On this episode of Spark: Aspirational technology, the future of search, and dinner with a stranger. Click below to listen or download this episode as an MP3 (runs 54:00):
Play audio:
- Nora reflects on aspirational technology purchases
- Ian Manheimer helps find the perfect gadget with Measy
- Clip from Christmas computer selects ‘the perfect gift’
- Caterina Fake on Hunch and the future of search
- Franke James has Dinner with a Stranger named Mark Shouldice
- Nora mentions her upcoming interviews with Matthew Crawford and Seth Godin
- Dan Misener shows Nora the Spark Holiday Remote Access Toolkit
- Rex Sorgatz publishes the List of Lists
- Nora mentions CBCNews.ca’s look at the past decade, 2010: Ten Years Into the Millennium, and Pete Nowak’s interview with Vint Cerf
- James Gee explains what video games can teach us about the way we learn
This episode features Creative Commons music and sound effects:
- “Gruyere” by Podington Bear
- Countdown by Corsica_S
- “Rhapsody In Blue, Parts 1 & 2″ (1924) by Paul Whiteman
- “Black Eyed Susan” by Chad Crouch
- “Profondo Blu” by Fabrizio Paterlini
- “Hope For Rebirth” by Celestial Aeon Project
- “Chiron Beta Prime” by Jonathan Coulton
- “Your Mother’s Son-in-law” (1933) by Benny Goodman
- “High Noon Dub” by Neurowaxx
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For more information (and instructions) visit cbc.ca/podcasting
[Original image from the CBC Archives]
This episode isn't showing up my RSS feed. Please tell me you aren't going iTunes-only.
*in* my RSS feed, I mean.
I am receiving the podcast all right. No problems from my end.
If you’re subscribed to the Spark podcast, regular weekly episodes should appear in the feed on Sunday mornings. It shows up in my feed just fine. Let me know if you have any additional troubles.
Yes, there it is. I thought they came on Fridays, but I guess that must be Spark Plus.
Thanks!
Exactly. If you subscribe to Spark Plus, you get episodes as soon as they're published. You can always get episodes ASAP from cbc.ca/spark
Measy.com is a US site and doesn't list Canadian carriers. So the smartphone is not so useful. Thanks Nora!
It is an excellent idea to put the download link up at the top. Saves me having to hunt around. Thanks.
Glad you like it, Jean.
The old clip from 1962 the guy talking sounds like Elmer Fudd, lol!
One of my fears of recommendation engines is the end of finding search gems I wasn't looking for. These engines are typically built on the idea of that people who did X, bought Y and therefore "think like you", so you might be interested in what they are interested in. This is effective in building community and connections with like-minded people, however, some of our true discoveries and learning come from being connected to people with different views and different interests. I'm not sure how/if these connections can be made by recommendation engines. I'll throw this out to developers to consider.
Kyle, as someone stuck spending some of my days thinking/building recommendation like engines, I’ll take a shot. You’re speaking about discovery in general and there are ways to build what you’re talking about into these engines, provided the designers are thinking like you are. One of the ways we look at it is trying to explicitly create bridges or connections between these like-minded clusters. It’s the people who bridge those clusters who typically come up with interesting and change inspiring ideas. As a designer, I’m interested in how these engines can help to facilitate spanning these clusters instead of simply reinforcing them.
I go to a fair number of educational/technology conferences, including an upcoming one where you're the keynote. I do presentations, and occasionally sit on planning committees.
I recently did an ignite!-style presentation at Educause09 in Denver, CO. titled "Making Conferences Suck Less"
Feedback and comments are always have similar themes: "There were too many sessions to choose from", "The description was misleading", "I knew more than the presenter did"… I think that social/recommendation search can play a role here. I'm imagining that when someone registers for a conference, they start to build a profile using web-based tools to capture what they do, where they work, the tools they use, challenges they have and things they'd like to share with others. It's a living, breathing profile that is added to before and during the conference. Maybe it can harvest information from other digital profiles (linkedin, facebook, slideshare, twitter…)
The profiles created are all thrown together into a database where connections are made and groups start to be formed. Participants with similar interests are grouped together, people with things to share are linked up with people who want to learn from them. What results is a highly customized schedule for the conference, where the participants have the chance to share and to learn, make connections, and walk away fulfilled. Think "people who selected this break-out session also selected x" or "we see from your linkedin profile that you're interested in accessibility standards, meet with this group for lunchtime conversation" or "based on your evaluation of this morning's keynote, we suggest you attend this panel discussion".
The schedule is made by the interests of the people attending & instead of you selecting the sessions, the sessions select you!
If done correctly, the conference becomes part of the conversation, and if the "profile" piece can be maintained, then the opportunities for networking beyond the conference event are potentially awesome. I imagine alerts saying "Hello @kylemackie, we see that you're attending innovationsineducation.ca in May 2010, and that you're interested in social networking, educational technology, and other things geeky, would you like to import a feed from your calendar to arrange for a time to meet with Nora Young?"
"Yes, wonderful social search engine, I would"
@kylemackie
kylemackie.com
What an intriguing idea, Kyle. Personally, I enjoy the chance encounters that can happen at conferences, and a tool that can grease the wheels of chance could be a very useful tool.
I wonder, though, how people might try to game such a system. Or if people's profiles might reflect their aspirations more than reality.
I think (and I am admittedly overly-optimistic about such things), that emergent social tools, when properly designed and used, can help promote a truth and honesty. As our identities increasingly consist of both "cyber" and "real-life" elements (with cross-over between the two), the idea of having an online-only identity or avatar that is different or less true-to-life is less of an option.
I think people increasingly are looking for "proof in the pudding", a similarity between how you act online and face-to-face…blog the way you talk, tweet the way you'd chat…don't mis-represent.
I think this "system" would have to harvest real artifacts from real life (blog postings, word documents, photos, powerpoint or slideshare presentations, etc) and somehow make bridges to artifacts from similar users as well as radically different but somehow relevant artifacts from other users.