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Abstract/Syllabus:
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Lieberman, Henry, MAS.963 Out of Context: A Course on Computer Systems That Adapt To, and Learn From, Context, Fall 2001. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), http://ocw.mit.edu (Accessed 08 Jul, 2010). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
Out of Context: A Course on Computer Systems That Adapt To, and Learn From, Context
Fall 2001

A context-aware application with an explicit input and explicit output. (Diagram courtesy of Prof. Henry Lieberman.)
Course Highlights
This class discusses the future of computing, especially as it relates to intelligent and context-sensitive computing. Special attention should be given to the student projects, and the lecture notes from Professor Lieberman.
Course Description
Increasingly, we are realizing that to make computer systems more intelligent and responsive to users, we will have to make them more sensitive to context. Traditional hardware and software design overlooks context because it conceptualizes systems as input-output functions. Systems take input explicitly given to them by a human, act upon that input alone and produce explicit output. But this view is too restrictive. Smart computers, intelligent agent software, and digital devices of the future will also have to operate on data that they observe or gather for themselves. They may have to sense their environment, decide which aspects of a situation are really important, and infer the user's intention from concrete actions. The system's actions may be dependent on time, place, or the history of interaction, in other words, dependent upon context.
But what exactly is context? We'll look at perspectives from machine learning, sensors and embedded devices, information visualization, philosophy and psychology. We'll see how each treats the problem of context, and discuss the implications for design of context-sensitive hardware and software.
Course requirements will consist of critiques of class readings (about 3 papers/week), and a final project (paper or computer implementation project).
Syllabus
Out of Context: A Course on Computer Systems That Adapt To, and Learn From, Context
Increasingly, we are realizing that to make computer systems more intelligent and responsive to users, we will have to make them more sensitive to context. Traditional hardware and software design overlooks context because it conceptualizes systems as input-output functions. Systems take input explicitly given to them by a human, act upon that input alone and produce explicit output. But this view is too restrictive. Smart computers, intelligent agent software, and digital devices of the future will also have to operate on data that they observe or gather for themselves. They may have to sense their environment, decide which aspects of a situation are really important, and infer the user's intention from concrete actions. The system's actions may be dependent on time, place, or the history of interaction, in other words, dependent upon context.
But what exactly is context? We'll look at perspectives from machine learning, sensors and embedded devices, information visualization, philosophy and psychology. We'll see how each treats the problem of context, and discuss the implications for design of context-sensitive hardware and software.
Course requirements will consist of critiques of class readings (about 3 papers/week), and a final project (paper or computer implementation project).
Out of Context: Preliminary Schedule and Readings
Week 1: Introduction to "the context problem"
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Why do computers need to take account of context?
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What is and isn't context?
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Context-sensitive vs. context-independent views of computing
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Combating brittleness: adapting systems to changing context
Week 2: Context for software agents
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Determining relevance of context
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Implicit input and repurposing input
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Context overload: Dealing with too much context
Readings:
Brown, P. J., J. D. Bovey, and X. Chen. "Context-aware applications: from the laboratory to the marketplace." IEEE Personal Communications 4(5) (October 1997).
Lieberman, Henry, and David Maulsby. "Software That Just Keeps Getting Better." IBM Systems Journal 35, Nos. 3 & 4 (1996).
Week 3: Designing User Interfaces for Just-In-Time Information
Designing for secondary task, or "How to give someone information they didn't ask for without driving them crazy."
Readings:
Rhodes, Bradley. Bulding a Contextually Aware Associative Memory (unpublished draft).
Wickens, CD. "Engineering Psychology and Human Performance." In Engineering Psychology and Human Performance, Scott Foesman Little Brown, 1992, pp. 74-115 (only skim 74-88).
Norman, Don. "How might we interact with agents?" in Software Agents. Edited by J. Bradshaw. AAAI Press/MIT Press, 1997.
Week 4: Context for learning by example
Readings:
Lieberman, Henry. Integrating user interface agents with conventional applications.
Potter, Richard. Just-in-Time Programming
Week 5:
Readings:
Lenat, Doug. The Dimensions of Context-Space.
Week 6: Information visualization
Context-dependent presentation of information
Readings:
Tufte, Edward. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.
Shneiderman, Ben. Information Visualization.
Cooper, Muriel. Computers and Design.
Week 7: The role of background knowledge as context
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Active Ontologies
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The "Size Matters" Approach: Cyc
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The Rule-Based Approach: Expert systems
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The Mining Approach: Information extraction
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The Interactive Learning Approach: Incremental development
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The Reactive Approach: Just don't do representation
Readings:
Guha and Doug Lenat. Cyc.
Lehnert, Wendy. Computers and Car Bombs.
Brooks, Rod. Intelligence without Representation.
Week 8 (Project proposals due): Systems that adapt to context
Readings:
Selker, Ted. COACH: A Teaching Agent That Learns.
Rich, Elaine. Stereotypes and User Modeling.
Week 9: Philosophical and mathematical positions on context
Readings:
Barwise, Jon, and John Perry. Situations and Attitudes.
Suchman, Lucy. Situated Systems.
Nardi, Bonnie. Context and Consciousness.
Week 10: Machine Learning and formal approaches
Readings:
Mitchell, Tom, and Pat Langley. Machine Learning.
Neville-Manning, Craig, and David Maulsby. Sequitur.
McCarthy, John. Circumscription.
Week 11: Sensing context from the environment
Week 12: Psychological and social perspectives on context
Computers as social actors
Readings:
Nass, Cliff, and Byron Reeves. The Media Equation.
Bates, Joseph. The Role of Emotion in Believable Agents.
Laurel, Brenda. Metaphors with Character.
Week 13: Final Project Reports
Week 14: Final Project Reports
Calendar
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WEEK #
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TOPICS
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READINGS
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1
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Introduction to "the context problem"
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2
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Context for software agents
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Brown, P. J., J. D. Bovey, and X. Chen. "Context-aware applications: from the laboratory to the marketplace." IEEE Personal Communications, 4(5) (October 1997).
Lieberman, Henry, and David Maulsby. "Software That Just Keeps Getting Better." IBM Systems Journal, Volume 35, Nos. 3 & 4 (1996).
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3
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Designing User Interfaces for Just-In-Time Information
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Rhodes, Bradley. Bulding a Contextually Aware Associative Memory (unpublished draft).
Wickens, CD. "Engineering Psychology and Human Performance." In Engineering Psychology and Human Performance, Scott Foesman Little Brown, 1992, 74-115 (only skim 74-88).
Norman, Don. "How might we interact with agents?" In Software Agents. Edited by J. Bradshaw. AAAI Press/MIT Press, 1997.
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4
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Context for learning by example
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Lieberman, Henry. Integrating user interface agents with conventional applications.
Potter, Richard. Just-in-Time Programming.
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5
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Lenat, Doug. The Dimensions of Context-Space.
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6
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Information visualization
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Tufte, Edward. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.
Shneiderman, Ben. Information Visualization.
Cooper, Muriel. Computers and Design.
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7
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The role of background knowledge as context
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Guha and Doug Lenat. Cyc.
Lehnert, Wendy. Computers and Car Bombs.
Brooks, Rod. Intelligence without Representation.
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8
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Systems that adapt to context
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Selker, Ted. COACH: A Teaching Agent That Learns.
Rich, Elaine. Stereotypes and User Modeling.
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9
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Philosophical and mathematical positions on context
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Barwise, Jon, and John Perry. Situations and Attitudes.
Suchman, Lucy. Situated Systems.
Nardi, Bonnie. Context and Consciousness.
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10
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Machine Learning and formal approaches
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Mitchell, Tom,and Langley, Pat. Machine Learning.
Neville-Manning, Craig, and David Maulsby. Sequitur.
McCarthy, John. Circumscription.
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11
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Sensing context from the environment
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12
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Psychological and social perspectives on context
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Nass, Cliff, and Byron Reeves. The Media Equation.
Bates, Joseph. The Role of Emotion in Believable Agents.
Laurel, Brenda. Metaphors with Character.
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13
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Final Project Reports
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14
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Final Project Reports
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Further Reading:
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Readings
Readings
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WEEK #
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TOPICS
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READINGS
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1
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Introduction to Ambient Intelligence
Prof. Patricia Maes
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2
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Intelligence Augmentation and Software Agents
Prof. Patricia Maes
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Required
Maes, P., and B. Schneiderman. "Direct Manipulation vs. Interface Agents: a Debate." Interactions 4, no. 6 (1997). ACM Press.
Direct Manipulation
The Wearable Remembrance Agent: A system for Augmented Memory, Rhodes
Optional
Ambient Intelligence in Home Lab, Philips Research
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3
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Location Based and Context-Aware Systems
Prof. Patricia Maes and Students
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Required
Chen, and Kotz. A Survey of Context-Aware Mobile Computing Research.
Want, et al. Context-Aware Computing Applications.
Optional
Oppermann, et al. "Hippie: A Nomadic Information System." In Proceedings of the 1st International symposium on Handheld and Ubiquitous Computing. London, UK: Springer-Verlag, 1999. ISBN: 9783540665502.
Abowd, Gregory D., et al. Cyberguide: Prototyping Context Aware Mobile Applications.
Cheverst, K., N. Davies, K. Mitchell, and A. Friday. "Experiences of Developing and Deploying a Context-Aware Tourist Guide: The GUIDE Project." In MOBICOM 2000: Proceedings of the sixth annual international conference on Mobile computing and networking. Boston, MA: ACM Press, 2000, pp. 20-31.
Virtual Graffiti Systems / Location Based Messaging:
Chang, Emily. Hanging Messages: Using Context-Enhanced Messages for Just-In-Time Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT M.E. Thesis, 2001.
Marmasse, Natalia. comMotion: a context-aware communication system. Extended abstract in Proceedings of CHI'99 (1999).
Lassey, Bradford. Etherthreads: An Infrastructure for Location-based Messages. Cambridge, MA: MIT Thesis, 2004.
Pan, Pengkai. Mobile Cinema. Cambridge, MA: MIT Thesis, 2004.
Persson, et al. Geonotes.
UCSD ActiveCampus
Memory systems
Lamming, M. "'Forget-me-not': Intimate Computing in Support of Human Memory." In Proceedings FRIEND21 Symposium on Next Generation Human Interfaces (1994).
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4
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Interfaces with Common Sense
Invited speakers:
Hugo Liu, Pushpinder Singh and Pallavi Kaushik
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Required
Lane, Giles. "Urban Tapestries: Wireless Networking, Public Authoring and Social Knowledge." Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (July 2003).
Lieberman, et al. Beating some Common Sense into Interactive Applications, MIT Media Lab.
Optional
Lieberman. Selected readings on Interfaces with Common Sense.
Selected readings from IUI Proceedings.
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5
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Ubiquitous Computing
Prof. Patricia Maes and Students
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Required
Weiser. Ubiquitous Computing.
———. Perspectives Article for ACM Interactions. 1993.
Weiser, and Seely Brown. The Coming Age of Calm Technology. 1996.
Optional
Weiser. Some Computer Science Issues in Ubiquitous Computing. 1993.
Abowd, G. D., and E. D. Mynatt. Charting Past, Present, and Future Research in Ubiquitous Computing. 2000.
Selection from UbiComp Proceedings last 5 years.
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6
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User Modeling, Personalization and Recommender Systems
Prof. Patricia Maes and Students
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Required
Kobsa, Alfred. Generic User Modeling Systems, User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction 11, no. 1-2 (2001): 49-63.
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7
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Tangible and Ambient Interfaces
Prof. Patricia Maes and Students
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Required
Ishii, and Ullmer. "Tangible Bits." CHI97.
Optional
Selected papers by H. Ishii.
Hallnas, and Redstrom. "Slow Technology."
"Special Issue on Tangible Computing." Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Journal 8, no. 5.
"Ambient Interfaces: Design Challenges and Recommendations." Fraunhofer Institute
Cohen, and McGee. "Tangible multimodal interfaces for safety-critical applications." Communications of the ACM 47, no. 1 (2004): 42-46.
Sommerer, and Laurent Mignonneau. Mobile Feelings.
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8
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Augmented Reality/Mixed Realities
Prof. Patricia Maes and Students
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Required
Feiner, Steven K. "Augmented Reality: A New Way of Seeing." Scientific American, April 2002.
Optional
Vallino, J. Introduction to Augmented Reality.
Designing Interactive Paper
Presence Journal special issue on AR, 1997.
Wellner, P. "The DigitalDesk Calculator: Tangible Manipulation on a Desk Top Display." Proceedings of UIST '91 (1991): 27-33.
Leibe, Bastian, and Thad Starner. The Perceptive Workbench: Toward Spontaneous and Natural Interaction in SemiImmersive Virtual Environments. 2000.
Nakanishi, et al. EnhancedDesk and EnhancedWall: Augmented Desk and Wall Interfaces.
Johnson, W., H. Jellinek, L. Klotz, and S. Card. "Bridging the Paper and Electronic Worlds: The Paper User Interface." Proceedings of INTERCHI'93 (1993): 507-512.
"Listen Reader." An Electronically Augmented Paper-based Book.
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9
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The Meaning of Things
Invited Speaker: Judith Donath
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Required
Csikszentmihalyi. The Meaning of Things. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1981. ISBN: 9780521287746.
Kopytoff, I. "The Cultural Biography of Things: Commodification as Process." In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Edited by Arjun Appadurai. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780521357265.
Mc Gracken, G. Culture and Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780253206282.
Appadurai, Arjun, ed. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780521357265.
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10
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Embedded Intelligence/Smart Objects
Prof. Patricia Maes and Students
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Optional
Tutorial on RFID Technology.
"Objects with Embedded Sensors, Computation, & Networking Sensor & Actuator Networks." Special Issue of IEEE Pervasive Computing (Oct 2003).
Mobility, Service Discovery, Auto Configuration and Ad-Hoc Networking
Want, R., et al. "Disappearing Hardware." IEEE Pervasive Computing.
Baurley. "Interactive and Experiential Design in Smart Textile Products and Applications." Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (July 2004).
Stead1, Lisa. "The Emotional Wardrobe." Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (July 2004).
Mavrommati1, Irene, and Achilles Kameas. "The Evolution of Objects Into Hyper-Objects: Will It Be Mostly Harmless?" Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (July 2003).
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11
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Intelligent Environments
Prof. Patricia Maes and Students
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Optional
Georgia Tech Aware Home Project
Stanford iRoom Project
MIT Media Lab smart rooms project: Pentland, Alex. "Smart Rooms." Scientific American, no. 274.
Philips Home Lab Project
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12
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Pervasive Computing and Wearables
Prof. Patricia Maes and Students
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Required
Merk, Lothar, et al., eds. Pervasive Computing Handbook. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag Telos, 2001. ISBN: 9783540671220.
Mitchell, W. Me++. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780262134347.
Papers from IEEE Pervasive Computing Journal: search for any wearable computing papers.
Optional
"Special Issue on Context-Aware Computing." IEEE Pervasive Computing (2002).
Abowd, Cheverst, Reinhard, and Petrelli. Context-based City & Museum Tour Guides. (Unpublished.)
Rhodes, et al. Reminder Systems. (Unpublished.)
Explore "Virtual Graffiti" systems (Geonotes, HangingMessages, Ether Threads).
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