Visualizing Research in Virtual Reality and NonLinear Holographic Rhizomes

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Visualizing Research in Virtual Reality and
Non-Linear Holographic Rhizomes
Dwight Toavs and Paulette Robinson Information
Resources Management College National Defense
University
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Introduction

• Both wanted to
• Wanted to do something different.
• Use Multimedia approaches
• Media and research challenges
• Policy World a dynamic multifaceted environment
  where context and time are key elements.
• Within the Matrix capture experience more
  wholistically

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Policy WorldDissertationPixelating
PolicyVisualizing Issue Transformationin Real
and Virtual Worlds

• Part II - Demonstrations

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Retrospective Sensemaking

• Why?
• Can one create a VR-based policy visualization?
• Use information technology to teach policy
• What can a policy visualization reveal?
• Context, complexity, and dynamics
• Role of time in policymaking
• Importance of policy history learning
• Inadequacy of a popular policy framework

ETD http//scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd
-12222004-094635/
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Pixelating Policy A Metaphor
Pixelating Policy is a metaphorical reference
to a digital imaging technique, in which a
portion of a digital image is progressively
magnified until the individual pixels (or picture
elements), the basic elements of a digital image,
can be seen. Policy World uses the basic
elements of graphics graphic primitives to
represent the basic elements of public policy.
This research examined the basic elements of
public policy to understand how issues are
transformed over time.
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Project Scope

• Research Question How were the paperwork
  concerns of 1975 transformed into the
  e-government concerns of 2002?
• Theory Questions
• Do issues transform? If so, . . .
• Can issue transformation be identified? If so, .
  . .
• Is there a relationship between issue
  transformation and policy change? If so, . . .
• What is that relationship?

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Research Approach

• Case study Federal IRM policies from 1975 2002
• Primary Sources Congressional hearings on IRM
  issues
• Issues Were relevant before 1975 are still
  relevant
• Paperwork Reduction
• Privacy
• IT Acquisition
• Management Reform
• Records and Information
• Computer Security
• Content Analysis Witness testimony coded to
  identify values, issue definition(s), and
  affiliation

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Advocacy Coalition Framework
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ACF Components and interactions 1 The Policy
Subsystem 2 Stable SystemParameters 3
External Dynamic Events4 Policy World
Visualization
1
3
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Within the Matrix A Hermeneutic
PhenomenologicalInvestigation of Student
Experiencesin Web-based Computer Conferencing

• Part II - Demonstrations

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Creating a Web Space

• What possibilities could a web space
• uniquely offer to the representation of
• scholarly writing and qualitative
• research?
• What would you have to take into
• consideration in creating such a
• space?

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Creating a Webbed Space

• Assumptions
• Hermeneutics of Web Writing
• Criteria for Evaluation
• File Organization
• Navigation
• Orientation and Indexing
• The Collective

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Navigation

• Menu Levels
• Icons
• Image Maps

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Navigation

• Menu Levels
• Icons
• Image Maps

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Orientation Indexing

• Orientation
• Image Maps
• Information Box
• Index

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Evaluation Criteria

• Hermeneutic Phenomenology
• Content
• Interactive Structure
• Interface Design
• Hyper-linking
• Multimedia

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Hermeneutic Phenomenology

• Turning to the phenomenon.
• Investigating experience as we live it.
• Reflecting on the essential themes.
• Describing the phenomenon through
• writing and rewriting.
• Orientated pedagogical relation.
• Balancing parts and whole. (van Manen, 1995)

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Content

• The content is accurately represented in the
  combination of text, multimedia, and hypertext.

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Interactive Structure

• Reader is free to chart alternative courses
  through the word mass I fabricate
• (Taylor Saarinen, 1994, p. 13).
• The path choice is clear for the user.
• The interactive structure is used to pace
• the reader.

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Interface Design

• Visually coherent.
• Textual visual elements blend.
• The work is riddled with gaps, spaces and
  openings that invite the reader to write (Taylor
  Saarinen).
• Navigational conventions are easy to
  understand.
• Reader has a sense of location.
• Navigational system supports overall work.
• Each screen follows basic graphic design
  principles.

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Hyper-linking

• Links within the text are well placed and
  connected.
• Text is presented in the first four levels in
  manageable chunks and linked to other chunks.

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Multimedia

• Text is expressed as media through the use of
  font, placement, and size.
• Media is used to express ideas better than in
  words.
• Supports and adds to the understanding of the
  theme.
• Thoughtfully used to enhance a particular theme.
• Used to add novelty to representation of the
  content.

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The Collaborative Process
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HyperNews Collaborative Space
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Comparisons and Contributions

• Part III
• Role of Time
• Context
• Perspective
• Creative Process
• Contributions

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Time

• Dwight
• Time is the primary constant in policy activities
• Time helps structure dynamic and complex
  activities
• Time, rather than policy frameworks, is linear
• All policy activity is time-dependent

• Paulette
• Capture immediacy in experience
• Deconstruct time to spatial rather than
  sequential (navigation)
• Context of screen time
• Pausing and pacing time through animation

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Context

• Dwight
• Policy World visualizes the policy context
• In representing complexity, policy theory, policy
  issues, and policy change are simultaneously and
  visually deconstructed
• Context is represented by using graphic
  primitives, color, and movement

• Paulette
• Spatial/holographic
• Shapes as representative (lines, circles,
  squares)
• Images as containers for meaning
• Navigation

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Perspective

• Dwight
• Perspective is provided by point of view (POV)
• POV can be altered by the viewer while
  constructing meaning
• POV can be from an internal or an external
  perspective

• Paulette
• Reader chooses preferences of perspective
• Reader created the experience every time
• If it had been possible, the reader becomes the
  writer

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Creative Process

• Dwight
• No previous models
• What is represented?
• Theory
• Evidence
• Possibilities
• How do you bring content into a virtual world?
• Visuals
• Auxiliary html pages
• Representation

• Paulette
• Ah-hah moment
• Drudging through the system
• Making the image real
• Iterative

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Contributions

• Dwight
• First policy oriented VR world
• Visualized context and dynamics of policy and
  institutional process
• Discovery-based learning approach to public
  policy, IRM, and eGovernment

• Paulette
• Creating a multifaceted experience through
  representing it in graphicsweb hermeneutic
• Spatial design/navigation
• First of its kind

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Questions and Discussion

• Paulette Robinson robinsonr_at_ndu.edu
• http//www.otal.umd.edu/paulette/Dissertation
• Dwight Toavs toavs_at_ndu.edu
• ETD http//scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd
  -12222004-094635/