Beta Block project outline
Beta Block project Outline
Nov. 14, 2009 (preliminary draft)
Intro
The Beta Block project is the culmination of six years of effort to create a ‘connected communities’ project, based around CWRU and the University Circle neighborhood.
The first steps were an alpha test experiment on the second floor of the Arabica coffee shop. The beta stage of the effort begins in January with the installation of fiber optic cabling into 104 apartments and homes on Hessler St. directly adjacent to CWRU’s main campus (off of Ford St.)
Hessler St. is known for its yearly Arts and Music Festival, held in mid-May which features a 60’s ‘hippie’ theme and is celebrating its 41st year this year.
The Beta Block project represents the combined efforts of hardware and software development teams, web and live support services, documentary teams and several educational studies all leading towards a series of compelling experiences for the residents of 104 apartments and homes on Hessler St. in Cleveland.
Fiber optic wiring will be run into each apartment and home and free Internet connectivity will be provided. A series of services provided by local energy, police, cable television and health institutions will be provided as part of the free service, in addition to free ‘dashboard’ software.
This dashboard software will provide social networking, blogging, media sharing, activity streams, RSS feeds and Facebook connectivity for all residents and will also come with a personalized ‘news page’.
Unique content will be produced as part of the project and several kinds of interactive, viral marketing campaigns and contests will be launched.
This project will be run and operated by the CWRU IT department. A class taught (from the TIME department) will produce content and manage all the software ‘built-into’ the dashboard start page.
The Course
The Beta Block course will be an inter-disciplinary course based out of the TIME department. The course will be a project oriented, hands-on experience for all students, getting them out of the classroom and onto the streets, into the homes and apartments getting their feet wet deploying free dashboard software to 104 ‘doors’.
Emphasis will be placed on students learning the ropes on how to ‘run a social network’, build community, gateway to external web services, analyze user behavior and in general – study the phenomena of gigabit networking in the home.
Please see accompanying course curriculum.
The Services
The Beta Block project has several eternal partners who will be providing compelling on-line services via the fiber optic connectivity to the residents of Hessler St. These services will be provided free of charge and be produced entirely by the partners.
The project dashboard will provide web ‘gateways’ to these services.
These services include:
- Time-Warner cable TV – free TV programming
- Security Cameras – from local police – enabling residents to see what’s going on outside of their homes or apartments
- Smart Grid energy monitoring – for creating smart, green homes
- University Hospitals – health program and services
- Cleveland Clinic – health program and services
- MetroHealth – health program and services
All of these web services will separate from the dashboard software given to each resident. Over time, integration with these web services will be achieved, starting with establishing a ‘Digital City ID’ system – which would federate the membership systems of all these services into a single sign-on environment.
The Content
The Beta block project will produce several types of unique content which is especially relevant to the residents of Hessler St.
Documentary – at least one documentary will be produced during the spring of2010. It will be based upon the ‘History of Hessler St.’ – which offers a rich, storied past with many of the original participants and instigators still alive.
This documentary will be produced in a collaborative manner by offering ALL of the source footage to a large number of video editors. Each editor will be able to pick and choose which footage they wish to use and several ‘edits’ of the documentary will be produced.
Editorial Content – the free dashboard software given to the Hessler St. residents will feature editorial content produced by the students and faculty of the program. Unique ideas will be submitted and discussed. Conversations will be facilitated and many kinds of interaction encouraged.
But it will all start will clear, unique editorial ‘voices’.
User Generated Content – the dashboard system will provide blogging tools to all residents of Hessler St. The system can also upload, store and share media. All of this content will be available off of each resident’s dashboard account. System admin will ‘cherry pick’ the best content and make it available off of the system Home page.
Personalized news – the system will feature a personalized ‘News Page’ which will ne highly customizable and controllable by Hessler St. residents. Particular tags, themes, phrases or categories can be utilized to assemble a unique page by each resident.
Links and Feeds – the programs editorial staff will choose and filter particular web link and activity streams and build this content into the resident’s dashboards. This content will be dynamically updated on an on-going basis.
Open Monitoring
One of the key reasons why pilot programs are launched is to study the behavior and usage patterns of the users of the new system. This information can be used and monetized in many ways. But instead of doing this “behind our user’s backs”, the Beta Block project will be open and transparent and inform the residents, every step of the way, that their usage of the system is being monitored – anonymously.
We are not looking at what Mary did at 7 pm, as much as what everyone is doing at 7 pm. We are not interested in what song or video Mary looked at, as much as what are the most popular styles of music that everyone listens to. Anonymous sampling can provide very valuable data, without infringing on anyone’s privacy or security rights.
The Schedule
The following is an approximate schedule for the project.
Jan
- Initial fiber optic connections put into 104 apartments and homes on Hessler St.
- The course is convened and projects assigned.
- All issues, challenges and resources identified. Teams set up, liaison relationship established.
Feb
- Final set of fiber optic connections installed
- Clear roadmap and project schedules established.
- User Interfaces designed.
- Simple dashboard start page made available.
- Resident’s Council meets for the first time
- Initial interviews conducted for the documentary
March
- More advanced dashboard software made available, social network launched.
- Initial edits of the documentary made available.
- Initial UGC and editorial launched
April
- Final dashboard software put into place, updated on a weekly basis
- Sys admin and community liaison trained and deployed
- Fresh content being produced daily
- All partner web services in place
May
- Final Finals, deliverables, prep for Festival
- On-going/summer/fall plans set
Festival
- Table
- Show videos
- Showoff web site
- Media Walls – our own contributions will be routed to a series of MediaWalls throughout the festival area. Roaming cameras, psychodelic imagery, interviews, rock videos and media programming will be displayed on the walls all day long. This content then gets turned into a series of DVDs for posterities sake.
- Expose public to dashboard – 3 days?
The Resources
The students of the course
CWRU staff
OneCommunity
External partner’s staff
Residents Council
Loaner machine program for some residents?
Different topics and focus for different constituents
Programmers
- Adaptive User Interfaces
- Dashboard start pages
- Embedding external web services into our dashboard
- ID federation
User Interface designers
- Start page UIs – 3 usage levels
- Themes that can be mixed and matched with each other
- UIs for our service partners
- Dashboard designs (DLAs)
User behavior focus
- How users react to different kinds of start pages, different usage levels
- What happens when you ‘give’ users broadband connections?
- What kind of activities are enabled by super broadband (gigabit bandwidth)?
- What kind of activities are users drawn towards?
Social Activism
- Volunteerism
- Bridging the Digital Divide
- How to build a Digital City
- Run meetings with the residents of Hessler St.
Creative/Content
- The History of Hessler street
- Editorial
- Links and Feeds
Business/Marketing/Management
- On-line social media business models
- Contexual or targeted advertising
- Hyper-local viral contests and promotions
