The latest and greatest of the web provides us with a plethora of tools to play with and communicate with. Some of the tools out there seem pretty...well...silly at first glance. Some of these probably still seem that way to people who don't "get" what we are calling web 2.0.
Of course this "useless" moniker could have been applied to a lot of stuff that is now common place. Who needs a web page? Why do you need email? Wireless - what for? The list goes on - probably forever (who needs a telephone in their home...)
A few of these tools were tools I used on in my recent road trip. The two tools that took center stage were Twitter and Utterz, and to some extent the two of them together.
Twitter was definitely something that I didn't get when I heard about it. It sounds narcissistic at best, and pointless for the most part. Oh yeah, let me broadcast details of my daily life, like people care. Well the truth is - in physical space we do broadcast details of our daily life, not to everyone, but to anyone who is in listening range of our casual conversations. "Hey I'm heading to the x movie.", "I'm on my way to a restaurant", "I read this really cool book". Just over the web we didn't chat in public spaces and how many of your friends were really on line that you'd tell them online instead of in person.
Twitter sort of changed that picture, and although we may have started with only a couple of friends, or people we thought were interesting that we wanted to eavesdrop on, eventually this evolved. People we followed followed back and casual chit chat developed into relationships - in part by the other places where we could "go out and talk" like chat rooms on the live video websites, real life meet-ups and Second Life.
Utterz is a bit more recent. Quite a few people that I was following on Twitter were using Utterz (I know because their Utterz were tweeted.) At first I though it was yet another add on service - there are many out there. Eventually enough people were uttering that I had to check it out. (Ok, it got my curiosity going.) Something about Utterz is better than the other "record audio" services out there. You can call in on your phone and it records your message. You can send videos and pictures and text and also have it be part of your Utterz. And, and I think this may be the key feature, it can tie into other services - twittering, auto-posting to blogs, and the like. That feature is what let me know about it in the first place.
A road trip is an awesome time to spend time thinking, and experiencing the road. With all the thinking there is a desire to capture those thoughts because once back in the crowd of civilization that perspective can be lost. I suppose the answer for some would be to keep a journal of the adventure, or even record ones thoughts on tape. (Admittedly I did record some of my thoughts on voice recorders.) However Utterz and twitter added to this experience. They provided a way to record my thoughts and at the same time share them with others. The people who cared about my progress (and safety) on the journey could all receive messages as I progressed on my journey, and for others they could enjoy my journey vicariously. At the same time when I came to a place to stop I could check in and see the responses to my updates. It was a pretty amazing experience, and it was interesting seeing peoples responses to the journey. At the same time these "new tools" provided comfort for those who worried about me journeying alone.
Could I have done it without these tools. Sure - for now. But it may be that some time in the future broadcasting tools, and the way we gather information, will make tools like twitter and utterz essential, just like the "luxury cellphone" has become an essential item when traveling.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Thoughts on Location and Local
I mentioned PodcampXL and an interest in doing one locally back in July which is when Eric Rice first mentioned it. Its nice that I was interested, but until now not much had happened with that.
Recently I took a road trip, which was prompted in part by a need to reflect on where I am and where I am going. Of the many topics of thought one was about location and community. Between twitter and Second Life, and the chatrooms of BlogTV, Ustream and Operator 11, and the recent advent of Seesmic a lot of what I think of as my community and my friends with like interests are found all over the globe. This in and of itself is not a bad thing. We are living in an increasingly global society, that is one of the effects of fast ubiquitous communication. However, when it comes at the expense of the local community that is a problem.
Sure I do have friends locally and a community that I live within, but the majority of the local community has no idea what I'm talking about when I talk about global friends, video on the net, cool new technologies, and the desire to think deeply of the consequences and future of these technologies. For that discussion I go to the net.
The network will always have a broader pool of people with similar interests. Yet at the same time the ease of finding such people with such interests over the network sometimes causes a person to overlook the local. Case in point, I was visiting Seesmic in San Francisco and Loic pointed out that there were a lot of seesmicers in Colorado. I had noticed that, but the truth is that I have not yet met any of them. In a sense it is kind of silly. People with similar interests are living (figuratively) in my own back yard and yet we wave from the distance over video.
So...that brings me back to PodcampXL. I know, it sounds like a super big podcamp (extra large) but as Eric Rice describes it the focus is local, extra local perhaps? Community comes together from doing things together. Sure gatherings are nice but what seems like the next step for me is to start working on this PodcampXL. It is inspired by podcamp but the focus is participation and presentation - of one sort or another - by all. I'd like to see this PodcampXL be the start of something rather than just a great event. Afterwards I'd like to keep the discussions going the working together going. How that works isn't clear to me, but it shouldn't be - it should come organically from the process of the PodcampXL.
Rather than describe the ideas of how I envision PodcampXL and make everyone scroll through my thoughts I will write more on my PodcampXL idea in the next post.
Recently I took a road trip, which was prompted in part by a need to reflect on where I am and where I am going. Of the many topics of thought one was about location and community. Between twitter and Second Life, and the chatrooms of BlogTV, Ustream and Operator 11, and the recent advent of Seesmic a lot of what I think of as my community and my friends with like interests are found all over the globe. This in and of itself is not a bad thing. We are living in an increasingly global society, that is one of the effects of fast ubiquitous communication. However, when it comes at the expense of the local community that is a problem.
Sure I do have friends locally and a community that I live within, but the majority of the local community has no idea what I'm talking about when I talk about global friends, video on the net, cool new technologies, and the desire to think deeply of the consequences and future of these technologies. For that discussion I go to the net.
The network will always have a broader pool of people with similar interests. Yet at the same time the ease of finding such people with such interests over the network sometimes causes a person to overlook the local. Case in point, I was visiting Seesmic in San Francisco and Loic pointed out that there were a lot of seesmicers in Colorado. I had noticed that, but the truth is that I have not yet met any of them. In a sense it is kind of silly. People with similar interests are living (figuratively) in my own back yard and yet we wave from the distance over video.
So...that brings me back to PodcampXL. I know, it sounds like a super big podcamp (extra large) but as Eric Rice describes it the focus is local, extra local perhaps? Community comes together from doing things together. Sure gatherings are nice but what seems like the next step for me is to start working on this PodcampXL. It is inspired by podcamp but the focus is participation and presentation - of one sort or another - by all. I'd like to see this PodcampXL be the start of something rather than just a great event. Afterwards I'd like to keep the discussions going the working together going. How that works isn't clear to me, but it shouldn't be - it should come organically from the process of the PodcampXL.
Rather than describe the ideas of how I envision PodcampXL and make everyone scroll through my thoughts I will write more on my PodcampXL idea in the next post.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Brain at Work & Visiting Grandpa
In looking at the blog I've noticed I've not been posting much, and over on viddler I've not been videoing much. Now one theory might be that I'm not spending as much time on line lately, but really that's not the excuse. I think the problem is best described as analysis paralysis. I tend to have lots of ideas of things to write about. I've probably written about 10 posts in my mind - but getting them to the blog - now that's the challenge. I guess part of it is my public and private tendencies battling it out.
Some people are good at writing no matter their mood - in truth we all are human and have ranges of emotions. I often want to share thoughts when I'm in my darker moodier moods, but then I stop. I wonder - how will this inspire someone. How will this make their life better. It's my mood - why should I bother others with it. But in a sense, I'm doing the same thing that I HATE about some writing. "Oh yes, everything was tumbling down and I was violently ill but I had faith and it all came out wonderful because of my great faith." "Wonderful", I say to the author "and how exactly am I supposed to relate to you and learn from your story?" So perhaps those down days aren't so bad for writing after all.
A week ago I was busy packing for a trip to Nevada City to go to my Grandfather's 90th birthday party. It was wonderful to go and sad to go. In some ways Nevada City is the place that is most like "home" even though I've never really lived there. I have been going there during the summers for longer than I've lived any one place. My grandparents were always there along with my aunt and uncle and usually some more of my mother's side of the family.
It was in the summer that I would read what I wanted and contemplate the universe. It was a consistent "home base" more so than that which would be called "home" at any time in my life.
That said I have not been back to Nevada City in years for various reasons. And this past March my grandmother died. I couldn't make the funeral because my mother-in-law had died just 6 days earlier and I was physically unable to make the trip on top of that. So this trip "home" was the first time I had been back since my grandmother had died. As I stepped through the gate that led to the house I looked and saw my grandmother's touches on the house and cried.
There was the swan on the railing:
Which reminded me of the stories she'd tell me of Half-chick and Dapple Gray and other stories.
And then there were the details along the roof-line.
And the little planter stand she and grandpa would make together.
After a few seconds I composed myself and headed across the little bridge to the house and called out the family "yoo hooo" as I opened the door to announce my arrival.
Some people are good at writing no matter their mood - in truth we all are human and have ranges of emotions. I often want to share thoughts when I'm in my darker moodier moods, but then I stop. I wonder - how will this inspire someone. How will this make their life better. It's my mood - why should I bother others with it. But in a sense, I'm doing the same thing that I HATE about some writing. "Oh yes, everything was tumbling down and I was violently ill but I had faith and it all came out wonderful because of my great faith." "Wonderful", I say to the author "and how exactly am I supposed to relate to you and learn from your story?" So perhaps those down days aren't so bad for writing after all.
A week ago I was busy packing for a trip to Nevada City to go to my Grandfather's 90th birthday party. It was wonderful to go and sad to go. In some ways Nevada City is the place that is most like "home" even though I've never really lived there. I have been going there during the summers for longer than I've lived any one place. My grandparents were always there along with my aunt and uncle and usually some more of my mother's side of the family.
It was in the summer that I would read what I wanted and contemplate the universe. It was a consistent "home base" more so than that which would be called "home" at any time in my life.
That said I have not been back to Nevada City in years for various reasons. And this past March my grandmother died. I couldn't make the funeral because my mother-in-law had died just 6 days earlier and I was physically unable to make the trip on top of that. So this trip "home" was the first time I had been back since my grandmother had died. As I stepped through the gate that led to the house I looked and saw my grandmother's touches on the house and cried.
There was the swan on the railing:
Which reminded me of the stories she'd tell me of Half-chick and Dapple Gray and other stories.
And then there were the details along the roof-line.
And the little planter stand she and grandpa would make together.
After a few seconds I composed myself and headed across the little bridge to the house and called out the family "yoo hooo" as I opened the door to announce my arrival.
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