Archive for the 'Books' Category

Dragons of Eden

Published
by
John Erik
on October 21, 2007
in Books
. Comments

About 5 years ago, the summer before I started college, I asked my Uncle Jorge what books he recommend I read. We were in his office so he took a look at his massive collection and started handing me one after another. Today, I’ve been sitting outside rereading one I never finished: Dragons of Eden, by Carl Sagan.

Came in to get some water. Here are a few take aways, thus far:

  1. “My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings–what we sometimes call ‘mind’– are a consequence of its anatomy and physiology, and nothing more.”
  2. And, in the same paragraph: “…absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
  3. If the lifetime of the universe (Big Bang to present | 15B years) was compresses into the span of a single year… we’d have, well, this

Evolution of Reputation

Published
by
John Erik
on July 23, 2006
in Books, Insight, School, Social Networks and Words
. Comments

There is a lot to be said on the future of online reputation systems and additionally – identity management. Howard Rheingold discusses these topics comprehensively in chapter five of Smart Mobs. Explaining, for example, eBay’s public Feedback Forum, where buyers and sellers can comment on the quality of a transaction and contribute +1, 0, or -1 to the aggregate score of the reciprocating party. This system allows potential patrons to foreshadow the quality of a future transaction, and implies trust. The use of avatars or screen names to detach true-identity by a degree or more is what allows even the most privacy-conscious individuals to participate in this system.

This brought to my mind another interesting example: the reputation structure used by Prosper.com, a person-to-person micro-lending service. At Prosper individuals loan money to other individuals based on general institutional criteria, such as credit scores and homeownership, but also their profile and group affiliations. Here, it is advantageous to merge and share the details of your personal life with your identity on Prosper; including posting a picture, discussing past financial endeavors, and in some cases medical conditions, and the like.

What both of these examples have in common is the creation of trust based on identities and the narrative associated to that identity.

Similarly, most students have realized that their identities on Facebook and MySpace are subject to a comparable scrutiny by potential employers. Profiles and pictures give an inside look at the real life of a candidate. Now, how you fill-in the “about me” section is very important. I believe most millennials take it as healthy pressure to do the right thing, in general. After all, even if I don’t post those pictures of me acting belligerent, someone else might and they will probably tag my face to my name. This could be called transparency – it’s like everyone is running for political office.

What’s the other side? The fear and pressure of being watched can lead people/kids to take on secondary identities; going by an alias, or many. Generally this is not bad. People do this indirectly in the real world all the time. However, I would theorize that being void of all pressure is not the best case. Especially for already repressed youth.

Conversely, applying the concept of transparency in the classroom, creating a social classroom, I believe, would be a move millennials could handle. If I knew my work could be seen by my peers I might want to do a better job; even if I don’t care what my teacher thinks, I probably care what my peers think.

Like our identity on eBay, we cultivate trust through our public dealings, through transparency, through a narrative. Some will choose to reveal all, good or bad, some will claim privacy, others may never catch on. I believe, like on Prosper, sharing, because it encourages responsibility and empathy, is the best option.

Smart Mobs and Smart Business

Published
by
John Erik
on July 11, 2006
in Books, Ideas, Mobile Communication, School, Social Networks and Words
. Comments

Smart Mobs is an amazing book. Though I read pieces of it two seasons ago, the words and metaphors hold new meaning in light of my recent research. It is incredible to me that in 2002 Howard Rheingold could predict the future so accurately.

In the first section Howard talks about privacy and virtual identities. This got me thinking about a new technology we are using here at the University of Texas and some other recently widespread services.

The deal is, Mobile Campus finds businesses local to UT who want to advertise to students via their mobile phone. To facilitate their growth, they pay our Student Government one dollar per signup and give them other perks, such as paying for the redesign of the SG website (these details are accurate to the best of my knowledge). SG then push MC on the student body (especially freshman) as the official student discount program, replacing those little coupon books.

Yeah, it’s cool that SG gets some extra money, etcetera, but is the trade off really worth it? It’s a game of ratios and reach. The database Mobile Campus is creating is worth far more than anything they are giving SG. If MC could they wouldn’t give SG a cent (a better business model), but without them a corporation would never have the kind of reach that SG can provide.

These kinds of tradeoffs seem to be the trend amongst today’s successful marketing and advertising corporations. Take Google’s GMail for example, great service, I use it. But now because Google’s bots can search the contents of my inbox (one where I never delete anything) they can more accurately classify me. True, if I have to see ads it’s nice that they are relevant and I do trust Google, but isn’t our identity our own? Shouldn’t we receive most if not all of the revenue generated by its use? We are so used to our identities being sold and traded and getting nothing in return that we love GMail because it gives us something in return. However, that something is given in exchange for a type and scale of profiling that was never before possible.

Will we ever have a say in who sees the information that makes up our identity or see any of the revenue generated by their commodification? Reheingold’s second chapter, Technologies of Cooperation, made me envision a way it could be possible (I’ll elaborate more on this idea in another post).

You’re going to create breadcrumbs, if you don’t pick them up someone else will.

Escalating connectivity, commentary, and consciousness

Published
by
John Erik
on July 3, 2006
in Books, Ideas, Insight, Links, Mobile Communication, Social Networks and Words
. Comments

There are and have been many predictions on the path Wi-Fi will take and the role it will assume. The concluding chapter of Going Wi-Fi, published in 2003, gives 20 predictions – 10 of which I believe have come true. Some predictions are far fetched. A faculty member at the University of Texas at Dallas predicted that by 2007 mobile communications devices will “be voice-controlled and use heads-up holographic display[s].” Unfortunately for many, it doesn’t look like 2007 will embrace this kind of future.

Nevertheless, these predictions were very insightful, covering the topics of business (maybe a wireless PBX), medical care (24hour vital monitoring and reporting), etcetera, but something was missing. And that was any allusion to the growth of social networks, virtual identities, or the like. Social networking, used in a broad sense, is big now, but the spread of wireless, I believe, will transform the revolution; connecting people, groups, and intelligence in ways never before possible.

We, the participants in the MySpace generation, the blogging generation, and others are connected to an identity, and/or identities, in cyberspace. The strengthening of that bond is parallel to the spread of Wi-Fi (most importantly, free Wi-Fi) and the doggedness of cellular; simply, more convenient, efficient, and economical access to the World Wide Web.

The blogosphere and projects such as WeFeelFine.org have been invaluable to sequentially interpreting the status of society as a whole. However, the nature of blogging is not conducive to real-time feedback. Wi-Fi, the great Last Mile, offers this.

Moblogging, radar.net, mobile video sharing, elements of Web 2.0, to name a few are the current tools moving a nearly synchronous Info Strada. What does the future hold? I believe the exponential growth of social networks and their assimilation of mobile communication devices is foreshadowing a trend towards increased Interconnectedness.

As it becomes easier to mirror ourselves and our lives virtually, it becomes more significant to mirror the state of cyberspace as a whole, and relay it back to its elements. Components seeing themselves as an integral part of a whole, then acting and reacting based on the state of the collective, the world – this is the model for self-consciousness; and a step for progress.

Rules for Revolutionaries

Published
by
John Erik
on June 26, 2006
in Books, Insight, Inspiration, School and Words
. Comments

Guy Kawasaki’s, Rules for Revolutionaries is a great book.

The first section is titled “Create like a God” it is full of tips on how to think out side of the box. It includes examples like how universal studios took the business model of Disney world and flipped it upside-down. They offered rides that could break your wrists if you left your hands out, fire-balls that were too hot, etc. While Disney World, and current theme parks of the time, were sweet and genial. The point is to think differently. Say things the way they have never been said before. Think from the problem down. If you are annoyed with the process of paying for your meal at a restraint, it takes too long. Ask yourself what would make things better? Visualize from the top. I think it would be nice if the lady showed me my bill and I said yes or no and then the money was taken out of my bank instantly.

“Don’t worry, be crappy.” This is another great tip from Rules for Revolutionaries. The point of that statement is to say: get it out there, don’t worry if it is not perfect. If you are working on a project it is generally better to release it in beta when it works pretty well. This makes me think of Google. They always release their beta products; GMail in betaforever. By doing this they receive feedback from users, investors see progress, and engineers are happy to see their work has gone live. It’s the bootstrapper’s method.

Don’t hide your mistakes. The example in the book deals with Tom’s of Mane. A change in a deodorant’s ingredients caused half of their customer base to be unhappy with the product. As result, sales plummeted and Tom’s of Main found themselves in a slump. So they fixed the problem, shipped out a response and a free sample to every customer that had complained, and donated the faulty batch of deodorant to the homeless. Soon, sales were up, old and new customers were buying, and they were more loyal then ever.

Be an Evangelist. Someone told me recently that the first step of creation, whatever the concept, is “sharing your idea.” I thought “well, duh.” But it is more then just telling someone, “hey I got this cool idea for a new wireless phone that uses VoIP.” You create a buzz, you play the evangelist. If people believe in your product/service/whatever then they will create with you, for you.

To change the world involves risk. Take it. Step out on that limb that’s never been tested, yell out and make the people below notice you. Turn their skeptical glances to attentive stares, gain their support, and sell them your creation.

Ajax!

Published
by
John Erik
on May 5, 2006
in Books, Insight and Work
. Comments
ajaxI really want this book, just read the description:”Sick of creating web sites that reload every time a user moves the mouse? Tired of servers that wait around to respond to users’ requests for movie tickets? It sounds like you need a little (or maybe a lot of) Ajax in your life. Asynchronous programming lets you turn your own websites into smooth, slick, responsive applications that make your users feel like they’re back on the information superhighway, not stuck on a dial-up backroad.”

Ahh, I’m in love.