Umbrella

It's raining here today...

History in the Making - One Tweet at a Time

In this post I am not discussing the merits of Occupy Wall Street, I am merely, as a techie, thinking about and commenting on certain elements of the the back-story or subtext associated with the events that relate to people's usage of the Internet.

Reuters.com reports that the Occupy Wall Street movement began with blog post with this Twitter hashtag: #OccupyWallStreet.

The are a number of interesting elements here:

Velocity: From zero to global movement in less than ninety days. Makes you think of synchronicity, multiple discovery, collective unconscious, collective consciousness, vox popoli and  zeitgeist,  and some kind of whole earth resonance. How long does it take to start a world movement? It used to take years, decades. Now it's down to days. Will the length of time it takes to get people off their butts become even shorter?

Singularity: It started with one person. Or perhaps a tiny group. This is so different from voting. In voting you say "Each vote counts!" But ultimately each vote is just a statistic. This is much more like the lottery. Guess a number. Guess a hashtag. The lucky winner gets global recognition. Except with the lottery one person gets everything, while the results of the successful hashtag are shared. And unlike the vote or lottery, there are no losers here. Anyone who wants "in" is a winner.

Anonymity: The person who created the hashtag is not a famous person. The hashtag was not written by a Thomas Jefferson or Rupert Murdoch - a person normally associated with the creation of events or news. The creator was just a normal human being in some random place. The creation of the Tweet may have even been somewhat of a random event in the creator's lives.

Openness: We know the history of the event - right down to the millisecond of inception. All out in the open - readily available to anyone. Nothing occurred in hidden rooms. No back-room deals. It's all visible, transparent.

Documented: We don't need no historians. No historian was needed to research the event. The events are self-documenting. The role historian as a recorder of the events is a sunset industry. The role of the future historian (apart from mundane archiving) is only relevant as that of a pundit or commentator.

Big picture: There will be more events like this. Some you will like and some you will not like. Your choice.

Link via Techmeme:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/us-wallstreet-protests-social-idUSTRE79G6E420111018

 

 

Posting on Facebook to Support the ATC

Last week I started helping the Art Technology Culture (ATC) Colloquium - a group under the umbrella of the Berkeley Center for New Media - with their Facebook presence.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Art-Technology-and-Culture-Colloquium/158025194227176

Post on the Barbary Coast News

On October 4, 2011 I attended the re-opening of Sue Bierman Park alnong with mayoral candidate and President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, David Chiu.

In doing so I was roped into riding down the zip line that operates over Justin Herman Plaza.

Read all about the adventure along with a good dollop of cheekiness.

Link: Sue Bierman Park opens to........

SAGE: The winners

Benicia High School to the right. Monterrey Trail High School to the left

First Post from iPad

Here is my first post from my new iPad. I have to edit in HTML mode. Blogger is the same way.

Dinner at Millennium - great veggie dining on Geary.Then Monty Python's Spamalot - 2 hours nonstop ha ha ha. With Diana, Fran and Cynthia.

Feeling the 4.4 earthquake at Morgan Hill

Talking to Andrew is about the future of how we twitter or not

Talking with Camille and Eleanor's math professor at FAIS.

Working at the San Francisco Public Library on Columbus Ave - after delightful meet-up with John Sappington (SFAI etc) at Cafe Trieste.

Listening to Rudy Rucker and Cory Doctorow and others read at benefit for the EFF at the Minna St gallery.

Sitting at the MarketBar waiting for Petter and Ane. I've ordered the Prosecco.

Eating dinner at the Nowegian Club with Elizabeth, Ane, Peter, Steig, Haakon, John, Andrew, 0yvind and Petter.

Having coffee with cousin Diana at her apartment on the top of Nob Hill. What a day! What a view!

Getting on bus to go have breakfast at the Big Four on Nob Hill with Lynn Hershman Leeson the filmmaker.

Looking out my window, all I see is white. Dense fog season is here. Some days I have the best view in the world. Some days no view at all.

Remembering last night's walkabout: Imperial Tea Court, Winebarsf.com, Specs, Enrico's, Cigar Bar & Grill, Bix, & Globe. Yay San Francisco

Shouting at us. Here at the Globe. Good food late at night. Must talk more now.

Waiting for my nephew Jonathan and Emma to arrive. They are driving from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We will be out on the town tonight.