Todd Sieling

I’m glad you posted this, Raul, as it’s truly one of the most important concerns around the rise of social networking technologies as a forum for public discussion.

There are definitely problems with some design decisions and assumptions in the software that make it harder to work through opinions that question or challenge, but I’m not sure it’s things like the 140-character format that are to blame.

I think a key issue of how social networks are affecting our ability to deal with dissent is that they facilitate opinion deepening instead of diversification. We often strive to make software deliver what we want and tune out what we don’t. That ability can turn social media networks, and other content channels like RSS feeds, into magic mirrors that pronounce each of us the smartest in the land every time we look into them, because we train them to show only what we agree with. It’s not a new phenomenon in mass media cultures, but it is a bad habit that is intensified by the tools when it’s not consciously countered.

We can think about it as the care and feeding of an open mind. If we only involve ourselves in places where we see what we like and hear opinions that reflect back and deepen what we already believe, then the ability to listen and think about what we don’t agree with right off the bat suffers, and I think this is where a lot of online discussion currently falters. If we can’t form those habits on our own, then the best software will need to salt our food for thought with dissent rather than constantly sweetening it. ... See all content Hide content

2 days ago onWordpress in hummingbird604.com

Tobias didn’t write the blog post, I did. It was Tobias’ comment that kicked off the discussion. Todd/Tobias – close name, I know.

I didn’t mention the move to Facebook because when I looked in on that forum this morning there was nothing there, and to me it signalled that the discussion had died.

The linear comment form at Meetup and elsewhere isn’t much different from how the Facebook discussion interface is, and the only big difference would be being able to track comments through the newsfeed. I’m not sure how different that would have made it all. ... See all content Hide content

1 week, 2 days ago onWordpress in trishussey.com

> Apple has a ludicrously large marketing budget

They also have a very good product, which is doing more for them than all the advertising in the world. I see pretty much two kinds of iphone ads: a handful for tv made by apple, and print ads made by the carriers. Reducing it all to marketing misses what’s happened in the market by a mile.

1 week, 4 days ago onWordpress in www.intomobile.com

This is really a fantastic post, Eric. I often find myself outside (sometimes cynically, sometimes just not getting it) episodes of mass sentiment, especially those with a nationalist bent.

I exited town for the games, knowing I wouldn't be into it and not wanting to be a dour presence in a sea of enthusiasm. I don't denigrate those who did have a good time, but I think it's worth asking whether anything so costly is worth the cost.

Before the games, a coworker and I did a thought experiment that imagined the Olympics' power to marshal public participation and resources towards philanthropic ends, touring from city to city to bring everything humanity could bring to solve a specific problem. Building sized banners advocating an end to homelessness, or a sustainable lifestyle, or an end to the mass violence of any war. That's an Olympics I could get into.

Again, great post; you should feel proud to have written it. ... See all content Hide content

1 week, 5 days ago onWordpress in www.ideasonideas.com

Lesson learned: design on standards, kids.

1 month ago onWordpress in androidandme.com

Great post, Tris. It’s always interesting to look back on our personal belief histories as we get older to see how they measure up to current events.

The protests that blocked the torch are to me in the real spirit of protest – unyielding to getting an idea across, but not violent, and not out to cause pain. Today’s vandalism was disgusting, and devoid of anything that can be said to help anyone.

To me, true protest builds an ideal against opposition and doesn’t tear down or cause harm. That’s made protest events like Critical Mass troubling to me, where I agreed with the ideals but not the methods. There is a great deal to find fault with in the Olymipcs: the celebration of spectacle, of have over have-not, but none of that makes violence and vandalism a solution or even a coherent message.

What’s been equally disheartening is seeing messages encouraging violence against protesters, calls of ‘get out of my city’, and the idea that protesters are all of the same ilk and just illegitimate. If that’s how they really feel, we’ve lost most of the heart of what has brought about the democracy and freedom we enjoy today. ... See all content Hide content

1 month ago onWordpress in trishussey.com

The amount of detail and the size of the project don't necessarily correlate. You could easily use this to describe a large, medium or small project in low-detail.

1 month, 3 weeks ago onWordpress in wireframes.linowski.ca

> So the Internet is going to be filled with dead people.

Most of the laws, words and food we live by was created or discovered by people now gone. The dead rule the living, it would truly be wondrous to continue some of the presence they had in life after they leave us.

1 month, 4 weeks ago onWordpress in www.zeldman.com

Nice writeup, Chris. I have to agree that Tweak the Tweet may place too high a premium on human understanding and coordination to succeed in scenarios like disaster response. Rather, I’m interested in seeing what we can make machines do by working from confluences of the richer data (text/image/video/audio) and metadata (specifically geo and recency) that their various portals can deliver now . Working with those, we might be able to teach the machines to understand when disaster is happening and help us triage our way through the information stream to the people who need help the most. ... See all content Hide content

2 months ago onWordpress in factoryjoe.com

Snob appeal? I can’t imagine why given the looks. But the disastrous keyboard, the questionable arrangement where Amazon demands 70% of each sale leaving the publisher and author to fight over the 30%, and the absurd dances people need to do to get content onto the device when it’s not bought from Amazon make the ipod look like an open field.

I feel like the Kindle is the QWERTY keyboard of ereaders, where it does enough that’s innovative to move the industry forward, but fear that somehow we’d get stuck with something less than optimal.

Having seen the Barnes and Noble Nook and holding out hope for an Apple Tablet, I look forward to drinking to the Kindle’s demise or a ground-up redesign. ... See all content Hide content

4 months ago onWordpress in www.darrenbarefoot.com