secret agent man

... well, not quite, but I was down in San Diego presenting my summer work on visualizations and interfaces for intelligence analysts to ARDA's Novel Intelligence from Massive Data research program. As part of the team representing PARC, I got to showcase some of the work we did this summer, which I can't discuss here, but some of which I hope to have published in the not-so-distant future. We presented with dramatic flair, including wall-size posters of extracted data and an 8-monitor, 1-machine setup running various visualizations and analysis applications across multiple displays. We got a great response from people, including some folks who were dying to get their hands on our stuff right away.

The most useful and interesting part of the conference, however, was listening to the experiences and needs of actual analysts. Contemporary HCI design methodologies are hard to follow in this realm, as classified data prevents really getting inside the working world of the analyst. As such, every window we can get into the analysts' work and skills is welcome and enlightening.

After the conference, I was able to go hang out with an old friend and get some ol' fashioned partying done. So if you're in San Diego on a Wednesday night, know that Bar Dynamite has some decent house music and great gin and tonics, and even better, they have a Valentine's taco shop next door, and it's open all night. I recommend the cheese-rolled tacos.