AtGentive
WP2 AtGentNet
AtGentive; 2nd General Meeting;
21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Thierry Nabeth, Yé Deng & Pradeep Kumar Mittal
INSEAD CALT (Centre for Advanced Learning Technologies)
http://www.calt.insead.edu/
2nd
WP2: AtGentNet;
AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Table of content:
What is AtGenNet
The “emerging” design (key points)
The different categories of services
Implementation of the Design
Future work
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
The “emerging” Design of
AtGentNet
The design of AtGentNet (what is in
AtGentNet) is progressively emerging as we
are experimenting and following some
feedbacks from STC.
2nd
WP2: AtGentNet;
AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Key points we have learned
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2 usages considered: A communication platform, and a platform
for supporting the management of learning.
Objective is to support Information overload, and cognitive
overload
Importance to have an elaborated way to notify.
Richer meta-information associated to posting and that can be
used to better manage attention (better way to present and to
notify)
Support of roles (community organisers, professors, students),
and some level of personalisation (context)
The 3 attentional supports: perception, metacognition, operation.
It appears a good idea for structuring the services.
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Key open points to be
addressed
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The added value of artificial characters for
interacting with managers. (some ideas, but
still to be validated !)
Advanced support for attention such as
intelligent guidance and context management.
User modelling (sophistication, emotion?)
User profiling. (physiological measures?)
Connection to external services (skype, etc.).
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
The different categories of
services
Perception
Metacognitive support
Operational support
2nd
WP2: AtGentNet;
AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
The dimensions of attention support:
Perception / discernment. How to present information,
knowledge, process in a way enhancing perception.
(information design)
The metacognition of attention. How to help the
users to improve their current practices and
performance (informed from attention theories).
Execution. How support the users’ working and learning
processes in a way that reduce cognition overload
(interruption management, process automation)
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Support of perception
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Information design: user interface issues. Cognitive
“ergonomics”. Colour, positioning, texture, sound, …
(see. Attention research). Themes.
Multi-modality: artificial characters, voice, …
Social translucence
Personalisation
Group personalisation (support of roles)
Magic Lens
Summarization portal
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Illustration: artificial characters
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Question: How should they intervene in the context of
adult users?
As the Microsoft agents assistants? Not sure!
To welcome participants?
To support chat discussion? (talking characters)
To explore: To help to conduct transformation &
changes in a community. (INSEAD & Cantoche
expertise in Change management)
Mechanisms: Some postings are to be specifically
design to be delivered by artificial characters
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Support of meta-cognition
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Approaches and mechanisms helping to
understand how to manage attention.
Display of people activities
Display of community activities
Comparison (to help to situate)
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Support of operation
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Approaches and mechanisms helping to
understand how to manage attention.
Agenda
Automation of tasks (e.g. associate an action /
handler to a post)
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
AtGentNet: Supporting Knowledge exchange
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The users:
 Managers geographically distributed
 They work in SMEs and they feel isolated
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The activities
 They share documents and cases
 They share experiences via interaction in
discussions (forum, chats, etc.)
 They can also engage into some learning
activities (lectures, simulations, etc.)
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Where does Mr Fox works?
Who is Edward Fox ?
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Some Scenarios
Scenarios illustrating how to:
Enhance user perception
More effectively help people to better
manage their attention
Help them to develop attentional selfreflective metacognitive capabilities
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Support of perception
AtGentNet will be structured as a set of well
identified and specialised spaces supporting a
limited number of activities. The items will be
display in order to help spot the more important
items
How
 The creation of dedicated spaces will reduce
the likelyhood of distraction of the user.
 Besides, the form of the space will reinforce
the perception of the context of the
interaction
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Support of perception: the ”Magic Lens”
Individual enhancing and filtering of shared
representation
The Magic Lens concept consist in providing a personalized
enhanced perception of a common representation, taking into
account the specificity of the users interacting with this
representation. More concretely the different users wearing this
magic leans (that can be activated in the browser) will get a slightly
perception of the shared space (Cybrary, Forum, Chatroom, etc.) in
which they interact.
Example of user experiences: in a forum, the user will see
magnified the posting of the other users that are important to him.
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Support of metacognition
AtGentNet will provide a set of mechanisms to develop
his / her attentional meta-cognitive abilities Via:
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The visualisation of it previous activity related to his / her
dedicated attention (where did he spent his time, what are his
actions). This information will be extracted from the observed
activity.
A set of assessment of his current way of managing his /
attention. The system may indicate an observed attentional
profile.
The definition of an agenda (getting focussed), and the
suggestion of an attentional profile matching this agenda?
A set of presentation & exercises to understand attentional
concepts. (for instance stories presenting cases of bad practices;
for instance on the good use of email; different categories of
attention –captive / voluntary- -front of mind / back of mind-,
etc.)?
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Support of metacognition
an agent may suggest some new behaviour and
practices. (your quote all your messages as very
important. “Do you know the story of the boy
who cried Wolf”. Or, I observe that you are using
the email to communicate with the same group
of people. Why not to create a blog? it may help
you to make best use of your time.)
An agent may question the relevance of the
behavioural profile with the stated agenda of the
user (dissonance).
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Operational support: tools
Mechanisms facilitation the communication
process, and time management.
Advanced notification mechanisms
(indicated via the metadata of the
posting, use of IM, …).
Home pages
Advanced calendars
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK
Operational support: Agent Guidance
The Agent, aware of the user’s profile and of the
context may proactively intervene.
Example: an embodied character, only visible by
the user, may intervene and indicate an item of
particular importance
An agent may suggest an action to a student.
For instance in AtGentSchool, the agent may
ask the student a specific action related to the
creation of a story (write an introduction).
WP2: AtGentNet;
2nd AtGentive GM 21-22 May 2006, Oxford, UK