Internet Marker

A great video describing the participatory nature of the new web. The sharing and interactivity of the Internet. By way of John Battelle’s great blog.

‘For me, cultural anthropology is a continuous exercise in expanding my mind and my empathy, building primarily from one simple principle: everything is connected. This is true on many levels. First, everything including the environment, technology, economy, social structure, politics, religion, art and more are all interconnected. As I tried to illustrate in the video, this means that a change in one area (such as the way we communicate) can have a profound effect on everything else, including family, love, and our sense of being itself.’

He also has a nice interview of the creator of the video, posted here.

What’s great about the Internet is how a story can become viral.  And not just a prank video but a report or study that helps people improve their lives or a story that inspires.  Sure, some of these studies change from year to year, first wine is good for our health and then not, or one of those types of studies.  But what I’m talking about is when you drill down in the area you’re interested in and find an interview by an artist or an author that you like.  Of course there are a lot of viral stories about a celebrity who did this and said this and made a human error when they were angry and did this.  Yeah, everything is now caught on cell phones or video cameras.

There’s a fine line here.  The Internet does allow you to sift down into what you’re interested and follow what’s going on in your world of interest.  And then that article or story can rise to the top pretty quickly at sites like Digg or amongst friends and beyond.  I’ve seen the most popular or most emailed articles get second lives, coming back to become the most emailed article again.

Then there’s just Google it.  Do we even need to ask somebody something anymore?  I can come home and ask what the score of the game was or I can just go to ESPN and see what happened.

My brother was talking to me about how new media is further advancing.  How they are showing a ballet being performed in NY at a local theater in Idaho.  I think that’s great.  Or logging in to watch a live concert.  I pay for that.  Or I recently saw a competition for poets where they had a specific amount of time to write a poem and all of their edits, word changes, misteps and so on were recorded online while they developed the poem.

If anything is true I’ve found about starting this blog is I’m often writing about watching something, TV or movies. I watch too much. What is interesting is what I like to watch within the things I watch. I like to see what is said off camera or the interactions of guests off camera on Conan or Letterman. I like to see what players shake hands or trade jererys after a soccer game–see what players they respect. I think listening to music falls into this watching category, but it’s listening, but it’s still passive let’s say. I like to hear what’s said between songs on a live concert cd. How the artist alters the song just a bit. How the guitar tweaks a tad. I guess that’s all improvisation. There’s a section in the movie Word Play where a great piano player is talking about how he has to perform a variety of styles of music for the first time just from the notes or sheets of music he receives from an auditioning singer. Once, a woman singer brought a sheet of music of his favorite song. He altered the melody a bit, he could tell she knew the song well, and she still sang it perfectly. Afterwards, she faced not the judges but him and said that was beautiful. Seems like a synergy of improvisation and worth watching or listening to.

In some ways it’s finding or seeing that genuine interaction between people and that somehow helps you connect to them….

For me, when I’m scanning a site, I don’t even see Adsense ads.  Or I see them but ignore them, since they are ‘ads’.  A search by someone I think is so much more about gathering information–looking at reviews, getting advice, comparing prices, window shopping, and figuring out what we want to buy.  Where does Adsense fall into this?  People definitely click on the ads but will this dwindle?  What’s going to be the new, next type of ad? 

I see some clever banner ads and click on them, just because the image is intriguing or pulls you in some how–a recent ad for chocalate, that showed you part of a women’s body in negligee, and you need to click to see more, sexy sells.  But most banners I ignore, most ads period.  As visitors and searches get more savvy and accustomed to certain times of ads what will happen.  The next thing will come no doubt.  Google is dynamic, and always improving their methods, running images ads and now videos ads within the Adsense network. 

I think it probably comes down to the manner in which a publisher displays Adsense, how it meshes with a sites design, colors, and content.  I think we just have to get more clever as the visitor gets smarter.  I’m rambling but am interested in what the visitor ignores and reads when they scan a site.  It’s all about the intention, are they looking to buy now, are they looking for information?  I know people who go to the book store and look at or scan through books and then go buy them at Amazon.  That’s the reverse, doing your research off line and then buying or finding the best price–the internet gives you so many options for sales and discount prices.  Anyway… 

A friend of mine interviewed Chuck Palahniuk for the Bay Guardian a while back.  He now has a website with more of his writing and pictures.  I guess what I take away from the interview is write about what you’re interested in.  Use writing as a way to learn about yourself or what moves you.

“Well, football is that, but football is behind glass on a TV, played by people you will never meet. You experience it in a completely detached way. One thing that I’m struck by that we’ve really lost is how the gym in ancient cultures used to be a real seat of learning. You went to the gym to hear philosophers as well as to exercise and exhaust yourself. And to be with people. We didn’t have this separation of school and physical education. We put them together, and a lot of my friends who are teachers talk about kinetic learners ­ kids who will not remember anything unless they are doing something physical while they are taught. And I can’t write standing still. I have to write while doing something, because ideas don’t come when you’re just sitting in a chair.”

“I think we’re in an age starved for genuine experiences, instead of cathartic phony experiences through the media, structured, engineered experiences. And those are the fast food, the masturbation of experience. They don’t really exhaust any aspect of ourselves; they don’t make us any stronger. You’re not any stronger because you watched Titanic. We just don’t have the challenges that it takes to mature and really come into a sense of our own ability, a sense of peace and accomplishment. So we need real challenges; we need real risk and danger to achieve those things. Uh … now I’m sounding like I’m on a soapbox.”

It also made me think about when I’ve been challenged and whether or not I stood up for myself in true fashion.  Further, it made me think about David Eggars book A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius.  Where he mentions how he needs the rush of something, a demand or kind of emergancy to feel stronger feelings.  Something about the feeling of trying to rush to get somewhere on time or return a movie.  It’s almost like acting like someone is chasing you.  There’s a Seinfeld episode where Jerry and his girlfriend are acting like someone is chasing them and they have to get inside quick.  Do we have to do more things that we generally don’t want to do or are a bit afraid to do?  Expose ourselves a bit more.  Contribute somehow to others what we are good at.

Reading the interview also inspired me to search for some more information about Chuck Palahniuk.  I came across some tips of his on writing, read more….

Nielsen//Netratings has released their search engine market share numbers for December 2006,  read more….  

I hope Yahoo and MSN can improve their search applications so Google will keep improving, more competition the better.  I think it’s exciting to see all these companies competing and forcing one another to get better.