HyperConnected Beings
from social web to networked consciousness
by kevin lim // cyberculturalist // theory.isthereason.com // 02.02.09

yo, a/s/l?

31 / guy / guest
lecturing for the lulz

...where else I exist?

then I started to realize

...merge my physical and
virtual identities.

...so I try the “high road”

First Person Shooter - Cinéma vérité

Snow Crash’s Metaverse

Cyberpunk thriller: Strange Days (1995)

Steve Mann: First Known Cyborg

Justin Kan (justin.tv)
real-time, socially augmented experiences

Gordon Bell of Microsoft
(memory prosthetic)

How did I go about it?

!
The Digital Divide in terms of video media literacy
(Stavchansky, 2006)

Small cheap storage
Lightweight sensors
Ubiquitous wireless networks
Better information retrieval
Steve Whittaker - http://dis.shef.ac.uk/stevewhittaker

Personal (Visual) Experience
Storage Requirement
1 hour of video on a
DVD = 2.5 Gbytes
Average # hours lived
= 600,000 hours
Total number of bytes
is approximately 1500
Terabytes
(~1.5 x 1015 bytes)
Michael Lesk (1999)
http://www.lesk.com/mlesk/ksg97/ksg.html

How do I search
past experiences?

Generating video thumbnails

Tagging video keyframes
e.g. Viddler.com

Geo-tagging video keyframes
e.g. Seero.com

Omron face detection

Face Detection / Chaptering
e.g. Polar Rose’s Video Faces

Emergent Affordances...

memory prosthetic
ambient intimacy
crowdsourcing
self-awareness
security

BUT...

VIDEO =
high cognitive bandwidth

TEXT =
low cognitive bandwidth

We should also
consider the “low road”...

What’s synchronous and
widely accessible today?

April 2008

Twitter Friends Browser
http://www.neuroproductions.be/

1st Buffalo Tweetup @ 29th Mar 2008

Why do we use twitter?

On Ambient Intimacy
Leisa Reichelt coined the
term “ambient intimacy”
(Mar 2007)
Describes the genre of social
computing apps led by
Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce.
Refers to the constant sense
of closeness users feel with
their circle of friends through
technologies that informally
Leisa Reichelt reveal us to each other.
http://www.disambiguity.com/ambient-intimacy/

On Ambient Intimacy
“Ambient intimacy is about
being able to keep in touch
with people with a level of
regularity and intimacy that
you wouldn’t usually have
access to, because time and
space conspire to make it
impossible.”
Leisa Reichelt http://www.disambiguity.com/ambient-intimacy/

On Ambient Intimacy
Russian linguist Mikhail
Bakhtin called “the phatic
function.” Like saying “what’s
up?” as you pass someone in
the hall.
Mizuko Ito described the
same light, low-content text
message circles existing
among Japanese teens.
Leisa Reichelt
http://www.disambiguity.com/ambient-intimacy/

Does twitter extend the
realm of self to strangers?

Twitter gravities include,
celebrities, influencers,
major events.

Sichuan Earthquake @ 12th May 2008
http://www.citizen20.co.uk/news_earthquake.html

Can twitter mobilize users?

Collective Intelligence
“the capacity of a human community to evolve toward
higher order complexity thought, problem-solving and
integration through collaboration and innovation.”
- George Por

On Coordination
twitter = low-complexity coordination

Why is twitter pervasive,
or even addictive?

Using Game Mechanics
Five Game Mechanics
1. Collecting
2. Earning Points
3. Feedback
Amy Jo Kim
Creative Director
4. Exchanges
ShuffleBrain
5. Customization

Using Game Mechanics
“I see a game mechanics
working well on sites like
YouTube, Yelp, Twitter, and
Flickster. [...] like points,
leaderboards, level-ups, social
Amy Jo Kim exchanges, and customization
Creative Director
to a strong core experience.”
ShuffleBrain

Visible Scoreboard

No. of clicks
on your links

This is just the
tip of the iceberg.

Plenty of ground to explore.
Time for your questions.

Thank you
Reach me via twitter at @brainopera