Re:tag
From Medialab Prado
Contents |
About re:tag
re:tag is a unique tagging system that enhances the emotional connection between individuals and objects while encouraging responsible re-use of discarded objects. Individuals wishing to get rid of appliances, furniture or clothes can re:tagged their objects for reuse and recycle just by telling the objects' stories. They will have to leave a voice message on a database describing the story of the to-be discarded object and then attach a costumed tag with a unique code number and a telephone number that will be placed on the object before being disposed of on the street or any other location. Dialling the instructed number, neighbours or passerbys will hear the voice message telling the story of the object. By fostering trust in the object, the aim of the project is that people will be more likely to re-use these objects, thus reducing the overall waste within the community.
Project description
A first prototype of re:tag was developed during the Interactivos? Workshop that was held between 7 and 23 of June in Medialab-Prado, in Madrid. The aim of re:tag is to enhances the emotional connection between individuals and objects promoting their recycling. For individuals participating in re:tag, there are two different possible scenarios. Somebody wants to participate leaving and object and telling a story on it and the second scenario pose us in a context in which somebody is interested on a re:tagged object. For institutions like shops, or even individual, they could participate by establishing themselves as a re:tag node.
People participating in re:tag
Leaving objects, telling stories. A person who wants to discard an object will leave it in a re:tag node. For leaving the story that she wants to tell about her object she will have to phone to a selected phone number. An automated phone switch board will guide her and will record the story; after that the system will provide her with a code number of four digits that she should write on the tag to be attached on the object. The only thing now is to finally leave the object in the re:tag node. Listening stories, recycling objects. The second scenario pose us in a re:tag node; it could be a street, a shop or even a private house. Somebody goes to the node or simply pass by a street in which an object has been re:tagged and left, in the tag he can find information for listening to the story of the object. He just has to phone to the number in the tag and dial the code number and that's all. The only thing that is left is taking the object to reuse it.
re:tag nodes
A re:tag node is a location, a shop, for instance, that store re:tag objects. A shop can become a node just by contacting with re:tag through the project website http://www.re-tag.org. The shop will need to buy a virtual phone number and the re:tag team will configure the switch board for this number. The virtual telephone number will be linked to the shop, so that all the stories of the objects stored in the shop will be accessible from this phone number. The calling system is managed from a central server so there is no need of buying new hardware and nodes will have their own customized tags and their own space in the re:tag website with the address: re-tag.org/node. Virtual phone numbers are like any other standard numbers, in Spain they cost 5 euros per month and can be bought at providers like Gagaphone (https://gagaphone.com)(not recommended), Voz Telecom (http://www.voztele.com/), Netelip (http://www.netelip.com/).
re:tag technology
re:tag is currently a prototype and is based on free software. For both scenarios we designed a platform that combines voice and web based services. The final goals are:
To have a network of different places were leave and get objects with stories. To allow users who wants to leave an object on the street to easily tag from home. To allow anyone with a mobile phone to listen the stories of objects on the street. To allow social centers to easily integrate their free shops in this Re:tag network.
Tools and technologies
First challenge for re:tag was to develop a system for storing the stories that people wanted to tell about the objects to be discarded. We decided to use an open source telephony system called Asterisk. A second issue was to decided on which type of places objects should be left for being recycled by other persons: the street, shops or other institutions; and the third issue, we realized from our tests that the type of the tag and its proper design was really an important issue, something that we had not considered at the beginning.
Phone system for storing stories
Asterisk switch board. Asterisk is a popular open source telephony project under development since 1999, it makes very simple to create and deploy a wide range of telephony applications and services as it supports a wide range of telephony protocols for the handling and transmission of voice over traditional telephony interfaces including analogue lines, ISDN-BRI lines and digital T1/E1 trunks. Basic for Asterisk switch board installation:
Download Asterisk version 1.6.2 to install in Ubuntu 9.04. You have to install dev-utils, make, libncurses-dev ./configure make make install /usr/bin/safe_asterisk asterisk -> run the proggram as demon asterisk -r -> to connect to the terminal cd /etc/asterisk You have to edit with sip.conf to configure voice over IP with SIP protocol, server, accounts and passwords. extensions.conf; it describes the working of the switch board when somebody phones.
Voice messages. With the current configuration all the object stories messages are stored in the folder: /var/lib/asterisk/sound/stories The filename must be story_XXXX.wav where XXXX are 4 digits. The audio format is WAV. To add a story you can call to the extension 300, enter the number of the new story and talk after the bip signal. The second option is just copy the audio file to the previous folder (need root permission). To listen a story you can call to the extension 200. Change voice menu.
Voice menu messages is stored at: /var/lib/asterisk/sound/locuciones A wav file can be used by asterisk changing a bit the format with the following command: sox source.wav -r 8000 -c 1 -s newfile.wav resample -ql To play a sound from asterisk you must edit the file /etc/asterisk/extensions.conf and replace the current file name by the new one. You must look for a line with the "playback(filename)" text
Configure a VoIP software for a new extension. The PBX IP is: 192.168.255.231. The following extensions are available to use: user 102 password 102 user 103 password 103 user 104 password 104 user 105 password 105.
About VoIP providers. And asterisk To be able to receive calls to our VoIP PBX we need an external VoIP provider that will give us connectivity with the telephony network and a Direct Inward Number (DID). Not all the VoIP providers offer asterisk compatibility but some of them do, and provide a configuration guide. The provider that we used in this project netelip has this guide: http://www.netelip.com/downloads/manuales/asterisk_netelip_es.pdf
If you have several incoming numbers, like we do, you need to receive the number that the user dialed. The way to receive this number strongly depends on the VoIP provider. Usually you receive the number as the extension in your context and you can distinguish between then with: exten => _67202.,1,Action to do exten => _91321.,1,action 2 to do
Where the _XXXX. are the first numbers of the telephone number.
External Scripts
Asterisk can communicate with external software. Currently we have two scripts.
- Logger It runs as a shell script with the asterisk System application. Each time someone listen a story the script runs.
exten => _XXXX,n,System(/var/lib/asterisk/script-bin/retaglogger.pl " ${EXTEN} ${cal_number}" )
- Get Story Secuence number. It runs as an asterisk AGI Command. AGI is the way an external software can fully communicate with asterisk. More Info about AGI. It can be written in several languages. Our script is written in PHP and it is executed with:
exten => s,1,AGI(getNumber.php) It must be in the folder 'agi-bin' under the asterisk installation folder (in this project is /var/lib/asterisk/)
In the future this script will communicate with the re-tag database to update the web too.
Exhibition starting There is an script under /etc/init.d/local that runs asterisk automatically during the starting sequence. To be able to connect with the asterisk cli with asterisk -r you must be root.
Open Office start automatically in full-screen mode when loging with the "taller" user. The presentation file is called retag.ppt in the /home/taller/Escritorio Folder
Tags: hand made tags
The devil is in the details, and we really concluded that the material of the tag was really important when objects were left on the street. While we initially though of a sticker, we realized that on the street the hand made tag was more visible and we guessed that it helped to promote confidence among the people that found the objects in the street. So we wrote by hand in one side the name of the project: "re:tag, objects with a story". In the other the practical information for reaching the story: "for listening the story dial: 917 715 100 / your code is 0001 / www.re-tag.org/lab/001".
Web platform
The webpage has three main functions: Archive: All the stories can be listened from the webpage. Tagging. If someone wants to tag a new object to leave it at the street, the webpage allow the user to easily record the new message and get a customized tag for printing. This tag is not mandatory, because only a numeric code and a telephone number is necessary to identify the object. Feedback: The new owner can add a comment or photograph to the object page to the object so the previous owner can track the object. This object-page is only accessible from the direct url that depends on the object code so only who has the object with the tag can access to the object-page.
Process
As part of the project we decided to organized three different types of interventions in order to test and discuss the project. We first organized two different interventions on the street: would people call to the phone number when they found an object with the tag that we had attached to it?, this was the question we wanted to test. Moreover, we made a public call for gathering objects and, of course, their story and a public presentation of the project on a self-managed social centre called La Tabacalera, close to the Medialab-Prado.
Street Intervention: call for object, gathering stories
A public call was made for Thursday 17 to gather some objects and stories. Massimo brought with him a small plastic duck that had already travel around the world and tell us the history (you can reach it at phone number 917 715 100, code: 0005).
Another girl arrived early in the morning, she new about our call on Facebook and spent all the night thinking in what she would bring with her, finally he brought a beauty and delicate Japanese box (code: 0001), a present from a Japanese workmate that she used to store her pencils when she started in the Faculty of Fine Arts; this small box represented for her a breaking point in her life.
Street Intervention: a tv on the street
A man cross the square and look with a kind of surprise to a small teddy bear left in a bench. He takes it in his hands, examines it and put it in the bag is carrying with him. We are witnessing the scene from the windows of a close apartment. In order to text whether people would phone to know about the objects' stories if they found them on the street, we decided to leave three different objects and observe what happened. A working tv, a 3D glasses and the teddy bear were left in three different points of a square in the neighbourhood of Lavapies on Saturday 19.
What happened with the tv was quite a more complicated issue. There was a small wall but we decided to leave it on the ground trying to avoid the temptation to crash it. A tramp walking through the street saw the tv and stopped; after examined it he tore off the small aerial and the electricity cable that he coiled with care. He didn't pay any attention to the tag of the tv receptor and he continued his way and, passing next to the 3D glasses took them too.
Although we were disappointed because the man didn't pay attention to the tag or even the tv itself, we realized how an object to be discarded can be interpreted and used in very different ways by different people. Where we saw a working tv receptor this man saw a working cable and a practical aerial for... whatever.
What we didn't expect after this event was what latter happened. First a young African man took the tv and put it carefully in the wall. The tv receptor attracted the attention of two men walking with a dog. One of them examined the tag and the other took his mobile and phoned to listen to the story; they continued their walk and we could see that they were both listening to the phone. We were happy because the tag called their attention and they phoned to know about the story.
Finally, it happened what we were afraid at the begging; three youngster through the tv to the ground. However, at least a few people get interested in this objects and at least, two of them decided to listen to the story that we have gathered for them.
Historial
Firs week
Thursday June 17th 2010 The event day, we were happily surprised that since very early in the morning someone already was there.Her object, a box, contained a beautiful history behind which we recorded.More people came as the day went by, and even from the other workshops's collaborators we received objects.Part of the crew went to present the project in "La Tabacalera".A toast was given in Medialab at 8:00.Everyone was happy.
Wednesday June 16th 2010 After the continous failure with Gagaphone, our DID supplier for the project, we decided to change to Netelip, another supplier which whitin less than an hour made us finally able to connect succesfully. Sergio's progressed considerably with the asterisk development,and Alfonso's voice was recorded as the operator's one when people call the re:tag service. The online promotion for the Thurday event continued, mostly via Twitter.
Tuesday June 15th 2010 Most intense day so far.Sandra and Sergio made first drafts of flowcharts on how will the record/listen process via telephone will work.Also, it was decided to held a teaser event on thursday, in order to collect more objects from people outside the lab,record their stories, and pre-test our project.Carlos,aided by Nerea and Irene from Medialab's team, did some social media promotion via Facebook/Twitter. As the day came to an end, we uploaded our conclussions so far on the Medialab's blog.
Monday June 14th 2010 Busy Day for Re:Tag today. We have collaborators that join us from Labtolab. Today we went to Basurama, thank you Pablo for your time. We had a great conversation about activities and project from this collective. After, we had a good Spanish Lunch in La elipa where we discussed: Futbol, Cinema, Political systems, we came to agreed that Spanish futbal team shouldn´t be paid half million euros for winning the cup. We got back to Medialab and discussed project interaction, goals, tasks. We went out to Letras to collected objects. We found great objects that have story potential.
Sunday June 13th 2010 Today the team was at the Flea Market: El Rastro observing and considering the space for a Re:tag intervention. We bought and found some used objects such as sent postcards, a purse and a metal box. Afte,r we went back to Medialab to discuss what we saw and debug firewall issues.
Saturday June 12th 2010 Going to el Rastro tomorrow (Sunday). Today Sandra recorded some new audio clips for the voicemail management system. Went to Tabacalera and thinking of a way to collaborate with them. Wrote to Gagaphone to check if there wasn't an issue with their phone. We won't be able to do a live test tomorrow, but we will be doing interviews asking and observing people.
Friday June 11th 2010 Carolina and Sandra are working on personalizing the message for the objects while Sergio is working on the prototype. Sergio and me revise language and did some recordings. It works. But we are still waiting to hear from Gabriel about our server receiving the "call" from our local madrid number.
Thursday June 10th 2010. After Discussions we decided to do a rapid prototype. Sergio got Asterisk running with the help of Gabriel, while Carlos prepares his pecha kucha and Rodrigo research qr codes. Sandra just got the Spain DID number. But its not working :(
Retag Presentation Text.
Preguntas iniciales / First day questionary
1. ¿Cuáles son vuestros objetivos a corto plazo (qué esperáis terminar en dos semanas)? / What is the short-term objective (what do you expect to finish in 2 weeks)?
To working with selected households explaining the voice-mail menu, observing the disposal and the pick up of objects, and monitoring reactions. Have at least two relevant objects to share on medialab.
2. ¿Cuáles son vuestros objetivos a largo plazo (qué posterior desarrollo pensáis para el proyecto)? / What is the long term objective (what posterior development do you think of)?
That products/objects could tell the stories (or that of their owner). Be able to create a super easy and fun interaction with discarded objects.
3. ¿Cómo se relaciona el proyecto con el contexto local del barrio? ¿De qué manera el proyecto se abre a su comunidad? / How is the project related to the local neighbourhood? How is the project opened to this local comunity?
By fostering trust in the discarded object, the community is more likely to re-use it, thus reducing the overall waste within the community. Seeding how communication technologies can bring neighbors together.
4. ¿En qué otros proyectos o teorías os habéis inspirado? / What are your inspiring projects and theories; background, context, references?
Graphic documentation
All the images of retag at [2].
Project's Author and collaborators
Sandra Davila, author of the project. Sandra Davila makes projects that deals with capturing emotions using technology in order to understand ourselves and others. Her projects range from building emotional clocks, to creating voice applications from capturing data for social development projects to producing face books. [3]
- email info [a] sandradavila.com
- Web site: web
- Blog: aqui.lejos.us
Collaborators
- Sergio Galán (Madrid) was born in Jaén (Andalucía, Spain) in 1984. He has a degree in Telecommunication engineering by Carlos III University in Madrid (Spain) and currently lives in Malmö (Sweden) where he studies a master in Interaction Design. He has working experience as system administrator and as a researcher on e-learning technologies. Currently his interests are focused on user experience design and post-optimal digital technology. [4]
- Federico Andrade (Argentina), photographer and Videomaker. He is a member of Modular Colective [5] and loves The Pixies!
- Adolfo Estalella (Madrid), works as a researcher for the Spanish research Council and is doing a an ethnogarphy on the Medialab-Prado in collaboration with Alberto Corsin (more at [6]). More at [7]
- Carlos Cochón (República Dominicana), curious, deep thinker, swim enthusiast graphic designer from Dominican Republic. I Came to Spain to do a Marketing Master, and some teachers encouraged me to colaborate in Interactivos. Blue's my favorite color. I Really love to relate to new people with a critic point of view towars their everyday life, so i'm pretty pleased here. [8]
- Rodrigo Calvo (Asturias), documentary maker and Photographer. Linux and video experience, opensource software, android and mac os x development. Android and mobile technology. English teacher for primary school by trade. [http://rodrigocalvo.
- Gabriel Lucas (Spain), Gabriel Lucas is system administrator at Medialab-Prado (Madrid), he is interested in the social use of new technologies for improving the quality of life of people.
- Madeleine Clare Elish (USA), research assistant at Hyperstudio: Lab for Digital Humanities, MIT, Cambridge, MA. Conceptualize and develop with MIT professors and technology specialists online media-rich environments that enhance learning and scholarship in the humanities. http://madeleineclare.com
Marianna Suarez.
Enlaces / Links
- [9] - Links sobre proyecto
Cosas para hacer mañana antes de la presentación
- Etiquetas: Formato Imprimible? a mano?
- Grabar historias: Libros cálculo, zapatos de Sergio, enano, objeto de enmedio
- Qué Teléfono nos dan?
- Hojas a4 o a5.
- Tarjetas de visita con la dirección web
