Nov. 20

I know this class hasn't actually occured yet but I have things to post about Web 3.0 that I can't cover in my presentation. The Semantic Web is all well and good but it's boring Vannevar Bush "OMG so much information!" problem-solving stuff. It's the bones of what is to come and I'm more interested in the meat and the non-Semantic Web things that are also being associated with the term Web 3.0. When I thought about Web 3.0 before the readings for this week popped up online there were two things I had seen that came to mind and I figured I'd post them up here because they're interesting and a little different from what we're covering today.

First up is Kevin Kelly of Wired talking about cloud computing. In many ways I feel what he's talking about in this talk is far more important and cool than some snazzier search functions.



And second is this Aurora concept project by Adaptive Path. They're looking at what using the internet on your desktop, television and mobile device could be like in the future and while the presentation is hilariously bad, the ideas are great.

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Aurora (Part 2) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Aurora (Part 3) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Aurora (Part 4) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Nov. 13

More Second Life. Hooray. I really don't know if I have anything left to say or think about Second Life. That virtual campus was kind of nifty and that organic, growing life simulator is a bitchin' idea but I'm not really sure if/how it could work all that well in Second Life. It seems like something that would be better off as a standalone thing, not dependent on the restrictive framework that Second Life provides.

I wish there wasn't so much business talk in this class. It bores me so much. Frankly, I think Second Life would work better without a monetary system at all. Sure, it would be tougher for Linden Labs to support it and make money off it but charging for land and charging for the ability to import textures and models from outside Second Life are such bullshit monetary barriers to entry for content creation that it sours the idea of making anything in SL for me entirely. It's not like people need to be able make money off the things they make to be motivated to make things. Isn't that what deviantART and youtube and Flickr have proven?

Nov. 6

Oh Second Life. You are so very bland to look at and so very boring to me yet so dearly loved by the academic community. I hope someday there will be virtual worlds with vibrant communities and custom content and teaching potential and all that crap that don't look like complete a gross boring pixelated polygonal mess. The only virtual world I can really buy into is one that is beautiful in some way and I can't find much beauty in Second Life. Plus I'm tired of hearing about it. Second Life is like the third year IASC buzzword. It is what the word "interactivity" was in all the first year curriculum.

On the other hand, that Gorean community is hilarious. I really want to read one of those books. I never thought I'd see such an amazing meeting of Fantasy lameness and BDSM wierdness. It's great, I love it.

Oct. 30

Ian thinks microblogging is pretty sweet.

Ian doesn't think it's indicative of an excessive amount of narcissism or self involvement.

Ian doesn't think it's a waste of time like the marketing dudes seem to like to call anything they don't participate in already.

Ian likes to look at it more romantically, Twitter posts and Facebook status updates are like little blips on the radar, little ripples on the pond. They're small, short and quick little ways for people to reach out to each other and the world around them.

Ian thinks that is valuable.

Ian likes Facebook status updates and actively uses them but has never used Twitter before.

Ian's cell phone is cheap and crappy so he only uses it for calls and the occasional text message.

Ian wishes he had a smartphone and enough money to pay for service.

Ian feels kind of poor and slow without one.

Ian doesn't want an iPhone, though. They're neat but too status-symbol-y.

Oct. 23

This was a bizarre discussion. It was strange and frustrating hearing all this weird criticism and worry around the cell phone habits of teenagers. I mean... Jesus... how old are most of the people in the class? Most of us are in our twenties or younger. It wasn't that freaking long ago that most of the people in the class were teenagers themselves and were most likely guilty of similar habits and priorities and yet here they are, harping away like old folks at those crazy youths. The kids will be fine, quit whining about their text messages and attention spans. The moment you start actually expressing FEAR and CONCERN about the way teenagers behave you begin to fossilize yourself. You might as well start whipping out the dates and metamucil. I don't think there's anything to worry about. They'll grow up, they'll be just like you. It's never a good sign when sitting through a class makes someone who doesn't smoke feel like he needs a cigarette.

Oct. 16

I'm considering using Del.icio.us to replace my normal bookmarking habits considering how disorganized they get, how I can't share them easily between my laptop and desktop, and how I usually lose them or just forget about the backups I make when I reformat. But I'm lazy so I doubt I'll actually end up using it. Plus, Del.icio.us is pretty ugly. Like craigslist, it's one of those weird, anacrhonistic looking gross Web 2.0 staples. It's gotten to the point that it's jarring when a web app doesn't have a snazzy and fetching interface like Flickr or Gmail.

Collaborative tagging is cool but I don't like the idea of forcing people to adopt a static, predetermined lexicon for tagging. Trying to shoehorn the vocabulary doesn't at all seem like the proper way to go about solving the search problem. Seems to me that the burden should be placed on the search function itself, not the user. The search engine should work like a thesaurus a little bit and have knowledge of related terms to the one you searched under. So someone searching under "red" could also get stuff tagged with synonyms like burgundy, vermillion, ruby or whatever.

Oct 9.

Oh God what a subject. I can't help but find the paranoia about predators online a little amusing. At least the subject gets less play these days but for a while is seemed like there was this unending deluge of sensationalist media attention on the idea of how the internets can harm your children. Not how the internets ARE harming children, but how they MIGHT be harming children. It's not as if you see news of a kid getting whisked away by a perverted, naked man-child they met online every 24 hours, but the kind of attention the prospect of such an event gets/got would certainly give you that impression. I love this local Fox News report on predators using Pictochat to target children. I reeaally doubt there has ever been a single reported case on harm coming to a child resulting from someone 30 or less feet away from talking to them on a DS but the report is certainly trying to make you think it's an inevitability.