The Virtual Revolution – An Overview
February 21, 2010
Its been an interesting experience seeing the net through another’s eyes, or in the case of this short series of programmes – an number of other peoples eyes.
If you’ve read the other posts in this series you’ll know my views on the specific topics raised, but I thought that I’d just put a little piece together on what I thought of the work as a whole.
It wasn’t bad. It was wrong in places, naive in others, superficial in yet more, but as an accessible work summarising 20 years of the biggest shared technological endeavour of my lifetime it was OK. Seven out of ten.
It was remarkably short of forward looking content, but then it was a historical piece rather than a forecasting piece. It was also short on deeper analysis of what the technological trends say about us as people and as a species, but then we are only really now starting to find ways of looking at that. And on that point I’ll promote the Web Behaviour Test in order to maximise the data that they can gather.
It characterised me as a Web Leopard;
Fast-moving – Web Leopards like you are adept at getting information from the internet very quickly. Your speed is a trait you share with real-world leopards, which are among the fastest land animals.
Solitary – Leopards live alone, fending for themselves in isolated home ranges. Similarly, the Web Leopard likes to go it alone when looking for information, rather than rely on social networks, or other sites where the users create the content.
Specialised – Web Leopards are best suited to performing one task at a time rather than multitasking. The real-world leopard is similarly specialised, being perfectly adapted to silently tracking its prey before pouncing.
So now you know; I’m a fast-moving, predatory loner with a narrow view, big teeth and an attractive pelt. So much for the internet 
La vie virtuelle
July 26, 2009
I’ve just had a wake-up call from reality. I hate those things, they always mean that I’m going to have to do something I don’t like.
Recap: I applied and was offered a place to attempt my PhD at the other end of the country. I recently went there for the first time. Lovely place, pleasant town, college was a bit run down but they are getting a new one soon.
But it felt wrong. I couldn’t really put my finger on it.
Was it the interactions that I had with people while I was there ? On the whole they weren’t unpleasant, probably not the most helpful folks I’ve every met in the service sector, but honest. They seemed OK online.
Was it physical isolation ? OK it was a long drive from here to there, but here is more isolated than there.
Maybe it was just the weather and sleep deprivation due to heavy rain on canvas.
It was a long drive home, so I thought about it quite deeply (but not to distraction). I think that the place wasn’t sufficiently different to where I was coming from. The physical balance was different with more focus on land and less on sea, but essentially the elements are the same. Even the economies of the areas are similar – mining, farming & tourism. Again, a different balance but the same elements.
And I wondered about how that sort of ambient situational noise would translate into online communities or even if it is relevant since the sense of physical ‘place’ online has no direct analogy. In a way this is what my PhD was supposed to be about – the translation effects between online & offline versions of reality. What do people say when the world is looking over their shoulders vs what do people do in the privacy of their own lives ?
Update – has ‘place’ been replaced by ‘community’ online ? If so, perceiving community is not dependent on any physical parameter, apart from access to the net. What does that mean in terms of nation and of national politics ? If our community only lies in virtual space do we pledge allegiance to the physical embodiment of the virtual space and form our own armies to protect server farms ? Do we take responsibility for that virtual community and its real-world impacts or is there something inherently different about a non-corporeal community ? Does its basis in the commercial world mean that an online community can be expected to persist in the same way as a physical one ? What happens when Facespace goes bust ? Is it the same as a nation going into political turmoil ? Are there online refugees ?
Yes, lots to explore over the next few years. Check out the new report on the Internet and Civic Engagement from the Pew Internet Project. Interesting stuff, but a bit cart before the horse. I think that we need to address some of the deeper questions about how people engage with each other before we start to act on this sort of data.
