As I convalesced this weekend from Day 9 of a terrible cold that just won't let go, the Thin Air Summit took place in Denver. Thanks to Twitter, I almost feel like I was there. I was tweet-reading in real-time. But you don't need to be there in the moment. A quick search for #tas08 on Twitter and you find a ton of posts. Tweets on sessions, tweets on insights, tweets on new acquaintances....
Last week I learned about the in-fighting (and quite often misogynistic) attacks from conservatives on Sarah Palin. #Palin was a trending topic after the election.
When Al Gore got onto Twitter, I saw it first on Twitter. [Update: Twitter has just changed @al_gore to @algore.]
Protests against California's Prop 8 I heard of first on Twitter.
And I found out that other people did not find True Blood tonight as much of a downer as I did. (Yeah, so it's a vampire show. Can't I have at least a little human kindness? Just a little?) When Tina Fey was going to be appearing on Saturday Night Live, I heard it first on Twitter and was able to set TiVo.
Now I'm sure that anybody reading this who hasn't actually tried Twitter probably has no idea what the heck I'm talking about. There are plenty of explanations of what Twitter is, but what strikes me as being important is less of what Twitter is and more of how Twitter is used.
Because you can follow whomever you want, you can listen just to tweets by people who interest you. Of course, as they tweet with others (using their Twitter handles) you can stumble across other people who also are interesting. Soon you have a metaphorical tree of Twitterers tweeting up a storm of miscellany that quite frequently can surprise you, astonish you, and inform you.
Some people seem to live on Twitter. For professional bloggers, Twitter becomes a way of building their online presence, connecting with others, sharing links, and picking up on things happening.
Me, I can't spend that kind of time Twittering the day away. But I don't consider Twitter to be simply a distraction. I learn too much from it. And I catch wind of things friends and acquaintances are doing elsewhere.
Heck, it's gotten to the point where people don't have names any more, they have Twitter handles!
Amber Rhea posts regular updates on what she's tweeted.
Earlier, in these pages, Beth Kanter (or @kanter) wrote about the importance of Twitter.
When I'm asked questions that I don't know the answer to, I admit it and use it as opportunity to demonstrate the value of the social brain or having a good network on Twitter. Unfortunately, I did not have my laptop accessible in that moment.
In reflection, I've been thinking about how much richer it is being social - how you don't have to know all the answers when you have a good network (and a decent Internet connection.) It made me think about another digital divide - for those who don't have the Internet connection or haven't yet engaged on Twitter - the knowledge divide.
Heck, in this age when, according to Wired, blogging is somehow no longer something to do, bloggers like Kristen Lowe are blogging about what they're seeing on Twitter.
Paal Hivand asked a question on Twitter this week, which had me thinking about a recent conversation on ... eh ... Twitter. Thing is, Paal said (in Norwegian) that he was contemplating an article about how knowledge used to be individual, but now is social. I'm not going to go into that statement, just offer this anectdotal evidence for how knowledge in some respects is easier available than ever before (click on the image for a readable version):
She then pastes a screenshot of a Twitter exchange....
I'd just jumped into a conversation between Adriana and Freecloud here - which started with the Albigensian crusade and ended with the Twitterian crusade - and it's also worth keeping in mind that we probably wouldn't be having this conversation if it wasn't for Twitter...
Amy Gahran's post a couple weeks ago illustrates how Twitter can even facilitate conversations among disparate people who may not know each other and likely don't even have each other's email address.
The adoption of Twitter has been evolving over the weeks and months. Last spring, you would have been hard pressed to find dominant tweet topics outside of tech geekery, or the personal experiences of tech geeks. But by the time the general election was in full swing, politics had come into its own, with Sarah Palin (or #palin) frequently rising up in the topics. (The Next Women report that Barack Obama is the first presidential candidate -- and presidential elect -- to use Twitter.) Now you see a wider variety of topics, including sports, television and news events spreading across the tweetscape.
From the way things look now, it's only inevitable that the trend will continue. Unless you yourself are watching something happen right in front of you (or on live tv), odds are that the news will hit Twitter far sooner than it can get noticed, digested and spat out by the mainstream media.
In fact, the mainstream media have started to adopt Twitter as an important outlet. (And they haven't always been the smoothest about it. Witness the eruption over the Rocky Mountain News' live-Twitter coverage of a funeral.)
My favorite part of Twitter is still what I first got into it for last year: interesting insights:
@agahran. People don't know they care about the quality of writing, they just stop reading poorly written things. #tas08
#
"Wasilla's all i saw" - a Palin-drome
#
My 10-weeks-into-Twitter-world review: it feels... I don't know, *kinder*, than blog world. Less incentive for trolls, stalkers, etc.
#
Friendster informs me that they now have faster slide shows. I can save even more time by continuing to not log in there.
#
Of course, there are other views on Twitter....
“Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences,” according to the report.
“Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives,” the Army report said.
So if you do venture onto Twitter, watch out for those vegetarians.
]]>As I convalesced this weekend from Day 9 of a terrible cold that just won't let go, the Thin Air Summit took place in Denver. Thanks to Twitter, I almost feel like I was there. I was tweet-reading in real-time. But you don't need to be there in the moment. A quick search for #tas08 on Twitter and you find a ton of posts. Tweets on sessions, tweets on insights, tweets on new acquaintances....
Last week I learned about the in-fighting (and quite often misogynistic) attacks from conservatives on Sarah Palin. #Palin was a trending topic after the election.
When Al Gore got onto Twitter, I saw it first on Twitter. [Update: Twitter has just changed @al_gore to @algore.]
Protests against California's Prop 8 I heard of first on Twitter.
And I found out that other people did not find True Blood tonight as much of a downer as I did. (Yeah, so it's a vampire show. Can't I have at least a little human kindness? Just a little?) When Tina Fey was going to be appearing on Saturday Night Live, I heard it first on Twitter and was able to set TiVo.
Now I'm sure that anybody reading this who hasn't actually tried Twitter probably has no idea what the heck I'm talking about. There are plenty of explanations of what Twitter is, but what strikes me as being important is less of what Twitter is and more of how Twitter is used.
Because you can follow whomever you want, you can listen just to tweets by people who interest you. Of course, as they tweet with others (using their Twitter handles) you can stumble across other people who also are interesting. Soon you have a metaphorical tree of Twitterers tweeting up a storm of miscellany that quite frequently can surprise you, astonish you, and inform you.
Some people seem to live on Twitter. For professional bloggers, Twitter becomes a way of building their online presence, connecting with others, sharing links, and picking up on things happening.
Me, I can't spend that kind of time Twittering the day away. But I don't consider Twitter to be simply a distraction. I learn too much from it. And I catch wind of things friends and acquaintances are doing elsewhere.
Heck, it's gotten to the point where people don't have names any more, they have Twitter handles!
Amber Rhea posts regular updates on what she's tweeted.
Earlier, in these pages, Beth Kanter (or @kanter) wrote about the importance of Twitter.
When I'm asked questions that I don't know the answer to, I admit it and use it as opportunity to demonstrate the value of the social brain or having a good network on Twitter. Unfortunately, I did not have my laptop accessible in that moment.
In reflection, I've been thinking about how much richer it is being social - how you don't have to know all the answers when you have a good network (and a decent Internet connection.) It made me think about another digital divide - for those who don't have the Internet connection or haven't yet engaged on Twitter - the knowledge divide.
Heck, in this age when, according to Wired, blogging is somehow no longer something to do, bloggers like Kristen Lowe are blogging about what they're seeing on Twitter.
Paal Hivand asked a question on Twitter this week, which had me thinking about a recent conversation on ... eh ... Twitter. Thing is, Paal said (in Norwegian) that he was contemplating an article about how knowledge used to be individual, but now is social. I'm not going to go into that statement, just offer this anectdotal evidence for how knowledge in some respects is easier available than ever before (click on the image for a readable version):
She then pastes a screenshot of a Twitter exchange....
I'd just jumped into a conversation between Adriana and Freecloud here - which started with the Albigensian crusade and ended with the Twitterian crusade - and it's also worth keeping in mind that we probably wouldn't be having this conversation if it wasn't for Twitter...
Amy Gahran's post a couple weeks ago illustrates how Twitter can even facilitate conversations among disparate people who may not know each other and likely don't even have each other's email address.
The adoption of Twitter has been evolving over the weeks and months. Last spring, you would have been hard pressed to find dominant tweet topics outside of tech geekery, or the personal experiences of tech geeks. But by the time the general election was in full swing, politics had come into its own, with Sarah Palin (or #palin) frequently rising up in the topics. (The Next Women report that Barack Obama is the first presidential candidate -- and presidential elect -- to use Twitter.) Now you see a wider variety of topics, including sports, television and news events spreading across the tweetscape.
From the way things look now, it's only inevitable that the trend will continue. Unless you yourself are watching something happen right in front of you (or on live tv), odds are that the news will hit Twitter far sooner than it can get noticed, digested and spat out by the mainstream media.
In fact, the mainstream media have started to adopt Twitter as an important outlet. (And they haven't always been the smoothest about it. Witness the eruption over the Rocky Mountain News' live-Twitter coverage of a funeral.)
My favorite part of Twitter is still what I first got into it for last year: interesting insights:
@agahran. People don't know they care about the quality of writing, they just stop reading poorly written things. #tas08
#
"Wasilla's all i saw" - a Palin-drome
#
My 10-weeks-into-Twitter-world review: it feels... I don't know, *kinder*, than blog world. Less incentive for trolls, stalkers, etc.
#
Friendster informs me that they now have faster slide shows. I can save even more time by continuing to not log in there.
#
Of course, there are other views on Twitter....
“Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences,” according to the report.
“Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives,” the Army report said.
So if you do venture onto Twitter, watch out for those vegetarians.
]]>But there are two things that make Twitter better, despite its persistent performance problems and downtimes:
1 - Twitter has apps. I joined Twitter early last year, but I don't think I would be Twittering at all anymore if I didn't have Twitterific or something similar. I don't like to have to live on a website for high-traffic content. Now if Plurk had a nice desktop app -- preferably not requiring the clunky Adobe Air....
2 - Twitter is where the people are. Plurk has a nice GUI, but will people come? I've discovered some new people, but I don't know many people on Plurk. Cool GUIs don't quite make up for the lack of "social" in a social network app.
Still, I think Plurk is onto something. It's distinct. There are several web apps that could be called "Twitter alternatives" but they're pretty much the same, or very similar.
]]>But there are two things that make Twitter better, despite its persistent performance problems and downtimes:
1 - Twitter has apps. I joined Twitter early last year, but I don't think I would be Twittering at all anymore if I didn't have Twitterific or something similar. I don't like to have to live on a website for high-traffic content. Now if Plurk had a nice desktop app -- preferably not requiring the clunky Adobe Air....
2 - Twitter is where the people are. Plurk has a nice GUI, but will people come? I've discovered some new people, but I don't know many people on Plurk. Cool GUIs don't quite make up for the lack of "social" in a social network app.
Still, I think Plurk is onto something. It's distinct. There are several web apps that could be called "Twitter alternatives" but they're pretty much the same, or very similar.
]]>Which means that I've spent a bit of time struggling with the pathetic, slow, DNS-forgetful DSL service from Qwest I have at home. Every page view was taking ages to load. (How does Qwest even stay in business? Oh yeah, I forgot.)
And what's worse, among the slowest sites to load this morning was your humble hostess' own blog. And it wasn't just Qwest making things slow to start with -- it was the widgets. The slooowwwwww widgets. I'd sit there, watching the sun rise higher and higher while I wait for "Read" and "Transferring data from" messages in my status bar cycle through all the different services trying to load their widgets.
The. Widgets. Must. Go.
Into my feed-reader steps a new post from friend and pingVision colleague Greg Knaddison on how he just killed all the widgets on his blog. And rather than just rant about the woes of having page loads slowed down by widgets having to load from different servers in the far reaches of the virtual world, Greg has some useful advice for the widget-makers out there:
As I've pointed out, the problem can't be solved by "get faster" solutions like just speeding up the internet connections of users or making the servers that run the widgets faster. That would certainly help, but the "more files" problem means you are still limited to a few widgets.
The real solution, in my opinion, lies in solutions that are integrated into my site's software. Don't give me a flickr javscript widget - give me a flickrrippr module that pulls my photos into a local cache. Don't give me a comment plugin that takes years to load - create the "intense debate" by reading my comment rss and aggregating that information with some form of universal login so that my comments can be tracked from blog to blog (if I want). Having integrated applications you can take advantage of javascript and css aggregation/compression to reduce those files from 10 to 2. That helps.
Of course the problems with my solution is that 1) it requires lots of things like microformats that are only slowly picking up 2) site users will need powerful website building software that can be more difficult to install 3) some of these widget companies have "collect lots of data and do stuff with it" as a business model and they can do more of that without you knowing about it when they do it in this format.
Greg is dead-on. Maybe we can collectively "scratch our own itch" in the open source world (and in particular, Drupal) to help bring about widget reformation.
Meanwhile I'm going to rip out the widgets and put them into an "about me" post, so they are still there but don't drag down the entire site with every page load. I'm going to do that. Soon. Right after I get out and enjoy some of this gorgeous fall day.
]]>Which means that I've spent a bit of time struggling with the pathetic, slow, DNS-forgetful DSL service from Qwest I have at home. Every page view was taking ages to load. (How does Qwest even stay in business? Oh yeah, I forgot.)
And what's worse, among the slowest sites to load this morning was your humble hostess' own blog. And it wasn't just Qwest making things slow to start with -- it was the widgets. The slooowwwwww widgets. I'd sit there, watching the sun rise higher and higher while I wait for "Read" and "Transferring data from" messages in my status bar cycle through all the different services trying to load their widgets.
The. Widgets. Must. Go.
Into my feed-reader steps a new post from friend and pingVision colleague Greg Knaddison on how he just killed all the widgets on his blog. And rather than just rant about the woes of having page loads slowed down by widgets having to load from different servers in the far reaches of the virtual world, Greg has some useful advice for the widget-makers out there:
As I've pointed out, the problem can't be solved by "get faster" solutions like just speeding up the internet connections of users or making the servers that run the widgets faster. That would certainly help, but the "more files" problem means you are still limited to a few widgets.
The real solution, in my opinion, lies in solutions that are integrated into my site's software. Don't give me a flickr javscript widget - give me a flickrrippr module that pulls my photos into a local cache. Don't give me a comment plugin that takes years to load - create the "intense debate" by reading my comment rss and aggregating that information with some form of universal login so that my comments can be tracked from blog to blog (if I want). Having integrated applications you can take advantage of javascript and css aggregation/compression to reduce those files from 10 to 2. That helps.
Of course the problems with my solution is that 1) it requires lots of things like microformats that are only slowly picking up 2) site users will need powerful website building software that can be more difficult to install 3) some of these widget companies have "collect lots of data and do stuff with it" as a business model and they can do more of that without you knowing about it when they do it in this format.
Greg is dead-on. Maybe we can collectively "scratch our own itch" in the open source world (and in particular, Drupal) to help bring about widget reformation.
Meanwhile I'm going to rip out the widgets and put them into an "about me" post, so they are still there but don't drag down the entire site with every page load. I'm going to do that. Soon. Right after I get out and enjoy some of this gorgeous fall day.
]]>Sunday night, 8:35:05pm
realized that I can now go to DrupalCon Barcelona 2007.
Sunday night, 8:36pm
opened up Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity to look up airfares....
Sunday night, 8:42pm
agonizing over how much they've gone up.
Sunday night, 11:38pm
bought round-trip plane ticket.
Sunday night, 11:47pm
realized that I am indeed going to Barcelona. The usual pre-travel anxiety is setting in. Ack!
Monday, 10:57am
trying to do all the things that I would have taken a week to do, had I had a week before leaving.
Monday, 5:00pm
managed to cover the entire todo list. now going for essential manicure/pedicure.
Monday, 5:05pm
Reveling in the foot bath and massage.
Monday, 6:12pm
got home and had a glass of wine.
Monday, 7:23pm
started packing.
Tuesday, 12:35am
stopped packing. (Not finished, but somewhat close. I'm terrible at packing.)
Tuesday, 4:45am
got up and showered
Tuesday, 8:05am
got through Denver International Airport security. Not much of a crowd but we had to walk all the zigs and zags of the line. Disneyland.
Tuesday, 8:45am
sat down for a Wolfgang Puck pizza. Just about the earliest I've ever eaten a fresh-baked pizza!
Tuesday, 10:45am
Wheels up.
Tuesday, 3:45pm
Landed in Philly.
Tuesday, 4:10pm
Walked a mile through the airport to the international terminal. Thankfully all behind security.
Tuesday, 4:30pm
Airline agent okayed my first-class upgrade request. Now $500 poorer.
Tuesday, 6:17pm
Taking my seat in first class. A glass of champagne and four feet of "legroom" ... Not regretting those $500 one bit!
Tuesday, 7:05pm
Plane still has not taken off. Apparently a radio is defective.
Tuesday, 7:20pm
All passengers were offloaded from the plane. We're told we can get $10 off for "dinner" at McDonald's down another terminal.
Tuesday, 7:45pm
Stopped at a restaurant after walking a mile. Ordered a wine and salmon dinner.
Tuesday, 8:30pm
Airline has changed estimated departure from 9:30pm to 10:30pm.
Tuesday, 8:32pm
Airline worker just announced that they may not be able to fix the plane and have to cancel the flight.
Tuesday, 8:36pm
The plane has been fixed. Everyone is crushing back onto the plane.
Tuesday, 9:15pm
Plane is getting in line for take-off.
Tuesday, 9:40pm
Wheels up.
Tuesday, 10:15pm
Looking forward to more wine and filet dinner.
Wednesday, 1:00am
Reclined almost flat. Going to sleep now.
Wednesday, 11:55am
Touchdown in Barcelona.
Wednesday, 12:35pm
Wow! Passport check was fast, my bag came around the conveyor quickly, and customs just ignored me as I walked by. Getting a cab.
Wednesday, 12:50pm
A taxi driver has grabbed my bag out of my hand. I guess he's going to drive me where I'm going.
Wednesday, 1:45pm
Despite the address and Google Map printout of the destination, the driver is lost.
Wednesday, 2:10pm
Driving up and down streets, I saw the DrupalCon sign. The driver stopped in the middle of the narrow street. I've arrived!
Wednesday, 2:15pm
Realized I am seriously jet-lagged.
Sunday night, 8:35:05pm
realized that I can now go to DrupalCon Barcelona 2007.
Sunday night, 8:36pm
opened up Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity to look up airfares....
Sunday night, 8:42pm
agonizing over how much they've gone up.
Sunday night, 11:38pm
bought round-trip plane ticket.
Sunday night, 11:47pm
realized that I am indeed going to Barcelona. The usual pre-travel anxiety is setting in. Ack!
Monday, 10:57am
trying to do all the things that I would have taken a week to do, had I had a week before leaving.
Monday, 5:00pm
managed to cover the entire todo list. now going for essential manicure/pedicure.
Monday, 5:05pm
Reveling in the foot bath and massage.
Monday, 6:12pm
got home and had a glass of wine.
Monday, 7:23pm
started packing.
Tuesday, 12:35am
stopped packing. (Not finished, but somewhat close. I'm terrible at packing.)
Tuesday, 4:45am
got up and showered
Tuesday, 8:05am
got through Denver International Airport security. Not much of a crowd but we had to walk all the zigs and zags of the line. Disneyland.
Tuesday, 8:45am
sat down for a Wolfgang Puck pizza. Just about the earliest I've ever eaten a fresh-baked pizza!
Tuesday, 10:45am
Wheels up.
Tuesday, 3:45pm
Landed in Philly.
Tuesday, 4:10pm
Walked a mile through the airport to the international terminal. Thankfully all behind security.
Tuesday, 4:30pm
Airline agent okayed my first-class upgrade request. Now $500 poorer.
Tuesday, 6:17pm
Taking my seat in first class. A glass of champagne and four feet of "legroom" ... Not regretting those $500 one bit!
Tuesday, 7:05pm
Plane still has not taken off. Apparently a radio is defective.
Tuesday, 7:20pm
All passengers were offloaded from the plane. We're told we can get $10 off for "dinner" at McDonald's down another terminal.
Tuesday, 7:45pm
Stopped at a restaurant after walking a mile. Ordered a wine and salmon dinner.
Tuesday, 8:30pm
Airline has changed estimated departure from 9:30pm to 10:30pm.
Tuesday, 8:32pm
Airline worker just announced that they may not be able to fix the plane and have to cancel the flight.
Tuesday, 8:36pm
The plane has been fixed. Everyone is crushing back onto the plane.
Tuesday, 9:15pm
Plane is getting in line for take-off.
Tuesday, 9:40pm
Wheels up.
Tuesday, 10:15pm
Looking forward to more wine and filet dinner.
Wednesday, 1:00am
Reclined almost flat. Going to sleep now.
Wednesday, 11:55am
Touchdown in Barcelona.
Wednesday, 12:35pm
Wow! Passport check was fast, my bag came around the conveyor quickly, and customs just ignored me as I walked by. Getting a cab.
Wednesday, 12:50pm
A taxi driver has grabbed my bag out of my hand. I guess he's going to drive me where I'm going.
Wednesday, 1:45pm
Despite the address and Google Map printout of the destination, the driver is lost.
Wednesday, 2:10pm
Driving up and down streets, I saw the DrupalCon sign. The driver stopped in the middle of the narrow street. I've arrived!
Wednesday, 2:15pm
Realized I am seriously jet-lagged.
Last week I asked my co-worker that, and he said with a groan, "I'm trying not to." Apparently I was not the first to ask. In fact, I don't think I know anyone who spends any significant amount of time online who hasn't been asked that question ... several times. I joined Twitter in March, tried using Jabber to connect (which works ... sometimes), downloaded Twitterific (which works ... mostly), and spent long, long hours trying to figure out how Twitter can in fact be relevant to my life. I found some bon mots, but despite the evangelizing wisdom I've seen out there, Twitter still strikes me much like its real-world analog: pleasant noise in moderate levels, but a cacophonous mass of Too Much in larger doses. (The Twitter server seems to agree.)
Lest you think I'm just a cat sullenly gazing up at the tree full of conversation, I have a theory....
Way back when, travel was done only with a purpose. First you had a purpose, then you decided to travel. I recall reading Edvart Rolvaags frontier novel, Giants of the Earth, struck by the hardship of the day-to-day-life, living in a mudhut, working by hand on hard prairie soil. To go on a visit was an extraordinary effort, often taking days or weeks.
The transportation explosion changed things, and the habit that once had been the exclusive province of the aristocracy became the practice of regular folks: the social visit. First you decided to visit, then you figured out what to talk about, what to do.
Before Gutenberg, written communication was just for the rich. But even as the printing press spread throughout the land, publishing was enough of an ordeal that you didn't undertake it without a purpose.
Then "desktop publishing" came along, and sending out a newsletter took only a ream of paper and a stamp (or intra-office mail).
Communications used to be a real hassle. The Napoleonic may have brought us War 2.0 in the form of artillery and total war, but communication dispatches had to be conveyed by ship or horse (or Horse 2.0) or semaphore. It might take months or years for a message to find its destination ... if it made it at all.
Then wireless came and changed everything, much to the displeasure of gentlemen businessmen accustomed to working three months out of the year and navy captains not wanting to hear from their admirals on a regular basis. Communication across great distances became easier, and while perhaps never totally casual, certainly much more common than before.
In the early days of the telephone, a similar thing happened for wire communications. Telegrams were expensive and involved a precious amount of work.
THEY WERE SHORT AND TO THE POINT STOP
The telephone came along and that started to change, but only slowly. First, the equipment was clunkly. It required shouting. It was useful only if you had an important message to transmit. Eventually wire improvements and handsets came along to change things. However, those of us old enough and having relatives in rural country may recall the party line, where several homes shared the same common line.
Oh, and when you got a call, other people did listen in.
Most of us, of course, grew up with many extensions in the house -- maybe even multiple phone lines. We'd call our friends, and then decide what to talk about. "Telephone ear" was a common malady back then. I don't think I'm alone in having left that behavior when I left adolescence. And when I left the Bells for cellular, it just got to be too costly to simply gab for hours.
But now there's instant messaging and VOIP. Jabber and Yahoo and Skype, oh my!
Time was when it took effort and research to get information. Those of you old enough to have watched first runs of Bewitched will recall how getting any kind of information took quite a bit more than a twitch of the nose. You had to go to the library -- if there was a decent library around -- and look up possible leads in the card catalogue (using actual physical hand-typed cards) to find a book in the stacks -- if they had the book at all. If a book on the subject even existed.
And before libraries, all you had was gossip, the newspaper (if there was one), the clergy or, if you were of the proper caste, a university.
With the computer's bringing in the age of the "information explosion," all that changed in ways that it's too easy to forget just how uninformed we were before.
And isolated, for as hard as it was to get information, it was even harder to convey it. Try typing your essays on mimeograph "ditto" paper. You could usually get only a few dozen copies out of it, and the first thing recipients did upon receiving it was smell the paper, then read your text ... if the ditto came out clear enough in the first place. Blogging it ain't.
Now we reach the internet age where websites are conversations and every day it seems a new start-up announces a new way to communicate, and the world (or some of it, anyway) goes a-Twitter with delight. Sign up and communicate! Figure out what to say later!
It's changing the way we deal with each other and the world. It's communication by default.
Now, to be fair, not everyone is a-twittering their days away. As Pew reported last week, only 8% of American adults are "avid participants in all that digital life has to offer." And yet the report (pdf) also found:
- 27% of all respondents said they feel overloaded, and;
- 67% of all respondents said they like having so much information available.
The second question addressed whether people think computers and technology give
people more or less control over their lives – or make no difference. In response:
- 48% of all respondents said computers and technology give them more control over
- their lives.
- 16% say computers and technology give them less control over their lives
- 29% said these things make no difference.
...which seems to indicate that we aren't eccentric in our habits but rather are simply early adopters of what others will eventually embrace, or at least tolerate reasonably well.
Or so is the hope. Here we are, all talking to everyone, listening to everything, communicating without having anything in particular to communicate.
How are we to cope?
Personally, I think that there are many different types of brains in the world. Those that require linear, logical thinking. They do awesome on traditional IQ tests, SATs, LSATs, etc. They are great at focusing in on one piece of the puzzle and coming up with solutions. Information overload would be a huge distraction from the task, but they are usually quite adept at filtering it out. Then there are also those that think very abstractly and that can piece together seemingly unrelated data points to uncover new frontiers. These are the explorers, the radical free thinkers. They quite often have dropped out (or been kicked out) of post-secondary institutions. They often make no sense. Chris is one of these. He’s constantly distracted. Constantly. All over the place. But he thrives on too much information and comes out with these amazing visions that blow me away.
Me, I’m an information broker. I reside somewhere in between the logical and the explorer never quite able to pioneer or to compute. But I’m really good at understanding, then translating the information into more actionable items. The opportunist/entrepreneurial brain is similar to the information broker brain, but it takes that translation and creates tools that help people cope with both ends of the spectrum. All ‘types’ of brains are necessary to get anything done, but the explorers are often undervalued and misunderstood (throughout history, they have often died penniless, having the opportunists and information brokers taking their ideas and profiting). I believe the outcry on the idea of continuous partial attention today is equally misunderstood and undervalued.
Confusion can be good. Lack of the feeling of security can be freeing. Embracing the chaos can open new doors. And there is always the chance that it could lead nowhere, yes. But that is a lesson in itself.
Color me too logical, and too creatively self-absorbed, to embrace confusion induced by a roar of communicated-by-default-and-what-is-communicated-is-secondary messages. Besides, you have to plow through a lot of tweets like "Drinking a glass of water" or "@joebloggs: I agree" to find a rip-roaring funny like "Hadn't pooped for five days. Got home and took one so big my ears popped."
We're so in love with reinventing the world, we tend to forget that we are not in fact standing at the end of time. The world has been changing all along, and not only is it changing now, it will continue to change. Even change keeps changing.
And while we, perhaps more than any other generation, are keenly aware of just how much our world is changing, we still tend to fall into the trap that somehow we are able to capture that lightning, bottle it up and define its essence. The simple fact is that, ten years from now, we could be looking back and laughing at how excited we were in this time, much like we now look back at the fetishizing of technology that was the thrill back in the 1950s.
What's the next 2.0? I'd like to think it at least doesn't have numbers and decimals. But what do I know? I'm stuck in the here and now.
--
Cross-posted on BlogHer.
]]>Last week I asked my co-worker that, and he said with a groan, "I'm trying not to." Apparently I was not the first to ask. In fact, I don't think I know anyone who spends any significant amount of time online who hasn't been asked that question ... several times. I joined Twitter in March, tried using Jabber to connect (which works ... sometimes), downloaded Twitterific (which works ... mostly), and spent long, long hours trying to figure out how Twitter can in fact be relevant to my life. I found some bon mots, but despite the evangelizing wisdom I've seen out there, Twitter still strikes me much like its real-world analog: pleasant noise in moderate levels, but a cacophonous mass of Too Much in larger doses. (The Twitter server seems to agree.)
Lest you think I'm just a cat sullenly gazing up at the tree full of conversation, I have a theory....
Way back when, travel was done only with a purpose. First you had a purpose, then you decided to travel. I recall reading Edvart Rolvaags frontier novel, Giants of the Earth, struck by the hardship of the day-to-day-life, living in a mudhut, working by hand on hard prairie soil. To go on a visit was an extraordinary effort, often taking days or weeks.
The transportation explosion changed things, and the habit that once had been the exclusive province of the aristocracy became the practice of regular folks: the social visit. First you decided to visit, then you figured out what to talk about, what to do.
Before Gutenberg, written communication was just for the rich. But even as the printing press spread throughout the land, publishing was enough of an ordeal that you didn't undertake it without a purpose.
Then "desktop publishing" came along, and sending out a newsletter took only a ream of paper and a stamp (or intra-office mail).
Communications used to be a real hassle. The Napoleonic may have brought us War 2.0 in the form of artillery and total war, but communication dispatches had to be conveyed by ship or horse (or Horse 2.0) or semaphore. It might take months or years for a message to find its destination ... if it made it at all.
Then wireless came and changed everything, much to the displeasure of gentlemen businessmen accustomed to working three months out of the year and navy captains not wanting to hear from their admirals on a regular basis. Communication across great distances became easier, and while perhaps never totally casual, certainly much more common than before.
In the early days of the telephone, a similar thing happened for wire communications. Telegrams were expensive and involved a precious amount of work.
THEY WERE SHORT AND TO THE POINT STOP
The telephone came along and that started to change, but only slowly. First, the equipment was clunkly. It required shouting. It was useful only if you had an important message to transmit. Eventually wire improvements and handsets came along to change things. However, those of us old enough and having relatives in rural country may recall the party line, where several homes shared the same common line.
Oh, and when you got a call, other people did listen in.
Most of us, of course, grew up with many extensions in the house -- maybe even multiple phone lines. We'd call our friends, and then decide what to talk about. "Telephone ear" was a common malady back then. I don't think I'm alone in having left that behavior when I left adolescence. And when I left the Bells for cellular, it just got to be too costly to simply gab for hours.
But now there's instant messaging and VOIP. Jabber and Yahoo and Skype, oh my!
Time was when it took effort and research to get information. Those of you old enough to have watched first runs of Bewitched will recall how getting any kind of information took quite a bit more than a twitch of the nose. You had to go to the library -- if there was a decent library around -- and look up possible leads in the card catalogue (using actual physical hand-typed cards) to find a book in the stacks -- if they had the book at all. If a book on the subject even existed.
And before libraries, all you had was gossip, the newspaper (if there was one), the clergy or, if you were of the proper caste, a university.
With the computer's bringing in the age of the "information explosion," all that changed in ways that it's too easy to forget just how uninformed we were before.
And isolated, for as hard as it was to get information, it was even harder to convey it. Try typing your essays on mimeograph "ditto" paper. You could usually get only a few dozen copies out of it, and the first thing recipients did upon receiving it was smell the paper, then read your text ... if the ditto came out clear enough in the first place. Blogging it ain't.
Now we reach the internet age where websites are conversations and every day it seems a new start-up announces a new way to communicate, and the world (or some of it, anyway) goes a-Twitter with delight. Sign up and communicate! Figure out what to say later!
It's changing the way we deal with each other and the world. It's communication by default.
Now, to be fair, not everyone is a-twittering their days away. As Pew reported last week, only 8% of American adults are "avid participants in all that digital life has to offer." And yet the report (pdf) also found:
- 27% of all respondents said they feel overloaded, and;
- 67% of all respondents said they like having so much information available.
The second question addressed whether people think computers and technology give
people more or less control over their lives – or make no difference. In response:
- 48% of all respondents said computers and technology give them more control over
- their lives.
- 16% say computers and technology give them less control over their lives
- 29% said these things make no difference.
...which seems to indicate that we aren't eccentric in our habits but rather are simply early adopters of what others will eventually embrace, or at least tolerate reasonably well.
Or so is the hope. Here we are, all talking to everyone, listening to everything, communicating without having anything in particular to communicate.
How are we to cope?
Personally, I think that there are many different types of brains in the world. Those that require linear, logical thinking. They do awesome on traditional IQ tests, SATs, LSATs, etc. They are great at focusing in on one piece of the puzzle and coming up with solutions. Information overload would be a huge distraction from the task, but they are usually quite adept at filtering it out. Then there are also those that think very abstractly and that can piece together seemingly unrelated data points to uncover new frontiers. These are the explorers, the radical free thinkers. They quite often have dropped out (or been kicked out) of post-secondary institutions. They often make no sense. Chris is one of these. He’s constantly distracted. Constantly. All over the place. But he thrives on too much information and comes out with these amazing visions that blow me away.
Me, I’m an information broker. I reside somewhere in between the logical and the explorer never quite able to pioneer or to compute. But I’m really good at understanding, then translating the information into more actionable items. The opportunist/entrepreneurial brain is similar to the information broker brain, but it takes that translation and creates tools that help people cope with both ends of the spectrum. All ‘types’ of brains are necessary to get anything done, but the explorers are often undervalued and misunderstood (throughout history, they have often died penniless, having the opportunists and information brokers taking their ideas and profiting). I believe the outcry on the idea of continuous partial attention today is equally misunderstood and undervalued.
Confusion can be good. Lack of the feeling of security can be freeing. Embracing the chaos can open new doors. And there is always the chance that it could lead nowhere, yes. But that is a lesson in itself.
Color me too logical, and too creatively self-absorbed, to embrace confusion induced by a roar of communicated-by-default-and-what-is-communicated-is-secondary messages. Besides, you have to plow through a lot of tweets like "Drinking a glass of water" or "@joebloggs: I agree" to find a rip-roaring funny like "Hadn't pooped for five days. Got home and took one so big my ears popped."
We're so in love with reinventing the world, we tend to forget that we are not in fact standing at the end of time. The world has been changing all along, and not only is it changing now, it will continue to change. Even change keeps changing.
And while we, perhaps more than any other generation, are keenly aware of just how much our world is changing, we still tend to fall into the trap that somehow we are able to capture that lightning, bottle it up and define its essence. The simple fact is that, ten years from now, we could be looking back and laughing at how excited we were in this time, much like we now look back at the fetishizing of technology that was the thrill back in the 1950s.
What's the next 2.0? I'd like to think it at least doesn't have numbers and decimals. But what do I know? I'm stuck in the here and now.
--
Cross-posted on BlogHer.
]]>