“Tools that are designed to make intelligible something alive, the life of the network.” Interview of Hugues AUBIN, ICT Project Manager, City of Rennes (France)
Hugues Aubin: I think designers have quite a lot to do in this field. First, if you want an overview of your digital trace, namesakes or what could be harmful (or not) in online content related to you, you need tools that enable design to make intelligible, understandable and ergonomic something that is alive, otherwise known as the life of the network. Here the metaphor raises an issue, and if we manage to produce this metaphor, it is a good start for the issue is rather complex. Interaction design is perfect for fulfilling this need because the matter to be controlled is not motionless. All I need is to own one or several accounts in order to (re)act. I can submit an abuse report, delete such and such a status, message someone whose content I dislike, etc. However, I don’t have the time to repeat the same action on 50 different sites, which explains the need to develop ergonomic syntheses, indicators operated by web-connected algorithms. In the long run, we could develop not only a synthesis, which would already be a wonderful tool, but also a retroaction tool. Such a tool is entirely legitimate since Internet users can make mistakes if they do not have control over their extimacy. Their name and image are under threat of being assaulted, hijacked or slandered. A useful thing would be a dashboard, a kind of summarizing interface that would provide real-time user activity assessment by scanning the network, and also offer up solutions.
Grégoire Cliquet: I’d like to ask you one last question about your latest project, Open Data. Where are you in the process?
Hugues Aubin: I’m currently working on it together with Xavier Crouan, Head of Digital Innovation at Rennes Métropole. I focus on blind spots, which are quite tricky actually. We pin many hopes on the application contest we’ve just kicked off (NB : competition took place during spring 2011, see: http://www.data.rennes-metropole.fr/ ), even if this project also obviously implies deeper notions.
Grégoire Cliquet: Doesn’t this non-stop connection logic completely oppose the desire to remain anonymous? Though Open Data is a praiseworthy initiative – in that it aims to meet user needs as precisely as possible – ] it also enables everyone to know almost simultaneously what users are doing. Isn’t it a trifle worrying and frightening to be part of an all-knowing and ever-present network?
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