The idea, for developers, is to produce the tools that allow us to share the content that is important to us and our world. This can even extend to the most emotional and historically important of arenas, including memorials of soldiers in the Vietnam War. Chris Willis of Footnote.com is enabling living soldiers of the Vietnam War to write memorials of soldiers that were killed in combat or who have died since. The key is that Footnote enables living soldiers to uncover information about soldiers in their platoon so that they can write these memorials. And, what of the Vietnam Memorial? What an interesting database of information that is important for us to re-hash, re-organize, and uncover things like buddies who died in combat together, revealing the highly emotionally and memorially important relational networks that make up the tragic history of the Vietnam War. These memories can be revealed and re-organized and exposed to better reveal the depths of the human experience in war. A face and narrative needs to be put on the names of the dead, and technology can help enable this.
Michael Smolens says that video is very important to mutual understanding between people. It is powerful enough to even change the minds of people that strap bombs to their chest and kill other people. Smolens’ Dotsub enables people to share and find videos in their own languages, which is very difficult to do in existing search functions in YouTube and other video sources. It also allows users to translate and write subtitles to videos, enhancing, again, understanding across language barriers. And, of course, individuals can personalize their account so that subtitles that fit their particular language needs appear with all of the videos that they are watching automatically. This has the potential to eliminate the language barrier that accompanies video streaming, thus giving videos their important visceral power in improving understanding. This can change hatreds and biases. This can bridge divides. This can save lives.
Adam Huey spoke about Proteus’s mobile content services. Why not access basic web via your phone? This is what Proteus does. But, we need to understand that the user experience over the interface of a phone and its small screen is very different than over our computers. But, that’s ok. We still want it. And, it’s very important at certain times, particularly at times of the day when we are active, on our feet, and yet want to uncover and act on information. For example, what if we are downtown and want to go to a movie. Proteus allows you to browse for tickets and, equally importantly, act to buy your tickets right there and then, while your on your feet, when the demand arises in your head. It also allows you to share information while you’re on your feet and inspiration strikes. Hungry to write? Why wait? Put it down right now standing on the corner of 9th and Madison when your inspirational subject matter is in front of you.
Great quotes:
Chris Willis of Foonote.com – “If you can’t find it, it doesn’t exist”.
Adam Hoey of Proteus – “Democratize the mobile web…Bridge the digital divide in the third world…the channel of the future” “Put the tool in the users hand [physically, of course, but also conceptually, letting the user take it in any direction that they want]”
Chris Willis of Footnote.com – “The anthropology of it all [cell phones]…cultural anthropology”
What are some core principles of fostering that 1% of dedicated content-creators?:
*Reputation
*Meaning
*Dialogue
*Communities
*Risk-takers are the ones
*Spheres of trust