Updates: Kara has been having some contractions. Just warmups though.

Now I've got to get to work! I hate writing papers. It makes me wish I was dead. It does not help that it's been snowing all day. Like if it was nice I would go to the beach or something. What am I going to write about?

I'm just brainstorming here - Technological criticism, Location Based Services... Social Contructivism...  I want to write  something about the effects of an increasingly internetworked world on public space. Cellphones, cameraphones, personal publishing (blogs) persistent lightweight presence. Can I connect them all together and use what we've been reading in class to critisize? I'm sure someone could.

The other day I was walking through the skyway in Saint Paul. I was writing a text message to my brother. I could have been in timbuktu for all the attention I was paying to my surroundings. I suddenly realized that I had walked about three blocks with out noticing anyone I walked by. It helps not having to worry about getting run over by a car (in the skyway). What is the culmulative effect of all this 'absent presence'? If fewer and fewer people are participating in the hear and now, do less things happen? This is something to research... I could startout with explaining the rise of mobile computing. Maybe a brief history... The adoption rate,  of course it remains to be seen how well adopted the phone will be as a computer. It hasn't quite gotten there, although the cameraphone is soon to replace the DVD player as the fastest adopted consumer technology. I read that somewhere... But where??

 

Absent presence is one thing. But so is the infinite recording of the world. As I said, many, many people are getting camera phones. Blogs new blogs are being created every 13 seconds or something (another tidbit I need to pin down) Moblogs are popping up quite frequently. Anyone with a cameraphone can start a moblog for free. Well cameraphones are for rich people. I don't think so. They are very affordable. Anyone can set up a moblog at their local library. That's not to say people from all walks of life are starting up moblogs, but any obstacles to entry are not strictly economic. At anyrate, what are the effects of anyone being able to record anything they see, and making it available for potentially millions of people to see (Billions I suppose)

One guy who has (had) a moblog, said on his last post that it was boring the shit out of him. He's only going to start again if there are riots in Minneapolis. The point is, if something interesting does happen in Minneapolis, if there are enough first hand viewers, someone is going to get images and text, and it will be available to read on the web in minutes.

Anyway, it seems like a good topic.
3:23:12 PM    

The first significant snowfall of the season.  Enjoy, ye of warmer climes.

 

9:26:26 AM