Keynotes:

Keynote 1:

Konstantinos Chorianopoulos: "Methodology for user interface design in interactive TV applications".

The present keynote is an interpretation of this year’s special theme: “User centred systems, programmes and applications.” It investigates the question: How does the established notion of “user centric” translate into the emerging domain of interactive TV applications?

In the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) methodology, the “user centric” mentality is usually materialized into the usability engineering techniques. Accordingly, previous evaluations of the user interface (UI) for EPG and digital video navigation have employed concepts such as task efficiency and effectiveness. Since interactive TV (ITV) applications gratify entertainment needs and leisure activities in a domestic environment, there is a need to re-examine the suitability of the traditional usability engineering tasks and goals. ITV applications could be benefited by a consideration of other aspects of the UI, besides usability. Depending on the type of ITV application, there are many alternative paradigms for conceptualizing the quality of an ITV UI, such as entertainment, persuasion and play. This keynote will discuss the need for methodologies that are appropriate for the design of ITV UIs, present recent findings and suggest directions for further research.

About the speaker:

Dr. Chorianopoulos holds several degrees including a Ph.D. in Management Science and Technology, 2004 from Athens University of Economics and Business. Since 1997, he has been a member of three international academic research labs, which specialize in the areas of multimedia, e-commerce, intelligent systems and interaction design. He has participated in many EU research projects in the field of human-computer interaction for information, communication and entertainment applications in TV, mobile, and ubiquitous appliances. His research interests include user interfaces, business models, interactive television and digital music. Dr. Chorianopoulos is the founding and chief editor of UITV.INFO, a newsletter and web portal for interactive television research resources, news and events. 

Keynote 2:

Leena Eronen: "User Centered Research Methods for Interactive Television"
Helsinki University of Technology, Telecommunications Software and Multimedia Laboratory.

User centered design aims to actively involve the users in product development in all phases of the new product design. To design new and novel products is challenging as there is no defined product direction given to the design team at the beginning of the project and there is no clear understanding of user requirements which results in constantly evolving product features. Yet there is a need for new or not-yet-existing hardware and software technologies but no earlier product versions or comparable existing products to benchmark against.

What type of ITV applications and services do designers innovate in such a situation? To find this out, design sessions were held in the public broadcasting company YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Company). It is also interesting to know what type of ITV applications TV viewers want to innovate for themselves in such a situation. A user study in the home environment was applied to gather those innovations and TV viewers' viewsof the future.

About the speaker:

Leena Eronen holds a degree of Doctor of Science from Helsinki University of Technology, Finland. The aim of her research was to find techniques to meet TV viewers' future needs and to provide examples of future ITV applications. Dr. Eronen is interested in new design methods which welcome users' active participation in the early phases of new concept development for the ITV. The traditional media research is interested in results gathered after a group of TV viewers has watched a TV show pilot or the quantitative viewer feedback as how many viewers have watched certain programs, both of which take place long past the initial design phases.

Keynote 3:

Peter Olaf Looms: "PVRs and the free-to-air television market in Europe"

In the late nineties, interactive television programmes and services were felt to be key drivers for digital television uptake along with more television channels and "digital" quality. Audience research since 2000 shows that time-shifting may be as least as important a driver as interactivity. While the VCR never had a noticeable impact on television, new time-shifting devices seem to be different.

This keynote covers changes in viewing patterns over the last three decades and what is known about the likely impact of the Personal Video Recorder. An effective PVR service may be one of the prerequisites for the survival of free-to-air television as we know it in the next decade.

About the speaker:

Peter Olaf Looms holds a Master's degree from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.  After more than 10 years in autonomous learning and educational broadcasting, he worked on the production and use of interactive media from 1984 until 2001. He is currently senior consultant at DR Interactive, the commissioning body for interactive media at DR/The Danish Broadcasting Corporation where he works on policy and strategy for digital television and broadband. Peter is also an external lecturer at the IT University of Copenhagen, visiting associate professor at the University of Hong Kong and recently spent sabbatical leave at the Interactive Television Research Institute of Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. He is currently chairman of the joint working party of the EBU and EICTA responsible for promoting open solutions for a free-to-air PVR in Europe.

Invited Speakers:

Invited Speaker 1:

Aske Dam:"User created content and user communities in interactive television".

Inexpensive digital cameras, mobile phones and other digital story telling tools, combined with decentralized storage devices, give ordinary citizens and low profile media organizations the means to talk back to an increasingly conform flow of slick media products from the mass media industry.
Public broadcasters like the BBC encourage their viewers to create content, and have plans for opening their archives for the public, to use it as a basis for their own noncommercial programme creations.
This will be an opportunity to collect and store some of the otherwise unused know-how and talent that exist in the public, and will give media consumers a welcome supplement to the commercial offerings.
Metadata tagging and new standards like MPEG-7, MPEG-21 and TV-Anytime open for new ways to find, exchange and interact with such content, and we foresee a situation where user communities, with the help of “Wikipedia like” soft wares, can create audiovisual programmes in an interactive process

About the speaker:
Aske Dam has contributed to the field of interactive television for several decades. In the late 70’s and 80’s he created a number of television programs about new technologies and new media, already then pointing to the possibilities for interactivity between television and viewer.
In the 80’s Mr. Dam participated in developing Danish Broadcasting, DR’s interactive video unit – DRIVE, and did later participate in the development of DR’s first interactive multimedia project - SIULLEQ.
In the early 90’s he created several interactive educational programmes for, among others, Norwegian Hydro and Statoil.
Aske Dam has been teaching at The Academy of Art, and participated in several exhibitions with ceramics, paintings, graphics and video-art.
Currently Mr. Dam is situated in Bergen, Norway, where he develops and produces different program types, and he is currently involved in the MELL project (Media, Expression, Learning and Literacy) at University of Tokyo.

Invited Speaker 2:

Thorbjørn Vynne:"TV2 digital terrestrial television in Denmark".

Results and experiences from the Danish trials with DTT and MHP.

From October 2002 till September 2004 TV2/Nord Digital has been marking trials with Digital Terrestrial Television and interactivity in the Multimedia Home Platform in the Northern part ofJutland,Denmark. A group of 400 households were selected as a test group for the trials, and were asked to keep a diary of their experiences with DTT and accompanying interactivity in MHP, as well as take part of a concluding survey. Experiences from the trials, both technological and user based, are presented along with the latest technological advances in interactivity.

About the speaker:

Thorbjørn Vynne is a senior developer at TV2/Nord Digital, where he has been head of the ITV department since January 2002. Thorbjørn Vynne has previously worked as a senior developer for Tripledash,London UK, where he was head of their OpenTV development, and has developed interactive applications for Coca Cola, Viasat and MTV Europe. Thorbjørn Vynne was also one of the founders of the London based company Nativ, that has managed to establish itself as one of the UK's specialists within broadband and ITV. 

Invited Speaker 3:

Célia Quico,TV Cabo, Portugal:

“User Centred Design methodologies applied to the development of an Electronic Programming Guide: the partnership experience of PT Multimédia and Universidade Lusófona”

About the speaker:

Célia Quico is a Digital Interactive Television and Multimedia Project Manager for PT Multimédia / TV Cabo: currently she is responsible for the product definition of TV Cabo’s Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) and she is a project leader of the Audio-Description service, a pioneer project in the Digital TV and Accessibility area in Portugal.
Simultaneously, Celia teaches in Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, namely in the master course “Sistemas de Comunicação Multimédia” (Multimedia Communication Systems), having previously taught in the “Interactive Television Authoring and Production” post-graduation course. Since July 2003, Celia is a PhD candidate in the area of Media Studies - Multimedia and Audiovisual Media, in Universidade Nova de Lisboa, conducting research in Cross-Media development area and User-Centred Design methodologies.