Configure and Participate - xdxdVSxdxd/DataMeditation GitHub Wiki

This page shows you how to configure, run and participate to a Data Meditation that already exists somewhere.

If you're a Participant

A Data Meditation ritual works like this:

  • there is a group, indicated by a CODE
  • people may join the group if they know the CODE
  • at the login interface you can use the CODE, together with your login and password to access the group
  • if your login and password does not yet exist, because it's the first time you do a Data Meditation, or if it does not exist for the group which you're trying to access, don't worry: the interface will ask you if you want to join with that login and password: if you answer HELL YES! you're in

The ritual is divided in a few steps.

EACH DAY you will be able to use the collect data whenever you want, to express something about yourself using data. You click/touch the collect data function in the menu, you fill in some data, you click the send data button, and you get a little confirmation alert saying "Data Shared!".

What data? To hell if I know! Each host can configure the data that is collected however they want, providing something that is usable for schools, offices, families, groups of friends, neighbourhoods, art performances etc. Please refer to your Data Meditation Host to understand what data is collected, what it is used for, how you can access/remove/correct it, etc.

EACH DAY, AT A CERTAIN TIME THERE IS THE RITUAL (at what time? Ask your Data Meditation Host)

The ritual is composed of different stages:

  • at the beginning people are divided into couples. Not even the Host knows what the couples are, unless they sneak peek into the database.
  • the idea behind the ritual is to take some time for ourselves, and use it to try to understand our lives a little better, through data, and to also try to understand Others by comparing their data with ours
  • each day, during the ritual, you will be able to experience your data and the data from Your Other, along a timeline of the day that has just passed: you will see and hear YOUR data on the left side and the data from YOUR OTHER on the right

Who YOUR OTHER is will only be revealed on the LAST DAY. (when is the last day? Ask your Data Meditation Host ). In this way, you will have the chance to know another person only through their data, and you will be obliged to compare your data to theirs, trying to understand the differences and similarities:

  • does he/she wake up before or after me?
  • Does he/she use the bus?
  • Is it a sigle person, or are they sharing the account?
  • Is it a human being or an AI or ?
  • we will be able to ask ourselves these and other questions

On the last day, a new link will appear in the menu, at a certain time, allowing you to meet your Other: if you click it you will have the possibility to go into a secret videoconferencing platform, built just for you and your other.

Different people might have different feeling about revealing themselves to their other, also depending on the context, and we don't force you do do anything:

  • you could just go
  • you could go and leave your and/or microphone off
  • you could use software such as SnapCam to wear a digital mask or an avatar
  • you could go and use a physical/analogue mask onto your face/body
  • you could not go at all

These are all decisions that make sense.

What we do ask you is to reflect on them, and to share your reflections with someone else, to explore and understand our changing relationship with the rest of society, with our loved ones, with our friends and neighbours, with our colleagues etc, and the role which data and computation are having in these transformations.

[IMPORTANT NOTE: also reflect how realty in the digital realm can be really different. You could wear all the physical or digital masks you want, and still this would only be a partial impediment towards us collecting data about you: you IP address, the mobile network you're using, what browser you're using and how, the way that you type and you move your mouse, when you're online and when you are not. We would not even need to know that your name is Jhon Smith: we could just train an AI on all the masses of data that we can collect, to be able to classify all the John Smiths of the world, in ways that serve our purposes, to recognize you as soon as we see you, even the first time, because you are similar to some of the millions of people we have seen before, and we can tell. This is a crucial transformation, for which defense/offense is only a very partial answer. The other is to embrace new ways for data and computation, and establish new alliances with computational agents which are cultural, existential, relational, social.]

EACH DAY – after the rituals and after the encounter with your other – another function will appear on the menu, under the form of the go to assembly button. Which is exactly what it says: it takes you to a virtual assembly on jit.si where we will all meet (and, depending on the objectives of your Data Meditation's Host, could also be open for the general public).

There in the Assembly we will be able to have a conversation:

  • what was your experience like?
  • can you really understand someone else through data? what data?
  • opportunties for expression and the dangers to privacy?
  • what can you do with it?
  • who can express in it? individuals? anonymous people? collective, temporary, transitive identities? condos, offices, schools, neighbourhoods, regions? can we start attaching sensors to trees, animals, the sea, and start meditating with them, too?
  • and, of course, we can and should decide all together where to take these new, possibilistic rituals for inhabiting the planet

If you're the Host

To configure your Data Meditation, you can use the ritual.json which is in the data folder.

It is very straightforward: it's a JSON file with sections and properties which can be modified to change how the thing works:

  • refreshtimems: a number, indicating in milliseconds how often the app checks on the server if something new happened; for example, 5000 means every 5 seconds. A smaller number means that changes will propagate sooner through the ritual, but at the cost of increased need to access the network (which, for example, for some mobile users might cost something)
  • assemblyjitsymeet: a string, containing the link to the Jitsy meet for the assembly. It even works if it's not a Jitsy, but some other platform like Google Meet, Whereby, etc
  • finalday: the date of the final daye (when people will be able to meet their other if they want); it is in the format DD MMM YYYY, for example 20 Jul 2020
  • referencetimezone: the timezone to which all times are converted, to allow seeing the changes at the same time

The ritual section:

  • starttime and endtime: the start and end time for the ritual everyday, expressed in the format HH:MM:SS, in 24h style; this means that between these times the ritual menu option will be visible
  • minutestoconsideronline: the number of minutes for the user to be considered online in the ritual; for example, if it says 2, it means that if I go to the ritual and there's not enough people to start yet, I can decide to go to another webpage to do something in the meanwhile, while I wait, and sill, for 2 minutes, I will be considered online; it is used to minimize deadlocks
  • atleastthispartofgrouptostartritual: a number <=1; it says how many people must be present to start the ritual; if there are 12 people in the group, and this number says 0.5, it means that at least half of the people must be present to start the ritual, 6
  • waitingforothers: a message to show while we wait for the others
  • minutebass, hourbass, atmosphere: three absolute (or relative to the index.html file) URLs indicating a MP3, WAV or OGG soundfile for the rythimic sounds played at regular intervals during the rituals, and for the sound used as atmosphere (usually a pad or synth)

The couplesmeet section:

  • starttime, endtime: the start time and end time of the last day (as configured earlier) in which the menu option to meet our other is available

The assembly section:

  • eachdaystarttime, eachdayendtime: when is the assembly button available in the menu each day
  • finaldaystarttime, finaldayendtime: when is the assembly button available in the menu the last day (so that it can be coordinated with the "meet the other" phase)

The datatocollect section:

  • it's a JSON Array of JSON Objects like these ones:
{
	"label": "a label for the data",
	"fieldid": "an_id_for_the_data_with_no_spaces",
	"type": "the type of the data",
	"positions": [ 
		["value","soundfile URL"],
	        ....
        ]
}

Where:

  • the type of the data can be switch (a radio button), select (a select menu), note (an input field), range (a value betweenn min/max, not implemented yet)
  • positions: a JSON Array which contains a list of JSON Arrays with two elements: the value of the element (of the radio button or of the dropdown) and the URL of a MP3, WAV or OGG soundfile which will be used to represent the value in the sonification (TODO: add elements to indicate color, icon, etc, to represent the value in other ways)

Engagement

You can give istructions like these sample ones to your participants:

Dear Data Meditations participants

thank for joinig into our experiment in data, computation and consciousness about ourselves and the others! :)

You can access the ritual interface here:

https://URLWhereYouHaveInstalledTheApplication.com

choose a login and password, and in Group ID insert [CODE YOU WISH TO GIVE YOUR GROUP]

Click ACCESS

It will ask you if you would like to register: answer OK

Click ACCESS again to enter.

During your day, whenever you can/want, use the COLLECT DATA function to collect data about yourselves. You can do it as many times as you want, each day. The idea is to try to use data to describe our days, like a diary, so that even others will be able to perceive something about you. Make it autobiographicall.

At [CONFIGURED TIME] ([CONFIGURED TIMEZONE]) the RITUAL item will appear in the menu: click it.

You will see a list of the subjects in the group: they will progressively turn ORANGE, as they arrive to the ritual.

As soon as enough of them have turned orange, the JOIN RITUAL button will appear: click it.

A short meditative experience will start, lasting about 10-15 minutes.

Make sure to have time, be comfortable, relaxed and concentrated.

If you can, wear stereo headpones: in this way it will be more immersive, you will be able to feel the data on your left/right, and it will also be a clue for other people that you do not wish to be disturbed.

Breathe well, and look at the screen.

You will see your day, through data.

YOUR data will be seen/heard on the LEFT.
The OTHER's data will be seen/heard on the RIGHT.

You cannot know who is your OTHER, as of now. It is another person who has been randomly chosen for you in the group.

By Meditating, try to understand something about YOU and about your OTHER, both independently and by comparing through your data.

The last day, at [CONFIGURED TIME] ([CONFIGURED TIME ZONE]) the item to MEET YOUR OTHER will become available in the menu: if you wish you can click it to access a videoconference to meet and discuss.

Each day, at [CONFIGURED TIME] ([CONFIGURED TIME ZONE]) the item to ASSEMBLY will become available in the menu: you can click if for a collective video chat.

More information is available here:
https://github.com/xdxdVSxdxd/DataMeditation/wiki

Thanks to you all! Be well and meditate!

When all your participants have joined in, and before the first ritual starts, you have to generate the couples.

You can do this by visiting this URL once (if you do it more than once, the couples will change):

https://URLWhereYouHaveInstalledTheApplication.com/API/?cmd=createcouples&groupid=[the ID of the GROUP]&link=[prefix for the links to the couples video chat]

where:

  • [the ID of the GROUP] is the CODE you gave to your group
  • [prefix for the links to the couples video chat] is something like this https://meet.jit.si/ANicePrefix because suffixes will be generated for each couple to have a secret video chat for them

If for any reason you want to remove the couples you can do:

`https://URLWhereYouHaveInstalledTheApplication.com/API/?cmd=removecouples&groupid=[the ID of the GROUP]

Advices

Some things to keep in mind:

  • ask participants to dedicate some time to this, to explore new possibilities and opportunities
  • ask participants to think how they will do this: will they use their mobile phones to collect their data and their desktop or laptops to do the rituals and the assemblies? Can they login from their mobiles? Will they be at home when the rituals and assemblies? If they do the rituals from their mobiles: will they bring their headphones with them? Will there be network coverage? And similar. It's all very simple if you take care about the details. Think about how many things we do that we take for granted now: take our house keys when we leave, bring our credit card and remember the pin, etc. It's similar.
  • suggest to the participants that they find a nice place/setting for the ritual: somewhere they can be comfortable and concentrated at that time, for the 15 minutes or so that are required for the ritual; it helps to be seated comfortably, to breathe with our stomachs, to not having interuptions, to focus
  • [more indications are coming]