Some readers may have noticed I’ve been getting little deeper and more technical lately. I’m trying to unburden myself of all of the theoretical equipment I’ve been using for the past few years — trying to make it explicit, get it out into the open, into the light of day.
I should stress it’s just a provisional outline — something to get a better sense of where the weak spots are and which questions most need asking (and were to look for answers).
It’s a bit of an experiment, very much in line with blogging and beta-think (to use a term Jeff Jarvis has used a lot)… and I have some other developments in mind as well (developing “knowledge synthesis” as a genuine discipline with a recognized role in information ecosystem).
Specifically, other than Jarvis on beta think and process vs product, I got a recent wake-up call from the vocabulary and tone of the talks given by danah boyd and Kevin Marks at the Web 2.0 Expo. We’re starting to really penetrate into new conceptual territory — not just a few radicals, but much of the mainstream as well.
The conversation is getting to where I’m comfortable: it isn’t an extension of the tech and marketing convos any more. Social science is catching up to the social web discourse and helping it become its own monster.
Which is sort of what I’ve been waiting for, for a while.
My recent experience with EduPunk gave me a huge push too, so did the talks I did, and I can’t forget to mention all the culture of change that I’m recognizing here in London and the urge to contribute something more concrete to it.
I’m not trying to prove or discover anything, just get better at thinking about the challenges in our world.
Unfortunately there aren’t really any schools set up to do that — at least there weren’t back when I started this around 2002 – 2004.
It’s been reassuring and a little gratifying to see the bigger conversation (especially the one going on around the web) gradually adopt the same vocabulary and a lot of the same sorts of ideas I worked out independently.
It’s assuring, but also extremely frustrating that I haven’t been able to convert this understanding into much credibility or recognition yet.
Now I’m getting a little less cautious and focusing on just getting stuff out where it can be found and corrected and developed further.
As a partial aside, it’s now clear that I work a lot more effectively this way: working day-to-day on things as they happen, incrementally moving a lot of projects forward at once by switching between them, rather than dedicating large chunks of the calender to one carefully planned project after the next. We need people who are good at doing things that way — and there are plenty — but given the nature of the world in 2010 we need people who can work this way too.
In other words, instead of doing things “the right way,” I’m trying to do things a better way.
I’m saying “here’s what I’ve got so far, let me know what sounds stupid — or what you know to be completely wrong — or which turns I might have missed… adopt and apply what you like, but don’t just take it or leave it… we all have a responsibility to be skeptical and discerning…”
It’s almost 2010.
We’ll have to get a lot better at doubting what’s handed to us and recognizing value in what’s been neglected.
I’ll be putting ideas out as posts and then setting up static pages to correct and develop the ideas further (at brianfrank.ca/concepts — I’d love to eventually integrate a wiki). I’m hoping I can get all of the ideas out in rough form this month.
The posts will be as atomized as I can make them, but I hope readers will appreciate that this is an ongoing thing (being a blog) and no individual post is going to be perfect.
If I make a mistake or overlook a reference, that’s what comments and future posts are for.
Thanks a ton for the feedback so far. While I was writing this I received a few new comments and suggestions at the same time through different channels. It’s especially encouraging because immediately before that I was feeling a lot of anxiety about this.
I’m feeling really vulnerable — more so than when I first started blogging.
I’ve been tough on myself about being rigorous and thorough, but there’s only so much I can do with my resources. I’ve been very strict about my vocabulary to use, how much research I need to cover in case I missed something, going over things again and again looking for inconsistencies…
And it’s still very far from being airtight — especially since I did most of the research years ago and it’s not as fresh as it once was (before that pesky reality known as “having to earn a living” intervened).
I guess if I’m still worried about it being “airtight” I haven’t fully made the adjustment yet… but nobody’s perfect — right? :)
