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How fast can you change your life?

Pretty soon, computation will stream like electric power: you’ll still use hardware, but your information will be ubiquitous. The applications that we have gotten used to on our desktops, laptops and mobile devices will increasingly move into a Cloud.

Enterprises won’t need to invest in as much capital equipment for their computational needs. They’ll be able to pull computation down from the Cloud. Individuals will be able to access information from virtually anywhere.

We are swiftly moving into a world where data will be streaming all around us. Our lives will become increasingly dependent on a gigantic but seamless flow of data. For all practical purposes, your virtual presence will be everywhere: it will become virtually omnipresent.

There are two problems with virtual omnipresence:

1. When you’re everywere, you’re nowhere
2. You cannot hide

These two problems, which seem to form a paradox, have important implications for privacy. Some say privacy is dead. Perhaps it is or soon will be. Whatever its specific fate, our conception of it will undergo radical changes. As Rainer Rilke points out:

…for here there is no place that does not see you.

One of the toughest challenges we have as we enter virtual omnipresence is our search for meaning. As abundance of data swells so does the scarcity of meaning. Finding meaning has been, and always will be, a central quest of being human. You might be able to search for a needle in a haystack, but will the needle have any meaning for you? Ah, there’s a question.

I have no doubt that our brains will plumb meaning out of the world. Still: how will we find meaning in a world inundated with downpours of data? What changes will you need to make? How fast can you change your life?

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Tags: technology by Phil Baumann

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The Cloud is coming. It will darken, even if passingly. An unprepared community might panic, breakup, and war among itself. Community is important to us human beings. We cannot survive well on our own. It’s possible to go it alone, but our travels only go so far that way. The transmission of our culture from generation-to-generation demands connection. Connection powers community. Sooner or later, we all need connection and live off of community. So, in the age of mass connection, do we have a bright future? Or does something dark await us?

It’s hard to say where the proliferation of social media will take us. Entropy says that the project of social media is doomed to degenerate into a mob-fest, a tyranny of ourselves against each other. Evolution via natural selection, however, indicates that successful adaptations might arise out of the chaos. Who knows for sure how mass connection will evolve?

THINGS SOCIAL MEDIA NEEDS TO GET RIGHT

If we are to get mass connection right, there are certain key ingredients we need to mind. Getting these right isn’t sufficient, of course, but they probably are necessary. Here are some off-the-cuff factors we’ll need to work out:

1. Reinforcing in our youth the importance of integrity, discipline and focus in using social media
2. Ensuring adequate security, accountability and reliability of what we put into the Cloud
3. Considering the consequences of how we use social media
4. Establishing a workable solution to the problem of online identity
5. Solving the problem of abundance of data versus scarcity of meaning
6. Maintaining awareness of our relationship with technology

There are many more things for our social media projects to get right. We’ll need to grow the list.

TECHNOLOGY…OUR DEEPENING RELATIONSHIP WITH IT

The Cloud will probably darken one day. What happens when all of our fluid data enters the Cloud and spins into a virtual hurricane of informational torrents? We could be living in an informational tyranny: a rivalry of ourselves against each other.

There are many bright prospects to our increasing adoption of social media tools. Friends and businesses can keep in touch; share experiences and discoveries; and enhance their relationships. Strangers can meet and exchange ideas, maybe develop personal and professional relationships.

All of our electronic interactions, however, are through media not around them. We aren’t really interacting with each other, are we? We are entering a new kind of relationship with technology. Our online interaction with each other is illusory (a useful illusion perhaps). It’s this more seamless, often hidden, relationship with the technology we develop and adopt into our lives which perhaps poses one of the greatest threats mass connection poses.

THE DUSK IS COMING

Paradoxically, we aren’t interfacing with each other as much as with the technology which connects us. What’s generally true of our primal behaviors between each other is simultaneously diminished and augmented through the technologies we are adopting.

The technologies of social media can amplify our mutual anger. When we get angry at each other, we don’t consider the technology. Perhaps we need to learn how to be mindful of our relationship with technology. If we can acquire that understanding we have a chance of surviving the storm clouds.

It’s not all doom and gloom. I’m hopeful that sunny days are ahead. I’m also pretty sure that the Cloud, however it forms, will darken. Whether it will darken by the command of a few cunning manipulators or through the lure of our own mimetic desires depends on the adequacy of our preparation.

What am I missing? Do you think we’re prepared? Can we even be prepared?

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Tags: technology by Phil Baumann

All of us are marketers. That’s what you need to keep in mind when expecting customer service that gets results. This applies as much to Apple products as it does to medicine, critical care nursing or disaster relief.

If you own a Mac (or any other modern contraption subject to entropy), Seth Godin has sixteen very useful tips in Working with Apple Tech Support.

His list may be specific to Apple, but I think it’s got practical advice that shows us how to take responsibility for customer service. Customer service is about more than consumer satisfaction. It’s about bringing forth the best in us all. Customer service is also a mutual experience. Pay attention to step #14 if the list still doesn’t work for you.

Go to Seth’s blog, blookmark his post, and do yourself a big favor: buy The Dip. It just might save your life or help you get through the next disaster in your life, big or small.

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Tags: Business, technology by Phil Baumann

The answer is long, so I won’t really give it here.

Twitter’s the latest craze. It’s a strange thing too because so much is being blogged about it and so many people are stumped as to what Twitter is for. Google “Twitter” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

As I said, I won’t give my answer yet. Instead I’ll let Andy Rooney mention something:

Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don’t need to be done.

If Twitter can save lives, then it might be necessary. I have an idea I’m nursing. If you follow me, maybe I’ll Tweet it.

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Tags: Blogging, Web 2.0, technology by Phil Baumann

After listening to the webinar presented by authors Chjarlene Li and Josh Bernoff of groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies, I have more faith that more of Corporate America will embrace the promises of the new marketing approaches possible with Web 2.0. Groundswell offers a good segue into social marketing for businesses that have yet to catch up.

I listed some of the key points the presenters made over at ReadWriteWeb. Essentially, they advocate an approach to marketing that emphasizes people first followed by clear objectives with an intelligent strategy using appropriate technology. Their acronym for this approach is POST. (I guess when you blog, your POSTs should keep these steps in mind–not a bad meme for blogging general by the way.)

They also discussed the analogues of the roles of traditional marketing with the objectives of groundswell:

• Research by listening to your customers on your blogs, forums, groups, etc.
• Market by talking with your customers on your chosen web platforms
• Sell your products or services by energizing your customers
• Support your efforts and customers with the right kinds of supporting technlogies
• Develop your business needs by embracing your customers through the new platforms

All of this is common sense really. But Forrester Research, the firm that Charlene and Josh’s represent, provides a remarkable service to business executives who need to get up to speed with the merciless curve of change coming down on all enterprises.

I’d love to see more of the kinds of services emerge because those businesses which “get the web” (e.g. those who “get” Seth Godin’s attitude on marketing) will thrive. Heck, I’d love to get into this business myself because I really want to see the fundamental projects of capitalism and democracy succeed.

An acquaintance of mine recently attended a presentation by the Charlene and Josh and came away very impressed with their personable, approachable style and felt that her company could greatly benefit from what they have to say. Ultimately, successful adopters will realize the enormous potential offered by the socialization of billions of people and the dangers of misplaced attempts.

Groundswell is an excellent start for newbies and pros. I plan to offer a succinct review of their book in a future post. In the meantime please visit their sleek blog and start your groundswelling campaign the right way.

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Tags: Blogging, Business, Web 2.0, technology by Phil Baumann