I’ve struggled now for many years with the idea that technologists can become celebrities.  And I find it even more challenging now that because of how some social tools are currently being built — we are rapidly encouraging fame metrics as social capital.

Broadcast technologies: blogs, facebook, myspace, foursquare — you name it in “social media”, run on the same basic premise that virality is good.  This mainly has to do with economics of certain types of business models.  The problem is the lens’s that are created with this kind of discourse in mind, create certain kinds of interactions — which of course scale exponentially and grow virally.   Meaning, they are based on one sided growth models.  Models might create a “trapped” feeling.  I mean just think of a virus or addictive drug.  Something doesn’t feel balanced.

So my concerns and ethical controversies stem from the fact that … I believe technologists to be tool makers for the world.  In my eyes, in our current post-nu-neo-industrial age we are in many ways doctors and healers, while simultaneously artists and creators.  We are able to build tools for the world that can help shift cultures at a rate never seen before.  This however is not something to be taken lightly.  It’s like giving someone a super power, without a direction-steering sidekick.  The work we do has significant impact on the evolution of communities, cultures, and specifically on the growth and development of every individual we touch.  It’s a responsibility we have to our own communities to offer them helpful tools and not destructive ones. We understand this stuff, you should feel safe in our hands.

Facebook for me has done a lot of things to help advance the digital frontier in the last number of years.  Namely, it has brought identity trust to the web.  Most folks don’t know that Facebook’s main objective was to de-anonymize the web, thus making it not quite so “scary” of a place for most people.  They know their friends are there because there is the persons real name there, so then it must be ok.  This is actually a great advancement in the progress of digital technology.  However, the cost of this was that they don’t allow alias’s or “personas”.   That is they don’t allow for one persona to have a nickname or other identity — therefore they tie all connections to just one modeled identity.  This arguably is not a healthy strategy for humans.  Psychologically, we perceive ourselves performing in different contexts and those different situational experiences hold different performance identities for us.  Not allowing us transparent tools to manage this causes us more stress. Easier:  I wear different clothes to work than I do when I go out dancing and FB makes me basically always wear one outfit, this pisses me off cause I can’t dance as well in button up shirt as I can in a stretchy tank top.  And I don’t get the respect I deserve at work, when I come in 1/2 naked wearing a sweaty tank top.

Moreover, there are real privacy concerns that have been breached by some of their automated opt-in strategies for viral growth and also controversial decision making in the design of some of their privacy accessibility controls.

Over the course of the last two years, I’ve played with my own notion of identity and broadcast, using Facebook and trying to sort out it’s purpose to me.  My online social management is rather complex and includes many different spheres of both personal and professional relationships.  I’ve switched from mainly professional to mainly personal use on FB.  I’ve hyper-managed all the different contexts and groups, and broadcast only to those relevant information.  But finally, I gave up and left my own burden of choice to whoever the heck is reading whatever I am babbling.  In the end, it’s a challenging game and one that I’m beginning to question seriously…

Is this really a good and valuable tool anymore?  Or have the decision makers already set the direction in an irrecoverable direction?  Have we advanced past its use on the web now?  Isn’t it time for it to change?

Anyways, I’m saying all this basically… cause I’m bored of the interactions and lens’s to my relationships that FB is offering me.   So, with my summer holiday, I’m going to test out some time off for awhile.  I’ll see how it goes for a little while then make more lasting decisions.

It’s been totally fun getting back in touch with many of you and catching up.  Have fun and  enjoy the summer!

I highly recommend pools and dancing…

Anita

First, I read today about Skype’s awesome-ness.   And it got me thinking more about how the internet is basically taking over every communication modality that we used to experience… mail, newspaper, radio, fax, TV, movies, phone, and that’s just off the top of my head.  As the article points out, soon, you maybe able to port your phone number to a skype number… meaning VoIP could really take off.  As the accessibility and infrastructure of the internet scales, it is slowly replacing every single communication technology that existed.  Its flexibility, low cost, and ubiquity on to different integrated platforms allows for this change to rapidly take place.  For some reason, today the future is NOW thing, really just hit me.  These communication patterns have already changed the world and it is so much different than it was 10 years ago, and is only increasing in change rate.

I sometimes think of my mother’s understanding of these technologies and  think about what was a “correct” lifestyle.  That kind of life or staying the same job, same home, blah blah, doesn’t really exist anymore as a successful model.  The entire world has a cloud above it now and it’s changed what it means for corporations to exist.  What it means for people to communicate and the quality of life in general.

This leads me to the second thing:  working in Berlin vs. the valley.  I also read this article this morning.  In general, its a great summary of many of my frustrations since moving here one year ago.  I have been working with  Nokia for the last year on helping them redefine and rebuild their company.  While the work is interesting, the goals ambitious, and people quality, I’ve really struggled with the difference in attitudes and work ethic.  While culturally, I think europe is often more open and accepting to a multitude of human behaviors, there is something still quite old about some of the centralized authority models.  I’ve felt little autonomy, little ability to be emotionally vested, and hence have felt very detached from anything I am doing here.  In the end, it just isn’t very satisfying.

What I do… I do because I love it, I enjoy it, and I WANT to work at it and I want to be part of changing the world for the better.  It’s not my job… it’s my life… and it’s mine to create.  My work is a large part of that… and I enjoy what I do because it is part of who I am and a message that I want to exist long after I am here.  That means, I want to produce things to the best of my ability because I believe they are valuable.  I want a structure that supports this ethic, that allows me to grow, that trust and builds my own decision making.   I don’t need 25 days of vacation, leaving work every day at 6pm, an “easy” job, or someone who dictates to me what I am to produce.  I want autonomy, flexibility, and porous security.  I WANT to work because I like it, not because I need to.

Anyways, there are still some older models here, that in the end, have been a really nice grounding lesson for me.  In the end, it’s a great experience to understand where my values, ethics, and motivations lie — that I work in an ecosystem, not a company.  Taking myself out of the center of this value chain and thrown into a different one has made this all much clearer to me and makes me feel lucky to have an understanding of the world through a supportive community of innovators, artists, and entrepreneurs.  The valley might be a competitive place, but it’s what I know and it’s a part of who I am.

Today this is what I watched,when I awoke in Berlin, Germany.  It was 7:00am. I cried.

I had yet in my lifetime, until this moment, been sincerely moved to this extent by any living political figure.  I am witnessing history, I thought to myself and my gut reassured my mind.  Barack Obama is a leader who has already changed the face the nation, literally.   He has brought down the notion that political power is only gained through the already weathly and powerful.  He has reached out to the people - in their own comforts - and speaks to them in their own language & with their own tools.  He has splashed color on our nation’s leaders.

He speaks to my generation.  He stands for the things my friends and I take for granted.  The things we always wish our parents would understand and often don’t.  He believes in working from the ground up, in community collaboration, and communication technology.  He is passionate, eloquent, and humble.   He still believes in the power of humanity and works with those common traits, instead of masking their vulnerabilities.

He is a man of color, yet this somehow has made no difference in his campaign message.  He speaks about the issues, tries to make them digestible enough for me to understand.  And really… speaks of nothing else.  He is confident, direct, and honest.   And for the first time in my life, I am proud to call him MY president!

I watched about 20 seconds of the speech and then loudly exclaim, “I want to go home”.  I want to be home to celebrate with my friends. I want to be home to rejoice in the spirit of change, acknowledge the hope I know have helped to create, and dance in the streets.  I want to be home because I am an American and I am proud.

I celebrated in a champagne brunch and in the spirit of the same voice, I cried again.  This time however, my tears were not externally motivated, but more internally derived.  I remembered a moment living in Chicago, when I had come to a decision to stop “wasting my time” and progress my life.  I was living on a block with drug dealers on each corner and section 8 housing next door to my own.  Every night when I walked home I terrifyingly walked passed kids playing and groups of meandering teenagers, trying to find something to do with their life.  One afternoon, I decided to set my own fears aside and look out at what I saw — people who may wish to have only a fraction of the opportunity and talent that I had sitting in front of me.   I realized that if I didn’t try to create all the opportunity that I could, I would be doing nothing fair for those who never had the possibility of having any at all.  It changed my life and I soon after moved to California to go back to grad school.

I feel now the same, that although I want to go home - I miss my friends and want to be celebrating in their company - that it’s this same spirit of progress that continues to change the world.  It’s unfair to those who never have the opportunity to leave the states, who never know a wider perspective than that one corner in Humbolt Park (chicago), and who may never experience a different culture.  I believe in this hope, in this progress, in opportunity, and exploration.  And I believe in Barak Obama who has proven to grow this even more than I thought possible in one person.  I feel as though he is my leader, but I also feel as though he is my voice.  A man who has the power and opportunity to witness and experience things that I never will… but that he is not doing it for himself - he is doing it for me.  For us!

Today has been emotional, [I also just got a call that one of best friends from when I was growing up is engaged (helllllls yeah!)].  It has elated me to see a world backing our nation’s decision, it’s been hard to experience this from a distance, and it has been hopeful and supportive in reminding me of the spirit of progress, growth, and courage.

Today, history has been made and I thank Barack Obama and all my friends and family for making it!!!

I love you all.

Anita

I just got done watching Helvetica - The Movie and I can’t say enough great things. It’s an elegant discussion of simple/ clear graphic design.  It stresses the importance of looking through to the space that isn’t there, as well as the difficulty of how to make a “high heeled guchi” font vs. “a torn sneaker” or a “charlie parker jazz song” really sing.

In a walk through the city, it brings to life the messages that we are shown daily and the emotion that is formed as we interpret and own those forms.  It discusses the responsibility of the designer to give voice and message to artifacts.  It is inspiring.  And delightful to watch.

Helvetica, the movie.  Thumbs up.

anita

“Open-source Linux efforts that pose a threat to Symbian and, by extension, to Nokia, include the LiMo Foundation — whose membership includes Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Panasonic and LM Ericsson, which also are members of the new Symbian Foundation — and Google’s Android effort, featuring many of the same players. Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone is set to launch in 70 countries by next year and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS has also gained share in recent years.”

This is so fantastic.  I can’t believe that there is finally so much movement around creating platforms that finally actually have some standards and extensibility.   Some of these platforms also tackle distribution, which will start to finally put a dent in the stifling of creativity in the mobile marketplace.

I’ve been working with mobile platforms for the last 5 years (save the last couple months).  Over that time, one of the biggest frustrations and (admittedly fun for a little while) challenges was how to figure out how to design and create products that could actually be distributed in the current ecosystem.  Its so great and refreshing to see this actually changing.  It means that hopefully we’ll start seeing some more innovation.  More unique offerings.  And more mobile adoption of new ideas.   Maybe we’ll alas be free of some of the carrier bureaucracy!

I’ll say it again - wow!

Anita

http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/16-06/ff_heresies_01cities

anita

But, I have to say that at first glace, there is something I TOTALLY love. And it’s their background image. It’s just so awesome.  It makes me happy:

a.

The age-old hurdle of game makers, has always been to figure out how to involve more “family” experience into game play.  How do I engage more than just the teen-age boys in video-games.  How do I market to the moms?  Wii has totally done it!  I took my Wii to my mom’s home in Michigan with me last summer (my litmus test for all things technology).  She LOVED it.  She would come home from work and beg me to play bowling with her.  It was great.   I’ve found the same results with the majority of my non-tech girlfriends, here in the bay.  The problem is though, I could never see them getting really hooked… because, simply, they don’t find the value to set aside large amounts of time to “play a game”.

Wii Fitness has put what every busy woman wants back into the game.    It does what other games and systems don’t:  Gives real world meaning and results to something you can play with.  Busy women, working moms, etc, I think are really going to love this!

I can’t wait to get mine!  You can pre-order here.  Its scheduled to be released May 2008.

Anita