Being Online: Purposeful narration of

professional lifeCrosstalk Seminars

Jon UdellMicrosoft

Dec 5, 2007

Doug Engelbart

What is this a picture of?

The blogosophere

Messages to spacesInteractive surface areaData finds data, people find peopleTriangulationManufactured serendipitySYNDICATION!

Syndication-oriented architecture

Global Research Library 2020

Mashing up GRL2020 feeds

Reading the combined feed

FeedsEveryone a producerEveryone a consumerEverything can be:

SyndicatedFilteredResyndicated

Automatic syndication

In Facebook:

No effort required to make you aware:That my birthday is upcomingThat I have begun using a new applicationThat I just bought a coffeemaker on Overstock

The effects of syndication without the geeky apparatus

The spectrum of self-publishing

Social bookmark: almost effortlessTwitter “tweet”: lightweightBlog posting:

more substantial potential long-term value

Narrating the work

To make connectionsTo establish reputation

The Hollywood model

To educate othersApprenticeship

Aspects of work narration

Personal information management becomes social

Answering questions with URLs

Principle of keystroke conservation“I don’t have time to blog”

Modes of narration

Text, obviouslyBut also

AudioVideoScreencast

Video narration

Sean McCown: I sat down last night and made a video of the restore

procedure for one of our ETL processes. It was 10mins long, and it explained everything someone would need to know to recover the process from a crash.

Transmission of tacit knowledge

Wharton School on knowledge transfer Direct contact allows for the transmission of tacit or non-codified

knowledge that may be difficult to put in writing

Counterexamples from screencasting: Jim Hugunin’s unconscious knowledge of Python Chris Gemignani’s NYTimes infographic in Excel

Case study of a narrator

“every day I experience life in the world of healthcare IT”

Some other narrators

Michael Bartongene expression and open notebook science

Nicole Caulfieldcolored pencil drawing techniques

Mike Leavittu.s. secretary of health & human services

Thomas Mahonbespoke savile row tailor

Personal vs institutional identity

John Halamka’s identities• Harvard: Chief Information Officer and Dean

for Technology at Harvard Medical School• NEHEN (New England Health Electronic Data

Interchange): ChairmanHITSP (Chair of the US Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel): HITSP

• geekdoctor.blogspot.com?

Lifebits

Lifebits as a service

A secure lifelong digital archiveI control:

Namespace Access Syndication to partner servicesKind of like HealthVault…

Objection: Dear Abby

Objection:Univ. of Mich. faculty/grad students

Q: Why not use a blog to narrate your work?A: "I wouldn't want to publish a half-baked

idea."

Objection:Cliff Lynch

The tyranny of self-promotion “I don’t like the idea that people feel they

have to game their online reputations.”

Objection:Mike Caulfield

Self-reinvention is an American traditionI want to be able to reboot my identity

Objection: John Seigenthaler

Objection:Allison Stokke

Your professional life story

You can write it yourselfWhether or not you do, others willWhat story do you want to tell?

What is the best way to publish it?