dessalles

Sifting through SXSW panel notes…

The Supercollider: A Hero of the Social Network set out to understand what influence the well-connected have on the formation and usage of social web services. The intended conversation about “Supercolliders” wasn’t particularly interesting, but panelists Ben Cerveny and Matt Jones did drive a more compelling sub-plot about flow-based social networking. While neither attempted an explicit classification, both seemed to paint an impression of two types of social apps: The first class being services where the distribution of information is informed by pre-defined relationships – you receive photos I uploaded because we had previously declared each other as friends. And the second class of services are ones where the flow of information is what defines relationships – we are friends because we regularly send each other photos we’ve uploaded. The general consensus of the panelists was that the first, more “traditional”, model is proving increasingly ill-suited to support the activities of these extra-social, collision-prone users. Jen Bekman, qualifying herself as a Supercollider, described her network fatigue as a consequence of the inadequacies of this first class of services. She described the frequent problem she faces of forgetting what personal informational and media is being sent to whom as a result of having to define relationships long-before the need to share information arises. And she described the handicapping of services she uses as a result of tailoring her use to suit the least-common denominator relationships in her diluted, hyperextended social networks. continue reading »

[Ghettoblaster for the Commodore 64]

Attended the SXSW session Mobile Phones: International Devices of Mystery today, where Matt Jones (filling in for some absent panelists) discussed his idea of “jealous” devices and expressed frustration with how these jealous, attention-craving mobile phones insist on pulling their owners into the screens – instead of pushing information out for shared, heads-up, social consumption. He also talked briefly about the “annoying” phenomenon of London, bus-riding teens playing hip-hop through the totally unsuitable speakers of their phones. This practice, not unknown to NYC subways, recalls the fabled, 80s past-time of walking down streets with a shoulder mounted boombox. And when I think about it, the boombox may be the only personal, portable device specifically designed for shared, public consumption – and specifically for sharing with strangers. So I imagine Matt’s onto something. Today, there does seem to be an unfulfilled need to more easily pull media out of personal devices for real-time sharing. continue reading »