DISCLAIMER: this is not what David Weinberger said. It is more like one of those Hollywood movies that is based on a real event. So let's just say it was "inspired" by his talk.
It's important for us not to be too obsessed with precision. That's one point he made, so I don't think he'll fault me for taking liberties with what he said. I thought it was a great talk: very entertaining and enlightening. But there is no way that I could accurately capture the effect of what he said. So I'd rather be pedestrian and focus on the "gist" of what I took away from his talk.
David takes the stage, and covers some basics quickly.
The Web matters (lots of clever powerpoint images)
The Web matters (more clever powerpoint stuff)
The Web matters a lot (somber moment, no powerpoint images)
Why does the Web matter so much?
Powerpoint image of Michael Jackson
It matters because it's weird, and weird is fun sometimes.
Powerpoint image of Ray Kurzweil
It matters because we are...alienated.
What does Ray Kurzweil have to do with alienation?
What, are you kidding? The man says we are all going to become machines one day.
What kind of person would say that? Well, I'll tell you what kind: an alienated person.
(Sidebar: Weinberger likes to pick on Kurzweil and that comes across somewhat in the presentation).
But let's not focus on Kurzweil so much.
Let us examine ourselves, he finally says. What can we learn from our willingness to believe, or from our reluctance to question, the things that Kurzweil says?
Or more, precisely, why are we drawn to the uptopian promise of becoming machine-like? Simple.
Because we are alienated. Our default philosophy is to accept simplistic notions about who we are and what we are capable of becoming. So when Kurweil says one day we will have the technology to live forever because we will simply become software, we don't say 'hah, what a crock! Instead, we say hmmm, that sounds interesting. And that proves that we are deeply, deeply alienated.
But what does that have to do with why the Web matters so much?
Well, (here comes an actual, direct quote): "our attraction to the Web is inversely proportional to the depth of our alienation."
And a lot of companies don't "get" the Web. They try to use it to sell us stuff, but they are very socially awkward in their approach. They keep using this mass-marketing, impersonal approach in trying to get us to use their products. How lame.
For God's sake can't they see we're seriously alienated here and trying to use this Web to have a conversation in a human voice? No, of course not.
Corporations are not capable of being alienated, or anything else for that matter (paging Dr. Kurzweil to surgery).
So this is why we shun these corporations on the Internet. They just don't get it. They are so clumsy on the Internet. Why can't they lighten up, and just be alienated like the rest of us?
Corporations like things neat and clean. That's why Kenmore has a website that looks bright and shiny like a well-lit laboratory. Very attractive. But the Kenmore website is totally useless to anyone who wants to actually find out basic stuff about Kenmore washers and dryers. Like the physical dimensions of the stuff, or, say, whether the dryer's buzzer is too loud.
If you want real basic human know-how about Kenmore washers work you have to follow the Google Brick Road 'til you wind up at a site where a strange character named "Rinso" lives. Rinso hangs out in a discussion board web site filled with people who are steeped, in varying degrees with knowledge about laundry cleaning products. And among this gnarly cyber-tribe, Rinso has emerged as a specialist in lint. More specifically, its molecular and chemical properties.
Rinso is weird and doesn't spell so good, but is somehow trustworthy. Or at least more trustworthy than that clean old Kenmore website. Why? Well, because he's flawed (bad speller) and seems obsessed with lint (knowledgeable in a quirky way). So we can probably rely on Rinso. At least when it comes to information about the lint-handling capabilities of Kenmore dryers. If Rinso says Kenmore has good lint-handling capabilities then you can book it.
But what if Rinso is really a corporate shill? You know these corporations are getting more clever all the time. It's so hard to know who is really a human being, and who is a non-alienated corporate shill. This is the modern day Turing test, my friends.
Well, these are just some of the things that we need to think about. We love the web for a lot of reasons: Michael Jackson, Ray Kurzweil, and Rinso.
And we like it because it reminds us of something. And what is that?
It reminds us of ourselves.
And the best part of ourselves is when we are sharing and connecting with people, which is what the web was built for. We are at our best when we link to other people and send traffic away from our own sites (selflessness) and direct them to places where other information might be to help them (compassion). The web is a place for people to work together and do good things.
Now I feel better. Still alienated, but better. The audience feels better too.
Dave thanks the audience, and they in turn provide lots of applause.
It was a great speech, and you had to be there to really appreciate the effect it had on the audience. Just a reminder, like I said before, my account is seriously distorted. But what did you expect from me, anyhow? The TRUTH?
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When you get a lot of geeks together, inevitably you hear people speculate about "killer apps." These are not things that appear in bad Japanese horror movies, but are revolutionary applications that dramatically change a particular domain (i.e. spreadsheets were a "killer app" for accountants and business types). So here, culled from drunken meandering among these techno-illuminati are my hazy recollections of somethings that I have lumped together under this theme, which I call In Search of The 'Killer App.'
Jesse Garrett a user-centered designer from San Francisco, believes that we are being confronted with more and more technology, with different interfaces, and we need to make things simpler. What's going to be hot in technology? Wireless networking, obviously. But maybe that's too obvious. What's a not-yet-obvious killer app? How about Rendezvous, the new network thing developed by Apple? Rendezvous is a killer-app because it makes networking ridiculously simple, which is going to be really useful as more networks become wireless. I'd like to just put a new device on my wireless network and have all the network devices become aware of it. Actually, I'd like to announce a new rule to my kids and have them actually listen and obey it. That's a killer app.
Scott Heiferman (who designed MeetUp) thinks that people are the "killer app" and even puts up diagram during his panel discussion to reinforce the idea. Who'd expect a person who runs a site that helps people meet up in the flesh to say that? Here's a prediction: one day, you'll hear a politician say it. Still, it's a good point. Not the kind that sounds 'cutting edge' but it is the point of all of this high-tech 'connectivity', right? So, even though it sounds platitudinous, I agree with Scott.
Doug Lenat is an A.I. guy and believes that 'common sense' is a killer app, at least if we can teach it to computers that would be really earth-shattering. Common sense is hard. For computers, at least.
Dave Weinberger's speech makes me think that he believes that ambiguity is a "killer app." We need it, but we keep trying to avoid it. Seminal quote from Weinberger's speech: "We're not very good at modeling ambiguity." Something tells me he's not in favor of funding research that attempts to 'model it' better.
Jargon is always a good app, even though it's not "killer". I overheard, at one panel, some phrases that I have creatively strung together: "We need to use 'feedback mechanisms' to 'drive the agenda' and we sometimes need 'task-oriented process' and we need to work on 'increasing people's engagement' and one way to do that is to let people 'own their own work.'" God, there's nothing that stirs my soul like some really vapid jargon. People who say these things inspire me to take up grant-writing, where this sort of lingo actually has practical application.
Rumors are a killer app. No one said this outright, but the rumors about 'why Google bought Blogger' were in full-force so I'm going to start a rumor that someone said that "rumor is a 'killer app.'" One guy actually did say that the reason that Google bought Pyra was similar to why they bought Usenet discussion groups.
For example, he said, If you search for "Windows Administration" you get this page. And if you click on the first result you go here, which is about Citrix Metaframe. And notice that the Google ads are only about Citrix Metaframe, which is a smart Google algorithm. So, presumably, Google will do this with blogs.
Google has the ability to target ads for the free Blogger sites based on greater intelligence than Blogger could, just like with the Usenet example.
I also heard that Google could refine it's news filtering by prioritizing searches based on 'freshness' which search intelligence could detect from blogs based on the time and date that something was posted. Whatever. Among the SXSW crowd, the Google/Blogger acquisition has the same mystical force that the AOL/Time-Warner merger had for the mainstream media in the dot-com boom. Welcome to Blogland. Rumors rock.
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Not being able to stay for the whole Lessig speech because I had to leave for the airport to return home.
And, of course, missing the The Porn Music Happy Hour that will take place on Tuesday at the Lucky Lounge.
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