When two broadcasters on Twitter or some other social media connect in the common area and create a discussion is when the magic happens. This is what social media is all about, connecting with each other and talking!...
I followed a debate over Bambuser about School 2.0 at Almedalen (a camp/convention for Swedish politics). Using Bambuser was a nice touch to such a debate and the online viewers were at the start included but later on forgotten but we had our own good chat in our channel. The debate was of varying quality but made me think about some of the things they talked about.
The main thing they seemed to want to change in school 2.0 was a use of social media but unfortunately they missed the debate over what it would be used for. This miss is something I've noticed a lot lately, much discussio...
Found a great manifesto expressing how I feel towards the internet.
The internet is made of people. People matter. This includes you. Stop trying to sell everything about yourself to everyone. Don’t just hammer away and repeat and talk at people—talk TO people. It’s organic. Make stuff for the internet that matters to you, even if it seems stupid. Do it because it’s good and feels important. Put up more cat pictures. Make more songs. Show your doodles. Give things away and take things that are free. Look at what other people are doing, not to compete, imitate, or compare . . . but...
With the emergence of new social media the gap between people seem to shrink. We share more and more about ourselves with each other over the internet and gossip has in many cases moved online. Keeping our social networks online allows us to keep track and in touch with more than the theoretical cognitive limit that we can have according to Dunbar's number (even if we may not have a 'stable social relationship' with most of them).
Another interesting aspect of when clusters of people in this size form is the effect it may have on a social scale. One example of a group's altered properties c...
Social Media is relatively new for most people and many are still exploring the possibilities and uses of it. One of the things that happen with social media is that we become more transparent, we share more of our self to more people then we normally do. This transparency is good in some ways and less good in some.
There's been several stories of sharing too much information on social media. One example is the case where a British women forgot she had befriended her boss on Facebook.
Another example is the recent case of a Swedish guy who published a picture of himself where he wore...
Borrowing the title from a very famous book called ”The Inmates are Running the Asylum” by Alan Cooper. This book talks about the problem for normal people when all functions and digital objects work according to ”programmer logic” which might seem like the best and easiest way for them since their brains are already wired to think in that way. For the rest of the population it requires a learning curve instead of working intuitively. One example of how complicated some objects can be are the remote-controlled who usually are very confusing unless you’re used to that or a similar model already. Everyone interested in usability should definitely read Cooper’s book.
The reason I’m writing this post about usability and technocracy right now is the frustration from spending an hour yesterday trying to install a new version of Tweetdeck. The first and biggest problem I have is with Microsoft and their ”safe” Vista7 that doesn’t allow me to install what I want even though I’m the sole administrator and user of this computer. Microsoft has decided that the average user is better off with less control of their own computer and therefore it requires a lot of tweaking and looking to find the right settings if one wants to do something more advanced. The second problem I encountered was that I had to update Adobe Air, a program that is required to run Tweetdeck. This program runs in the background of Windows and is very hard to find and uninstall. It kept telling me I had the wrong version installed even though I tried several times to wipe it out completely and make a fresh install. Even though I am a fairly technical guy I never managed to fix it and gave up after all that time I wasted on trying. Now running Seesmic instead of Tweetdeck because it was too technical to fix the issues that arose…
I am very much against the control that Microsoft exerts over the user. Unfortunately Adobe has decided to not support Linux at this stage which forces me to use a desktop I don’t like to be able to use Photoshop and Illustrator:/ Another company I’m liking less and less is Apple and their Iphone. The phone is a brilliant product and very easy and good to use but it destroys the market for the rest of the smart phones. By being as dominant as Iphone is right now on the market, all the suppliers produce apps primarily for Iphone and then if they have the time and resources for other phones. This is an evil circle where Iphone gets more and more users due to their good apps and the increased number of users create an even bigger incentive for the suppliers to produce apps for Iphone primarily.
In this digital age we work more and more by ourselves from a distance. We still meet up every now and then, but a lot of our projects and work are done from home. Normally when there’s a group-project we do some of the work by ourselves at home and then meet up (or via e-mail) and compare what we have done in order to merge the texts into one document. This way of working makes us lose a lot of time on catching up and comparing documents to see what to merge.
In this digital age we need to make use of the technology available to make our work more effective. Working from a distance does not have to be ”solo” work anymore. Tools exist that allow us to collaborate in real-time with each other. I’ll here present 3 of the best collaboration tools: Etherpad, Skype and Dropbox.
Etherpad
This tool works as a collaborative real-time notepad. It allows several persons to work on the same word document at the same time and thereby eliminates the need to waste time on merging versions. It also makes the work more effective since you can directly get the input of others instead of having to wait for a meeting. Etherpad also allows chatting and keeps track of the changes you make which means you can go back to a previous version of the document if needed. The bad part about Etherpad is that it creates a tricky address to remember for your pad, BUT this can be solved by using an url shortener and making a custom name for the link. Etherpad recently decided they were going to close down the service but they made the code available which means you can find it at piratepad.net and a few other places now.
Skype
Sometimes it is hard to put your work into writing and sometimes you need a more direct feedback then the written word. This is when Skype comes to use. Skype is basically ip-telephony where you can call each other for free. It also allows transmission of your web-cam which means you can use body-language as well, if needed.
Dropbox
This tool helps you store all your files and documents in a secure way which is easily shareable. Dropbox works just as a normal folder on your desktop BUT it also uploads everything you put into the folder onto your account on the web. Thereby it eliminates the need for you to remember to make back-ups (which we NEVER remember). The other positive side is that you can install Dropbox on a second computer as well and then it synchronizes all the items in the Dropbox between the two computers! You can suddenly reach all the files needed on all your computers (as well as other, more temporary, computers through your account on the web). Dropbox also allows you to share folders between each other which means that ALL files made for the project group can be synchronized between each other.
These three tools are great for increasing productivity and efficiency in a group. Each one of these will help you a lot but the real synergy effect comes when you integrate the tools. An example of this could be:
Calling someone on Skype about the word document they just uploaded in the shared Dropbox folder and suggesting you two can work a bit on the formulation on the introduction. I copy the text into a pad on Etherpad and start editing it in real-time together whilst talking over Skype, motivating the changes made to the document and discussing which one is best.
Do you have any other good collaboration tools that you use?
The problem today is that industries still work under the old traditional economic idea of ‘choice under scarcity‘. When there is a limited amount it gets expensive. We have to choose where to spend our resources (money).
The part that has changed, compared to earlier, is that information no longer is limited in this digital age. We have an abundance of information. Now we have to choose where to spend our resources (attention). One of the ways of reaching peoples attention is using Word of Mouth (WOM), a specific message that is accessible and spread by users.
The cost of copying digital information is reaching zero and we are moving towards externalities and alternative economies. New technology’s deflationary force is nothing new but the speed at which this is happening causes a problem for companies trying to adjust to this new economy. Unfortunately this fast shift has made a lot of companies try and keep the obsolete economy of ‘choice under scarcity’ by limiting the access to information and thereby causing a shortage. This limiting has mainly been done by lobbying and creating laws to protect their outdated business strategies. We are moving away from traditional economies and towards an attention economy despite the friction caused by some companies.
This new economy benefits from Word of Mouth spreading. Compared to spam the reaching out of information by WOM becomes personal and thereby receives attention. The value is increased by sharing the product and a big mass normally amplifies the effect and usability of the product.
Free is the future of business. A few examples of this employed as business strategies could be giving away free razors (to sell disposable blades), free cell-phones (with a monthly plan), free programs (with an upgrade option) to name a few.
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Business models of the ‘free’ economy:
Freemium
Giving away basic model for free. People paying for premium normally pays for other 99% of people
Advertising
Free in exchange for some of your attention
Cross-Subsidies
Free product that will get you to buy other products
Zero Marginal Cost
No appreciable cost to anyone
Labor Exchange
Free in exchange for work. E.g. answer questions
Gift Economy
Free for everyone, money not only motivator.
Attention is the key to mind control. Focus enough and count the number of passes that the white team makes in the video.
Many have wondered what the secret to mind control is. The secret is there if you focus enough.
Mind control is basically an ability to hide messages in what is not consciously taken in by someone. This is a lot of what advertising tries to do with various results. An example of this hiding, is the use of signs and words that our subconscious might pick up.
virgin sex subliminal. Spelling S-E-X. Coincidence? perhaps. Other examples of hiding images in logos: the arrow in Fedex, the bear in Toblerone and a few more.
The concept behind subliminal ads and mind control is explained in a good way by McLuhan’s Tetrad (Laws of Media). Basically what it says is that there is figure and ground. Figure is an area of attention and ground is the rest (”inattention”). Hold on, this gets complicated if you haven’t read McLuhan.
The effect that ground has changes our conception without us noticing it. Once the ground is pointed out it becomes figure and very easy to notice, e.g. the feeling of your seat at this instance. As we have noticed it’s very easy to spot the ground once it has been pointed out, but not before.
Everybody experiences far more then he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behaviour, especially in media and technology, where the individual is almost inevitably unaware of their effect upon him.
-McLuhan (Understanding Media, p.318)
Derren Brown shows this very clearly in this movie where he manipulates two persons working for an ad agency to think what he wants them to think.
But how far can we take this “manipulation” of minds. Where does the limit between accepted manipulation and too much manipulation go? Many people think adding a single frame in a movie or changing the billboard in a sporting arena digitally to a commercial message is going to far but accepts music affecting and manipulating our mood in commercials.
I find mind control fascinating, especially since it’s very linked to advertisement. Comments?
My blog will focus on the same areas as I do on twitter:
Transparency – Net Politics (piratpartiet), Copyright, Integrity
Social Media – Integration, Technology, Web 2.0
Cultural Patterns – Design, PR, Marketing
But who is this person blogging to you?
I’ll make use of some descriptions others made about me and my group-work
translated to English?
Flexibel Ifrågasätter ofta men är blixtsnabb på att anpassa dig till gruppens ståndpunkt (även om den är motsatt) och stött den stenhårt och entusiastiskt… ett riktigt grupproffs
Effektiv Skicklig på att arbeta smart och inte lägga ner jobb på onödigheter
Med God Självdistans Vågar sticka ut och går att skämta om dig
-Anonym
*Initiativrik och drivande i grupparbetet. Positiv med mycket tålamod.
*Upplever att du, som jag, ibland har svårt att ta kritik som vi tycker är obefogad
-Anonym
Du har alltid kritiskt granskat arbetet på ett mycket positivt sätt. Ditt kritiska öga har fått våra arbeten att bli mycket bättre! Du skriver bra texter och är en superkul person att jobba med!
-Anonym
*Otroligt kunnig
*Inte rädd för att säga vad du tycker och tänker
*En person som alltid gör ditt jobb och gör det alltid så bra du kan
-Anna
