This paper re-examines a number of the approaches, origins and ideals of context--aware systems design, looking particularly at the way that the past influences what we do in our ongoing activity. As a number of sociologists and philosophers have pointed out, past social interaction, as well as past use of the heterogeneous mix of media, tools and artifacts that we use in our everyday activity, influence our ongoing interaction with the people and media at hand. We suggest that the past is thus part of one's current context, and can be seen as combining and interweaving the temporal and subjective patterns of individuals' use of heterogeneous media as well as objectively structured representations of individual media. Based on this theoretical discussion, we present a number of critiques, examples and suggestions for systems designs that reflect this historical aspect of context, and which make good use of the past in supporting ongoing user activity.

Abstract. This paper introduces a Semiotic Appoach to Hypertext Theory. Having been applied to Informatics only in recent years, Semiotics promises a broader understanding of Hypertext as a structure of signs. The rapid visualization of the World Wide Web seems to justify this approach. Using the methodology of applied Semiotics and Graph Theory, the author analyses the challenges and restrictions of Hypertexts in general and the WWW in particular. 1

This paper reviews the key issues in hypermedia systems as an overture to the proposal of a new semiotic paradigm for hypermedia data and coding models. The hypertext concept permits users to interact with and manage data as high-level conceptual objects rather than as symbol streams. Current hypermedia systems can best be defined as an amalgamation of hypertext and multimedia. While the hypertext data model enables this goal, that is not true for the data models of other media forms. A new semiotic paradigm that addresses these deficiencies and supports object-oriented interaction with compressed multimedia streams is proposed. This paper initially presents an overview of the hypertext data model, contrasting it with existing multimedia data and coding models. The framework for the new paradigm is then presented in a brief review of cognitive, psychological, and semiotic principles. This analysis culminates in the proposal of semiotically based data models and representations predisposed to the hypermedia paradigm. Keywords—Audio coding, data models, hypermedia, hypertext systems, image coding, information retrieval, multimedia information systems, psychology, semiotics, signal representations, source coding. I.

Examination of the UML indicates weaknesses in its graphic syntax which undermine its structure as a visual language. Although the UML Notation claims to provide a "canonical notation", there are insufficient rules governing the graphic constructs used to produce the essential 'signifiers' of this visual language and to define their permissible combinations. The nature and composition of the graphical elements actually shown is a fundamental consideration, separate from the underlying constructs that they may signify. A much earlier formulation for notational systems, that provided by Nelson Goodman, clarifies the issues involved and makes it possible to set basic tests for a notational scheme, such as the UML, which require syntactic disjointness and differentiability. Application of these tests (plus others) to graphical primitives, simple characters and diagrams shows a variety of failures that lead to a fundamental questioning of the graphical syntax which forms part of the UML str...

At present most sound design methods for non-speech sounds in auditory interfaces are based on empirical knowledge, often resulting in sounds derived from random selection or the personal preferences of the designer. A more theoretical design background is required which will create a framework that can be integrated with a practical approach to create the required results. The design framework selected and presented in this paper is based on a semiotic approach to the design of nonspeech sounds. In this approach, the design process is conceptualised by referring to structural semiotics, taking into account the unique qualities of non-speech sounds, as a mode of conveying information. The central question is how individual non-speech sounds in an auditory interface can be integrated within their overall use context. A sound design method is presented as a synthesis of the theoretical points. This method is based on a rich use scenario presented to a design panel. Finally, a case study where the design method has been applied is presented and evaluated. 1.

Abstract—Framework-specific modeling languages (FSMLs) help developers build applications based on object-oriented frameworks. FSMLs model abstractions and rules of application programming interfaces (APIs) exposed by frameworks and can express models of how applications use APIs. Such models aid developers in understanding, creating, and evolving application code. We present four exemplar FSMLs and a method for engineering new FSMLs. The method was created post-mortem by generalizing the experience of building the exemplars and by specializing existing approaches to domain analysis, software development, and quality evaluation of models and languages. The method is driven by the use cases that the FSML under development should support and the evaluation of the constructed FSML is guided by two existing quality frameworks. The method description provides concrete examples for the engineering steps, outcomes, and challenges. It also provides strategies for making engineering decisions.

Physicist Erwin Schrödinger’s What is Life? (1945) has inspired many subsequent efforts to explain biological evolution, especially the evolution of complex systems, in terms of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the concepts of "entropy" and "negative entropy." However, the problems associated with this paradigm are manifold. Some of these problems will be highlighted in the first part of this paper, and some of the theories that have been derived from it will be briefly critiqued. “Thermoeconomics”, by contrast, is based on the proposition that the role of energy in biological evolution should be defined and understood not in terms of the Second Law but in terms of such economic criteria as “productivity,” “efficiency,” and especially the costs and benefits (or "profitability") of the various mechanisms for capturing and utilizing available energy to build biomass and do work. Thus thermoeconomics is fully consistent with the Darwinian paradigm. Furthermore, it is argued that economic criteria provide a better account of the advances (and recessions) in bioenergetic technologies than does any formulation derived from the Second Law.

Prosody—suprasegmental characteristics of speech such as pitch, rhythm, and loudness— is a rich source of information in spoken language and can tell a listener much about the internal state of a speaker. This thesis explores the role of prosody in conveying three very different types of speaker state: paralinguistic state, in particular emotion; pragmatic state, in particular questioning; and the state of spoken language proficiency of non-native English speakers. Paralinguistics. Intonational features describing pitch contour shape were found to dis-criminate emotion in terms of positive and negative affect. A procedure is described for clustering groups of listeners according to perceptual emotion ratings that foster further understanding of the relationship between acoustic-prosodic cues and emotion perception. Pragmatics. Student questions in a corpus of one-on-one tutorial dialogs were found to be signaled primarily by phrase-final rising intonation, an important cue used in conjunc-tion with lexico-pragmatic cues to differentiate the high rate of observed declarative questions from proper declaratives. The automatic classification of question form and

ABSTRACT: In this paper we discuss a set of conceptual issues regarding the synthesis of semiotic processes within artificial systems, and its technological offspring, the semionic networks. We start by putting in context what is this thing- semiotic synthesis, and how and why it differs from semiotic analysis. We follow proposing the concept of a "semion", as both an elementary entity with semiotic processing abilities, and a container of knowledge, explaining its structure and dynamics. At the end, we address the interaction of semions within semionic networks, and its use with the purpose of building different architectures for artificial minds. 1

Science literacy, often defined as competency in school-like science activities, is frequently touted as a key to good citizenship. Based on a two-year ethnographic effort regarding science in the community, we suggest that science as taught in schools has no determinate relation to the activity of good citizenship. Rather, when considering the contribution of scientific activity to the greater good, the analysis must consider the entire situation. Science must be seen as forming a unique hybrid practice, mixed in with other mediating practices, which together constitute what can be called “scientifically literate good citizenship.” This case study, an analysis of an open-house event organized by a grass-roots environmentalist group, presents some examples of activities that embed science in “good citizenship. ” We provide an analysis of some of the factors involved in this hybrid science. Through a series of vignettes, we focus on the activists ’ use of landscape and spatial arrangements, the importance of multiple representations of the same entity (e.g., a local creek), the relational aspect of knowing and becoming part of a community, and discursive formations that insert scientific into moral discourse. Our analysis raises questions about learning, citizenship, and the complex and mediated relations between community, citizenship, politics, and science as played out on a local scale.