February 03, 2005

Blogs, privacy, and selfishness

David Hochman recently wrote an article for the New York Times called Mommy (and Me). At first, I thought it was a light piece about blogging parents describe how blogging can help stem the feelings of isolation that I remember experiencing as a new mother more than twenty years ago. But about 2/3 of the way through, the article turned dark.

And this being an age in which publicizing the private has never been more rewarded, a fair number of parents are hoping their blogs will attract the attention of book publishers.
...
And of course the more parents blog, the less likely they are to get the attention and validation they seem to crave.

Hochman's conclusion seems to be that blogging parents are selfish individuals seeking attention and validation and a generous book deal. I think there are many reasons that people blog and there are many different senses of propriety. And I think calling someone selfish is oh, so boring and juvenile. Read getupgrrl's excellent post about Selfishness: A Brief Analysis of a Puzzling Pattern.


Posted by Kerry at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)

Tool for Thought: A Thinking Partner

Steven Johnson, author of Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software and Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life, recently wrote an essay for the New York Times called Tool for Thought. He says:

[This tool] "... can create almost lyrical connections between ideas. I'm now working on a project that involves the history of the London sewers. The other day I ran a search that included the word ''sewage'' several times. Because the software knows the word ''waste'' is often used alongside ''sewage'' it directed me to a quote that explained the way bones evolved in vertebrate bodies: by repurposing the calcium waste products created by the metabolism of cells.

That might seem like an errant result, but it sent me off on a long and fruitful tangent into the way complex systems -- whether cities or bodies -- find productive uses for the waste they create. It's still early, but I may well get an entire chapter out of that little spark of an idea.

Now, strictly speaking, who is responsible for that initial idea? Was it me or the software? It sounds like a facetious question, but I mean it seriously. Obviously, the computer wasn't conscious of the idea taking shape, and I supplied the conceptual glue that linked the London sewers to cell metabolism. But I'm not at all confident I would have made the initial connection without the help of the software. The idea was a true collaboration, two very different kinds of intelligence playing off each other, one carbon-based, the other silicon.

Steven's description of the genesis of a new chapter as the result of a seemingly loose connection between disparate ideas reminds me of how Mary and I "think" together. At the end of an hour or two together, we are often surprised at the many tacks we have taken, the many tangents we have followed, and the many connections we have made. Sometimes we have something coherent and tangible to show for our thinking together; sometimes not. In all cases, it is a true collaboration, two very different kinds of intelligence playing off each other, both carbon-based.

Posted by Kerry at 06:44 PM | Comments (0)

February 02, 2005

Identity and Integration

Mary wrote yesterday about Evelyn Rodriguez. One of the passages Mary quoted from Evelyn contained the phrase "an individual's digital identity." I began to wonder if one developed one's "digital identity" would one also have to develop one's "analog identity?" And if so, how might they compare? And might there be other identities one would develop or create?

Dictionary.com defines identity as

The collective aspect of the set of characteristics by which a thing is definitively recognizable or known.

So, I guess one would need to develop as many identities as one would need to be "definitively recognizable or known" in each domain of one's life. When I was younger, I made myself definitively recognizable by differentiating myself from others who were in the same domain. As I've gotten older, I've tended toward integrating all aspects of myself and to showing up as a whole person in all domains. Sometimes it's easier than others to show up as a whole; and I hope that over time my being my whole, integrated self (warts, shadow-side, and all!) is how I will be definitively recognized and known.

Posted by Kerry at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)

February 01, 2005

Evelyn Rodriguez - Futurist, Blogger-with-a-past

I can't remember how I first came across Evelyn Rodriguez' blog Crossroads Dispatches, but I do remember the first posting I read - it was last June when she wrote On My Papi and More - about her relationship with her father and his relationship with work. And his life and its impact on hers. I read Evelyn regularly now, and was reminded of this posting On Papi when she listed it in her own picks of her top 24 posts of 2004.

Evelyn is quite eloquent and seems to share her personal perspective easily. I got hooked both on her writing and the way she weaves themes together, drawing on books, quotations, poems and other sources that catch my eye. Since June, I have follow her thoughts and links to all sorts of new places I didn't know I wanted to visit, but I am glad I did.

In yesterday's post, Evelyn mentions that she previously had a different blog. Curious, I went to see what her blogging looked like in an earlier incarnation, and I came across these quotes from her March 13, 2003 posting:

I consider myself a futurist. I have a good track record of being about one or two years ahead of the curve or even the "early majority", but I don’t necessarily believe we predict the future as much as we create it. Alan Kay had it right when he said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it."
...The Support Economy posits that future wealth creation lies in individual space. Unmet market needs (and a market is comprised of a bunch of individuals) create market opportunities.
...With “individual space" as the hub I see an individual’s digital identity becoming the nucleus of the orbit of services and support revolving around the individual. In my view, digital identity encompasses much more than an individual’s username and password or even their biometric fingerprint. It encompasses the personas, roles, attributes and information that uniquely describe and reference a particular individual and their needs, desires, interests, expression, and more.

I get the sense that she is right about being a couple years ahead of the curve, and that she is indeed able to predict by creating. I have a lot of background reading of her older postings to do - up until now I have read her in present tense only. We may not have fulfilled the promise of digital identity yet (I can't tell - need to catch up!), but I recognize what she was getting at nearly two years ago is very much aligned with where I want to go - to be able to use technology in ways that help me use my skills and resources in relationship with others.

Posted by Mary at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)