The Planning Lab

There can be no experts

Social media is great for talking about, well – social media. But as I'm sick of all the self-proclaimed social media experts, tweets and slideshare presentations with social media strategies, I don't think you can discount it as a passing trend. Social media IS important. But it's also an evolving concept, and trying to "fix" the knowledge of the phenomenon as definite truths is pointless. I believe discussions on social media should be seen as a flows rather than stock knowledge. 

There can be no experts

Social media is great for talking about, well – social media. But as I'm sick of all the self-proclaimed social media experts, tweets and slideshare presentations with social media strategies, I don't think you can discount it as a passing trend. Social media IS important. But it's also an evolving concept, and trying to "fix" the knowledge of the phenomenon as definite truths is pointless. I believe discussions on social media should be seen as a flows rather than stock knowledge. 

How to connect everything to everything else

You've probably seen the twittering cat door, the twittering office chair and the twittering bakery. These lovely examples have one thing in common: they all use home-made devices that connect to Twitter. And while these application may seem like novelty, I do think they represent something something brilliant: off-the-shelf technology that allows anything to be part of the internet. 

Standardised low-tech means one thing: it's cheap and simple enough to be spread widely across the whole physical world (see previous post). 

A simple schematic shows how this works: most pieces of the puzzle exist today – the only missing link are standardised input-output devices and a community for developing plugins. And instead of using twitter as a frontend interface it can be used it as a backend dataflow that allows for interfaces to be built on top. 

The perspective here is not technical (since everything is based on existing ones), but from a user-perspective with one thing in mind: how technology can be packaged for maximum dissemination.

Does this make any sense? 

And btw, I'm not a techie, so my apologies for getting nomenclatures mixed up.

How to connect everything to everything else

You've probably seen the twittering cat door, the twittering office chair and the twittering bakery. These lovely examples have one thing in common: they all use home-made devices that connect to Twitter. And while these application may seem like novelty, I do think they represent something something brilliant: off-the-shelf technology that allows anything to be part of the internet. 

Standardised low-tech means one thing: it's cheap and simple enough to be spread widely across the whole physical world (see previous post). 

A simple schematic shows how this works: most pieces of the puzzle exist today – the only missing link are standardised input-output devices and a community for developing plugins. And instead of using twitter as a frontend interface it can be used it as a backend dataflow that allows for interfaces to be built on top. 

The perspective here is not technical (since everything is based on existing ones), but from a user-perspective with one thing in mind: how technology can be packaged for maximum dissemination.

Does this make any sense? 

And btw, I'm not a techie, so my apologies for getting nomenclatures mixed up.

Finding real use for social media

Instead of using social media to find new ways of basically selling chocolate bars to people (aka advertising), shouldn't the power of these wonderful tools be used for something good instead? 

Obama used social media to mobilise a whole generation of people. This proves that the infrastructure can provide a great deal of momentum that cannot be stopped. And the more people that are connected, the more feasible it is. 

Imagine using Twitter and other social media for:

* Starting an elite university for everyone

* Finance a microcredit system for the third world

* Starting direct-democracy movements

* Igniting resistances and revolutions, and overthrowing regims

When everybody is connected to everybody, the only thing that's required is will, and the only limitation is the imagination. 

Related: The Piracy Lab: Will the crowd bail them out?

Finding real use for social media

Instead of using social media to find new ways of basically selling chocolate bars to people (aka advertising), shouldn't the power of these wonderful tools be used for something good instead? 

Obama used social media to mobilise a whole generation of people. This proves that the infrastructure can provide a great deal of momentum that cannot be stopped. And the more people that are connected, the more feasible it is. 

Imagine using Twitter and other social media for:

* Starting an elite university for everyone

* Finance a microcredit system for the third world

* Starting direct-democracy movements

* Igniting resistances and revolutions, and overthrowing regims

When everybody is connected to everybody, the only thing that's required is will, and the only limitation is the imagination. 

Related: The Piracy Lab: Will the crowd bail them out?

We get it, let's move on

Aspargus soufflé!

There are so many "experts" on social media right now that you can't even call it expertise anymore. A slideshare search gives you 5000 presentations on the topic. I shall conclude that the difficulty level of understanding social media is below that of making a decent soufflé. 

We get it, let ' s move on

Aspargus soufflé!

There are so many "experts" on social media right now that you can't even call it expertise anymore. A slideshare search gives you 5000 presentations on the topic. I shall conclude that the difficulty level of understanding social media is below that of making a decent soufflé. 

The Agency Lab: Edge vs relevance

The Agency Lab: Edge vs relevance