Pataphysical science in the home - Latest Comments

Re: Some thoughts on Color with a capital C

Arvind Narayanan — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:41:37 -0000

Thank you!

Re: Some thoughts on Color with a capital C

howard — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:11:54 -0000

Thanks for stopping by, Arvind.

Here are a few 'fun facts' and links for you. But first a clarification: since the application does not ask you to create an account, your identity is technically anonymous. But it is clear from interviews with the founder Bill Nguyen, that he envisions being able to recognize an individual in order to be able to present offers, loyalty points and other advertising-related interactions to identifiable individuals.

"Photo sharing is not our mission. We think it's cool and we think it's fun, but we're a data mining company. We are really much more about bringing these spontaneous instant social networks. We happened to begin by launching an application that captures photos and video and text."

And then...

"We're going to build a intelligent system that allows businesses to participate with their customers. So when you walk into a restaurant and you use Color, and they're also customers through a self-service Web interface -- or actually a self-service iPad interface -- every time you walk into the restaurant, your [first] name will show up with your picture. The maitre d' or receptionist will know who you are, they'll be able to welcome you, they'll know the last time you were here, they'll be able to see pictures if you took them here."

From: http://www.businessinsider....

(Take a look at the comments section to see some excellent criticism of this model.)

As for what the application collects... everything(!):

"The pictures and videos you take using Color are much more than just that. They're a piece of sharable media around which Color can collect and retain a number of different data points. When you take a picture or video, Color gathers a variety of information. It collects sound levels, Bluetooth readings, light readings, antenna strength, the time - even the direction you're pointing your phone - and more and uses it all to determine your proximity to other users."

http://www.readwriteweb.com...

Re: Some thoughts on Color with a capital C

Arvind Narayanan — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:42:33 -0000

Do you have a link that explains how Color is/was planning to use anonymous data? (I'm the author of the deanonymization blog you linked to.) Thanks.

Re: Pull me up, Scotty

Degustibus non — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:16:34 -0000

Excellent post. I will look up the 2 books you mentioned. I am always looking for new ways of thinking or tweaking existing thougts. Glad I found your blog. Take care nd have an awesome week. Dea :)

Re: Rainmaking via developer communities

howardliptzin — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:50:41 -0000

Nope I haven't, but I'm about to thanks to you. . .

Re: Rainmaking via developer communities

Sam Ramji — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:36:42 -0000

Howard - this is a great post. For companies pursuing the Platform business model based on APIs you've offered a thoughtful handbook on what to do and in what order. Your point on Activation being the most delicate phase seems right on target. Have you come across Jono Bacon's work on "The Art of Community"?

Re: Curation. And ants.

howard — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:01:06 -0000

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this point :-) I just don't feel the need to separate casual acts of information sharing with more considered filtering in order to qualify for the term curate.

Re: Curation. And ants.

Copywryter — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:25:01 -0000

Curation cannot be reduced to impulsive sharing. To do so makes its application here so broad as to be meaningless.

I can see where you're trying to go, and yes, we all 'curate' in that we promote what we like and fail to pass along what we don't, but this was true long before we had the Internet, and I wouldn't say water cooler conversations are 'curation'. Simply liking something isn't curating. It certainly doesn't put a filter on the firehose.

We call it curation because it is similar to a director of a museum (if not in responsibility, than in affect) -- apply expertise to present cohesive content around a larger idea.

Re: Curation. And ants.

howard — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:38:24 -0000

I think you're touching on another problem of the word curation -- it implies a carefully considered selection process when what we are really talking about is sharing links, likes and such that come across the radar screen -- and doing so in an intuitive, and often impulsive, way. (There are certainly exceptions, but they prove the rule.)

So, I would take issue with that fact that nobody curates wildly popular videos. We all do.

Re: Curation. And ants.

Copywryter — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:22:41 -0000

That's what I said, I think. That the audience is the arbiter of quality.

Raw feeds are problematic though: a million subscriptions to one feed that has very low engagement isn't quality. This also ignores the Long Tail.

I would also suggest that content consumption is often an 'impulse buy'. Viral videos don't come from feeds, or curators, or news sites. They come from nowhere, explode in an orgy of emails, tweets and links. Then fade. Nobody really 'curates' them, except to ride the wave of popular fancy.

Re: Curation. And ants.

howard — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:43:07 -0000

We need to be careful with a loaded word like quality. I think Steve is heading in the right direction by defining it as what the receivers have programmed their feeds to deliver. I think we're all in agreement on this point ;-)

Re: Curation. And ants.

Copywryter — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:34:14 -0000

I don't know if it promotes quality, it shepherds ideas, certainly, but the audience is the final arbiter of quality I think.

For example, a curator could assemble videos that he/she felt would 'go viral', but there is no guarantee that they would -- unless they had already been promoted by thousands or millions of views.

Re: Curation. And ants.

howard — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:35:30 -0000

Yup, that's a good way to put it.

Re: Curation. And ants.

ocrampal — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:22:13 -0000

... very good deal ... yes that's a good way to put it! I participate in the conversation because I get something out of it. In fact that's nothing new; works the same in the real world!

Great post.

Re: Curation. And ants.

steve rosenbaum — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:25:34 -0000

Indeed. Curation doesn't replace content - in fact what it does is promote quality in proper context. So the fact that Curation is "king" could be presented as "Quality Content = King" (with Quality = what a specific audience needs and expect around a topic or brand).

Re: Curation. And ants.

howard — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 05:55:30 -0000

@Tim: Thanks... I completely agree that the trick is getting the mix right. And when it is, you won't need to explain it, it will explain itself :-)

@Ian: Yeah, I'm thinking of using Blackbird pie on this blog as a kind of paragraph title to highlight and separate subjects. So far, I think it works.

I'm also in agreement that the black/white title and post were dictated by the conventions of the editor -- be provocative and over-simplify.

Sure the need has increased and will continue to increase and not just because of volume, but especially because of speed. The real evolution has been the importance of realtime, or flow. The trick is how to dip into the info stream and hook what you want before it gets too old and smelly!

Re: Curation. And ants.

Ian Greenleigh — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:33:24 -0000

1) Love seeing people make use of Blackbird Pie. I've done it myself
recently.

2) You're absolutely right that the meme is a false dichotomy, though
I suspect Rosenbaum would agree if asked.

3) While curation tools might be nothing new, the need for them has
increased exponentially, rather than steadily year after year.
Information theory predicts this. Just ask yourself: Does your need to
sort information look anything like it did in 2006? I think we
intuitively know it's not like it was. As to whether it's really a
turning point, I think your doubt is well founded.

Re: Curation. And ants.

Tim Gasper — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:00:27 -0000

I think this is a really great analysis on curation - especially the comment on fair price curating. The curators and the consumers of curated content must both be satisfied in order to balance the equation. If it's possible for the economics of this "curation market" to function smoothly, then curation can succeed in funneling the firehose. But if the incentives don't align, the community will fail. This is especially dangerous for tech startups looking to get into this space because - it's very much about setting the right combination of social rules and motivators. Q&A sites are a great model to look at, but there the value proposition might be more clear. I still struggle to this day to explain the value of curation to the world in a way that isn't fluffy and non-distinct. But then again, everyone discredited Twitter when it first came out, and we see where that went. Thanks for the post!

Re: Dem dry bones

kyle — Fri, 28 May 2010 05:18:20 -0000

such a great face!

Re: Dem dry bones

taming — Fri, 21 May 2010 18:59:15 -0000

Reminds me of the Michelangelo shtuff with the figures still bound to the rock

Re: A neutral mask

howard — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:24:55 -0000

Vicki: I, too, am getting a creepy sensation from the social/biz mix. On one hand it can increase people power, on the other I see the potential for even greater tricksterism on the part of business.

Lesley: Yeah, I think we show most everything through our masks, but since many people are also wearing blinders, not that much gets through ;-)

Isaak: I don't think it has always been thus, but it is hard to deny that today we are in the thick of the "l'eterna velocità omnipresente." Great quote, thanks!

Re: A neutral mask

isaakliptzin — Tue, 18 May 2010 22:48:49 -0000

Haven't we always been in a state of liminality? Isn't "betweenness" the permanent state of culture? If it was not so, history would not progress, and whether its for the better or for the worse, history does progress. Let us embrace liminality then, for in being before something new and after something old culture becomes part of a process, not a stasis.

As Marinetti wrote in the 1909 Futurist Manifesto: "Noi siamo sul promontorio estremo dei secoli! Perché dovremmo guardarci alle spalle, se vogliamo sfondare le misteriose porte dell'impossibile? Il Tempo e lo Spazio morirono ieri. Noi viviamo già nell'assoluto, poiché abbiamo già creata l'eterna velocità onnipresente."

["We stand on the last promontory of the centuries! Why should we look behind our shoulders if we want to break down the doors of the impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We are already living in the absolute, for we have created the eternal omnipresent velocity"]

It can still be true today.

Re: A neutral mask

Lesley — Tue, 18 May 2010 18:38:22 -0000

spending 8 1/2 hours a day in an environment where there is so much posturing, so much resilience and so much pain with solution in sight, I think about masks all day long. What we show the world as contrasted with what is going on inside, along with what we hope shows, what we hope doesn't and who sees what.

Re: A neutral mask

taming — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:11:03 -0000

I am old and my brain is full of noodles, but the whole social/business thing alternately seems sorta meh and then sometimes frightening, in the big business as government science fictiony way. Your pong ar though is something else entirely. Love it.--vicki

Re: Anonymity in a connected world

itjobs1 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:14:10 -0000

Thanks for that! That's very useful. ;-)