The End of Cyberspace

Locative lost and found

How hard would it me to create a locative lost and found service-- like something that would associate a digital note about a lost object with a geocode, so that when you were in a place where someone had lost something, you'd see a note about it on your mobile device.

Why other kinds of notes could be improved by geolocating them? Craigslist missed connections come to mind, especially if a service could match them up with information about you and your whereabouts. So if you'd been in the corner Peets on Friday night, you'd see a missed connection tagged to that place and date. Whether you'd talked to the person behind you about Fellini's late version or not, only you would know.

links for 2009-03-18

• China’s Competitive Edge § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
  Statistics predicting that China—with India in tow—will overtake the US in science and technology, if not tomorrow, then, say, next week" overlook "the fact that China faces a problem of its own: Chinese science, many say, is too competitive."
  (tags: science)

More on Facebook portraits

Yet another interesting reflection on Facebook portraits, this time by Columbia architecture professor Kazys Varnelis (whose recent book I mentioned in a previous post):

The Facebook self-portrait makes everyone a superstar, famous for no particular reason, but notable for their embrace of fame. So it is that on Facebook, I see friends who I never thought of as self-conscious take photographs of remarkable humor, intelligence, and wry self-deprecation. The Facebook self-portrait insists upon mastery over one's self-image and the instant feedback of digital photography allows us this. Not happy? Well, try again.

Long ago, when I was in high school, I read a book on the Bloomsbury group. I remember that the caption underneath a group photograph in the book (whose title now escapes me) pointed out that even in this über-hip clique, only one member was relaxed, only one understood that the right pose for the camera was a calculated non-pose. Our idea of the self can be read through such images: from the stiff formality of the painted portrait to the relaxed pose of the photograph to the calculated self-consciousness of the Facebook digital image. Each time, the self becomes a more cunning manipulator of the media. Each time, the self becomes more conscious of being defined outside itself, in a flow of impulses rather than a notion of inner essence.

So it was that in reading the first article, I felt that the author missed his friend Caroline's point when she told him "You can never be too cool for your past." As your images catch up to you in network culture, you have to become the consummate manipulator of your image, imagery from the past being less an indictment of present flaws and more an indicator of your ability to remake yourself.

Local bloggers as city guides

Another data-point (from the Guardian) on how the decline of cyberspace encourages digital information to migrate from screens to streets, from planning and research phases of activities to decision-making, and from formality and permanence to informality and immediacy.

Spotted by Locals is a network of city bloggers providing up-to-the-minute local information - from a cosy London hideaway to Madrid's best kept museum secret.

Like many great ideas, Spotted by Locals was conceived after a few beers. Dutch couple Sanne and Bart van Poll were on a city break to Brussels in 2007, and abandoned their customary guidebook in favour of tips gleaned from a Belgian blogger whose jib they like the sound of. "We went to the bars and restaurants he frequents, and walked around in the hidden local neighbourhood that was certainly not in our paper guide," says Bart. And in one of said bars, they came up with the idea that would imminently lead to both of them quitting their day jobs.

Spotted by Locals is a network of European city blogs written by over 80 local bloggers who Sanne and Bart have met personally since coming up with the idea. Each city blog is manned by a number of enthusiastic local "spotters", ranging from 18-year old Czech medicine students to 60-year old Belgian retirees. As the bloggers are all writing in second (or third) languages, the prose can occasionally be a little clunky, but therein lies its beauty: authentically local, on-the-ground advice. And, like all good blog content, the focus is on keeping up. "All tips are always up-to-date. Our Spotters only write about places they visit regularly, and update the information in the article frequently."

You could also do this in a more fluid fashion, if you mined Technorati for city names plus certain other terms, like vacation, travel, or a word that a service looks for.

links for 2009-03-16

• The Way We Live Now - Growing Up on Facebook - NYTimes.com
  "Even now, time bends when I open Facebook: it’s as if I’m simultaneously a journalist/wife/mother in Berkeley and the goofy girl I left behind in Minneapolis. Could I have become the former if I had remained perpetually tethered to the latter?"
  (tags: internet culture psychology socialnetwork web2.0)
• It's Been Such a Pleasure Working With You | The Big Money
  "The standard goodbye e-mail is a model of outstanding impulse control, especially considering the nonstandard circumstances that surround many leave-takings today. A lot of people are getting pink-slipped, most not for cause. That the workplace norms would still have the recently dumped omit any mention of anger or ambivalence is striking.

  "In some sense, the endurance of this extreme politeness is evidence that hope springs eternal. Many people justifiably believe that an elegant departure might help them land their next gig. But it also confirms something that cranky observers of the white-collar classes have been harping about for decades now: The system depends on forced smiles."

  
  
  (tags: culture business work)
  
  

Facebook photos and your past

From Slate:

Once you start reconnecting with people from your distant past, even if fleetingly online, your life goes from feeling like a patchwork of acquaintances and experiences to something more fluid and cohesive. This can be humbling. Or, as Caroline said when I whined to her about posting that photo: "You can never be too cool for your past."

links for 2009-03-10

• Times Higher Education - By the blog: academics tread carefully
  "Although they are still lagging behind their colleagues in the US, British academics are slowly but surely moving into the blogosphere. The appeal of academic feedback, as well as the opportunity for public engagement and the potential for enhancing reputations, has those who blog hooked."
  (tags: blogging education research academia uk blog)

links for 2009-03-06

• Philip Tetlock on expert predictions on the economy - Feb. 18, 2009
  "[E]xperts go wrong when they try to fit simple models to complex situations. ("It's the Great Depression all over again!") They go wrong when they leap to judgment or are too slow to change their minds in the face."

  "If you want good, stable long-term performance, you're better off with the fox. If you're up for a real roller-coaster ride, which might make you fabulously wealthy or leave you broke, go hedgehog."

  "We need to believe we live in a predictable, controllable world, so we turn to authoritative-sounding people who promise to satisfy that need. That's why part of the responsibility for experts' poor record falls on us. We seek out experts who promise impossible levels of accuracy, then we do a poor job keeping score."

  
  
  (tags: forecasting business prediction psychology philiptetlock)