Clare Townhill

Knowing Data from Cyber Babble

When I saw title of Yann Gourvennec's Futurelab post ('How Teenagers - And Adults - Consume Media' I'm not afraid to admit that my heart sank anticipating yet more bobbins about the middle class Morgan Stanley intern who somehow became the mouthpiece and oracle for his generation's tech interactions. Thank goodness it was this:

The Morgan Stanley report entitled “media and the Internet, how teenagers consume media” is one of the most striking examples of instant information circulation on a global scale. Matthew Robinson — a 15 year-old trainee who was asked to put together a report on how his peers were using the media — no longer needs to work on his online reputation. In a flash, his report was on everyone’s lips (on everyone’s desktop rather) and widely used as a perfect representation of generation Y usage of media and – especially – the Internet.

On the contrary, the fact that a survey of one might be considered a representative sample of a 60 million population is a rather tale-telling instance of how adults, and not teenagers, have become used to consume the media. Call me old-fashioned, but I think I can highlight a few issues with regard to how information is handled in this report.

1. This report is often taken at face value as in this review by the Guardian, with no analysis or questioning of anything that is said in the report,
2. Teens are different from adults, but does that mean that their tastes/behaviours won’t change?
3. Marketing has taught teenagers to behave as consumers, hence their feeling – more acquired than innate – that they are a race apart. But in fact they aren’t. Teenagers are but adults to be, and should be treated as such, not revered as if youth was meant to be eternal,
4. Generation Y – a definition so broad it means nothing – is said to be more IT and especially Internet savvy than their predecessors. As a matter of fact, an in-depth (and confidential) survey carried out by Orange amongst a sample of 15 year-olds a couple of years ago showed that this is not quite true. Teenagers are actually better at using certain technologies such as instant messaging and they practice multi-tasking heavily – not forcibly a good thing
   the Guardian says – but aren’t more au fait with IT than their elders and when they hit trouble, they tend to call … their parents to the rescue,
5. Most real bloggers aren’t teenagers, and many of them are in the 40-50+ range; I can testify,
6. As a consequence of the above, Twitter is also used by the same people who use it mostly to publicise their content and share resources with their network and also a surrogate instant messaging system between members of that network,
7. As a result too, Twitter is indeed a tool for grown-ups and in that, I do believe Matthew Robson is right. Just because teenagers don’t use it now doesn’t make it less interesting however,
8. (a mere assumption I admit but it seems) the style of this report has little to do with teenage counterculture and a lot to do with Morgan Stanley,
9. This report is assuming that enterprises should fear teenagers who will join their ranks in the coming years. However:
   1. By the time they do, they won’t be teenagers anymore, some of them will even have children,
   2. By then, most of them will have learnt how to behave in the enterprise world,
   3. When Mr Robson hits the job market, that is in approximately 10 years from now enterprises will also have evolved by dint of user pressure, young and old, who want greater freedom in the workplace and have even bought their own technology to bypass corporate rules (a concept known as BYOC),
10. Lastly, may I venture to ask who Matthew Robson is anyway? I wasn’t really able to trace him, even in facebook which I guess cannot be regarded as 19th century technology. So, despite my introductory comment, he might yet have to work on his online reputation, unless this too is an old-fashioned concept.

Phew. Thanks Yann (cue applause).

The Next Big Leap: Psychic Computer Shows Your Thoughts on Screen

Things are going to get very weird and very noisy:

Scientists have discovered how to “read” minds by scanning brain activity and reproducing images of what people are seeing — or even remembering.

Researchers have been able to convert into crude video footage the brain activity stimulated by what a person is watching or recalling.

The breakthrough raises the prospect of significant benefits, such as allowing people who are unable to move or speak to communicate via visualisation of their thoughts; recording people’s dreams; or allowing police to identify criminals by recalling the memories of a witness.

The possibilities of creation, perversion and imagination are just mind-bending. 

TheTimes

3D Printers and Symbiosis

RepRap from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo.

Mosquitos are Awful, Spooning is Super

I hate mosquitoes.

What with all that buzzing and itching, the hubbub they cause is disproportionate to the microdrop of blood they make away with. Besides, I am the world’s most formidable mosquito hunter. I have brought to justice every single mosquito that has ever attacked me (except when I spend nights in rooms with patterned wallpaper, which makes mosquito hunting impossible).

Just beautiful. The work of Chistoph Niemann.

The Language of Love

Interesting little study of the words women used in their online dating profile and how successful they were attracting/putting off potnetial dates. Okcupid say:

Our program looked at keywords and phrases, how they affected reply rates, and what trends were statistically significant. The result: a set of rules for what you should and shouldn’t say when introducing yourself online. This is the second post of our statistical investigation into the optimal online dating message.

Lots more graphs here.

The Internet is Primarily a Content Platform

Really important chart from Silicon Alley - content has become king.

Canvas8: The Changing Face of Media

I've been really very slack about this post for which I apologise unreservedly. Great, thought-provoking thoughtleader session courtesy of Canvas8 last week on how brands should use rather than get used by technology. Links below to the talks given by each of the speakers written up by James Cridland who I was lucky enough to sit next to. Must try harder.

Gerd Leonhard  

David Bausola

Ramsey Khoury

A Hierarchy of Distractions

http://http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-hierarchy-of-digital-distractions/

'Ask Jim'

Ah ha. This is the Craigslist article I was hunting for when I trawled and caught the post below. Brilliant. Excerpt below, full shebang here.

Many people who have heard Newmark's public remarks find the ideals admirable but difficult to apply. What would such an approach mean in practice? His cause is not helped by the fact that if the craigslist management style resembles any political system, it is not democracy but rather a low-key popular dictatorship. Its inner workings are obscure, it publishes no account of its income or expenses, it has no obligation to respond to criticism, and all authority rests in the hands of a single man. Ask Newmark about any feature you would like to see on craigslist and you will always get the same response.

"Ask Jim," he says.

"How do you get your feedback? Have you ever done a poll or anything like that?"

"The thought makes me tired. But you can suggest that to Jim if you wish."

"What if Jim says no?"

"If you want to ask him again, you can," he says.

At this point in our conversation I begin to feel the spirit of Charlie Rose upon me. After all, Newmark is the founder, a major shareholder, and the public face of the company.

"What would it take to get you to fire Jim?" I ask.

Newmark matches me mischief for mischief.

"Ask Jim."

Master of the Nerdiverse

 Old article from Wired about Craig of Craigslist. Still brilliant despite being 5 years old.

'Craig Newmark could become a dot-org millionaire. He'd rather help you find a cheap sublet, a cool job, and maybe even a date.

By Josh McHughPage 1 of 1 

It started as a free email list that tracked art events, job listings, and apartment rentals in San Francisco. Nine years later, craigslist serves 45 cities and has 5 million visitors a month. Now a Web site, it's still mostly free, which may account for the loyalty of craigslisters, who turn to it for everything from finding dates to selling cars and, oh, "lickable boots." Craigslist.org brings in about $7 million a year by charging Bay Area companies for job listings. (This summer it began hitting up New York and Los Angeles employers, too.) But there's a lot of untapped potential - 100,000 new listings a day - and that's making would-be buyers salivate. Wired talked with Newmark about the "Halliburton crime syndicate," his crusade against unscrupulous apartment brokers, and his superhuman ability to resist the pull of filthy lucre.

WIRED: What is craigslist's greatest contribution to society?
NEWMARK: Just by being good guys, we've created a culture of trust and fairness. The site makes it easier for people to get everyday stuff done, like selling things and finding an apartment. Then there's another aspect - it has helped people who have a hard time meeting other people. They're using the site and becoming friends, lovers, and every possible twist on those two situations.

In the late '90s, everyone wanted a piece of craigslist. How many times did you refuse venture capital funding?
Somewhere in the low tens of times. But we needed to stay the course. That's hard to do if someone else owns 51 percent of your shares. On the other hand, I had to take measures to keep myself from going nuts, so in 2000 I hired Jim Buckmaster as CEO, and as a consequence I now own less than 50 percent. It was a good investment.

You've also had a couple dozen buyout offers for craigslist. Aren't you tempted to cash out, move from your foggy neighborhood, and buy an island somewhere?
I admit that when I think of the money one could make from all this, I get a little twinge. But I'm pretty happy with nerd values: Get yourself a comfortable living, then do a little something to change the world.

There must be some little luxury you covet?
Really, the only thing I'm missing in terms of quality of life is a permanent parking space.

I bet Jeff Bezos has a parking space. How would you compare yourself to Amazon's CEO?
Amazon is great. But Jeff decided he wanted to make a business. Craigslist was a happy accident.

What could Bezos learn from craigslist?
I'd like Jeff to listen to customers a little more. I'm a sucker for mystery series, but I still can't get a straightforward list of my favorite stuff. Ninety percent of the function of our site is based on suggestions from users.

Google's touchy-feely corporate mantra is "Don't be evil." What's yours?
Give people a break.

A break from what?
A break from how difficult our lives are. It's like, if you're walking out of your apartment building and somebody is coming the other way with an armful of groceries, you hold the door. It feels good - it's the neighborly thing to do. And our species survives by cooperating.

What poses the major threat to that survival?
Kleptocrats and sociopathic organizations that have the almighty dollar as their only goal.

Are you saying that capitalism is flawed?
We've seen that people in corporations often make moral compromise - what I like to call the Halliburton crime syndicate. They're the epitome of being unfair.

Has anyone made moral compromises that have affected craigslist users?
Apartment brokers in Manhattan.

Now you're talking evil.
They can be very aggressive. We get complaints that they'll list apartments on craigslist as having no fees, then try to extract a fee when people show up. That's a difference of two months' rent.

I've dealt with those folks. They're pretty tough. How do you stand up to them?
I call them. I say this is Craig from craigslist. They say "Oh yeah, and I'm the Easter Bunny."

Then what?
I reason with them. And if that doesn't work, we block their listings.

Does that work?
Well, since we're the most popular listing service there - 800,000 listings a month in the New York metro area - it's effective.

You spend a lot of time on enforcement. Is that why people trust the transactions they make on craigslist as much as those on, say, a cooler-looking site with a fully developed reputation-ranking system?
People can see that when they report a problem to us, we take it seriously. We want life to be fair, even though it's not.

When are you going to run for office?
My focus is on restoring democracy to America. We have to restore the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. That said, I have no interest in running for office. That kind of job sucks.

You're very concerned with upholding ethical standards. What sacred texts shape your worldview?
The songs of Leonard Cohen. John Irving's books.

You're also a cyberpunk buff. How has, say, William Gibson's Neuromancer influenced the way you've run craigslist?
Those books talk about a future that's exciting technologically but darker, where everyday people have less of a voice and are increasingly controlled by big organizations. I figure we can be a counter-example.

At the end of Neuromancer, the hacker cowboy hero gets a huge payday. When's yours?
I'm not in a hurry. Our planning horizon is 200 years, or until the singularity.

Wired Article: Craig of Craigslist: Master of the Nerdiverse