Piers Jones

An anthropological introduction to YouTube

A really excellent and fun video on the ethnography of YouTube
from Michael Wesh who apparently is Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University.

His original machine is using us video:

From: Johnnie Moore's blog

Book review: Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky

I have just finished reading 'Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations' by Clay Shirkyand I enjoyed it so much I thought that I would jot down a few thoughts here. I'm not quite sure how I came across the book, I hadn't heard of Clay Shirky before but he clearly has a deep understanding on how the internet has had an impact on society and how groups behave.

Every once in a while it's good to take a break from the day to day immersion in the here and now and reflect on some of the changes that have happened. I found this book to be a very valuable way of looking at those changes now that the use of collaborative tools are available to anyone that can get online or receive an email.

Here are my favourite thoughts and insights from the book:

• Some very succinct explanations of concepts like the Coasean floor, the tragedy of the commons and power law distribution which added a great deal to my understanding of why social tools have had an impact.
• A good debate around the changing nature of journalism and how this is now an activity as well as a job. Also a nice explanation of why 'User Generated Content' has value.
• Some good high level thinking about how the obstacles to collective action have been removed by the internet's new tools and more importantly how they might be used in the future to change the way we live.

If you like all this type of stuff I thoroughly recommend it as a good read.

If you dont have time for the book, here is the author's presentation to the TED conference from 2005 which covers the same themes in around 20 minutes.

A map of the social entrepreneur landscape from 2gether08

I didn't make it to the 2gether08 'unconference' this week but I've been following some of the content coming out of what looked like a very interesting event.

I really enjoyed this short video trying to map the social entrepreneur landscape by Cliff Prior and Nick Temple from Unltd. I particularly liked the analogy of web 2.0 to the arrival of the railways, that doesn't feel too far off. Lets hope that people don't get stuck in the swamp of misrepresentation...

The social entrepreneur landscape from David Wilcox on Vimeo.

Why Social Media is like ice cream

Following on from U.A.Tea and cake we bring you more food and technology combinations.

A great video of Social Media in Plain English from Common Craft explaining why Social Media is just like ice cream.





Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

The history of digital community

I really enjoyed this video (via Kristine Lowe) of Ethan Zuckerman presenting the history of digital community in less than 7 minutes. Well worth a watch.

The changing world of digital journalism

Something that creates a great deal of debate where I work is the changing role of journalists in online publishing.

My colleague Andrew has some great thoughts on what a new recruit into the rapidly changing world of digital journalism might look like. It sounds like an exciting job...

Dataportability explained

A good video outlining the case for data portability on social sites  to be found below if you  haven't seen it already...

DataPortability - Connect, Control, Share, Remix from Smashcut Media on Vimeo.

Big trends for 2008

It is good to see Read/Write web outlining some big trends in their toolkit for 2008.

Their suggestions for the areas to watch this year are;

• Open Data - a good call perhaps given the recent Facebook, Google and Plaxo  Data portability announcement

• Recommendation - another great area, I particularly like trustedplaces in the UK for that

• Semantic web - still waiting for the release of twine

• Mobile and

• Visualisation

I would add vertical/niche social networking to the list.

 

Thinking bigger and Zeppelin comebacks

I'm really hoping for a Zeppelin comeback this year; no not that Zeppelin. After watching the Golden Compass over Christmas I found myself asking; Why are more people not getting around in airships?

After all there is a lot to say in favour of this form of transport;

• a low carbon way to fly
• less constraints on space than modern aircraft
• what I imagine is a relaxed and glamorous flying experience (I'd love to give it a go)

If people's safety fears can be allayed now that they are no longer filled with combustible gas, then why not? There is even a UK company who apparently have a model that can land anywhere aiming for a world tour later this year.

Probably the reason that the Zeppelin / Airship comeback hasn't really taken off yet is that it's a big idea.  One that's going to take plenty of mistakes along the way to make successful. One that could completely fail, but if it does 'take off' could really change the world. The type of idea it might be hard to find a financial backer for. It would probably seem easier to go after those small incremental ideas which in the end don't amount to much.

In the online world it would also be good to see some really big bets this year. I loved this post from bubblegeneration on 'think bigger' being a principle for 2008. Let's hope that all that talk in the press  about an economic slowdown doesn't stop entrepreneurs and their backers making the big bets that will really move online forward.

So what is the Zeppelin comeback of Social Media? Any big ideas?

UPDATE: Here's an excellent transcript from BBC Radio 4's our own correspondent  who recently took a Zeppelin flight

Similarities between email and social networking

I was interested in this WSJ article this week that pointed out some of the similarities between email and social networking sites which I had not considered before. In many ways bringing together email and 'on-site' social networking features seems to be a good idea. Quite often a short email discussion thread can be a very effective way of sharing information with your contacts and friends.

I'm sure this is the thinking behind startups like Fuser and Grouptivity.