Being connected is important. Being connected, not channelled, is more important. Being connected, not channelled, supported by appropriate tools, is even more important.
Don’t get my drift? Go read Dave The LifeKludger’s most recent post, Isolation Kills. Speaking from personal experience, he makes a far better case for the use of social software than I ever could, as he describes the important of access as an antidote to isolation.
My thanks to Dave.
This is what some captain of industry is meant to have said when asked if he used Facebook.
I must be getting old. I’ve heard this precise phrase twice before. The first time, it was in the mid 1980s and the question was about PCs. The next time around, it was in the early 1990s and the question was about e-mail.
Would you like to bet against social networks becoming as normal and ubiquitous and “essential” as the PC and e-mail? Your call.
You may not think Facebook is the answer. Fair enough. But please think hard before you dismiss anything that represents the following:
The last point, about the Siamese-Twin communications nature of stuff like Facebook, is something I need to think harder about. I think something special happens when you can converse and be kept informed at the same time. That’s what Bloomberg discovered.
My thanks to Usable Interfaces for reminding me of the FT article and the closing line. I’d seen it and then forgotten about it. These things happen.
Have you ever heard of TechSoup.org? They describe themselves as:
Powered by CompuMentor, one of the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit technology assistance agencies, TechSoup.org offers nonprofits a one-stop resource for technology needs by providing free information, resources, and support. In addition to online information and resources, we offer a product philanthropy service called TechSoup Stock. Here, nonprofits can access donated and discounted technology products, generously provided by corporate and nonprofit technology partners.
We believe that technology can enhance nonprofit work, making us more efficient and better able to serve our communities. We never lose sight of that goal.
CompuMentor itself was founded about twenty years ago, as a result of a guy called Daniel Ben-Horin finding out what made The WELL tick, and wanting to be a part of that something. Everything I’ve read about the WELL makes them the real pioneers of virtual communities, so this is some pedigree.
But that’s all background. Can’t remember where I read it, but what I do remember is what the article said….. TechSoup (or some part of it) was making virtual office space and equipment available, at no cost, to qualifying charities that wanted to set up in Second Life.
What fascinated me and made my heart sing was the nature of the charity that seemed to trigger TechSoup into doing this; the article spoke of a particular eureka moment for someone from TechSoup, coming across a meeting of real-life quadriplegics in the virtual environment.
The point was that the quadriplegics could do so much in the virtual world that they couldn’t do in “real” life; walk, run, even fly.
I think this is an absolutely fundamental point: virtual worlds allow people to do things they are disenfranchised from doing in the real world.Â
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that this capacity to enfranchise is restricted to Second Life and similar environments; it is as meaningful in apparently non-graphic environments like Facebook. The enfranchisement is based on the virtual nature of the environment and not on the graphics.
So before you decide to ban Second Life and Facebook and stuff like that from the work environment, think about the disenfranchised. How could you use virtual environments to lower enterprise barriers to entry for the disenfranchised? What happens when you can place-shift? What happens when you can gather people into virtual meetings? What happens when you can provide alternate means of communications to those hard of hearing, hard of speech, or, for that matter, wheelchair-dependent?
You see, what intrigues me is the level playing field. There are many ways to aid people who are disenfranchised in one way or the other, and we have many fantastic technologically-advanced devices to offer those who are otherwise handicapped. Yet, when it comes to a virtual meeting, some of the social aspects of the disenfranchisement become invisible.
We live in a world where many people pay serious money for changing, repairing or otherwise “improving” some aspect of their physical appearance. Let us take the beams out of our own eyes before we take the motes out of others’. Who are we to deny someone the right to “change” their body (as they would be able to do in Second Life) or “dematerialise it” (as they can do in Facebook?). What do we understand about how the behaviours (and productivity) of the otherwise disadvantaged would change as a result?
I don’t know enough about all this, but I will continue to learn. It’s too easy to say “waste of time” and “nothing to do with work” and “it’s all about sex, drugs and rock-n-roll anyway”. I want to find out more about the people who see these tools as opportunities to develop and enhance their potential, as opportunities to deliver to that increased level of potential. And I want to find ways of helping people do this. Which means I must continue to experiment with such tools.
I’m a caper novel nut. My life has not been the same ever since I discovered Donald E Westlake many decades ago. And every time he comes up with a new Dortmunder novel, I make sure I get the time to savour it; I start preparing to get underneath that bough, with a jug of wine and a loaf of bread, ready for that wilderness that is paradise enow.
And so it was with What’s So Funny. As enjoyable as ever. While reading it, I began to sense that Westlake was becoming more luxurious, almost Wodehousian in his use of similes. Here’s a taste:
with such studied nonchalance he looked like a pickpocket on his day off
what he looked mostly like was the part of the rocket that gets jettisoned over the Indian Ocean
the voice sounded as though it were coming from a bicycle tire with a slow leak
his right knee twitched constantly, as though remembering an earlier life as a dance band drummer
Delightful. And no, I don’t have any stock in Donald E Westlake Inc either. [Incidentally, one or two of you appear to think that every time I make a recommendation, I must have some vested interest. Not everyone works that way. For the last 20 years, the only stock I’ve ever held is in the companies I’ve worked for. It’s easy to criticise. Go on, make yourself vulnerable. Recommend something instead.]
I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain
I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I’d see you again
One of my favourite artists and one of my favourite songs; the drums alone make it worthwhile. You’re right, I’m one of those soppy sentimental guys who loves the “soft” rock that oozed out of the late Sixties into the Seventies, part folk-rock part acoustic-ish harder stuff. Where Traffic and Crosby, Stills Nash and Young and Buffalo Springfield and America and The Mamas and the Papas and Donovan live happily ever after side by side with Dylan and The Band and the Dead and Cohen and Jethro Tull, touching Renbourn and Jansch, through to Carole King et al, on to Delaney and Bonnie and the softer acoustic side of Hendrix and Joplin and Clapton and Stealers Wheel and Loggins and Messina, with a little bit of Poco and The Flying Burrito Brothers and Fotheringay and Lindisfarne and the supergroups of Bloomfield/Kooper/Stills and Blind Faith , against a strong backdrop of Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot and John Martyn and Van Morrison, slowly dribbling into the mid-Seventies and The Doobie Brothers and Queen and Police and Jim Croce and Steely Dan and Supertramp. Come on, I even like Neil Diamond. Really. Always did, still do. [Isn’t it nice when you get to that age when your tastes are genuinely your own?]
Incidentally, if you haven’t tried it, go and visit liveplasma, feed in the names of some of your favourite bands and watch what happens.
And now for something completely different. Triggered by this article I read in the Times yesterday.
They’re re-making Sholay. With a prequel and a sequel and an animated version. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, Sholay is the highest-grossing Bollywood film ever, and one of the few (maybe 50) that I’ve actually seen. And you know what, I really enjoyed it. Even thinking about the way people used to spurt out Gabbar Singh one-liners brought a smile to my face. Now that’s what I call the power of Wikipedia, where I can link to Amjad Khan’s lines. Amazing. Thank you Jimmy Wales.
You must be wondering just where this post is going by now. Don’t worry, I just happen to have a circuitous mind.
You see, I can remember actually queueing in the rain for cinema tickets only once in my life (with Gary Martin, in Calcutta). The film I was queueing for? Sholay…. translated as Fire. In the Rain. Fire And Rain. And so the story goes.