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Wednesday, June 04, 2003 |
So we're getting ready for the PlanetWork Conference and a collabotory on the ASN (Augmented Soical Network) idea. In preparation for that Drummond Reed posted this bit.....
What we are trying to do is create a "common identity infrastructure" - the third major layer in the evolution of the net. The first layer - the Internet itself - is a "common networking infrastructure", a way of linking any two devices on any two networks so that they could exchange packets with each other. The second layer - the Web - is a "common document infrastructure", a way of linking any two documents on any two websites so they can exchange pointers with each other.
The third layer is not about machines and packets or documents and websites but people and organizations. That's why it fits so neatly under the rubric of "social protocols". A common identity infrastructure is a way of linking any two people or organizations in any two communities so they can share data with each other.
So if what was needed for the first layer was common protocols for packet exchange and a network of gateways and routers that implemented them, and what was needed for the second layer was common protocols for network hypertext and a network of web servers and web browsers that implemented them, then what is needed for the third layer is common protocols for data sharing and a network of data sharing servers and clients that implement them.
That's what XRI and XDI are all about. Thus, from my perspective, what is needed to deliver the ASN is a network of XDI servers and clients and that start linking up with XDI data sharing contracts. The result will be a web of identities and relationships similar to today's Web of documents and hyperlinks.
I should add one other thing, which is governance. At each layer, as Owen Davis points out in his thread, there is a need for at least some minimal form of governance for the "commons". Since the first layer was almost purely technical, the IETF supplied the governance of the "network commons". For the second layer, the W3C and ICANN (two more self-organized entities) have provided the governance of the "document commons".
 Now we are facing the question of who will supply the governance for the third layer. In terms of the technical protocols, that's why XNSORG was created . But as Owen Davis points out, once you move to the level of social protocols, you need some minimal form of governance of the "identity commons" - the social and business agreements that govern data sharing using the technical protocols. That's why Identity Commons was created.
(BTW, it's fascinating to me that the creators of XNSORG and the creators of Identity Commons started completely independently and did not meet each other until well after their respective efforts were launched. To me its proof of the real social and market needs that both organizations were created to help fill.)
=Drummond Reed
Will Wright on Games Design & Communities.
PC Forum has provided a transcript of perhaps the best session of the conference, Will Wright's Models Come Alive, and has invited people to comment on it in their wiki. Someone dug up the main slide from his presentation:
 "But these are the three rough areas I want to cover: topologies, dynamics and paradigms. Topologies are the structure of a system: what the elements are and how they relate. The dynamics define how the structures change through time. And the paradigm glues the two together. It gives us tools for understanding the ways topologies are changed through dynamics."
Its really worth a read, mind-bending stuff. Here is an excerpt on game design and community:
Grouping is another dynamic you often see in games. It’s a way for players to aggregate a large number of objects and bring them to a higher level of abstraction so that, for instance, they can move a whole group instead of one. You can group similar or specialized things. It gets interesting when you look at specialized groupings. Specialization is promoted by communication. The neuron, for instance, enabled larger creatures to start evolving because there were communication structures between different parts, so cells could specialize in individual functions. They lowered the cost and the friction of that communication. In some sense, specialization breeds most of the networks around us. You see it a lot in games. We see networks that are explicit within the game, such as technology networks and structures. We also see it in our communities. In our Sims fan community, there’s a network of specialized participants, and casual players that are pulled up into it. This network shows the flow of content between specialists. At the highest level, the tool builders make tools that content artists use to feed the Webmasters, who in turn feed the story creators, and so on. It’s kind of like an ecosystem. There’s also a reverse flow of recognition, so the Webmaster is gives the highest recognition to the content artists, who in turn appreciate the tool builders. In some sense, what we’re really building with these games are communities. That’s our primary thing. We want to build a strong community around the game, which is kind of an excuse to build the community. And we want to have all these dynamics occurring within the community.
[Corante: Social Software]
Cool another excuse to blog about Will Wright.
Howard Dean Cashing In From Microfinance.
The Washington Post is reporting that Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has raised $1 million from contributions made online through his Web site. University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato is quoted in the piece describing this as an example of a clear trend towards lesser-known candidates using microfinancing to stay competitive with better-funded opponents:
"They can't afford high-priced consultants. They can't afford direct mail, which eats up sometimes 80 percent of what it raises," Sabato said. "So they have to depend on person-to-person fund raising, and that's the Internet. There's almost no overhead with Internet fund raising."
(Of course, regular readers of AEV already knew that!)
The article also points to John McCain's online raising of $1 million in 48 hours in the 2000 cycle as similar to Dean's accomplishment. McCain was definitely a pioneer in Meetup to organize meetings of supporters around the country, all without spending a dime on infrastructure. (And he's raised $330,000 just from people who come to those Meetup events, too. Not too shabby.)
Taken together, I think this means that Dean's accomplishment is more important than the Post gives him credit for. Will other candidates get a clue and follow his lead?
[Ant's Eye View]
I heard Dean for the first time last night on Charlie Rose. Doc seems to be interested in him - though certainly not at an endorsement level yet. I was kind of hoping for a bi-lateral Kerry-McCain campaign. That'll shake up shrub.
The Revolution Will Be Participatory.
David Weinberger points to an interesting presentation made in April to the FCC regarding the growth of broadband usage in America.
Weinberger rightly points out that the big story in the presentation is on slide six, in which the presenter (David P. Reed, CTO of CableLabs) shows a very surprising trend -- over 2001, the ratio of downstream Internet traffic (data being downloaded -- think of this as consumption) to upstream Internet traffic (data being uploaded -- think of this as publication) went from 2.00 in May of that year down to less than 1.5 by September, and was still trending downward after that.
This means that, if the trend has continued, by now it's reasonable to assume that people are publishing almost as much data to the Net as they are consuming. If that's the case, it's a terrifically encouraging development -- part of the whole philosophy of anthill communities (sorry Joi!) is that the Net allows huge new opportunities for people not just to suck down information generated by big media providers, but also to give back in humble ways that collectively add up to great things. This would seem to indicate that many, many people are doing just that.
(There's other interesting facts in the presentation, too. One is that new cable-Internet standards in development will apparently allow major increases in upstream bandwidth, while upcoming DSL standards will not (slides 10 and 11). This would seem to have major business implications for the DSL people, if upstream is becoming more and more important. Of course since the presenter comes from a company called CableLabs we should probably take his "DSL is obsolete and dying" slides with a grain of salt...)
[Ant's Eye View]
This is INCREDIBLE! It's this sort of statistical proof that keep sthis flame burning. No one can doubt that narrowcasting isn't the future. It used to be true that even if you were the world's greatest - say saxophone player - it didn't matter unless you had a distribution deal.
:-) No more!
The NEXT world's greatest saxophone player will be sitting in his house in Bombay or Melbourne.
Mama Muses on Social Software readings.... Our own Liz Lawley posts her social software reading list over at mamamusings ('cause what were you gonna read at the beach? The 30th aniversary edition of Fear of Flying?) [Corante: Social Software]
 social software reading list
Some of my colleagues have asked for a summer reading list of books related to social software. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list, just a few personal favorites. Feel free to add suggestions for additional items in the comments, or provide any other feedback on the choices.
- Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software, by Steven Johnson.
- Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age, by Duncan Watts.
- Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, by Howard Rheingold.
- Linked: The New Science of Networks, by Albert-László Barabási.
- Small Pieces Loosely Joined, by David Weinberger.
- “The Strength of Weak Ties,” by Mark Granovetter [from the American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 78, No. 6. (May, 1973), pp. 1360-1380.] RIT faculty can retrieve a PDF of this article by going to the JSTOR database via the RIT library, and searching for author=Granovetter and title=weak ties in the Sociology journals.
Update, 5/29
In the comments to this entry is a trackback from Kieran Healy’s blog, with some useful commentary on the above list. In writing my comments to his entry, I realized there was at least one more book I wanted to include on my list:
  Priscilla, Elf of the Matrix. Greg Costikyan was "inspired" by the fact that actor Hugo Weaving plays both Elrond and Agent Smith. "You seem to... [Way.Nu]
Which is it? Elf or Agent?
How cool is it that this actor - is in both of these films? I just hate it when he sticks his hand into my chest and I turn all black and gooey.
 'Dude Bitch'.
Was chatting with my 19 year old niece online today.
She usually calls me 'maami' (mother's brother's wife - for the uninitiated in Indian family relationships)
She says i'm the coolest "30+ chick" she knows.
They have a term for this - 'dude bitch'!
She said i was a dude bitch!!
Asked her what's the equivalent for a cool guy - pat came the answer - "there are no cool guys" !!
Any suggestions on what a 'cool guy' can be called?
Oh this generation :):):) !!!
[Conversations with Dina]
I like calling them generation ICQ. My 13 year old son can IM with four windows open at the same time.
Community uproar at fotolog.. Over at Scott Heiferman's marvelous Fotolog, there's a classic community uproar going on.
 Fotolog has hit a success crisis, becoming quite popular, and, because it focuses on pictures rather than words, it has attracted an enormous international community (particularly Brazilians, for some reason.) In response, the Fotolog staff has adopted the standard solution - limit the number of posts that can be made using the free service to control bandwidth and storage costs, and institute a paid Gold membership for people who want more serious usage.
And then chaos ensued. In Scott's log, he posted a user's picture of herself with her hand stuck out, on which had been written "Fuck fotolog" and then tried to address the reasons behind the change. This opened the floodgates, with a whole range of meta-discussion arising -- Two-tier systems damage the community; Most Brazilians can't pay for things on the internet with a credit card; You americans are murders, unfair and capitalists; Who do you think pays for this, the internet fairy? and so on.
And somewhere in the middle of it, the sanest post of all, a meta-meta-disucssion trying to explain to the Fotolog staff why the debate got so furious so quickly:
Recognise that in this drama, you are in the position of power (you can change things, you can take it away) and those unhappy are feeling out of control. Kudos to those putting forward valid arguments and trying to encourage discussion ... opening the doors to that discussion is vital (within limits, of course). Those spamming don`t care less (in fact, it`s quite clear they care a great deal), they feel betrayed and helpless and are lashing back. I`m not defending the behaviour, just trying to stop the tide of "what jerks" which isn`t actually helping the situation at all.
One of the things that precipitates these kind of constitutional crises is manifest evidence that the users don't control the system. They know that, of course, intellectually, but when a community forms, they feel as if they do own it, and as long as the actual owners do nothing to disturb that illusion, things can hum along, but whenever anything happens unilaterally... [Corante: Social Software]
Wow! The ants revolt! I'd be pretty pissed off - if I was a Brazilian and couldn't do "my thang!"
But needless to say Fotlog has hit the fateful - free/paid seam - and it looks like they're doing the right thing. Watching them deal with criticism and success is fun! A social software petrie dish.
Needless to say - I support them 1,000,000,000,000%
Marimba Eases Windows Migration. Marimba Inc. on June 16 will launch the second major release of its 1-year-old Windows Migration tool with a series of enhancements that emphasize a streamlined graphical user interface, improved inventory scanning and better integration with market-leading imaging tools. [Technology News from eWEEK and Ziff Davis]
Congrats to Kim and company. Now that their stock price gives them a market cap higher than the cash in their bank account, maybe Marimba will.............
Comments on LinkedIn. Gory details of social network software More good discussion on Joi's site about LinkedIn.
.....But to scale beyond the early adopters, especially with competition, these services have to do something valuable and create a good user experience. LinkedIn's core service -- trusted business introductions -- is useful but not, I think, a killer app......
I agree with Kevin, and would even add that it's not clear whether even LinkedIn offers any value at all. I've got hundreds of connections through it, but have yet to receive or use the service for any form of business introduction --- which is now 50% of my business. It looks more like a "who's who" ego party than a useful service (at this point).
 [Jeremy Allaire's Radio]
Cool - I was waiting for Jeremy to weigh in on this.
So here goes - my defence of LinkedIn. First off - my complaints:
- I agree with Jeremy that LinkedIn kind of comes off as a "who's who" ego party. And the #1 cause of this are members #1 & #2 - Joi & Reid. A new feature in LinkedIn - allows you to jump directly - to FIND people: employees, contractors, hiring managers, company contacts, industry experts, etc. All it is - is a shortcut to the Search facility. And guess what EVERY Find request brings up? Joi & Reid's names - listed #1 & #2 - for every search. HHhmmmm........
- What's LinkedIn's biggest challenge? Finding people! It changes the paradigm of identity browsing. That's why they created the shortcuts on everyone's Home page. That's what I don't like about it. There isn't a "fun way" of identity browsing. I've actually gone and done a couple of Requests - and they've actually come back as successful intros. [Now of course I get to see if anything comes of these intros!] But I MISS Identity browsing!
- The most common notion in social software is the 'person' - and a persistent digital ID - which I REALLY feel MUST have that person's face. I know Reid has a very specific reason why they DON'T put the person's face in LinkedIn. I respectfully disagree.
- Though it is early in it's development, LinkedIn does leave you somewhat cold. It'll be intersting to see what happens and how they evolve the interface. I believe that Reid is open to suggestions - so we should all feel free to speak up!
Now onto what I really LIKE about LinkedIn.
- As I have said several times now, each social networking system gets to define it's contituents, goals and focus. Clearly it can't be everything to all people. So LinkedIn has made it clear: "find the people you need to succeed". It's mechanism and technology support a very specific sequence of events - which can lead to an introduction.....of the RIGHT person. Over and over again in my career I have found that knowing the right person can get things done. The world wouldn't have Macromedia - if it wasn't for Nat Goldhaber.
- this singular focus leads to a clear trusted network phenomena. But because a) people have invited people they already know (which is only the first degree in the network) b) it's not clear WHERE all these other degrees of the network ARE. But that's OK. Only until you've actually made contact -will that network grow. That's how it's SUPPOSED to work. What's the point of having 69,000 friends (as I do in Friendster?) I'd rather have 10 real friends - who have introduced me to 5 real connects.
- so it's in the purity of the trusted network that LinkedIn shines. This is similar to the effect that Affero brings - in their approach (everyone should go and try it out! Make a contribution of ideas or money to any Affero publisher!) Only by having pure exemplary social software - can we get on with this revolution!
- scale and functionality is what Kevin highlighted in his post. But sometimes (especially when it comes to key inside business connects) you don't necessarily want too much scale, or the whole point of the network goes away. If you believe that each network has it's own unique properties (as I do) then I'd say that LinkedIn only needs to scale to the appropriate level where deals get done. Friendly Favors is a kind of LinkedIn for social activists. It achieves it's goals - and it has over 30,000 people in it now. I bet it could scale to over 100,000 no problem. How big should LinkedIn scale to? I don't know - maybe 250,000?
- As far as functionality is concerned, it needs some tweaking - but I'd say LinkedIn IS a killer app - for what it's stated goals are. Now if only that VC guy I contacted calls me back!
- but I DO have to complain about the term killer app. I am so TIRED of people expecting all our problems to go away - like Lotus 1-2-3 did for us - back in 1983! Enough already - Genug's Genug! It ain't gonna be one app or service, but LOTS of categories and implementations, all sliding in between each other, meshing together in a comprehensive, distributed, decentralized manner.
Suggestions:
- tweak the search results so Joi & Reid don't come up in the #1 & #2 position for every search result!
- add faces of the users. Even if you think this is too social and personal, I disagree. Just make it clear that LinkedIn is not about mating - and monitor your members and kick-out the flirts. I myself vow that I'll put up the "straight" version of me.
- better explanation fo how the system works. I myself didn't grok that I couldn't contact one of my direct connects - 'cause I supposedly know them already! Doh! But I'm not so stupid, I don't read manuals or take Tours - so how do you educate folks?
Blind Ambition. via Subtraction.com: The true spectacle of "The Matrix Reloaded" is the Wachowski Brothers' own ambition. [Channel 'thematrix']
From the TopicExchange..... [note: I wonder who mispelled the Matrix and polluted out topic pool?]
Round up of Blogosphere Stories of interest.
Aaaaah back to blogging!
Some really interesting stuff in the blogosphere while i've been away - having scanned them, will just link now and comment later :
Thought-provoking Stuff:
I love Dave Pollard's blog - he writes across so many issues - always interesting and thought-provoking. Some posts i've scanned and marked for further reading :
Why Innovation Happens in Waves
A Quiz - Is Your Country War-Prone?
The Post-Consumer Economy - A Model for our Future
On Blogs and Wikis:
More excellent comments on What Makes a Weblog a Weblog, including a pointer to a Russ Lipton essay. (Scripting News)
Ross Mayfield takes the discussion on wikis vs weblogs further into comparing the Individual Voice and the Group Voice
Two posts on 'Getting Up to Speed on Wikis' from Jim McGee : here and here
Stuart picks up on wikis and blikis in his post Collaborative Roadmaps. Watch out for more from him.
On Corporate Blogging - strengthening the case for it - and discussions on tools :
The Corporate Weblog Manifesto (The Scobleizer Weblog)
Chat without frontiers. The IM story keeps on growing. (iWire)
More links on Weblogs and KM from Jim McGee
David Weinberger, co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, in his article The Truth of Weblogs weighs in on the issue of trust in corporate blogging.
Allan Karl on When Corporate Blogging is Done Right. Everyone Benefits. (May 29 ... the permalink does not seem to work). He also starts a series of posts on Corporate Blogs : the first one called Why does Barbie Blog : Corporate Weblog Series #1. Will be following them with interest ... while looking for stories from Indian shores!
Between Bloggers and their Employers at Lilia's blog : A lot of thinking about problems that could happen between bloggers and their employers by Joshua Allen [via Serious Instructional Technology]
On Ryze Changes :
My views here. Stuart (see the comments too) and Ross at the Many to Many blog discuss them further.
Some Cool Stuff :
The Geek Test : and no .. am not publishing my result!
Sona Matchmaker : An Indian Friendster : thanks Marc. 'Matrimonials' form a huge part of our daily newspapers ... and many of our leading dailies devote entire supplements to them. Its also a tremendous business here ... with the matchmakers raking it in. Today's kids want to DIY ... i suspect Sona Matchmaker would be a terrific success here!
More links from Marc ... he always has some really cool stuff at his blog ... i blogged Teen Tribes ... he found more - Taste Tribes and Speed Tribes.
Phew ! Now onto reading ....
[Conversations with Dina]
You gotta love this gal. She's totally nerdy, totally hot and smart as a whip. I'd hate to be with her at some KM sussing out meeting, arguing over meta-data formats. What I can't figure out is if she's based in Dehli, New York or London. Or all three.
nokia 3650 caller id display problem. For the life of me, I can't figure out why calls I receive on my (brand new) nokia 3650 aren't being looked up in the contacts directory. I expect the caller's name to appear. No matter what phone I call from, only the number appears, so the Caller ID part is working. I've even tried adding the received number to a new contact, and still no luck :( [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]
Hey maybe Adam needs help from Russell Beattie. Hey Russ, can you help Adam? He's a European - too!
Russ - in case you don't know - is a total mobile phone nerd and building us all - a mobile services interface platform.
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