The experiment gathers status updates from Twitter users, mixing them in a 347430 verses (so far) piece of art.
“I soon found that people were very excited to be part of this and consider it some form of artistic expression of the collective consciousness of Twitter.” declared Andrei for the Telegraph.
This is not the first time Andrei experimented with social media interaction. His Quizoo game was a hit when launched.
If you find the idea interesting, don’t forget to digg it.
Without hesitation I would categorize this book as one of those mind-boggling, enlightining concepts. At least for me. The impact of the highly improbable.
We humans are used to see the world through patterns and information filters that enable us to comprehend a little bit of the reality arround us. Enough to survive. Self sufficient beings as we are, we like to minimize the importance of the unknown and the impact it has on us.
We, the self-sufficient simians
We are taught to think the circle is one of those perfect geometrical figure and disconsider nature for its inability to reproduce it. We overstate our intelligence and forget we might be unable to understand the perfect compostition of nature’s complicated geometrical figures.
We are taught we can predict and, my God, do we fail. The 1973 Oil Crisis was not only unpredicted but experts stated, in 1972, that 1973 was going to be a steady year in the cost of oil. They even thought it may decrease. It grew ten times. The world was in shock.
This was improbable. It had a huge impact. In hindsight, it was rationalized as expected and even predicted. Just like any other Black Swan event.
So…what’s with the birds?
The term comes from the fact that in the 17th century people assumed that all swans are white. The opposite was impossible or, at most, improbable. The 18th century brought the discovery of the Black Swan species in Australia. The impossible became possible and retrospectively, probable.
Who wrote this?
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, as improbable as it might seem, deals with prediction. He held a job applying financial mathematics that were used to predict stock market evolution in a couple of Wall Street companies.
The book itself describes some of his experiences in the field, some of the interesting people he used to know and autobiographical stories about his path to the Black Swan theory.
Webstock, the local Internet UnConference has now a brand new look, thanks to … us.
It’s fun, funky fresh and friendly. Just like it was supposed to be.
Users can view news and info on the event, interact, subscribe as participants to Webstock Awards ‘09 and during the event view the live stream on Webstock TV.
As a boy I remember I was dreaming, while watching Star Trek (I am a huge trekkie), of one day to “boldly go where no man has gone before”. I still have this dream.
Several months ago I’ve met some people that share the same dream. ARCA Space. These people dream of putting a man in space but first they will land a rover on the moon, as part of the Google X Prize.
The Road to the Moon
They have already developed the cheapest space technology that may some day make the dream of space flight available to anyone. They have already developed the first eco-friendly rocket engine. They are the favourite team in the Google X Prize.
The Problem
But now, they need founding.
So we thought of offering everyone a different kind of trip to the moon. We launched ARCALunar.com where you can send your personal information to the moon. Through a time capsule you can send photos, text, audio files and even videos. Send them to the moon and to future generations.
Your financial efforts will keep the ARCA Space program live and who knows – maybe some day make space flight as cheap as a low cost plane flight.
Although you know my opinion on statistic samples, a recent study on LinkShare stated that ads ran on social networks “are unlikely to be effective as direct marketing tools”.
Rich media banners seemed to be the most intrusive ones, “with almost two thirds (62%) viewing this tactic as an interference when browsing the web”.
59% stated promotions offered online are useful and , joy – joy, only 18% thought ads to be an intereference in their online browsing. My opinion is they’ve ignored them .
Social media communication VS Advertising
It’s interesting for me to find advertisiers thinking of social media marketing as running ads on social networks.
I feel this media as a new way of brand – consumer interaction. I can’t stress enough the “interaction” part. It’s just not about shouting. It’s about interacting, being there, talking, chatting, joining the masses, not ordering them to consume.
Here’s a very good presentation on the future of advertising agencies. Glad to see we share the same views. Even happier to know we have already implemented some of them .
Today I’ve received news of another statistic study. It stated 2 percent of romanians wish to relocate in rural areas. The study was conducted on a “representative sample” of 1100 people.
I will not talk about romanians relocating to rural areas. It’s boring. I will talk about the concept of statistics and the changes that need to be taken to reach the next level.
The “representative sample” of 1100 people is no more than 0.005% of the total population. So … how could this sample be “representative”?
The answer lies in the phisical ability to conduct the study. There is only that much a company can do. Back in the day, when Statistics was born as a science there was no way anyone can theoritize the appearence of something like the internet, the impact it had or the fast spread it gained.
I grew up learning on the internet. I failed once the Statistics class, not being one of my favourites in college. However, what I did learn on the internet is that samples can be way larger than the standard 1000, data can be collected easier and faster than by just “asking for answers” and many others.
Statistics need an upgrade. Because now it’s more guesswork than science.
What are we thinking? I mean what are we ALL thinking? Jung theoratized that we may have all something that he called “collective unconscious”, a part of the unconscious, shared by all humanity, a result of previous experience.
It is ”a reservoir of the experiences of our species.” Something we inherit and pass on.
I was amazed to find this theory as I felt humanity tends to reach something I would call collective thinking (the sum and sinergy of all human information and intelligence). The concept is not new. Asimov, the SF writer, wrote about the concept in his well known Foundation Series. Others have thought and talked about it.
As unlikely as it may seem I think we are close to something of the kind. Twitter (yes, ha, ha … Twitter) is at the moment the concept most likely to reach something of the kind. People talking, thinking, communicating together may be the dawn of a new era for human kind.
My colleague, Andrei Gheorghe (@idevelop), got featured on CNN and The Telegraph with his latest social media experiment, The Longest Poem in the World.
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