I've been thinking about pda's the way you do: a personal memory extension.
I want my device to record my whole day. When I say something it is recorded. When you say something it is recorded. It will be like having a transcript of everything and everyone that has touched my life. My pda actually streams my daily blog to my home computer's 1 petabyte hard drive.
My pda's basic organizational structure is based on its bookmarking feature. At any point while my pda is running, merrily recording my ambient life, i can invoke the bookmark command. The bookmark command basically creates a timestamped bookmark for that point in time. The bookmark allows me to playback the recording (or perhaps a structured transcript) as of the time when the bookmark was created.
So what is it good for? First it really does act like a memory extension to yourself. Second, it functions a little like a truth machine: because you've created an audit trail of your conversations, you don't really need contracts: you can shake hands. If someone lies, you can prove it. But perhaps its most important feature is that it protects you: if someone jumps you, you've recorded it, and you can proabably find the person and prosecute. Or if the cop pulled you over, you can be sure he will behave because he knows you are recording..
The technology behind this is not all that far fetched. Here's the infrastructure you need:
High wireless bandwith: say around 1Mbit/sec
Voice recognition software to parse out the spoken words: (this software probably runs on your home computer
Umm.., add your own..
Okay, this stuff would be a little wacky. But so what? It could be fun..
If you find the idea agreeable, talk to me about starting a project: I'd like to help;-)
It seems every day I see a new incarnation of the issue of making public documents (e.g. deeds, birth certificates) available on the web raised in news stories. Most of the time, after some outcry from people with some legitimate concerns, a decision is made to somehow limit the availability of the public information by taking it off the web. This is a short term solution at best.
The solution (keeping some kinds of public information off the web) is based on a new notion that there are shades of accessibility to public information. You can't just click through to the information; you've got to move your lazy ass off your seat, away from your blessed screen, and into the court house halfway across the country. And of course, applying the logic of capitalism, you can always find someone to pay who will do it for you. In other words, to get some types of public information you must pay for them one way or another. These concocted shades of information accessibility suggest the idea of imposing some sort of a cost function separating different nuggets information. In the case of public information archived at the court house, its physical distance governs its cost.
But on the web, any two pages are separated by something like zero distance. Any piece of information is more-or-less as accessible as any other. There is and cannot be any notion of shades of information accessibility on the web.
Once a nugget of information enters (or leaks into) this public domain, it remains forever publicly accessible. And as search tools improve this information becomes more and more equally accessible. The quasi-public limbo status of information at the court house, I think, does not apply to the web. When you put something on the web (if its useful) it becomes public, a fait accompli.
If the rules of the web rather than the rules of the court house are to govern the future, then perhaps there will be only two kinds of knowledge: the public and the secret. And almost nothing in between.
Are we prepared for such a world? Or do you think we are heading in some other direction?
Slashdot Mirror
I want my device to record my whole day. When I say something it is recorded. When you say something it is recorded. It will be like having a transcript of everything and everyone that has touched my life. My pda actually streams my daily blog to my home computer's 1 petabyte hard drive.
My pda's basic organizational structure is based on its bookmarking feature. At any point while my pda is running, merrily recording my ambient life, i can invoke the bookmark command. The bookmark command basically creates a timestamped bookmark for that point in time. The bookmark allows me to playback the recording (or perhaps a structured transcript) as of the time when the bookmark was created.
So what is it good for? First it really does act like a memory extension to yourself. Second, it functions a little like a truth machine: because you've created an audit trail of your conversations, you don't really need contracts: you can shake hands. If someone lies, you can prove it. But perhaps its most important feature is that it protects you: if someone jumps you, you've recorded it, and you can proabably find the person and prosecute. Or if the cop pulled you over, you can be sure he will behave because he knows you are recording ..
The technology behind this is not all that far fetched. Here's the infrastructure you need:
Okay, this stuff would be a little wacky. But so what? It could be fun .. ;-)
If you find the idea agreeable, talk to me about starting a project: I'd like to help
The solution (keeping some kinds of public information off the web) is based on a new notion that there are shades of accessibility to public information. You can't just click through to the information; you've got to move your lazy ass off your seat, away from your blessed screen, and into the court house halfway across the country. And of course, applying the logic of capitalism, you can always find someone to pay who will do it for you. In other words, to get some types of public information you must pay for them one way or another. These concocted shades of information accessibility suggest the idea of imposing some sort of a cost function separating different nuggets information. In the case of public information archived at the court house, its physical distance governs its cost.
But on the web, any two pages are separated by something like zero distance. Any piece of information is more-or-less as accessible as any other. There is and cannot be any notion of shades of information accessibility on the web. Once a nugget of information enters (or leaks into) this public domain, it remains forever publicly accessible. And as search tools improve this information becomes more and more equally accessible. The quasi-public limbo status of information at the court house, I think, does not apply to the web. When you put something on the web (if its useful) it becomes public, a fait accompli.
If the rules of the web rather than the rules of the court house are to govern the future, then perhaps there will be only two kinds of knowledge: the public and the secret. And almost nothing in between.
Are we prepared for such a world? Or do you think we are heading in some other direction?