Archive for Social Technology
September 26, 2007 at 3:46 am · Filed under Social Technology, Things Found Online
The other night at supper A reminded me of craigslist missed connections. I had forgotten about them! Not so interesting when in another country and there is 0% chance of surprise…1% chance and I am sucked in!
I wrote about them before and this time, I’m thinking about the different types of posts. Some of the characteristics or variables are:
- frequency of encounters with the sought person: one to multiple times (possibly in daily routine)
- deepness of relationship: total stranger to someone very close
- location scope: specified (I saw you), guessing (I think you might live in…now), where??
- types of locations: transportation, grocery stores, restaurants, bars, shows, in the street, class etc.
- identifiers: physical descriptions, description of event or place, names
- interactions: nothing, phone/email exchange, dancing, smile, conversation, being serviced (e.g. waiter), etc.
- seeker’s expectation: just throwing this out there to I must find you
- time: recent encounter to distant past
- (…)
The one thing I am not liking is this one dude pouring his heart out over an ex (I assume) that he misses deeply. Now I know, missed connections can be a good emotional outlet for broken-hearted people and there is that word “miss”(ed) in there. However, when somebody posts they are doing so for their own benefit - the small possibility that the person they seek will read the post and they can reconnect or connect again. At the same time, they are benefiting the community of missed connection readers by adding to perceived chance, arousing curiosity and satisfying some voyeurism. I feel like the sob letter posts do not provide the same benefit and enjoyment to the community and they add noise to the information I am interested in. Not that this is a service for my enjoyment, its purpose is missed connections, and maybe some people do enjoy reading about the heartbreak of others but…I wonder if a separate craigslist category would be more suitable? One between missed connections and rants and raves.
I was also wondering, if I was an Asian woman and I saw “Asian girl on the skytrain” how would I identify with that? Like…especially living in Vancouver. Maybe I wouldn’t even think about it. It is a physical description. I am “Tall girl on the 25″. But I wonder if the difference is that “Tall girl on the 25″ could be posted by any man but, I am going to guess that the guy who posted “Asian girl on the skytrain” is not Asian. Tell me if I am wrong but, if this is the case then it is interesting how, while specifying filter information, the man implicitly includes information about himself.
Finally, I have never written a missed connection myself and I wonder, if the occasion comes about in the future, will I be reflecting on the saucy man I saw in the soup aisle at the supermarket (sorry about that) and think - I should missed connect! Or, will I be composing the classified the moment I see him walk away with a can of Campbell’s tomato?
(Actually when I think about it, the soup aisle might have the lowest flow of male customers but I have no evidence to back that up. Though I am sure someone has researched male versus female flow through the grocery store and if I can’t fall asleep in the next 15 minutes I might just have to look that up.)
June 26, 2007 at 5:21 pm · Filed under Social Technology
Modern Mechanix blogs a robotic message display for person-to-person notes in public from the 1930s. Write a note, pay a small fee and the message moves up behind the window to be on display for 2 hours. I love the name, “the notificator”.
My questions:
Did people use it for notifications or for other purposes? (example: “I saw you”’s of the 1930s)
Why are they not around anymore and what does it say for current research on channels for leaving content, messages in public places?
What were people paying for? A portion of public space? Protection for their notes (they are behind glass)?
Was two hours long enough?
May 17, 2007 at 2:20 pm · Filed under Social Technology, Things Found Online, Work
I was searching for a project done by a woman I am meeting on Monday called “kotonoha” and came across kotonoha.cc. Very interestingly because both are related to my work - object interface to information and (given the current direction of things) questions, surveys, and polling for personal expression and satisfying that desire to see what other people think.
Kotonoha.cc looks addictive and with my current Japanese and browser translator I am already enjoying the type of questions posted and the responses. Oh yeah - what is it? It is a site where people can indicate their opinion on various “things” (koto) by choosing “O” or “X” and add a little explanatory comment. The “O” “X” o tsukeru system is the common “yes” “no” system in Japan. Examples of things are:
- which are scarier, spiders or cockroaches
- can you remember numbers past 3.1415
Users have simple profiles (photo, nickname, URL) and you can subscribe to different users and receive feeds of their posts in an site-based inbox.
Browsing the questions so far has been really really interesting. I am not just learning about the people or “community” through their responses but also through the questions they are posing. Yes some (like my examples above) are about mundane, general things but others are about current events, issues, popular things (indicators of what the “current” in the country might be) and others about the kotonoha community itself.
モスバーガーはモスと略す O X
(”mos burger” abbreviate to “mos”?) from what I can tell, most people do. It is good that I know this.
The one thing that bugs me is that they don’t display (from what I can tell) a tally of “O” and “X”. I can see that 690 have responded to the mos burger question and a list of the most recent results and comments…but not those two numbers - how many “O” and how many “X”. But…is this intentional? To avoid bias?
What if it went a step further and I had to respond before seeing any responses/comments? While this might motivate people to respond and eliminate bias from seeing what the majority thinks, it might take away from the experience of being in the kotonoha social space which, now that I think of it, seems less to do with knowing what the majority thinks, what the winning side it, etc. and more to do with knowing that people have an opinion.
March 19, 2007 at 11:36 am · Filed under Social Technology
As I learn more and more kanji I become braver surfing the menus from my keitai’s web browser. The other night I ventured into the horoscopes area. Expecting to find a write up for Capricorns or for my blood type (A…yes people are categorized by their blood types here), I instead found a fortune telling system based on my phone’s extended moji (characters) or character icons. That day I was asked to choose one moji from a given set of transportation related moji (icons of a train, bus, ship, car, etc.). I chose the truck and received my fortune in return. I couldn’t really understand the fortune but I did get the advice that if I used the truck icon in an email sent to a friend at 8:30pm it would be a good thing. Oh I love how bytes can be cosmic too.
March 8, 2006 at 7:55 am · Filed under Japan, Social Technology, Uncategorized
Kissui has a very interesting post on Japanese style blogging - what a teenagers blog looks like and what some of the common “protocols” are. She illustrates this style by or course, mimicking it in her post.
Kissui herself (real name Yuki) is only 20 years old but she’s been blogging for four years. A lot of me does not believe that she is only 20. Not because she’s been blogging for four years, but because of the dedication she puts into her artwork and her writing. Ok so yeah, it’s not like we blossom once we hit 25 and life after that is this driven, passionate, creating machine. Many of us create partially through the desire to return to the age of 15-21, pick your favorite one. Adolescent energy can make marvelous things happen.
But check out her site and you might agree with me that there is some aura of maturity and accomplishment there - she also has some amazing graphics and photographs.
December 2, 2005 at 1:16 pm · Filed under In the News, Social Technology
Do you remember when you were a kid and someone in your class got the most amazingly cool toy or book or pants? But let’s consider specifically the toy here. So for a while everyone is hanging out with the cool kid because of his or her cool toy and even though there’s some imbalance (one kid is way cooler than the rest) that is ok because there’s some interaction. People are benefitting. It’s even possible that there’s not just the one really cool kid but there might be several cool kids with different cool toys. But after a while something happens…
A bunch of the mediocre kids go to their parents asking, no begging, for the cool toy. They get it (spoiled) and not only is the original cool kid not as cool anymore, the toy starts to get a little boring too. Let’s pretend that the toy is actually practical so they keep on using it but it seems like it does not work as well as it did before.
The whole Microsoft digging into the classifieds world kinda reminds me of that. I really wish they would just leave it alone because in the end they will probably not do it right. Sure, there’s Google Base trying to get in on the action, but Google is like the cool kid that is cool regardless of what toys he has. Everyone wants to be around him all the time. Microsoft should leave the classifieds to Craigslist. Craigslist is one groovy girl loved by all and she doesn’t expect anything in return for her friendship.
November 1, 2005 at 4:04 pm · Filed under Social Technology, Things Found Online
This looks like the new thing: Team Dating. They claim that although the online dating thing has been great, they are revolutionizing it by bringing people the power of numbers. Isn’t this just Friendster or one of those other social networking things. But under a different guise?
After reading their little manifesto and FAQs page I am not so sure I am convinced. What happens if me and a girlfriend hook up with some guys and we both fall for the same one? Is there safety in 2 girls meeting a 4 guy team? I don’t think this actually solves the problem that most decent guys you meet tend to either actually have a girlfriend (but they are fighting or this is revenge) or are still in love with their previous girlfriend. (Sorry some guys I know might be reading this :P but it’s true…you know who you are).
I would explore it a little more, but eh. Other things to think about.
Other things: bought an underwater disposible camera the other day…5 more days :)
August 17, 2005 at 9:29 pm · Filed under Experiences, Social Technology
Today the was the first day of reshelving duties and OH it was a big job. Nineteen items in total. Please follow this link to find out more of what you can do in your city. Click on the picture to see more photos from my adventure with co-Minister Phillip.
April 20, 2005 at 7:40 am · Filed under Social Technology, Sweet Finds
Last.FM is the best thing that has happened to my ears in a while. Online radio for the people, built by the people. You have a profile, you listen to music while working away on your ‘puter, the music gets added to your playlist. You can also listen to profile radio stations online and that music gets added to your playlist as well. Once your playlist is substantial enough, a profile radio station is created from it and those of others with similar listening interests to you. You get stats on what you and other people are listening to. You can add friends, neighbors are added for you. It’s social networking with music. Incredible. I recommend trying right NOW!
February 3, 2005 at 9:42 am · Filed under Random Thoughts, Social Technology
TheFeature :: Are You Listening To Me?
If this was used on my phone line I would be so screwed. It’s not that I don’t love talking on the phone to people who I love, it’s that I get so distracted with things that may be infront of me (large culprit = computer) that there is not 100% of me concentrated on the one end.
