Social-video Electric Eyewear

I am not entirely sure how much use I would have for something like this, but the concept of wearable computers certainly has piqued my interest as of late.  With this said, I do know of a number of people within my social circles who would be all over these glasses.

Full-Circle

Something I have given some consideration to as of late is how a number of years ago we were trying to get away of "Social" ISPs such as AOL or MSN and experience more of what is available on the Internet instead of some ISP-delivered content...think circa mid-'90s.  Now (in the recent few years) there is this huge rush back toward what we were in such a hurry to get away from relative to the social aspect of the aforementioned...think Google+, Facebook, etc.  Things that make you go "Hmmmm".  No pun intended, but we have come full-circle.

The Art of Overcoming Information Deception

What if I were to tell you that the world is flat, the Earth is the center of the solar system, Newtonian physics is in fact the Grand Unified Theory, or global warming is 100% due to man? I suspect that you might have me sent away for a long holiday in a padded room without a view. As we transition more deeply into the Information Age, our perceptions of what is valid stands a greater chance of becoming distorted. Dissemination of information occurs at a rate staggering to the human mind. Because of this, being able to discern what is valid information, and what is not, is an important developmental requirement of us all if we expect to mitigate informational extinction.

With the prevalence of social networks and wholesale liberal online media outlets, campaigns of agenda promotion are commonplace. Relative to the former, I am reminded of the childhood game where one child whispers a secret to the his/her friend who does the same to another friend; continuing down the line until the last child whispers the secret to the secret's originator. Invariably, the secret has been distorted. This is how valid information can be distorted within the context of social networks.

No longer does one have to read the daily news, that is delivered each morning in hardcopy format, to find out what happened the day before. No longer does one have to rely on the evening television news being beamed into their skulls to find out what is going on in the world. Each subsequent evolution of news delivery increases the rate at which an individual is able to receive their daily injection of blood, sweat, and tears. As Internet enabled devices proliferate, news is delivered as quickly as it can be prepped for human consumption.

One of the problems associated with our online news access, for both social networks and various media sources, is not the rate at which it is received. Instead, the problem is with the promotion of agendas that may or may not coincide with the overall belief system of the individuals being force fed this digital detritus.

Convincing evidence that promotes and supports the reported information comes in the form of fancy graphs, charts, so-called expert narrative, and statistics. The way I see this is that statistics can be made to support any agenda. If you do not believe this, I would suggest that you do a little research into the various Microsoft sponsored studies associated with this or that.

I have been around long enough to remember when eggs were considered part of a healthy diet. Then some study showed that they were bad for you. Then they were good for you. Information and understanding changes. What is the saying "The only constant in the universe is change"? Additionally, often what is solicited as fact by the expert is simply opinion.

A number of years ago I was told that because of the rate at which new information and/or technology is being generated, I would know less of the total information available upon completing my undergraduate degree than when I began my secondary education. This is not difficult to believe. After all, I do remember when Pluto was a planet. There is simply no way to know everything, even though there are those who would have you believe otherwise.

I understand that the pace at which change takes place is not what it once was. Obviously the pace at which the world turns, metaphorically, is significantly greater than 10, 15, or 20 years ago. Even so, what it boils down to is that we need to take some time to think. The following is a list of some things to consider when evaluating information validity, and not to be considered all inclusive:

1. Does the presented information make sense in a logical world?

2. Is the information fact or opinion based?

3. Ask the question, "What information am I missing that is necessary to make an informed decision".

4. Do not propagate information, the validity of which is uncertain.

5. Above all else, do not simply believe something just because I said so. Do not just question authority, question everything.

If it turns out that the information in question is indigestible for whatever reason, call "shenanigans" on the information promoter; individual, group, organization, or otherwise. A fact is simply a piece of information that is assumed valid until proved otherwise. This is a paraphrase of something I remember reading, the source of which I cannot recall.

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And with that, I am off to see the wizard...

Social Networking Considered

From my perspective, the use of social networking services is on the rise. My past experience with such services includes:

Classmates – I no longer use.
MySpace – Minor presence maintained.
Facebook – Maintain contact with friends from the past and family.
Twitter – Keep up with various open source software topics.
FriendFeed – Was just a curiosity.
LinkedIn – Professional / Career contacts.
Buzz – Just started using. The jury is still out on this one.

I believe that a social networking service will evolve over time. During this course of evolution, its sustainability will be dictated by the niche it serves. In my estimation, Classmates and MySpace are as good a defunct. Sure there are still proponents of these services, but they are being replaced by other, newer services, which provide enhanced functionality and overall user experience.

I opine that Twitter is here to stay. Tweets are quick to the point in the sense that one has only 140 characters to say what needs to be said. This affords me the opportunity to discern whether or not a Tweet is worth further investigation, without investing an inordinate amount of time. This aspect of Twitter can be replicated by other social networking services, but not to the same level of efficiency. Additionally, other services are often associated with substantial bloat that does not interest me. This is evidenced by Facebook quite well.

I have only been using Buzz for a short period and have not formed a definite opinion. However, Buzz has the Google name recognition to propel it forward. I see Google Buzz as being very similar to FriendFeed in terms of functionality. This is bad news for FriendFeed, as I expect the use of FriendFeed to decline in the near future…not that I had ever really noticed significant activity that was personally of interest. I certainly look forward to future development of Google Buzz.

My goal has been to keep my personal and professional lives separate. With the preponderance of interconnectivity of social networking services, this is often difficult. Special effort has been made on my part to preclude evidence of my personal life in social networking by using LinkedIn. I use LinkedIn to establish and maintain contacts with others in my professional demographic, nothing more. It is obvious that LinkedIn is superior to other social networking services in this respect.

Overall, social networking services that tend toward openness, such as open API’s, will have their sustainability enhanced (Facebook made major advance in this direction recently by implementing XMPP as its chat protocol). Those services that rely on proprietary code will likely find it difficult to exist within the confines of our informational based society.

I should note that my opinions are based on how I use social networking services and do not necessarily coincide with the methodology employed by others.

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And with that, I am off to see the wizard...