Tim Coughlan, University at Bath; work is focused on the design and evaluation of systems that support inclusion, creativity, and openness in learning.

cognitive scientist Lee Gabora's work looks at how culture changes over time, how people come up with new ideas, and how this helps culture change.

there are two ways of thinking: the first assists in seeing creative links between ideas and the second assists in understanding how one idea leads to another (i.e cause and effect).

in exploring how our foundations of knowledge are built, we can dissect how we assign value or rank to knowledge - or generally accepted assumptions.

this is often seen in common design tools; is it a product of capitalism? Is the market afraid of standardization? In the transfer of one product to another?

designs solely generated by models are not informed by the complex human interaction in the design process, by designers.

tech is integral to creative process - well designed tech is about ease of use and integration.

focus on physical abilities / senses shape novelty in interaction.

focus on group work and social contexts of digital environments.

There are many philosophical theories that explore computers as a tool that are extensions of humans. In some circles, humans have become cyborgs in that sense - they cannot be separated from the tools they use every single day.

creativity research has evolved from simple, individual-focused approach to an increasingly complex, systems-oriented approach that centers social interactions and artifacts. This has attracted sociologists.

In the moment, creativity relies on constant adjustments based on intuition - an intuition that is formed based on prior experience.

Creativity benefits from interacting with the environmental and adapting to environmental changes.

Artifact interaction enriches design processes by grounding it in real world experience.

But what of the bias toward familiar materials? Asking a blacksmith to prototype a house and you might find yourself living in a tin can.

As mentioned earlier, creativity doesn't happen in a vacuum - there is a plethora of societal and culture context which any designer exists in.

Creativity comes from common mental processes that everyone uses - all creativity (aka problem-solving) relies on the same basic principles. Creativity is, then, accessible to anyone, because it just depends on how you mix and match those principles.

Intertwined within each person are emotional, cultural, and experiential factors that inform and, at times, limit their creativity.

design isn't scientific but concedes that scientific methods can formalize design.

asks is creativity connected to science or science?

In creativity, problem solvers choose the best tool for the job using their own foundational knowledge they've acquired over their education or career. Building upon this, what tool an individual selects to solve a problem may be based on prior values and assumptions.

current research looks to define creativity in hopes of understanding what parts of creation (iteration, design, execution) tech should help enhance, as well as which level of skill (beginner, intermediate, etc) tech should be catered towards.

creativity can mean different things at the same time.

to further simplify, creativity is used as a noun (a thing) but functions as an adjective (a descriptive word).

in evaluating computer-mediated creative work, does one focus on whether tech enhances the creator or that it facilitates the creative action?

software to rewrite international legal texts relating to human rights, a well written prompt and a few examples, including the FAIR principles will let openAI's chatGPT do it effectively.

Plain Language Movement: Common law and civil law differ in their approaches.

What would be nice is if JavaScript had a built-in way to do what I can do in Ruby with:

> I18n.interpolate('Hi, %{name}', name: 'Fred')
=> "Hi, Fred"

But to be fair, I18n comes from i18n library, so JS could just as easily (and I'm sure does) have a library that does the same thing.

Update: Actually, you can do this in plain Ruby (so why do we even need I18n.interpolate?):

main > "Hi, %{name}" % {name: 'Fred'}
=> "Hi, Fred"

main > ? String#%

From: string.c (C Method):
Owner: String
Visibility: public
Signature: %(arg1)
Number of lines: 9

Format---Uses str as a format specification, and returns the result
of applying it to arg. If the format specification contains more than
one substitution, then arg must be an Array or Hash
containing the values to be substituted. See Kernel::sprintf for
details of the format string.

   "%05d" % 123                              #=> "00123"
   "%-5s: %016x" % [ "ID", self.object_id ]  #=> "ID   : 00002b054ec93168"
   "foo = %{foo}" % { :foo => 'bar' }        #=> "foo = bar"

I guess that built-in version is fine for simple cases. You only need to use I18n.translate if you need its more advanced features like I18n.config.missing_interpolation_argument_handler.

what is plain language This government site describes the rationale for plain language and more importantly provides some tools for using it. Plain language can be useful when writing text for e-learning products, among other things; this is a useful site to review. There is a list of resources as well. rating 4/5

Here is an example Plain Language Summary created for one of David Sommer's own articles.

Maximize publication impact by all stakeholders coordinating their efforts

What is it about?

In this paper I explore the idea that in order to maximize a publication's impact, everybody needs to play their part - authors, co-authors, publishers, institutions, societies and funders. The author is the common factor that links all of these organizations and groups, so their thinking must shift towards creating a culture of discoverability, encouraging the organizations they work with to help generate impact. The author becomes the conductor, leading the orchestra of players. Why is it important?

The case for authors taking responsibility for maximizing the impact of their research has never been stronger. With over $1 trillion invested in research every year it is surprising to find some studies showing that 50% of articles are never read, and a much higher percentage are never cited. With researchers under increasing pressure from institutions and funders to demonstrate that their research will have impact and be applied, it is critical that researchers do all they can to make sure the right people find, understand and use their work.

See it on Kudos.

Cue Roman Jakobson. In a way, by giving the illusion of mutual understanding, these apps exacerbate the problem. Also, because they do the worst job with rich language work (nuance, subtlety, wordplay, polysemy, subtext…) they encourage a very “sterile” language which might have pleased Orwell like it pleases transhumanists, but which waters down what makes language worth speaking.