W R Carlson: Weblog Technology Stuff

Playlist - not enough details with one Genre field - Thanks Apophenia

Tue, 04 Jan 2005 19:09:50 GMT

In this post by Apophenia - there is the sense that Genrefication is the solution - but I think the "would you make me a dub-mix" line is the key - it is the play list you want to listen too - not just the Genre's - genre's cannot be specific enough if there's only one field of information - even within one artist - there's too much variety to pack into a single genre, let alone mood, and setting.

Someone in a position of authority (read Steve Jobs? or an appropriate iPod minion) needs to think about this for a while and come up with a list of fields - 2.0. I know there are a few solutions out there, but none seem to do it quite right. So maybe there's an opportunity for Apple or Creative, or Red Chair, to come up with the solution that will take this whole thang to a new level.

====================================

music genres and moods.

One of the reasons that i loved Napster was that you could see how people labeled their music, particularly the genre. In music, i use genre like i use tagging in Gmail, del.icio.us and Flickr, only i'm a bit more obsessive about keeping them organized. My playlists are all automatically created based on my idiosyncratic genre labels. The labels are not for you, but for me and i don't care if PsyChill doesn't really exist - it's the label that ties together things like bluetech and Shpongle.

Due to 1) my new iPod, 2) the barfing of my Mac, 3) the scanning of CDs and 4) my obsession with last.FM, i am diving deeply into my music collection to re-genrify things. It is this attribute of last.FM that is given me the greatest curiosity. Last.FM is full of people with - shall we say - "interesting" tastes. I'm sorry but there is no playlist in the world that should have Gwar and Nina Simone together. Wrong wrong wrong. And why is Elliott Smith on the top artists page of the genre Breaks? No no no.

Of course, i'm part of fucking this up. I love Elliott Smith and i love breaks. Since i am in the breaks group, my listening to Elliott Smith is affecting that genre page. This is a problem. I know better when i manually genrify my music. Elliott Smith is is the MaleNeuvoFolk genre (which is effectively equivalent to Sadcore except can also be listened to when not depressed). I would never recommend Elliott Smith to a breaks aficionado.

I'm worried that this diverse listening pattern is messing up all the data. After three days of listening to non-stop chillout, goa and breaks, i should not be getting recommendations for Rancid and Ludacris. The problem is that there's a big gap between Beth Orton and Son Kite and i fear that trying to resolve those two listening patterns will result in abysmal results. The system should know that i'm listening with two different faceted patterns - the chill danah and the dancey danah.

When i ask a friend for music advice, i don't simply say "give me anything you listen to." I know better. But i would ask "could you make me a dub mix?" or "what would complement Dr Toast?" Or think about the Back to Mine series (collections based on what musicians chill out to). I want my last.FM to understand that there are moods. All of my playlists get this. All of my genrification gets this. Now it's time for last.FM. I should be able to play everything that userx thinks makes for "coding music" or for "chill out" or for "getting ready to go out." I want to be able to cluster my music. I want to be able to inform Audioscrobbler to only tell the genre group "PsyTrance" about things that i've marked Full-On, Melodic, Scando or PsyChill. Or tell them about a playlist or two. Tag the genres so that i don't blush when i see my love of Johnny Cash appear as appropriate for other Trip-Hop fiends.

[apophenia]

Back up NOW!

Thu, 11 Nov 2004 14:57:24 GMT

Just a quick entry to check the system. Been a long time... Computer Crashed - now it's pretty much restored, but what a pain.

Advice to the masses - Back Up.

I do like the maxtor backup solution - OneTouch. But the onetouch script doesn't back up everything just data files. So do a Complete backup on some removable media in addition the OneTouch - then you could do a two stage restore if you have a catastrophic crash.

Tue, 10 Aug 2004 00:50:15 GMT

Now I've got OneNote on my new and awesom Toshiba m200 convertable, but I have barely done more than launch it and install the keycodes. So maybe I need a book to inspire me to explore its functionality - particularly for taking notes (with sound) during meetings.

============

Take Note.

Todd Carter's Microsoft OneNote 2003 for Windows - 50 Book Challenge.

Microsoft OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Carter, Todd W.
A useful quickstart to using OneNote, particularly given that you're likely to get OneNote without a manual. Like most of these "manual replacement" books, the emphasis is on walking you through all the menus and options. What it doesn't provide is much in the way of guidance about how you might want to use OneNote as a component of your day-to-day work. While there appear to be books coming out now that address that issue, I would suggest you start with Chris Pratley's WebLog as a source of real insight into OneNote
[McGee's Musings]

I've been using OneNote a reasonable amount lately, particularly for taking notes at conferences (I don't have the luxury of SubEthaEditing). If I have a complaint about OneNote it's that it doesn't provide the flexible output options that I would like -- I guess I'm still waiting for TinderBox for Windows really.
[Curiouser and curiouser!]

Ditto - Congrats on the New Position Werner!

Tue, 10 Aug 2004 00:31:52 GMT

Werner and I met at BloggerCon 2003 - where we stood outside and had a cigarette with Adam Curry. Since then, I've been following him via my aggregator and those of people around him who know him better than I do.

Hope to reconnect at some point - but this position sounds like it could be really cool and fun!

====================

Go Werner!.

Go Werner!

Werner Vogel's heading to Seattle to work for Amazon as Director of Research -- I'm thrilled for him. [Halley's Comment]

Thanks again David Gurteen - for a series of interesting Social Network Links

Mon, 09 Aug 2004 23:45:19 GMT

Unlocking Human Potential Through Social Networking. By David Gurteen

I was just looking to learn a little more on Social Networking for my upcoming Exploiting Social Networking in Organizations conference in September and stumbled across a post by Robin Good on his weblog where he raves about a paper from Lee Bryant on the topic. Now it just so happens I have seen Lee speak, the last time at the Social Tools Symposium conference in London last week and was so impressed with his deep understanding of the subject and the people issues that I 'signed him up' to speak at my conference.

In Robin Good's words: "the paper entitled Smarter, Simpler, Social - An introduction to online social software methodology is an absolutely brilliant and well referenced resource to understand and appreciate the forces at work in our communication efforts."

Robin is spot on. The paper is brilliant. [Gurteen Knowledge Log]

Corporate Social Networking is Datamining in disclosed, High-Trust Networks - It is not moving beyond the Horizon.

Mon, 09 Aug 2004 23:27:45 GMT

Good example of business networking through social knowledge management. This is a case from Interface Software's files from a Boston-based accounting firm.

Concept: Query Partners for personal relationships with CEOs -> Prepare direct mail piece -> Insert personal note from Partner with the relationship.

"The marketing team queried the system and determined that partners had existing relationships with fifty percent of the 200 CEOs on the new prospect list. A high-end mailing piece was sent to each of those 200 CEOs, along with a personal note by the internal relationship holder. “The results were phenomenal,“ said Jill Hulsen, Vitale Caturano’s director of marketing. “Twenty-three of those two hundred companies we mailed to have since become clients, with resulting revenues in excess of 5 million,“ she added. “We could never have expected results like this from a mailer without the advantage of knowing about those personal relationships in advance.” [thanks to Scotsman.com]"

Now, is it necessary to have internal corporate social networking software to do this? I suppose the abilty to do the query is greatly enhanced by scanning the social networks (rolodexes) of the Partners without the effort of having to ask each of them to do it... In fact this is probably the key advantage of the system.

So why not ryze or LinkedIn? I suppose it comes down the the issue of people not putting their whole rolodex into the system - or, maybe more accurately their TRUSTED social network. I'm guessing that this example worked because the 200 or so CEO's known the the partners of the accounting firm were truly known, not just acquantances (at least a good portion of them). And as a result, you could offer a reasonable, quality service from people who were known quantities.

So, where am I going with this... There are at least two types of searches in social networks - the first is a specific search for specific information where there is usually a small number or even a single target that is unknown to the search initiator. The first type of search usually follows a path longer than 2 links - that is beyond the network horizon. The second type of search is to "mine" the data within the network horizon for contacts that have some need, want, desire or capabilty in common. Then you use the resulting subset of contacts for a targeted communications campaign.

Bottom Line - Mining Data within the Horizon, or Searching Beyond the Horizon. I suspect both are facilitated by an environment (corporate or otherwise) in which trust is high enough that people will disclose their high-trust social network information.

Quick Weber eDesogn votes on Usability and Layout.

Mon, 09 Aug 2004 00:28:30 GMT

Usability News.

The current edition of Usability News newsletter has some interesting articles. There was a study on the affect of different layouts on online reading. It was found that "the use of margins affected both reading speed and comprehension in that participants read the Margin text slower, but comprehended more than the No Margin text. Participants were also generally more satisfied with the text with margins. Leading was not shown to impact reading performance but did influence overall user preference. "

There is also a study done on the role of interactivity in online learning materials. The study found, as would be expected, that "students in the most interactive group (proactive) made significantly larger learning gains than those in the least interactive group (reactive)."

[elearningpost]

The Singularity is approaching - Brain with 20 Bill Neurons...

Sun, 18 Jul 2004 14:35:23 GMT

An Artificial Brain with 20 Billion Neurons.

A California-based company founded in 2003, Artificial Development, is developing neural network cognitive systems and wants to introduce "the first 5th Generation computer to the world." According to e4engineering.com, the company recently completed a representation of a functioning human brain. This project, named CCortex, has vast ambitions. The company hopes that their "software may have immediate applications for data mining, network security, search engine technologies and natural language processing."

This software runs on a Linux cluster with 1,000 processors and the CCortex system has 20 billion neurons and 20 trillion connections. The company says this is "the first neural system to achieve a level of complexity rivaling that of the mammalian brain." For more details about this project, please read this overview.

[Smart Mobs]

Toshiba m200 Tablet PC

Sat, 17 Jul 2004 21:32:06 GMT

This is my first post since getting my Toshiba M200 tablet PC. Will see if it actually works after moving everything using PC Relocator. In fact I've been pretty impressed with everything about this whole relocation process.

BTW this whole post is being translated on the fly by the Tablet PC input panel of the Toshiba! Great handwriting recognition, or is it great handwriting? Also -Great Wireless WIFI!

Well Got to Run

Personas, Group Personas and the Rise of Situational Software - Thanks Shirky via Megnut

Fri, 23 Apr 2004 18:39:03 GMT

Situated software.

Clay Shirky's got a new essay up on Situated Software, a term he's using to describe software, "designed in and for a particular social situation or context." I find his essay really interesting, and I wish I had time right now for a more thorough response, but my own application commitments prevent me.

One reason the situated software approach works so well is the clear definition of the end users of the system. It enables developers to build for a very specific set of users and features, which is a wonderful foundation for success. When you don't have business people requesting new features for some hypothetical user or situation, your software tends to do what it's designed to do better. In software development, the use of personas -- each persona represents a target user of the system -- is one way to address application focus and scope. But for some time now, especially with regards to social software development, I've wondered if that's sufficient. Later in his essay, Clay writes:

We constantly rely on the cognitive capabilities of individuals in software design...[w]e rarely rely on the cognitive capabilities of groups, however, though we rely on those capabilities in the real world all the time.

This gets to something I've been thinking about for sometime now, the possibility of using personas to represent groups rather than individuals. In fact, I even proposed it as a talk for the last O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference but it wasn't accepted. I'm still tickled by this idea of modeling the groups, because as Clay writes, there's a power in groups that you don't find when the same individuals operate in isolation. By creating group personas (groupas? grouponas?), perhaps we could better design and hone our software to utilize the group's power. Then we could create software that's honestly social and situated, and it wouldn't necessarily be at odds with the breadth and reach of a Web School application.

[megnut]

Yet Another Social Networking Software YASNS - site list

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 23:11:51 GMT

The list has been moved to here: Social Networking Sites and Software sorted by name
Please note that YOU can edit this list yourself to make it more accurate and up-to-date! I am not personally maintaining this list anymore, I am counting on all of you to continually keep it updated. Thanks very much.

Websites
Ryze: business
ecademy: business
LinkedIn: business
itsnotwhatyouknow: business
Friendly Favors: business
ZeroDegrees: business (corporate)
Accolo: jobs
RealContacts: jobs
Eliyon: business, jobs
Friendster: friendship, dating
Sona Matchmaker: friendship, dating (India)
Huminity: friendship
everyonesconnected.com: friendship
Ringo: friendship
PalJunction: friendship, business, dating, roommates
Tribe: friendship, business, dating, roommates, classifieds
Club Nexus at Stanford - need URL: alumni, article
MeetUp: in-person
Buddy Zoo: IM social networking analysis
*PayDemocracy: political groups
*classmates.com: alumni
*.reunion.com: alumni
*InfoSpace: yellow pages (references)
*SwitchBoard: yellow pages (references)
*Match.com: dating
*People on Page: friendship, dating
*all of the other dating sites
People Aggregator: ???

*= could easily cross over into social networking

Software:
Spoke SW: business (corporate)
Visible Path, business (corporate)
**wwPlaxo.: contacts
**GoodContacts: contacts
**Accucard: contacts

** contact software could easily add social networking features as they have all of the necessary data

Blogs with some features of Social Networking
livejournal: blog
Expressions: visual blogging
Fotolog: visual blogging

Question Marks
WisomeBuilder
NetDiva

Preliminary Analysis
It seems pretty clear that not all of these social networking sites or software will survive. Clay Shirky states "The *only* thing these services have to base a business on is lack of interoperability". I believe there is another part to the value proposition that they offer users -- the ability to go beyond 1 degree of separation. However, it's really difficult to think of situations where going more than 2 degrees of separation is worthwhile, unless you are a contagious disease - see my whitepaper Links and Nodes in Social Networks. Unless >2 degrees of separation and node secrecy are valued by users (maybe not everyone but an interestingly large set of users), an "open" networking service will make these proprietary services and software obsolete. before they've made a penny.

Acknowledgements
Thanks to the many people who helped me compile this list including:

Clay Shirky
Danah Boyd
Doug Rush
Sean Murphy
Debi Jones
Patti Anklam

If I left your name off let me know and I will add it.

- posted by Cynthia @ 9/14/2003 09:49:58 AM

Nice listing of sources for key blogging concepts - may be relevant to finding a business direction...

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 22:57:49 GMT

blogging bibliography.

Two people have recently asked me for a blogging bibliography. There are a handful of articles that i regularly suggest to people, but i have a feeling that people might have far more comprehensive bibliographies out there, or other materials that they think should be shared in a classroom/research setting. Thus, i thought i'd ask you.

What are the key academic papers, blog entries and media writings on blogging, particularly on the social analysis of the phenomena? [Also, any links to blog bibliographies out there.]

My current list is here.

[apophenia]

Context driven SNS... Need to spend more time thinking about who likes which service and How services differ...

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 21:52:55 GMT

They are not better or best (although some might be), but rather different for different purposes - I find I use the services very differently - and sporadically. In the end, I think Ryze is still doing the best job. But I do like several features of some of the others - linkedIn Orkut, friendster, no so much flickr or the rest. No experience with Tribe which is apparently popular.

Let me point to my January post to the SNS thesis - the key is how these services and other software enable you to manage and extend your social network. Does it stay online? Does it translate into shared activities? Lot's of questions and some interesting early answers - but it still feels in flux.

=============================================================

Which YASNS is best?.

Over and over again, people tell me that one of the YASNS is *far* better than any of the other ones. Usually, they want me to agree with them. Sometimes, people just ask me which one i think is best.

Given that this is me, i have a problem with this question. My problem is not personal or political... it's contextual. In this case, "best" is in the eye of the beholder. Thus, i often ask people what *they* want in a YASNS. Almost always, there's one overwhelming factor that makes one YASNS better than another for the individual: "people like me."

In a post-finals hallucinatory state, i decided to attend a gathering with some of my peers last December. A group gathered into a "panel" to talk about social software. One very smart, very respected VC spoke about how she believed that LinkedIn was hands down the best YASNS. I found myself speaking... or more accurately exploding because of her conception. It's not that i don't believe that LinkedIn was the best for her - i truly do. It's that i don't believe that there is a universal best.

When i was interviewing early Friendster adopters about the site, over and over again, they told me that they loved it because it was a site fool of cool hipsters like them. They identified with the people on the site and they loved feeling like everywhere they turned, they saw other people that they thought were cool. They were not looking forward to it being mainstream because then there will be duds on the system. Each sub-hipster group was likely to run across more people like them depending on their linking structure. (Homophily again.) Because most people joined under one context, they never saw the other "non-hipsters" that they dealt with in everyday life. When that started happening, they were disappointed.

When Orkut exploded, all of the social software fiends jumped on the train like it was going to Disney World. It was the end-all be-all of the YASNS. Of course it was... to them... It was filled with people like them - their colleagues, those that they respect, etc. It felt like home.

Guess what? At Tribe.net, there are lots of people who feel at home and spend exorbitant hours on the service. Same with MySpace. Same with Everyone's Connected. Same with Live Journal.

The battle is not simply about the best tools. In fact, that's a truly secondary issue. It's about motivating a coherent group to join, participate and make it home. What makes the best pub? Is it really the beer or the price? Hell, the only reason that the music usually matters is because it draws people that you like to the pub. It's the combination of environment and people.. but the environment brings the people so the environment DOES matter.

There's an architectural lesson there... Environment matters because it draws the right people. This is why niche shit works. The biggest joke about the Internet is that the most profitable services are barely public. They address a niche market completely. One of the most unfortunate things about social software is that everyone is trying to court everyone to their service. Frankly, a far more appropriate response would be to try to figure out which users are most suited for your tool given its current state and then try to meet their needs completely. Figure out your audience. And don't simply focus on your desired audience because the tool you created may not have met their needs... be able to shift if you find that you've built something far more appropriate for another group. Cause frankly? If you have, the users know it and are using it more completely there.

[Note: Friendster's popularity in Asia isn't because it's a good tool; it's because the way the site was structured met that population's needs/desires without much translation. It was inadvertently and accidentally best for them, not well designed for them.]

[apophenia]

Thanks Valdis - You're the visualizing Network Man!

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 21:33:51 GMT

Way to go on the Social Network thing - I love interdisciplinary collaboration! It is a funny picture!

Any of These Look Like Traditional Org Charts to You ?.

Thanks to Nova Spivack and Valdis Krebs

Web Sites/Blogs

Physicist Collaborations

IRC Channel

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

The Internet

Actual decision-making in an organization

[wirearchy News]

Hierarchy to Wirearchy - final chapter synopsis - Yes of course try to get it published (as a book)

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 21:28:38 GMT

There's No Going Back To "Normal".

About two years ago, I wrote a book proposal titled "From Hierarchy to Wirearchy". It got reviewed by a few publishers, and almost made it ...I then got discouraged because of the (perceived) ridicule or quizzical feedback I got from various sources when explaining what I intended it to be about.

Since then, I have watched the continued evolution of the two-way, read-write web, and the emerging use of blogs and social software in various domains. I am wondering about whether or not to try again.

Here is an abbreviated synopsis of the final chapter. I will welcome any feedback as to whether or not it may be worth another try.

Creating the Future - There's No Going Back To "Normal"

We will almost certainly never go back to a stable, orderly world in which human and business activities proceed in an incremental, linear and logical manner. Peter Vaill, a management professor at American University, has described in a book titled "Learning As A Way Of Being" our environment today as “permanent whitewater” – constantly streaming forward, moving quickly, generating turbulence as the daily events and continuous flow of new products, technologies, and services keep us paddling along. We’re trying to navigate through the rapids and avoid smashing, in spectacular fashion, into the many obstacles in our path.

In the world of information technology, one constant that has not yet suffered wrenching revision is Moore’s Law, which states that the available computing power on one chip doubles every 18 months. Indeed, we have seen many of the effects and benefits of Moore’s Law as computers have steadily grown more powerful, more rapid and less expensive. This continues today.

And, as computers have grown more powerful, they have also become interconnected - worldwide throughout organizations, countries and societies. While that has been going on, software and hardware have been converging immutably, so that what took hours three years ago takes minutes today, and what takes minutes today will take seconds next year. Convergence crops up in many forms, including unified messaging systems (UMS), PDA’s that will soon have VOIP capability and so serve as phones, messaging systems and mini-computers, and social networking software that will combine blogging, semantic search and online presence.

This convergence in software is occurring rapidly, as clever systems engineers and coders find ways to integrate various capabilities, yielding version 1.n of the latest and greatest spreadsheet or better yet, corporate integrated systems that encompass all the work that needs to be done internally and externally.

This convergence will soon slam into the working lives of the technically literate, those already ICQ’ing throughout the day with friends and family, and playing video games at home or on-line anywhere around the world.

As software gets smarter, today’s young people – tomorrow’s knowledge workers - will continue to take this infrastructure for granted. They will be demanding workers, and they won’t easily tolerate conditions that don’t allow or enable them to do what they know is possible.

As information and knowledge continue, endlessly, to flow in, through, from and around organizations, performance support systems help us manage the cacophony of information noise engulfing us. But in order to use these effectively, we need to learn and adapt continuously.

Why? The history of humankind is the story of ongoing adaptation and evolution. People have always fiddled with stuff to make it work better, faster, easier. Get rid of a few parts here, add this functionality, combine these two things, eliminate that one because no one uses it any more --and so it goes. There’s no reason to think that this evolution will stop. If anything, it will speed up, and we may find ourselves “standing in the headlights”, unsure which way to turn.

We may find ourselves turning more and more to alternative “wisdoms”, based less on the mechanistic Newtonian metaphors that have informed our structures and processes during the Industrial Age, and more on the principles of natural cycles and rhythms found in biology and ancient Eastern spiritual traditions.

We can hold onto what we “know” works for only so long (usually longer than the actual period of time it has continued to work). As Watts Wacker, an eminent futurist, has noted, “The greatest power operating in the world today is denial.” In Western society, we have not been taught how to “let go.”

We must learn a new dance that involves:

Holding on to our values, to what is timeless, and to what we know works for us
Letting go of what no longer works, no longer serves us or the common good
Taking on that which we need to move forward, a new way
Moving on rather than needlessly resisting change and movement able to shape and our activities

This new dance is closely related to the fundamental characteristics of Wirearchy – speed, flexibility, innovation and integration. Those characteristics cannot flourish, and be used in service to the needs of our human systems, without us, as individuals and organizations, adopting and learning to use new mental models and mindsets that enable us to learn faster and more fluidly.

For better or for worse, we live in a society of organizations. Peter Drucker, the pre-eminent business and social philosopher, suggested in a seminal article titled “The Age of Social Transformation,” that we are more than ever living our lives in a world of organizations.

Again, paradox is everywhere. Just as organizations and institutions must play an essential role in holding societies together through providing essential services, shaping large degrees of consensus, and providing workplaces for large numbers of people – they are more than ever experiencing extremely large, unstable and fluid factors that have forced them to alter in fundamental ways the social contract that has held the workplace “mental model” in place for the last fifty years.

Do people generally believe (or did they believe, until the bear markets and September 11th event) that the massive job-cutting of the early ‘90’s was an isolated phenomenon? Is there hope still lurking around the corner that the recession of late 2001 will be V-shaped and that we’ll soon all get back to the promised long-term abundance of the Internet-based Knowledge Age, with low unemployment, high salaries and a “war for talent”? Or will Jeremy Rifkin’s “The End of Work” become eerily prescient?

Reality is likely to intervene for the foreseeable future. However, what appears to be irrevocable is the shift to using software and the Internet to codify, streamline and connect everything.

Organizations will need to use the principles of Wirearchy to inform what they do, why they do it, and how they do it. They will have to take into consideration, much more than ever before, a multitude of interconnected stakeholders. They will have to take into account what and how they say, and what mechanisms they use to maintain these all-important connections in an every-which-way connected world. The Cluetrain Manifesto spelled this out for us, and for organizations, in no uncertain terms.

As for individuals faced with this electronic circus .... whew!

We’ve all heard (and may believe) that there are more opportunities now than ever before, that the Internet, new niches, branding, new business models, global reach, and so on, are all harbingers of an era of boundless possibilities. And for a while, this truly seemed to be the case. Lots of dot-coms offered very different business models, or targeted a narrow sliver of a market, or combined existing capabilities in new ways and forms. Lots of people headed off to try their luck in the Information Age’s gold rush.

As of the summer of 2001, this new economy of possibilities seemed headed for the dustbin of history. And yet today, the Internet is still here, and there are still many (if not most) organizations building more capability for performing more work activities using smart applications, purpose-built portals and the Internet.

In most instances, workers will not have much choice if they choose to work in an organization. Organizations today seek efficiency first and foremost, and will have to continue the path of ramping up their information management and business-process streamlining capabilities, or their competitors will undercut or overrun them. Workers will be forced to use integrated, efficiency-based information-work technologies, more and more.

As a generalization, for middle-aged and older generations still in the organizational workplace this will become more and more troublesome. Changes that require increased speed, flexibility and integration are likely to continue coming, thick and fast. The ability to adapt while still leading a balanced life has already become a prized attribute. Going back to the way things used to be done is an option rapidly fading in the rear-view mirror.

For younger generations, this will not be as much of an issue, for they are informed, adept with information technology, and understand that no employment is secure. They have "big thumbs", AND they subscribe, wholeheartedly, to the advice “Do what you love, because all you can rely on is yourself.

However, as the realities of the adult life cycle take hold, and as change continues to swirl across the landscape of the workplace, even the younger generations will bump into limitations. The skills required keep changing, and the need to create and manage new and old connections to achieve work objectives, place tremendous demands on the worker of tomorrow. As the demands of competition and growth continue, they will find that the need to adapt and remain flexible becomes more difficult to access continuously.

More than ever, the ancient nostrums of “know yourself” and “to thine own self be true”, will occupy a central place in the work place of every individual worker.

Being connected to oneself will become the all-important competency in a completely interconnected and fluid workplace and world.

While this has always been the wisest of counsel, there was a widely accepted and conventional structure and clear roles available to us for managing our path through life in our society. Generally, we knew where we stood, and what was expected of us.

Today this seems to be less and less the case. Normal ? What's that ?

It's up to us, at first one by one, and then, eventually together in groups, to create the interconnected meaning in which we will live - our new and ever-evolving "normal".

[wirearchy News]

In search of Business Models that are related to Blogging...?

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 21:12:26 GMT

OK OK so I'm nominally a venture capitalist - and that means I am looking for interesting new ventures. I just registered for BloggerCon and have a sinking feeling it's going to be a sad group of engineers who cannot think of business models, and Howard Dean supporters who still want Howard as President.

Now I have not looked at the BlogggerCon pages on what the topics might be - but here's a quick thought - How bout ways that Blogging can be used to enhance the effectiveness of businesses (Klogging comes to mind, but it doesn't quite feel right - Knowledge management just doesn't seem to be the right space for Blogs). Give me a business model or two and I'll connect you to some capital (maybe).

Left the last BloggerCon inspired by the revolution - but with no idea where it's going! Kind of like Social Networking Software - how to make this work...

You know the feeling?

Did it - just registered #157 - Now to plan to be there!

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 21:03:34 GMT

Borrowed from the email I just received!

Good morning! I'm pleased to announce that we will hold our second BloggerCon on April 17, 2004 at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA. We would be very happy if you could join us.

The timing of this BloggerCon is at a turning point in the US political process. The first conference was held in October 2003, when the new excitement about the use of the Internet in the Presidential campaign was front and center. Now it's time, between the primaries and the conventions, to take stock, in time to apply what we've learned in the subsequent stages of the election. There will also, of course, be sessions on blogging in journalism, education, science and tutorials for people who are new to blogging. It's a user's conference about technology, it's not a meeting where technology amazes, rather it's a forum for the use of technology.

The cost to attend is $0.

The format of the conference is four concurrent tracks of 1.5 hour sessions, moderated by a discussion leader. There are no panels. Each room will have experts and leaders, most of whom would be excellent panelists. The job of the moderator is to assemble a story by calling on the people at his or her disposal. They're like reporters putting together a story, but you get to hear, first hand what the experts are saying, in their own voices. Think of Dan Gillmor's adage that the people who read his weblog are much smarter than he is -- that's also the philosophy of BloggerCon.

Lis - confused on what it is all about... Knowledge Territories and Traces... Public vs Private all over...

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 20:08:42 GMT

Thanks Lis - Again an eye for things that are interesting (yes I did make it through your menstruation blog entry... just didn't comment or post about it).

Interesting how quickly you describe someone's blog as being about something - but when asked what your blog is about, you hesitate and can't quite describe it.

Now, not having looked at Janine's blog, I cannot say if it is really focused on "knowledge animals and their territories" or just focused on that today! I think I'm more in your camp - my blog doesn't appear to be about much more than those things that happen to capture my attention while I am in blog posting mode... (Clearly not very often, given a lack of postings for all of February)

On the other hand, if someone were to analyze the 7000 or so posts you have left in your wake (plus a thousand in your blog), I be there would be some clear themes that would emerge. If you really wanted to, you could find out what your blog is really about - and then determine if you really would be happier in academia...

Just a thought or two...

I think I will add this to the comments part of your posting - You've inspired me.

Sigh....

Reading this makes me wish I were in academia:

Janine's weblog is about knowledge animals and their territories:

The knowledge territories metaphor (KTM) I propose refers to the ways that animals leave traces and protect or show-off with their territory. In short, the notion of knowledge territories emphasises the aspect of 'ownership' and is used to describe how people let other people know about their knowledge and how people share knowledge. In addition the metaphor shed light on reasons why people notify others of their knowledge or not and why they share or do not share knowledge. Similar to information foraging theory, the metaphor of knowledge territories assumes that people are selfish, lazy and want maximal output with minimal effort. But also that people are caring for their territory and offspring and that people are proud and have an enormous drive to survive.

Central in KTM are the concepts 'territories' and 'traces'. When people work, they leave knowledge traces by doing things, writing things and saying things. People may either intentionally ('smell flags') or unintentionally ('foot prints') leave strong and clear (i.e. precise place) traces or weak and vague (i.e. place and is not completely clear like boundaries of territory) traces. People may intentionally or unintentionally leave as little traces as possible or try to remove their traces. Strong and clear traces inform other people about someone's knowledge territory, weak and vague traces leave other people in the dark about one's knowledge territory. In other words, people either hide their knowledge territory or show-off with their knowledge territory by the strength and clearness of the traces they leave.

I guess bloggers are very friendly knowledge animals - leaving lots of traces, keeping their knowledge territories open and even providing RSS feeds to make stealing knowledge much easier :)))

Damnit, I came up with a model of information-seeking behavior back in late 2001; At the time I was able to do some further readings into existing models, with which mine seemed compatible, but I don't have the time or resources to explore it on my own! <gnash><gnash>frustration!

[Riba Rambles:]

Aggregators - and Feed Readers - where's Radio???

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 19:45:05 GMT

The Rise of the Feed Readers.

While waiting for some other log processing to finish, I had a moment to review the software agents that pull the rss & atom feeds from the weblog. In past two months there were 141 unique agents that requested one of the 3 feeds. Of the unique 'users' (for some definition of unique) 75% of them use one of the big 6 aggregators.

The numbers on all the 141 agents can be found in the extended posting.

[All Things Distributed]

Homeland Security using Groove! - What other tech are they helping to push forward?

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 19:41:32 GMT

Applied Decentralization: A large-scale social system for HLS.

It's been a few months since I've posted - a very busy and exciting time here at Groove. Both in terms of what's been happening in the business and market, but also because we're closing in on the first beta of Groove V3. I can't wait to tell you about the improvements in V3 ... because after having used it day in and day out for a few months now, I've simply never felt nearly this excited about a product that I've worked on. And that says a lot. More on V3 in a few weeks!

For those of you who have been following Groove for quite some time, you may recall that the product's original raison d'être was to enable people "at the edge" to dynamically assemble online into secure virtual workspaces, to work together and to get something done, even if those individuals were in different organizations with completely different IT infrastructure.

Today, with the gracious permission of one of our most significant customers, Groove made an announcement that I'd like to talk about for a moment. It's very significant to me for two reasons: First, the nature of how Groove is being used in this solution demonstrates to the extreme the very reason why Groove was built the way it was, from a technology and architecture perspective. Decentralization at its finest. The customer's core challenge was to enable individuals from many, many different organizations - most of whom had little or no opportunity for training - to rapidly assemble into small virtual teams to selectively share information, make decisions, get the job done, and disassemble. The individuals are geographically dispersed. They use different kinds of networks, behind different organizations' firewalls and management policies. They are very, very highly mobile. And there are few applications where the requirement for deep and effective security is more self-evident.

Groove's press release can be found here.

The Department of Homeland Security's press releases related to HSIN can be found here and here, while Secretary Ridge's remarks are here.

Why was a decentralized architecture for this network so fundamentally important, and thus why was Groove uniquely suited for the task? This brings me to the second reason that I'm tremendously pleased to have had the opportunity to contribute to solving this problem. Larry Lessig taught us that in software-based systems in cyberspace, the code can define outcomes - inadvertently or intentionally - that might have an impact on society. Or better stated in this case, the system's core architectural design principles have a real impact not only on the system's mission effectiveness, but also in how it might effectively preserve and protect rights.

To understand these issues more deeply, one need look no further than the eloquent work released this past December by the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, called "Creating a Trusted Network for Homeland Security".

If you're interested in the "why" of decentralization, read the report. Look at the members of the task force. And take particular note of their proposed SHARE network and its architecture. (Interestingly, Richard Eckel wrote about it in his blog before he became aware of the details of Groove's involvement with HSIN.)

Lots of stuff here to read, but it's truly fascinating if you are interested in understanding how decentralization and peer-to-peer technology is having a real impact on government and society.

Although so, so many people are involved in this project because of its scope, in particular I'd like to recognize Col. Tom Marenic, Pat Duecy, Ed Manavian, and especially our partner Mike Kushin of ManTech/IDS. My sincere thanks for your leadership, your passion about the mission, and your appreciation for organizational dynamics, social dynamics, technology and architecture in assembling a large and empirically effective system for purposeful social interaction. [Ray Ozzie's Weblog]

Don Norman - the Andy Rooney of human interface?! Sounds good to me!

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 19:10:24 GMT

Thanks to Due Diligence for this post - Don Norman as Andy Rooney caught my eye...

In fact it makes Don's point - that things that capture attention create an emotional response... Smiling as I write this.

========================================================

The Last Day and the Last Brain Cell

The last day at ETech featured Don Norman's keynote. I have occasionally mocked Don (in a friendly way!) as the Andy Rooney of human interface - "Did you ever notice...." - as he's critiqued his way through computing and industrial design. But he's turned over a new leaf, and came to talk about 'enjoyable things', more accurately, products that create an emotional response. And the talk was a joy. Don really is a master raconteur, and his graphics were a great accompaniment - a contrast to certain other (ahem!) graphically challenged keynotes. Don convinced me to amazon his book on the spot, so he gets my pitch of day award.

I had to leave Bill Janeway's talk before the end, but caught most of it. I won't recite his dismal stats on the effects of the NASDAQ and bubble bust on the VC biz, since I get to live that all the time. I think the approach to venture formation which he proposes is a valid and valuable one, and will continue to be a part of the capitalist ecology alongside the conventional round-driven model. I'll just put in one caution - that there's a bit of survivorship bias in the examples he used - eBay, et al. He makes it sound and look easy; it's not.

By this point, accumulated sensory overload and sleep deprivation were starting to take their toll. and brain cells were shutting down at an alarming rate. I visited the programmable matter and XML talks, and Dan Gillmor's blogging/journo affair, but saw no eye openers. I sat in on Bunny Huang's hardware hacking talk on a lark (the last circuit I built featured 14 pin DIPs), and did learn a lot about the low cost of reverse engineering even the most complex silicon products, as well as the continued ingenuity of hardware hackers.

In spite of my occasional snarking, this Etech was a worthy successor to the first. My compliments to the chefs. There was great hallway and lounge action, and I particularly enjoyed my first f2f meets with a lot of folks, of whom I'll specifically mention my blogdaddy Jeff Jarvis, Scoble, Jason Calacanis, and Allan Engelhardt. I'll post some photos over the weekend.

And very lastly, my best-of-show award goes>David Sifry of Technorati. He taught me some new things about a field I've followed for a very long time, and that's a rare gift. [Due Diligence]

Convert online contacts to real people at the March 9th Boston Ryze event at the Caveau.

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 01:16:41 GMT

I've been asked to blog about the upcoming Ryze event on March 9th. I'm planning on going - even though I originally responded maybe. I enjoyed it last time - connecting with some old faces and meeting a number of new people.

Essentially, a solid networking event - and the lack of industry focus makes it a lot more fun and interesting. Usually at these sorts of things - you hang out with people you know and talk about stuff you know. Here it is a much richer environment. And for those who want to extend their social networking from software/internet into the real world - this is the place.

Join the world of people who are transforming the business networking space and extending their horizons beyond the inbred group that you spend every waking moment dealing with.

Last time, a beautiful woman I had not met before (in person) recognized me from across the room and bought me a drink! (You know who you are and it's my turn to reciprocate). It could happen to you! Nuff said - just show up! And bring business cards...

======

If you were wondering - I used the craiglist posting since the non Ryze members need a way to access the information!

Keeping Social Networking Simpler - It is not shared interests - but Shared Activities - Get together and you've got reality.

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 18:44:21 GMT

What You Smell Like, versus Your Features and Functionality.

"Ever watch dogs social-networking ?

They cut to the chase pretty quickly"

(A comment I left on Teledyn the blog)

"ROTFL !"

(the response by Gary Lawrence Murphy - mrG)

Gary has written an excellent analysis of why this first wave of what is called social-networking software is badly flawed.

I can't help thinking that a default mindset to the mental models of engineering, and the seeming male predilection for things, gizmos, linear thinking, whatever - is one of the key reasons why this first wave won't work.

This was recently brought home to me very clearly. I belong to a small group of seven guys roughly 40 to 50 years old. We formed this group ostensibly to help each other with business opportunities and such like, although to me it's clear that the main value of this group is in providing a place where these fledgling men can talk about things that matter to them. I don't think most of them see it that way - whenever the interaction gets rich and useful, they want to get back to business and money stuff.

However ... recently we have discussed (again) whether to use email, forums, a bulletin board, a blog, and so on to keep in touch - we've tried them all, and the group wants some clarity on this.

But ... what I found interesting about this back-and-forth conversation was the impatience that came through when talking about the *process* - contrasted by the fervour and enthusiasm when a question in one of the emails led to a flurry of emails about what was best - a smartphone, a Treo, a Sony Clie, etc. All of a sudden, several emails were full of the minute details of this feature or that functionality or the per-month price or what kinds of software were available.

Like young boys with new toy cars.

Have there been any women involved in designing social-networking software ? I think there should be.

Here's a tasty excerpt from mrG's musings on social-networking:

the failure of the social network sites

And yes, I do think they will fail, it's inevitable. Whether by intentional design or by blind emulations, these new black-book stop-shops all share several dubious characteristics:

they are not social networks, only flat-taxonomy directories of questionaire replies, and badly designed questionaires at that.
because they do not interoperate, because they cannot share data or interchange or allow identity migrations, they are essentially anti social, building protectionist walls around people (called 'clubs' or 'communities' but really meaning the opposite)
they don't work.

So why don't they work? Because they are not social networks.

A social network is a network with a social cause, a social reason for being. Social networks fill a niche need for interaction. Church clubs, business clubs, square-dance clubs, these form natural, anthropologically sound social networks with the intelligent self-organization moving from the local (chapter) out to the regional and then clustering still beyond. They are also self-governing, electing their executives from grassroots, organizing on the need to expand the social network.

[wirearchy News]

Alicia L. Cervini's Thesis on Social Networking Software - Excellent Overview and Elucidation of the Goal

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 18:42:51 GMT

Alicia L. Cervini's Thesis on Social Networking Software Identifies a number of Useful themes:

First, Social Networking software is not just the recent flurry of online networking tools.

Instead, it is the whole sphere of software-based tools that allow people to manage (track contacts ), grow (find new contacts to extend the network), and communicate with your social network. This includes, email, IRC, blogs, as well as Ryze, Friendster, etc.

Second, the two goals of software enabled social networking are

1 - To manage more than 150 contacts that we could probably do effectively on paper or in our heads, and

2 - To move this new extended network beyond merely an online set of "friends" to a real-world set of contacts who affiliate/meet/collaborate (in general participate in shared activities), around shared purposes/interests.

In other words, it is not because you both like red wine, that you connect, but because you like it enough to for a friendship around wine tasting events. The members of your wine tasting "group" actually meet to taste wine, hear about new wines, learn about viniculture, etc. And they form relationships based on all the extra connections that come from being in the wine tasting group space together - in other words they form a small community.

If Social Networking Software does not contribute to a shift from online contact to real-world interactions, then it will not survive. So the key is the ability to form Networks/Tribes, etc and Create Events that people actually attend.

If Churches, and Book Clubs, Fraternities, and Sports Teams are examples of Real-world affiliations that can be successful in forming real friendships. How can social networking software facilitate 1 & 2 above. Can the software enable you to manage a network beyond 150 people, and can the software enable you to get together with some subset of these people around a shared activity (like church, or politics, or sports, etc).

If SNS cannot do this then maybe it has degenerated into a form of entertainment, where you can play with the pictures and interests of others to form endless webs of potential connections that never really come to anything - wasting time doing this can be entertaining, but it is not social networking.

I was just listening to Don Norman dominate the rest with his ideas...

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 17:15:01 GMT

First, I like Don Norman,

But - his annoying primadonna style of presenting information was a bit offputting. Maybe I only heard one or two segments of this show, but it seemed like he has no tact.

Don, let me suggest that you listen to what people are saying, then respond to what they are saying before letting it rip with a different point of view. You may have great ideas, or have arrived at a pretty accurate picture of what's going on in communication styles, but your own mastery of interaction would seem poor. Build on what people say - integrating it into your worldview or the worldview of some others that you disagree with - rather than merely taking someone's heartfelt experience as a data point for launching into your views.

====================

User interface guru Don Norman is on The Connection today talking about why cell phones are so annoying. Wow, Howard Rheingold is on now. [Scripting News]