Italian Government Without Politicians!

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/montis-italian-government-named-14962293#.TsQyAbImx8E

On the news this morning, the Italian Government has sworn in a new cabinet, Italy has sworn in professionals and not politicians to save the countries impending financial crisis. Although this is not exactly how our group planned it to be, it is very very close. Below I've pasted some comments about how Australian people feel about the above article.


"What a brilliant move. We should do that here. While Congress and the President lurch toward another impasse over the budget ceiling, when they not busy enriching themselves with insider trades, we should follow Italy's lead. The vast majority of people in serving on the Hill are lawyers - they are trained to argue and win points. This is why we are gridlocked. They are not trained to govern or deal with economic issues. I both applaud and envy the Italians"

"Wow, no politcians in Monti's new cabinet. And focusing on economic growth. What a bold move! He will go far in fixing italy's economic problems. Wish we have someone like him in AUS to take charge of our problems. Maybe our two party political system is one of the barriers of getting things done! "

Even though, the assignment is over, I thought this was interesting and would post it up anyway out of general interest.

Project Reflection

Following on from our first project, we realized our ideas weren't fully resolved and modified them slightly. It took me most part of the project to actually find the path I wanted to take to resolve the issues I had. I ended up pursuing a path of resolving the problems without a building, which I thought about and reconsidered several times, but came to the conclusion that if i did design some kind of building or structure that, I would be doing it just for the sake of doing it and not because it was actually necessary in my design resolution.
Overall I have to say, this last project has been the most complex I have experienced to date, which challenged me in various ways, and also allowed me to think and view design from a digital perspective.

Thank you to all of those that helped me along this process, Yasu, my peers and most of all DaVor.

Presentation Reflection

So I got a very mixed response from my tutor and the guest critiques. The guest critiques both agreed that I did not have a "design" to critique, which in some ways is fair as my design is closely tied in with the virtual aspect. However, their opinion on my idea/concept to improve relations between the parliament and population would have been more helpful. But part of me also thinks that maybe they did not fully understand my concept, as if I were to redesign a bus or train terminal (as they suggested I should have done) then the feasibility and implementation of my design would disappear, as one of my main foci was for my concept to to placed throughout Australia with ease and affordability.
My tutor however, who understood where I started and what my idea was in my opinion was happy with my design and concept. He did tell me areas in which I could have pushed my design a little further and also stated that my model maybe took away from my concept, due to its size. Which I completely agree with, I too discovered the same issue which is why I tried to illuminate my model to draw attention to my particular idea. However as can be seen below, its much more effective at night than in the day.

Panel

Response to CRA

• Infrastructure
• 1. Strategy: The basis of my design revolves around utilizing existing walls and floors, as well as digital resources such as the National Broadband Network.
     
     
     
  2.  
      Logistics: Adaptability is another strong point of my solution. Because the system i am proposing and implementing is like a projector with a camera, it's mainly dependent on the software which runs it. This makes my concept extremely adaptable to future endeavors.
     
     
• Tectonic Resolution
• 1. Purpose and Function: The success of using projector screens to provide government news as well as local information easily to the public solves several issues theoretically. However if the public would actually use the screens in a different story, which can only be tested with practical use.
     
     
  2. Circulation and Access: Because this idea can be applied in almost every situations from public transport terminals, to parks, or shopping  centers, its easily accessed by the public. Because of its implementation in lower socioeconomic areas, the technology and use of it is not limited to anyone in particular.
     
  3. Structural and/or Operational Integrity: Because my idea is based on existing technology which has been used and tested, the integrity and operation of my idea is sound.
     
     
     
     
• Poetic Resolution
• 1. Presence and Identity: The presence of my concept and idea is meant to be be discreet and pose little impact on the physical environment, unless they are in use. Public displays and implementation are there to draw the public's attention and make them aware of the idea.
     
     
  2. User Experience: The design of the user interface has designed to be similar to those that people are already used to, as well as being simple and easy to use.
     
     
     
     

Distributed, Flexible, Mobile, Virtual

 

The above image, is me checking to see the ties and relations my idea/concept has towards the 4 themes, and seeing which ones it relates and fits into. I found that, to achieve the theme that I am in (distributed) it heavily relies on its connection to the virtual realm and that the flexibility of my concept is vital to its success and feasibility.

Quick Render

Above is a quick render to help understand the implementation of my idea showing the areas that it can be used and the various surfaces it can be used on.

Complete Project Overview

So basically I discovered 2 main problems in relation to the government. First is about the distribution of power, and about how the parliament controls the people instead of representing them. 

However I found that dissolution of the current parliament and splitting it into the states was not the answer. The main issue is the house of representatives, the politicians and political parties. So in my plan i propose to remove political parties from parliament and replace them with the people currently working under them who do all the research, identify the problems and then proceed to facilitate a solution. The government will work on a Vote for a Policy method over voting for a party. There will be people employed to mediate and translate between the public and the government. (By this I mean, they will make government policies easy to understand and "interesting" so that the normal person is better able to understand what everything means. They will also gather the public's opinions and views and present them to the government who will then need to come up with an appropriate change or response to the people.)

The second problem I found is a communication breakdown or gap. Because of this breakdown, we don't seem to understand each others` intentions very well, each other being the government and the general population. The current forms of communication which are most prominent are things like newspapers, television, billboards, radio and computers, with the exception of computers we have a lot of one way traffic communication. So we hear loud and clear what they have to say, but do they hear us? What we need is a form of return communication which will be acknowledged and acted upon.

The system I'm proposing to close this gap, is based on existing technology called sixth sense, which was and I'm guessing still is being developed by Media Lab at MIT. The media which can be displayed through the device is similar to that of any tablet or computer. (Refer to the Pranav Mistry vid previously posted)

But I thought instead of having everyone buy one of these devices or a tablet computer etc, why don't I implement free fixed devices in various areas utilizing existing infrastructure such as walls and floors as well as progressive infrastructure like the NBN. So coming to my idea, it's more like the projector with a camera or scanning laser to detect the touch on the surface. On solid walls, it will have to be front projection, but if there is a glass wall there is no reason that it cannot be rear projection. And there is nothing stopping someone from using their feet to control it either. (Refer to the previous posts about project technologies)

Because this device is a simple projector and scanning laser. It's easier to think of it as a keyboard, regardless of how far computers have progressed, keyboards are virtually unchanged. So it's adaptability to future technology is almost endless. 

The intended purpose and function of this kind of system can play host to a series of services, and does not need to be confined purely to government information. Depending on the particular area any amount of information can be displayed and be active, from train timetables to weather forecasts and local news.

However the main purpose is to create a form of media that helps people want to interact and understand the current parliament. With easy diagrams, simple dot points and interesting videos.

The ability for people to voice their opinion and having their opinion acknowledged is the most important part. This way people can type or voice their opinion and can also read and listen to other peoples opinion. The government can then see what topics people are passionate about and offer a response. (People who I previously mentioned to mediate between the government and people come in here)

 The main idea for the implementation is a greater level of transparency between people and the government.

With new installations like this, initial positioning is vital to ensure people interact and use the service. So I guess there are three steps to the implementation.

First, to place them in areas where people are basically forced to interact with them. Positions where people have nothing to do, like at public transport terminals or pick up zones. When people are waiting for public transport they are generally bored and un-interested which is why the mX newspaper is such a success. Now would you rather play with a touch screen while waiting for a bus or train or read a newspaper? After people interact with the system, the goal not to limit and force them to read government news and voice their opinion, but rather give them an option to view it and attempt to make it interesting and simple enough to understand to make people want to read it.

Second, would be larger interactive displays to make people more aware of its presence  in dominant pedestrian heavy areas such as Queen St Mall as well as hold appeal towards the younger generations. Maybe something like the splitting of screens every time someone steps on the area to accommodate more people and draw attention would also be useful. 

Finally the third step in the hope that people are now familiar with the system is the implementation in other common waiting or standing areas such as parks and seating outside shops etc.

As previously stated, because of its flexibility and versatility there is no reason why this system can't evolve into the previously seen 6th sense device. Or depending on the limits and restrictions set by the people and government together that more data is able to be accessed through these screens. There's nothing stopping advertising on the screens while they are not in use by people, or implementing a finger-print recognition system so that people can customize what kind of news and features they see. The limits of this technology is pretty much what you can imagine.