Context?
I was asked recently what I thought of context and the internet. It set me thinking, typically a good hour after I’d been asked. My context at the time was drugged up with a head cold from hell. I always tend to think of the internet as a series of conversations and stories. Conversations being mostly one to many, often one to one, sometimes many to many. Each with there own value. Not forgetting the huge base of reference or publication style content which represents stories. These are the core of human communication.
I’m a big believer in the invisible currency of reputation, based on your actions and identity. Karma in old money - but modernised for the trackable, database driven, statistics laden world of web 2.0.
On one basic level it’s how many friends do I have on bebo. Gotta get em all. This pokemates attitude is rife. But it has its limits - over do it and friends become meer acquaintances or like-minded tribe members - the granularity starts to break down. The value of a friends list becomes redundant - and you need some super friends list thats people you really would want as mates.
If I take a photo it has some value to me, If i put it on the wall it has a positive (or negative) effect on everyone that sees it. Suddenly it has more value to me, even though I may be unaware of it’s effects. It’s creating conversations both internal dialog and physical interaction. If I put it on the internet that effect grows, but there’s a statistical back up - so I know know 432 people have viewed my photo and 5 of them have commented on it. These comments are a real transference from the anonymity of art on a wall to the direct contact possible via the internet.
Context is a separate issue - but is intertwined with this reputation scoring system. My context is the here and now. It’s a moment in time. It’s a place. It’s an activity. But its temporal. There’s quite a few internet services dealing with context - none to a fine granularity but all attempting to define the here and now, then - more importantly - share it.
Dopplr shares you location among trusted friends so you know that a friend is in town - but no more. But hey that’s enough for now. Twitter is the uber micro blogging tool that’s different things to different people - some attempt to use it for conversation - but it’s core offering was what are you doing NOW. There are various GPS driven services like GPSii and plazes all of which are let down slightly by a lack of persistent location services and uptake among peer groups. Fireeagle is also bridging the gap to allow a less dependent access to some level of location based services, no gps no problem - but the level of detail will be kilometers rather than meters. This becomes more relevant to mobile devices as their location is always changing - my computer is typically only at my desk or home, so the context is activity rather than location.
All these technical issues will erode over a short period of time, and then contextual experience will become the norm. My phone will know when I am at home - so it won’t notify me of work email. It will know when I am in a meeting so it will auto set to silent, and more importantly turn it back to alert after I’ve left. It will tell me 4 of my friends are in the area at lunchtime etc.
Add to this reputation services - How about as I walk down the street my phone can tell me there’s a really cool art exhibition on in a gallery down a little trodden side street - because one of my friends has been there and tagged it. Around the corner is a coffee shop with the best expresso in town and a record shop selling a rare 12 inch mix - and here’s a link to that artist to download and listen to now to other tracks. Oh and avoid that burger restaurant, the service is slow and the food terrible. This is not directory based content - it’s historical recommendations based on some previous contextual experience, that left its residue. So it has real value to me and me alone.
Things start to get really interesting now - there is a mix of historical reputation based information and contextual delivery of it.
I’ m excited.
