Презентация Халли Зигель, редактора международного портала robohab.org, на мастер классе хакатона по промышленному дизайну роботов на конференции Skolkovo Robotics 2015

1. Communicating Robotics
Hallie Siegel
Managing Editor
Robohub

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over
9250
citations

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IEEE/RSJ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF INTELLIGENT ROBOTS AND SYSTEMS, OCTOBER 2012

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5. Communicating: Why bother?
• Collaborate with peers
• Convince funding agencies
• Find project/business partners
• Attract investors
• Inform industry partners
• Influence regulators and policy-makers
• Generate media attention
• Shape public opinion
• Sell product

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Traditional tools: Little or
no direct contact with public
You
Journals
Conferences
Peers
Grant
Applications
Funding Agencies
Press Office
PR Agency
Media Public
Press Office
PR Agency
Media Public
Accelerators
Incubators
Business Partners
Investors
Press Office
PR Agency
Media Public
Meetings/Forums
Tech transfer
offices
Industry
Press Office
PR Agency
Media Public

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Social tools: Direct communication

8. What are the obstacles?
• Lack of time
• Don’t see the benefit
• Unfamiliar/not confident with social
media
• Not confident with writing
• Concern that your work will be
misrepresented, oversimplified, or
misunderstood

9. Communicating about robotics is
challenging …
• Hard to explain in simple terms
• It’s an emerging field
– Lack of commonly understood language
conventions to guide the conversation
• Most people outside the field don’t have
personal experience with robots
• Existing stereotypes about robots (and the
people who build them) are hard to compete
with

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Media reflects our fears …

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… and inflates expectations

12. EXPERIMENT: DRAW A SCIENTIST
Take a few minutes now to draw a picture of a scientist

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19. Notice any similarities?
• White
• Male
• Eye glasses
• Lab coat
• Often evidence of mania, danger, or anti-
social behaviour
– unkempt clothing or hair
– dangerous equipment, fire, explosions
– goofy, or conversely, frowning facial expressions

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Which of these people are scientists?
Lessons Learned from the Implementation of a GK-12 Grant Outreach Program. Laura J. Bottomley, Elizabeth A. Parry, Scott Brigade, La Toya Coley, Laura
Deam, Elizabeth Goodson, Jan Kidwell, Jessica Linck, and Brent Robinson. Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual
Conference & Exposition, Copyright 2001, American Society for Engineering Education.

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Disconnected
from reality
Too smart for
their own good
(and possibly dangerous)
Hard to understand
Specialist in their field
Focused on their work Extremely Intelligent
Exclusive
Unapproachable
Highly educated
The stereotypic scientist is …

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“What people think I do” meme

23. EXPERIMENT: DRAW A ROBOT
Take a few minutes now to draw a picture of a robot

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26. Notice any similarities?
• Humanoid
• Strong
• Hard-bodied
• Not clear whether they are useful or
dangerous

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Is this a robot?

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How do people feel about robots?

29. Eurobarometer Survey
• Conducted by the European Commission
– 2012 study
– 26 751 respondents from 27 member states
• Aimed to gauge EU public opinion of robots:
– Public perceptions
– Acceptance levels
– Worries and reservations
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_382_en.pdf

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Most people don’t have personal
experience with robots
Eurobarometer 382, pp 14-16: QA3. Have you ever used, or are you currently using such
robots at home or at work (e.g. a robotic vacuum cleaner at home or an industrial robot
at work)?

31. People are generally positive about
robots
• And opinion of robots
improves with:
– Education
– Personal experience with
robots
Eurobarometer 382, pp 17-20: QA4. Generally speaking, do you have a very positive,
fairly positive, fairly negative or very negative view of robots?

32. Robots are generally seen as helpful
and necessary
Eurobarometer 382, pp 21: QA5. Please tell me to what extent you agree or disagree
with each of the following statements about robots.
Robots are a good thing for society,
because they help people
Robots are necessary as they can do
jobs that are too hard or too
dangerous for people
Priority Areas
Space exploration
Manufacturing
Military and security
Search and rescue

33. BUT robots are also seen as potentially
threatening
Eurobarometer 382, pp 21: QA5. Please tell me to what extent you agree or disagree
with each of the following statements about robots.
Robots steal people’s jobs
Robots are a form of technology that
requires careful management

34. Robots should be banned from …
Eurobarometer 382, pp 35: QA7. In which areas do you think that the use of robots
should be banned?
Care of children, elderly and the
disabled
Education
Healthcare
Leisure

35. Models of Communication
Communication 101

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Injection Model
• Developed in 1920s
• Linear theory
• Sees audience as
passive, homogeneous
• Too simplistic
• BUT continues to shape
how we talk about media
influence

37. Multi-Step Flow Model
• Developed in the 1940s
• More complex than
Injection Model
• Assumes we are more
likely to be influenced
by thought leaders
• Sees audience as more
active and less
homogeneous
• Still has credibility
today

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Multi-Step Flow in action

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Multi-Step Flow in action

40. Agenda Setting Model
• Developed in the
1970s
• Proposes that the
media do not reflect
reality, they SHAPE it
• Media can’t
necessarily tell us
HOW to think, but
they can tell us WHAT
to think about
• Model is still relevant
today, BUT remember
it’s not always the
media who set the
agenda

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Agenda Setting in action
http://robohub.org/robotics-ai-in-the-spotlight-at-wef15-world-economic-forum/

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Agenda Setting in action
“I want Americans to win the race for the kind
of discoveries that unleash new jobs.”
http://robohub.org/obama-connects-robots-and-jobs-in-state-of-the-union-address/

43. Reinforcement Model
• Similar to multi-step flow
model, but focused more
on personal spheres of
influence
• Supposes that new
influences are more
likely to reinforce our
beliefs than change
them.
• “We see what we want
to see.”

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Reinforcement Model in action

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47. What does the Stop the Robots hoax
teach us?
• “We see what we want to see.”
• The hoax worked because we were primed
to believe that the protest was real

48. All media messages are constructs
• Everything we see or hear in the media has
been constructed
– Newspapers, Twitter, blogs, TV, YouTube etc.
• Media messages are an interpretation or
representation of reality
• Representations are created through
a process of selection and omission

49. Headlines
Communication 101

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“On average,
five times as many people read
the headline as read the body copy.”
- David Ogilvy

51. Headlines are everything
• It’s the first thing people see
• If it doesn’t grab people’s attention, they
won’t keep reading
• Newsfeeds, aggregators and search often
display ONLY the title

52. A great headline should …
• Be useful
– Tell readers what to expect in the article
– Deliver what it promises
• Offer a unique perspective
– Stand out from the rest
• Convey a sense of urgency or importance
– Make people want to read more!!
– But not by feeding into hype

53. Key features of a good headline
• Concise
• Paints a vivid picture
• Easy-to-understand terminology
• Conveys the key points
– What the technology is
– How it works, what makes it unique
– Why it’s important
– Why it’s important NOW

54. Communicating Robotics
So how to I get started anyway?

55. 1. Know your audience.
• Who are you trying to reach?
• What are their interests, concerns and
fears?
• How, where and when do they
communicate?
• What kind of language is most appropriate
for them?

56. 2. Know your context.
• Be informed about your audience’s “hot
button” issues
• Research your competition
• Get familiar with the tools your audience
likes to use
• And use those tools to stay informed about
emerging issues

57. 3. Find your niche.
• Be an expert in your field
• Stay focused and don’t over reach

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4. Design a communication strategy.

59. 5. Be respectful.
• Don’t talk down
• Use plain language
• Don’t stoke fears
• Don’t hype your work

60. 6. Start communicating!
• Places to share your robotic news:
– IEEE Automaton Blog
– Hacker News
– Slashdot
– Reddit
• Robohub
– 60K monthly visitors
– 700K followers on social media
– Experts from around the world
– http://robohub.org

61. Thank you!
Hallie Siegel
Managing Editor, Robohub
robohub.org
hallie@robohub.org
@HallieSiegel