Operator 11 Twitter Vox

Wednesday I remembered that Loudmouthman had mentioned the Twittervox Show on Operator 11 and I asked him when it was. It turns out it was in about three hours from when I asked him. I was able to join in on the show, and it was the first Operator 11 show I joined and it was a ton of fun. Once the show got going it really felt like a round table discussion. We talked about twitter and second life and relationships built over virtual spaces.

Warzabidul, the host, blogged about it and pointed out that it was the featured show for today. You can check out this weeks episode here. If you can, join us next week on August 29th at 12PM PST for episode 3.

Thoughts on Later Adapters

I'm listening to Loudmouthman and Jeff Pulver on the PulverTV show and they are talking about the reactions of people to their most recent missives on the subject of social media. They were noting that VoIP seems to be taking off but there is a slowness to grasp the value of social networks.

The thought that occurred to me is that people have a framework with which they view the world. For most this means that things that do not fit their paradigm just do not make sense. I think VoIP is close enough to phone that that is something they can grasp the value of (and free VoIP services help - it offers something they use for free.)

The temptation, given the above, is to describe the new technologies in terms of older technologies to help them grasp the new ones. Although as a teaching tool analogies are very useful and may well bring the later adapters online, the question I have is do these analogies limit us. When we see new technologies in terms of new ways to do old things (which I will admit I often see those patterns) does it limit our ability to see how new technologies can offer something new or allow us to something new - other than the same thing faster and shinier.


Technorati Tags: social media, web2.0, voip, definition, adaptation

Powered by ScribeFire.