The first computer mouse, held by Doug Engelbart. This tool is now being used by hundreds of millions of people around the world. [image source]
One of my favourite authors is Idries Shah, a writer who greatly helped spread of knowledge of sufism in the West. One of my favourite books of his is called "Knowing How To Know", and I have often returned to the book the last years - returning to some of the psychological questions that are expressed there. Particularly, I am interested in how he handles questions of learning, and knowing. How do we learn? What does it mean to learn something? What does it mean to know something? How do we handle knowledge, individually and collectively?
A few weeks ago, I joined a blogger meet-up here in Copenhagen and during the dinner, Eugene Eric Kim, our guest of honor, held an informal presentation on what he is interested in and works with, followed by a Q&A session. I had not previously heard of Eugene's work, but I was pleased to realize that he works together with Doug Engelbart on issues related to purple numbers. During his talk, Eugene talked about the importance of 'not taking it for granted'. Not taking these tools for granted, or taking it for granted that we know how to use them, or that others know how to use/appreciate them.
What is it we are taking for granted? What questions do we take for granted - and thus ignore? Do we miss the forest because we keep looking at new trees? How can we improve our collective memory?
During the rest of the dinner questions like that were swirling in my head. After the dinner, the about 15 of us went to Oschlag's apartment for some beers and talks. I had the opportunity to chat some with Eugene, and among other things we talked about the growth of these new tools for collaboration, and how we can be better at sharing our experience. Here is Eugene's take on our discussion - and I really liked how he summed up parts of our talk here:
We talked about the FeaturedContent pattern as a way of trickling up useful content. It's an especially important pattern with blogs, which are great for tracking conversations, but -- like MailingLists and forums -- tend to obscure older, but still relevant content. [source]
I told Eugene that I had previously heard about purple numbers, but I forgot the context in which I had heard about it. After now searching through my old blog entries I found an entry from April of last year where I talked about "Hacking the Attention Hierarchy" and I found that one of the trackbacks of that entry was by Chris Dent who made the link between what I was writing about and purple numbers (that trackback now leads to a dead end, but google cache has it). In fact, I had also read things by Chris Dent earlier, for instance this wiki page on Socialtext Exchange. (Which reminds me: I still owe SocialText some money for the wiki experimentation we did in Bergen Liberal Youth last year! I'll get that sorted out asap!)
Anyway, I had already heard about purple numbers, but I was frustrated with how difficult it seemed to implement it, and Eugene and I discussed how one for instance could quickly assemble a few screencasts to show the workflow. I was very happy that I managed to convince Eugene to spend the time it takes to make a few screencasts, and now it is indeed down on writing :)
I was very pleased to have the opportunity to meet Eugene a few weeks ago - it reconnected me to my main issues/questions, and if it had not been for my broken computer, I would have been able to really get things rolling. [btw: feel like donating towards me buying a new computer? I am trying to get the old one fixed/replaced with a used machine, but what I really need is a laptop]
I had originally named this blog entry "Knowing How to Know" in tribute to Idries Shah, but the issue here is not about knowledge or knowing how to know. My issue is to figure out how we can crack down the attention hierarchy in our lives. Why we tune in to the most recent blog/vlog/podcast entries, and not the older ones. Why we don't even bother listening to certain voices in society. Why we lose the essence of an important presentation because the presentation is in itself presented as a 1-hour piece of data. Why we keep thinking that the past is irrelevant, which basically leads us to re-inventing the wheel all the time. (As I commented after seeing 'the mother of all demos' at Reboot 7: What evil forces have been at play ever since, halting our development?")
One of the threads during my discussion with Eugene was videoblogging, and we talked a bit about the concept of video + wiki. I have earlier discussed issues like this with Michael Meiser and others, and I had planned to do some experimenting with that on VlogWiki, but I never got around to it. Eugene mentioned Rory O'Connor, who is a documentary filmmaker interested in wikis. This now leads me to thinking about the amazing work that Kent Bye does at the Echo Chamber Project, even though I did not mention that during my chat with Eugene.
I will check up Rory's work on Wikimentaries - "cutting documentaries from open footage" as Eugene put it. I will continue talking about "attention hierarchy" and how I hope we can break it.
I have a few questions:
* When is information outdated? When is a blog/vlog entry old? 16 days? 3 months? 2 years?
* How do you think we can connect the dots in better ways? Do we need ever more tagging of data? What is best practice out there currently? How can we most effectively spread this best practice? (My suggestion is excellent screencasts like this or well-edited video content freely available on-line)
* Why is there so much bloody hype, and so little hard work done by us as members of a community?
***
Thank you, Eugene, for helping me remember why I do all this. Why I don't want to lose the questions which, basically, is the same as taking things for granted. (I need to work harder on being clear with my message, here and elsewhere)
Today, I finally managed to watch part 5 of "The Head of Raymond K" [.mov]. How? I downloaded it to this public computer (which cannot view .mov files), uploaded it to Youtube and viewed it there. I could have used blip.tv but my experience has been that their flv version conversion is a bit slower than youtube - or am I wrong?)
Seeing some of my old footage from the vault mixed with footage from the The PAN meet-up in Michigan is bizarre and very inspiring. It reminds me that the media we create does not have to be satellites, lost in cyberspace. Let us connect the dots.
Pixels are moving, and we create / recreate meaning from the combination of pixels. These black dots create words - signify words, meaning, communication.
With videoblogging, we are theoretically allowing for a global exchange of symbols that are captured by inexpensive digital cameras or even webcams. Exchange.
Exchange of symbols.
I feel like I am losing my mind. On the very edge. Not clinically, but it sure feels mind-boggling. The consequences - potential consequences - of so much of what is going on here. What we are doing, attempting to do, in oh so incomplete ways. Half-hearted attempts.
But yes, despite the half-heartedness of so much of what I/we do, there is a deeper current here. That slowly the people, the individuals, are given a voice. Or, rather, they can just grab the scene themselves. In order to make comedic shows on the internet, or to express something that they are concerned about.
I am listening to the music, and I try to visualize - really visualize - how videoblogging will work for organizations and political parties. I have done almost nothing in this field since my work last year with the Liberal party here in Norway. The work which for some reason got highlighted. I got scared then, and I backed down somewhat. I didn't want to be blamed if we on September 12th last year lost the election because of some stupid video I had shot got abused by the birds of prey in the mainstream media.
Why do I spend all my time shifting between dimensions? Trying to adjust to first one, then another, way of thinking, and I end up jaded and apathic. Blogging as the average joe's way to work around "the system". Blogging as the system's way of working around the workarounds.
03:58
4 AM, and I cannot sleep. Didn't sleep last night either. My body hurts. [Would it be better if I presented this communication in the form of a video? To make this Look more like 'art' in order for me to be able to express what is on my mind?] I am insomniac these days; have been for a long time. I spend the nights on activity on different layers. One part of me is grinding in WoW. One part of me is thinking about youknowwho. One part of me is trying to figure out some of those underlying - - cruxes? Issues. Questions. Dilemmas.
To snap out of it, right? To snap out of it too, and not write things like this. Ikke utlevere seg selv så innmari mye, for gud og hvermann.
DLTQ - Don't Lose The Question. A very ironic net-handle I chose back then, just like my earlier net-name "Ehich" was ironic, twisted, with dual meanings.
I keep losing the questions because I am too obsessed with whatever is in front of me right then.
I keep losing the questions because I don't even keep track on them. I don't have a neat post-it next to my bed with The Issues written in capital letters.
What would the issues then be, if I had such a post-it piece of paper? What ARE the issues I am battling with, even when I am silent for days or weeks?
04:06
I am about to cry, [MEN DON'T CRY], thinking about my friends who I am letting down. My friend Prakash in Kathmandu - what the FUCK have I done for him lately? Oops, I shouldn't swear on my own blog, bad Raymond.
Or Leke in Nigeria, who is So ambitious about his studies and who wants to take his next degree in the west but he cannot because he is just another broke african living in a country that is one big black hole in the minds of many of us. What is Nigeria? Isn't that just a bunch of hoaxed emails and scammers? Nigeria, one of the most populous countries in Africa.
I am rambling, as I should, I guess. I ramble too little here, not too much.
WHY does blogging matter? Why does videoblogging matter? Why is it so important that we are developing these tools for communication?
Am I ready? Am I done being up in the mountains, as Chris puts it? Ready to step down to civilization again, with a clear message after all my yakyak and nocturnal meandering? These sentences make no sense - I wish I had the commitment to just make a movie out of this. But then this would be something completely different.
My mother is selling her house in Northern Norway. I am, in one way, saddened by it. That she is selling it, and that I don't have that faux relationship to this godforsaken place called Arnøya in northern Troms county. County? Is that even the correct word? I made a video showing the house last summer, let me find it. -- I didn't find it, but I found something else, this video that illustrates quite well how I view things sometimes. Here is the original post, along with the hundreds of spam comments for phentermine and gambling. Sorry about that, but I never got to remove all that spam. I also see that one of my posts here on the new blog got hundreds of spam attached by bots. This is how far civilization has brought us, aye.
***
VloggerCon. It will be a blast. I will be well prepared for my part of it. I hope Brett can make it. Me and a bunch of north americans... Like The PAN - me and some americans. Well, Erik lives in The Netherlands, but I don't Quite consider him a full-blown European.
Why am I talking about ME so much? Just because this is my blog, I shouldnt be so darned ego-centric - right?
Here is a wonderful mashup of videos created by people from "around the world". Yes, you should visit Bottomunion.com right now if you don't know the site.
04:29 are we sleeping yet?
When I was younger, much younger, I remember having a fierce discussion with a friend about presentation. My friend thought I should spend a lot more time on the presentation. How things LOOK. The argument was something like "If you know the content is good enough, why not make it look a bit better? Why scare all the people away by a horrible layout on your paper or wrap that beautiful gift in old newspapers?" and I kept my point which is: why treat people like they are the lowest common denominator? That they are all unintelligent, bound by fashion, too bound by external aesthetics.
04:33 this post makes no sense, which is Exactly why I must continue, and finish it, and publish it.
Time to get moving, folks. We have a lot of things ahead of us. Fun things and the totally unfun things.
Bullox.
So, yeah, does this mean I will start videoblogging like a good boy now? Doing it somewhat regularly? That I will make a video tomorrow (sunday) where I simply talk to the camera and express some of my points regarding institutional videoblogging?
Yes, I would say so. good night.
There was a discussion on the videoblogging yahoogroups lately about how much the list should stay on topic. Some people wanted the discussion group to be more topic, more about technical solutions, and discussion about those solutions. There were other voices who pointed out that part of the charm of the community is that it is a community - people who interact with each other on a rather broad spectre of topics. The centre of the community is vlogging - videoblogging - and how we can use this new technology and the new ways to mediate ourselves. But it often gets off topic, and likewise this site also gets quite off-topic sometimes. So, during the last weeks, I wondered what to do with it all, all those embarassing videos I put out there, or the lamentations, or the very unserious and loosely structured stuff like my skype chat with Michael Meiser and Schlomo Rabinowitz.
It all boils down to signal vs. noise. Ratio.
For almost a year, I kept a Norwegian-languaged blog at raymond.blogg.no - it was aimed at my fellow Norwegians, these 4.5 million people living in the North of Europe. Or, well, not all of them, but rather people who 1) knew me or 2) were somewhat interested in blogging, vlogging etc. After a year of blogging on the site, I just deleted all the entries. I felt the noise level got too high.
But this is what it is all about. People. Creatures of the Day and the Night who interact with each other. Sometimes things get ugly, but why shove the dirt under the carpet?
I want more blogging, not less, and yet I realize we are all fragile beings, we all react somehow to criticism, be it fair or not. It is so much easier to live with being criticized for NOT publishing something than being criticized for the content of what you do publish. This is why good bloggers keep fascinating me - bloggers who get it. Robert Scoble gets it in my opinion. He makes mistakes, he becomes angry sometimes, and lashes out, or appears hurt - but that's HIM. Flesh and bone. With audio, Madge Weinstein does some amazing work. When her beloved died of cancer earlier this year, she dared to share. In video, who are the best sharers? The best people in showing both their strength and weaknesses - fragile. I don't know this medium. I mean, to be honest on video takes so much more work. You know that people could remix you, be it in a positive way or a negative way, and make you look like even the bigger fool than you are. Hmm, of the posts lately that I really admired this one by missbhavens is a great example. She just came to New Orleans and saw the house there in a terrible state. She describes her emotions, and shows us around the house, all the mess.
Blogging, podcasting, videoblogging is all about the people. At least, to me it is. The technology is important, sure. The money involved in providing this technology is important too, of course. But the buck stops with the individual with something to say. Whether that be some homeless person in Canada, a not too-bad-off business/technology person in Silicon Valley, or a teenager in the UK simply exploring the world and expressing themselves through humor or real reality.
With our Norwegian and Swedish blogging portals, we (BlogSoft, the company I work at) have thousands of bloggers. Thousands of individuals wanting to express themselves to their friends or to the general public. Here is a woman writing anonymously about her sexual adventures, including (earlier) how she cheated on her husband and later how she and her husband enjoys sex with another couple. Quite provocative material to some, while for others it is simply a question of freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech.
How come politicians feel they need to come with the usual phrases when they are on television? Boil it all down to 5 sentences while in a heated debate with a political opponent. A battle of Titans, of Gladiators. To me, politics shouldn't be a bloody gladiator match, and yet somehow we all make it turn into it. We want to see blood (someone saying something stupid), we want action (someone accusing another of X or Y, high emotions), we want to be - above all - entertained.
Blogging, podcasting, videoblogging - all forms of communication that are on the one hand accessible to a large part of society - at least here in the industrialized countries. On the other hand, together with tools like OPML and techniques like tagging and metadata, we can create a rich ecosystem of communication between people from a large variety within society. At the end of the day, it is this ecosystem that is important. That there are all kinds of creatures in the mix and not just for instance tech-minded geeks or political activists a la indymedia or spisderike.net (a Norwegian group - the site is literally called "Eat the Rich"). As videoblogging becomes easier for the average person, we will have a stronger vlogosphere and ultimately a stronger civil society.
And that is worth fighting for. And blogging for.