human 306 last reading response

The three rules for successful social networking tools are as follows: The why, The how (the tools used) and The bargain (what your going to get if you decide to contribute to this system). Also known as the promise, tool, and the bargain. Understanding how the tools used in relation to the subcultures in which they originally emerged seems to be a key element to finding a successful “modus operandi” for said social tool. The offer has to be more enticing than the current norm, a motivator or positive gain must be present if we are hoping to entice the individual to contribute to our platform. The individual must feel that they are going to be unequivocally rewarded for all of their efforts (it should also be noted that this reward can be offered as an obvious option, or as something more implied than literal). You must question how the system operates. Is the chosen format fluid (free of annoying hang ups, or is it mired down in inconsistencies’ and disconnections?) and easily negotiable? Is the system interactive and is there the possibility for a reciprocal exchange presented in the operating platform. One of the ways we can question our current social networking tools is to look at the previous systems and their forms of evolutions. What previous problems existed that we needed to find solutions too? How were these problems addressed, and lastly how did these tools adapt and evolve to meet the needs of the target buying/using/operators? We can use the cell phone as an example. The cell phone came into existence because of our ever increasing busy life style and the simple fact that we were spending less time at home. The need was assessed; a portable system of communication was needed for the public. As the public became accustomed to the this new technology, the possibilities for this platform to evolve escalated with its growing demand. The cell phone evolved not only into a user friendly communications device, but a camera, a music player and eventually a hand held personal computer. Where will this environment of networking and personal choice lead? What will the social networking systems of the future look like? Will we become so personalized that we will be the directors of our own environment? Are the directions that we are heading in a good decision, or are we heading down a quick road to destruction? At this point no one is sure, but i have already witnessed barriers falling down upon themselves. We are seeing the circumventing of dictatorships by the very people they wish to control. We are witnessing the collapse of the social strata due to accessible information to all and an interconnectivity like never before.

human week 5 response

this week has had a lot of sharing. I have been showing the materials and outlines to a friend of mine (who is equally proficient as my self – or is that deficient regarding computers). His response was interesting, because he was totally interested in what i was conveying to him, and after a while i inquired if he was getting bored with what i was showing him. He said that he was totally interested in what he was learning and wanted to know if the materials were available anywhere on line (for public use). i told him that i wanst sure, but that he could access anything he thought might be of particular interest. His response was that everything i was telling/showing him was interesting and that it seemed a little overwhelming to choose where to start. so ill send him the curriculum one week at a time. we then began sharing some new bands that we had found recently (the band “santigold” was my favorite) and my buddy James gave me a c.d. to share some new music. On the disk were approx 1000 new songs. We just opened up the music and listened to the songs we liked starting with what we recognised(without feeling daunted or over whelmed, even thought there were 4 days of music being unpacked right in fromnt of us!)

The point of all this (other than to admit piracy) is the particular ways in which we process new information and the idea that a technology is considered “daunting” when its new to us, but the apparent rate in which we are adapting the this technology (or simialre tecnologies  in the case of an intro to blogging vs sharing new music) is staggering.  As technology speeds up, so does the rate in which we adapt to it (music files are old school now), even if the technology is relatively new to us as an individual, we see its use everywhere and ( i think) are reassured by it. For example, i have had a cell phone for nine years and my mother has never had one. But she is going to get one in the next couple of weeks, and she isnt daunted by the thought of operating one (but you try and hook her up with a flicker account and she will just sit there looking at the screen with no idea how to proceed)!Why? Is it because even though she has never used this tec before (i just showed he how to use mine last month) it has already penetrated the human consciousness, that this tec has become synonymous with the every day? how does “acceptance” occur? when and why? is it marketing? is it advertising?  sharky talks about the tec becoming ubiquitous and then invisible. Is it necessary for a tec to become part of the human consciousness before it can become invisible, do we have to be fully “used” to an item before this shift occurs, or as time and technology advance at  increasing rates, will we see a shift in the way we adapt? i think one of the key components we need to have  (and are currently seeing the beginning of ) is a need for a more organic interface. We need to have computers that leave us unencumbered and give us an interface that is fluid. It will be at this point that we wont need to adapt to the changes in technology, nope, it will be at this point that technology has adapted to us.

Human 306 week four

This week’s readings focused on the shift currently occurring within both  corporations and  formal institutions regarding the reduction in production costs, and how these reductions are reshaping the way traditional business models are structured. Due to better and more customizable emerging digital technologies, the individual is able to function on a more productive level, omitting previously excessive bureaucratic and cumbersome methods of operation that were designed for a mass and not for the specific needs of the individual.

The text continued onto cite several different platforms in which these modes of streaming are carving out a significant niche within both the online community and arguably the very basis of    human interconnectivity itself. One of the more notable examples the text provides is an example taken from the tragedy of the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004. Flicker was used by the online community as not only a means of posting pictures of the devastation, but as a means of reconnecting loved ones, and finding  the lost, as well as a community of support (at a time when the government was unable to respond due to the chaotic devastation and bureaucratic structuring).  It is through these new forms of digital stream lining or “ease of assembly” that the online community is currently providing a model of production that is not only  quicker and more efficient than the previous models provided by the status quo, but  more organic in  approach for the user. This ease of assembly is found not only in the formentioned technologies, but the social formats in which we use them. For many people these processes are becoming an everyday activity, with more users acquiring this emerging knowledge every day. For the first time participants are being allotted a forum for true communication, in a manner that is both less obtrusive and more customised to the desires of the individual. We have entered into a time when the individual truly has a final say on what they want to learn, research, and co-ordinate.

human 306 week three

This week’s readings focused on the changing environment of the work force, and the manner in which communication its self is both processed and interpreted. What new models will the human consciousness adopt? are we seeing/experiencing the dawn of a new age in communication, are we seeing  a shift towards a more “organic” model of operations? I hope so. Through my entire scholastic experience, i have struggled. I have struggled with conforming to a specific model that wasn’t created with the individual in mind, but the ideal of one person produced and formatted  form an archaic antiquated set of values (a singular prototype, a robot).  I would love to see a more organic model emerge, a socialistic model formatted to the individual. One example is my seven year old nephew who really likes robots. I would love to see a curriculum (physics, math, chemistry, electronics, and psychology for example) that is customised to his interests of robots, encouraging him to explore is own interests and thus be more motivated to learn in his own manner, a more organic approach.

The new emerging profitability of “network” modeling operations  affords the public not only a greater sense of customization, but a greater visibility, accountability, interconnection and most importantly democratization of both data and language itself.  This interconnectivness and what i would like to call “organic streamlining”  is becoming more and more apparent through our increased use of open programming communications (such as wiki’s and flicker). We now have the ability to customise not only our sources of incoming data, but the way we interface with the materials themselves! We are now living in an age where the individual (either as a creative or as a consumer, some would say synonymous) will have the final say as to what values, products, or technologies become implemented in the public sphere. I have never before been so excited by what I’m seeing, and have never before felt like my own opinion and ideals/agenda, could create such a resonance.

edgar allen re mix

Edgar Allan Poe

The Complete poems of Edgar Allan Poe

The Raven (1845)

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this, and nothing more.”

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
“’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;—
This it is, and nothing more.”

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you”—here I opened wide the door;—
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore!”
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”—
Merely this, and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
“Surely,” said I, “surely that is something at my window lattice:
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore—
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;—
’Tis the wind and nothing more.”

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a saintly lad of a early age of merely four score
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady,  awkwardly perched Kinda haphazardly, because said perch was rather small, and in my  balance  off because i had been drinking

above my chamber door—
Perched (tipsily) upon a bust of Pallas (wouldnt be the first time i stood on a phalls, i mean bust, oh what ever) just above my chamber door—
Perched, and sat, and nothing more (hiccup).

Then this ebony Lad beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance he wore.
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore—
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”
Quoth the David, “Nevermore.” (when i had got there my travel book said that the English (particularly the Elizabethans) used the term “Never more” as a  greeting, as way of saying, sure come into my home and sit in high places and stare at me unblinking, its good manners)

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning—little relevancy bore;

(hey man i was just going with what the book said)
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door—
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as “Nevermore.”

But David, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered—Im a cheap drunk not a feather then he fluttered—
Till I scarcely more than muttered, “other friends have flown before—
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.”
Then the bird said, “Nevermore.”

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
“Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore—
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of ‘Never—nevermore’.”

But David still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous boy of yore—
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous boy of yore
Meant in croaking “Nevermore.” (i had fallen asleep by this point, but my sunglasses were on so he couldn’t see my eyes were closed)

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o’er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o’er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor.
“Wretch,” I cried, “thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite—respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!”
Quoth the Raven, “quit shouting my head hurts, and my name is david, not lenolium.”

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!—
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—
On this home by horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore—
Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!”
Quoth the Raven, “i haven’t been to gilead yet, i came over on the ferry from dover, and i don’t have any balm, but i did pick up some really good hand salve form the little market next to the pub, they told me that you were hosting rooms for rent, but the bar maid warned me that you could be a little reactionary and that i shouldn’t sneak up on you . Nevermore”

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil—prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore—
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”
Quoth the Raven, “are you a dope fiend or just drunk.”

“Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend,” I shrieked, upstarting—
“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”
Quoth the Raven, “relax man, (yup dope fiend for sure) what was he smoking in that pipe of his. nevermore”

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamplight o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!

(im writing to lonely planet about this, you didn’t even share! What a jerk.)

Human 306 second reading

i am excited to be alive. I am excited to be witness to the beginning (for me anyway) of something greater and more connected than what we have previously seen.  Through  emerging digital technologies (such as this blog) for the first time in human history we are seeing a shift from the dominating control of the elite, to a more interconnected user friendly format of operating, that provides most individuals equal opportunities to access, design, and control what they see, when they see it and how it is communicated! this shift from mass producer, to the personalised designs of the individual seems ridiculously obvious now that it has arrived and makes me question what model had i excepted previous to this one?

At this point in the game (while im riding this steep learning curve) i want to mention two aspects of the open source environment that i find incredibly exciting. The first of these “aspects” is what i see to be the dismantlement of higher classes and the elite. Since the earliest forms of education, man has horded information and used it as a from of commodity. Giving the “privilege” of knowledge only to individuals that could afford it, in turn creating an unbalanced reality for many of the worlds peoples. Lack of education has resulted in destitute classes, poverty, war and famine ( to name a few), and created a world elite that one can only ( generally) access if one was lucky enough to be born into it. Having grown up in poverty (only by North American standards,  which is a form of elitism within its self) my family has always struggled to make a life that met the standards of today’s society. As of this writing i will be the first person (going back 5 generations) to complete a post secondary degree. My family settled the Hope /Princton area, owned land, and explored the entire B.C. interior, but I feel that  it was a lack of education that prohibited us form gaining greater wealth. With this new on-line shift towards open education (such as MIT’s free curriculum) the knowledge a person can receive is mearly determined by a simple question, How much do you want to know?  Any topic is available to us in (increasingly) any format (im taking a beginners french class though MIT’s materials, ill let you know how it works out!)

The second aspect of this open information that i find incredibly exciting is the benefits any individual can receive form creating work in a more collaborative manner. I now have the ability to create (an object,photo,program, or even this self masturbatory writing) a work that can be accessed by anyone and improved upon in ways that i would have never thought of! Through feedback, and limitless interpretations i can see the work grow and shift, to become something truly captivating and wondrous. More than ever we are seeing examples of the individual taking power and directing it in ways that no one ever thought was possible, how far can we go in our collaborations? will we create a platform where every aspect of our lives, every object we have will be designed by our own needs and ideas (in turn being shared and evolved even further). Im exited, and i have only begun to take a look at what is here.  in this emerging world of inter-connectivity, in which (more and more) the individual is  the designer and director, we can develope an new ideology where our learning is only dictated by our desires, not by the controls of others, so i ask my self and anyone reading this, How Much Do You Want To Know?

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