desirable things

Do I believe in Web 2.0 or what is the point of Facebook

A couple of days ago at the Sour Herring dinner at Lund one of my companions at the table said that he did not believe in Web 2.0. Interaction, he said, was overrated. Most of us around the table took the remark as humor and we were satisfied with this.

But the remark has been gnawing at the back of my mind. Do I believe in Web 2.0?

At first this may seem like a strange question, coming from me. I blog and participate in other blogs. I have set up and run wiki’s and used these technologies in the classroom, in research and with friends. Still the question is rather valid.

No blogs and wiki’s don’t require that you believe in them. If they are useful they will be used. I enjoy them and use them as a central part of my work (and play). But what about the more typical social networking sites?

Just to name a few I am a member at Technorati, Linkedin and Facebook. I have even upgraded my free account on flickr to pro (which means I am paying money for it). Besides flickr the usefulness of the others is unclear to me. Technorati is not much of a social networking site it is more of an aggregator for blogs – so let’s move on.

Linkedin seems to be a more formal social networking site based upon professional contacts. It is not really designed to encourage wide scale use. Facebook on the other hand it something quite different.

Facebook is a huge social networking site where people are actively encouraged to collect friends and interact with them by comparing films, music and books. The site encourages users to play games with each other such as the presently popular war of the vampires.

With all these applications I can really see that users can spend literally hours online finding and interacting with their online friends but after some testing I still am struck by the sensation or feeling: What is the point of facebook? It is surprising to see how many people are using it – in particular its appeal the the large group of non-techie or non-Web 2.0 crowd. But I still don’t really get it. What is the allure of this site? What need or desire does the site fulfill?

Or is it simply that the social interaction between friends, even in an online virtual forum, is the whole point. Oh well, I would like to analyze this further but unfortunately I need to update my profile 🙂

Posted on by mklang

Fear and Courage

Naturally no one can live life through quotations but there are some quotations that kind of manage to capture a sentiment of importance. These also tend to stick in my mind – not that I remember the exact quote, more the general idea. While in Kalmar I came across a second hand bookshop and found a philosophical book on the topic of courage. I am looking forward to reading it.

One of the more curious quotes that I like is from Camilo Jose Cela’s Journey to the Alcarria

Sometimes one has frightening sensations of well-being, strong enough to move mountains; one must fight them courageously, as one would fight an enemy. And then, with the passage of time, they leave something like a drop of gall in ones heart…

Contentment is one of the more dangerous enemies that prevent our development. When we arrive in a situation of contentment we occasionally do not dare to take a risk that may help us develop. Not really sure about the “drop of gall” part.

Part of the problem is the fear of failure or the fear of losing out. But, to quote another writer, there is another way of looking at this problem:

By embracing the inescapable, I lost my fear of it. I’ll tell you a secret about fear: its an absolutist. With fear, its all or nothing. Either, like any bullying tyrant, it rules your life with a stupid blinding omnipotence, or else you overthrow it, and its power vanishes like a puff of smoke. And another secret: the revolution against fear, the engendering of that tawdry despots fall, has more or less nothing to do with ‘courage’. It is driven by something much more straightforward: the simple need to get on with your life.

This is from Salman Rushdie’s “The Moors Last Sigh” and it hits the exact point that the fear of fear is more serious than the thing we fear itself. Overcoming our fears are as Rushdie puts it not really a matter of being overly courageous but more a need to get on with our lives…

Posted on by mklang

Smell the Book

Arguments against ebooks is that they are not as practical as traditional books. They need power, they don’t fold well, they are not comfortable to read in the bath… But have you ever thought about the smell of real books?

“…ebook content provider CafeScribe is going pretty low-tech to give your laptop screen the same scent as a textbook: the company is shipping “musty-smelling” scratch-and-sniff stickers with every ebook order. The promotion comes in response to a survey showing that 43 percent of students identified smell as the thing they most liked about their favorite books….” [Engadget]

(via The Shifted Librarian)

Posted on by mklang

When I shut my eyes…

I can still feel the warm summer breeze while walking in the shade of the trees. Then I open them again and remember that I have marking to do before term begins in a couple of days…

Wish I was still here…

Posted on by mklang

Return of the lost blogger

For the first time in I don’t know how long I have been away. Not only have I been away from my office and telephone but I have also been offline and out of touch. In addition to this I have also been mentally off work – it has been a very relaxing experience. My only connection to work has been my seaside literature which has been (as always) work related, focusing mainly on copyright, open access and the public domain. It has all been very relaxing and I am now ready to come back with a better tan and full of energy.

 

I spent some of my downtime over here…

Posted on by mklang

A room of one's own (in Lund)

When Virginia Wolf wrote the long essay A Room of One’s Own in 1928 (published 1929) it was a call for the need for authors to have a physical and mental space within which they would have the possibility and acceptance to create. It was also a criticism against the male dominated society and the way in which women were denied such a room. Naturally there is an online version under CC license – it is well worth reading.

Since I will be beginning a new job at the University of Lund in September I really need to find such a room (in Lund).

So if anyone knows where I can rent a room or an apartment in Lund – please let me know.

Posted on by mklang

100 best films

The American Film Institute is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year and has presented the 100 greatest films of all time. It was ten years ago since the last such list was made.

The top ten are best films are Citizen Kane (still first on the list since the last list was made) followed by The Godfather – Casablanca – Raging Bull – Singing in the Rain – Gone with the Wind – Lawrence of Arabia – Schindler’s List – Vertigo and The Wizard of Oz.

Surprises on the list? Well E.T. (nr 24) beats Apocalypse Now (nr 30) and Titanic is on the list (at nr 83).

The bottom ten of the hundred are Sophie’s Choice – Goodfellas – The French Connection – Pulp Fiction – The Last Picture Show – Do the right thing – Blade Runner – Yankee Doodle Dandy – Toy Story – Ben Hur.

(via Humaniorabloggen)

Posted on by mklang

Lowering Carbon Dioxide

Through Joi Ito’s blog I came across an interesting site called Native Energy. Native Energy is majority-owned by an organization of Native American tribes and works to help reduce peoples carbon footprint, which is:

…a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide emitted through the combustion of fossil fuels; in the case of an organization, business or enterprise, as part of their everyday operations; in the case of an individual or household, as part of their daily lives; or a product or commodity in reaching market.

Begin by testing their carbon calculator to see what your carbon footprint is like. Then set to work lowering unnecessary carbon dioxide use. The idea is that individuals (even organisations) can work to maintain an equilibrium or even lower their dependence on fossil fuels by offsetting carbon dioxide use in places where possible to make up for use when necessary.

They even have some easy tips to lowering consumption – well worth a reminder.

Posted on by mklang

GPLv3 to launch on Friday

The Free Software Foundation have announced that version 3 of the GPL will be officially launched on Friday. Here is the announcement.

On Friday, June 29, at 12 noon (EDT), the Free Software Foundation will officially release the GNU GPL version 3. Please join us in celebration as we bring to a close eighteen months of public outreach and comment, in revision of the world’s most popular free software license.

Beyond the creation of an improved license, the process of drafting version 3 has helped highlight vital issues for the community of free software users. This is a moment to thank the thousands who participated by commenting on the license, and those that represented stakeholders through the GPLv3 committee process.

Now with the release of GPLv3, we will see new defenses extended to free software. These defenses will continue the long history of fighting all efforts to make free software proprietary.

Please join us as we stream live footage of Richard Stallman announcing GPLv3 from Noon (EDT) at www.fsf.org.

If you are in the Boston area you can also join us at the FSF offices from 11:30am. Please let us know at <info@fsf.org> if you would like to attend.

Posted on by mklang

New Computer

Getting a new computer is a fun and, at the same time, annoying experience. On Monday I got a shiny new Macbook Pro and spent the day organising and customising it to make myself feel at home. Now when I think that I have almost installed all the software I need and customised most of it I am beginning to grow accustomed to my new machine. But one major step remains…

On my old computer I engraved an image of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza based on drawing entitled â??Reflectionsâ?? by Gene Colan. After some minor changes the engraving looked like this:

Â

Rather nice! But here is the dilemma. The new laptop is this blank empty space. I need to put something there. So the question is what image shall I engrave on my new shiny laptop? The imagery and metaphor of Quixote is excellent but maybe it’s time for a change?

Posted on by mklang