Community Networked Tales: Stories and Place of a Dublin

Dr. Ian Oakley

Ian holds a BSc Joint Honours Degree in Computing Science and Psychology, and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Glasgow. He views himself primarily as a psychologist and interaction designer and his work has focused on how we might use new forms of input and output devices to enable novel ways for the real to intersect with the virtual. How we might capture information from, and display information to, a human beyond the simple paradigm of sitting in front of a screen and tapping at a keyboard. Focusing on non-visual systems, his projects have primarily involved haptic (touch) input and output in domains such as communication, entertainment, mobile devices and novel UI design. He worked for Media Lab Europe in Dublin, Ireland on this topic from 2001-2004. At the end of 2004, as a freelancer, he worked with Valentina Nisi on the Media Portrait of the Liberties (MPL). He has since spent six challenging, but culturally enlightening, months working on virtual reality systems in a small town in South Korea and is currently enjoying Sydney's glorious summer.