Hi All. This blog will primarily cover my travels in Bangalore, India. But in the spirit of travelogues, it seems like it should cover the journey as well. Here is a short review of some of the socialTech that makes my travels smooth.
WHAT IS HYPERLOCAL?
One of my major research interests over the last few years is the hyperlocal revolution. Bruce Sterling has just published a nice piece of fiction called “Dispatches from the Hyperlocal Fiction” here. (Link: Victor Tvedten).
In the story Sterling writes: the difference between the old-fashioned semantic Web and the new hyperlocal Web — that’s hyper as in linked, and local as in location — is that the databases of the new Web are stuffed with geographic coordinates.
For other versions of what Open Source Urbanism might look like, check out:
The Headmap Manifesto (.pdf)
Situated Technologies especially Usman Haque‘s Urban Versioning System 1.0
or the writing and research of Malcolm McCullough
However here are some of the tools that are already working for me:
DOPPLR: THE SOCIAL ATLAS
You can follow my progress via maps on Dopplr: The Social Atlas, if you are interested in joining. My username is infoeco.
Dopplr is a very well designed social network site that helps facilitate chance encounters for people who travel a lot. From what I can tell the user base is mostly global design/tech geeks which is why it is so snazzy. I always have carbon guilt when I fly, and I have even dallied in Carbon Offsets. This website has some really interesting visualizations that allow you to see how much carbon you have racked up through travel. There are lots of other well done database driven information graphics as well.
I highly recommend students interested in designing for the web. In particular this sites graphic and interaction design take advantage of using dynamic content to create provocative information diagrams, and taking advantage of color, hierarchy and selective display of information to make a .calm space.
TWEETCRASHING
I put out a twitter call seeing if anyone in my network knew of someone in Brusells who would be willing to host me and/or let me crash on a floor for a night. I am planning to visit my sister for two days on my way to India, but I have one extra day in Brussels with no plan, and no hotel room. I was amazed to see that within 1 hour of my posting I was getting responses.
Not sure if anything will come through on such short notice, but it is nice to think that one could live out of their mobile phone anywhere in the world for next to nothing fairly soon. I envision a day where networked electronic social capital allows me to cook soup for someone in Portland in exchange for a bed at a totally different person’s house in Helsinki. We’ll see…