a blog about information
Happy New Year everyone. If you haven’t heard of William Stafford before, you should try and spend some time reading his poetry. Stafford, who died in 1993, was made the US equivalent of Poet Laureate in 1970, and was known for his gentle, pithy style. A prolific poet, he is estimated to have written over … Continue reading “Musing about 2011 and an un-national generation”
I try and make a point of looking for the good in people; I try and make a point of looking for the good in situations; I try and make a point of looking for the good in outlook and expectation. Those traits in me make some people believe that I’m a wild-eyed optimist, whatever … Continue reading “Does the Web make experts dumb? Part 2: Who’s The Teacher?”
For information to have power, it needs to be held asymmetrically. Preferably very very asymmetrically. Someone who knows something that others do not know can do something potentially useful and profitable with that information. Information can be asymmetric in a number of ways. The first, and simplest, is asymmetry-in-access. If you can make sure that … Continue reading “Does the web make experts dumb?”
We now have a growing and fascinating array of tools with which to share information with others, “social” tools. Having spent some time recently thinking about why we share (posts here and here), I wanted to spend some time sharing my thoughts with you on the topic of what we share; in a few days’ … Continue reading “What we share: Continuing to look at privacy, sideways”
This is a follow-up post to one I wrote nearly three months ago, Musing About Sharing and Privacy. This time, I’m trying to focus on just one thing. What makes people share. Incidentally, while talking about sharing: if you’re interested in privacy I would strongly recommend you read this post by Danah Boyd and this … Continue reading “Why we share: a sideways look at privacy”