I remember the first time I picked up an iPhone at the Apple Store. It was magical. I think I was reading Coelho’s The Alchemist
I remember the first time I read about the iPad. “That looks stupid.” “Who the hell would carry around that enormous cell phone with them?” I think a lot of people shared this sentiment when the announcement was leaked. I had no desire to get one. I was connected enough with my lappie and iPhone. Until I held one.
Within seconds of the first time I held a great graphic designer’s iPad I got it. Content so wistfully flashed through with a finger tip and the lightness of the device attributed to the elegant design. It was sleek. Restful. In a primitive way I wanted to sit down by a fire and absorb content. I believe the designer had some bright day-glo keyboard app for his kids and I was spellbound by the noise and colors. I could see myself playing the app all day. I didn’t want to give it back.
My experience with Google Glass was a little different. Last week I experienced Glass thanks to my friend and colleague Maria Jewett who wrote into Google saying she should be an early adopter. Her story and ideas caught their attention, she flew to New York, picked up Glass, and came back to Detroit. I was fortunate to meet her at the Guardian Building to give them a try.
My first impression is it really does look like simulator videos that show an environment with a little square television in the upper right hand corner that has some degree of transparency. I found it ironic and a bit ominous it is very similar to the technology found in the apocalyptic and transhumanist Google produced YouTube video series H+. If you watch some of the previews it does seem like that’s where Google Glass could end up.
I found it clunky and a little jarring. I imagine someday I’ll look back on the encounter the same way I remember seeing people carrying around purse sized mobile phones or beepers. Having to lift up your head to turn off and on, swiping with your index finger, or say commands didn’t feel natural. Like many I’ve heard the rumblings of people getting headaches and I can understand that.
I was also in guest mode so admittedly I haven’t had the full experience. However, I saw the samples of seeing a person’s social mugshot with their name next to them in your field of vision. All privacy aside, if we were all connected and opted in with our friends, that phenomena and ability is completely new. It’s cool but I don’t think it’s one I seek. When I’m flying on a plane I like my anonymity.
As I was using them I realized midway through Maria, who I was just enjoying a cup of tea with, completely vanished from my focus and attention. She was talking and quite honestly I wasn’t paying attention, I was focusing on the images of jellyfish on the Glass. It’s sensory over-drive, video game-like. One has to focus on two points. How klutzy and strange it would be for two Homo sapiens each with Glass to have a conversation. I can imagine a lot of “Huh’s?” and “What did you say?”
Another thing that came to mind is the digital divide. Issues of class in our society are now issues of the haves and have-nots of technology. I remember for my company we volunteered in a low-income community at a school to help 7-year-old kids in the computer lab. It was obvious these children didn’t have computers in their homes and time on the standard-issue PC at school was it. I was humbled and inspired by their eagerness and excitement on the computer but also taken aback by their lack of familiarity with hyperlinks and operating systems using my similar-aged daughter and her friends as a barometer. Kids are lightening quick to understand and figure out technology but the low-income communities I fear are becoming isolated further and further from this technology. What happens when these $1500 Google glasses go mainstream? Maybe they eventually sell for $500. Sergey Brin said going back to a smart phone made him feel “emasculated”. He said he felt more engaged with reality and aware of his surroundings with Glass. His hands were free. What’s the opposite of “emasculated”? Powerful? Omnipotent? Watching the video of him talking it looks like we’re getting into cyborg territory. I pose the question when it comes to society at large, we don’t even have to get into class, empowered over what? And why?
Slippery Slope territory. A Pandora’s box is being opened and my thoughts are still out there whether this is cool.
She gave me a 
which is a portable battery pack. In my new role at work I’ve found myself on location for video shoots, social media on-site events, and a weekly meeting off-site at a partner agency. One day I had a 15 hour day with only one electrical outlet for 50 people in a garage-like building we were using as a production facility. I quickly ran out of battery power for my phone and laptop, not to mention those around me. (FYI and FULL DISCLOSURE – that’s an Amazon Affiliate link for the Power Bank. The gist is if you click on the link and buy I get a %. Read my post “
You can select to find out about each technology Ghostery has uncovered. To the left is an example of the 
Wow. Just saw this video from The Cognitive Media about Coca Cola Content 2020. Brilliant. I have a feeling I will be watching over and over. All this talk of “Content Marketing”- it seems like it’s taking over the buzz word “Big Data”. What would our aboriginal ancestors think about all this as they told stories around the campfire. The internet is our campfire.
someone’s common name was already taken like JoeSmith. We also had a generational gap with many youth emulating the DJs and MCs of their time with a new moniker and sticking with it. Looking back this has a lot to do with my name from that era – a10. It was the way my grandfather etched his name on tractors and chainsaws. I think as this practice evolved, as we had to come up with names, we were in some ways emulating these DJs, MCs, and artists trying to portray and emulate a higher self, something or someone we aspired to be. We (i) were trying to be cool. The nature of internet early days made this all to easy as anonymity was shielded by simple text and a network of crude websites and search engines that tried to crawl them.
An old and consistent internet meme with internet intelligentsia is the Harry Potterish sci-fi Library. Like something out of a MC Escher painting, these pics of remarkable University libraries or those built by web millionaire tycoons are rampant on hip tech blogs. They have a seemingly comfortable and empowering feeling despite their awesome and mysterious labyrinthine landscape. These fantastical landscapes capture the breadth and scope of the human mind’s potential in a photograph. The images also capture what the Internet is or could be.
You may have heard about Google Panda (content) and Penguin (linking) updates. These Google Algorithm updates were ways to identify and weed out sites that were using content farms and link farms.
