Mashuptastic

Mashups are funny things – web applications that combine various data from third party sources presented in a creative new way. What are some of my favourites?

Twittervision 3D
http://twittervision.com/maps/show_3d

TuneGlue
http://audiomap.tuneglue.net/

Yahoo vs Google
http://www.langreiter.com/exec/yahoo-vs-google.html

But would they ever be effective for government or governance purposes? Well, at the very least, the government can be seen as a massive database of information – similar to the data from third party sources that mashups draw their information from. All this great information, if opened up to the public, would be a great resource for tech-savvy individuals to create these mashups. Not only would these mashups let people get easier access to information that the government possesses, like wait-times at the DriveTest Centres, database of family doctors by location, or even the current state of the highway in specific locations.

How would this make the government more efficient? Well, for starters, their information now becomes more easily accessed and citizens will be better informed and more knowledgeable. In addition, they would not have to spend huge amounts of money updating these mashups – creating an efficient API (Application Programming Interface) will allow mashups to draw information regardless on how often it is updated. Lastly, they will achieve a higher level of transparency and accountability, which will force them to be as efficient as possible.

I am all for making government information open-source, and I am sure that with the appropriate infrastructure created for mashups, government and governance would benefit greatly.

Global Civil Society

Welp, if you click the link above, you can see my fantastic map made in that wonderful tool that is MapBuilder.

I originally had at least 20 addresses in my mapping of Unicef’s global headquarters, but because it failed for just about 15 of them, I got stripped down to 5 remaining addresses. Well done, Map Builder.

So, that’s what a global civil society looks like. Five dots in North America and Europe, with many more that could have been plotted but were not. But Unicef is truly a global civil society, being represented in at least 36 nations as evidenced on their page, and being globally recognized as being an advocacy group for children’s education and rights. They cross languages, cultures, and physical borders as they act for the betterment of children all over the world.

Keep up the good work, UNICEF!

Online Democracy

This week’s blog post has been transformed into a quick and easy podcast. It was actually a blast to record it and I may do it on a more regular basis! Here is the video:

Change

Before we begin, I would highly recommend everyone subscribe to this podcast that explains how various subjects work: Stuff You Should Know (http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/stuff-you-should-know-podcast.htm)

Back to your regularly scheduled program.

Historical change has three camps: cosmopolitanism, marxism, and the networked society view. I do tend to agree with the networked society view, which Castells defines it as:

…the definition, if you wish, in concrete terms of a network society is a society where the key social structures and activities are organized around electronically processed information networks. So it’s not just about networks or social networks, because social networks have been very old forms of social organization. It’s about social networks which process and manage information and are using micro-electronic based technologies.

And I agree with it because as a society, we are now driven by the information we possess. As a company, you are about as good as the information you are knowledgeable of. If your people have the ability to contribute and edit that information as well as being able to access it easily, then they will be able to perform to the best of their abilities.

Humanity as a whole has always been driven by information. Information that allows us to create the wonderful technology which allows people to be more and more hyperconnected by the day. This hyperconnection only allows us to expand our knowledge base, and propagate this idea of a networked society.

Folksonimetry

When taking a look at Folksonomies, you really have to know the definition first – and of course, Wikipedia shows us the way:

A folksonomy is a system of classification derived from the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content; this practice is also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging. Folksonomy is a portmanteau of folk and taxonomy.

But what determines the structure of a folksonomy, is it the code, the content, or the social process?

Even though I feel code and content are key factors to the success of any online community, I think the social process is what keeps people coming back. You can have a database of the best information that anyone could possibly know, but how are people going to find that information if it is not properly index and/or tagged? In addition, who is going to tag and index all of that information for you?

The fantastic thing about social tagging is that you, as an individual, may feel that a certain piece of content fits category X and Y, but another person may feel that it fits category Y and Z. You both have a common idea that it fits category Y, but clearly neither of you thought of both category X and Z. That’s the wonderful aspect of social tagging – you may miss one or two keywords to classify code and content under, but guaranteed that someone else will pick up on it.

Great examples of this include Delicious, a social bookmarking site where users submit their favourite sites and enter in keywords which categorizes the websites for easy searches. Delicious works so well because people are constantly adding content to the website under a very easy social process, and they can discover all kinds of other interesting content thanks to the hard work of other people.

The structures of Folksonomies may be physically defined by code and content, but the social processes determine how people actually use them.

Wikimunication

Having been a veteran of the internet and being so heavily dependent on Wikipedia for information, I know first hand exactly how effective wikis are for collaboration, information sharing, and learning. As far as communication goes, that is still up for debate.

Proprietary wikis can be used by anyone – groups of friends, companies, charitable organizations – just about anyone who has the technical know-how to set up a wiki on their server or utilize any of the wiki hosts currently available online. What would they be used for? In my experience, companies have used wikis for sharing information on different company-related topics, best practices for processes, and even biographies. I have also seen an online forum use a wiki as a comprehensive database of pictures and quotes.

Knowing this, I have to say that I have never seen it as a method of communication despite having discussion boards integrated into it. It seems to only facilitate communication and ensure that information can be easily found and accessed by anyone. Properly moderated, wikis can be a great boon to any organization and group, and will add a great amount of value.

The Digital Divide

The term digital divide refers to the gap between people with effective access to digital and information technology and those with very limited or no access at all.

Source: Wikipedia

With the mainstream popularization of the internet in developed countries, many people pondered: what happens to those who do not have access to it? Will they fall behind? When extraterrestrial life forms finally discover Earth, will they be seen as inferior beings?

With the further development of our internet and mobile infrastructure, it is easy to be worried about the digital divide, because many people in Canada carry mobile phones (Sometimes two!) and surf the Internet on a daily basis, all while people in less developed countries have trouble scrounging up enough food and water to survive for the rest of the day. And it isn’t like we can just dump the technology on top of those developing countries and expect them to be able to use it and maintain it without the proper resources, infrastructure, and training in place.

But at the same time, you have to take a look at the flip side: developing countries do not have to go through the same trial and error that developed nations had to. For example, developing countries are all quicker to hop onto the mobile phone bandwagon simply because it is cheaper when it comes to infrastructure. There are no cables to lay down, no holes to dig, and no expensive man hours needed to build it all. A simple phone that works almost anywhere they go, for a decent price. Whereas in North America, we do have a complete infrastructure with landlines and mobile phones, but really, how many of us nowadays still use that landline?

The digital divide will quickly close itself up as developing nations continue to build their economic strength. The big four developing nations, often referred to as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) are all making their power moves to the top, and their digital capabilities will soon outpace those of developed nations. In addition, they will take our best practices and apply them to their own societies and ways of life without having to endure the trial and error that we did.

Developing nations may not have the best technology as of yet, but given enough time and information sharing, that digital divide will soon be a thing of the past.

Evolution of Communication

My grandparents are not the most enthusiastic folk when it comes to technology – they are used to making long distance phone calls, driving into to town to go grocery shopping, and dropping letters off at the post office. Fortunately, I grew up in a world where I fire off seven e-mails simultaneously, chat with my homies on instant messenger, and conduct conference calls over Skype – all at the same time if I want to! Upon hearing about my multi-tasking abilities, my grandma laughed and told me that I would probably stress myself out with all of the information coming my way.

She brought up a good point – the way we communicate nowadays is extremely frenetic and quick. We have an ever increasing amount of information at our disposal thanks to the internet and we are expected to respond at a much faster pace because we have the ability to. Of course, without a very good way to find the information, what is the point?

I guess this is where Web 3.0 comes in – our complex and often idiotic search queries will now be decipherable by the great series of tubes otherwise known as the internet. Typing in “where can I eat Indonesian food near McCowan and Ellesmere” will actually net you decent results, rather than the nothing I get now.

So grandma, while I may have boatloads of information coming at me and hosted online, I’ll be just fine – the internet is getting smart enough to learn to understand me. That’s right, me!