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Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Grey Tuesday
Grey Tuesday
I'm interested in this, both as an artist myself (writer, not musician) and as someone who is very involved and interested in IP issues. As well, I'm interested in the phenomenon that this implies - the rapid organization and dispersal of a network of sites working towards a given goal. The Online Protest aspect of this intrigues me, the use of mulitple online tools and mediums does as well.
I've seen notices of this on many of the mailing lists to which I belong, on many of the blogs I read regularly, and on many other sites. Tools such as bittorrent and the like are also intriguing to me as they show in part what can happen when the resources of the net are dispersed and used, and when machines have the capacity for both being clients and servers across the net (i.e. when many machines are not hidden behind NAT and firewalls but are opened up at least in part and can share services with others as well as consume services from others - in the case of bittorrent in the form of getting and share parts of data.
As well, I am curious to hear the remix, intellectually I like this concept and I appreciate the skill that it took.
There is also a friend of mine who has been working on a new business venture that is related to all of this, can't say more until he starts talkiing about it publically, but as a result of having worked with him over the past year plus talking through some of the IP issues involved with new media, I have a new and growing awareness of the issues.
2/24/2004 11:55:00 AM
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Monday, February 23, 2004
very cool Javascript Analog Clock
Perhaps a bit showy, but also very cool indeed.
2/23/2004 08:09:00 PM
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Thursday, February 19, 2004
GROW
GROW
just too cool. Found via BoingBoing which found it via my friend Jed.
2/19/2004 03:06:00 PM
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Monday, February 16, 2004
In Which I Discover My Wife's Adult Magazine Collection
In Which I Discover My Wife's Adult Magazine Collection
had to link to this - (thanks BoingBoing).
2/16/2004 10:01:00 PM
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Sarbanes-Oxley: Road to Compliance
Sarbanes-Oxley: Road to Compliance
This has to be an opportunity for JigZaw. We make software that manages a company's contracts - whether with suppliers, customers or partners. It provides a centralized repository for contracts, with easy to use web tools to view and compare contracts at a clause level of detail. In turn, this allows for greater transparency and compliance monitoring of contracts - leading to the finacial controls (in part) that Sarbanes-Oxley requires.
Our newest product which we are just launching takes this one step further by incorporating models of contract compliance connecting the contract repository to the transactional/accounting systems of the company and providing an automated compliance audit. This provides a timely and powerful means of discovering potential risks, savings, and other key financial concerns buried within the ongoing transactions of a typical company (suppliers who owe rebates/discounts, customers that might demand rebates, unenforceable terms, contradictory agreements signed with different parties, purchases made to parties without a contract or with an expired contract or just outside of the terms of the existing contract, etc.
Now I have to get my message out there, work with partners to deliver our products and sell, sell, sell (and then deliver, deliver, deliver).
2/16/2004 09:55:00 PM
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TIMEasia Magazine: Clans on the Run
TIMEasia Magazine: Clans on the Run
One of the best articles on business - anywhere - I've seen in a very long time. In this case it is TIMEasia Magazine and the topic is the family's of Asian businesses. Most notable to me so far is the family that has been running the same construction firm (specializing in temples) for 1400 years.
As a writer, this type of stuff is inspiring. As a thinker on networks I suspect we all have a thing or two to learn from these families. As the founder of a business myself, I can only barely contemplate what type of company it takes to be providing service 1400+ years later (the temple they built in the 500's they have rebuilt 7 times).
Consider for a moment what a 1000 year garuntee is. In America it takes you back to Peublos. There are a few institutions in Europe that come close, the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox church, some monastaries, a few churches, no current dynstasties that I'm aware of, and certainly no firms that I know of - though I have read of restaurants in Italy in cellars that were built by Romans. In the Middle east there are families that trace themselves back to the Prophet, the Armenian religion is quite old, and there are certainly buildings in Istanbul and Jerusalem that are ancient, but consider just how long and how much change happens in 1000 years.
Now imagine that the same family manages to run a company for that long, continuing to be in basically the same business, adapting to changes all that time, but servicing the same sets of clients for centuries and even millenium. Very amazing and worthy of not just respect but study and contemplation.
In my own business of writing software it is hard to imagine what that will mean just a few years from now, let alone decades and centuries is almost mind boggling.
But it points out that probably what needs to be thought about it not the tools that are used, but the purpose. In the case of the family described here, they have a fairly timeless primary product - wood temples.
What then is my company's timeless product? A question I will ponder and strive to answer.
2/16/2004 09:35:00 PM
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SemanticWeb.org
SemanticWeb.org
"The Semantic Web Community Portal" - i.e. a site that I should spend some serious time reading and following the links from, not specifically because my current software is "Semantic Web" but because so many people I know are working in this area, the site would help me understand what they are working on significently better.
As well it appears to be a well organized and thought out site (which you would hope it would be given the topic, but you never know).
I think there is some overlap between the Semantic Web and my MeshForum conference, though clearly the two topics are not completely related either. SemanticWeb is very much more of a technical challenge and problem while MeshForum is more about (I hope) theory and practice, and the theory in question covers much more then just computer programming.
Anyway, a good resource and worth looking at.
2/16/2004 09:02:00 PM
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Sunday, February 15, 2004
Social network search and other comments and ideas
or something I really need
So, having recently be contacted by a friend from my distant past, it occurred to me to check whether he was on any of the many networks to which I belong. As I began this process I realized, this is more than silly. It is something that really should not be neccessary to do.
Rather, I should, in theory, be able to search all of the many networks to which I belong at once. Ideally in a way that honors each network's information access controls and network topology (i.e. some networks may not show information on someone "unconnected" others might show the presence of that member in the network, but request some "proof" that I know them etc.).
This would then be a means by which I might search:
LinkedIn, Spoke, eCademy, Ryze.com, Friendster, Tribe, Orkut and any other network that shows up to which I join (perhaps even quasi networks such as Slashdot's membership pages etc.
As well, it might be great to have tools which would synch and link my various profiles - that is, provide a means by which my various identities on various networks can be interlinked. If I updated one, it would be nice to update them all, if someone joined my network on one site and was also a member of another site, and I thought the two networks roughly equal in what "joining a network" meant on each site, then could be asked to join my network on the other site as well - would be very nice indeed.
As it stands at the moment I have a truly huge network on some sites - Spoke shows over 9, almost 10 million people in my network (but shows more weak ties than other networks so it is somewhat less useful) but LinkedIn which is mostly stronger ties shows me with a network of nearly 110,000 and counting (much but not all of which is due to a few very highly connected people in my network - Thomas Powers comes to mind, but he is only ~40% of the 2nd degree connections I have, so he is not the only cause of my wide network there.
Over time I think that the many networks currently coming into being will be rationalized in some manner, just what and how I do not know. Already I find myself looking at them and trying to decide which one or ones are worth significent investment - ideally I would like to spread that "bet" around and not be focused on a single network, but rather on the actual "network" of my contacts - vs. the "network" revealed by that portion of each contact's network they have shown to a given site.
As well, what happened to me this weekend of a friend from my distant past shows the weakness of all of these networks, they do not and indeed cannot show all of someone's connections. Not just distant friends that have been lost touch with, but the many daily important contacts from coworkers to neighbors to the barrista at your regular cafe or the other regulars at your favorite diner or bar. These contacts are every bit as important in mapping out your "network" as the ones that usually show up online, but rarely are all of these captured by any tool - for one, you rarely email all of the people you see on a daily basis (at least I don't). Not to mention the many people most of us know and have known for far longer than our current email addresses (family, family friends, childhood playmates, teachers, classmates, coworkers from our first jobs etc.)
So, while many of the online networking software sites are trying to map out our "networks" they are not, in fact, doing this task.
What then are they accomplishing? They are mapping out some subset of our networks, and a similar subset of the people to which we become connected (and on and on). This implies that they will always be somewhat flawed, but understanding this on the part of the site, the members, and new potential members likely, I would claim, results in a more effective and "useful" site.
Specifically, say that instead of the broad "link to whomever you know" a site explicitedly set up a series of criteria for the people you linked to - a broad criteria but something that all the members of the site would agree to and/or could be explicitely embedded into your "link"
- this might be very broad - i.e. business contacts or very narrow "people who like Dr. Who"
But written this way, and opened up so that people can easily and somewhat transparently belong to many networks and quickly and easily participate in them, perhaps we (as users) would find them of significently greater utility.
Anyway just some thoughts on a Sunday night... put out there for people to comment on and ponder.
2/15/2004 10:32:00 PM
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Saturday, February 14, 2004
Comments on emergant democracy
(these were my comments to Britt Blaser's recent post on Emergant Democracy) repeated here for my own records and to further clarify/answer some questions that were raised.)
first, my orginal comments:
Britt,
A few quick thoughts - just thinking aloud here.
There is, I believe, a difference between the "tools" and the "design" which might be important and critical.
Tools for tools sake are one thing.
Well designed implementations transform "just" a tool into something effective and perhaps revolutionary (using your own "Amazon One-Click" analogy, pre-Amazon most online stores were very cumbersomel, indeed many still are, what "One-Click" did was emphasize ease of use as well more subtly an assumption that customers would purchase many times in the future)
Indeed, a critical difference between Amazon and in fact almost all other online companies is built into their view of historical information. Most online sites - from hotmail to online stores, routinely "purge" data from customers who have not returned for a long time (in hotmail's case as short as one month).
Amazon.com in contrast, seemingly never deletes any data from a customer. This is in large part due to their recommendation engine (a tool) which using purchasing data to make suggestions - but it is also a valuable part of why I keep going back - the memory of my past has value.
This combination of an effect which powers the site's goals, with an effect/benefit for the individuals is also, I would argue, the result of really good design PLUS good tools.
In the Electronic Democracy "space" there are a number of seperate issues to address. First, the identification of a candidate, his or her positions, and the technical aspects of an election (ballots, staffing, petitions, fundraising).
Second, once identified and registered, the candidate's positions usually need to be refined and publicized, volunteers and funds raised, and opponents reacted to.
Third, the candidate's support needs to be shown at the polls (first a primary, repeated many times for a national campaign; secondly an election)
Fourth, the candidate - assuming a win, transforms from a campaign strategy to a governing strategy - which may mean transforming from volunteers to some paid staff (locally and at the government center), perhaps political appointments (depending on the position ran for), and critically transforming from election promises into actions.
Fifth, the cycle typically repeats, though if successful, incombants have many advantages in reelection campaigns.
Looking from this perspective, is it possible that one challenge facing Emergant Democracy is that tools and the design of their use has, so far at least, not focused on all the critical aspects outlined above (and the many which, I am sure, I missed)? Perhaps the focus on fundraising and volunteer mobilization, while critical, is not sufficient.
For one, I believe, that in most things if you set up the assumption of success, it tends to help achieve that success. In an election perhaps this is "electability" - i.e. signalling that the candidate and the organization around the candidate is capable of not just the campaign, but also winning, helps win.
Anyway, hopefully this makes some sense, looking forward to your ongoing thoughts.
Shannon
Shannon Clark • 2/14/04; 6:51:34 AM
Then, a comment about my comments:
Shannon, I think you've confused the republican form of governance with democracy. Democracy isn't about picking a candidate, therefore tools for democracy won't necessarily have that focus.
Jon Lebkowsky • 2/14/04; 8:13:57 AM
My reaction to Jon's comments:
I'm not confusing two systems. If you look at our elections, there is generally speaking only a small set of people who run, and there is some degree of picking and choosing amongst these people when they do run (i.e. picking elections they think they can win). There are also a lot of technical criteria that a candidate has to meet (living in a district they are going to represent in many races, not having a felony criminal record, being a certain age, being a US Citizen and not a naturalized one in the case of presidential elections etc.)
Further, I would argue that "emergant democracy" is not just about the "movement" after a candidate has been declared, but is equally about finding the candidates and convincing them to run (think the "draft Clark" movement for a small example of this). I would predict that some future candidates will also be "drafted" by an emergant group, perhaps from the leadership of the group itself.
2/14/2004 10:54:00 AM
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Friday, February 13, 2004
Etech: ConCon
Etech: ConCon
yet another reason I probably should live in San Francisco at some point in my tech career - random, semi-spontanous events such as this.
2/13/2004 01:41:00 PM
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Thursday, February 12, 2004
BLOGGER - Knowledge Base?-?How To Network With Blogger
BLOGGER - Knowledge Base?-?How To Network With Blogger
Okay, slightly silly on some levels, but serious on many others. It does raise the serious point of what makes a "social networking site" and should they be seen as closed gardens (as most are today) or as open networks embedded into the rest of the web (and thus the rest of the Internet/world?)
Anyway something to think about. I have more to post later tonight, off to work however, have a lot to finish before the weekend and the upcoming holiday...
2/12/2004 09:29:00 PM
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Tuesday, February 10, 2004
ISNAE Home Page
ISNAE Home Page
Group I need to follow for more info.
2/10/2004 05:10:00 PM
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Monday, February 09, 2004
Conferenza
Conferenza
A resource I should read in detail as I plan MeshForum and clearly a site I should make aware of MeshForum as soon as possible.
2/09/2004 10:56:00 AM
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Pop!Tech - The Impact of Technology on People
Pop!Tech - The Impact of Technology on People
A conference I should look into both as one I might want to attend, and as a model for MeshForum in the future.
2/09/2004 10:56:00 AM
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Friday, February 06, 2004
Stephen Wolfram: A New Kind of Science | Online
Stephen Wolfram: A New Kind of Science | Online
Another item for MeshForum, Stepham Wolfram's very long book "A New Kind of Science" is now available online for free.
2/06/2004 07:00:00 PM
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Technoratisphere
Technoratisphere
Okay, in my long term MeshForum hat I have to keep an eye out for creative and interesting visusualizations. This is probably not automated, but is certainly clever, amusing, and somewhat surprisingly communicative.
Go take a look.
2/06/2004 05:37:00 PM
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Thursday, February 05, 2004
Salon.com | Losing my religion
Salon.com | Losing my religion
Good Salon article from the perspective of a Dean supporter. It reinforces my point about the challenges of networks. Her phrase "an echo chamber" is a very good one, sums up much of the challenge of any network that ceases to grow and bring in new voices and alternative opinions.
She uses religion as a metaphor, and I think it is a very apt. Most "movements" whether religious, political, or pop cultural share similar traits. Many movements over time lose sight of what grew them in the first place, and become instead holding patterns, echos of conversations and discussions amongst the converted, rarely bringing in the vibrancy and difference of the outside.
I am a big believer in diversity. I was raised in a rare American community that was (and is) diverse in nearly all aspects. Racially it was mixed in a proportion not dissimilar from the national proportions - that is, there were not "token" minorities there, but vibrant large communities of nearly every ethnicity imaginable. Economically my home town (Oak Park, IL) was and is a village with everything from subsidised housing to multiple million dollar historic estates, and the schools are good so there are students there from families that were on Welfare to families that give Rolls Royces when they turn 16, and everything inbetween. Culturally Oak Park is a village with churches of every denomination, Synagues, and even (I assume) at least one Mosque. My classmates were Hindu, Jewish, Catholic, Prostestant, and Moslem.
In short, I grew up in a very unusual community, even today most of America while generally diverse, is not specifically diverse on the level of where we live, work, play and go to school. There much of the country is still seperated into identifiable communities - whether by wealth, by ethnicity, by employment, or by race. Urban areas are, perhaps, more diverse than most suburbs or rural communities, but it is a challenge for America.
While, as a very young child, I had a strange view of the world, I have grown into a worldview that, I hope, is encompassing and celebrates great diversity. As a child I truly pictured the world as one where "everyone was a Catholic", though I had the counter argument in my own family (my Mom's Jewish) but while I was very young and attended a Catholic elementary school, went to mass each Sunday with my father, and played with friends from school, and did not have a television. I lived in a world of my imagination but my reference point was that people were Catholics.
It took a while to shift that perspective to understanding that the world is far more complicated.
Likewise, in any movement there is a challenge posed by the increasing inward trend of the movement. You tend towards talking with fellow members, towards reading communication (on or off line) from the movement, even towards socializing with fellow "true believers". In this way, your connections with people of differing views gradually grow weaker and less frequent. Without any maliciousness (expect perhaps when the "movement" is not a political one but a cult) a movement full of people inside of this echo chamber will grow increasingly seperated from the rest of the world.
Likewise a company that only listens to their current customers and to employees, without looking outward towards non-customers, towards competitors, towards potential markets as of yet completly unaware of the company, will find itself almost always eventually with a shrinking market.
Some of this is natural, customers will change over time (in the worst case they die) without ongoing new streams of customers the company will usually slow down and eventually stop growing.
The challenge I see in America today is that our media, including the Internet, as well as our social trends are making it easier and easier for us to seperate into echo chambers. Indeed, around the world this trend is occuring in countries everywhere.
Without ways of spreading thoughts and ideas (and goods and services) amongst these seperate chambers, and without ways of helping each group open up and listen to the other, we risk people increasing living on the same planet, but also living in completely different worlds.
Looking at one of the biggest issues in the world today, terrorism, especially that part of it driven by Fundementalists (Muslim, but as well Christian anti-abortionists, Hindu nationalists and others) these groups thrive on building up a complete echo chamber around their followers. A world where alternative views, thoughts, options, and behaviors are not just condemned but almost literally not there.
I believe that our government and other leaders should work very hard to change these echo chambers of ours. Not by building newer, bigger, larger ones, but by encouraging and supporting ways of breaking down walls, of getting people outside of their normal contexts and give them opportunities to encounter each other as individuals, as well as members of a group.
As well, we need to always, each of us, keep in mind that throughout life most "groups" are not either/or (however much they may claim it), rather, all of us are part of many groups. And we have the responsibility to not let any one of our "groups" drown out all the many others to which we belong.
Thus:
I am an entrepreneur.
I am a writer.
I am a "chowhound"
I am white.
I am a Chicagoan.
I am an American.
My family is Irish, Catholic, Polish & Russian, and Jewish.
My cousins are black, white, vietnamese, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, and Budhist.
I am an indepentant.
I am male and under 30.
and you see, I am all of the above, many more, and none of the above. We each have our list. As time passes our lists will change, but critically nothing on my list is "all" that I am. Nothing on your list is "all" that you are. If we lose sight of that, we as a people on this planet lose.
2/05/2004 02:46:00 PM
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Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Chicago Tribune | Chowing down in Cyberspace
Chicago Tribune | Chowing down in Cyberspace
I was there.
(at all the events in this article, and met the writer, very cool.)
2/04/2004 07:08:00 AM
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Tuesday, February 03, 2004
stevenberlinjohnson.com: My Theory About Dean's Demise: He Got Fewer Votes Than The Other Guys
stevenberlinjohnson.com: My Theory About Dean's Demise: He Got Fewer Votes Than The Other Guys
Intriguing article (thanks to Anil for the link)
As someone who just spent the weekend working on a piece of social software, that will get used initially by some of the Dean grassroot supporters, I had a new perspective on this piece than I would have had just a few days ago.
2/03/2004 10:09:00 AM
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A modest proposal
or I'm not the first but yet another idea on social networking software/sites
I am a part of more sites that I probably should be, and definitely a part of more sites than is useful or helpful to me.
At the same time, I am a serious (and I think effective) networker. Nearly every interesting thing in my life is a result, at least in large part, to networking, and to my ongoing ability to be a bridge between many different networks and communities.
Thus, I am a "foodie", an entrepreneur, a technologist, a philosopher, a writer, and many other categories each with at times very different sets of people, many of whom primarily interact with each other.
Online there are now at least a half dozen decent, and many more not as good, online "social networks". Some identified specifically as such, some adopting the term, others discovering that their business is, in fact, about social networks at least to an extent. But all of them offer a closed garden view of networks, and nearly all require you to invite your network to join and/or to discover those in your "network" who are already on that system.
This past weekend I wrote, or at least modified, a small, lightweight online social network tool - this one specific to the political campaigning process (designed to allow people to invite their own connections to join in a campaign, the software is notable just for some small technical points (using vcards to avoid typing, following data privacy issues). As it currently is it is "okay" - but I do hope to add some features to it in the upcoming days and weeks that will make it much better. From a technology standpoint it is based on Drupal/DeanSpace (and it was written for a Dean supporter, though I hope that it will be useful for others in future elections as well).
As I have been thinking about writing this software, and as I have been contemplating checking how things are at the many online networks that I belong to. a thought occured to me.
Why not set up a "network" that was, on some level, "all inclusive". That is, it somehow (insert a bit of black box tech here) integrated at least the following networks and could handle many others in the future:
Web based social networks - such as Ryze.com; Ecademy; Tribe; Spoke; LinkedIn; Orkut - here by "handle" - manage your profile info on these sites; watch friends (and perhaps "friends of friends"; notify/list messages; consolidate group discussions on these sites (tribes, networks, communities the terms vary); perhaps provide an interface to send messages via that tool
Software based communication tools - IM such as AIM; ICQ; MS Messenger; Yahoo!. As well, 'groups' such as Yahoo! Groups and others
Web based discussion boards - especially those with registrations (again offering updating capability), but here watching at least for replies to your messages/threads you replied to and potentially offering an interface to read other threads and even post replies (ideally also forking and archiving them on another site - more on this in a moment)
Blogs - RSS aggregation, but also management of registration on group blog (or bloglike sites such as Slashdot.org). Here again it is "replies to my comments" as well as "new posts by my friends"
Extending into the future, such an interface might also accomodate phone services, including a few that are nearly impossible today. For example, combining the "notification" of an IM client to allow business partners, friends and loved ones the capability of opening up an audio (and perhaps eventually a video) channel with you automatically when the two systems detect you are both active and online. Some such channels might be nearly permanent - offering a shared working environment even if halfway around the globe. Others might only be created as needed to replicate the instant communication of being in a room together at times when that is impossible.
As well such a system might combine and consolidate the information in other networks/tools as well the information in many other sites/sources to handle calendar synching between you and your network, as well as to suggest events from the small (meetup) to the large (conference) that you and your network of people might want to attend. In some cases the smart version of this tool would isolate a group of people from your contacts to enter into an active discussion with around a given event/conference.
This is a vision of a tool, likely installed on a machine - but probably also manageable via a webpage, that rather than competing and assuming that a single clear "winner" will emege, opperates on the assumption that many winners across many sectors and groups will emerge. That various tools serve different audiances and needs. (Friendster for getting a date the most modern way - vs. LinkedIn for getting an introduction to a hiring manager at a company you wish to work for.
Such a tool has to be very capable of handling vagueness and inconsistancy. It needs to be open in its workings without being overwelming (for example providing some capacity to drill into any bit of data it shows and identify where it got it and why it showed it (so which network it was pulled from, how certain it is that the name mentioned is the same as was noted as a friend from Ryze.com
Other people have had a similar suggestion so this initial entry is just capturing my first thoughts on it. I hope to expand on this further and post on it to MeshForum.org when I have the time. At that time as well I will flesh out my post with links.
2/03/2004 12:13:00 AM
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