Talk presented at Cross-Currents workhop on "Rural Cultural Practice and the Digital Economy in India and the UK", at IIIT Bangalore, 12th May 2014. http://alandix.com/academic/papers/CrossCurrents-technology-at-the-edge-2014/ The talk was based partly on my 1000 walk around Wales in 2013, and partly on community projects on the Isle of Tiree including Tiree Tech Wave. I discussed the inter-related issues of being at the physical, social and economic edge, including language, identity & community, connectivity & communications, and digital heritage.

1. Technology at the Edge
Alan Dix
Talis, University of Birmingham
& Tiree Tech Wave
http://alandix.com/
http://tireetechwave.org/

2. Tiree
Tiree Tech Wave
23-27 Oct 2014
University of
Birmingham

3. Early company in Sem Web (sadly no more )
ongoing network/connectedness ethos
Reading List software over 50% of UK universities
+ growing Australia, Nordic, …
Digital Content management & cross-content player
Learning analytics for institution & academic

4. … and …
http://hcicourse.com/
(now also on interaction-design.org)

5. today I am not talking about …
• intelligent internet interfaces
• visualisation and sampling
• situated displays, eCampus,
small device – large display interactions
• fun and games, virtual crackers,
artistic performance, slow time
• physicality and product design
• creativity and Bad Ideas
• modelling dreams and regret

6. … or even lots of lights
http:/www.hcibook.com/alan/projects/firefly/

7. … rural connections
Walking Wales
Tiree

8. Alan Walks Wales
1058 miles (1700km)
3 ½ months
April-July 2013
focus on IT at the margins

9. vision
personal
encircling, encompassing, pilgrimage, homecoming,
practical
IT for the walker & IT for local communities
philosophical
reflections on walking and space, locality and identity
research
personal agenda and living lab
lots of
data

10. at the margins
social marginality:
poor, old, rural
information marginality:
poor connectivity, old devices
IT deepens the divide
... but can IT help in the margins?

11. community and identity

12. community and cohesion
abandonment and dissolution:
Rhyl – dustbin of Liverpool
Dee estuary – even the pubs closed
internal strength
Penmaenmawr – in the face of adversity
community enterprise: shops, pubs, arts

13. language and culture
intimately linked
even for the non-Welsh speaker!
changed in my lifetime
but under threat again
technological implications
not just translations ... media choice etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capel_Ce
lyn

14. connectivity
I expected it to be bad ...
but it was worse

15. ... not a recent issue ...

16. always connected?
mobile signal
absent or weak
broadband ...
not so broad
masts point to sea
not land ...
yachts = money
https://explore.ee.co.uk/coverage-checker

17. software makes it worse ...
Twitter 140 chars ...
but unusable with poor signal
heavy XML API
email slow but works – 1970s technology
Flickr uploader freezes on poor connections
... even in Paris!
✔
✗
✗

18. ‘localisation’
not just language and culture
software embodies context:
technological and economic assumptions

20. About Tiree
poor mobile
phone
coverage
700 residents
20,000 summer visitors

21. communication for the dispersed
Digitally Open
Tiree Connect

22. An Iodhlann
Tiree Historical Centre
founded 1992
housed in old ‘reading room’
staffed by volunteers
and P/T archivist
12,000 catalogued items
maps, land records,
photos, audio tapes, ...

23. purpose
– taking the archive
into the environment
– expanding reach (younger!)
technology:
– HTML5 off-line app
– data driven

24. celebrating locality

25. ‘On Supply’
exploring the connection between existing
communities and available renewable energy

26. post-industrialisation
craft and artisan
http://www.hovisbakery.co.uk
http://artisanbaker.org

27. the new artisan ...
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:15121

28. IT in the margins
lessons from each other
Harris Tweed
hole in the wall
simple SMS
an old dream ...
the electronic village shop
what now?
www.hole-in-the-wall.com