The ROSS 2008 Workshop is a by-invitation event that will focus on the theme of Community & ROSS, engaging dialogues on the rapidly growing research trends that are pushing computing beyond the desktop into new physical and social contexts. We will explore aspects of Community & ROSS across the following areas: shared environment, shared play, shared performance and shared knowledge. Posters resulting from break-out group discussions will be showcased as posters during Digital Media Demo Day on Wednesday April 30.

Emerging technoscientific knowledges and practices can be seen to actively mobilise and manipulate particular affects to political ends, including the very definition of what constitutes political action. Based on ethnographic research with several pervasive computing design projects, this presentation addresses some of the affective politics that accompany the treatment of cities as interaction design spaces and publics as co-creators.

The very nature of the objects and practices enabled by digital media point towards an altogether richer, more creative approach to the collections of fine arts museums, in terms not only of acts of interpretation or appropriation but also of interactions between real and/or virtual visitors. Building on the preliminary work conducted in a graduate seminar on the future of the museum, co-taught with Kenneth Knoespel and Sara Hornbacher, I shall speculate on a possible model for re-involving the public in art and the museum, which puts the 'media' firmly back into mediation.

High performance design is a comprehensive strategy in which form, structure, process, and materials, are fully integrated to create products of exceptional performance, material efficiency, long life, and enduring appearance. It is a strategy, which considers form as an agent of performance, and which Peter Pearce considers a fundamental condition for the achievement of real sustainability in the built environment. The presentation will include discussion of historical precedents along with the work trajectory of Pearce, including his most recent project called the Pearce Ecohouse.

Three teams from the spring 2008 experimental media and interactive tables class will present their designs and prototypes for an interactive story table. The winning design will be constructed in the remaining part of the semester. The design competition is sponsored by ROSS.

Recently the Surface Computing group at Microsoft announced Surface, its first product. Andy will talk about how Surface made its way from a modest research prototype to one of the most talked-about launches in the company's history. He will also present a number of research projects that share the Surface Computing vision but push in somewhat different directions.

This symposium asks whether and how technology might alter the way we perceive dwelling. Of particular interest are the aspects of experience that become impermanent or disrupted thanks to technology.

Six teams from the fall 2007 LCC3710 "Principles of Interaction Design" class present their final projects during a tabletop game/story application design competition sponsored by Schematic and ROSS.

An informal dinner event hosted by ROSS to continue our discussions from the Kick-Off. We will focus on: funding opportunities, activity planning for next spring, ROSS-related activities on campus, and potential collaborations amongst ROSS faculty.

Will include a brief overview of the ROSS mission and existing ROSS-related activities at Georgia Tech. Most of the meeting will be devoted to discussing plans for the upcoming semester, including a lecture series and workshop hosted by ROSS, and to connecting people across disciplines around ROSS.