Brainframes, digital technologies and connected intelligence -Derrick de Kerckhove

Brainframes of the new economy

Derrick de Kerckhoved.dekerckhove@utoronto.ca

Katowice

21st November 2008

Brainframes from the oral to the electric age

Technology and generations

The next medium, whatever it is- it may be the extension of conciousness- will include television as it's content, not as it's environment, and will transform television into an art form. A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organization, retrieve the individuals encyclopedic function and flip into a private line to speedily tailored data of a saleable kind (Marshall McLuhan 1962).

Great ideas emerge, sink and re-emerge

Three main trends:

DECENTRALISATIONJOBS TO ROLESHARDWARE TO

SOFTWARE

From Atoms to Bits (Nicholas Negroponte)

Being Digital: In the information and entertainment

industries, bits and atoms often are confused. Is the publisher of a book in the

information delivery business (bits) or in the manufacturing

business (atoms)? The historical answer is both, but

that will change rapidly as information appliances

become more ubiquitous and user-friendly. Right now it is

hard to compete with the qualities of a printed book.

Kelly: bee hive metaphor

Swarm creativity is like a beehive or ant colony, it may look

chaotic from the outside, but everyone has a job, knows what to

do, and does it.

The marvel of "hive mind" is that no one is in control, and yet an invisible hand governs, a hand that emerges from very

dumb members.

David Weinberger et al• "A powerful global conversation

has begun. Through the Internet, people are

discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant

knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are

getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most

companies.” The Clue-Train Manifesto

From Kevin

Kelly to Peter Gloor

Specifically, to reap the benefits of swarm innovation, companies must (1) gain power by giving it away, (2)

share with the swarm and (3) concentrate on the swarm, not on making

money.

Benefits of the Swarm Systems• Adaptable -- what is required is a swarm -- a hive mind. Only a whole

containing many parts can allow a whole to persist while the parts die off or change to fit the new stimuli.

• Evolvable -- Systems that can shift the locus of adaptation over time from one part of the system to another (from the body to the genes or from one individual to a population) must be swarm based. Noncollective systems cannot evolve (in the biological sense).

• Resilient -- Because collective systems are built upon multitudes in parallel, there is redundancy. Individuals don't count. Small failures are lost in the hubbub. Big failures are held in check by becoming merely small failures at the next highest level on a hierarchy.

• Novelty -- Swarm systems generate novelty for three reasons: (1) They are "sensitive to initial conditions" -- a scientific shorthand for saying that the size of the effect is not proportional to the size of the cause -- so they can make a surprising mountain out of a molehill. (2) They hide countless novel possibilities in the exponential combinations of many interlinked individuals. (3) They don't reckon individuals, so therefore individual variation and imperfection can be allowed. In swarm systems with heritability, individual variation and imperfection will lead to perpetual novelty, or what we call evolution.

The Long Tail Theory

A single Body of data

The Era of the tag

The soul of the internet is the tag

It is only emerging to consciouness now

All messages on the Internet are divided into “packets”, series of 01 with a protocol to address and order it for reconstruction at the other end of the conversation

Every packet on the Internet has its own unique tag and that allows it to find its destination with absolute precision instantly

Tags and devicesRfid (Radio Frequency Identification Device)

Rfid is an automatic method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices “Rfid-tag” or transponders.

Rfid-tag is an object that can be applied to or incorporated into a product, or person for the purpose of identification using radiowaves.

Antenna

Rfid-tagDatabase

Rfid - Tag

Pets

Office

Sanity Stores

Home

Vehicles

I.D.

Public Transportation

The Intelligence is in the Connections

Connections between people

Con

nect

ions

bet

wee

n In

form

atio

n

Email

Social Networking

Groupware

JavascriptWeblogs

Databases

File Systems

HTTPKeyword Search

USENET

Wikis

Websites

Directory Portals

2010 - 2020

Web 1.0

2000 - 2010

1990 - 2000

PC Era1980 - 1990

RSSWidgets

PC’s

2020 - 2030

Office 2.0

XML

RDF

SPARQLAJAX

FTP IRC

SOAP

Mashups

File Servers

Social Media Sharing

Lightweight Collaboration

ATOM

Web 3.0

Web 4.0

Semantic SearchSemantic Databases

Distributed Search

Intelligent personal agents

JavaSaaS

Web 2.0 Flash

OWL

HTML

SGML

SQLGopher

P2P

The Web

The PC

Windows

MacOS

SWRL

OpenID

BBS

MMO’s

VR

Semantic Web

Intelligent Web

The Internet

Social Web

Web OS

The third decade of the Web

• A period in time, not a single technology but many small pieces loosely joined that bring people, networks and technologies together (David Weinberger)

• How to enrich the structure of the Web– Improve the quality of search,

collaboration, publishing, advertising

– Enables applications to become more integrated and intelligent

• How to transform Web from fileserver to database– Thinktag.org

Tags and digital identity

Tagging allows people to organize their own content

Individually:• Show Mindset• Profile identity• His own semantic and slang

Socially:• Community Structure• Social identity• Semantic track

i-pertinence

Screens

PDA

Computer

Screens

Screens

VideoMonitor

Glossy Mags

TV

InternalNetwork

Monitor(s)

PDA

Computer

Billboards

Home

The City & Mall

GPS

Gameboy

X-Box

TVGlossy Mags

Car

Airport

Work

Screens

Jet BlueSeatback

Screens

Screens

MultiplicitySimultaneity

2/11/2006

ImagePinballing &Reverb

Cell phone Ip

od Photo

You

ÒUnderstand that you will be likethose with whom you surroundyourself. Your environment is

stronger than you are .ÓDaniel Levin

Reverb =Feedback >

Web >Hierarchy -Flattener

Our involvement with alphabets is

linear and sequential . Our engagementwith imagery is non -linear and reverberational .

This reverb or feedback is a hallmark of

surrounding ourselves with ubiquitous imagery .

Video Ipod

From “Spimes” to “Everyware”

SPIMES!SPIME=spacetime markers (RFID

+ GPS + Motori di ricerca+ CAD+Rapid Prototyping+3D printers+cradle-to-cradle

recycling

Near Field Communications (NFC)

Adam Greenfield

The answer to ubimedia: “the cloak of data invisibility”

(Usman Haque)

Commercial examples of Tag Power

The Digg community published the decrypt-code of the new HD DVD and Digg gave up trying to stop the users. The web community decided to keep it public.

Facebook released API and the users began to create thousands of new applications that can integrate together social networking as well.

Technorati became one of the biggest comunities where social tagging shows exactly what blogosphere is about.

Tags and mobileNFC (Near Field Communication)

NFC is a short high frequency wireless communication technology which enables the exchange of data between devices over about decimetre distance.

Uses Applications

• Card Emulation• Reader mode• P2P mode

• Mobile ticketing• Mobile payment• Smart poster• Identity documents• Bluetooth pairing

Business and integrationMarketing studies “Everyware”

The User always has an updated profile (autoprofile).

Data-mining gives meaning to the abundance of data.

The firms hit a precise target, optimize the strengths and improves services/products.

The technology is hidden behind the common objects.

The objects talk among each other.

Integration systems.

The Big Opportunity…The social graph just connects people

People

Groups

The semantic graph connects everything…

EmailsCompanies

Products

Services

Web Pages

Multimedia

Documents

Events

Projects

Activities

Interests

PlacesBetter search

More targeted ads

Smarter collaboration

Deeper integration

Richer content

Better personalization

Character of the web 2.0 economy

• User-generated content• Empowerment• Low-entry level• Prospect of great ROI• Non hierarchical (“consumer activist” Kryptonite on Youtube)

• Teams• Open source• Social capital

New Web versus Old

• Flickr• MySpace• Wikipedia• YouTube• e-Pinions• e-Bay• Amazon• GoogleMap• Craigslist

• Webshots• Friendster• EnCarta, Britannica• CNN• Consumer Reports• Conventional Markets• Conventional publishing• MapQuest• Want Ads

“What’s the difference?” asks Don Tapscott

• Web 1.0 launched Web sites

• Web 1.0 built walled gardens

• Web 1.0 innovated internally

• Web 1.0 jealously guarded data and software interfaces

• Web 2.0 launched vibrant communities

• The winners built public squares

• The winners innovated with users

• The winners shared them with everyone

In any problem whatever, one in a million would see no problem. The real problem is how do you reach this person who has the

answer (1974)

Marketing Dynamic of

the connected economy

• “Reputation Capital”• Trust (Goldcorp) • blogs, comments,

referrals• Gerd Gerken community

building• How to buy a washing

machine• Hypertinence

The Long Tail dissected

From Knowledge Management to Social Network Enablement

(Dave Pollard)Knowledge Management Social Network Enablement

Knowledge Creation Strategy Submit what you know Publish your filing cabinet

Knowledge Use StrategyRe-use: Find & tailor appropriate knowledge from central repositories

Qualify & Proxy: Use individuals' knowledge to qualify them as appropriate experts to converse with, and as a surrogate for that individual when they are not available for conversation

Where Knowledge Resides Large, centralized repositories Decentralized, personal weblogs (mostly)

Key Knowledge ToolsSearch engines, Community of Practice and collaboration tools

Expertise finder, Weblog auto-publishing tool, Social software (described below)

Critical Connection People-to-knowledgePeople-to-people

In the electric age, we wear all mankind as our skin

One person with one great idea is the

fuel that powers the new economy. That person may be an evangelist for change inside a vast, global

corporation, the leader of a high-energy startup, or the sole creator of a Web site that

attracts millions of visitors. Never before in the

history of business has each person

mattered more -- as a talented

performer, as a leader in an

organization, as a consumer in the

market, as a creator in the world of

enterprise. (Jochai Benkler)