The cost of exchanging a message is the time of its composition, and the attention of its recipient(s). Modern mobile devices are capable of sending and receiving information over ad hoc networks, and distributed software is capable of routing the data, therefore the cost of sending and receiving additional messages is near zero (power). The added value of a middle tier which merely bottlenecks connectivity is forced to zero.
Tag: social web
Moving to a Cloud of One (Company) is a Single Point Failure
Now while the following story by Dylan M. (@ThomasMonopoly) appears to have fabricated several facts (Matt Cutts shares some insight on HackerNews), it’s worth revisiting how many digital eggs you put into one basket. My issue is not with the veracity of the events, but in how plausible they are.
How much do you rely on someone else for your digital identity?
At 3am I rolled over in bed and had a passing thought:
What if my gmail account was permanently inaccessible?
Anonymity isn’t allowed on Google+
Early this morning I browsed across an update from Marshall Kirkpatrick sharing that Google doesn’t allow anonymous identities on it’s social service Google+.
Endless Waves as an Archetype for Perpetual Systems
Do you hear the irresistible call to spark self sustaining systems? On serene mornings like this I can discern little else. The enticing summons affects equally those who wish to initiate or nurture a novel pattern into an enduring legacy.
Death by Over Friending
This will come as little surprise to astute social network users:
I reconnected on Facebook and rediscovered the network of everyone is pure noise
This is not an obligatory post about the new operator based social web destination
If I were going to write about that recent positive social site, I’d mention that I tried it out this morning before work. I’d also add that the UI was pretty spiffy but the flow of updates was problematic. Popular high bandwidth users continual bounce up to the top, dominating conversations and eradicating diversity. The circuitous groups allow cozier clusters to listen and broadcast to, in the off chance you wish to escape the equivalent of virtual shouting.
Scorched Earth Strategy
Sure Signs of a Healthy Community
In this morning’s riff I’ll call attention to the strong signals which I associate with attractive and healthy communities. These aspects apply to a broad range of social groups including teams both large and small, tightly bound or loosely coupled networks, and strict or informal organizations.
We finally really did it
We finally succeeded as a culture at breaking down communication and human attention into fragmented gibberish. The product of billions of bite sized messages is a grand sucking sound of our cognitive ability swirling down the drain. Quiet contemplation has been ousted by mass consumption, gossip mongering, and trivial conjecture1.