Linearity

--- How evident is the tape’s linear structure in your team’s solution? Is linear time more a factor in the recording, or retrieval, or equally in both? Discuss how your team came to this approach. ---

Our team was interested in the interaction that exists between driver and rider on the Champaign-Urbana mass transit system. Linearity was inevitable in our recording methodology, as we were building a catalog of the route, of the bus, the bus stops, and subsequent interaction. However, in our decision to take this information and then place it into a new context, a static, building lobby, linearity in the data is not perceived by the people actively engaged in the entry/exit sequence of the building. Our team arrived at the decision that a set of rules was needed to establish how and when to record the interaction between driver and rider and thus settled on the act of the opening and closing of the doors. We were aware of the linear nature of the recording and the act itself, but felt this was a negligible concept within the recording of the data. For the final solution, we discussed the act of the linear media, however, we felt it was more important to change the context of the material. Due to the duration of the entry/exit sequence, the linearity of the recording will be virtually transparent.