Fatti non foste a viver come bruti,
ma per seguir virtute e conoscenza.
Ye were not made to live like unto brutes,
But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.
Dante Alighieri , La Divina Commedia, Inferno,
Canto XXVI, 119-120, Transl. by A. Mandelbaum
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 The scenario
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At the 1984 Superbowl
Apple launches the Macintosh:
A new personal computer with graphical user interface based
on the desktop metaphor
It brings forth the ideas developed at Xerox PARC by Alan Kay
and others to a large public, at a reasonable price
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And then …
All personal computers adopt the desktop metaphor
There is a dramatic growth of the size of internal and external as
well as fixed and removable memories of personal computers
The email becomes a universal medium
Tim Berners - Lee invents the Web
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Moreover, …
The Web, originally a system for publishing documents, grows and
becomes capable of offering a large variety of services:
 Downloading of files
 Shared information spaces
 E-commerce
 Blogs and wikis
 Chats
 Social computing (Web 2.0)
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Three main problems
The personal computer has been unable to cope with the evolution
of the Cyberspace:
dispersion of information (in the file system, the attachment
folder, the e-mail systems, the browser)
information overload (from keys to gigas; more and bigger
objects)
inadequacy of the file system with respect to the web (its
content remains without tags, links and structure)
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Unforeseen facts
Dispersion of information supports sub-optimal search methods (from messages
to attachments, from documents to urls, …): a casual and incomplete divide et
impera strategy.
More and more efficient search engines.
The web is constantly becoming more capable of providing all the functions of
personal computers: do we still need personal computers?
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Still some problems remain
On-line computing is not yet ubiquitous
The personal computer has some capabilities missing, compared with the web
Different users have different needs and desires: personal computers based on the
desktop metaphor are not adequate for some of them
Who has control?
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 Our idea
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A new workstation
Avoiding the dispersion of information
Embodying what we know about knowledge work
Designed for those people who “think what they do has value”
Based on a new metaphor: “stories and venues”
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Avoiding the dispersion of files
A new front-end where:
 related objects, messages, urls, people addresses, information sources,
tools appear in a single place
 All objects are characterized by tags and links
No solution, today, to the structure problem: in any case we have plans for the
future with respect to this problem
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No solution as yet for the information overload
Putting everything in the same place does not solve the information overload
problem. Moreover, it increase it
A hierarchical file system leads to greater confusion
Good search engines do not solve the problem: while performing an action we
need to have everything that maybe relevant, ready at hand
Searching distracts from the action we are performing
No real change with respect to the desktop metaphor
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The lessons of ethnographic research on work
What human beings do is embedded in their relations with other people: actions
and interactions
Action and communication are strictly intertwined
Any action is situated in space, time and, often, in the story within which it has
sense
The stories a person lives are not disjoint
Stories are viewpoints on actions and interactions
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The target users of ITSME
High - value users, i.e., all those who have a great number of interactions with
other people, manage loads of information, live a great number of stories at the
same time, but do not have adequate support to manage the complexity of their
life
Professionals
Managers
Intellectuals
Knowledge workers
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The limits of the desktop metaphor
The desktop metaphor has been able to sort workstation contents in a simple and
intuitive way
But it has not solved any of the problems people encounter while managing their
actions and interactions
Where is the message John sent me about that issue? Where did Rick tell me that
important thing? Which is the relevant part of this huge document?
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Beyond the desktop metaphor
The desktop metaphor is over thirty years old.
And it shows!
The displays of today’s workstations are either populated with a huge number of
icons or require functional commands to find an object.
In both cases, users frequently do not find what they are looking for, or find the
wrong thing
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A new metaphor: stories and venues
Our life interweaves a large number of different stories
Each story has its participants and objects
Each story has its venue, where you can access its participants and objects
Each person lives in several diverse interweaving venues
The new metaphor is characterized by its being plural and its reflecting
situatedness of human experience
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itsme / a workstation based on the metaphor of “stories and venues”
At any moment, ITSME presents the venue of the story in which its owner is acting
ITSME owners do not need to search for things: they have them ready at hand
ITSME creates, maintains and updates the venues of its owner
ITSME venues can be easily corrected, modified and/or organized by its owner
ITSME is not intrusive: its behavior is purely reactive
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A metaphor implemented through a light model
It lseems that if venues constitute a hierarchy, but the same file or resource can
appear in different venues
Users can move things between venues, and also copy things to different venues
Venues may have sub-venues. Sub-venues are not hierarchical: rather they define
viewpoints on venues
The hierarchical model is only a light support to the metaphor
The metaphor helps users understand what they see on the screen
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 Creating a new workstation and
communicating it
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ITSME components
An open-source operating system embodying the venue metaphor in
its front-end
A new workstation, with a radically new design
A service supporting the migration of users from Apple and Microsoft
workstations to ITSME
A consistent and reliable plan for further improvements of the system
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ITSME / the operating system
A radically new front-end to Linux, based on two simple rules:
Objects created in a venue remain there
Objects arriving with the reply to a message coming from
a venue go in that venue
In the venue where a story is performed, users can access:
their partners in that story
the files, email messages and web bookmarks created, exchanged and shared
in it
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Some examples from the concept manual: the interface model
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Some examples from the concept manual: the interface architecture
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Some examples from the concept manual: the home
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Some examples from the concept manual: the home
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Some examples from the concept manual: a venue
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Some examples from the concept manual: the limbo and
the transition panel
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ITSME / the operating system
Venues may be further organized (sub-venues, folders) by users
One-click mechanisms for correcting, modifying and organizing venues
In the Limbo, users find what has not yet been located in a venue (what has not
yet given raise to a story)
On the screen, a transit zone is always accessible, to move and/or copy files
A search engine to searching in other venues
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ITSME / the operating system
Based on Linux
The front-end is perfectly coupled with the underlying Linux operating system, so
that the system performs effectively
The front - end is based on a newly conceived interface design allowing users to
understand effortlessly what is going on, even when changes are not generated
by the user
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The migration service
Associating applications running on Vista and/or Mac OS to the applications
running on Linux, allowing users to continue working on their files
Selecting a Vista (Mac OS) emulator to run applications not supported by Linux
Putting by default in the Limbo the contents of the previous machine not yet
located immediately in a story
Defining the interaction protocol for creating new venues and placing objects
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ITSME / further improvements
A new Linux file system, where files can be tagged, linked and have an XML
structure
An email system supporting conversations, with bi-directional links between
messages and attachments
A browser locating its bookmarks in the file system
Navigation systems within venues
Multiple views of venues
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Development milestones
A three - year process
Two years for the development of the front-end
(spring 2008 - spring 2010)
One year and a half for the development of a hardware prototype
(spring 2009 - autumn 2010)
Two years for the development of the migration support system
(autumn 2008 - autumn 2010)
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The help we need
Three active communities, supporting Itsme from the very beginning
Research (CSCW, KM; ID)
Open source software (Linux community)
High-Tech industry (particularly in Europe)
Good coverage of Itsme milestones by media and research community world-
wide
Support from public institutions in Italy and Europe
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Next steps in communication
An interactive web site (Web 2.0)
On line testing of the concept
Presentations in major Universities/cities all around the world
Courses at major Universities and Educational Institutions all around the world
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Selling an innovation
Proving Itsme's with added value with respect to competitors
Proving system and after market - assistance reliability of the Itsme initiative
Granting small migration costs (moving from Vista or Mac OS to Itsme is not more
costly than moving from one version to another of those systems)
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 The company
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The ITSME team
A growing multi-disciplinary team organized in three work areas:

Interaction Design

Development and Open Source Software

Communication and Innovation
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The partners of ITSME
Giorgio De Michelis, who is its CEO
A group (≥20) of founding partners, subscribing the majority of its capital
A group of academic institutions (among which, University of Milano - Bicocca,
whose it is a spin-off)
The managers of the company, who will receive warrants, allowing them to
participate in value creation
Venture capitalists, who will provide the financial resources needed to reach its
objectives
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The Scientific Committee
A growing group of senior scholars in the field advising the company on its
activities:

Alfonso Fuggetta (Politecnico di Milano and Cefriel)

Patrizia Marti (University of Siena)

Roberto Polillo (University of Milano - Bicocca)

Marco Susani (Motorola Corp., Chicago)
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The Advisory Board
A group of senior managers and entrepreneurs advising the company on its
business plans. Among its members:

Elserino Piol (chair)

Luca De Michelis

Roberto Galimberti

Emanuele Marcianò

Roberto Polillo
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The ITSME Institute
A non-profit association, called ITSME Institute, will be created to better access
public funding for open source code development
Giorgio De Michelis and Itsme will control the Institute
The Association will be open to research and academic institutions
The Association will allow significant cost reduction, if design and development
will be funded by public institutions
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Thank you for your attention!
giorgio.demichelis@itsme.it
www.itsme.it