Networking session proposal for IST 2006

The advent of networked information technology has radically changed our ability to access information and to communicate. Whilst once information was a scarce and hard to access resource, nowadays human attention seems to have become the scarce resource and information (of all types and qualities) abounds.

This state of things has brought radical changes in every day's life and in particular it has had a great impact in the way we work and study. Modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have widened the horizons of accessible people and information, however it has become obvious that we need new methodologies and tools for managing the wide range of data, knowledge, and opportunities that have become available. It is increasingly recognised that ICT, whilst providing access to information and communication, should also support human limited cognitive capabilities in the selection of the most relevant information and tasks. Such support should facilitate human attentional processes.

Attention aware systems address a wide range of problems including interruption management, awareness of individual and group foci in device mediated communication, just-in-time information selection and presentation, turn-taking and interpretation of user commands in human-device interaction, notification optimisation, and interaction with mobile and location-aware applications.

Whilst attention management will benefit the general user (for example by facilitating learning processes and assisting in device mediated collaboration) it will also have a significant impact in addressing the needs of some special user groups such as the elderly, or those affected by attention deficit disorder.

One of the main challenges in the design of attention aware systems is the appropriate coordination and integration of technologies enabling detailed tracking of users' cognitive, social, emotional, and physical activity; the modelling of such activity; the generation of adaptive behaviour and interfaces based on tracked user activity and the environment; the support of user's selection of information and activity; the appropriate visualisation of, possibly very large, amounts of information.