Thursday, March 5, 2015
"Becoming One" - connectivity and its risk to individuality
"Becoming One" is a great visual contemplation of the digital age from Thom Haig (MoGrafik).
Questions asked in the video:
"Should we ask if this connectivity encourages individuality, progression, originality, or prohibits them?"
"Is knowledge acquired from the same source the pinnacle of accuracy, or the end of innovation?"
"Many becoming one, and one becoming all."
"What if, in becoming one, we become .... nothing?"
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
How Different are our Digital Worlds?
Internet access in developed and developing countries still varies dramatically, according to Facebook Newsroom's report on 'The State of Global Connectivity'.
The 2014 report suggests that the percentage of the global population who use the Internet at least once a year was 37.9%.
Other statistics include:
"The unconnected are disproportionately located in developing countries — 78% of the population in the developed world is online compared to just 32% in emerging economies.
Moreover, adoption of the internet is slowing — The rate of growth declined for the fourth year in a row to just 6.6% in 2014 (down from 14.7% in 2010). At present rates of decelerating growth, it won’t reach 4 billion people until 2019.
In order for the entire world to connect to the internet, we will have to address the three barriers to access: Infrastructure, Affordability and Relevance.
Infrastructure – More than 90% of the world’s population lives within range of a mobile signal. This means that we will need to look at issues like affordability and awareness in order to connect the majority of people.
Affordability – Globally, monthly data plans with a cap of 250MB are affordable to 50% of the population. Reducing this cap to 100MB achieves 80% affordability and 20MB reaches 90% affordability. But in locations like Sub-Saharan Africa where 69% of people live on less than $2 per day, only 53% of the population can afford the internet with a cap of 20MB, an amount that provides just 1-2 hours of web browsing a month.
Relevance – Many people are not online because they are either unaware of the internet or because there is limited relevant content in their primary language. To provide relevant content to 80% of the world would require sufficient content in at least 92 languages."
Source: Facebook Newsroom "The State of Global Connectivity"
A recent blog post by Upasna Kakroo raises two interesting questions.
First, how and why are social media messages any different from notes delivered by carrier pigeons?
Second, she cites research suggesting that developed countries tend to think of constant connectivity as eroding the boundaries between work and non-work life, which is implicitly viewed negatively in countries such as the UK, Germany and France. By contrast, those surveyed in developing markets seem less concerned about work-life balance, at least when it comes to connectivity.
My take on this is that those living in developing markets are perhaps more actively seeking opportunities, many of which come through digital media. And, that the wonders of digital media in our homes are still something of a marvel. I know this personally as we finally got significantly faster broadband speeds at home a few weeks ago and it is like having a new well in a parched village. As they say, there are two parts to happiness. One is having what you want and the other is knowing when you have it.
The 2014 report suggests that the percentage of the global population who use the Internet at least once a year was 37.9%.
Other statistics include:
"The unconnected are disproportionately located in developing countries — 78% of the population in the developed world is online compared to just 32% in emerging economies.
Moreover, adoption of the internet is slowing — The rate of growth declined for the fourth year in a row to just 6.6% in 2014 (down from 14.7% in 2010). At present rates of decelerating growth, it won’t reach 4 billion people until 2019.
In order for the entire world to connect to the internet, we will have to address the three barriers to access: Infrastructure, Affordability and Relevance.
Infrastructure – More than 90% of the world’s population lives within range of a mobile signal. This means that we will need to look at issues like affordability and awareness in order to connect the majority of people.
Affordability – Globally, monthly data plans with a cap of 250MB are affordable to 50% of the population. Reducing this cap to 100MB achieves 80% affordability and 20MB reaches 90% affordability. But in locations like Sub-Saharan Africa where 69% of people live on less than $2 per day, only 53% of the population can afford the internet with a cap of 20MB, an amount that provides just 1-2 hours of web browsing a month.
Relevance – Many people are not online because they are either unaware of the internet or because there is limited relevant content in their primary language. To provide relevant content to 80% of the world would require sufficient content in at least 92 languages."
Source: Facebook Newsroom "The State of Global Connectivity"
A recent blog post by Upasna Kakroo raises two interesting questions.
First, how and why are social media messages any different from notes delivered by carrier pigeons?
Second, she cites research suggesting that developed countries tend to think of constant connectivity as eroding the boundaries between work and non-work life, which is implicitly viewed negatively in countries such as the UK, Germany and France. By contrast, those surveyed in developing markets seem less concerned about work-life balance, at least when it comes to connectivity.
My take on this is that those living in developing markets are perhaps more actively seeking opportunities, many of which come through digital media. And, that the wonders of digital media in our homes are still something of a marvel. I know this personally as we finally got significantly faster broadband speeds at home a few weeks ago and it is like having a new well in a parched village. As they say, there are two parts to happiness. One is having what you want and the other is knowing when you have it.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
How Tinder works...and why
The Dating Game 2.0.
If you've heard a lot about dating apps, but are not quite sure how they work, or why anyone would use them, there was an insightful recent article in the NY Times that explains the most popular app, Tinder, comparing it to other, more established web dating applications, such as Match.com.
Essentially, once a user signs up and includes a few pictures (generally from your Facebook archives), the mobile app finds other registered users and presents your photo to them, and likewise, you see photos of those around you. You swipe one direction to indicate interest and the other direction to suggest you're interested in meeting someone. Then--and only then--can they message you. Basically, two mutually interested parties are able to make contact by text, followed by face-to-face contact if both are still keen after the text exchange.
The author, Molly Wood (her real name?) admits that while this approach, based mostly on physical looks, seems a bit superficial at least and 'sleazy' at worst, it is also the appeal of the application, namely its easy-to-use simplicity and unpretentious nature. It also feels like a game, where you decline others' advances by saying 'still playing,' which says this is not necessarily a search for a life partner (although the author admits being in a promising relationship that started with Tinder).
The comparison with match-making sites is that Tinder is not trying to play matchmaker, it is just helping you play the field, with the advantage of knowing who else is playing on the same field.
But why is there an overall surge in dating apps? Functionalist sociologists and animal behiorists will tell you that dating rituals are necessary and important to help individuals let down their guard enough for would-be suitors to become intimate enough to mate. Not very romantic, but it does help us understand the role that dating apps serve in connected and busy societies.
Dating apps reduce at least some of the anxiety of approaching strangers who are not interested in us personally, or not interested in dating in general. By letting us contact the 'maybe' persons around us, the odds of carrying on a conversation over a drink go up substantially. Plus, by making it look and feel like a game, it perhaps bring a playfulness to first encounters, which is both fitting and helpful, in most cases.
For those of us with soul mates and those still looking, Happy Valentines Day!
If you've heard a lot about dating apps, but are not quite sure how they work, or why anyone would use them, there was an insightful recent article in the NY Times that explains the most popular app, Tinder, comparing it to other, more established web dating applications, such as Match.com.
Essentially, once a user signs up and includes a few pictures (generally from your Facebook archives), the mobile app finds other registered users and presents your photo to them, and likewise, you see photos of those around you. You swipe one direction to indicate interest and the other direction to suggest you're interested in meeting someone. Then--and only then--can they message you. Basically, two mutually interested parties are able to make contact by text, followed by face-to-face contact if both are still keen after the text exchange.
The author, Molly Wood (her real name?) admits that while this approach, based mostly on physical looks, seems a bit superficial at least and 'sleazy' at worst, it is also the appeal of the application, namely its easy-to-use simplicity and unpretentious nature. It also feels like a game, where you decline others' advances by saying 'still playing,' which says this is not necessarily a search for a life partner (although the author admits being in a promising relationship that started with Tinder).
The comparison with match-making sites is that Tinder is not trying to play matchmaker, it is just helping you play the field, with the advantage of knowing who else is playing on the same field.
But why is there an overall surge in dating apps? Functionalist sociologists and animal behiorists will tell you that dating rituals are necessary and important to help individuals let down their guard enough for would-be suitors to become intimate enough to mate. Not very romantic, but it does help us understand the role that dating apps serve in connected and busy societies.
Dating apps reduce at least some of the anxiety of approaching strangers who are not interested in us personally, or not interested in dating in general. By letting us contact the 'maybe' persons around us, the odds of carrying on a conversation over a drink go up substantially. Plus, by making it look and feel like a game, it perhaps bring a playfulness to first encounters, which is both fitting and helpful, in most cases.
For those of us with soul mates and those still looking, Happy Valentines Day!
Monday, February 2, 2015
Rate, rank, review...right back at you!
Giving feedback is a good thing, right? We love heaping praise (or scorn) on those who serve us. It makes them better, stronger, faster! And, it makes us feel so much better.
But, the tables may be turning as this article in the NY Times suggests, where taxi drivers are now rating their Uber customers. So, be careful what you say about the cabby, or next time you may be refused service or treated as consumer non grata. Of course, honest rewards for good behaviour makes sense. But, just as tipping can become an expectation, what happens when the game becomes two parties gaming each other with both parties' reputation at stake?
Is this a good thing? I couldn't possibly comment.
See my earlier post on Rate, rank and review and the cult of verification.
See my earlier post on Rate, rank and review and the cult of verification.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Global Connectivity Webinar - 29 January 2015
On the 29th of January (North American time), I will be participating in a webinar on 'global connectivity' sponsored by the Global Connectivity Research Institute (GCRI).
The Global Connectivity Research Institute has developed tools
to help dynamically visualize official global connectivity of every state on
earth and most of the regional and global bodies, organizations, etc. to which
those states belong as those bodies have evolved throughout deep history. This
is real perspective. This is the foundation on which realistic deep strategic
thinking, leading, and planning rests.
Join us on the 29th of
January 2015 for the webinar.
Presenters include Timothy (Tim) Williamson, Founder and Director of GCRI, Admiral Kikareas PhD (HN Ret.), Capt. Wayne
Porter PhD (USN Ret.), and myself.
----------------------------
Global Connectivity
Research Institute (GCRI)
“seeking to understand
the origin, evolution, and trajectory of human connectivity”
1-205-765-6090
______________________________________________________________________________
The 29th is almost here.
Please register for the webinar.
16 Jan 2015
Webinar Information:
·
Title: “How an empirical knowledge of human
connectivity should inform deep strategic thinking, leading, & planning.”
o For deep thinkers and strategic leaders, and those who want to be - the work of
GCRI resolves the classic conundrum between the value of a posteriori
vs a priori based understanding in favor of an empirical foundation on
which deep strategic thinking can be finally realized. It’s all a matter of
information, perspective, and scale - said the cat to Alice (massively
paraphrased of course TW - adapted from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland,’ 1865).
·
Purpose:
o Reason
#1:
§ To
provide a tool to easily visualize regional and global connectivity of every
state and official organization on the planet from a current and historical
perspective
o Reason
#2:
§ To
provide the platform from which the connectivity in the visualization tool may
be studied, analyzed, and projections made from an empirical foundation so that
a more precise strategic narrative can be made with the greatest possible
perspective.
o Reason #3:
§ Provide
insight into how best to utilize an understanding of the origin, evolution,
& trajectory of human connectivity to make informed deep strategic
decisions.
·
YouTube short videos about the webinar and GCRI on KUMU:
o GCRI
video Webinar info
o GCRI
video How are Russia, the USA, and Myanmar connected?
·
Applicability:
o Governments
o Militaries
o NGO’s
o IGO’s
o Regional
and global governance bodies & organizations
o Business
o Academics
·
Schedule:
o 29 Jan
2015 between 1000 & 1300 CST USA (between 1400 &1900 UTC)
Bio update of presenters:
1.
Admiral Peter Kikareas PhD,
a. Hellenic
Navy, NATO, Retired
b. Europe,
Eurasia & Mediterranean subject matter expert
c. Has
worked with US DHS
d. lives in
Florida
2.
Capt. Wayne Porter PhD
a.
US Navy, former head of the Complex Sciences Department at the
Naval Post Grad School, Retired
b.
Co-Founder of National
Strategic Narrative, and co-author of the document
produced by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2011 by the
same name, both in collaboration with LtCol Mark Mykleby (USMC Retired)
3.
Dr. Darl Kolb (PhD, Cornell)
a.
Professor of Connectivity in the Graduate School of Management at
the University of Auckland Business School, Auckland, New Zealand.
b.
a pioneering theorist on social and technical connectivity.
c.
Visiting Fellow at the University of Sydney and the University of
Cambridge.
d.
Makes presentations around the world, most recently to the US
Army.
e.
He discusses the connects and disconnects of life on his blog,
Connectivity Corner (drdarlkolb.blogspot.com).
4.
Timothy ‘Tim’ Williamson
.
Founder and creator of GRCI
a.
Creator of GCRI
on KUMU - mappings of the origin and evolution of official regional and
global connectivity of states and IGO’s.
b.
Numerous papers on academia.edu
c.
LinkedIn
Profile for more info
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Best of 2014
Sitting in Puerto Natales, Chile, at what has been called del fin del Mundo, reflecting on the past year, before entering Torres del Paine national park. The terrain and flora remind us of New Zealand in many ways, but Patagonia is also a very unique region and a wonderful part of the world.
This is not a travelogue about connectivity, but I have been reminded of the power of language to connect or disconnect humans. And, more profoundly, I have witnessed how a single individual, in this case one of the young members of our group, was able to make more friends in the space of 4 days in El Chalten than anyone I have ever seen. The point is that some Gen Y folks are capable of networking in real life and new environments as well as they do on line. A reminder not to pigeonhole or pre-judge generations.
As for the best of 2014...
I am presently reading the best novel related to our connected world, not just of 2014, but probably of the past decade. The book is The Circle, by Dave Eggers (Vintage, 2013). Not since Douglas Coupland's Microserfs has there been such an astute account of tech culture coupled with an intriguing contemporary story line. The story takes place on a over-achieving tech campus (think Google meets Facebook on steroids), where seemingly helpful and well-intended utopian desires of tech mega-corporations reveal the dark side of universal ubiquitous connectivity and shrinking personal privacy. A great read! I highly recommend it!
Best non-fiction documentary of the year in my view is Generation Like, a PBS Hard Line report on the high need for teens to be liked on social media and the general medias exploitation of this phenomenon. Notwithstanding my comment above about not judging generations, this video account makes for scary watching, if one considers the implications of high needs for social approval, especially when played out and manipulated by masterful marketing.
That's it for now. Off to the mountains to disconnect.
This is not a travelogue about connectivity, but I have been reminded of the power of language to connect or disconnect humans. And, more profoundly, I have witnessed how a single individual, in this case one of the young members of our group, was able to make more friends in the space of 4 days in El Chalten than anyone I have ever seen. The point is that some Gen Y folks are capable of networking in real life and new environments as well as they do on line. A reminder not to pigeonhole or pre-judge generations.
As for the best of 2014...
I am presently reading the best novel related to our connected world, not just of 2014, but probably of the past decade. The book is The Circle, by Dave Eggers (Vintage, 2013). Not since Douglas Coupland's Microserfs has there been such an astute account of tech culture coupled with an intriguing contemporary story line. The story takes place on a over-achieving tech campus (think Google meets Facebook on steroids), where seemingly helpful and well-intended utopian desires of tech mega-corporations reveal the dark side of universal ubiquitous connectivity and shrinking personal privacy. A great read! I highly recommend it!
Best non-fiction documentary of the year in my view is Generation Like, a PBS Hard Line report on the high need for teens to be liked on social media and the general medias exploitation of this phenomenon. Notwithstanding my comment above about not judging generations, this video account makes for scary watching, if one considers the implications of high needs for social approval, especially when played out and manipulated by masterful marketing.
That's it for now. Off to the mountains to disconnect.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
'Unified communications' is coming
What
is unified communication?
Entrepreneur Toby Ruckert knows what
‘unified communications’ is and you don’t have to spend much time with Toby—as
I have recently done in Singapore--to believe the importance of what might be
described as a movement--or perhaps migration is a better word--toward
unified communication as a popular, if not indispensable, service.
Unified
communication means bringing all our communication
threads and sources (email, social media, chat and ‘check-in’ apps) together in
one place. And, that is what Toby’s
company Unified Inbox does. With 8,000
users waiting for beta versions, the popularity of the notion is significant
and growing.
Once communication sources are wrangled
into a single inbox, users can manage all communications in one place, one screen. Managing might mean ranking messages by
importance, or grouping by source (people) or topics, or other meaningful
criteria. Such features are showing up
more and more within a given medium.
See, for example, the proliferation of ‘filtering’ tools popping up.
G-mail users can request and get helpful analytics regarding your email use patterns.
Other applications, like Checky, Moment and Offtime allow you toggle off and otherwise manage your incoming media to get a digital break. So, the ‘Filter Wars’ have begun.
G-mail users can request and get helpful analytics regarding your email use patterns.
Other applications, like Checky, Moment and Offtime allow you toggle off and otherwise manage your incoming media to get a digital break. So, the ‘Filter Wars’ have begun.
Unified communications, however, goes beyond filtering within a single medium.
Unified communication services allow users to carry on conversations with friends
or colleagues, who are each using different messaging media (say LinkedIn, Facebook, WeChat, SnapChat, etc.) without launching
and re-launching different apps. Users could cut and paste text across platforms, but bridging fractures and inconsistencies between communication streams is hard work.
Unified Inbox will ultimately allow organisations to 'unify' their communications and help interested users to improve their communication patterns and performance (effectiveness and efficiency). The latter is a research project I am currently working on with colleagues in academia and industry.
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