Yearly Archives: 2008

The Internet is Twitter

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The recent US Presidential election was a stunning demonstration of the power of social media as now supported via the Internet.  Indeed social media such as Twitter may now be the principal medium of communication if one measures the ‘bandwidth’, interpreted loosely, that goes into such twittering. 

Now the dreadful incidents in Mumbai provide another far-too shocking example.  That prompts Tim Malbon to ask a fundamental question: Mumbai: flash mob or social media in action?

When news of the ‘terrorist outrage’ broke yesterday evening several people mailed and messaged me with links to the coverage on Twitter. I was awestruck by the live feeds provided at #Mumbai and others (such as Twitter Grid). Having looked around elsewhere, my initial reaction was that the main old-school news agencies like Reuters, CNN and the BBC just weren’t providing the coverage, in contrast to the truly MASSIVE volume of tweeting going on.

However as the evening continued, he become somewhat disillusioned about the chaotic nature of the torrent of information that was being generated

There were no doubt many well-meaning people Twittering. Some on the ground were no doubt using the service to share their personal horror and to connect with the outside world must have been a comfort. But very few were on the ground. Most participants were far away. There needs to be some way of working out who in a situation like this has more authority than someone else. … Last night scared me. We’re like kids playing with things that we still don’t understand. A human tragedy became “something to follow”.

Crowdsourcing is of course an attempt to bring some order to the chaos.  Cloud computing in Africa, for example, can help aid workers to better identify what is really happening in major crises. As one aid worker has noted:

Crowdsourcing means that crisis situations can be explored at comparatively little cost, by making information freely available from an untold numbers of sources. We would basically be liberating information from the vaults of Non Governmental (and governmental) Organizations that have of necessity safeguarded information release for self-preservation.

Another and perhaps better way of marshaling all this data is to consider online surveys.  Of course cell phones can be used merely to indicate who you think should be the next American Idol.  However as we all become more at ease in the digital world, we may well be more inclined to make sure our opinions are known.

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Benefit of Clouds in Africa

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The mobile web is growing by leaps and bounds. Jon Thompson points out one reason why this is happening in places like Africa where clouds provide the only way of providing mass computing power.

When providing aid, the need for good communication and measurement is paramount.  Clouds provide an answer although they have nothing to do with those beautiful towering shapes you may see in the sky.

If only one person takes their iPhone to the field and commits to mapping their tracks while going from health post to health post and then uploading that data via a local network (either while roaming or on a cracked handset) the world might just be a better place.  My guess is that mapping Monrovia, Goma, Juba, etc. now will pay off in the long run.  With the cloud hovering over Africa rapidly growing in size the advantage goes to those folks on the ground who have the power to generate the data and ultimately benefit from it.

Tim O’Reilly provides an explanation on why using your iPhone and working in the clouds is so powerful:

Cloud integration

It’s easy to forget that the speech recognition isn’t happening on your phone. It’s happening on Google’s servers. It’s Google’s vast database of speech data that makes the speech recognition work so well. It would be hard to pack all that into a local device. And that of course is the future of mobile as well. A mobile phone is inherently a connected device with local memory and processing. But it’s time we realized that the local compute power is a fraction of what’s available in the cloud. Web applications take this for granted — for example, when we request a map tile for our phone — but it’s surprising how many native applications settle themselves comfortably in their silos.

The announcement earlier in the year that IBM is Opening Cloud Computing Centers in Africa and  China shows the kind of support that is being put in place:

Cloud computing enables the delivery of personal and business services from remote, centralized servers (the "cloud") that share computing resources and bandwidth — to any device, anywhere. Cloud computing represents a major step up in computing — as it enables governments, businesses and individuals to access super-computing power, analysis of massive amounts of data, and applications five to 10-times more cost effectively.

For example, using IBM’s new centers, a university could access the computational power of a supercomputer to analyze data and determine how diseases might spread in a region or how climate changes will affect natural resources.

This points to new ways of getting the facts more impartially and openly such as Crowdsourcing when reporting on crises.

Crisis reporting usually had to deal with politics, bureaucracy and authenticity mostly because policy making and crisis situations are joined by the hip. It has always been a one-to-many situation with government/corporate dominated (and manipulated) crisis reporting. Basically we have always had to believe what ‘they’ tell us about how it happened, how it is being handled and how it will be prevented in future.

Crowdsourcing means that crisis situations can be explored at comparatively little cost, by making information freely available from an untold numbers of sources. We would basically be liberating information from the vaults of Non Governmental (and governmental) Organizations that have of necessity safeguarded information release for self-preservation.

The Clue-train manifesto pointed in this direction but few could have envisaged how massively the movement would expand.

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Outliers: The Story of Success: Malcolm Gladwell

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The Story of Success from a thought-provoking writer like Malcolm Gladwell is always something to watch out for. His previous books, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking and The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, both captured important aspects of the online world.  His latest book, Outliers: The Story of Success, is a reflection on the more tangible world of human society.  Again he is pointing out what should have been obvious, but what you may have missed.

You can read more about the book’s content on Gladwell’s own website.  In particular he summarizes what you may get from the book:

What do you want people to take away from Outliers?

I think this is the way in which Outliers is a lot like Blink and Tipping Point. They are all attempts to make us think about the world a little differently. The hope with Tipping Point was it would help the reader understand that real change was possible. With Blink, I wanted to get people to take the enormous power of their intuition seriously.

My wish with Outliers is that it makes us understand how much of a group project success is. When outliers become outliers it is not just because of their own efforts. It’s because of the contributions of lots of different people and lots of different circumstances— and that means that we, as a society, have more control about who succeeds—and how many of us succeed—than we think. That’s an amazingly hopeful and uplifting idea.

If you are wondering whether Outliers has something to do with Chris Anderson’s Long Tail, then you’re on the wrong track. Anderson was pointing out that we are all different in so many ways.  Gladwell on the other hand is focusing on the really far out extremes.  What can we learn from those who are successful and who seem to be very different from the rest of us.  Think of someone like Bill Gates for example.

If Gladwell’s latest book is not for you, there are two others that seem very popular at the moment.  If you want to drop a hint to your significant other on what might please you, here they are:

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Big Fish Games In The Clouds

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As the Vancouver Sun tells us this morning, Big Fish Games tests B.C. waters. It is a cute headline about a fast-growing U.S. video game company that is opening a studio in Yaletown in Vancouver.

Seattle-based Big Fish Games, one of the fastest-growing video game companies on the continent, has opened a Vancouver studio.  The Yaletown office has just four employees so far, but has room for almost 50.

Big Fish Games reported revenues of $8.6 million in 2005, $24.1 million in 2006 and $50.8 million in 2007, and employee numbers have grown from 35 to 310. .. The company has found a vast audience partly because it markets to groups not generally associated with video-game playing, including women and seniors.

As it happens, Big Fish Games in the clouds is a much more apt title.  Cloud computing is the current big battleground for the majors like Microsoft and Google.  It is all about SaaS, or Software as a Service if the acronym is new to you.  No longer do you need to download programs to your computer.  All you need is the cheapest of laptops or even a netbook to give you access to whatever programs your favorite supplier is willing to offer.

prize room

By coincidence another online game service is also making the news today.  That is Prize Room and this one gives you your online games completely free. 

PrizeRoom provides what other methods of Internet marketing are truly missing: a new way for consumers to actually interface with sponsors’ products.  In addition, all the in-game content can be branded, changed as often as desired and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  PrizeRoom gives users not only chances to play dynamic and entertaining games incentives, but also offers opportunities for them to qualify to win great prizes and earn valuable incentives from some of the top brands in the world!

It is free because the marketers would like you to spend some time in a place where they can send their messages to you.  That is the kind of Free that Chris Anderson promotes.  You are really paying for whatever you receive by giving them your time.  Perhaps that is the most valuable currency you can offer.

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Guinness World Record Day – Nov 13th 2008

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Be warned that the original title for this post was ‘Random Thoughts’.  So unless you intended to read something from me at random, then please click away.  The new title was created when, as always, I did a quick Google Search and Blogsearch, to verify that I wasn’t just regurgitating the same thoughts as everyone else.  You may feel that was a somewhat redundant exercise, but old habits die hard. 

In the list, I instantly saw – Guinness’ Most Random Records — 2009 Edition with some explanatory text:

Today is Guinness World Record Day, the annual event where people across the globe try to set records so their legacies can live forever in Guinness’ archival text.

In a post on random thoughts, the serendipity involved in such an item could not be lost so it hijacked the title.  If you were looking for the book, then click on Guinness: World Records 2009 (Guinness World Records).

Indeed it is amazing given the crowded Internet that so many people seem to want to pen their random thoughts. There are even whole websites dedicated to those who wish to just add their random thoughts.   Perhaps others visit such sites to read these random thoughts: the mind boggles.

Not surprisingly, given that elections have just taken place in both the USA and Canada, many are having random thoughts about political processes. That includes Some random bits scribbled by Jeremy Zawodny.  The title of the post was Post-Election Thoughts: Equal but Not. Apparently like many others he is not happy about the electoral college system.  However anachronistic it may seem, it seems unlikely to be changed by change.gov.

My random thoughts were not at all political.  I was thinking about the question of passwords for online sites and the security aspects involved.  Like many others, I should be using more complex ones and changing them frequently.  In searching around that topic, lo and behold I found a True Random Number Service. Not surprisingly it is located at Random.org.   If you need any encouragement to visit, here is what they offer:

What’s this fuss about true randomness?

Perhaps you have wondered how predictable machines like computers can generate randomness. In reality, most random numbers used in computer programs are pseudo-random, which means they are a generated in a predictable fashion using a mathematical formula. This is fine for many purposes, but it may not be random in the way you expect if you’re used to dice rolls and lottery draws.

RANDOM.ORG offers true random numbers to anyone on the Internet. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms typically used in computer programs. People use RANDOM.ORG for holding draws, lotteries and sweepstakes, to drive games and gambling sites, for scientific applications and for art and music. The service has existed since 1998 and was built and is being operated by Mads Haahr of the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin in Ireland.

If you are someone who is attracted by randomness, it is well worth a visit. It is a fascinating place.  You can certainly get the most secure passwords possible by visiting. .. and now back to regular programming.

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