What is the internet?

I asked my little nephew and niece (7 and 9) and my aunt (in her 70s) what the internet is. (I translated their responses from Flemish).

Me: "But what IS the internet?"
Niece: "The internet is where everything comes together... where all the information comes together".

Me: "What's the difference between your computer and the internet?"
Nephew: "on the internet you can find programs all over the world, and on your computer you only find a few files that are yours."

Me: "What is the internet?"
Auntie (70+): "So when are you going to India? ... The internet is when you can write to everyone..." (she doesn't have internet access.)

Me: "What is patience?"
Nephew: "You have to have patience when the sand-clock is there." (refering to the icon that indicates the computer is working.)

I have all this on video, but haven't asked for permission to post it yet.

the weblog of Lucas Gonze

I'm enjoying the weblog of Lucas Gonze more and more. Good thinking. He reports today on QuiEst (french for whois). Embed the word in a page about a person, and then you can google "quiest lucas gonze", for example. Interesting use of a made-up word combined with google's power.

why provide internet if there's no water?

Refuting objections to a Global Rural Network (GRNet) for developing nations (by Larry Press) addresses the question: why give poor people internet if they don't even have clean water/phones/... yet? I am a geek, so I tend to believe in the power of technology to fix things. That's my bias, but I understand the counterargument as well. The paper includes this interesting screenshot.

The digital divide: non-use of technology

The digital divide: "Why the "don't-want-tos" won't compute." Studying non-use of technology is a good way of understanding a bit more about that technology and its cultural dimensions. Geeks like me tend to think non-users are just being stubborn, but there are often very valid reasons for non-use.

Friendster Fires Troutgirl For Blogging?! - The Social Software Weblog

Friendster fired Joyce Parker for blogging.

How can you trust a company like that with your most personal data? Baaad branding move. I cancelled my Friendster account, and so could you. There are plenty social networking services out there. The cancel screen (in edit my account) lets you enter a reason. I wrote "Firing people for blogging is a bad branding move".

Smart Mobs: UK girls use camera-phones to check their hair

Smart Mobs: UK girls use camera-phones to check their hair - poll: "20 percent of mobile users send snaps of themselves in new outfits to friends to see if they like them." I actually showed my girlfriend my new shoes over IM video today. More good stuff on Picturephoning.

Walmart's motto: "don't be evil"?

People seem to really want the Google OS to compete with the Microsofts and AOL's of this world. There are calls for a Google IM client or a Google Browser, and these are not based on rumors of Google working on these projects. They are just "wouldn't this be cool" kind of ideas.

Google's "don't be evil" motto is one of the strongest branding exercises of the decade. What I hope is that this example will lead the way for a wave of realizations (books, gurus) about how large companies that explicitly try to be NOT evil get tons of consumer goodwill. And I hope that in turn, other companies (Coca Cola, Walmart) will start feeling the effects of that. I don't think we can get rid of large transnational companies. But we need to change their values, at least a little bit.

More News" "Better search engines, classification tools and taxonomies have their place %u2014 particularly in large organizations that have been through mergers and reorganizations. But don't let big investments become a Band-Aid for poor training and a lack of best practices."

In other words: teach your people to do basic basic labeling and organizing, instead of spending big $$ on fancy tools.

Always-on

E M E R G I C . o r g: July 22, 2004 Archives: "Two years ago, it would have been hard to imagine that Indians would be buying cellphones at the rate of nearly 2 million a month. Similarly, today, it is hard to imagine a broadband India - but that is exactly what we are about to see. The next couple years will see Indian consumers and enterprises enveloped in ubiquitous, high-speed connectivity from multiple sources - wireless, DSL, cable and satellite. Complement this with WiFi-enabled laptops and smartphones, and the always-on world is at hand."

Leapfrogging.

Just a thought (nothing statistically relevant) about internet technology dispersion and acceptance.

When I ask people here (Belgium) who don't use the internet, it's mostly older people, and mostly because they "can't use the computer". Non-use seems to be mostly by choice. One lady told me she'd rather spend her free time outside. Another told me her husband always does everything. They also seem to be having a hard time imagining exactly why they should learn this new technology. But none of them had real worries about being able to learn it if they had to.

I've always wondered why third world companies don't sell more of their fantastic crafts (they have the manpower) to the first world over the internet. I'm sure the reasons are many and complex. Here's a story of a company that actually does that.

A lot of stories about technology in rural areas often don't have much to say except for how rural it all is, and how amazing that they now have access to technology x or y. Like this one about PC's set up in a remote area, titled "These PCs came on elephant’s back". Wired has one titled "Indian Villagers Pedal Wireless", a bit more in depth. It's the exotism (look at how different they are!) of many of these stories that annoys me sometimes - although I also enjoy some exotism, it shouldn't be the only reason for the story. I'm more interested in figuring out how technology and social worlds interact.

By the way, this funny ad came was on the page:

rediff.com: Nyala 'unaffected' by Clinton visit

rediff.com: Nyala 'unaffected' by Clinton visit: "What about the IT revolution in the village, the computerised milk co-operative society of women and much-hyped internet-connected panchayat, a first in Rajasthan? "Our panchayat is yet to get a telephone connection and you ask about the internet," says sarpanch Kalu Meena. The computer on which 'tutored' women members of the co-operative demonstrated their skill to President Clinton is lying unused."

Magazines

Apart from Wired and Mindjack, what other (paper or bits) magazines are also reporting on the intersection of technology, culture an social issues?

Last (W)rites: The Indian PC (aka %u201CWhat women want.%u201D :-) )

Last (W)rites: The Indian PC (aka What women want. :-) )
Let me expand on this perspective - if you start to profile the average Indian PC buyer what stands out notably is he is more often than not a she. If we regard women as the central figure of an average middle class Indian family, what are we specifically doing today to ensure that the PC addresses some common scenarios around Indian housewives?"

In a way, he his saying that the computer needs to be socially and culturally "constructed" (by adjusting it to the needs of these users) while at the same time constructing the users (through classes, advertising, ...) and letting both user and technology construct each other. It relates to the social co-construction of users and technology, something I've written about a bit since I read a book with the same subtitle.

IT Conversations: The Gillmor Gang - August 27, 2004

I'm listening to The Gillmor Gang - August 27, 2004. The new Windows filesystem that was the big biggie thing in Longhorn is being cut - it won't be in there in the 2006 release.

Sign blogging!

Jay has the fire and passion and is becoming an excellent blogger. In Momentshowing: Warning: imagination running wild he gives a clear overview of the vision for videoblogging. Read it if you wonder why we're doing all this.

He also points to Rob Wilks: "a young man living in Wales. He's engaged to be married, looking for work, and is deaf. He found our videoblogging group and freaked out a little. He saw that videoblogs is just what he needed to post messages..in sign language. He calls them sign blogs." None of use saw this coming. Sign blogs. In a discussion on the list we were explained how, sure, if you're deaf you can read as well, but i you were born deaf, it's often harder to read. It's like a foreign language, because for reading you need auditory memory which you wouldn't have. Sign blogging. Who knew?

Test playlist for India

I made a SMIL playlist for Quicktime, combining the text and links of blog entries with the video in them. I hope to provide this as an alternative way of viewing my videoblogging during my Indiatrip. So any user experience-type or technical feedback is welcome! Click the button to try it.