11-24-2016, 11:14 AM
ok - I have to preface this by saying that I am not going to be the one to bring this into actuation. Or even play a role in it. I am just seeing where the 'system' could be improved, and where it leads to genuine connecting and inter-relationships. And if my 'vision' has any widespread validity, then others will come to the same conclusion independently, and drive the move towards these collective changes. So that's just my preface: it's seeing where things are currently 'flawed', in my eyes, and how greater genuineness and connectivity is possible.
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Premise #1: Facebook is immensely popular. It is doing something right. But it's also not perfect. And there are grumblings from people that don't like how it's changed over the years. Maybe there were things in the earlier years, simpler things, which made it work better than it does now. So let's not through out the baby with the bathwater. Facebook can act as a template and a model for this new information future. It's just that it's unlikely that the change is going to come from inside that company itself. They are too blind to the needs - the genuine needs - of it's influential members.
But the Facebook model is a start.
#2: get rid of the collective newsfeed. In this new information model, you go to a person directly, and see their latest postings. There is no 'mushing up' of content, which somehow dilutes and diffuses everything (my opinion).
#3: there would be a move back to a tumblr style posting, but with a greater emphasis on the written word, rather than the image, which was tumblr's strength. However, we know that instagram is a very popular way of sharing (precisely because it's unique content, not regurgitated), and so I envision that there would be a mix of text (diary style), and photo content as being the main means of production.
#4 there would be some 'app' where you could see all the people/friends that you've followed. You can order the people in priority lists, with the people in the first priority group sitting at the top of the page, as floating heads, with a number next to their name, indicating how many new updates there are. Then so on for the #2 priority lists (your ordinary group of friends, rather than the significant others in group #1), and then so-on for group #3 etc. And so you always get the information from the people that you yourself have deemed the 'most important, relevant, and insightful' at the top.
#5 your content can be marked as "PUBLIC' which can be seen (and followed by anyone), or marked as "PRIVATE", and you can choose who is in the private list. So you always have full control over your sharing.
#6 there would of course be a server-based system in place; but ideally, there would be 'open content' rules in place. Similiar to how anyone can host a private blog or website on a server; or you can host on wordpress.com, as a more collective enterprise. But you would be able to 'poll' a server, similiar to how you poll a rss feed, to check for new updates. So no one company would be in control of Identity Management, or central storing of data.
#7 So this would be a distributed system, and both the creation of content, as well as the consuming of content has control based in the user. All that one would need to 'follow someone' would be that person's email address or phone number, which would be linked to a location for that person's contant. Not sure how that would be technologically implemented.
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So why is this better than facebook?
1) facebook controls your data. It controls how the data is displayed. It can limit certain kinds of data. It also controls the interface.
2) greater interpersonal intimacy. By focussing on one-to-one relationships, in terms of reading and consuming content, you are in a closer relational space to that individual. You are in their heads, following allowing with what they are conveying. And the people/authors/writers who can communicate with a more lucid language (similiar to how musicians can speak to millions), will have a naturally greater influence and 'following'. So that sounds like a bit like twitter ... but without the expression limitations of twitter, or the locked down ecosystem. Again, no news feed in my personal model.
3) again, my 'vision' is more about a slight (but crucial) tweaking of how things are consumed and presented, rather than saying the current models are entirely bankrupt and broken. But as we know, slight differences in presentation/modelling can create massive changes in how people experience a particular system. Some things are anti-user, and pro-corporation. My intent is much more pro-user, in terms of control and dissemination.
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I also appreciate that in some ways, Facebook could conceivably be 'brute-forced' to give the kind of behaviour that I am describing. But my premise is that we require a new information model of relating, rather than trying to change a corporation that already has a set agenda in terms of adulterating your newsfeed (with ads, useless notifications etc etc).
That is their base mindset, which is not ethically-oriented, at heart.
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so what I'm trying to say is that user-generated content is (and ever will be king). And that returning to some sort of distributed blogging model is the goal. Somehow linking one's email address/phone-number to an rss feed. So the identity of an individual becomes the primary means to find them, rather than their wordpress blog etc.
/ /
Premise #1: Facebook is immensely popular. It is doing something right. But it's also not perfect. And there are grumblings from people that don't like how it's changed over the years. Maybe there were things in the earlier years, simpler things, which made it work better than it does now. So let's not through out the baby with the bathwater. Facebook can act as a template and a model for this new information future. It's just that it's unlikely that the change is going to come from inside that company itself. They are too blind to the needs - the genuine needs - of it's influential members.
But the Facebook model is a start.
#2: get rid of the collective newsfeed. In this new information model, you go to a person directly, and see their latest postings. There is no 'mushing up' of content, which somehow dilutes and diffuses everything (my opinion).
#3: there would be a move back to a tumblr style posting, but with a greater emphasis on the written word, rather than the image, which was tumblr's strength. However, we know that instagram is a very popular way of sharing (precisely because it's unique content, not regurgitated), and so I envision that there would be a mix of text (diary style), and photo content as being the main means of production.
#4 there would be some 'app' where you could see all the people/friends that you've followed. You can order the people in priority lists, with the people in the first priority group sitting at the top of the page, as floating heads, with a number next to their name, indicating how many new updates there are. Then so on for the #2 priority lists (your ordinary group of friends, rather than the significant others in group #1), and then so-on for group #3 etc. And so you always get the information from the people that you yourself have deemed the 'most important, relevant, and insightful' at the top.
#5 your content can be marked as "PUBLIC' which can be seen (and followed by anyone), or marked as "PRIVATE", and you can choose who is in the private list. So you always have full control over your sharing.
#6 there would of course be a server-based system in place; but ideally, there would be 'open content' rules in place. Similiar to how anyone can host a private blog or website on a server; or you can host on wordpress.com, as a more collective enterprise. But you would be able to 'poll' a server, similiar to how you poll a rss feed, to check for new updates. So no one company would be in control of Identity Management, or central storing of data.
#7 So this would be a distributed system, and both the creation of content, as well as the consuming of content has control based in the user. All that one would need to 'follow someone' would be that person's email address or phone number, which would be linked to a location for that person's contant. Not sure how that would be technologically implemented.
/ /
So why is this better than facebook?
1) facebook controls your data. It controls how the data is displayed. It can limit certain kinds of data. It also controls the interface.
2) greater interpersonal intimacy. By focussing on one-to-one relationships, in terms of reading and consuming content, you are in a closer relational space to that individual. You are in their heads, following allowing with what they are conveying. And the people/authors/writers who can communicate with a more lucid language (similiar to how musicians can speak to millions), will have a naturally greater influence and 'following'. So that sounds like a bit like twitter ... but without the expression limitations of twitter, or the locked down ecosystem. Again, no news feed in my personal model.
3) again, my 'vision' is more about a slight (but crucial) tweaking of how things are consumed and presented, rather than saying the current models are entirely bankrupt and broken. But as we know, slight differences in presentation/modelling can create massive changes in how people experience a particular system. Some things are anti-user, and pro-corporation. My intent is much more pro-user, in terms of control and dissemination.
/ /
I also appreciate that in some ways, Facebook could conceivably be 'brute-forced' to give the kind of behaviour that I am describing. But my premise is that we require a new information model of relating, rather than trying to change a corporation that already has a set agenda in terms of adulterating your newsfeed (with ads, useless notifications etc etc).
That is their base mindset, which is not ethically-oriented, at heart.
/ /
so what I'm trying to say is that user-generated content is (and ever will be king). And that returning to some sort of distributed blogging model is the goal. Somehow linking one's email address/phone-number to an rss feed. So the identity of an individual becomes the primary means to find them, rather than their wordpress blog etc.
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