I thought Salad Fingers was great Flash, but then I saw Conclave Obscurum, a beautiful interactive website…
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Last week Anu wrote me about a workshop in Amsterdam about federating social networks, when I completely did not expect to be in Amsterdam…
The workshop was interesting. I didn’t attend the entire day but I sensed that it could lead to interesting results. The workshop was the first stage towards a practical framework. A myriad of protocols related to anything social (e.g. XFN, FOAF, hCard, OpenID, OAuth, OpenSocial) was discussed and the intention was spoken out to have a proof of concept and running code available for the conference on February 9th and 10th (SNES). There’s definitely enough momentum. Twitter and Six Apart were present and are actively supporting the effort. Hyves, a Dutch social network that just celebrated their 5 million member party, was mentioned a lot.
I have one constructive remark about organizing a workshop: Try to have some wiki space available before the workshop starts. This way you don’t depend on people sending you their notes later on, and editing wikis in a social setting can lead to interesting (and blizzardly fast) results. Temporarily use another wiki, or even permanently, if there is an existing wiki which has goals that are similar enough. Of course, first ask permission from the community (if there is one) and try to get them involved in the workshop as well, during and after.
I was happy to talk to James Burke again. I recognized some more familiar faces and while brainstorming about a name for the project (and checking out translations into African languages) we found out that we had met at What The Hack, an outside festival for hackers two years ago where I spoke about the Bambara Wikipedia. I’m totally enjoying Amsterdam…
Social networks are hot. MySpace, Facebook. Google recently wanted to open the market with its OpenSocial. Which made me think, are these efforts really social? Is Facebook a real social network? I think not
So I grabbed realsocial.org which is currently just an alias. But I will put up a wiki with my (and your?) ideas about what real social networks are. I’m thinking of distinguishing Real Social and real social networks.
I’d consider CouchSurfing, BookCrossing, and all current ride share websites that I’m aware of, as real social networks. They lead to real life connections or actual forms of exchange, with less time spent offline than online.
I could think of three that would fit my criteria for being Real Social: BeWelcome, Ripple and Hitchwiki. The capitalization comes from the way the networks, its organization and the software is developed.
I wish Nokia sold laptops. I really liked my Nokia 770, that I bought in December 2005. It’s running mostly free software, and is very Debianic. I wasn’t traveling with a laptop then, and it was a nice (and often cheap) way to get online. I also read a lot of books with the excellent FBReader. And I created MaemoDict, which never really worked very well I must admit. But, silly enough I was more focused on working on the CouchSurfing code base once I finally bought a laptop (that is seriously broken now).
I saw the announcements of the N810 a couple of weeks ago, and I was just in time to apply for Nokia’s developer program, which gives developers the possibility to buy the device for 99 euros instead of the usual price. So I’m very happy to receive that they accepted my application (”I want to have many dictionaries and encyclopedias in my pocket”). Now I’m actually reading Nokia’s entire announcement, and it’s friggin great! The N800 already had a faster CPU, a webcam, much more memory and a normal SD card, but the N810 is totally awesome, it comes with GPS and a real mini-keyboard! And, it’s great to see that Nokia has moved away from the proprietary Opera to a Mozilla based browser.
Because of the GPS it could be interesting for Citizen Logistics, and I’m really looking forward to see if it’s possible to get maps.hitchwiki.org on it!
I have to admit it, I am typing this using Windows Vista. I really needed a new laptop. I couldn’t wait for amylin to bring me a MacBook, and Apple is just too expensive in Europe. I also considered getting a Dell with Ubuntu, but unfortunately, in Europe they’re only selling them in the UK, France and Germany. And then I saw an ad of a Toshiba with 160 GB HD and 2 GB RAM, DVDRW and all that stuff, for 599 euros. So I went there this morning and got it. I had considered trying for a refund of the Windows tax but Paolo told me, you can do it with Acer, but you pay the costs of sending the laptop to Milano and having it sent back, which is more than the money you get back.
I started my laptop. Vista is yucky. Lots of stuff going on. And then, after not even 30 minutes of using it, without doing anything weird. I copyied some music from an MP3 player, nicely telling Windows that I want to eject it, and I closed the lid. So it went to sleep mode (and I hate it when laptops do that). 3 minutes or so after it woke up I got the Blue Screen of Death. This is what it told me after starting my laptop again:
Firma problema:
Nome evento problema: BlueScreen
Versione SO: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
ID impostazioni locali: 1040Ulteriori informazioni sul problema:
BCCode: d1
BCP1: B13C3158
BCP2: 00000002
BCP3: 00000008
BCP4: B13C3158
OS Version: 6_0_6000
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1File che contribuiscono alla descrizione del problema:
C:\Windows\Minidump\Mini110807-01.dmp
C:\Users\guaka\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-81916-0.sysdata.xml
C:\Users\guaka\AppData\Local\Temp\WER71E4.tmp.version.txtLeggere l’informativa sulla privacy:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=50163&clcid=0×0410
Right now I’m downloading an ISO with Ubuntu Gutsy. I hope next time I need a new laptop they will come with Ubuntu out of the box.
UPDATE: I started a page about GNU/Linux on the Toshiba L40-157.
Together, Joe Edelman and I were the dynamic duo of the CouchSurfing Collective in New Zealand. Joe came with fantastic ideas, that were unfortunately not realized in Nelson. Fortunately he also improved the infrastructure of CS in such a profound way that his work there is probably the main reason that the website is still up. It was great working with him and we had many magic moments, where we really thought were about to make stuff happen that would change the world in a profound way.
When I saw a glimpse of James’ headline, Swarming people to work, I had a faint hint that some of the most important of Joe’s ideas were being realized by elsewhere. My online situation at the time is not great, so I sent Joe a text without even checking Joi Ito’s post. The next time I came online I was happy to see that Joe accelerated. From CitizenLogistics.com:
Television and computer games provide expertly designed entertainment and fun… but when we have to deal with our real lives, we’re all alone. When will participating in the real world and dealing with real issues be just as adventurous, easy, collaborative, and fun?
Very soon! We’re developing new game-like ways of working, volunteering, having a good time, and finding assistance. Anyone can play, and you get points for making other people’s dreams come true. Our software lets you find cool things to do, build teams, and connect people with jobs and resources, all via text messaging and geolocation in the real world.
My favorite part of the teaser website is about Open Life:
Our technology will transform everyday life by bringing a new opportunities for teamwork, community, and adventure to everyone involved. We offer a real-time, map-based interface for finding and mobilizing available people out in the world via their cell phones. For mobile users, we have a txt-based interface for declaring your availability and finding opportunities near wherever you are. Combining geolocation, text messaging, trust metrics, sophisticated permissions, and a structure for social incentives, we integrate with many other websites and platforms, and offer a web-wide API for aggregating real world availability and trust.
Related reading:
- Yochai Benkler, Sharing Nicely
- Bruce Sterling, Maneki Neko
I had a dream. I woke up. It’s 22:03.
I think, I was in China in my dream. It’s the same dream I had over
the weekend. People were valking around with little devices. Recording
reality. Broadcasting reality. A blind man was walking around,
seeing. With this device. He had no eyes. We were losing control
though. China, or I think it was rather BigCorps combined, were
taking away our power to record and registrate what was going on. The
blind man was giving up and appeared in whatever was TV and had given
up the idea of seeing.
While dreaming, I thought this was a dream about the future.
But, this is happening now. It’s 2007. New York City wants blocking
normal people from taking pictures and recording videos. It’s 2007,
and apart from the loony artists and eletronic frontiermen, nobody
cares. Do you?
It’s 2007, and our storage capacity is increasing and increasing.
It’ll be hard to find a phone without 8 GB soon. Do you think
security companies are actuallying recycling their storage? Do you
think governments are? They might, might have policies in place, and
might follow them. But not in China for sure. And not in Googolia,
Amazonia, or Yahoo.
But why still care? I know some of you do, but I think it’s better
instead, to march along, no, run in front of them, and be there first!
Right at the frontier. Storing our experiences to the max, giving them
away to anyone who slightly cares. Privacy is a dream from the past.
This is the age of Utubiquity is now. Let’s
free our phones, our dishwashers and
cars, and equip all of them. Let’s make the blind see, not thru gEyes
or iSee, but with OpenEyes. I sure as hell know that whenever silicon
enters my flesh it oughta be free and open.
This should be the age of Communal
Creativity. Done right there’s
nothing to fear. And I turn on the light at 22:24.
Last year I did a BoF at Wikimania 2006 about The Wiki Party, the idea to start a political party. Today Anu sent me a link to a Facebook group with this same title. I jokingly told people “when I’m 40 years old I will start this party if no one else did before then”. Fortunately I won’t have to, anymore. Of course, it’s happenning in Finland. Olli Sirén was considering to run a campaign to the Helsinki City Council. From the main page of wikiparty.net:
Wikiparty is bringing new ways to do politics. It´s based on the idea of open politics. This site will be the international basis for this new party. The movement has started in Finland and will spread around the world in one form or another. Democracy is grown weak around the world. Voting percentages are in a steady decline.
Let’s put together a Wikiparty. A party that creates its political opinions in the same way that Wikipedia forms its articles. Let’s try to think ways to systematically create political force. This party could vote for its representatives to different political parliaments. These “agents” of Wikiparty would interpret the ideas of Wikiparty to real voting situations and pass the ideas of the community to the parliament.
This way we could challenge the traditional parties to a debate between weak and strong democracy. This kind of virtual community that aims to a real life political chance, could reach over national borders and grasp problems caused by for example globalization or climate change.
And yesterday I learned about Kaltura, a social-networky video editing tool, kind-of-a crossbred between wiki, and youtube with the promise to release their software under the GNU General Public license.
Thanks to Fabrizia, who put an ad in a local weekly, I have a new place. She and Davide have been very helpful.Unfortunately amylin hasn’t come back from New York yet, but that gives me the opportunity to make our place look good. There’s a garden, roses, a garden table, a bath tub and a lot of beds! I think the 72 year old landlady used to rent it to 4 students. Today I moved a lot of stuff there with a free electric pick-up trucklet.
Because I befriended Michele and Maurizio, who both work for the municipal parking organization of Trento, I was able to use the Ecomobile for a bit longer than the usual 2 hours. Last night I was invited for dinner at Michele’s girlfriend’s place, which was great. I mostly spoke Italian, but Michele speaks Russian very well, he’s been to many former Soviet countries on his motorbike (and also to India, Nepal and many more places) and he’s planning to drive through South America next year!
On Thursday I went to a concert of a trio of musicians playing anarchist and anti-fascist songs in a tiny “private club”. Our place is conveniently located between my work (or rather, my free lunch) and the center of Trento. It’s slightly uphill though, from the city center, but somehow I had rides there all the time. And I will have one very soon, since I have a tiny bit more stuff to move, and Paolo will arrive here shortly so we can quickly do some work and then I can meet Michele and his girlfriend again tonight.
On Monday the washing machine will be installed and hopefully the heater will be fixed, it’s leaking a little bit right now.
Right after posting amylin just sent me some cute pictures of her new haircut. 
She’s still quite unsure about it, but I think it looks totally fkn awesome!
Today Paolo was wearing his delogofied Adidas sweater. Maybe that’s why I just finally got rid of all ads on my screen. I feel a bit silly for not having delved into this before, but better late than never. If you want to do the same: the EasyList and EasyElement subscriptions for the Adblock Plus for Firefox even block the ads inside Google Mail.
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