Charles Gallant

My ever expanding circle of readers (which pretty much just consists of Noah right now), has recently tagged me.  This means that I’m part of an interesting train of thought started by Amber at Big Secret Pizza Party, wherein I write 5 things that people probably don’t know about myself.

To cut right to the chase:

1.  I’ve edited this list 4 times since I started writing it.

2.  I can’t decide if this list should be funny or not.  Funny is safer in a weird sort of way (hence my incoherence column).  I suppose it has to do with the fact that you don’t really need to commit to solid ideas.

3.  Some of the things I’m writing here are lies, or vast exaggerations.  Sometimes it helps to exaggerate in order to consider a perspective in a more bold way.

4.  This post will hold me over for another two weeks, while I think of something interesting to write about.

5.  Carrie Fisher’s brother used to roller blade down my street with ski poles, and practice his cross-country skiing.  He had modified the ski pole tips for efficient use on pavement.  Apparently he was training for something.  I never spoke with him, but my mom would always say “See that?  That’s Princess Leia’s brother.  He’s training.”  Somehow, I never felt the need to follow up with additional questions.  When I hit age 5, I never saw him again.

The internet has allowed us to see exactly what we want. It’s not a broadcast medium like TV, where we sit back and take it all in. We choose what we want to focus on. As the internet grows, so does it’s ability to provide us with exactly what we want.

Bloglines (RSS Reader) is a newspaper custom built for our taste.

Netflix can recommend movies we’d be likely to see

Amazon.com will give us products we’re likely to enjoy

Match.com will find you a “match” according to your personal criteria.

The questions that I have about this topic all revolve around perspective. If I can be presented with exactly what I want, whenever I want, will that be potentially limiting for me? If my newspaper ONLY relates to information about celebrities and boat racing, will I miss out on another article that could prove to be really interesting to me?

Noah started an interesting discussion about all this in his latest post, and brings up efficiency. It’s efficient to find people who are like minded. It’s efficient to see the news that relates to you. It’s efficient to have this personalization of content. Noah’s mindset seems very optimistic, and (correct me if I’m wrong) implies that people will be reasonable enough to seek out that other perspective should their personal content become limiting.

For the most part, I agree with him. However, I can’t help but picture someone who chooses not to focus on any point of view other than their own, simply because it’s more comfortable for them to do so. They could FILL the free hours in their day with… say… motorcycle racing news, and be perfectly content with it. After all, ignorance is bliss…right?

Presence: Online and Off.

Everyone makes this decision.  How much of yourself do you put online?  For my generation, referencing AIM profiles can provide a simple starting point for this topic.  Certain people have profiles filled with content (where they go to school, what fraternity they belong to, photos of themselves etc.), and some have nothing at all.  Very few people, however, had problems editing their profile in the first place.  Understanding the medium simply isn’t a problem anymore.

Over the past few years this decision has become much more complicated.  In keeping with the “student social network” vibe, the questions are now more like:  How much do you post on Facebook?  Do you post your IM handle on MySpace?  How much can you learn about yourself through Google?

I’ve asked several of my friends and colleagues why they choose not to publish online, and below are the most common topics of discussion:

Questioning personal importance: What’s so important about me and my information?  I have nothing I need to say to everyone.

Questioning the value of the medium: I don’t need to resort to publishing personal information online.  I have enough real friends.

Questioning the audience’s credibility: My information is privileged and private information, that only certain people can obtain.

For me, there’s no black and white to any of these issues, but I know were I stand.  Because the medium itself (publishing something online) isn’t an issue anymore, I think we’ll encounter these questions more frequently than ever before.

How will the digitization of IDs (passports, licenses, etc) effect this notion of “presence” online?

With regards to technology & socializing, what will be the “norm” (or at least “acceptable”), in 10 years?

How has having myname.com changed my circle of friends?

Another likemind is happening on Friday, December 1st, at 8:00am.

The place is called sNice, and it’s at:
45 Eighth Avenue, at West 4th Street, NYC
(see a map)

If you have the means, stop by.

Steven Johnson - Blog
Google TechTalks - Videos

This blog has been going on for a few months now, and I’ve had a chance to make a good number of posts. I’ve seen some statistics pile up, and I’ve been really surprised.

There are a few things that I’ve learned thus far, and one of them requires that I write about them…

- I average less than a post a week, read it the next day, and don’t like it. Perhaps that’s not as bad as I think it is…

- Question everything. Never stop asking questions. Also, commit to ideas and take responsibility for them. Being wrong means you learned something. Publishing them helps practice this.

- My perception of time & memory is changing. It’s difficult for me to distinguish between 8 days ago and 9 days ago. This blog is helping with that perspective. Looking back at my posts is pretty damn interesting in this regard.

- You can practice anything and get better at it. This holds true for abstract things such as your understanding of time, and the act of practicing itself.

- The medium is the message. This quote has become somewhat monotonous to me since I’ve been studying internet culture, but I think it’s true. Despite what I want to do with this blog, and my goals of using it for a space to learn and think, the medium will always impose a different brand; a different mindset. A blog (in the eyes of the majority of the people I ask) is a modern soapbox for advertising & selling your perspective. As long as the medium is associated with such ideas, the content within will be secondary. I used to think that I should be trying to get around this, but now perhaps I should be working with it instead.

What can I do to make this more of a space for creative thought? Perhaps I shouldn’t post it online… although that would be a different experience…

Should I just ask more questions?

Facebook recently added a feature called Shares.  This lets you post a link on either your profile or your Facebook Friend’s profile.

Gmail just launched some new voicemail features that are integrated with Google Talk.  This lets you leave someone a recording, accessible from anywhere Gmail is.

Firefox 2.0 now has automatic spell-checking built into the browser.  I’ve used it 6 times in this post.  I just can’t spell ‘effecient.’

Sure, I could just send my link in an email, leave a voice message on a cell phone, or check my spelling in Word before I post, but it’s slower now.  It’s not efficient to utilize a system if you’re already vested in another that does the same thing.  It happens all the time, with just about every product imaginable.  Software’s ability to provide upgrades, and the web’s ability to make those upgrades free & seamless, makes it a little more interesting.

Because products like Facebook, MySpace, Gmail, Delicious, & Backpack all exist online, they could potentially creep into any realm they want.  Gmail could “upgrade” their contacts list and create “friend networks.”  Take that idea a little bit further, and you’re on your way to making a Gmail Facebook.  Facebook could also play this game, by simply building in an email client to their profile page.  All they would need was a place to store email addresses of people outside of their Facebook network.

The boundaries between these services are breaking down, and the network itself is starting to dictate design.

These tools have great potential to teach us about how we socialize.  Imagine a tool that could do anything.  An all-in-one super site that had all the luxuries of Facebook, Gmail, Digg, YouTube, etc.  People will use the features that make the most sense to them.  As the site upgrades itself, it’ll do so in the shape of the needs of the community.  If something doesn’t look or operate in an intuitive manner, it’ll get phased out in the next upgrade.  Perhaps having one site is too much for people, and the act of visiting separate sites for separate tasks will be more successful.  The tools will eventually reflect our brains, and give us a new perspective on how we think.

For those of you in the NYC area, there is another likemind happening on the 20th. Likemind is a gathering created by Noah Brier & Piers Fawkes. Info below.

sNice, 45 Eighth Avenue, at West 4th Street
Friday, October 20th, 8:00am
http://likemind.us/

In the beginning, we had to stop by someone’s house to talk with them.  Then we could write a letter.  Then we could call.  After that, we could send an IM.  Then we could text-message them.

When it comes to socializing, people are always very conscious of how much of themselves they “lay on the line.”  Think of the “six days” rule in Swingers, where calling someone too soon after meeting them made you seem “eager.”  Writing a girl a hand-written letter is pretty bold.  Perhaps the opposite of this would be sending her a txt message.  Because of the nature of the format, you don’t even need to commit to sentences - or even accurate spelling.  Facebook has taken this to the extreme with “pokes.”  Here, you don’t even need to use words or even commit to a statement.  Just a poke.  You’re not risking anything.  When comparing it to physically visiting someone at their house, it’s safe.

The profile world (facebook, myspace, bolt, etc) seems to be the ultimate “safe” medium.  As an alternative to keeping in touch with people by contacting them, we can simply leave something that others can come across if they wish.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the use of site’s like Facebook for keeping in touch with people.  I think it’s interesting, however, that each iteration in this progression of socializing tools allows for more “safety” than the previous version.  The most successful ones seem to support a certain level of insecurity that is inherently present when you rope that many people together.  Facebook has proven their understanding of this with their “poke” system, and it’ll be interesting to see what else happens.  Will the GPS in phones someday let us see a real-time map of where our friends are?  Who will choose to make their location “visible” to their contacts network?  Will it be creepy to meet someone where they’ve posted their location to be?  Will it be like calling someone before 6 days have passed?

By Noah Brier and Charles Gallant

Rock and roll is not music. How could it be? You’ve got a bunch of kids with shaggy hair playing instruments with no real musical knowledge. They don’t even know scales! Hell, most of them probably can’t read music! They’re making noise, not music.

Or so the story goes.

Now let’s try it from the design perspective:

The consequence of your design democracy is an ugly spectacle of deep purples and electric organges. It’s a culture of me-me-me: my hideously personalized car, my hideously personalized sofa, my hideously personalized house. If we care about maintaining an aesthetic of public space, design should be left to professionals. Let people pour their uniqueness inwardly — but don’t let them clutter up the physical world.

That’s straight out of Fast Company.

Pardon my French, but it all sounds like a bunch of elitist bullshit. Today everyone’s got access to the tools that before only a select few could play with. Anyone can be a designer, a musician or an astronaut.

That scares and angers professionals.

Think about it. How would you feel if you went through four years of intense musical training and the people getting the fame and money spent all that time smoking pot and drinking Jack Daniels.

There’s never been a time in history when it was easier to just hack something together. (I think that’s paraphrasing something Henry Jenkins said.) Calling design ‘bad’ or music ‘crappy’ is a subjective judgement. ‘Bad’ design can be good. Just look at the filmmakers behind lonelygirl15: When it was time to build a Myspace page for their faux-15-year-old they intentionally gave it a ‘Myspace’ look. They knew their context and built something that could really have been produced by a 15-year-old girl in her bedroom.

The design represents the content. It presents the content. It is the content. If I’m a 9-year-old with a ‘crappy’ website, my design will probably scream “A 9-year-Old made this!!!” What those pompous musicians/designers need to get over is that some people are actually looking for a 9-year-old’s content. They’d prefer a universe where people wanted things that looked pretty, but sometimes people just want something that ‘is what it is.’ Something accessible. Something that’s all there on the table. Easy to swallow.

Design is a communication tool. Getting your point across should always be the ultimate goal. Sure I can make comments on the how much something adheres to traditional design rules. But at the end of the day it sure sounds like a bunch of classically trained musicians with their tux stuck up their ass complaining about the kids and their rock and roll.