How Information Will Move
Pondering the most recent post by Tim Berners Lee has me thinking forward a little bit, philosophizing on technology and its role in sharing information with us. I’m thinking on how the cloud is the computer (Google, for instance, isn’t some server somewhere: it’s an addressable bunch of data and functions to perform on that data). I’m thinking about how devices pluck information from various clouds without us having to know much about them. And I’m thinking about how all these containers break down even further.
First, the Computing Platform
As time goes on, our hard drive isn’t our hard drive. We store our files in Flickr, on another storage device on the network, in bits and bobs everywhere. And that’s because it doesn’t matter. Provided we’re connected (and we are getting more and more connected every week), our technology just needs to remember where we put things. As such, our operating system doesn’t matter as much. It was built to control the resources we needed to do our jobs. When we don’t care which resources do the job, we shouldn’t care about the operating system.
When this becomes even more true is when pretty much every software application lives in the cloud and not on our local machine (or at least the most pertinent parts). When my iPod loads from wifi, and my flatscreen loads from wifi or WiMAX or EVDO (see how ubiquitous), then I don’t really care if there’s a start button or a Finder.
And Then The Containers
Where I think things get interesting-er (tee hee) is when the actual file types don’t matter. I can’t wait for my computer to read me docs and pdfs (can already, but I have to think about it). I am anxious for my iPod to know that I’m not paying attention to the screen so it can just serve me the audio stream not the video. I want search to pop the various surface tensions formerly known as files and find what matters without regard for the artificial organizational structure of a file.
What will it feel like when my phone knows Katrina’s emails were a grocery list, driving directions, and a love letter without me having to tell it? How cool will it be when there isn’t spam because my gateways know that I know you, and can tell reasonably well when someone else is being silly? As data becomes more alive, aware, meta-tagged, and organically crusty with context, some of what we fret over today just plain goes away. (New frets to follow, I’m sure).
One last refrain on the smarter-data-vanquishes-spam concept. If you come up to me in person, and I know you, what you’ll likely tell me next won’t be spam. If you come up to me and I don’t know you, I’ll be listening for spam (your pitch, your whatever). So, as my systems get smarter, and more context-aware, it will feel the same way. Make sense?
Smarter and Dumber
One sexy thing about the XO laptop is that it has a functioning mesh network built in. When Violette’s arrives (I ordered one yesterday through the Give 1 Get 1 program), I want to better understand HOW mesh networks do what they do. Why? Because I believe that as networks get smarter, they get dumber in the good sense. For example, in my house, as it’s all Apple hardware, it’s really easy to hook to the network and see each other, etc. Mesh networks are even simpler than that.
I’m excited for when my devices do this. I can’t wait for my phone to know it’s near my laptop and throw SMS text messages into an IM window instead of making me look down at the phone. I’m excited for the idea of sliding a movie I’m watching on my laptop sideways onto my iPod and take it down to the laundry room with me while I fold the towels.
As hardware and systems get smarter, the barrier to connectivity goes down greatly, and this means we’ll have better opportunities to use our devices in more novel ways. There’s a design video from Nokia showing two people at a social mixer physically tapping their phones together, and contact information is exchanged this way. I think that’s SO close to being real, and I can’t wait.
Collaboration Without Borders
Businesses are slowly learning that work doesn’t stop at the edges of their employees’ desktops. They are discovering the value of having remote workers, but further, they’re learning that non-top-secret work (and so little of what we REALLY do in a day is top secret) can go faster and easier as a collaboration. Working inside and outside the payroll structure is more and more the norm. As coworking projects are gaining steam, I want technologies to follow suit so that our devices, our data, and the essence of sharing moves nicely back and forth between colleagues and our mutual devices.
Further, I can’t wait for my laptop and my iPod and my phone and my home computer to all share the same storage, and awareness, and even portions of the same identity. I’m excited for my gear to collaborate amongst itself without me thinking as much about it. For instance, when will the software licenses I purchase know that I’m visiting a friend’s house and let me use the same software there without me lugging along my laptop?
Social Media In That Future
Social media is a construct we use to explain how we’re communicating and expressing ourselves. Podcasting is a technology, but it basically allows us to convey pictures in voice in a downloadable, RSS-alerting way. Nearly none of those bits and parts (technology-speaking) are the end point. People working on creating lifestreams (collections of their various media sources) are probably closer to the reality that I see happening. I think there will be some form of subscription-like activity, but it will be much simpler, and it will have some context to it. Similar to the up-and-down mixers on the Facebook news stream page, we’ll be able to dial up people’s streams that have more importance to certain things, and we’ll be able to dial down their streams where they aren’t as pertinent.
The things we make, and the ways we communicate it should eventually change to have more context and flow to them, the same as the other data in our lives. Imagine showing up at a conference, and your phone scans the other phones to see who’s beacons are shining as “friend.” You note 11 friends in the vicinity. Imagine their audio and video and text media all floating across your phone as it parses out some sense of a story of these 11 people’s most recent media over the last several days.
Suddenly, you know that Bonnie’s son turned 6, and that he and his friends made their own Star Wars movie out of the new LucasClips application. You know that Sanjay’s mother died, and that he just got back from Pune. You know that Ray just changed jobs (thanks, LinkedIN), and that Jeff is in his seventh season of his show, and that ABC has just added two characters to it on sourceloan, so now Jeff can mash up two of Lost Season IX’s hottest characters with his other stars.
Kitchen Futures
I’m sitting in a sunbeam in my kitchen on the day after Thanksgiving, thinking and musing about these things. Why? Because I believe that there are ways we can contribute, and ways to consider where things are going, and that these things might be helpful for us in contemplating what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and why. For instance, I plan to learn how mesh networks work. I plan to better understand the FOAF Project, and I want to think about how context overlays with other metadata.
What does it make you think about? Where am I dead wrong in your reckoning? What does this all say to you?
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Comments
You’re right, though, Seth. Things will get smaller. Language will change even more. Structures. Styles. As things like lolcats go down into the pit, I think even more things will erupt in strange constructs. We already have weird words that don’t really represent the real world. How many more times will this change? What will be the variants?
Language. Logic. Data.
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Pretty heady stuff to ponder as I nurse a turkey-and-stuffing hangover. ;) But the idea of universal, ubiquitous access to information, networks and social connections certainly appeals to me. I also think about the notion of a single, aggregated “network of networks” which would allow me to access everything in a single interface. No logging on to Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, MyRagan, email, iGoogle, Flickr, del.icio.us, etc. — just turn on my phone, PC, laptop or whatever device I might have and I’m jacked in.
A colleague of mine dreams of a single social network, but humans are too diverse. We break down into tribes, neighborhoods and other social units based on geography and ethnicity (in the old world) and now by interests. I would settle for a single interface.
[…] [chrisbrogan.com] put an intriguing blog post on How Information Will MoveHere’s a quick excerpt […]
I’ve been giving this concept some thought also: http://www.nickhuhn.com/2007/11/16/googlemesh-facebook-ai-and-privacy/
Jason Falls gives it a whirl too:
http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/2007/11/19/what%e2%80%99s-after-facebook-or-is-the-migration-over/
I’m completely in alignment with your vision of the future. I just wonder if anyone will emerge to ‘own’ it or if it will remain an oligopoly of service providers and knowledge aggregators like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Nielsen, News Corp, et al. It’ll be interesting to say the least, and hopefully with a not very 1984ish conclusion.
I wonder too when our public information becomes meshed with what we consider private or ‘guarded’ what will happen with respect to privacy and marketing guidelines? I predict the proposal of an Information Privacy Act by a grey-haired senator that doesn’t quite get it in the next few years. That will at least put the privacy and information transparency ethical debate on the table.
Hats off to you for the deliberate use of language, Chris. I especially like “Social media is a construct we use to explain how we’re communicating and expressing ourselves.”
I’m with Nick on the privacy issue. No guarantees that we will own our information and what happens when companies use it or lose it is quite painful to go through. There needs to be a conversation around ethics to complement your futuristic approach.
As a recent Apple convert, I see that their system have already some of these characteristic you list built in. The .Mac application shares your data on the Apple network. I’m still learning some things about the system, but it’s a walk in the park compared to Windows-based.
I’m still convinced that it should be people and not machines in charge ;-)
Well thought out concepts Chris. I believe that you are helping present ideas of future technologies in the context of what we need it to do, rather than what it can do for us.
Most times, technologies themselves get us side-tracked on their abilities. Instead, we need to look at what we really expect of technology. It’s often much more intuitive than is realized.
[x-posted]
NET (machines (computers, back end infra (storage, routers, bandwidth, traffic), connectors)) -> WEB (hyperlinked docs, knowledge within docs, [actionable] knowledge objects, descriptors, connectors) -> SOCIAL GRAPH (people - nodes and connectors).
This is (as i like to describe it) the X-to-X NetWeb - person-to-person, person-to-thing, object-to-thing, etc. - actionable in situ as well as @ the point of contact/interaction (think next gen intelligent mashups) - creates new knowledge and insight.
my 2 cents (premoney, of course)… :)
[…] How Information Will Move : [chrisbrogan.com] Chris Brogan has some great questions, ideas, and perspectives on Friday. (tags: technology future ideas social-graph social-networking semantic-web) […]
[…] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptOne sexy thing about the XO laptop is that it has a functioning mesh network built in. When Violette’s arrives (I ordered one yesterday through the Give 1 Get 1 program), I want to better understand HOW mesh networks do what they do. … […]
[…] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptWhat will it feel like when my phone knows Katrina’s emails were a grocery list, driving directions, and a love letter without me having to tell it? How cool will it be when there isn’t spam because my gateways know that I know you, … […]
I agree with many of these concepts and am just as excited as you are about the prospect of the convergence of information and the seamless sharing of that information across technologies. However I have to wonder if the service providers (iGoogle, Facebook, MySpace, Apple, Adobe etc.) are going to truly allow this to happen?
Sure, I would be thrilled to have seamless recognition of multiple formats. My systems SHOULD just be able to play a QuickTime, Flash Video, or WMV without any consideration on my part as a user. As a content creator I would be ecstatic to not have to worry about what format I’m delivering to my audience. Think of the time, effort and money I would save!
Does it make sense for Apple, Adobe and Microsoft to forego the branding and advertising opportunities that exist when they make me download their latest plugin in order to receive content? Something tells me no.
Maybe there is a model that will enable the service providers to accept this sort of seamless delivery stream. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
I don’t know if you’ve heard of this computer: http://www.zonbu.com/ I read about it in Time. It has NO hard-drive because all the applications are stored online. Personally, even in a city like New York, I just don’t think Wi-Fi is ‘there’ yet for this kind of thing, but it definitely seems to be the direction we’re going in.
Also, not to espouse nutty futurism, but I’ve been predicting for some time now (blogged it, seesmiced it) that a new universal ‘online’ language will begin to emerge and develop based on community needs and uses. The thing is we SAY the world is small now, but if I can’t communicate with someone who doesn’t speak English then is it really that Small? I think we’re going to move towards a new grammar that we’ll bridge (and break) the language barrier that exists in social networking. I’m not sure how this will start, but….