Category: Web 2.0

The Death of ” Digital”.

On By Beyond DigitalIn Balance, digital life, digital literacy, information technology, International School IT, leadership, School, Web 2.02 Comments
Santa Cruz California
Santa Cruz California

Words are a powerful vehicle for meaning and understanding,  connected to individual or group perspectives, interpretations,  and connections. The word “Digital” has been part of our vocabulary landscape for a long time.  It was only after reading Nicholas Negroponte’s  book, “Being Digital” in 1995, that I began to be aware of the term and its impact on the world to come, but in 2014, the word “digital”  has now blended itself into the daily fabric of our lives. When we think of the word “digital”, it creates a sense of disconnect from our world and implies that the digital world is a separate part of our reality. However, this is no longer true. Our lives are so embedded within this digital realm that the two have become inseparable. So, I invite us to use a new set of vocabularies to frame this paradigm:  Appliances, Utilities, Information Flows, Ethics and Algorithms.

Appliances are the consumables that we connect and interact with (laptops, phones, tablets, GPS, and other hardware). These tools have become the default to our connectedness; disposable and with each new version more seamless, simple and integrated.

Utilities frame our day to day interactions. These social medias, networks, email, RSS, professional learning networks and Web 2.0/ 3.0 tools have become the architectural  framework of communication and information for our connected world.

Information flows are the 150,000,000 Blogs posted a year, 5 million tweets per day, 200,000 videos uploaded on YouTube daily, and the petabytes of information created, aggregated, shared, and circulated daily around the earth.

Ethics is the why, how, when, where and who of our digital footprint in today’s world. It is the wide ranging issues from Killer Robots to the impact of a Filter Bubble (where search, news, and information algorithms choreograph what information types we get based on our personal browsing habits). The curation of our online and offline privacy as governments, corporations, and organizations juggle a treasure trove of information created by our respective digital footprints, is the new ethical dilemma we all deal with, as individuals, groups and as societies at large.

Algorithms are the backbone to the intelligent softwares that inhabit the engine of the internet. These are predictive, anticipatory, intelligent and analytical. The are the lifeblood of the internet ecosystems for individuals, governments, corporations, and organizations which then create, develop, build, facilitate, monitor, analyze, synthesize and evaluate our day to day interactions. The algorithms have become the life line to the information flows, ethics, utilities and appliances.

These words are not the definitive list, but reflect a vocabulary we use both from our past and present. They highlight how the “digital” world is ingrained in our daily lives, to the point we often are not even conscious of its presence. This connectedness fueled by our devices and ecosystems now are part of the fabric of our lives, often out of our control, and a non negotiable aspect of our own participation with the day.

A critical understanding of these words and their respective dynamics should be an essential ingredient in School and Organizational curricula. We can no longer think of them as separate entities. We have inherited this reality which now has us connected in ways where opting out becomes the abnormality . These Appliances, Utilities, Information Flows, Ethics and Algorithms are part of the fabric of our world and impact us as humans both consciously and unconsciously.

This discourse needs be given equal time in all educational settings; imbedded as seamlessly in the curriculum as they are in our lives. A responsibility to highlight the power, richness and cautions that come with tying ourselves to a set of appliances, utilities, information flows, ethics and algorithms that have and will continue to change the fabric of our interactions as humans and organizations.

So how do we do this? The key is that these terms and their meanings are introduced as part of the learning landscape in all units of study. Creating authentic connections between these words and the learning environment will then scaffold a clearer understanding of their real world applications. In our school ecosystems most subjects and curricular areas are using technology, often as a separate tool, or as a side show, but, if it is so seamless and embedded in our day to day lives, then we need to translate this into our learning. One of the first steps is to give ourselves permission to change the way we work with this vocabulary. As we change the vocabulary, and with it the meaning and role of these words, we are engaging in an active learning process connected to the changing world.

To ignore this vocabulary is to short change future generations of their awareness of a world that has become more invisible, seamless and blended both in our conscious and unconscious day.  The death of “digital” is here.

John @beyonddigital.org

 

When we stop being human.

On By Beyond DigitalIn Balance, International School IT, leadership, management, organization, Web 2.02 Comments


Change is a constant, and however we might  forget or passively ignore the fact, it is happening behind our backs, in front of our eyes, above our heads, and at a corner we have not bothered hearing about. For me, the change we have let slide passively with little input apart from buying and always upgrading, is the hunger for digital devices. In the last few years digital devices have  become an integral part of our individual ecosystems, and without them we struggle.

A wonderful piece by the Economist It’s a smart world, explores this concept in the world of smart softwares, and in this years’ World 2013 shares out an important milestone:  “The number of connected devices to the Internet will exceed the number of people on the planet by a factor of 2 in 2013  according to Cisco, By 2020 some 27 billion unique objects will be connected wirelessly to the Internet- Economist  The World 2013“

If we currently have more digital devices than human by 2 =  14 billion of these devices are part of our lives.  So if out of the 7 billion humans 2.45 billion have access to the Internet in 2011.  -“The World in 2011: ITC Facts and Figures”, International Telecommunications Unions (ITU), Geneva, 2011.”  How did 2.45 billion + humans suddenly find themselves needing 14 billion devices? Making an unscientific assumption that most digital devices need an Internet connection, but then again it is still a ridiculous amount of devices 2 per human.

The seductive commercialization of the device, and the relentless addictive capacity of its features, available, on: whenever, wherever, whatever!  2.45 billion of us have developed a need for more than one. Try this:  count how many digital devices you have at home. ( Think… microwave, digital TV, laptops, tablets, phones, sat-nav, digital radio, game consoles, digital heating system, digital alarm…. and we go on) do give yours a count. Now do you see how many of us are part of the 2.45 billion needing more than one device?

To be honest is it a big deal that we have more digital devices than humans by a factor of 2. On first thought very likely not, but then if we differ, consult, communicate, access, share, update, inform, search, pay, track, publish and connect as part of a daily routine, to the point we are often not aware of it… seamlessly blended within our ecosystems fabric with which we interact, work and live by. Is it, should it be our current norm?

The digital devices are here, embedded in our lives. Have we sat back and collectively, as a conversation piece, wondered how this happened, how did suddenly we need to sleep with a smart-phone by our bed, check email during dinner, while waiting for a bus, on the toilet…. what kind of reflective process have we engaged with colleagues friends and family.  This propensity for the digital device is it a non negotiable of our own ecosystem?Snow Nebusice

Do not get me wrong, I love my digital devices, the convenience, versatility, connectedness, and ease of use, are a huge benefit to my own day.

As Terence McKenna states in the video above as the rate of change accelerates over time, the modalities, ecosystems we live by will change to a point we will not be equipped to synthesis, analysis, engage, understand control, and manage these…. it does sound like science fiction…. “By 2020 some 27 billion unique objects will be connected wirelessly to the Internet- Economist  The World 2013“, but the science fiction is becoming part of our current narrative, and somehow we have let it slip by or have we?

John@ http://beyonddigital.org

There is a war going on in my internet!

On By Beyond DigitalIn digital life, information technology, innovation, organization, Web 2.0Leave a comment

IMG_2429Somehow late in the game I have suddenly realized in the background of my life there was a war going on in my Internet and still is most likely, and without much fuss or noise it  took place and I suspect is still going on. It is one of these new dimensions of war, it happens undercover, behind the scene with little fan fair and without much human interaction. So not being aware of it is somewhat understandable. According to some pundits this has been going on for a few years but recently a Security company http://www.kaspersky.com/ started noticing this virus called “Flame” and since has been trying to better understand its workings and complexity.  Flame’ Virus explained: How it works and who’s behind it  and Flame and Stuxnet cyber-attacks. What to me is interesting, is that potentially nation states can engage in a destructive war within the internet, damage, capture, manipulate and steal information and in return shut down, wipe out or paralyze computer systems deemed a threat, or the country with the machines deemed a threat. This is now fact, and in the last years different groups have been busy at work using this powerful technology. Is this in the headlines, part of our daily discourse, something night news talk shows are spending time on? No, not at all this is something that happens undercover behind the scenes with little information or we hear of it after the fact.

With the global information glut and overload we consume, engage and live off, we just cannot keep up or be in tune with the various events, stories, and key pieces of information that might frame a better understanding of everything that is taking place in our world.  Then there is the information that does not get shared, or buried deep away from the main stream traffic, headlines and captions. As humans we tend to engage with our digital devices, apps, web environments and new technologies in removed manner, less questioning or critical at an ethical and moral level of the role these have on us as humans. The sheer convenience of the digital devices, apps, web environments and new technologies we live, work, play and entertain ourselves with, dilutes often a critical engagement in understanding how these different tools are impacting us as individuals and a society. No time with our day to day business and the bombardment of new devices, apps and technologies daily being pushed out to us, prevents avenues for us to really stop, think, question and engage with this issue.

We are at the cusp of an age where there are more digital devices than humans on the planet: Mobile devices to outnumber people on planet this year.

New Technologies, digital devices, and web environments as they become more seamless, integrated, and part of our day to day fabric for us to function as humans. We are at many levels defaulting executive decisions to these devices/environments  independent of our input. I suspect most of us might feel that it is a small price to pay for the convenience of these digital devices, apps and technologies making the mundane decisions we need to engage with work, play, and living in a connected world. These two articles illustrate the wonders of some of these new technologies but at the same time test and confront our own morals and ethics.

Running repairs: An experiment on rats brings hope to the paralyzed
http://www.economist.com/node/21556209?frsc=dg%7Ca

A big step toward ‘designer babies’ – and big questions
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2012/0608/A-big-step-toward-designer-babies-and-big-questions

There has to be a cautionary tale if this convenience overrides our ability to stop and reflect, think, probe, discuss, and question the world of digital devices, web environments, and technologies we adopt.  If we are happy to sub contract our digital devices and new technologies to work, care, entertain, and support our day to day lives, how far do we give up the control for the convenience of it all? This article from the Economist highlights for me “Morals and the machine: As robots grow more autonomous, society needs to develop rules to manage them“, that we need to have this conversation as educators, organizations and a society in general, and be fully engaged with what is the potential impact to us all.

John @http://beyonddigital.org

organizational shrapnel

On By Beyond DigitalIn information technology, International School IT, leadership, management, organization, School, Web 2.04 Comments

This post is dedicated to Joshua R. and Andrew H., thank you for your conversations and mentorings…

…as with any end to a international school year there comes moments of reflection and looking back that generate ideas and new perspectives. This year has been a challenging one on many levels due to a host of odd circumstances and situations in my department and school that effected us all in the IT Department, and required the team to face up to serious challenges. We all pulled together, and hats of to the team for their outstanding capacity to deal with everything that came to us. This has had me thinking about something I like to call “organizational shrapnel” things that fly in your face unannounced from corners you would not expect things to come from. Sometimes I even refer to these as “drive by shootings” were suddenly you are confronted with a situation unexpected and most often you are not prepared to deal with, but react and deal with in the best of your own ability.

Organizational Shrapnel is a state which generates a lot of inefficiencies, frustrations, errors, in-competencies, and slowdowns in accomplishing tasks in an organization. It is the event, moment, action or process where people look around with some confusion and try to point fingers and there is no clear evidence or concrete event that you can associate to the inefficiencies, frustrations, errors, in-competencies, and slowdowns.

Why should this be an issue? I believe that organizational shrapnel and the level of it in an organization can make or break a good team, group or organization. I believe that when groups/organization engage in a task or project, for the objective to be met you need to be able to trust and know that the different players are all going to accomplish their respective tasks, and that the framework of resources supports accomplishing the task, project or action.

This process of teams collaborating and accomplishing a task together in any institution is complicated and quite complex, we all experience this and it is no surprise to most of us. I feel if organizations, and teams can better understand the causes of organizational shrapnel and address the road blocks this tends to set  the stage for a more effective and smooth collaboration of a groups within any organization.

So what are examples of organizational shrapnel? These are broad in scope, and come in all shapes and shades.

  • A team works together and defines group agreements, but a member continually does not abide by these.
  • A decision is made and agreed upon, but there is no clear implementation plan, or process for feedback and evaluation.
  • A process or procedure is implemented within the organization, some stakeholder decide to follow it, others decide to not use it and use an alternative in isolation of the rest of the organization.
  • A collaborative group works together, but all the actions and follow through are continually done by a few, and others play lip service to the work but are not participating actively and tend to block movement in the meeting setting
  • An event, or task is organized and one of the stakeholders makes an error but does not report it, or share this out so others can support in correcting this.
  • Not following through on things
  • Looking at a situation within one perspective, and expecting others to follow through

…and many more, generally the pattern is that organizational shrapnel are small things which fall through, not completed tasks/steps, ignored agreements, tasks done inadequately, or where there is a lack motivation, drive by the players involved in completing the collaboration or task.

The frustration if organizational shrapnel becomes a habit and people accommodate to it, it can quickly become part of the organization’s culture and norms. The reality is all organization have a level of this, and the challenge is what environments and understandings can be shared to decrease it’s presence in any group or organization.

Organization, groups and teams who have a high capacity to understand and concretely deal with their organizational shrapnel create an environment where there is a greater motivation by the stakeholders of the organization which results in a sharp increase in creative flow generating innovation in moving forward.

John@beyonddigital.org

….can we do all

On By Beyond DigitalIn International School IT, School, Social Networks, Web 2.01 Comment

this is a cross post from the following blog I manage and facilitate  http://ecisitcommittee.edublogs.org/
…in the last week there has been an enormous amount of traffic regarding the effects related to multitasking and student learning. The issue and variables associated with this topic are huge, and pending who you read it seems to go from the world is about to end attitude to hey it is no problem and live with it. I think the reality is that with the new technologies and internet access we all have access to we are somewhere in the middle in our understanding of the impact of multitasking on our own lives. I believe our students are not learning better or worse but differently. This as a result of the 24/7 access each user has at their finger tips and in tandem the incredible power to be content creators. Naturally with so many choices come many decision to be made and this I think is where we as educators can support, facilitate and mentor many of our students in being mindful of the implications, impact and importance of taking a balanced approach to the idea of multitasking and interacting with so many different powerful tools. Here I share three of the articles which come with different perspective on the topic:

In tandem with this topic comes the bigger issue, the fact that there needs to be significant paradigm shift in education. For educators, parents and students to be able to engage with the rapidly changing world some significant changes are due. I think collectively we understand this but how do we move forward is the bigger challenge. No better person to share this topic than Sir Ken Robinson with the follow wonderful animation and potential conversation for us all.

find a place to hide……

On By Beyond DigitalIn Social Networks, Web 2.0Leave a comment

So this week Google launches it social network: Buzz , a interesting next step for Google. Already folks are asking will 350 million Facebook users start switching, or at least the 160 million plus Gmail users who might be on Facebook? Buzz as I am starting to understand creates the option of integrating the many tools already available with gmail  blogger , maps, chat, sites, videos and more gmail/gapps tools….into one seamless entity all interconnected and able to help heighten my profile, information and news to a social network I create using these tools . Today I log into my yahoo mail and I am told at all times I can find out about what my contacts are up to, send message etc…a similar interface in the making by Yahoo with a different flavor. In tandem  Facebook Connect is available for developers allowing users to bring their identity and connections everywhere… so by using Facebook as your entry point updates, photos, wall posts, etc… these can be integrated with your twitter, blogs, wetpaint, mobile phone, and more……….

Quickly in the last few months suddenly we are seeing a more aggressive shift of engaging users on a variety of social networks, and portals like Google and Yahoo, to expand their presence and information to a large audience in real time. The idea is if I do a profile update in Facebook then my twitter feed picks this up, as would my blog, and my cell phone or even maybe my own web site. A one stop shop update for all about me!

There is no doubt this is kind of cool, and cuts down on having to post multiple times information or updates on my various Web 2.0 tools. The more I reflect on this, and with the framework that social networks default to public and you have to go and tweek the settings and parameters to make them private, I am realizing that we are entering a new dynamic where there is a push to be public as much as possible to as many of people as possible with our own information, updates, musing and more….. I am not going to be a judge on this, because to be honest I am still trying to work out what are my various options in the settings with these different tools. I am definitely spending more time trying to understand this and getting better at understanding my options to be private, and move from some of the public default settings these mediums start you off with.

…….so it is clear Web 2.0 and social networks are eagerly aggregating all our information for us in one place, thus allowing to socialize at many different levels through different mediums through one single interface available on multiple devices.

With this the question in my mind is the dynamic of privacy and public changing to the point we are moving to  a world, culture and expectation that within my social network, I will want to be able to find out where folks are, what they are doing, with whom, and when, to the point this is available to me on my mobile phone, my console at home, my laptop or some other device still to come all at once. Will this become an expectation and the norm?

For someonee who grew up where you could still be stupid and do rideculous things with friends and have no video, pictures, social network feed, update or public medium to share this….the new aggregate public profile on all my web venues is something I will need to get used and restle in finding a balance…..

friend or unfriend

On By Beyond DigitalIn International School IT, Social Networks, Web 2.0Leave a comment

… just presented again a workshop as part of the Beyond Digital Workshop series today with a group of parents. The focus Digital Citizenship and the variables and technologies associated with both, and how this can and does play out in families. I have in the last couple years really taken an interest in this topic, and spent a lot of time researching and reading on the topic.  Mike Ribble’s work, blog and site have been a resource and inspiration. More importantly through my own two children and their interests in social networks and how they develop, manage and participate in socializing with these technology I have been pushed to reflect on the whole issue.

The one aspect that jumps out, is the issue of privacy, and how my concept of privacy and sharing information is based on complete different assumptions than my own children and many teenagers. What fascinates me is the concept of “friend” in the context of social networks. You might be like me of a generation where a “friend” is someone you have a long common experience together, someone who is comfortable witnessing your worst and best moments. It is a human relationship that gets better with time, and something that you have to work at. You tend to have a few but we are talking between maybe 5-10 at most. Then you have acquaintances people you know, you spend time with, socialize with in the context of work, or school, but in the long run maybe have no vested interest, and then maybe more guarded about sharing all aspects of yourself with them.

So let us look at today. Maybe you are 13. You hang on a social network, let us pick Facebook, and you are active and social.

This is what I find interesting the term “friend” in the context of Facebook in many ways has changed the physiology of the word. Now friend is actually a confirmation that yes you can come into my facebook, and sit there looking at my own private life with the label friend. I do this exercise with kids I teach Digital Citizenship, and ask them if we put all their Facebook “friends” in a room could they name them, and share one common experience they have had. The thing is often many of these kids have from 200- 500 friends and some even more, I have seen a case of over 1,000. Kids will claim they can, but actually the reality I think would be a little different.

When you post a lot of your private thoughts, reflections and musings, and open this to a few hundred folks there is so much potential for mis-interpretation, and potential abuse or sharing of information to a wider scope of people you quickly loose control of. The important thing to realize, is that many of the social networks and social web 2.0 tools default to public so often without your own knowledge. You are immediately in a very public setting with your information. Kids getting onto these social networks do not have a point of reference often, coach or mentor, or aware of the specific dynamics of their privacy settings, which is understandable. It is not like this is advertised or pushed as a key component of the joys of joining Facebook or many other social networks.

The shift, I think is as educators and parents we need to be that mentor, point of reference to high light the unique variables of social networks, and act as a resource to frame what lies ahead when kids begin their journey with Web 2.0 tools and social networks . Not a resource on social networks but a resource and mentor on the dynamics of privacy in social settings be it online or off line. Easier said than done… I will come back to this in another post, the issue of trust and children in the age of social networks and Web 2.0.

I enclose this excellent link which for me is something anyone and everyone on Facebook needs to go through and understand, as a parent, spending time on this was a wonderful way to connect and engage in conversations about what is a “friend” what is privacy, what do I want the world to know and what do I want to keep myself. 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

We are doing our children, students and young generation a huge dis-service if we do not share and frame to them concretely the importance of private profile or public profile in a social network and/or the online/offline world, and what it means and implications it has long term in their digital context.