Leisa Reichelt (disambiguity.com) - Ambient Intimacy
Posted by rmp at 13:18 5th Oct 2007
Leisa presents an enjoyable voyage through cognitive psychology and the social network scene. Makes me wish I'd taken more of the psych options as part of my computer science degree.
ref: http://graphpaper.com/
Personal information bandwidth & learning speed has increased.
New, lightweight yet extremely powerful means of communication represent ambient intimacy - a personal social platform. This isn't one to one messaging or one to the masses broadcasting, it's pushing messages into a defined area (multicast if you will). It represents the creation of a techno-social system beyond personal interaction - a more continuous interpersonal awareness.
In his book, "Grooming, gossip and the evolution of language", Dunbar describes how better social understanding leads to evolutionary growth of brains, improvement of language and better flexibility when competing for shared resources (food, sex etc.).
This intercommunication is largely a phatic expressiveness for virtual spaces.
In linguistics a phatic expression is one whose only function is to perform a social task.
The phrase "continual partial friendship" coined by David Weinberger describes the almost permanent interconnectedness and friendship users feel when part of a collective virtual community built on these sorts of communication media.
"It's not about being poked and prodded, it's about exposing more surface area for others to connect with" - Johnnie Moore
New media (mobile 'phones, the internet) overcome geographical dislocation.
But it's often a love/hate thing (ref: http://twitter.com/ ) and can also cause problems with cognitive dissonance with false human interaction. Interacting virtually the subconsciousness is devoid of its usual cues - facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, resulting in unnatural stress.
The other problem associated is information overload - "infomania dents IQ more than marijuana"
- anticipated reciprocity
- reputation
- sense of efficacy
- identification with a group
ref: tom coates' presentation on social software
It has been noted that a social networks' pooled knowledge makes the whole network grow smarter. I'd personally take this further and suggest that any open data, social or otherwise but particularly in scientific contexts, makes the network grow smarter. ref: PLoS
As developers we need to support ambient intimacy. Applications need to be sympathetic to the fact that we as people are easily distracted. They need to be undemanding but intrusive enough to increase awareness of events.
- keep it lightweight
- stay out of the way
- open your API
- portable social networks
- use the periphery - antithesis of classical interface development/design
- allow for time-shifting
ref: twitterific
(0 comments)
No comments. Atom