Physical text is dead (as in static). Information is alive. It’s dynamic. The previous post is a piece I wrote as guest columnist for Klue. Information is constantly evolving. What bugs me about physical text is that it is one dimensional. And printing URL’s on paper doesnt work either. In most cases it is too long and looks like gibberish to be of any use to someone trying to type it into their browser. So I thought about a way to make the jump. To link physical text to digital information.
Remember ‘Quantum Leap’ from the late 80’s? The Quantum Leap Accelerator caused Sam to jump back in time and set certain events right. What is interesting is simply that time is no longer linear. Well, information in the digital age is non-linear as well. We can edit, update & remix information, everytime adding to the pool of knowledge because it is practically impossible to erase previous copies. But how does physical text, which is still a major source of information consumption, benefit from a so called ‘quantum leap’?
This isn’t a new problem. Shotcode is one of many potential solutions helping bridge the physical and digital realms. It requires a camera-phone (which is getting cheaper by the day) and WAP capability. Cheaper phones are starting to have WAP capabilities too, but it’s still nowhere near practical due to data charges.
So there shoud be a simpler opt-in approach that can work on existing infrastructure. I thought of simply using keywords next to sections of the story (much like tags online) that readers can key in to their browser which then open a list of resources tied to that article. The keywords will replace the URL’s (just like tinyurl does online) and create a bridge between physical text and dynamic information.
Having thought about this further, I’ve since come up with more ideas/features to make such a service useful. Ultimately, consumers will decide if this is really as useful as I hope. That is the best way to build something after all.
The Klue column (Dec ‘08) is what I think to be the first (and very elemental) test of the concept. See the sample here (note: this is not the final version of the column)
Hah, you’re most probably a politico blogger. Government has more control over the net than they care to understand themselves. Every little cool app that allows you to see how popular you are amongst your circle of virtual friends, exists thanks to Government legislation (ok, largely the U.S. Government, but they all the same la) to track data, its origins and its destination. The Net was built to be dumb and blind. Today it is way too smart.
Are you a blogger currently being sued by the government? Well, you could potentially divert the attention away from yourself. The music industry goes after the platforms rather than the individuals who share music illegally. By focusing on the platform, they believe they can shut down the network hosting the content to thwart the act of uploading/downloading it. Quite smart. The point? Use a blog service, and argue that the service is just as responsible for hosting your supposedly seditious content. The result: Government of Malaysia vs. Google.
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It’s simply a question of infrastructure. The Malaysian Internet Exchange (MyIX) was built on the pretext of saving the country huge amounts of money being wasted on local traffic being routed via international exchanges. Read it another way: the government doesn’t have full control over local ISPs. Many of the privately owned ISPs establish direct connections to foreign ISPs. MyIX routes all incoming and outgoing traffic via one central switch. And what does a switch do, primarily?
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The sum of all our knowledge created and shared everyday is feeding and building the Machine. See how the Machine is Us/ing Us.
The only thing that will kill mainstream media is mainstream media itself, due to ignorance on information theory (that is, how people consume information today). And alternative media won’t deliver on its promise until we begin to understand that the internet really isn’t an alternative at all. It exists as an independent platform, requiring a unique model to thrive. Information snacking. Remember this the next time you upload a 1000 word blog entry on who-screwd-over-who-to-get-what-favours. No one gives a damn to read your theses, at least not the most valuable demography. Mainstream media, should, if they’re smart enough, engage with bloggers to act as foot soldiers on the cyber frontiers. They break the news, mainstream media helps it get, well, mainstream. It’s a model that allows both parties to thrive. And all the buzz about new media and the mushrooming of online news channels? Tough. None of them are making serious money in this part of the world. The only ones to survive will be those investing in the future, willing to bootstrap for two years, at the very least, while the infrastructure catches up.
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That was the promise of the internet. The cyberpunks had a mantra: On the information highway, borders are just speed bumps. But some very powerful people would like to see it broken. Ultimately, the internet may divide us more than geographical borders do currently.
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