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Month: April 2008

Surrealistic Democracy: An Approach to Twitter Feature Requests

Published April 8, 2008 by cgerrish

Surrealism - Magritte

The practice of Surrealism often takes the form of connecting unexpected things into a single object. Magritte often used this technique, as did Meret Oppenheim. The fur-lined tea cup is beautiful example. Innovation also takes the form of connecting the unexpected to create the new.

The churn of innovation in the Twitter space is running at full speed. And the tools for a new approach to making feature requests and creating requirements are ready-to-hand in the network. As a user of Twitter, I’d like to view Twitter channels, streams made of specific sets of Twitter users. I found a site called TweetPeek which allowed me to put together some crude channels. These Twitter channels are analogous to the RSS channels on NewsGang.net.

Amy Bellinger took my idea and extended it by putting the RSS feed for the Twitter channel next to the feed for the Audio MP3s in GRAZR.

Amy would like to see live ‘show notes’ for the NewsGang podcast via Twitter. GRAZR doesn’t allow the MP3 to play while the Twitter Channel is updating, but you get the idea.

The channels I’ve sketched out are really rough outlines. They don’t update as quickly as I’d like, I’d really like them to be XMPP based so the flow was real-time.

And the Twitter channel I’d really like to see is the one that features the delegates and bloggers at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Two things need to happen to create this primary source information stream:

  • We need real-time twitter channels, both XMPP and RSS
  • We need to get the word about Twitter to the floor of the convention.

Take this idea and move it forward. If you’re a technologist, think about the technical problem. TweetPeek is a start, but it’s not optimal. If you’re connected to the Democratic convention, spread the word about Twitter.

As the Trashmen said in 1963…

A-well-a everybody’s heard about the bird
B-b-b-bird, bird, bird, b-bird’s the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, the bird is the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, well the bird is the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird’s the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, well the bird is the word
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird’s the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird’s the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, well the bird is the word
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird’s the word
A-well-a don’t you know about the bird?
Well, everybody knows that the bird is the word!
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird’s the word
A-well-a…

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Before You Vote: 20 Questions for Day One

Published April 5, 2008 by cgerrish

The question of readiness attaches to the candidates. But who can really say they’re ready for the unexpected? Having seen the unexpected many times before, I still don’t expect it the next time it occurs. But I know the unexpected when I see it because it’s the thing I didn’t anticipate. It’s life. Who among us can say we are ready for life?

In making a sound judgment with regard to our candidates, perhaps there are other questions we should take with us into the voting booth:

Which candidate will be ready on day one?

Which candidate will be sharp as a knife on day one?

Which candidate will be greeted as a liberator on day one?

Which candidate will be both of our time, and outside of time, on day one?

Which candidate will take ‘the things you care about’ off the table on day one?

Which candidate will put the network into the white space of your favorite TV show on day one

Which candidate will be able to lay off the high fast ball on day one?

Which candidate will still hear the rustling of the leaves on day one?

Which candidate would feel a rapture filled with malice on day one?

Which candidate will write a letter from a Birmingham jail on day one?

Which candidate will appeal to our better angels on day one?

Which candidate will lose the game of actual ping pong of the abyss on day one?

Which candidate is ready to be a “free spirited wanderer” on day one?

Which candidate will know how to take the bus to work on day one?

Which candidate will dare to eat lobster without a bib on day one?

Which candidate will still know the heart of the electorate on day one?

Which candidate will keen like Lady Macbeth on day one? (Run spot run)

Which candidate could hit a curveball on day one?

Which candidate will look good in a hat on day one?

Which candidate will take a little piece of my heart on day one? Which will break it?

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The Politics of Technology: The Technology of Politics

Published April 4, 2008 by cgerrish

Woodstock

The network can’t congregate in a single physical location. Compare and contrast to Woodstock, or the gatherings of the 60s. It’s a limit of the current 802.11 wireless network technology. Perhaps no one anticipated that everyone would be able to and want to connect. And many people want to connect both with their laptops and their phones.

Given the current models, the physics of the event dictate that as the particles converge on a location, the network pipes clog to the point of stillness. The mass of people can talk to each other, but they can’t broadcast to the network.

Live blogging and Twitter have moved beyond the technology conference into both our politics and our lives. The Democratic Convention in Denver will feature a blogger assigned to each of the delegations. As we attempt to broadcast our politics into the network, in the interest of full and open disclosure, we’ll find we occupy a black hole. The density of the particles will prevent any light from escaping.

Of course, we’ll find a way to get reports out. Twitter, with its minimal requirements and multiple network paths, may be the most usable live reporting tool. The pulse of our politics could be largely expressed in bursts of 140 character SMS messages.

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Rhizomatic strategies: MSFT, Silverlight, the Link, the Fragment

Published April 3, 2008 by cgerrish

Gilles Deleuze

The giants, finding the limitations of growing to be the tallest tree, have started to look for other modes of expansion. Even the tallest tree can’t encompass the world.

Arborescent: growth by extension of mass and branching.

Rhizomatic: growth by linking and become part of the other.

From the definition on Wikipedia: “A rhizome works with horizontal and trans-species connections, while an arborescent model works with vertical and linear connections.” For near monopolies like Microsoft, companies that seemed to have the whole thing within reach, a new model of dominance has emerged. Google set the pattern, search is in the middle of everything.

The myth of the totalizing whole has been exposed. Not only is it not possible, it’s not desirable. For Microsoft to operate in the new order of things, they must accept a mixed operating environment. Rather than swallowing Yahoo whole, they must link to it and put themselves inside Yahoo as a fragment. Silverlight is the path toward that future because it doesn’t need to play Microsoft’s traditional zero-sum game. It can link to, and become part of, the other. The goal is to be the dominant fragment, the most aggressive weed in the garden.

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