A toe in the water, Feb. 16
This is not, and will not, become a personal blog where I dissect my life in full public view (we've already been through all that shit, thankyouverymuch).
This is not, and will not, become a place where I will talk about my work (again, been there, done that, and got into very serious trouble with my employer as a result).
The mistakes of the past lead to the rules of the present and the future: nothing about work, and nothing about my inner life.
Which still leaves me LOTS to talk about: technology and its impact on people and institutions; information and all the changes that are taking place in how it's being created, stored, transmitted, and shared; communication and how it is being transformed by this accelerating level of change.
It's a pretty big canvas, and I have a perspective on it and I have opinions about it. That perspective and those opinions will shift and evolve over time, as I live the questions posed by these changes.
We shall not cease from exploration,
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets
Therefore, I kept the name of the old blog: as I live the questions.
Rough Notes from This Morning's Session at Northern Voice, Feb. 19
I am in Vancouver at UBC, attending Northern Voice. Will edit this later when I have time.
220 people gathered at UBC Robson
Tim Bray – How a Good Blog is Like a Good Soup
(Director of Web Technologies – Sun Microsystems)
Tim Bray – How a Good Blog is Like a Good Soup
(Director of Web Technologies – Sun Microsystems)
Quickly abandoned the metaphor – “blogging is way more complicated than soup”
-have something interesting to say
- be an interesting person
- be a good writer
- be an interesting person
- be a good writer
What are your blogging objectives?
- Change the world, “Can’t not write” –would be sending email
- Make money, boost sales, make the top 100
- Bragging, get info out there, all my friends are (aren’t) doing it
- Create relationship, create something of beauty
- Backup brain, learning, find love, reach the right people
- Change the world, “Can’t not write” –would be sending email
- Make money, boost sales, make the top 100
- Bragging, get info out there, all my friends are (aren’t) doing it
- Create relationship, create something of beauty
- Backup brain, learning, find love, reach the right people
Worked on ADAM protocol at IETF: uses a group hum instead of a vote to generate consensus; humming is (generally) anonymous
Did group hum on all these objectives to see which are most popular No one hummed at find love. (laughter)
Did group hum on all these objectives to see which are most popular No one hummed at find love. (laughter)
Most popular: boost relationships and/or career, “can’t not write”, learning, get info out there
Generic blogging advice:
1. Write what you know. Everyone is an expert on some subject(s).
2. Listen. Blogging is a way to talk to the world, but at Sun they have learned it is also a good way to listen. (“majority of the smart people are somewhere else”)
3. Link often. Links are often reciprocated.
4. Post often.
5. Correct yourself (update your entries when you are wrong)
6. Generalize, Go from the particular to the general. This may make what you write have a longer “run”
7. Flame “judiciously” (Rob Scoble disagrees with Tim Bray on this) – anger adds “flavour” and interest to a blog
8. Spell-check! (Marc Canter disagrees, flamewar breaks out); cites exceptions (Mark Cuban’s blog)
9. Look good.
10. Balance hubris and humility. Don’t be arrogant.
11. Be brief.
12. Be intense.
13. Don’t tell secrets. (Writing on a blog is PUBLIC) Blogosphere is a quantum leap in terms of society’s ability to LISTEN.
14. Don’t ruin your life. Disputes that being fired for blogging is a trend. “Saying something stupid in your blog is like saying something stupid at a departmental meeting.” Bray sleeps on some posts before deciding whether or not to send it; many times he decides not to send it.
15. Don’t blog on command; if you’re feeling forced, don’t blog.
1. Write what you know. Everyone is an expert on some subject(s).
2. Listen. Blogging is a way to talk to the world, but at Sun they have learned it is also a good way to listen. (“majority of the smart people are somewhere else”)
3. Link often. Links are often reciprocated.
4. Post often.
5. Correct yourself (update your entries when you are wrong)
6. Generalize, Go from the particular to the general. This may make what you write have a longer “run”
7. Flame “judiciously” (Rob Scoble disagrees with Tim Bray on this) – anger adds “flavour” and interest to a blog
8. Spell-check! (Marc Canter disagrees, flamewar breaks out); cites exceptions (Mark Cuban’s blog)
9. Look good.
10. Balance hubris and humility. Don’t be arrogant.
11. Be brief.
12. Be intense.
13. Don’t tell secrets. (Writing on a blog is PUBLIC) Blogosphere is a quantum leap in terms of society’s ability to LISTEN.
14. Don’t ruin your life. Disputes that being fired for blogging is a trend. “Saying something stupid in your blog is like saying something stupid at a departmental meeting.” Bray sleeps on some posts before deciding whether or not to send it; many times he decides not to send it.
15. Don’t blog on command; if you’re feeling forced, don’t blog.
Asks audience for any others to add to list.
Sun has a thousand bloggers within the company – lots of street cred, has increased our listening power. (in resp. to question from Marc Canter)
16. Be sincere
17. Never lie.
18. Write for pleasure.
17. Never lie.
18. Write for pleasure.
Robert Scoble, Microsoft.
Very important to have an RSS feed, many people will simply not bother to read you.. Many people use news aggregators instead of web browsers. Going to each separate web site is much slower than having RSS feed from each site through a news aggregator. More productive. He can’t stand headline-only feeds.
Very important to have an RSS feed, many people will simply not bother to read you.. Many people use news aggregators instead of web browsers. Going to each separate web site is much slower than having RSS feed from each site through a news aggregator. More productive. He can’t stand headline-only feeds.
He reads so many blogs because it’s important to listen.
Trends – efficiency of word-of-mouth mechanism (25 million downloads of Firefox in ten weeks)
Pubsub – created a feed called “phuket tsunami” which scoured weblogs for him for news
Pubsub – created a feed called “phuket tsunami” which scoured weblogs for him for news
Final Notes from Stephen Downes' Talk on Community and Blogging, Feb. 19
Stephen Downes, web site at www.downes.ca
Looked at the relation between community and blogging, how blogging becomes a community, etc. This talk was completely unlike what I was expecting, though, mainly covering Stephen's philosophical arguments about the inadequacy of tagging systems.
What creates a community in the real world is proximity. Field of study is online learning. Almost a global presumption that a learning community is based in an Learning Management System (LMS) or a learning portal (e.g. WebCT)
The same theme is found in social networking: Orkut, Friendster, even Flickr: you have to GO to a specific location on the web. He challenges that these are communities, there’s “proximity” (i.e. all users on one site), but not community. (The audience debated Stephen on this point.)
Two major elements of communities:
1. the network – relations in and among a group of people (not merely proximity)
2. semantics – the idea that these relations are ABOUT something – a topic, a value, an interest, a set of beliefs
1. the network – relations in and among a group of people (not merely proximity)
2. semantics – the idea that these relations are ABOUT something – a topic, a value, an interest, a set of beliefs
Stephen ranted against the long tail of scale-free networks (from the science of networking, six degrees of separation, etc.). This "long tail" means, simply, that some blogs get LOTS of links, most others get only a very few links:
http://www.shirky.com/writings/powerlaw_weblog.html
http://www.shirky.com/writings/powerlaw_weblog.html
Two conditions for power laws:
1. growth – the network grows over time
2. preferential attachment – nodes with a lot of links are more likely to be linked to (the rich get richer)
1. growth – the network grows over time
2. preferential attachment – nodes with a lot of links are more likely to be linked to (the rich get richer)
Prefential attachment occurs because there is a shortage (of attention, of time, of money, of resources) and it occurs because attachments are created (more or less) at random.
Stephen posited that networks are not a set of random connections, but a set of semantically organized connections. He contrasts
Community as proximity = random connections with
Community as networks of semantic relations = semantically based connections (in other words, we don’t pick the most popular blog to link to, we pick the most salient blog to link to)
Community as proximity = random connections with
Community as networks of semantic relations = semantically based connections (in other words, we don’t pick the most popular blog to link to, we pick the most salient blog to link to)
Popular way of fixing meaning to a blogpost is via tagging (Stephen is against this as well, because tags contain only a part of the meaning of the post, most likely already-used tags only).
Philosopher Wittgenstein: meaning is use
The difference between: meaning being inherent in a word (a blogpost, a person) and meaning being constituted by the context in which the word (the post, the person) may be found. “family resemblances” in the referrers, the use, the connections
www.downes.ca/files/widercontext.ppt
www.downes.ca/files/widercontext.ppt
Can look at the world with two modes of cognition: as words, or as patterns. Words cut through the patterns, level of abstraction.
Words warp, distort the pattern. When we use the big spike (i.e. the small number of blogs that everyone links to) to define meaning, the big spike begins to attract meanings. (e.g. what is a liberal?)
If meaning is inherent in the post, meaning is derivative (in a random scale-free network, the community is a reflection of its leading member, i.e. everything flows from the big spike)
Words warp, distort the pattern. When we use the big spike (i.e. the small number of blogs that everyone links to) to define meaning, the big spike begins to attract meanings. (e.g. what is a liberal?)
If meaning is inherent in the post, meaning is derivative (in a random scale-free network, the community is a reflection of its leading member, i.e. everything flows from the big spike)
If meaning is distributed, meaning is emergent; the community is the EXPRESSION OF THE CONNECTIONS AMONG MEMBERS, there is no one in control, requires freedom, the meaning is created through diversity, not conformity.
Online learning is at the cusp of a transformation that ought as well to be informing social networking. The transition from a centralized, institution-based system depending on a top-down structure and rigid standards, to a decentralized grassroots system of creation and sharing that is based on informal and ad-hoc standards.
The received wisdom: “To increase the sustainability of portal projects there is a need to work twards establishing standards” Subjects defined as nice neat trees of topics; people organized into schools and classes. The presentation of meaning “top down”, community defined by conformance. This sort of system is ripe for abuse – propaganda, marketing.
Future Learning Exnvironments
- place the individual at the centre and a range of resources are brought in from a wide variety of different sources.
- place the individual at the centre and a range of resources are brought in from a wide variety of different sources.
Theory of community
1. a means of organizing input and experience
2. mechanism for putting that experience into context
3. means of creation, of becoming part of someone else’s experience
1. a means of organizing input and experience
2. mechanism for putting that experience into context
3. means of creation, of becoming part of someone else’s experience
Community is defined by the relations between its members.
What has to happen is that posts have to self-organize in some way. How do we filter?
Semantic social network: connecting resource metadata with author metadata. (e.g. FOAF files)
3rd Party Metadata: metadata about a resource created by the readers of a posts: includes links, references, ratings, annotations, classifications, context of use (linked to the reader); anything anyone knows about the reader is attached to that item. This leads to richer descriptions.
In the self-organizing network, self-organization occurs when patterns of organization are created and passed on.
The network is the search:
www.downes.ca/files/acadia.ppt
www.downes.ca/files/acadia.ppt
The community is the network: people and resources are distributed and self-centered; set of self-selected relations using third-party metadata to establish meaning. Meaning not only defines the community , it EMERGES from the community.
WOW great talk!
Stephen was challenged by audience members about his looking down on tagging as an approach. Downes says: the tag always under-describes the resource, and the word often mis-identifies the resource. There is also a big spike aspect to tagging: a small number of words are heavily used and thus become essentially meaningless. The popular tags are useless to Downes. If I don’t know what the tag is, I won’t find it in the top ten list, I have to start searching randomly. Tagging also enforces a regimen for search. Dispute between Downes and audience (Marc Canter etc.) over usefulness of tagging. Lively discussion, very philosophical! One of the better sessions of Northern Voice.
Final Notes on Julie Leung's presentation: Making Masks, Feb. 19
My rough notes (transwcribed from my handwritten notes) of Julie Leung's excellent talk on family blogging and private vs. public:
Julie Leung (online at www.julieleung.com, with social bookmarks at del.icio.us/Julie_leung)
Mother of three, homemaker, homeschooler.
Mother of three, homemaker, homeschooler.
Title of talk: "Making Masks: Blogging as Social Tool and Family Lifestyle" (i.e. how to balance public and private life with a blog)
As she releases her brother’s ashes on the beach, Julie asks herself “What parts of this am I going to put on my blog?”
How does she protect her children’s identities online? Children are vulnerable. One of the ways she does this is that she does not post photos of her children’s faces (although she does refer to them by name).
How does she protect her children’s identities online? Children are vulnerable. One of the ways she does this is that she does not post photos of her children’s faces (although she does refer to them by name).
Dave Winer: "We are writing ourselves into existence.”
At time Julie says she has stopped blogging because of her fears and frustrations.
Robert Scoble: “A few hundred pixels can change your life forever.”
A decision to blog, and about how much to blog (i.e. how much of one's life to reveal) may be due to openness as a political stance
But: what if what I’ve posted on my blog negatively influences someone who wants to hire me? Urges audience to think about the possible consequences: “Do you want this to be associated with your name in Google?”
But: what if what I’ve posted on my blog negatively influences someone who wants to hire me? Urges audience to think about the possible consequences: “Do you want this to be associated with your name in Google?”
Says she wants her friends and family to feel safe – so that everybody feels that what they say won’t be blogged.
Julie outlined some benefits of the move to make the private public:
• Build family bonds
• Carve out your own niche in the world
• Embrace my relationship with my children (e.g. let them take photos with the digital camera, talk with them about the photos they’ve taken).
• See it as way of integration things that happen to her over her life, the various people in her life.
• Shared stoires/autobiography
• “make an inner labyrinth into an outward journey.”
• Share your learnings – we all learn from each other and can then see the bigger picture.
• Commiserate with other mothers (“I’m going nuts!”)
• We leaern that we are NOT alone when we make the private public (and other people can relate to it)
• Connect with others in ways that would not have been possible otherwise.
• Find a place where we belong in the world.
• Downside: can relate too strongly/empathize with other bloggers who are having a hard time.
• Build family bonds
• Carve out your own niche in the world
• Embrace my relationship with my children (e.g. let them take photos with the digital camera, talk with them about the photos they’ve taken).
• See it as way of integration things that happen to her over her life, the various people in her life.
• Shared stoires/autobiography
• “make an inner labyrinth into an outward journey.”
• Share your learnings – we all learn from each other and can then see the bigger picture.
• Commiserate with other mothers (“I’m going nuts!”)
• We leaern that we are NOT alone when we make the private public (and other people can relate to it)
• Connect with others in ways that would not have been possible otherwise.
• Find a place where we belong in the world.
• Downside: can relate too strongly/empathize with other bloggers who are having a hard time.
This was a very, VERY good talk, and I hope that Julie puts a copy of her notes online. She seems to approach blogging in the same way that I used to.
The Coming Social Networking Meltdown, Feb. 26
Here is a list of social networking websites compiled by the Social Software Weblog. Three hundred and eighty entries. The venture capitalists and other people with stars in their eyes (and deep pockets) are shoveling money to multiple start-ups who hope to be the next Friendster, the next Flickr.
I've been kicking the tires on many of these services since 2002, and I think it's safe for me to state the obvious. We are soon going to see a slew of failures and mergers in this area. I mean, come ON. Who the hell needs a site so that their pets can hook up online? And there's six of them of the previously-mentioned list....with one especially for hamsters. (I'm not kidding. Go check the list yourself if you don't believe me.)
I came face-to-face with a stark reality when I attended last week's conference: "knowing" people online (with few exceptions) does NOT mean the same thing as "knowing" a person in real life.
First, most of us will NOT keep pestering our real-life social networks to join up to YASNS*. I was able to get about a dozen friends and acquaintances onto Friendster, maybe four onto Orkut, and since then I haven't dared to bring it up. Within a small superheated little bubble, social networking is cool; but for most of our friends and associates, they could care less.
And so, we extend our "friendships" to people who share own propensity to join social networks themselves, and therefore land up connecting to the same group of people (many of whom we barely know at all) in each beta-test service.
Social networking software appears to be an arena of competition where "the first wins the biggest" rule applies. For better or worse, the sites with the largest numbers of users are the sites that launched early: Friendster (started fall 2002; 13 million users), Orkut (started late 2003; 4.4 million users), and MySpace(launched fall 2003; 9 million users) are three examples that come readily to mind. Frankly, these are user numbers that any newly-launched or in-the-planning-stages service will find impossible to meet. Services will have to offer something different and truly more useful than just six-degrees-of-networking in order to survive and succeed in this arena.
(*the fact that many people will recognize that the YASNS acronym stands for Yet Another Social Networking Site simply underscores the craziness of the current situation online.)
BTW, I'd *LOVE* someone to let me know that any YASNS launched within the past twelve months has actually grown to over a million users. I'm willing to bet that there aren't any.
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