web

Hashtag Debate in London

by Brian on 01-13-2010

in london,web

• Don’t take it too seriously. There will never be consensus. Ultimately everything is decided by what people use. Debate about what we should use will just go on and on forever. • Sometimes the stupidest ideas (sometimes starting as jokes and accidents) turn out to be the most popular and effective. Think of LOLcats [...]

{ 2 comments }

Other people will have a lot more insight into this than I do, but since everyone is talking about Google’s announcement [excerpted]… We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which [...]

{ 0 comments }

For 2010′s Edge Annual Question, John Brockman asked 165 of the smartest people he knows “How has the Internet changed the way you think? ” [It's a familiar topic around here... and I actually answered the question when I wrote about last year's.] A surprising number of answers are about sex. More than a few [...]

{ 10 comments }

The premise of this series is to work out a new way of looking at our changing world» Part of the reason we’ve had so much difficulty making sense of the complex events of the past decade is that our ways of thinking — specifically, the metaphors, analogies, and images we resort to — have [...]

{ 0 comments }

This Blog in 2009

by Brian on 12-27-2009

in london,media,web

2009 was my first full year of regular and earnest blogging. I’m usually surprised by which posts do poorly and which ones are successful. Sometimes I’m not really happy with something but I hit “Publish” anyways and people love it. Sometimes I put hours of extra work trying to popularize something and it vanishes. Here [...]

{ 0 comments }

Some thoughts culminating out of the last post about how open standards emerge… a recent post by fellow Londoner Bill Wittur on some open government basics… the latest post on the Google blog defining their notion of openness… and a book I perused a couple days ago by Beth Noveck on open collaborative government. There’s no way I [...]

{ 3 comments }

The natural inclination right now for geeks of a certain type is to start dreaming up new standards bodies, or how they can participate in the Open Web Foundation to make a Super Awesome Twitter API Evolution Committee. Here’s my recommendation: Don’t. Don’t do any of that shit, and don’t run off to make membership [...]

{ 4 comments }

Metaphors For Work

by Brian on 12-16-2009

in concepts,science,web

Metaphors aren’t just literary devices, they affect our intuition and reasoning in ways we’re barely aware of. Which isn’t to say they’re bad; they’re essential — that’s the point. By calling Metaphors We Live By a “landmark” in the previous post, I wasn’t trying to be dramatic, I was simply trying to provide better information [...]

{ 5 comments }

Continuing the Thinking in the 21st Century series… Great comment by Phronk on the previous think21st post [excerpt]: Autonomy, flow, exploration, striving for material (digital) goods, relatedness, competence, they’re all represented, often in explicit numerical form. And they interact in a complex, emergent way that even the game developers can’t anticipate. See also: Twitter. I’ve been [...]

{ 6 comments }

Favourite Books of 2009

by Brian on 12-14-2009

in business,culture,media,web

Nonfiction: What Would Google Do?, Jeff Jarvis It’s focused on media but the message is essential for anyone who’s work or life relies on the use of information. Chances are that means you…. It could be called a “new economy” book but it isn’t about the future. It’s about the economy we have now. The [...]

{ 0 comments }

Few people can resist talking about end-of-year favourites — bloggers especially. Since a lot of us are already going to be posting our picks we might as well try to aggregate them into one stream for everyone to admire together. It’s the holiday season, after all. It’ll be pretty easy — as long as people [...]

{ 5 comments }

Community is Here Today

by Brian on 12-02-2009

in civics,london,web

Last week when I read Titus Ferguson’s post about the fact “‘social’ is in ‘social media’ for a reason,” I was reminded of Dan Brown’s column at LFPress.com about how his blog has led to offline friendships. I can relate. Since I started actively engaging people on Twitter a year ago my little bubble has exploded. I [...]

{ 3 comments }