Mayor For A Minute

Apple Computer, Human Interface Group,1991

Project Description: This was a pie chart where each viewer could shift the consensus of how conflicting priorities should be resolved.  A computer graphic pie chart filled the screen.  Each slice represented a portion of the city. A viewer could then pick a slice and reallocate resources from one slice to another. While the viewer worked on a slice video bytes advocating spending in that area showed through the slice. The idea was to have this video sent in by community groups on a daily basis forming a computer-based television network. After a while, a video face would come out of the pie and editorialize on the reallocation. NYU and Apple Computer cosponsored the project. A prototype was demonstrated at SIGCHI ‘92.’

Technical Notes: This used a videodisc and later QuickTime controlled by HyperCard.  The touch-tones were decoded by a BlackBox DTMF to ASCII converter.