To Research the Internet

Sir Tim Berners-Lee (the guy who really "invented" the internet) recently spoke at Rensellaer Polytechnique Institute (RPI) in Troy NY. TBL was at Rensellaer to keynote the launch of the Tetherless World Research Constellation. A research initiative focused on understanding the internet from both the computer science and social aspects. He had this to say:

"The World Wide Web changed the ways people work, play, communicate, collaborate, and educate. But without new research aimed at understanding the current, evolving and potential Web, we may miss or delay opportunities for new and revolutionary capabilities.

To model the Web, to understand the architectural principles that have provided for its growth, and to ensure it supports the basic social values of trustworthiness, personal control over information, and respect for social boundaries, then we must pursue a research agenda that targets the Web and its use as a primary focus of attention."

The concept of a research project that focuses on the internet like this is very compelling to me. Particularly the idea that internet startups are like petri dishes.  Little experiments whose results inform how people use the internet, what form people want the internet to take, what the technological possibilities are, as well as what entrepreneurs think people might want. 

At one point I was considering pursuing a thesis topic somewhere along these lines.  I am still very interested...  

Full article @: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/startups_social_science.php

John Maeda on the simple life

This is a great talk by one of the pioneers of the field of design and technology. He talks about how to create good work and live simply. Worth a look at.

meme and temes

TED talk. Susan Blackmore.

This talk gave me a whole new set of tools for thinking as well as a new perspective on my own pursuits, for real. Richard Dawkins first coined the term meme in his 1976 book "The Selfish Gene". The definition of a meme is something that replicates itself, it can be anything from biology to an idea. In this talk Susan Blackmore expands on the concept and introduces temes, the next phase of meme-ary.

The Story of Stuff

These videos come from TERRA, a weekly video show exploring the melting pot of nature and culture. They have a video channel on blip.tv their home page is here: http://www.lifeonterra.com/
Below is an excellant podcast on the "story of stuff." Parts 1 and 2.

I spent a portion of my undergraduate studies (Industrial design) thinking about these issues. This documentary does a great job of framing the problems of our consumer culture.

The Story of Stuff part 1


The Story of Stuff part 2

Ants!!

This is another TED talk, as I mentioned in another post, there'll be a lot of them.

This talk is all about ants. Individual ants are pretty dumb, but when you put a bunch of them together amazingly complex order arrises. Debrah Gordon has spent the past 20 years of her life studying ants and has figured out how it happens. The emergent behavior of these small individually acting entities results in a complex living commuinty. Each component is essantially the same, capbale of every task the colony requires, how the colony organizes itself is akin to a mesh network where components communicate locally resulting in actions that spread throughout the entire colony. The workings of ant colonies could help inform artificial intellangnce and I am tempted to model a colony.

I would also have to model an environment. It would have to be some kind of sand box where users could go in and mess with the ants, such as place food and obstacles.

This seems like it would be a neat thing to do and a fun challenge, now where to find the time...

World Wide Web of Ritual and Belief

I watch a lot of TED talks, and I will be posting a lot of them here. I have a piece of software called Miro
Once you download the player you can subscribe to the channel here
It'll ask you to download something, choose open with... Miro. and you'll be TED-ing like crazy.



Wade Davis is a westerner who lead a life of self exploration living with spiritual people around the world. It's a very interesting talk and reminds of the fact that our civilization isn't the pinnacle it's only a branch.

Unity Game Engine

The Unity Game engine is a "Drag and Drop" middle ware game engine. It offers a ton of features including push button publishing for the Windows, Mac, Linux, and (wait for it) the Wii! This seems like an interesting product, it has a free trial and an Indy license that goes for around $200 bucks. I will definitely be playing around with in the coming months. Look for a review in the research section of the site.

Here's a link to their site: http://unity3d.com/

MIT Course: Videogame Theory and Analysis

from http://ocw.mit.edu

If you didn't already know, MIT offers all of their courses online free of charge. I've attemped a few Comp Sci courses but to be honest the benifits were mostly entertainment and novelty, but here is a course I can get into: "Videogame Theory and Analysis" Here's the link:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Comparative-Media-Studies/CMS-998Fall-2006/CourseHome/index.htm

From MIT's website:

Course Description

This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary study of commercial videogames as texts, examining their cultural, educational, and social functions in contemporary settings. Students play and analyze videogames while examining debates surrounding how games function within socially situated contexts. Readings include contemporary game theory (Gee, Squire, Steinkuehler, Jenkins, Klopfer, Zimmerman and Salen, Juul, Bartle, Taylor, Aarseth) and the completion of a contemporary commercial videogame chosen in consultation with the instructor.

(this site came to me courtesy of my very dear friend Jia Zang)