• http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/october/john-mccarthy-obit-102511.html
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/25/john-mccarthy

John was an early pioneer of AI, inventor of Lisp, and indeed originator of the term "AI" in 1956. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCarthy_(computer_scientist). It is good to see how broad and expansive John McCarthy's vision for computing was:

From Wikipedia: In 1961, he was the first to publicly suggest (in a speech given to celebrate MIT's centennial) that computer time-sharing technology might lead to a future in which computing power and even specific applications could be sold through the utility business model (like water or electricity).

Take a look also at his short sci-fi story "The Robot and the Baby" for some great fiction (or is it?) about future robotics. See

• http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/robotandbaby/robotandbaby.html

I worked with John both before and after his formal retirement, and it was a very enjoyable experience. His interest in formalising the notion of "context" was his most recent work which I spoke to him about. The ability to "assert that the proposition p is true in the context c" is a key to much of what we do in planning... and my own work some 30 years ago was involved with something I called "functions in context" that had similar aims.

I now have access to the Hairdressing Foundations e-Teaching course at http://eteachhairdressing.co.uk along with some exercises to complete there.  I have also been given Hairdressing Trainee Model Sheets showing my experience and an assessment of my progress.  They will appear in my Hairdresser Training Photo Log at http://atate.org/mscel/hair/ and are available via a link on my new Personal Learning Space at http://atate.org/space/

For a full photo diary and report on my ULOE11 Learning Challenge see http://atate.org/mscel/hair/

In our work we have sought to replicate this sort of shared situation space, as a basis for human centric decision support.  When we started to embody our technology in virtual worlds we wanted to replicate some of the benefits of this, and indeed provide a shared space for distributed participants, as is often the need in complex multinational emergencies.  We are sometimes asked why we want to replicate rooms with walls when we are in virtual worlds, and I respond that we want the wall space for displays and distinct functional areas that everyone can remember and use.

In our I-Rooms (http://openvce.net/iroom) we have a shared central space in which participants gather and communicate, and from which viewpoint they can direct their attention to any of four functional areas set in a cyclic pattern to allow for situation assessment, option exploration, briefing and external communications.  It supports the OODA Loop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop) as an underlying approach and lets us place human and intelligent systems support into a meaningful whole which all the participants can involve themselves in as appropriate.

Reference: Norman (1993) Things that make us smart : defending human attributes in the age of the machine . Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. Chapter 6; Distributed Cognition (139 – 154).

As part of my "Learning Challenge" for the Understanding Learning in the On-line Environment module, I have now had my first lesson... it was exciting going to class again and in a totally different environment. Reminds of the the great buzz I always sense at the start of each new academic year amongst students and staff!

There was a LOT to take in.. but Karen Temple who is training me took things step by step. She was keen not to over do the theory and looking at books, so I got introduced right away to my "model" for the day... a disembodied head on a tripod.. but with a lovely head of hair on her to work on. It was washed and left tousled to let me learn on it.

But first we went through the various brush types... and parts of the comb. See http://atate.org/mscel/hair/. Then onto how the hair is "sectioned" to allow it to be worked on in parts and layers. It was very tricky to know where to place your hands and fingers to get best grip on the hair... and I was not separating the parts very well. I realised I was thinking about it a bit too much and when I did it a bit sloppier (at first) I got the rhythm more I think.

It took some two hours to fix my model's hair this first time. That would be a LONG appointment. Anyway she has come home with me now for homework. So I am asked to go in next week and show Karen how I can do the whole job. And the plan is that I will then be let loose on a live model. Now that will be a thrilling experience for me... and I bet for her - hopefully not in the horror film sense!