Ramblings of a Technology Addict

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Social Networks r0x0r.

And of course, no sooner do I post on Social Networks, than does Boing Boing discuss them as well.
5:02:09 PM  comment []

The beginnings of Infomancy.

Dave, my roommate, pointed out a great interview today with Ben Ratliff of the New York Times. He's one of their music critics. In his interview, he talks a lot about why context, in music, is important when listening with a critical eye. It means a lot as well, when you repurpose those same remarks.
Ward:   Could you please talk some about being able to write about all kinds of different music. One of the things that really impresses me about you is how you can write about jazz one minute and heavy metal the next.
Ratliff:   It's not always obvious how A informs B--how knowing something about jazz or hip-hop or bossa nova would help you in understanding things about rock or salsa.
It makes so much sense to think about life a bit this way. I've both come through life so far with a basic education, a context if you will. I have a wealth of information at my disposal. It's disjunct, it's not commonly shared. It consists of language, music, political theory, mathematics, physics, and technology amongst other trivia. In society, we're putting increasing reliance on computers to do deep analysis. But really, when it comes down to it, people are the best arbiters of information, not computers; we share information both quickly and broadly, sharing memes (chunks of data with common, coherent threads) and manipulating them. So, being able to connect A and B, where A and B are disjunct sources of data that are related by a factor currently unknown is a skillset that humans are good at, especially as your knowledge, tangential or applied, grows. Basically put: People who have broad sets of knowledge are better data processors.
This leads to other things like Group Think, and specifically, SmartMobs and groups like Collective Detective. Creating a framework with which to parse the information is important, more so in fact than some of the information that's going to BE there. Humans are by nature, good tool users, and we've often found that the better the tool, the better the product. Therefore, we need to work with groups like CD to better maintain their toolsets such that they can provide a better service to the rest of the world.
This all leads me back to the thought I've had running in my head for over a year.
Infomancy.
More to come, stay tuned.
4:19:13 PM  comment []

Dieu qui la fait...

Instapundit is reporting that DC may go to Code Red today.
Dieu qui la fait. Better get working on that emergency plan.
Update: apparently, the source was a bit off. Read the link, there's more details.
*goes back to not worrying*
11:29:56 AM  comment []

New Stuff

New Features for the weblog this morning. I've added sidebar additions for what I'm reading and what I'm listening to. Recommendations are always welcome.
9:31:22 AM  comment []

Y'know what really blows?

It really, really ticks me off when I get called into work to handle a meeting that doesn't happen. Generally, I don't mind doing some "hand holding" for people who don't fully understand their computers. What does bother me is when people make me get my ass out of bed earlier than I need to, to set up for meetings that aren't happening.
9:02:05 AM  comment []