The idea behind Cuca was inspired by two things: the book I'm reading right now, The Rise of the Network Society by Manuel Castells, and a conversation I recently had with my friend Anaid (Anaid studies Interactive Telecommunications at NYU and is developing a similar project for one of her classes.)
Just as Hallnas and Redstrom do in their article From Use to Presence, I also wonder how best to evaluate, construct and design a new computational artifact in the midst of fast and never ending technological developments. The easiest way to start I suppose could be to ask what this tool exactly is and what it does, followed by the specific goals it aims to reach. We must also consider the importance of its context and its time.
Nowadays initiatives like One Laptop per Child demonstrate that even in third world countries, computers are coming to be part of people's lives from a very early age (and will increasingly continue to do so.) If done correctly, this can yield to the solution of real global issues and to the decrease of certain social disparities from within the same communities. Education provides major economic empowerment and, in the words of Nicholas Negroponte, computers have now become tools to think with. Children's capabilities, skills, senses and intellects should never, never be underestimated.
Thus...
Cuca is a research tool for children. It's an application that can be downloaded for free (always for free) from the Internet. It has the shape of a small magnifying glass and it works hand-in-hand with a map of the user's community that will automatically download with the package. When one places the cursor over the different points marked on the map, Cuca displays a small pop-up window with important information about the location: from its exact address to the services provided there (public bathrooms, transportation, telephones, wireless connection, police, etc.) and the activities taking place at that moment. I use a map of Dallas and its suburbs as a visual example:
Allowing my imagination to run loose here, a more advanced version of Cuca could allow kids to ask questions or post comments about/on the specific places and henceforth make it an interactive experience. This could also be helpful to adults who at times are less knowledgeable about these things. In a rural environment for example, one might need to walk miles to buy milk or eggs. If a child has a laptop at home he or she can "ask" those at the grocery store via Cuca if they have the goods, prior to making the trip (businesses would have to register somehow in order to be included in the system.)
I was raised in a mega-city and I think that a research tool like Cuca could be very helpful in binding the discontinuities -social, cultural, economic, etc.- encountered in spaces like Mexico City. Something like this would allow both children and adults to bypass the impartialities and bureaucratic faults that oftentimes isolate us from one another within our own milieu. We would connect withing the gaps of the Network Society and be the nods of other nods constructing upon us.
And for you Second Life fans out there, I found something that again can remind us never to underestimate kids: www.webkinz.com
T
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