Friday, May 30, 2008
More on smart mobs - Howard Rheingold
I've been trawling the blog smart mobs (post google zeitgeist posting) and I like what I read. I heard about the book "Smart Mobs, The Next Social Revolution" but never read it. The book is 2003 vintage, so this is old to everyone else. But i diggg it and Howard Rheingold.
Smart mobs emerge when communication and computing technologies amplify human talents for cooperation. The impacts of smart mob technology already appear to be both beneficial and destructive, used by some of its earliest adopters to support democracy and by others to coordinate terrorist attacks. The technologies that are beginning to make smart mobs possible are mobile communication devices and pervasive computing - inexpensive microprocessors embedded in everyday objects and environments. Already, governments have fallen, youth subcultures have blossomed from Asia to Scandinavia, new industries have been born and older industries have launched furious counterattacks.
Street demonstrators in the 1999 anti-WTO protests used dynamically updated websites, cell-phones, and "swarming" tactics in the "battle of Seattle." A million Filipinos toppled President Estrada through public demonstrations organized through salvos of text messages.
The pieces of the puzzle are all around us now, but haven't joined together yet. The radio chips designed to replace barcodes on manufactured objects are part of it. Wireless Internet nodes in cafes, hotels, and neighborhoods are part of it. Millions of people who lend their computers to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence are part of it. The way buyers and sellers rate each other on Internet auction site eBay is part of it. Research by biologists, sociologists, and economists into the nature of cooperation offer explanatory frameworks. At least one key global business question is part of it - why is the Japanese company DoCoMo profiting from enhanced wireless Internet services while US and European mobile telephony operators struggle to avoid failure?
The people who make up smart mobs cooperate in ways never before possible because they carry devices that possess both communication and computing capabilities. Their mobile devices connect them with other information devices in the environment as well as with other people's telephones. Dirt-cheap microprocessors embedded in everything from box tops to shoes are beginning to permeate furniture, buildings, neighborhoods, products with invisible intercommunicating smartifacts. When they connect the tangible objects and places of our daily lives with the Internet, handheld communication media mutate into wearable remote control devices for the physical world.
Media cartels and government agencies are seeking to reimpose the regime of the broadcast era in which the customers of technology will be deprived of the power to create and left only with the power to consume. That power struggle is what the battles over file-sharing, copy-protection, regulation of the radio spectrum are about. Are the populations of tomorrow going to be users, like the PC owners and website creators who turned technology to widespread innovation? Or will they be consumers, constrained from innovation and locked into the technology and business models of the most powerful entrenched interests?
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Google Zeitgeist 08 pwned!
Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, originally uploaded by Joi.
Google is hosting a conference today in England, at the The Grove in Hertfordshire. The purpose of this event is “to inquire into the spirit of our times” and engage in “closed” dialogue. There is virtually “ZERO”, that is no open coverage at all of this 2008 event.
If you conduct a “Google search” you will also find nothing. I was able to find the following videos from previous Google Zeitgeist events. However, on seesmic we are able to catch a glimmer of the Zeitgeist from Rory Cellen-Jones (Thanks Rory!)
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Sara Walsh breaks leg in game! Men are such wusses.
Sara Walsh is out of action but hopefully will return to full strength after breaking her leg during the Canada game (2-1) of the AFC Women's Asian Cup. Walsh is one of Australia's top goal scorers and will be sorely missed. But honestly, if you saw the game, you have to say.. "MEN ARE WUSSES!" or something more colorful along those lines.
full item from Football Australia
Matildas hit by loss of key players on eve of Asian Cup
Sunday, 25 May 2008
Sarah Walsh
Sarah Walsh celebrates after scoring against Ghana at the FIFA Women's World Cup
© Getty Images
The Matildas squad has been hit by the loss of key players on the eve of the AFC Women's Asian Cup losing experienced duo Sarah Walsh and Joanne Burgess less than a week out from the commencement of the tournament.
Australia will open their AFC Women’s Asian Cup campaign against Chinese Taipei on Thursday 29 May, followed by the match against Korea Republic on Saturday 31 May with the final group match against Japan on Monday 2 June.
Walsh who is one of Australia's all-time highest goalscorers, suffered a fractured leg in Friday night's 2-1 win over Canada in Sydney and is expected to be out of action for several months. Midfielder Burgess, another regular from last year's World Cup campaign has withdrawn due to family reasons.
Coach Tom Sermanni has called into his Asian Cup squad the three young players who were in camp during the week in Sydney. Young Matildas 16-year-old pair Tameka Butt and Ella Mastrantonio, along with striker Jenna Tristram will join the 21-strong squad which today departs for Vietnam.
Perth midfielder Mastrantonio is yet to make her debut at senior level while Gold Coast based midfielder Butt has already made four appearances for the Matildas including as a substitute in Friday's morale boosting victory over Canada. They will join fellow members of last year's Young Matildas team already selected for the tournament - Ellyse Perry, Kyah Simon, Clare Polkinghorne and Lydia Williams.
21 year old Tristram made a welcome return to the national team on Friday night having been absent for over twelve months after suffering a serious knee injury a day after making her Matildas debut in her home town of Coffs Harbour in April last year.
The Matildas will be aiming to become the first Australian team to be crowned Asian champions in the final in Ho Chi Minh City on June 8.
The Matildas squad for the 2008 AFC Women's Asian Cup:
Goalkeepers – Melissa Barbieri (Melbourne), Lydia Williams (Canberra)
Defenders – Di Alagich (Sydney), Kim Carroll (Brisbane), Kate McShea (Brisbane), Ellyse Perry (Sydney), Clare Polkinghorne (Brisbane), Karla Reuter (Brisbane), Cheryl Salisbury (Newcastle)
Midfielders – Tameka Butt (Gold Coast), Amy Chapman (Canberra), Lauren Colthorpe (Brisbane), Heather Garriock (Sydney), Ella Mastrantonio (Perth), Collette McCallum (Perth), Amber Neilson (Newcastle)
Forwards – Lisa De Vanna (Perth), Kate Gill (Newcastle), Caitlin Munoz (Canberra), Kyah Simon (Sydney), Jenna Tristram (Brisbane),
(current home city)
2008 Women's Asian Cup
28 May - June 8, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2008 Peace Cup
June 14-21, Suwon, Korea
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