Ton's Interdependent Thoughts: June 2007

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Call for Participation, Social Software Workshop Limerick

I meant to blog this earlier, but here it is.
Together with a number of other bloggers (see further below), we are organizing a workshop on Social Software in Limerick at the end of september.
The deadline for your expression of interest is tomorrow! So if you would like to parcticipate by sending in a paper, please do so asap. Of course regular expressions of interest are welcome too.

Responses can be send to Ralf Klamma, or leave them in the wiki.
( mailto: klamma@cs.rwth-aachen.de or http://socialsoftwareecscw07.wikispaces.com/Submissions )

Call for Participation/Papers

Workshop “What is missing in Social Software? Current collaborative practices in social software”

September 24, 2007

in conjunction with the 10th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Limerick, Ireland, September 24-28, 2007.

MOTIVATION AND BACKGROUND

Social software - often connected to older forms of computer mediated communication (CMC) and newer discussion about online communities - concentrates on the link-up between social entities in digital social networks and their interaction. Group systems contain and group social entities. The general topic of the workshop is to start the discussion about the following questions: How does social software relate to the domain of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and what are current collaborative practices in social software.

The use of new digital media tools such as blogs, wikis, tagging and other communicative or multimedia assets create new challenges for the domain of computer-supported cooperative work. Typical social software hosts serves typically million of users dedicated to one digital medium like digital images, digital videos, and digital audio or specialised on one service like (micro-)blogging, social networking, or bookmark sharing. New challenges for engineering and design of cooperative systems are raised by the new business models possible through the availaibility of social software like user-generated content, collective intelligence phenomena, and syndication but also new threads like loosing control on private data and complete transparency of human acting.

Nevertheless, new generation of groupware tools incorporate social software features and well established research results from CSCW are to be revisited in the light of social software like to realize awareness in the presence of millions of users or how social software will be appropriated in organizations.

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

The workshop focuses on current collaborative work practices in social software. The workshop seeks for quality contributions that propose solutions to the issues identified above. It aims to bring together scientists and engineers who work on designing and/or developing social software, as well as practitioners using them in corporate settings. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

* Social roles and Leadership in Social Software
* Social norms, Social Control and Deviant Behaviour in Social Software
* Trust, Distrust and Visibility in Social Software
* Security, Data Protection and Privacy in Social Software
* Appropriation of Social Software in Organizations
* Visualisation and Awareness in Social Software
* Design and Collaborative Media
* Digital Democracy, Digital Rights, Digital Divide

WORKSHOP STRUCTURE

Prospective workshop participants will be requested to post a working paper up to 2000 words) on the workshop wiki ( http://socialsoftwareecscw07.wikispaces.com/), describing their research topic, the methods employed, and their preliminary results/findings. Participants will be asked to present their papers at the workshop, and every series of presentations will be followed by discussions. The papers have to be posted on the workshop wiki by the 25th of June 2007 and the notification of acceptance will be given on July 2, 2007. Commenting on peers’ papers will be encouraged. All accepted contributions are invited to be presented at the workshop by at least one of the authors. Workshop attendees may also register for the main ECSCW conference.

We will have presentations in the morning, a long lunch with a walk into the town of Limerick and a discussion with wiki use in the afternoon.

Costs of the workshop will be 70 EUR.

IMPORTANT DATES

* Deadline: 26 June 2007
* E-mail or wiki URL: mailto: klamma@cs.rwth-aachen.de or
http://socialsoftwareecscw07.wikispaces.com/Submissions
* Notification: 2 July 2007

ORGANIZATION

* Ralf Klamma (RWTH Aachen University),
* Sebastian Fiedler (Centre for Social Innovation, Vienna),
* Jan Schmidt (Bamberg University),
* Ton Zijlstra (Proven Partners),
* Gabriela Avram (University of Limerick)

PROGRAMME COMMITTEE (tentative)

* Thomas Becker, Buhl Data Service (GER)
* Yiwei Cao, RWTH Aachen University (GER) (confirmed)
* Anja Ebersbach, University of Konstanz (GER) (confirmed)
* Karsten Ehms, Siemens Corporate Technologies (GER)
* Tom Erickson, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center (USA)
* Barbara Kieslinger, Center for Social Innovation (AUT) (confirmed)
* Stephan Lukosch, Fernuniversität Hagen (GER) (confirmed)
* Mathias Lux, University of Klagenfurt (AUT) (confirmed)
* Peter Scott, Open University (UK)
* Marc Spaniol, RWTH Aachen University (GER) (confirmed)
* Marc Smith, Microsoft Research (USA)
* Martin Wolpers, KU Leuven (BEL) (confirmed)
* Volker Wulf, University of Siegen (GER) (confirmed)

Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) (posted by Ton Zijlstra at June 25, 2007 10:26 AM)

Reboot9: Intuition

One of the most interesting and challenging talks I attended at Reboot 9 was that by Oleg Koefoed on Intuition.
Someone who says to be working for a center for 'action philisophy' can count on my curious attention.

It was a highly theoretical presentation, and I am sure I did not understand half of it. So I am eagerly awaiting the release of the videocaptures of the Reboot presentations, so I can go over it once more.
But I did listen to the podcast interview that Nicole Simon did with Oleg Koefoed and browsed through his weblog in the past days.

First, I like the general take that Oleg Koefoed has on philosophy. As he says in the interview: 'Philosophy is about being sensitive. When philosophy stops to be sensitive it becomes an exercise in logic and analysis. That is not philosophy to me.' Philosophy as a deeply human reflective activity.

Central in his presentation stood the concept of an Event. An event is an encounter between a subject and an object, or two subjects, where a certain tension is produced. Opportunity lies in that tension. Switching between who is speaking in a conversation is such an event. The tension lies in the process of this hand over. Where the speaker is winding down, and the listener is gearing up to become the speaker, by going through different levels of decreasing silence. I loved that term, decreasing silence.

Oleg Koefoed places intuition right at the center of an event, at the synapsis. Right in the center of that tension.

In an earlier blogposting he says about intuition and events:
Intuition is the crossing point coming alive. It is the meeting of tracks and trajectories crossing each other, speaking to one another as they pass by.
Voices are at play, but not voices of subjects. Voices that move within the infinite complexes of matter and movement in intersection at any point in time, any point in space.

And the event is the only space in which the voice of intuition will cross from the virtual into something that produces an actuality. Intuition has no power of its own, only virtuality coming out of itself and into the event.

Even though, like I said, I think I did not understand half of the talk (also because I was a few minutes late), this approach of intuition positioned at the center of an event intrigues me.
It understands intuition to be not something within me, something I own, but something that is some sort of a conduit between us. Personally this shift in perception of intuition I take as an opportunity to give it a more active role, as well as a more constructive one, in my interaction with others. There has been a time in my life where my intuition served as a primary line of defense to keep others at a distance by seeing 'through' them and stay hidden myself. When I no longer had need for those defenses I also did away with intuition as a 'tool'. Koefoed's approach to intuition seems a route to give it back its rightful constructive and empathic place again.

Oleg Koefoed ended his talk by asking how web 2.0 tools can help to make more intuition possible. I suggested that some of that may be found in the way different on-line traces of our lives (photo's, blogs, comments, plazes, jaiku entries etc.) connect into a pattern. That pattern lets us read between the lines of the actual pieces of information, and that way a story unfolds. Is that where intuition lives?

Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) (posted by Ton Zijlstra at June 24, 2007 02:01 PM)

Second Life Behaviour IRL

Funny little video brought to my attention by Howard.

Don't forget to turn on the sound.

secondlife

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) (posted by Ton Zijlstra at June 21, 2007 09:58 PM)

Flickr/Yahoo: How Many Feet to Shoot Left?

In the past week a storm raged through Flickr, in the past weeks and months we've seen a couple more already.
I'd think that Flickr would not have many feet left to shoot themselves in. Apparantly Yahoo's lawyers (whom I guess are the initiatiors of these cock-ups) however are good at finding more feet for Flickr to keep shooting.

First let me mention a couple of 'minor' issues that we saw recently.
The smallest one was making it mandatory to have a Yahoo-ID to use Flickr. This upset the community because they don't see themselves as a Yahoo customer but a Flickr customer. Confusing your customers with mixing your different brands is not a good idea.

Being Cut Off if You Stand Out
Last month there was the removal of a photo and comments of Rebekka Godleifsdottir without warning. Presumably because some people in the comments uttered threats to a UK company that had been violating Godleifsdottirs copyright. Also apparantly this got to the attention of Flickr staff because of the high number of page views and comments the photo attracted. They in the end admitted their mistake and apologized.

Recently Flickr changed the way content is categorized and filtered.
From now on Flickr users should actively moderate their own content. Which in itself is not too much to ask. But the thing is they ask me to mark photo's that might be insulting or unprudent to a 'global' audience as moderate or even restricted. This can be interpreted as a call to moderate everything according to the smallest common denominator. My pictures that show women e.g. talking to males that are not their relatives in public will certainly feel offensive to some people. But of course that is unenforceable, as Flickr staff well know.

I received a cheery message my account was considered 'safe', as if that should make my day. But what was irritating that suddenly I saw greyed out pictures when visiting friends' photo streams.
Switching off the 'Safety Filter' that Flickr provides me with as a great new functionality, which they default to Safe (which means their default is to not let you decide to see less information, but let you decide to see more information. A plain weird standpoint in the age of information abundance/overflow), showed that the filtered out stuff consisted of screenshots and graphics. The kind of thing they filtered out of public search before, because Flickr is a photo-site.

Other users however saw their entire account being flagged 'Restricted'. Without notice, and with very slow response as to why it happened, and how to change it. In the linked case, the trigger again seems to be a response to a) complaints, but apparantly without checking the validity b) a high number of views and comments (as if that alone indicates something dodgy. Seems like projection on the side of the Flickr Staff to me: only naughty stuff attracts eyeballs). That is a repeating pattern so it seems.
Again Flickr admitted their mistake, and apologized, but again it took decisive action on behalf of the customer.

So we have as a pattern:
If you attract attention, you'll be flagged as suspect.
If we change something, we won't tell you first, but wait until you complain.
We are slow to respond.

(uploaded by herbert.feutl)

Dumping PayPal and Other Payment Woes
Yahoo is promoting their own payment system (Yahoo Wallet) which supports creditcards only (at least outside the US). A lot of European users do not own a credit card, because you can do almost anything with your debitcard across the entire continent, and yearly fees for credit cards are often high. That is why PayPal is popular, as you can connect it to your bank account.

But they've cut PayPal as a payment option. Again without warning. Leaving scores of users without credit card with no way to continue their Pro account by paying through PayPal. And without time to arrange a different solution, because there was no warning the service would be cut.

Also those that use the Portuguese language version of Flickr, suddenly find themselves left with using a Brazilian e-banking option only to pay. Which of course is entirely logical if you live in Portugal, isn't it?
Confusing languages with countries is a major no-no guys. Useability 101.

Offering Localized Versions with Easter Egg
The really big issue this week is the start of localized versions. While the official blog was extolling the parties around the launch, and how the Flickr team was jetting around the world, the users in Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea found a little easter egg in those localized versions: they cannot decide their own Safety Filter settings. It is on Safe always, if you have a Yahoo ID based in those countries.
Of course this means that those Swiss and Austrian users that created a German Yahoo ID because they wanted to enjoy a German speaking site, now also see their filters in Flickr being locked in Safe mode. Confusing languages with nations again. This means 'flowers and landscapes only' for the German speaking users. Even for your own photo's. Meanwhile Yahoo's stockholders rejected a principled stand on censorship.

Again, this change was effected without warning. Again response has been extremely slow when users started to complain. German users demand to know what the legal basis is for this decision, but only get vague indications (e.g. age verification is mentioned) that don't make much sense at all (except that they seem to be taken pro-actively out of fear, real or imagined). An action accusing Flickr of widespread censorship ensued.
Until now Flickr staff only let their customers know how painfull it is to them, and how sorry they feel, but no tangible information as to reasons why is forthcoming.

(censorship has been a hot tag in the past week on Flickr)

It all boils down to this, from my viewpoint:

Flickr is currently treating their customers as objects, whereas the customers see themselves and Flickr staff as a community.
Flickr is taking measures without informing their customers, or giving them a chance to prepare for those changes.
Flickr is stonewalling requests for information.

Meanwhile customers are considering their options, putting uploading on hold, and moving away to other services (such as the Danish 23 and Zoomr)

Flickr, in short, is flushing their brand down the drain. Or rather Yahoo is, as Flickr staff seem to feel predominantly sorry for themselves at this point.

(photo by Cem Basman)

(a good overview, if you read German, of what is going on in the German blogosphere can be found at Sprechblase, by Cem Basman from Hamburg)

thinkflickrthink flickr yahoo censorship zensur flickrcensorship yahoocensorship germany brandmanagement brand

Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0) (posted by Ton Zijlstra at June 17, 2007 03:26 PM)

Reboot 9: Owning Your Learning Path, The Blame Game

During our session on Reboot 9, we started out with laying out the basic model.
This model consists of six 'core nodes' of factors that play a role in owning your learning path. (as shown in the illustration below)

For each of those six nodes we put up a sheet of paper to collect post-it notes on.

For the first part of the session it was interesting to see that most of the discussion and the captured thoughts and observations ended up on the 'Having a Supportive Environment' sheet. We were listing barriers in our environment basically, talking about the education system, the organisation we work in etc.

Only when George Por made a very useful intervention by asking us all to stop playing the blame game, post-its appeared in larger numbers on the other sheets.

This patterns strikes me as very relevant.
Especially as I see it happen time and again in other settings as well, particularly in discussions around (organizational) goal setting.

On the one end of the spectrum you have the archetypical argument that 'we are/I am too small to change the system'. On the other end of the spectrum you find the archtypical argument that 'I/we could change this, if only all other stakeholders would accept our/my authority'. Both are a fig leaf for inaction. They are based on the notion that you need control to be able to reach your goals.

What these arguments do is ignore the large space in the middle of the spectrum: your area of influence. In this area you don't have control (at least not all the time, over all the relevant issues, and in all contexts), but you have influence (and control during short bursts of time over some issues in some contexts).

So instead of magnifying our problems/goals to the extend they become too big for us, or stating total control over our peers/stakeholders as a prerequisite for our ability to act, we need to focus on what steps can be taking now, in collaboration with willing others, or regardless of others. Without doing away with far reaching goals, high ambitions, or lofty values. (In essence this is what systems like GTD are doing for you as well)

In this area of influence we can feel in control enough to get moving, and take uncertainty about the results as a given at the same time. Our area of influence is where we can achieve flow, where we can make small steps towards a larger outcome.

In terms of owning your learning path this means that you don't have to wait for the educational system to change, or for organizations to start behaving differently. You can own your learning path, within the educational system, and within traditional organizations. As long as you don't let 'them' unilaterally set your goals.

I've taught a horse to ride a bicycle (street art in Enschede, April '07)

reboot9 owningyourlearningpath blamegame influence

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) (posted by Ton Zijlstra at June 16, 2007 06:17 PM)

Wii: Virtual as well as Physical

Had a sporting accident yesterday evening. There is nothing virtual about Wii Sports I assure you. In the past two months it made me sweat, it gave me muscle aches, and yesterday I bruised my own eye while playing tennis. (and broke the remote...)

It reminds me of a conversation I had with Peter Ludlow and others last Thursday over beers: the magic circle is disappearing. More on that in a next posting.

wii

Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) (posted by Ton Zijlstra at June 16, 2007 10:35 AM)

Reboot 9: Owning Your Own Learning Path Transcripts

On day 2 of the Reboot conference Elmine Wijnia and I hosted a conversation session around the topic 'Owning Your Own Learning Path'. We graciously got two timeslots for this, and we enjoyed the beautiful weather in Copenhagen by doing the session outside on the grass in front of Kedelhallen.

We introduced the session on the Reboot site like this:
What does it take to be the owner of your own learning path, so that you can reach your goals?
And if we can say something useful about that learning path, does that give us the means to pro-actively shape the social software tools that give us the affordances we need?

During the session we started out with our rudimentary model, that we created in cooperation with Valeri Souchkov (also see my previous posting on this) The good comments we got on our proposal at the Reboot site got incorporated into our session, by mapping them on our model as examples.

Click the picture to see an annotated version of this model.

The transcripts of the post-it notes that we created during the session, and sorted along the lines of our model are now on-line.
If you have been at the session, please add your name to the list on the above link if you're not already mentioned there.

photo by Jonathan Marks

This posting is just to announce that the post-its have been transcribed. I will write more about the session itself.

reboot9 owningyourlearningpath

Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) (posted by Ton Zijlstra at June 10, 2007 07:50 PM)

Starting GTD

Reboot, or rather my conversations with Martin Roell, triggered me to have another look at GTD.
I had build a GTD-system, sort-of, before but it failed as I chose the wrong tool as a dashboard, i.e. my local wiki.
Talking to Martin about work and effectivity, he also mentioned GTD again.

During a stroll through Copenhagen I asked him what the effects were for him using GTD. His answer was "I stopped dreaming about my work".
Even though for Martin that was a pleasant side-effect, not the goal of implementing GTD, it is my trigger now.
In the past months I've had the feeling of constantly running behind, not being able to look ahead more than a day, with three more deadlines to go before the day is out. A lot of that stress is merely the result of having no system of emptying my head that I can trust. So I too dreamt about my work, or had a list of urgent points emerging in my head the moment I opened my eyes, or woke up during the night. Not good at all.

Strolling through Copenhagen

So, on returning from Reboot I started building a GTD system again. In the past week I merely created tasks-lists in Outlook GTD style and stuck to them. It already helped, so now I am designing the full system.

Some notes on how I've organized things.

Focal point of the system is the Task-list in Outlook 2003.
I've chosen Outlook because it is the one system that is always available to me. My laptop is always in sync with our Exchange server, which also keeps my Palm Treo in sync. So it is available at all times, both for professional and private purposes on my laptop, my mobile and through web-interface.

I basically only use one Taskfolder (only the main tasks folder syncs to Palm). Projects (p_name), contexts (@context) are categories for those tasks. Waiting For is a status. There is one other Taskfolder for Sometime/Maybe items.

I have hacked the display of tasks next to the Outlook Calendar view, much in the way Martin blogged it in 2004.
Currently I am still trying to find a way to hack the data binding in the Outlook Today view. Being able to determine how tasks are listed there would be good. Then Outlook Today would be a good dashboard, as it is merely a HTML page you can extract from Outlook and redesign at will (if you're not afraid of command line editing your registry that is)

In my GTD set-up I make no distinction between private life and professional life. It is all too intertwined anyway, and I use tools that are all portable between the two contexts without problem.

The wiki on my laptop still serves as a projectlist (stating the overall goals), idea list, and inbox for conversation notes and rss-reading notes.

Next step, now the basic system is in place, is building the GTD Weekly Review into my routines. It is the one important thing that closes the circle of the system. In the coming time I will try and blog about my experiences with GTD.