Stritar's chronolog

The Web is becoming just another television

Tue, 11 Feb 2014 15:06:44 GMT

A few months ago, I managed to bookmark my 20.000th link. I always imagined I would be able to say something really inspiring when it would finally happen, but after years of collecting and tagging content on Delicious like mad, proud of the amount of information I've consumed, I ended up feeling a bit empty. Categorization schemes, mashups, systematic repeating of essays and articles, it seems nothing could help me grow anymore. What else can you expect from a passive observer of a world, overwhelmed with unlimited knowledge?

In February 2011, when I saved my 10.000th link, I felt great, full of power. This means I've made around 10 bookmarks per day on average since then, which translates into a lot of read material. But when I reflect on that, I can't bypass the feeling I haven't actually learned that much. Most online content seems recycled and without added value. The feeds I'm subscribed to are all the same, and I don't know how to break out of them. The amount of information out there is simply astounding, making me read everything diagonally. I feel like everybody is just trying to control my attention.

Then I noticed the (social) Web is becoming like television. We are all just drones, consuming unimportant information we are being fed on a daily basis. Passive readers actively choosing sources that lead us to the facts - but how is that different from choosing which television channels to watch? Not only that, we've become advocates of this situation by passing on "interesting stuff" on our timelines, a part of the infinite loop of content creation, curation and consumption.

----

Almost half a year ago, when I wrote these words, I became so depressed I've decided not to publish them. Luckily, I've had enough time to think about the problem and came up with a plan to turn myself around. I decided I need to do everything I can to become a proactive consumer of information (again). Forget social, I'm returning back to search. Web 1.0 FTW!

Together with more in-depth studies of specific topics that I do these days, I managed to achieve something even more important. I started reading books, I've read about five in the past few months. Fiction and scientific. You won't believe the effect this has had on my concentration and habits. I noticed I don't spend that much time on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit anymore, becoming the master of my information intake. By taking time to read / watch more complex work, everyday news finally started to show itself as trivial as it really is.

What we have here now, is just another television, which we passively consume for amusement, without much mental effort. But to evolve personally and professionally (what the Web was invented for!), we'll need to do more. Read books, listen to podcasts, study specific fields, concentrate on individual subjects. Because it's that focus that is crucial for one's evolution. Nobody wants generalists anymore. And believe me, 20.000 "random" articles don't make you that smart anyways.

Uporabniška izkušnja kot uporabniško doživetje [In Slovene]

Sun, 26 Jan 2014 18:09:23 GMT

Med prebiranjem biografije Steva Jobsa sem naletel na dokaj nenavaden slovenski prevod pojma "user experience", “uporabniško doživetje”. Zadevi nisem namenil veliko pozornosti, saj sem v knjigi zasledil tudi nekaj manj posrečenih strokovnih prevodov, kot sta npr. “brezšivno integriran” ali “predkupna večopravilnost”. Klub temu pa se nisem mogel izogniti občutku, da ima ta besedna zveza potencial, da dobro zveni. Nekaj dni pozneje sem ugotovil, da je “uporabniško doživetje” morda celó bolj primeren izraz od sicer uporabljenega, “uporabniška izkušnja”, katerega razumevanje pozroča preglavice marsikomu.

Začnimo na začetku, pri razlagi besede “experience”. V angleščini ima dve definiciji (vir):

-the process of doing and seeing things and of having things happen to you
-skill or knowledge that you get by doing something

Vidimo lahko, da “experience” pomeni dve zelo različni stvari, ki bi jih po naše lahko imenovali “doživljanje” in “izkušnja”. Po eni strani opisuje nekaj, kar se človeku dogaja (process), pod drugi pa označuje tisto, kar se človek ob temu nauči (knowledge). Čeprav slovenščina pozna obe rabi besede “izkušnja”, ne moremo mimo dejstva, da običajno pomeni predvsem drugo, torej spoznanje ali ugotovitev. Nekdo ima izkušnje z nečim. V prvem primeru pa bi bilo morda bolj smiselno govoriti o doživetju ali doživljaju.

izkúšnja tudi skúšnja -e ž (ȗ) kar kdo ob dogodkih, doživetjih spozna, ugotovi (vir)
doživétje -a s (ẹ̑) 1. kar kdo doživi, s čustvi dojame (vir)
doživljáj -a m (ȃ) 1. kar kdo doživi (vir)
dožívljanje -a s (í) glagolnik od doživljati (vir)

----

“User experience” (UX) je:

"a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service". (vir)

UX predstavlja dojemanje in odzive človeka, ki uporablja nek produkt. Gre torej za proces, ki poteka ob interakciji uporabnika in stroja, proces, ki ga skuša optimizirati načrtovalec UX. Uporabniška izkušnja torej ni obstojna, ne moreš je imeti, enostavno je in se dogaja. Podobno ne moreš imeti doživljajev, po drugi strani pa izkušnje lahko imaš.

Tako kot pri analognih “izkušnjah” (npr. customer experience, content experience) je pri UX jasno, da imamo opravka s prvim angleškim pomenom besede “experience”, ki govori o procesu doživljanja. Povezava besede “izkušnja” z “uporabniška” pa lahko to razumevanje popači, saj nakazuje na nekaj, kar se uporabnik nauči (z uporabo produkta).

Mar ni “uporabniško doživetje” veliko bolj nedvoumen in razumljiv izraz?

He loved to control all aspects of his life, and the only way to do that with computers was to take responsibility for the user experience from end to end.

Rad je obvladoval vse vidike svojega življenja, pri računalnikih pa je to lahko dosegel le tako, da je prevzel odgovornost za prav vse podrobnosti uporabniškega doživetja. (Steve Jobs, stran 347)

----

Seveda ima beseda “doživetje” tudi slabe lastnosti. Z geeki na Facebooku smo imeli debato predvsem o tem, ali predstavlja nekaj preveč subjektivnega in čustvenega za uporabo v kontekstu “user experience”. Izkazalo pa se je, da imata ti dve zadevi pomembno vlogo v samem uporabniškem doživetju.

“User experience (UX) involves a person's behaviors, attitudes, and emotions about using a particular product, system or service.” (vir)

Uporabniško doživetje. Morda se sliši čudno, vendar je s tem izrazom mogoče veliko lažje laiku razložiti, kaj pomeni user experience. Izkušnje so v oblakih, če jih nimaš, jih enostavno nimaš, omemba te besede nakazuje na nekaj nepredstavljivega in abstraktnega. V resnici pa uporabniška izkušnja pomeni nekaj veliko bolj preprostega, doživljanje človeka, s čustvi vred, ki se zgodi ob uporabi sistema/produkta. Uporabniško doživetje.

Arthur C. Clarke envisioning the World Wide Web in 1968

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:10:06 GMT

One of the greatest thrills in my life is when I stumble upon a visionary prediction in any form – text, movie, novel, painting, etc. Arthur C. Clarke, one of the most acclaimed science fiction authors of our time, did just that in his famous novel 2001: A space odyssey. Most of us are acquainted with the plot and the scary artificial intelligence named Hal. The whole novel is really revolutionary for the age, but the thing I found most intriguing when I read it, is the detailed description of the technology we know today as the World Wide Web.

1968 was a year marked by student protests, the Vietnam war and the death of Martin Luther King. The Apollo program was well on the way, but would still need to wait one year until men could land on the moon. 1968 also marks the year when Intel, one of the biggest microchip manufacturers in the world was founded. Personal computer was still ages away, but the global network Internet was already being designed. This year UCLA was selected to be the first node of the incoming new network. Since then, things evolved and formed the modern computers and the Internet as we know today, but let's take a look at what our author had to say about it then, in 1968.

"There was plenty to occupy his time, even if he did nothing but sit and read. When he tired of the official reports and memoranda and minutes he would plug his foolscap-sized newspad into the ship’s information circuit and scan the latest reports from Earth. One by one he would conjure up the world’s major electronic papers; he knew the codes of the more important ones by heart, and had no need to consult the list on the back of his pad. Switching to the display unit’s short-term memory, he would hold the front page while he quickly searched the headlines and noted the items that interested him. Each had its own two-digit reference; when he punched that, the postage-stamp-sized rectangle would expand until it neatly filled the screen, and he could read it with comfort. When he had finished he would flash back to the complete page and select a new subject for detailed examination.

Floyd sometimes wondered if the Newspad, and the fantastic technology behind it, was the last word in man’s quest for perfect communications. Here he was, far out in space, speeding away from Earth at thousand of miles an hour, yet in a few milliseconds he could see the headlines of any newspaper he pleased. (That very word ‘newspaper’, of course, was an anachronistic hang-over into the age of electronics.) The text was updated automatically on every hour; even if one read only the English versions one could spend an entire lifetime doing nothing but absorb the ever-changing flow of information from the news satellites.

It's hard to imagine how the system could be improved or made more convenient. But sooner or later, Floyd guessed, it would pass away, to be replaced by something as unimaginable as the Newspad itself would have been to Caxton or Gutenberg.

There was another thought which a scanning of those tiny electronic headlines often invoked. The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry of depressing its contents seemed to be. Accidents, crimes, natural and man-made disasters, threats of conflict, gloomy editorials – these still seemed to be the main concern of the millions of words being sprayed into the ether. Yet Floyd also wondered if this was altogether a bad thing; the newspapers of Utopia, he had long ago decided, would be terribly dull."

Pretty impressive. His vision goes even beyond technology and well describes the role of modern news and media. Predicting all of that in 1968 can only be marked as pure genius, and is a great example of why so many people love sci-fi. Sadly, Arthur C. Clarke passed away in 2008, but shall be remembered forever for many things. Perhaps space travel did not make it as far as he foretold, but looks like he knew how technology, information and media will look 40 years later in stunning detail.

The Dune universe - world's greatest saga

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:26:46 GMT

Many people are familiar with the Lord of the rings, which became even more popular after the movie trilogy a few years ago. It's a typical saga, with novels and stories covering events on a scale of tens of thousands of years. This approach brings fanatical belonging of the readers, because studying generations of people has a huge appeal and insight into life long conflicts causes strong sentiment. The technical focus of LOTR is mostly on mythology, culture and linguistics, but sometimes it comes out too naive. People (except Frodo) are mostly black or white and most of the motives are quite superficial (and sex doesn't exist). After all, it's supposed to be a tale for children. So, in case you would like more complex stuff in your saga, you should definitely check out Dune.

Frank Herbert's Dune is a bit similar to LOTR, the whole plot (14 novels I think) extends for millenia. The story is about planet Arrakis, also known as Dune, which is the only place in the universe that produces the ultimate drug in existence, called Melange (Spice). Spice gives you higher level of conscience and prolongs life. Everybody wants and needs Spice, and the plot built around that is very complete, creative and fun to read. The whole story makes Dune a perfected alternative universe filled with complex political situations, religions, manipulation, psychology and other "adult" themes. It's freaking awesome, and it is known as one of the best sci-fi novels of all time.

The political situation of the Dune universe stands on a tripod between the emperor, noble houses and the spacing guild, which holds the monopoly on space travel. If that wasn't enough, other sources of power also exist, such as CHOAM (the biggest manufacturer of goods), the witches Bene Gesserit (with their breeding program for creating the messiah), the Tleilaxu (genetic specialists), Ixians (technology monopolists), the Mentats (human analytical computers), Swordsmen of Ginaz (superior warriors) and of course, the Fremen of Arrakis (the native people of Dune who live in sietches in the desert and tender the worms). Many players and interests - infinite possibilities of conflicts.

Another interesting thing in the novel is the flow of thought, which is solved really good. The movie (which I don't like that much, even though it's by David Lynch) tries to imitate that, but in my opinion fails quite miserably. The book does it much better, and the main mantra, used by all Bene Gesserit educated is quite inspirational:
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Reading about prior generations of protagonists and antagonists and knowing how historical events caused the current situation makes the Dune series one of the best novels ever written. It can keep every sci-fi fan occupied for years, which is the time needed to come through the whole saga that totals in more than 5.000 pages. If you're into that sort of books, you should go for it - and then you will be able to understand why Duncan Idaho is the ultimate.

You should know about Dual

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:46:41 GMT

Two people are a pair and a pair deserves special treatment. Three or more people are a pack and a pack deserves special treatment. Two people act quite homogenic, as it is a natural form of a (sexual) pair who raises offspring and lives life together. Usually, one is dominant, but in some cases, harmony is possible too. When you add the third person, the story changes completely. Politics arise and people start influencing and manipulating each other, both consciously and subconsciously. I'm actually quite neutral on that, because it's probably the only possible way of human interaction. Many proverbs on the subject have been written and you have to admit it's one of the most interesting things going on.

Somewhere in Europe there is a small country called Slovenia. Most of the people don't even know it's there, but those who are a part of it, love it's nature, culture and people. Slovenians aren't obsessed with generals and war heroes, they rather worship their artists, writers and poets. For a country with 2 million people, that's not so hard to understand. Slovene language was only thing that held them together through different times, countries and governments. I think Slovene is beautiful and I'm very proud it's one of the few spoken languages left that still uses dual in grammar.

Dual (as opposed to singular and plural) has been used in different variations by many languages throughout the history, such as Greek, Hebrew and ancient Celtic and Germanic languages. It's still in use in some modern languages, f.i. Scottish Gaelic dialects, Welsh, Breton, but fully functioning as a paradigmatic category only in Sorbian and Slovene. That means that Slovene doesn't use dual only for shaping nouns, it uses dual for forming verbs too.

If you say "we went somewhere" in Slovene, you explicitly tell how many people were involved, because you use a different form of both "we" and "went" for dual and plural. English uses the same verb form for singular too (most cases), and the number can be distinguished either from the noun (using I or we) or with additional explanation. There is no grammatical difference between two or more, only singular and plural exist.

When I first started thinking about this phenomenon, I didn't have an opinion about it, dual seemed natural for me, even though not using dual appears less complicated. As I've grown mature and started noticing life, people and behavior, I also started appreciating dual. Today, I'm a fan.

I like to think Slovene uses dual because of politics. So you can easily express if there was politics involved or not without saying how many people were actually there. The truth is that's probably not the case, but it doesn't matter anyway. My only hope is that we will be able to keep this precious speciality as long as possible in this globalized society where English is the only way to go. Or is it Chinese?

The deflation of words - from SMS to Twitter

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:52:38 GMT

The information age brought us another interesting shock - the deflation of words. Most of the people surfing the web don't have the time to stick around and read novels. They want information and they want information fast. Sometimes I even lose hope in multimedia, when I don't feel I should watch a 2 minute long video, because 2 minutes is far too much to get to the point. The point should be straight forward and the point should be reachable in ten seconds.

I really try to keep my blog posts around 4-5 paragraphs because I introspectively see how I react to information. A post more than one monitor long does look like it is well thought and scientifically supported. So, if it looks promising, I tag it with "To read". But the problem is I've never actually done it and read it. Instead, I rather look for new, actual and aggregated information.

The concentration of information started with the SMS, when a guy called Hillebrand noticed 160 characters is quite an optimal size for information. About 30 words or a few sentences. It turned out he set the standard for one of the most popular mobile services, text messaging. More than 20 years later, the history is repeating itself, and a concept called microblogging is taking over the world, with Twitter as the most noticable service. Small chunks of dense information that are suited for the sci-fi society we live in, using 140 characters.

This minimalistic approach is moving to commercial (promotional) web too. Using short and strong facts, without too much redundancy is the only way to get somebody to read how good and competitive you really are. It's an art to be able to tell a lot using a few words, but microblogging practice will surely help people to be able to express themselves briefly and effectively.

Is this fact good for culture and literature? Probably not. But it surely is good for information flow and science.

(This post has 1928 characters.)

Emoticons - a new form of art?

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:12:13 GMT

Emoticons are becoming quite a serious form of enriching (web) communication, as picture can tell a thousand words. The truth is that a word can tell a thousand pictures, at least when emoticons and other "digital" forms of speaking are concerned. The way of using short and to-the-point statements, such as short messages, tweets and emoticons, is here to stay. Congratulating the internet, welcoming emoticons. \o/

I've heard about a trend between urban artists to make sketches using just one line. I think emoticons are acting upon a similar behaviour, as twenty years ago nobody could imagine what a few characters could portray. Design is about keeping it simple and clean. And you can't get much cleaner than using letters, numbers and other basic characters.

An interesting "artistic" application of this phenomena was designed for an advertisement for a weight loss programme. I don't like the overall look, but still it is a creative way of bringing modern techniques into classic advertising. Simple shape, a meaningful story. And the characters look like design, even though they are really just plain simple characters with ordinary typeface.

I can't imagine where this trend will end. I wouldn't be surprised if sometime in the future newspapers, poetry and prose will get more emoticonal, as this approach is very simple for inserting drama-type essence into non-drama based art. Our youth is totally wired, will they wire the real world too as their time comes?

What to do with my blog

Tue, 19 May 2009 13:13:07 GMT

I have been thinking about writing my own blog for quite some time now. I admit, I have a lot to say, often too much, so this seemed like a normal way to go. And sure, I definitely need more things to put on my tight schedule so I can freely perform my system overload as soon as possible.

My friend had a similar experience a few months ago, when he did a whole study about which blogging platform to choose. To be sure I don't take the wrong one, I chose to make my own - as I was always fond of reinventing things that were already invented.

Perhaps this could turn out interesting, and hopefully I will be able to make something dinstinguishable.