2004-02-10

Transcendent Interactions: Collaborative Contexts and Relationship-based
Computing
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2004/view/e_sess/4785


"Don't build applications. Build contexts for interaction."

Horton Plaza by the hotel is part of an entertainment movement in architecture,
all about immersion. You get captured by the building. It's confusing. And
online, it's the same. [Websites are sticky.]

[this is yet another talk with beautiful slides. This, Fluidtime, and Bonabeau.
Yum.]

The most expressive forms of play involve improvisation and sharing: they're
about building collaborative, ephemeral experiences.

design goal for GNE: not to be an island on the internet. be part of it,
bridges. A badge that would send messages between websites and notes in the
game. Or a neighbourhood browser, like a dynamic blogroll, that can easily be
included on a webpage. Transposing relationships between the game and weblogs.

Not app based, not doc based, but relationship-based computing.

[i'm not even note taking here. they're launching flickr and capturing in
software a slice of what we've all been talking about over the last 2 years.]

Applications, like architecture, can shut down possibility.

Fluid contexts for interaction are where rich social systems arise.

slides available at ludicorp.com

q: is it social networks or access control lists? architecture or relationships?
there's a disconnect.

ben: it's about the spaces between applications. let information start flowing
between them. APIs. application that use this same "social lensing". [now I'd
say that's where the social networks come in. without relationships there's no
space: you share entirely (web) or not at all (my pocket). but with
relationships you're defining a space, a locality. and that's the true value of
the social network -- not the social bit, but the network which defines a space
(and in real life we use space as a heuristic to social distance, so it's good,
it's getting to the heart of the matter). now we got a space we can share, it's
possible, it's doable. the universe needs distance in order to solve various
problem (to hide mistakes, to attenuate side effects, to allow affordability:
the affordances of distance are many). and this is distance online, and this is
the first thing it makes possible. wicked. i see it now.]

nice q from matt jones: when we went to doc based computing, tasks got cast into
that model. how will current uses get refactoried for relationship based
computing?

ben: we're both architecting a new way of view on documents (who is this for,
who has touched this), but also how we're using computing is changing.

nice reciprocity in flickr: acquaintances seem to be two-way. but if you don't
promote them to a friend they eventually drop off your list. nice.

good question: can you selectively tell some people that you're not
participating in invitations. [that is, can you lie for politeness. that would
be really useful. and more like life.]