (1700 km) around
around the margins of Wales

4. Welsh Coast Path
opened May 2012
linking existing paths
a single way marked route
with Offa’s Dyke encircles Wales
three full traversals in 2012 (one running)

5. vision
personal
encircling, encompassing, pilgrimage, homecoming,
practical
IT for the walker & IT for local communities
philosophical
reflections on walking and space, locality and identity
research
personal agenda and living lab

6. no hard boundaries
research – practice
personal – philosophical
19th century science or Mediaeval?

7. walking as research
slow! ... and hurts :-/
imposed time frame ... for good & ill
waving banners
using technology
Q. “what technology do you use?”
A. “a map”
keeping moving, in the wet, ..

8. the best technology!
voice recorder
real buttons!!
use it while moving

9. data
location
GPX ... batteries ... sporadic signals ....
bio-sensing
ECG (heart), EDA (skin) and accelerometers
audio and images
in the moment
text
after the event
implicit
explicit

11. some themes

12. at the margins
social marginality:
poor, old, rural
information marginality:
poor connectivity, old devices
IT deepens the divide
... but can IT help in the margins?

13. maps
reclaiming the local map within technological space
mapping never easier ... so long as it is ‘standard’
“Post-Renaissance maps cover the surface of the
world with an homogeneous Cartesian grip”
Barbara Bender
local maps – local concerns

14. community and cohesion
abandonment and dissolution:
Rhyl – dustbin of Liverpool
Dee estuary – even the pubs closed
internal strength
Penmaenmawr – in the face of adversity
community enterprise: shops, pubs, arts

15. an interstitial community
caravan site (nearly) in centre of town
but behind, in the gaps
semi-permanent residents
locality? parallel communities in same place

16. language and culture
intimately linked
even for the non-Welsh speaker!
changed in my lifetime
but under threat again
technological implications
not just translations ... media choice etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capel_Ce
lyn

17. Churches of Wales

18. health and well being
logistics and transport:
constant stress!! ... and I was just visiting
from mountain goat to geriatric and back
the kind of person …

19. connectivity
I expected it to be bad ...
but it was worse

20. always connected?
mobile signal
absent or weak
broadband ...
not so broad
masts point to sea
not land ...
yachts = money
https://explore.ee.co.uk/coverage-checker

21. software makes it worse ...
Twitter 140 chars ...
but unusable with poor signal
heavy XML API
email slow but works – 1970s technology
Flickr uploader freezes on poor connections
... even in Paris!
✔
✗
✗

22. ... not a recent issue ...

23. layers of experience
not using technology ...
always alone …

24. while walking
active
camera, recorder
passive
GPS, ECG, EDA
when stopped
iPad, blog, flickr,
social media,
uploading data
before/after
web for planning
new contacts on
Twitter, email
reporting, analysis
while walking
other walkers
occasional
friends/family
meeting
when stopped
shop keepers,
B&B proprietors,
chance meetings
talks, visits
before/after
family and friends,
readers,
researchers,
future walkers
social
sphere
technical
sphere

26. connecting and context

27. time and place
most things time stamped …
but not always same time
GPS … can be interesting
especially paths on slopes
location and path – loops etc.

28. semantic markup

29. one narrative
many threads

30. 1058 miles done
what next ...
more:
w: http://alanwalks.wales/
t: @alanwalkswales
f: facebook.com/alanwalkswales