There’s a reason old dogs die.
We can’t afford to be the frog in the hot pot who doesn’t realise the temperature’s rising and hence doesn’t jump out. It’s good to have someone with peripheral, global vision/perspective and a commanding voice speaking out about this.
Watch his latest TED video here.
I’m grappling with a problem/situation Cam Reilly brought up in these posts semi-recently [1] & [2]. The issue is that of managing and monitoring (and keeping up with) conversations as they wend and weave through online platforms. This includes blogs, forums, rss, twitter, static pages, second life, podcasts, etc, etc. Most of these have formed in the last few years and we are still trying to grasp the function, application and fashion of each one both exclusively and inclusively.
I read Cam’s first post via rss feeds on my mobile and wrote down some thoughts i had as to a solution. I see value in the process expanded on below but it could be on the wrong track altogether and I’d love some dialogue.
Wikipedia aims to be the sum of all knowledge, the site i have in mind would aim to be the sum… no map of all conversations.
The solution i see to maintaining conversations across many platforms, whilst ensuring continuity and relevance, is the use of meta data that functions a little like a blog trackback. The site i envision would use meta tags within each ‘communication event’ to collate and repurpose a number of related communication events in to a conversation. Imagine creating a blog post, podcast, video, tweet, blog comment and then pasting the address of that communication into this new site. It then returns an identity code like urltea.com would a shortenned url. That identifier is then the unique tracking mechanism for the conversation you started. Anyone wanting to join the conversation does so by any means that can implement the unique tracking code with each event. This of course would need adoption from the main conversation sources online but would be doable (e.g. a plugin for wordpress, an app for facebook, get tweetr/snitter/twitter on board).
From here the conversation becomes universal. Any site/channel that integrates this tracking code will be a platform for these universal conversations. They can now transend any platform. Back at this new site the communication events that use a particular tracking code are sucked in like a wordpress trackback and now the fun starts. You could do a bunch of mashups, feeds and/or visualisations that would add value for the participants of each conversation. At its simplest, this site could display each conversation as an rss feed. Getting more complex, you could generate advanced timelines or even track braches of conversations via the use of multiple (or incremental) tracking codes. This phenomenon could end up as ubiquitous as a “digg this” button.
I emailed Cam this concept and he was wondering how it differed from technorati tags.
They are good but way too general. i’m thinking of more localised conversations. It needs to be able to not just track, sequence and integrate blog posts but get right down to the level of blog comments. Once sequenced and mashed up, blog posts and comments would be on an even par in the whole scheme of things.
From a user standpoint, if you see a tracked conversation event, you grab the conversation tracking code and get up to speed on this new site before entering into it. You could also search for conversations or have them suggested to you. This might be a next gen technorati? I don’t use technorati much as the conversations aren’t from people i know straight away. What i’m thinking of is a way to mainly track/merge and participate in conversations where you know some of the people.
Take this conversation for example. Let’s say you entered a link to your original post into this proposed site and you get back a code. Comments on that blog post might be auto included as having the code but if my email was actually a post on my blog, i’d use the code to link it to your original post. Now someone on twitter hears about the conversation (blog post) in a weeks time - they simply find the original code and can trace the whole conversation on this proposed site or via rss feed (no matter where the communication events occurred). They could even filter it by date, length, tags, etc).
You could join two seperate but related conversations together, but they’d be time relative. I think the best thing about what i’m talking about is the integration of three main elements; the communication event, its timestamp and it’s author. Join a number of these together in chronological order and you have a conversation independent of the platforms it was created from.
This could really work. If you imagine that two years from now the code is common place just like the “digg this” button, then you can see how it may work in a practical sense. I really do see it coalescing all the platforms so that it wouldn’t matter where you post to just that you reference the conversation.
A long ramble but what are your thoughts? Let me know if there’s any merit to the idea at all.
btw: I think logistics is a applicable term to use here. Its definition - “the process of planning, implementing and controlling the efficient, cost effective flow and storage of raw materials” - is a good way of thinking about meta-conversations. Flow and storage of communications events and conversations.
Here’s a fun little powerpoint game to test your reasoning skills. Can you get this odd bunch over the river? As a guide, I think it took me just over 5 minutes to complete.
This report - Newspapers Cost Employers $5 Billion is a nice (satirical) take on an article by news.com.au claiming that facebook.com (their competition for workplace internet eyeballs in many ways) could cost Australian businesses $5 billion annually in workers’ time.
This post is a voicing of ideas I was reminded of when the website of The Australian posted a poll regarding politics in Australian religion. This is a crucial ideal that is misrepresented by virtually all concerned. “Should Christian values influence Australia’s political agenda?”
Hell No. Someone justify to me why it should.
Christians will say “It’s obvious, do you want good or evil to influence politics?” Everyone always focuses on the bible as being a guide book to leading a good and wholesome life. That notion is utter BS. Everyone has allowed biased massaging of the text in the bible for long enough!
Let’s start by looking at some of the presiding morals and themes in the first half of the bible;
Now the second half. I know what you’ll say, “the new testament is the only one that counts, jesus wiped the slate clean”;
You might now say “Well what better source is there from which to get our values and ideals, etc.” Look around I say, broaden your horizons. The “good” ideals in the bible spring up in almost all religions (monotheistic or otherwise) and have been around a lot longer than the bible. By these I mean the “do unto others…” stuff.
There is scientific reason for behaving in “good” way towards others and without religion we would not all be killing each other. All these “for the common good” and “treat others kindly” notions are so obviously part of tribal living so that it could function as one unit and survive longer than other tribes or wildlife. Read some Richard Dawkins. We see it today in many facets. Sport is only enjoyable for the competition and in many things we continually side ourselves into smaller and smaller niches. To feel a sense of belonging - in rubgy, a NSW fan will hug a Queensland fan while the Wallabies are playing and then stab him in the back when state plays state. It’s survival and selfishness.
We look for science for the latest medical advances why not look the ethicists for the latest on the ethics frontier. Let’s pay the great forward-looking thinkers the respect they deserve. The philosophers, futurists, physicists, ethicists, etc.
Anyway have a think about it for yourself and hit me up on all the points so I’m forced to back everything up.
Then take this quick poll here. *edit: the poll is no longer available and i can’t find the results*
(wow a whole post with no youtube video… I must be passionate about this)
This is astounding. Watch right ’till the end. Info on what nlp is here.
btw the blonde guy is from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Two great movies.
This is also a good watch for anyone unsure about Mediums.
This is very interesting to watch. Also think of the ramifications of this type of thing from business and legal standpoints if it proliferated and was perfected by thousands of people. Watch each one in turn. Think of the Imperius Curse if you’ve read Harry Potter.
Info on what nlp is here.
Douglas Adams - the writer of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - has boiled down all my thoughts and feelings on the theory of religion/god (and then some) into ten minutes of succinct brilliance.
Please take the time to watch/listen to the video below as it may give you the words to quantify something you’ve always felt.
