The Wings of Our Moment

Yesterday I enjoyed a prolonged conversation with Ryan Senator and in the manner intuitives tend to question reality, I found myself relentlessly attempting to get a handle on a vague notion I’ve been circling around on in a number of posts.  Of a variety of topics that developed I enjoyed the idea that when drawing parallels to the historical development of this space, we can make the claim that the model T has yet to arrive on the scene.

I shared with Ryan, my concerns about certain trends began earlier this year when Twitter limited its search feature, effectively erasing the content stream. I’ve read that the data probably exists somewhere, but access has been effectively cut off. That Twitter made this move is of little concern to me. That nobody seems to be talking about the principle at stake bothers me a lot.

The second problem that’s been gnawing on my mind has been triggered by the reality of SEO. We have created a system that pours billions of dollars into “gaming” supply side optimization. SEO takes for granted that sloppy search habits are a self perpetuating fact of on-line behavior.  There’s a principal of access to content that this brings up and again, I’m not hearing any discussion.

Where’s the User Advocacy?

I’m formulating a position that focuses on user advocacy. I fear not enough focus has been given to disseminating practices that put into the hands of the user the real power of these the tools.  When I consider my own activity over the past year I’ve come to see the emerging field of potential as consisting of only three fundamental acts: post, search and save.  Each of these acts is deceptively simple, though we need to consider the different aliases all three appear under.  Coming to terms with the principles behind these acts (push, pull and store) begins to open us up to the wider implications.

Over the next few posts I’ll be exploring a framework of principles and practices to address both user potential and responsibility. It’s my hope that the glimpse Ryan and I had of the future might take root in the discussions that ensue.  I hope you’ll weigh in.