HCC: Medium: Collaborative Configuration: Supporting End-User Control of Complex Computing

该项目将开发技术，使用户能够相互帮助，创建和维护复杂的，普遍的计算和通信环境的配置。 随着个人计算环境变得越来越复杂，不仅包括台式机和膝上型计算机，而且还包括移动的电话、媒体设备、传感器等，配置任务的重要性和难度也在增加。特别是，最终用户创建、理解和维护硬件和软件配置，使他们能够执行对他们重要的活动，这变得具有挑战性。此外，随着计算环境的发展，这个问题只会随着时间的推移变得更糟，因为计算机科学家预测会有数百甚至数千种不同的设备和软件服务。本项目采用的方法源于这样一种观察，即即使每个用户可能有特定的设备、服务和偏好，使其难以找到与其特定需求相关的信息，但在某个地方，经常会有其他用户经历并解决类似的问题。该另一用户的知识无疑将对第一用户有很大益处，但是用于寻求帮助和修改配置的现有工具不容易进行这种信息交换。因此，一个重要的目标是将每个用户与其所需的知识相匹配，以完成其所面临的配置任务，假设是此类知识与具有类似系统的其他用户存在。该项目将解决一些挑战，包括：1）如何才能识别和提供“配置知识”，而不会给拥有它的个人带来不必要的负担？2)如何向求助者提供信息，使他们能够以最小的努力和错误的可能性采取行动？3)如何将可能配置的大空间的复杂性降低到对用户决策重要的维度？为了应对这些挑战，本项目将开发协作配置服务（CCS），这是一种从特定系统的各种用户收集配置信息并将类似用户相互匹配以提供帮助的一般服务。通过一个迭代的学习-构建-评估过程，研究将构建和完善CCS，使其适应三个不同的用户群体：环境信息设备（Chumby）的用户，基于开源软件的家庭媒体系统（MythTV）的用户，以及代表家庭媒体网络用户的“早期大多数”的人。 支持用户获得控制权，并在开放的、不断发展的普适计算环境的配置和操作中获得帮助，将降低采用这些环境的障碍。这将给最终用户本身和公司带来好处，对这些公司来说，普及计算服务和组件的开放市场将为竞争和技术创新提供机会。

This project will develop techniques that will allow users to help each other create and maintain configurations of complex, pervasive computing and communication environments. As personal computing environments become ever more complex, growing to include not just desktop and laptop computers, but also mobile phones, media devices, sensors, and more, configuration tasks grow in importance and difficulty. In particular, it becomes challenging for end-users to create, understand, and maintain the hardware and software configurations that allow them to carry out the activities that matter to them. Moreover, this problem will only get worse with time as computing environments grow to include the hundreds or even thousands of different devices and software services that have been forecast by computer scientists. The approach taken in this project derives from the observation that, even as each user may have specific devices, services, and preferences that make it difficult for her to find information relevant to their particular needs, there frequently exists some other user, somewhere, who has experienced and solved a similar problem. This other user's knowledge would doubtless be of great benefit to the first user, but existing tools for seeking help and modifying configurations do not make it easy for such information exchange to take place. An important goal, then, is to match each user with the knowledge she needs in order to accomplish the configuration tasks facing her, on the assumption that such knowledge resides with some other user with a similar system. This project will address a number of challenges, including: 1) How can "configuration knowledge" be identified and made available without placing undue burden on the individuals who possess it? 2) How can help-seekers be presented with information in a way that allows them to act on it with minimal effort and likelihood of error? 3) How can the complexity of large spaces of possible configurations be reduced to only the dimensions that matter for users' decision-making? In order to address these challenges, this project will develop the Collaborative Configuration Service (CCS) - a general service that collects configuration information from various users of a particular system and matches similar users with each other for the purpose of providing help. Through an iterative study-build-evaluate process, research will construct and refine CCS by adapting it successively to three different user communities: users of an ambient information device (Chumby), users of an open source software-based home media system (MythTV), and people representing the "early majority" of home media networking users. Supporting users to gain control and receive help with the configuration and operation of open, evolving pervasive computing environments will lower the barrier to the adoption of those environments. This will lead to benefits to both the end-users themselves and to the companies for whom an open marketplace for pervasive computing services and components will present opportunities for competition and technological innovation.