The problem with anonymity online
September 3, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
So today I joined a live interview video/chat room of a local business person. The content was generally useful but what was amazing to me was just how much annoying spam was created by users joining the chat room. I don’t know how they found it but it was ironic to me that here I was, watching a webcast talking about “Community and Marketing 2.0″ and at the same time its users were actively destroying the room by acting like a-holes making crude comments. Two things I got out of this:
a) people can be a-holes when they think no one is watching them.When all anyone knows about you is a random username then people become characters experimenting with different personalities. That’s the problem with anonymity online. Maybe these people are pretty normal citizens in everyday life, but in the chat room there were tons of degrading and sexual comments being made to a person they didn’t even know. It was a virtual crime in my opinion – just like harassment is.
And b) a live chat room needs to have moderation decentralized and handed over to the community if it’s going to really be a “live community event”. A single administrator can’t keep up with deleting comments, banning users, finding good comments, and staying engaged with the person being interviewed. It just doesn’t work. Why not hand over control to the community itself? Let other people thumbs up/thumbs down other users. If the majority is really there to engage then the spam users will be voted out quickly. Otherwise, let the administrator quickly assign other users as administrators. The point here is where is the balance between decentralizing authority and making communities self policing vs. retaining traditional old-school mentalities of centralized control watching over a community?
Kite Surfing
September 17, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments
Learning how to kite surf in Indonesia sounds like a really good idea. Oh, and this movie sounds cool too.
BAGUS INDONESIA – shot on RED – 120 fps from Ne3ko on Vimeo.
My New Ride
August 19, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
The result of millions in marketing dollars…
April 2, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
“Stay in the loop” as a tagline can be the result of brainstorming for a couple days, like it was for loopnote.com – a product I co-founded. Or it can be the result of millions of marketing dollars, 9 separate focus group studies, outside agency “experts” and multi-departmental Kool-aid drinking. The justification for the latter? Why, millions in increased revenue and higher consumer loyalty of course!
It’s the product stupid!
Surf at Puerto Escondido
January 19, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Sunset at Punta Cometa – Mexico
January 19, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Black Bear
July 16, 2007 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
I saw one tonight! Not too big but maybe about 300 or 400 pounds (like I can actually tell right?). I was riding my bike up Boulder Canyon, saw some dirt sliding down the hillside next to me and my thoughts were literally: “oh, what’s that; i bet it’s an animal; maybe a fox; wow, maybe a mountain lion; better keep pedaling by whatever it is… oh my god it’s a black bear!” It was only about 10 feet away. I stopped a little ways up and turned back to watch it cross the street and go over to Boulder Creek.
The last time I saw a bear was while in Alaska in 2002 with my wife at the time, Michelle. She ran the midnight marathon in Anchorage. It was an amazing trip and the wildlife there is unbelievable. It really does feel like the last frontier.
Seeing a bear for me is one of those moments that will permanently be embedded in my mind and I’m thankful for that.
The iPhone is scary
July 6, 2007 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
I hate that I’m actually writing about the iPhone. I feel like a total wannabe because I don’t even own one and because everyone has been writing about them. But oh well, I’ll get over that. The fact is that I really think this little device is scary. Scary not because it’s bad or evil. Scary because I really think it’s quietly marking its place in history as the moment when technology started becoming deeply integrated within the rest of our lives.
Yeah, I know there’s been a lot of hype around the thing. I don’t care, I still think the hype we’ve heard around it is relatively inaudible compared to the changes it’s going to create over the next 5 years.
Apple sold tons of these super expensive devices over the past week. Something like 200,000 of them and made like 200 Million in profit – or so the numbers say. Still, the mobile phone market is gigantic. It’s got a long way to go. I don’t know the exact figures for when the iPod first came out. All I know is that everyone has one now. I never thought in a million years that we’d all fork up 300 bucks for a freakin music player. But we did and we did so by the millions. I mean, just before the iPod we had big clunky MP3 players. Some of us, like me, had portable CD players. I think I paid like 60 bucks for mine. The thought of forking out 300 for a music player just didn’t make sense.
And then all of a sudden everyone was walking around wearing the little white headphones. (I’m on a bus from Boulder to Denver right now and I just took a quick look around. The dude right in front me has a 5G iPod. I can’t see everyone but I see two women a few feet away that are wearing the white headphones. Two rows up some girl is wearing black headphones and I think I saw a smaller black MP3 player on her belt…. loser). Anyway, there’s lots and lots of iPods out there – no surprise there. My point is that there’s going to be just as many iPhones out there over the next couple years – and that’s going to cause some things around us to change…
What am I talking about? Ok, so everyone’s got a new phone. So what? Well, I think that’s where its gets scary. I think the iPhone (and other devices that try to copy it) are going to shepherd in a wave of new devices and appliances that are designed to communicate with it. The communication between the two is going to create very new ways for us to keep our physical world digitally synced with ourselves.
Ever since I’ve been in grade school I’ve kept idea and invention books. I haven’t done anything with them for a couple years. But about 8 years ago I wrote myself an entry about a digital device that basically acted as the digital representation of myself. It would contain my preferred “settings” for the world around me. If I were in my car it would set the seat and steering wheel for me, it would load my music and playlists, and it would sync up my contacts so I could make calls. If I were home it would tell my home what temperature I prefer, it would dim the lights for me, open the shades. The device would talk with every smart device around me on my behalf. That’s web 3.0. It might even be web 4.0.
The iPhone itself isn’t what is revolutionary. After all, it’s a cooler version of other smart devices that have been out there for a while. The reason I think the iPhone is scary is because it’s going to cause a huge change in different devices in our lives.
By making the iPhone fun and cool and easy to use, Apple has made sure that tons of people are going to want one. With enough adoption there will then be a standard device for other devices to communicate with. Think of how many stereos now say they’re “iPod” compatible?
Has anyone read about that project between Mercedes and Apple? It’s starting to happen already and I think Apple knows exactly where they want to go. Microsoft has been saying that the living room is the end game. I think that’s mostly true but I’m not sure Microsoft is going to be the first one to get there. Whoever controls the personal digital device, controls everything around it.
Apple wants to own our pocket. They already had half our pocket with their MP3 player. Now they finally kicked that other little device out called our cell phone. Now that they have the device to own our pocket they’ll start to figure out ways of using it to sync with the rest of the world. Today you can sync your iPhone with your laptop. Tomorrow, maybe your car, your TV and fridge… with other people.
A digital representation of ourselves – controlling everything else digital around us.
Damn this thing is scary. Scary sci-fi cool.
Introduction
October 18, 2006 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Here’s a few things about me:
My favorite youtube videos – gotta love prank videos
Where i live – Google map
My condo – 3D model using Google Sketchup
My company – No Sleep Media
My product – Brightkite (formerly Loopnote)
My personal loop – subscribe to my alerts