[artinfo] i3 summer school at new Ivrea institute

[Adele Eisenstein]

Preliminary announcement
Designing for communities

An Interaction Design Summer School
organized by the i3 network and the Interaction Design Institute
Ivrea, Italy - September 1st - 10th, 2001

Concept
i3 (intelligent information interfaces) is a research program launched by 
the European Community in 1996. Its aim is to promote research focusing on 
new interaction paradigms in which communities of users interact with and 
through information and communication technology. i3 research proposing in 
a new form the question of user-centred design and scenario-based design of 
ICT applications, has contributed to radical innovation of software 
culture, opening it to the design culture (social scientists, technologists 
and industrial designers cooperate in many i3 projects) and proposing a 
radical change in software development: from interaction patterns to 
functions instead of from functions to interfaces! Virtual and augmented 
locations have been designed, implemented, tested and redesigned to open 
new interaction possibilities to different communities of users who have 
actively participated throughout the life cycle. Even the learning 
environments have been reconsidered from this perspective.
i3 is not an isolated event: the same perspective has inspired several 
research centres and schools in Europe and in the United States. The 
Interaction Design Institute has been recently created to train students 
coming from both the design and the software field in the new area of 
interaction design.
The Summer School will introduce a new generation of researchers to the 
extraordinary work done and stimulate the research and industrial world to 
conceive new ideas and artefacts, and share their processes directly with 
the users.

Interaction Design is still a dynamic research field where new concepts and 
new ideas are continuously proposed and discussed to cope with 
technological innovation and with the emerging needs of both social and 
professional communities. We think that it is now time to offer the 
occasion to develop interaction design competence to young designers, 
educated in computer science and engineering, social science and 
ethnography, and industrial design and working in both universities and 
private companies.
The theme chosen for the 2001 Interaction Design Summer School is 
"Designing for Communities". Its main focus will be, on one hand, on new 
approaches to user-centred design capable to develop cooperation between 
diverse cultures in the design process, on the other, on the support needed 
by various types of communities (local and learning communities, 
communities of practice and/or of interest) for developing their identity 
and/or improving performance.

We think that the emphasis on the user aspects of the design process is an 
important point for educating interaction designers who will be capable to 
design and develop useful and successful applications. This initiative 
promotes convergence in the IT world and stimulate creativeness with a 
bottom-up approach. The future of the technology relies on the 
multidisciplinary approach and on the direct involvement of the users. 
Information and communication technologies are for communities, so 
communities must be the main actors in the design of new appliances. 
Innovation does not simply mean to follow a technology-driven design to 
cope with the introduction of new technologies, but just the opposite: to 
tailor technological development to its needed use by communities through 
multidisciplinary design.

The Summer School is organised by Gillian Crampton Smith and Giorgio De 
Michelis assisted by an advisory board composed of Riccardo Antonini, 
Alberto Bianchi and Thomas Rist.

Who should attend
Graduate students at masters or PhD level (or advanced undergraduate 
students with appropriate experience) as well as young designers with few 
years of experience working in universities, research centres and/or 
private companies all over the world are invited to apply to attend the 
Interaction Design Summer School. The School features:

         lectures by leading researchers and practitioners in the field
         participation in design ateliers devoted to the creation and 
exploration of innovative 		ideas for supporting communities
         10 days of interaction in a warm social setting as part of a 
community of practice.

The fee for participating in the Interaction Design Summer School is Euro 
500. We expect the final fee to be paid by PhD and graduate students will 
be substantially lowered if not reduced to 0 Euro, thanks to the support of 
the European Commission and private sponsors. The final call will give 
details on this subject, and it is due in April 2001.

For updated information on the Summer School check www.i3net.org
Follow the link under "News" to i3 Summer School 2001.

If you want to receive further information about this Summer School, please 
email Giorgio De Michelis, <gdemich@disco.unimib.it>


Cathy Brickwood
Virtueel Platform
Keizersgracht 264
1016 EV Amsterdam
tel: 020 6237101
mobiel Cathy 06 21207357
email: cathy@virtueelplatform.nl
www.virtueelplatform.nl
www.vplounge.nl



Adele Eisenstein
project coordinator
C3: Center for Culture & Communication
Foundation
Pf. 419, H-1537 Budapest, Hungary
(Budapest 1014, Orszaghaz u. 9)
Phone: +361 214 6856, 488 7070
Fax: +361 214 6872
http://www.c3.hu/