This Week in EID – Episode 9 Double Issue

This week I need to cover two weeks because I was traveling last week.  EID did not miss a beat because of the fantastic management of Keith Bujak.  But I wasn’t around to write up the recap here.

So here is what came out over the past two weeks:

Nature Nurture in Gender: The constant interaction between nature and nurture really fascinates me.  The genes are there, but then how to they get expressed?  And how does the expression change the wiring in the brain?  And how do genetic dispositions influence the way the changes roll out?  And on and on  . . .

All in One Devices: The only good thing about all-in-one-devices seems to be the blending of letters when trying to come up with a name.  Phablet.  Padphone. How about Laphabletch (laptop, phone, tablet, watch)?

Precrastination  I see precrastination all the time, and even do it sometimes.  But never knew it had a name.  

Crowdsourcing at Marriott: Hotels never seem to be on the cutting edge of technology, customer experience, or user engagement.  Maybe this example shows they can turn a corner.  

Privacy and Ambient Computing:  I suspect electronic monitoring will be controversial and constantly changing for many years.  The tradeoff is hard to resolve and each time a new technology comes out we have to rethink it from scratch.  Not exactly what government or law enforcement is good at.  

Ethics of False Nudging:  I love examples where behavior, ethics, and design come together.  This is a good one.  

What do our Facebook Likes say about us?  The infamous Target example made this possibility well known.  But I am always amazed at what these modeling algorithms can figure out.  Except when they can’t.  

College Students as Research Subjects I like this idea.  As soon as the second month of the semester rolls around, I don’t have to do any more research.