Archive for the 'connecting' Category

Disconnection

Published on 7 May 2007 in connecting. 8 Comments

When we got home on Friday night, the phone line was dead and we had no connection to The Net.

M called Telstra right away (thank goodness for the mobile) but given that it was 7pm on a Friday night, there was nothing they could do until Monday, maybe Tuesday. (Tuesday?!?! I tried not to dwell on that.)

I hadn’t realised how much we rely on The Net.

We lost all access to the simplest information. M needed to buy some computer equipment for his aunt - we didn’t know the number of the dealer, or their opening hours on a Saturday. Maybe we should keep the print phone books when they’re delivered this year. But phone books don’t allow you to browse what a computer dealer has in stock, or compare prices with other dealers…

We had to buy a newspaper to check movie screening times.

No news on demand. Waiting for the radio, or worse, the tv, was terrible. What’s happening?? I don’t care that Paris Hilton’s going to jail or that a football player’s back in town from rehab…

No access to a few things I’d saved in gmail, to read later. Sigh…

Worst of all, I had no idea what people were doing.

I lost all desire to get up early - nothing to do at 5am! - and slept in to 8am.

The weekend was very busy. We started Dutch language class (more on that later), did all the usual weekend chores (food shopping, laundry, cleaning), visited family, went to the park, took Paco to play with canine friends… So even if we’d been connected I wouldn’t have had much time to spend on the computer.

I really didn’t like the feeling of being out of the loop, though. All the old media choices that were available to me were static, limited, and utterly unsatisfactory. I felt isolated and unconnected, and that feeling was always there - even though I told myself that if anything really earth-shattering happened someone would call and tell me - I felt cut off and like I had no control over all of my usual channels. It was quite unlike other weekends where I decide to switch off and feel perfectly fine about it. Perhaps this past weekend was different due to the lack of choice in our disconnectedness.

To Telstra’s credit, their technician called just after 7am Monday morning and came over to check our line at 7:30am. It took two and a half hours, but he discovered that the neighbours’ electrician had cut our phone line right through - our line goes through their property - causing the immediate and unequivocal black-out. He fixed it, and in the process also cleaned our apparently corroded line up so that our connection is now twice as fast as it used to be. Hoorah!

Twitter (again)

Published on 25 April 2007 in Twitter, connecting and technology. 0 Comments

I haven’t been using Twitter very much these past few weeks. Just haven’t had much reason, or time to post updates. Also, the thought of posting “doing citation count”, and “still doing citation count”, and “still…” depressed me no end. I’ve much preferred to attend a conference vicariously, and learn about everyone’s hectic and interesting lives. I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve been enjoying that aspect of Twitter. As David Weinberger says: “Twitter is about the intimacy of details.”

I switched off phone updates, though, as it was very distracting to have my mobile phone constantly vibrating throughout meetings, but I might switch it on again for a while. I’ve been getting my updates via RSS, but that’s always got a slight delay to it.

I haven’t got that many Twitter friends at all (only 19!) but I don’t particularly mind as it’s still relatively easy to keep up with that number of friends. I could have more, but I haven’t added quite a few people because I didn’t recognise them at all (even after pondering their profiles) and found myself disconcerted at the thought of adding complete strangers. And yet I have added a few people who live here in Perth, whom I have not met. For some reason I like the fact that I have these ‘friends’ who live in my hometown. I suppose we do have something in common!

For a while after I started blogging, every time I wandered around the city, I looked at passing strangers and wondered if they blogged. Now I wonder if they twitter.

A bit later: M reminded me of this cartoon from Hugh MacLeod which says it all, really:

More thoughts on Twitter

Published on 19 March 2007 in Twitter and connecting. 2 Comments

I just took the Twitter party badge thing off this page. Not because I don’t like it, but because it seems to have been slowing things down a bit lately.

I haven’t been using Twitter much these past few days, but that’s mainly because the Instant Messaging side of it seems to be down a lot and I don’t want to blow out my mobile phone bill too much. I suppose I could use the web interface, but too much web can be distracting, especially at work. CW sees link. Oo shiny link… must click…

I’ve been keeping my Twitter notifications switched to my mobile phone and it’s been very amusing to have my normally inactive mobile constantly beeping or vibrating. People seem to be using it to carry out conversations with each other (which can be interesting when you only get one side of the conversation, because you are only following one person and not the person they are talking to), and twittering things that might also go into a blog, like interesting links.

I’ve been enjoying hearing from people occasionally during the day, via Twitter. Using my mobile phone means I feel a lot more connected, especially when I am away from my desk. A few commentators and observers are predicting that the next big thing, development, evolution, of The Web will be mobile. danah boyd reckons that “geographic-dependent context will be the next key shift. GPS, mesh networks, articulated presence, etc. People want to go mobile and they want to use technology to help them engage in the mobile world.” (She also talks about the barriers to this mobile revolution, namely, the carriers/providers.) Have you ever been out and about and wished you could just look something up, take and upload a photo now, chat with so-and-so halfway around the world and get them to send you a link to their experience…?

The 2007 Horizon Report (on the impact of emerging technologies on higher education) suggests that mobile phones are “becoming the storehouses of our digital lives, containing a growing share of our personal and professional resources and data.” (see page 15 of the report, which, incidentally, is worth reading for the other predictions. Even if it does make me feel like we are hopelessly behind here in Western Australia.)

Apart from all the conversation, Twittter is generating some interesting apps. This morning I have been amusing myself watching twittervision, which is a neat mashup combining Twitter’s public feeds and the Google maps API. All the activity seems to be happening in the US and Europe - so far nothing’s appeared in Australia. Are there just not enough twitterers down here?

And then there’s Twitterfiction. Intriguing. (Thanks, PigPog!)

*Pic shows my Twitter friends‘ avatars.