1. Execellent short documentary on the physical infrastructure of the Internet. Focuses on 60 Hudson Street in New York City, a major hub of Internet connectivity.

  2. On Emerging Themes of Digital Production and Consumption

    Over the past months, I’ve been reading several books on consumption, culture, design, and the environment. Before I close out the bulk of my secondary research, I want to highlight a few emerging themes regarding our digital production and consumption habits. (I still have to read The Information by James Gleick and Glut by Alex Wright)

    I. Either Never Satisfied or Always Curious

    “Our inventions are but improved means to an unimproved end”, as Neil Postman paraphrases Henry David Thoreau in Technopoly. A lofty statement, but one that addresses a fundamental question underlying the torrent of technological advancement in the last 20 years - where is all this headed? While some believe the innovations in technology are leading to a singularity as futurist Raymond Kurzweil proposes, other thought leaders question the insatiable demand for new information and our dissatisfaction with the here and now.

    John Thackara, author of In The Bubble, illustrates our growing dissatisfaction with the analogy of a boy, sitting under a tree, looking out over a landscape. In one case, the boy exists before the invention of the internet, cellphones, pagers; the other case describes the boy existing now. Which boy is more thoughtful in the moment, satisfied with the solitude of thought? Those not part of the Millennial generation might agree with the latter. Some, such as writer Clive Thompson, argues otherwise, saying the boy is actively seeking inspiration to share rather than waiting for some serendipitous apple to drop.

    With his analogy, Thackara references the Italian concept of dolce far niente, describing one’s ability to find pleasure in idleness, literally meaning “sweet doing nothing”. Elizabeth Gilbert also writes about the concept in her book, Eat, Pray, Love. Both authors question whether we can enjoy a moment to ourselves without being able to communicate that feeling to others. In On Paradise Drive, David Brooks criticizes Americans who have never been satisfied with what they have and who are constantly pursuing the next best thing. Applied to our various communication devices, are we loosing our ability to be satisfied with our current place in life by chasing digital bits of potential affirmation?

    II. Seamlessness and Time

    A longtime priority of interaction designers has been to erase the boundaries between experiences with technology, i.e. create a seamless experience. This can range from how easily a user can charge or sync an iPod with his/her computer to the consistency of content design across devices (phone, tablet, computer, television). A fundamental promise of technology: save the user from the drudgery of tasks and make the ones required of them easier.

    In Everywhere, Adam Greenfield points out that, as does computer scientist Mark Weiser, seamlessness can make experiences, “hard to tell when one thing ends and something else begins”. Think of it this way: where and when can you check your email? text or call a friend? Practically anywhere. With this ubiquitous power, our divisions of time – work time, family time, play time – are removed. Thackera also warns that even the design of our spaces can make our bodies, “physically desensitized from its sense of time”. Moreover, Postman laments that the promise of technology is to give us more time by accomplishing tasks faster, “Time, in fact, became an adversary over which technology could triumph.”

    Our attempts to create efficiencies with technology and task completion begets more space for other activities; this space however is often filled with more of the same activity – a consequence described as the rebound effect. The concept explains as technology allows easier access and faster use of a resource (time), the more of that resource is used. The effect leaves us wondering where all our time went.

    III. Information as Metaphor: Water, Garbage, Food

    Open access to a seemingly infinite amount of information is often framed as metaphor. In The Middle Mind, Curtis White describes the abundance of information as a deluge, leaving us to drown in sea of entertainment and communication when all we wanted was a drink. Postman moves up the pessimism scale, declaring, “Information has become a form of garbage”. Beyond subjectivity, his point is reinforced with the advent of content farms – creating content on a mass scale as quickly as possible to seed hundreds of websites for daily use, only to then be forgotten and “thrown away” into a far off database.

    The most consistent metaphor used is information as food. Douglas Rushkoff quotes Shakespeare in his Frontline report, Digital Nation, saying “we are consumed by that we are nourished”. The more quickly we snack on tiny morsels of information [sic], the more our ideas are shaped into bursts of disconnected thought. In his report, Rushkoff points out as undergraduate college students produce and consume information through endless multi-tasking, their ability to defend a thoughtful, consistent argument in an essay is diminished. Gone are the days musing by Walden Pond.

    Exploring similar themes in his new book, The Information Diet, Clay Johnson states, “information consumption is as active an experience as eating”, equating our cravings for salt, fat, and sugar in cheap foods with our desire for affirmation. By quickly viewing and sharing information, we fall prey to our desires of affirmation and recognition (as many media companies have learned), resulting in “information obesity”. Similarly, this rapid, cyclical behavior leads Microsoft researcher danah boyd to describe social media as being the “psychological equivalent of obesity”.

    IV. The Cloud as a Virtual Attic and Digital Hoarding

    While Postman describes information as garbage, more and more it seems to be something we can stash away in our cloud. Given the amount of storage available for various cloud-based services (generally advertised as being “unlimited”), producing and saving information is effortless. We are no longer limited by available storage on our computers and devices; we can save our digital content on nearly infinite levels. For example, as of today, I’m only using 88 MB of 7,671 MB available to me on my GMail account. Why delete an email when I can just have it on hand?

    To me, this is a form of hoarding – saving items of little or no utility for the chance of *possible* use in the future. Seemingly irrational, our digital lifestyle has become a paradox of loss aversion, a decision theory determined by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. Loss aversion states that we can make decisions based on our desire to avoid loss rather than acquire gains; fears of loosing our digital information forever can be alleviated by storing that information in the cloud. In his classic routine, George Carlin jokes that our homes are just places to store all our stuff. I would argue that our cloud-based services are not only means to access our content anywhere, but are actually digital attics where we can just store all our stuff.

    V. Conspicuous Consumption vs. Conspicuous Production

    Way back in 2001, David Brooks wrote Bobos in Paradise, which described a new upper class of now grey-haired bohemians who express their values with a bourgeois budget. It’s not enough to eat “morally neutral sausages”; Bobos must eat sausage made from local, free-range pork using a recipe passed down through the generations, costing far more than any offering from Jimmy Dean. ”Shopping, like everything else, has become a means of self-exploration and self-expression”, he writes. Through conspicuous consumption, we display our values and beliefs.

    It is now 2012. Our consumption as communicating success has shifted to boasting through production of content. We are all our own PR firm and with the tools of social media, we can broadcast our lives and interests with a simple click or tap. This sentiment is echoed by Kickstarter co-founder Yancy Strickler and entrepreneur Zach Klein in a recent post, pointing out that conspicuous production is now our means for transmitting values. With every upload and post, we are not only showing the world what we have or what we find interesting, but we are also searching for affirmation. I doubt anyone would continue to post content without feedback from friends, family, or strangers.

    In another book by David Brooks, The Social Animal, he mentions the ancient Greek concept of thumos: the human desire for recognition of one’s own existence. With today’s social media tools, our ability to fulfill our own personal thumos is for the taking (or clicking); but the question remains – if everyone is seeking recognition, can we all respond to one another despite the cacophony of requests?

    VI. Starting to Lean Back

    Apple founder Steve Jobs, in addressing a conference, said, “We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on.” What Jobs is referring to is the notion of “hot” and “cool” media, a concept first introduced by the late theorist Marshall McLuhan (also recently covered by Paul Ford in our Content Strategy class). “Hot” media are highly defined mediums which engage one sense of the viewer and require very little participation. On the other hand, “cool” media are low definition mediums that demand more viewer participation and require more attention.

    Another closely related classification of media are “lean-forward” and “lean-back” mediums. Television is a “lean-back” medium where viewers want to be entertained and are in a relaxed, passive state. In “lean-forward” mediums, the Internet, for example, viewers are more engaged users of the medium and are in a more active state. But as Eli Pariser points out in The Filter Bubble, the Internet is becoming a “lean-back” medium.

    Increasingly, we are watching more video content online. In fact, nearly a third of all Internet traffic is from watching movies and shows on Netflix. Both YouTube and Vimeo have recognized this trend and designed LeanBack and Couch Mode features respectively, so users can watch content on a television or by simply “leaning-back” in a chair. Notwithstanding online video content, our Internet tools and apps allow us to sort through and parse vast amounts of information, easing the burden of search. This does not sound bad at all, but Eli Pariser warns, “as personalized filtering gets better and better, the amount of energy we’ll have to devote to choosing what we’d like to see will continue to decrease.”

    References:

    Brooks, David. Bobos In Paradise. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

    Brooks, David. On Paradise Drive. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.

    Brooks, David. The Social Animal. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011.

    Clive Thompson, “The Instagram Effect,” Wired, January 2012. link

    Douglas Rushkoff. “Digital Nation,” Frontline. Produced by Rachel Dretzin. Boston, MA: WGBH Studios, 2010. link

    Greenfield, Adam. Everywhere. Berkley: New Riders, 2006.

    Johnson, Clay. The Information Diet. Sebastopol: O’Reilly, 2012.

    McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994.

    Nancy Miller, “Manifesto for a New Age,” Wired, March 2007. link

    Pariser, Eli. The Filter Bubble. New York: The Penguin Press, 2011.

    Peter Svensson, “Netflix’s Internet traffic overtakes Web surfing” MSNBC. May 17, 2011. accessed January 18, 2011. link

    Postman, Neil. Technolopy. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.

    Thackera, John. In the Bubble. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006.

    White, Curtis. The Middle Mind. New York: HarperOne, 2003.

  3. Above is a cybernetic model of TCP/IP protocol in the context of sending or receiving a 50 KB photo. The TCP/IP protocol functions as a comparator - a component of a closed-loop system that compares information coming from a sensor to the system goal. In the case of TCP/IP, the protocol checks if a data transmission (divided into packets) is complete and assembled in the right order; anything less than completion and the protocol can request for parts of that data to be transmitted again. This exercise seeks to determine the what of my thesis, the content; it does not necessarily refer to the overall topic, but the actual category and detail of content so as to define the why, how, who for, who by, where, and when. This exercise is not a linear process where defining what first is necessary, rather to grasp exactly what is being studied, however granular. On pursuing a thesis about the environmental effects of cloud-based computing, I need to better understand what I am measuring as well as the infrastructure (so I can determine where and when is the best point for intervention). The what in my case is data - little bits of 0’s and 1’s that live on your hard drive, and are subsequently stored and transmitted by remote server(s). The more data, the more energy consumed by the server. Data is measured in bits and bytes (8-bits); you’ve most likely seen the data on your computer in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). When you send any type of data over the Internet such as an email, photo, or gchat message, your data is divided up into packets. On average, the size of these packets are 576 bytes or 4,608 bits, and consist of a header and trailer, with the data in between. You may or may not know that your computer has an IP (Internet Protocol) address - a unique numerical identifier for every device on a network. Even websites have IP addresses. The header of each data packet would contain information on the origin or sending IP address, destination or receiving IP address, and total size of the packet. The trailer of each data packet would contain information on how many packets there are and in what order to reassemble them back into the original data. If I were to send a friend a 50 KB photo, the photo would be broken up into approximately 87 IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) data packets and then sent out across the Internet. The TCP/IP protocol checks if any packets are missing, request packets from the sending computer, and notify the sender that the transmission is complete. This operation of error checking is called cyclic redundancy checking and used by networked devices when sending and receiving transmissions. Direct transmission of data, which can be ineffiecient and take time (think of a landline phone call), is an obsolete method of transmission for the Internet. However, due to the non-linear nature of the IP protocol, a Google search request for example is not handled by one server, but by several, to give faster, more relevant results. There is acutally a carbon footprint estimated by Google for the average search request: about 0.2 grams of CO2. Along with the power a laptop consumes, Mike Berners-Lee estimates a Google search creates 0.7 grams of CO2. Multiply that by the 200 to 500 million search requests per day, and Google searching actually accounts for 1.3 million tons of CO2 emissions per year. References: Berners-Lee, Mike. How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything. Vancouver: Greystone, 2011. “Bit” definition, Wikipedia, accessed December 18, 2011. link Ethan Zuckerman and Andrew McLaughlin, “Introduction to Internet Architecture and Institutions,” August, 2003, accessed December 18, 2011. link Greg Ferro, “Average IP Packet Size,” Ethereal Mind, March 18, 2010, accessed December 18, 2011. link Hugh Dubberly and Paul Pangaro, “Introduction to Cybernetics and the Design of Systems,” January 2010. “Network packet” definition, Wikipedia, accessed December 18, 2011. link Swanson, Joe. Interview by author. Written notes. Cambridge, MA.,  November 20, 2011. Urs Hölzle, “Powering a Google Search,” Google Blog, January 1, 2009, accessed December 3, 2011. link

    Above is a cybernetic model of TCP/IP protocol in the context of sending or receiving a 50 KB photo. The TCP/IP protocol functions as a comparator - a component of a closed-loop system that compares information coming from a sensor to the system goal. In the case of TCP/IP, the protocol checks if a data transmission (divided into packets) is complete and assembled in the right order; anything less than completion and the protocol can request for parts of that data to be transmitted again.

    This exercise seeks to determine the what of my thesis, the content; it does not necessarily refer to the overall topic, but the actual category and detail of content so as to define the why, how, who for, who by, where, and when. This exercise is not a linear process where defining what first is necessary, rather to grasp exactly what is being studied, however granular.

    On pursuing a thesis about the environmental effects of cloud-based computing, I need to better understand what I am measuring as well as the infrastructure (so I can determine where and when is the best point for intervention). The what in my case is data - little bits of 0’s and 1’s that live on your hard drive, and are subsequently stored and transmitted by remote server(s). The more data, the more energy consumed by the server.

    Data is measured in bits and bytes (8-bits); you’ve most likely seen the data on your computer in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). When you send any type of data over the Internet such as an email, photo, or gchat message, your data is divided up into packets. On average, the size of these packets are 576 bytes or 4,608 bits, and consist of a header and trailer, with the data in between. You may or may not know that your computer has an IP (Internet Protocol) address - a unique numerical identifier for every device on a network. Even websites have IP addresses. The header of each data packet would contain information on the origin or sending IP address, destination or receiving IP address, and total size of the packet. The trailer of each data packet would contain information on how many packets there are and in what order to reassemble them back into the original data.

    If I were to send a friend a 50 KB photo, the photo would be broken up into approximately 87 IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) data packets and then sent out across the Internet. The TCP/IP protocol checks if any packets are missing, request packets from the sending computer, and notify the sender that the transmission is complete. This operation of error checking is called cyclic redundancy checking and used by networked devices when sending and receiving transmissions.

    Direct transmission of data, which can be ineffiecient and take time (think of a landline phone call), is an obsolete method of transmission for the Internet. However, due to the non-linear nature of the IP protocol, a Google search request for example is not handled by one server, but by several, to give faster, more relevant results. There is acutally a carbon footprint estimated by Google for the average search request: about 0.2 grams of CO2. Along with the power a laptop consumes, Mike Berners-Lee estimates a Google search creates 0.7 grams of CO2. Multiply that by the 200 to 500 million search requests per day, and Google searching actually accounts for 1.3 million tons of CO2 emissions per year.

    References:

    Berners-Lee, Mike. How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything. Vancouver: Greystone, 2011.

    “Bit” definition, Wikipedia, accessed December 18, 2011. link

    Ethan Zuckerman and Andrew McLaughlin, “Introduction to Internet Architecture and Institutions,” August, 2003, accessed December 18, 2011. link

    Greg Ferro, “Average IP Packet Size,” Ethereal Mind, March 18, 2010, accessed December 18, 2011. link

    Hugh Dubberly and Paul Pangaro, “Introduction to Cybernetics and the Design of Systems,” January 2010.

    “Network packet” definition, Wikipedia, accessed December 18, 2011. link

    Swanson, Joe. Interview by author. Written notes. Cambridge, MA.,  November 20, 2011.

    Urs Hölzle, “Powering a Google Search,” Google Blog, January 1, 2009, accessed December 3, 2011. link

  4. New technologies alter the structure of our interests: the things we think about. They alter the character of our symbols: the things we think with. And they alter the nature of community: the arena in which thoughts develop.

    — Neil Postman

  5. Hallelujah for the Internet

    Caveat: As with all commentary to any post of media, there is always something lost in translation.

    Michael Yap sent me a link to a reddit post on how wonderful the Internet is for kids ages 12-17 who think to themselves, “Maybe there isn’t a God, but everyone but me believes in one. Wait, thank God (pun) for the Internet!” The author goes on to describe the wondrous advantage of instant access to an infinite catalog of alternative views on religion, coaching the youngins to seize the opportunity to “opt out of superstitions… by continuing to open up lines of communication.” Yes, let’s forget “generations upon generations” of core belief systems with an instant download of information.

    While I shouldn’t brush aside the impact of being able to watch Chistopher Hitchens on YouTube as a release to being dragged to church every Sunday, I do question the utility and effectiveness of consuming and discussing deep beliefs via reddit. Is what is happening on reddit really “open communication”? Is there more discussion or more consumption? I would think the latter. A child finding solace in knowing that somewhere out there, people hold beliefs in opposition to their naysayers does hold value; it can hardly be construed as communication, more so affirmation. Like the author, I hope for more external dialogue and an exchange of ideas around the realization of why and how there is no God rather than the epiphany there is none.

  6. When I think of interpersonal communication, I see a gap being bridged between a sender and a receiver. For example, distance is a gap. If you are sitting right in front of me, it is fairly easy, fairly quick to send a message to you (I say “hi”). The gap gets more and more difficult to bridge as the distance increases. I can’t just send you my message by yelling if you’re a few miles away - I have to figure out a way to get my message from A, where I’m located, to B, where you are located. Back in the day, and I’m talking way back in the day, distance could only be bridged by a person transporting a physical or memorized message. This took more time as distance increased. It could be days, even weeks, before you would receive my message. Ingenuity and technology have of course bridged that gap, “bringing us closer” as the saying goes with any cellphone company. But we have more recently seen development of communication technology that moves away from utility, and move closer to fodder. I believe the way in which we develop communication technology is like spilling a glass of water on a table - filling all cracks and crevices, covering the entire table. In a recent article by Scott Jensen, he is concerned that as we create utility to fill the small cracks and crevices, we only create a greater need for technological solutions to quell cognitive overload and calm user anxiety. Gaps in time and space are being filled without much thinking about the consequences of the bridges being made, or if there is need for them at all. New channels, such as Twitter or Instagram, facilitate an ability to communicate information immediately about experiences as they happen to a mass audience. Arab Spring aside, I question the utility of subdividing my interests, friends, and experiences into more subdivided categories that are filled with apps and bookmarklets.

    When I think of interpersonal communication, I see a gap being bridged between a sender and a receiver. For example, distance is a gap. If you are sitting right in front of me, it is fairly easy, fairly quick to send a message to you (I say “hi”). The gap gets more and more difficult to bridge as the distance increases. I can’t just send you my message by yelling if you’re a few miles away - I have to figure out a way to get my message from A, where I’m located, to B, where you are located.

    Back in the day, and I’m talking way back in the day, distance could only be bridged by a person transporting a physical or memorized message. This took more time as distance increased. It could be days, even weeks, before you would receive my message. Ingenuity and technology have of course bridged that gap, “bringing us closer” as the saying goes with any cellphone company. But we have more recently seen development of communication technology that moves away from utility, and move closer to fodder. I believe the way in which we develop communication technology is like spilling a glass of water on a table - filling all cracks and crevices, covering the entire table.

    In a recent article by Scott Jensen, he is concerned that as we create utility to fill the small cracks and crevices, we only create a greater need for technological solutions to quell cognitive overload and calm user anxiety. Gaps in time and space are being filled without much thinking about the consequences of the bridges being made, or if there is need for them at all. New channels, such as Twitter or Instagram, facilitate an ability to communicate information immediately about experiences as they happen to a mass audience. Arab Spring aside, I question the utility of subdividing my interests, friends, and experiences into more subdivided categories that are filled with apps and bookmarklets.