OneWebDay 2008

the web is information, and the web is access. the web is also loads of fun. all of these can drive human evolution.

other than its obvious charms, such as having access to dancing hampsters, dubai luxuries, and the latest (third party) announcements of what can only be described as our continual loss of liberties, the web, as access to information and fun, can and will be integral to our success as a people, in our local community and as a global civilization.

as they say about the roads in mexico, utilícelo o piérdalo.

for my one day before/about OneWebDay 2008, i would like to share some of the inspirational things i see happening on the web. to me, these are tender sprouts of innovation, and the sort of things we need to protect with an open web.

localharvest.org :: people can find local food, once again. ideally, a site such as this could allow people to request items, and farmers would have access to varieties and amounts requested, and offer to fill the order in the coming season. (an interactive CSA).

public input in government :: the UK is “hoping to find new uses for public information in the areas of criminal justice, health and education.”

the public works :: cityzens of merced post street issues on a platial map.

obama on technology and innovation :: the site, scribd, is a beautiful thing in itself, and obama’s use of technology continues to astound me, as well as his insight into future uses of technology to improve government.

corpwatch :: and who watches the corpwatch? someone else. then someone else. then someone else. maybe one day we won’t need to watch, as the corporative/governation/populice distinction will be moot. meaning integration through access.

tolweb.org :: tree of life web project. as we glimpse the interconnectivity of our natural systems, we can respectfully emulate its grace and efficacy in our own design. our designs can become/include their own growth patterns. evolvative, generative scalability.

of course, that last tree of life has only boring names.

which brings me to the meat. 3D imaging….

digitised.info :: an evolutionary bioinformatician’s 3D hyperbolic viewer of the tree of life. whoo hoo!

what is the difference? brain warp. but don’t worry, brain warp is a good thing. who knows, it may mean we are evolving. (note to evolutionary bioinformatician: update tree of life)

here is some more brain warp:

MGTD :: this is one for fiddlers, and i don’t mean charlie daniels. it is an alpha version of the new MonkeyGTD tiddlyspot system, based on tiddlywiki. tiddlywiki is a brain warp on its own, especially in the arena of social implications, but spend a few days here in simon’s realm, and you’ll spend the next two weeks curled up with a nested file system and a blankie.

3DOSX :: my current favorite 3D ZUI interface. it’s in a swimming pool! of course, files are still files. but soon they will be something else. bags of holding, maybe?

3d visualization interests me for this reason: our current concepts and constructs as the human animal intelligent are, arguably, based on our ability for symbolic representation. in the past, we had paper. two-dimensions. from that medium we were able to visualize three. if we become familiar with a three-dimensional interface, will we be able to become familiar with the fourth?

in the spirit of 4D visualization, here is a video of a tesseract i compiled from a series of shorter clips that were posted online by a professor named Terry Boyce, who used to be in hong kong, in 2003.

ok. so.

to wrap this up, as today is almost tomorrow, at least here, now, and is definitely tomorrow in other places, a mention of my personal paladin, the tag cloud. one definition of a tag cloud is: a visual depiction of user-generated tags. people generating tags means other people can find what they are talking about and talk about the same thing. key to communication. communication drives development. (needed: web-wide tag readers)

here are some tag clouds:

chir.ag :: tag clouds of state of the union addresses
searchcloud.net :: search the web using tag clouds. (i searched ‘tag cloud’)
wordie.net :: tag cloud generator. fontographers become imagicians.
tagcloud.com :: an original tag cloud, if not the original tag cloud, sadly overwhelmed with traffic, and temporarily down. it seems 6 million page views per month will bring down a single server. who knew?

and, finally, i’ll send you off with a big hurray for the UK, who recently released satellite tracking information as these pretty pretty lights.

OneWebDay 2008

life-related work

so i have work.

<startled glances. gasps of surprise.>

no, really. real work.

<raucous cheers.>

anyway.

what this post is about, tho, is mapping. namely, the social mapping movement that is bringing real-life back to cyberspace. you remember real-life. all that stuff outside? well it is being mapped.

and what does that mean?

empowerment through accessibility. for starters. people in devastated new orleans are mapping which groceries are open, and have food. new england farmers are mapping farm to table markets (real marketing, the ultimate enterprise).

and if you already have enough food, you can map other things, like constituents, if you happen to have any, or post offices, if you happen to be losing them, such as they are in the uk.

(btw, we don’t lose our post offices here in the us, because our post offices team up with large media corporations to make media about people who used to write letters.)

let’s see, where was i? oh yeah, working.

<more raucous cheers. openings of bubbly. pourings of espresso shots into warm guinness pints and shavings of chocolate.>

no, really.

this is a work-related posting. about life-related work.

because i have been using the platial maps for numerous things, most recently the bigTree project (mapping champion trees). and i felt had to ramble a moment about the inherent paramifications of these life maps, these maps of life.

what will happen? this is what i wonder, and what i hope to glean a glimpse of with this diatribe. what will happen when i can find a local farm, and know that certain foods are being harvested?

small scale – i can have a map of farm customers (such a strange word to use for a farm – we are so much more integrated than the word customer can emote). resources will be saved by more efficient farm to table. many much millions of resources, if we consider what is spent now on traveling food to large chain grocery stores.

back to small scale – i am intimately connected with my local farmers, and local community. now all i need is a local iPhone competitor and i’m all set.

<averted gazes and quick, furtive swigs of guinness espresso.>

ok, again, back to small scale. what happens when i map big trees? people can see if any notable trees are nearby, and add the ones they know of. overall consciousness of tree canopy, integrated ecosystems, and sense of time is enhanced. perhaps more trees are allowed to get big. perhaps fewer people opt for the post-industrial monoculture lawn(desert), and let a few more areas grow wild. diversity rebounds, stress decreases. climate may return to balance.

ok, back to small scale.

always back to small scale.

but the inkling of the thought i had in mind when i began this posting had to do with people. non-connected individuals now able to see each other. provide services. raise awareness of projects. we really are not alone. there is no them. just us.

i am on a map, therefore i am on a map. and what will happen when that map can do what it can do?

unknown.

it is a fine time to be alive.