weblog September 26, 2002   i've been silent for a while, sorry. on the other hand i've been busy typing away at an article who will hopefully see the light of the day in a little while. i'll keep you posted. Douglas Rushkoff has a great piece on "Content as social currency". "When my father was growing up, bubblegum companies competed by offering free trading cards inside their packages...Today, baseball cards are sold without any bubblegum at all. Despite gum's textural attributes, baseball cards proved to be the "stickier" content. Why? Because it provides a richer media experience. Not only can collectors look at pictures, but they can compare and analyze the statistics of each player as chronicled on the card's back. More importantly, this depth of data allows the card to serve as what I've started to call "social currency." While children can debate the merits of one brand of gum over another for only so long, they can talk endlessly about the players' whose cards they've collected, trade them, or even just peruse one another's collections. See, the cards aren't really ends in themselves; they are the basis for human interaction. Johnny got some new cards, so the other kids come over to see them after school. The cards are social currency". no need to suggest how that translates to digital channels. personal sites and weblogs anyone? yes. the inherently social nature of content. collections of posts. readers debate endlessly in Movabletype-enabled comments school yards. all of the above also relates to what recently Jason Kottke has posted (quoting Justin Hall): "...if you see someone who you like through the smoke and noise online, and you can saunter over and stand at a slight distance and watch them to see how they carry themselves, to read their tone of voice, to observe their links and interests. In a way, personal websites are like personal advertisements, or a way to circumvent the matchmaker. We have a girl for you, she likes cooking French food, curling up with her Game Boy Advance, and watching Transformer cartoons, except you hear it from the girl herself. If you can find someone with a rich site, you can study up on them and the conversation can start on some strong common-interest footing. It helps if you have a website too, I think, otherwise the online-information-sharing might be tough one-way. What are they going to read while you're sleeping?" we have gone back to the days when storytellers would travel from place to place and make a living out of entertaining crowds with their oratory ability. the only difference is that now crowds "travel" from across the world to hear the best stories, to places like Paul Ford's Ftrain or Dean Allen's Textism. storytellers of the global village. Posted by fabio sergio | 8:29 AM | permalink ............ September 11, 2002   both Christina Wodkte and Dan Hill have recently posted about the High Line, an elevated, abandoned train track in Manhattan where Mother Nature has reclaimed her role. on a date like today i believe there could be no better message of hope. Posted by fabio sergio | 7:59 AM | permalink ............ September 09, 2002   the great guys at 37signals have posted about "IBM web enabling dorm washing machines so students can check for empty washers, add soap or softener, and get an email when their load is done". reminds me of what italian home appliance manufacturer Merloni is doing with its line of digital white goods. they teamed up with italian electrical power supplier Enel to provide customers with "pay per use" appliances. instead of buying your washer/dryer/whatever you lease it and you pay for its use through the electricity bill. i like the idea that our homes will be increasingly filled by things that we don't really own. Posted by fabio sergio | 7:21 PM | permalink ............ Not bored yet? Visit freegorifero's weblog archives for more useless words.

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