Dead Media Watch: Polaroid film

Posted on February 11, 2008 by Thomas Purves

So you may have seen the news that Polaroid is discontinuing Polaroid film. For all it’s greatness, that little 2.5 inch screen on the back of your digicam, has killed that old analog analogue. It’s a known law of media that all new new media must replace an old. But every new media is never a perfect replacement, some particular character or ‘flavour’ of the old medium is always lost. This is why we have nostalgia, and how we use old flavours to trigger old memories and emotions.

This is also why dead media are a rich vein for the exploration of new media, for there is another rule that says: Any new media must retrieve an archetype (or flavour) of a dead (or more than one) dead media.

Just the other day, someone took a great polaroid of Michele and I, dancing (ok slightly goofy/maniacally) at a friend’s party. A perfect frozen moment now gracing the fridge. I’ll post the picture here when I get a chance. Just as soon as I can snap a photo of if with my digicam.

In the meantime, remember the polaroid kids, remember to stock up, and Shake it, Shake it like a polaroid picture.

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LIFT08 Notes: Genevieve Bell, Intel, do our digital worlds require secrets and (white) lies?

Posted on February 7, 2008 by Thomas Purves

Genevieve is an ethnographer looking at digital culture and the necessity of “lying”

45%5 of mobile users have lied about wherabouts in sms
100% of online daters lie about height or weight

James Katz says entering arms race of digital deception she locked herself out of flickr because she lied about her age and forgot which lie she told what might an ethnographic intervention yield here?

telling lies is always bad, most religions and legal systems are against lying but keeping and telling secrets is more ambiguous, and white lies are okay in some cases

hindu proverb “any number of lies is okay as long as the wedding still happens” we tell somewhere btw 6-200 lies a day some theorists argue that lying is necessary part of surviving daily life notion that all info should be equal and avail to all is a new concept are icts succeeding in part bc they facilitate our lying ways or because lies are needed to keep us safe.

Israeli researchers find that online deception appears to be an enjoyable activity. guild, fear, shame largly absent newer technology arriving that can’t help but tell the truth.

Do secrets and lies offer new ways to think about privacy and security. do our digital worlds require secrets and lies?

My reaction: Fascinating question for social media. We often argue that transparency and accountability are naturally beneficial to efficiency and effectiveness of organizations.

Sure, organizations tell lies or at lest partial truths all the time. (Sometimes it’s called marketing)

But are there other little white lies (not to mention secrets) that are essential keeping a company going?

Most social networking is also about self marketing as well.

Perhaps enabling benevolent/harmless “lies” is a key and subtle but important factor in the success of any social media?

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LIFT08 Notes: Younghee Jung Nokia Research

Posted on February 7, 2008 by Thomas Purves

Younghee JungYounghee is a product and interaction designer from Nokia. This talk though left me on an arc from curious to wondering about some unanswered questions about Nokia’s actual role in the developing world. Nokia is engaged global product development. Mobile phone users are of course massively global. How do you design products for poor neighbourhoods in Mumbai or Rio. Nokia conducts charrettes of sorts with locals, design contest sketches and forms all on one sheet of large paper, interviews photos, the whole family comes, high illiteracy too requires interpretation.

winning example a phone you can point at the sky to get the weather. intuitive, many people dependent on weather.

winning example an environmental phone that measures air quality and charges by solar power.

Ghana phone with 4 sim cards, because there are 4 providers and you need multiple SIMs as you move about.

Everywhere, unbreakable waterproof durable – common requirements (does this help nokia?).

And the skepticism, not that the devices aren`t potentially enormously valuable and empowering to people, but how does, and how much money does nokia make from impoverished people all over the world?

she`s not talking about operators at all, or how those services are delivered and contracted. What about them? [Rob next to me mentions there are some opperators that deliberately set up in conflict zones because they are unregulated. And when government returns, they leave.]

And are these commando-style ethnography missions truely effective practice for nokia?

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