Recently, I interviewed Nick Bilton. Nick is a New York Times reporter, and lead technology writer for their Bits blog. He’s also the author of the new book, I Live in the Future and Here’s How it Works. It’s a lively, entertaining read, and an excellent overview of the new environment of digital media. Part of the book discusses the way more and more of us are finding news, arts, and entertainment not by turning to one official guide, such as the New York Times or CBC, but based on recommendations from our ‘anchoring communities’, the people in our online social circles. That got me wondering about friends as ‘discovery agents’. How do you find new music, great videos and books? Do you read trusted critics? Consult your weekend paper? Rely on your Facebook friends? Let me know!
A shorter version of this interview will air on a future episode of Spark, but you can hear the full, uncut interview below, or download the MP3. [Runs 16:47]
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I've been a very late adopter of Twitter because I've been using IRC networks for much longer. The needs and functions Twitter offers for so many people today, I always got via being on IRC, which I still use. Because of this, I view Twitter as an often inefficient and mostly useless supplement to the data I already get elsewhere. It may have started to catch up recently, but even then it's still far, far behind.
I also sorta feel this weird disconnect about the term 'anchor communities', though. The way Bilton says it, it sound so… sterile and unrealistic. Maybe it's something about the media industry that depersonalizes such a personal term. I'd say more about it, but I get the feeling that our definitions of "community" aren't even the same.
Great interview..
But there, barely noticeable, was a mention of one of my worries: people confusing legal requests with a technology.
It was in the context of deleting content from other people's computers that you don't like. It may be a picture of you, or something you wrote. You may even be the Copyright holder of that content. But to have it removed from "the web", you are actually asking the owner /manager of a computer to remove something from their computer.
Technology may help simplify this legal request, but such technology can't even be envisioned until the underlying communication is understood as a legal request.
I understand that people follow their preferences, for instance, if one reads conservative newspapers the chances to watch conservative news on TV are higher. However, I dislike the fact of 'someone else' building a path of my preferences. Few days ago I browse the Capella university because I'm looking for a PhD program and, since then, the only publicity that follows me through my browsing is from that university. I am tired of it. I would like publicity from other universities to compare their programs.
I don't find this feature useful, I actually think it decreases one's opportunities to expand on the information that shapes one's way of thinking.