November 30, 2003
Meeting Marko's dad
23:41 UTC » Identity - Joi's Diary
Read more of Goffman's "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" thinking about how I consciously and sub-consciously show or hide facets of my identity depending on the context. Today, Marko introduced me to his mother and father. His father is Martti Ahtisaari, the former President of Finland and a very well known global diplomat famous for his skill in crisis management. I had heard a lot about his father and was looking forward to meeting him in person. As I was taking my morning shower, I was watching myself thinking about what I was going to talk about with him, trying to imagine what things would be interesting and how those things would affect his opinion of me. It was an odd thing. I consciously watched a lot of the things that I do sub-consciously and realized how much I was actually managing and presenting my identity. What might we have in common? Do I want to talk more or listen more? Do I need to impress him? A lot of things were going through my mind.
Having said that, the shower rehearsal wasn't really necessary and we had a very comfortable breakfast. I found Mr. Ahtisaari to be a down-to-earth and receptive person with an extremely positive global outlook. I also had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Ahtisaari. I can see where Marko gets that "Mr. Diplomat" style. ;-)
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Accent chameleoning
17:08 UTC » Gender - Identity - Introspective
This relates to my last post. In an email exchange, someone mentioned that their friend switched to broken English when speaking to their foreign friends. When asked why, she replied that otherwise they would think she was elitist.
I find that my English language accent is SO affected by who I'm talking to that it's embarrassing and I'm self-conscious about it. I sometimes try to resist it, but it happens. I see other people doing this too, but I find mine particularly bad. It is obviously happening in my sub-conscious, but it might have something to do with the "girls playing dumb" thing.
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Do girls play dumb just to let guys show off?
14:19 UTC » Gender - Identity - Marketing
Goffman wrote this in 1959. Is this true today?
According to the marketing talk on bowling alleys that I heard the other day, there is a funny behavior that is quite common. The guys try very hard to impress girls at the bowling alley and they start out OK, usually doing better than the girls at the beginning. These guys start to get tense and begin to perform more poorly towards the end. The girls, on the other hand, start to get the hang of it, remain relaxed (which is important for bowling) and usually win at the end, leaving the guy grumpy. Many bowling alleys have ping-pong tables which allow the guy to try to regain their pride and allow the girls to give it back.GoffmanAmerican college girls did, and no doubt do, play down their intelligence, skills, and determinativeness when in the presence of datable boys, thereby manifesting a profound psychic discipline in spite of their international reputation for flightiness. These performers are reported to allow their boy friends to explain things to them tediously that they already know; they conceal proficiency in mathematics from their less able consorts; they lose ping-pong games just before the ending.Mirra KomarovskyOne of the nicest techniques is to spell long words incorrectly once in a while. My boy friend seems to get a great kick out of it and writes back, 'Honey, you certainly don't know how to spell.'
A Meta Note: reading a book while thinking about what to blog is a slow, but interesting way to read a book. I hope you don't mind if I continue to share short passages that trigger weird musings...
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Dan's got RSS on his Treo 600
13:36 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Gadgets - Wireless and Mobile
OK I've got gadget envy. Dan blogs about his RSS feed on his Treo 600 and says he wants a client that lets him blog easily from it too. Anyone know of anything good? Ado, want to port Kung-Log to PalmOS?
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Erving Goffman describes Dvorak
00:20 UTC » Identity - LOAF - Media and Journalism
Mimi and danah both refer to Erving Goffman's book, "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" so I've started reading it with digital identities and blogging in mind.
This TOTALLY reminded me of Dvorak. He always as a gleeful look when he talks about his performances.GoffmanIt should be understood that the cynic, with all of his professional disinvolvement, may obtain unprofessional pleasures from his masquerade, experiencing a kind of gleeful spiritual aggression from the fact that he can toy at will with something his audience must take seriously.
Dvorak again. By the way, I love Dvorak and think he's hilarious, but it's watching the performance that I love.GoffmanIt is not assumed, of course, that all cynical performers are interested in deluding their audiences for purposes of what is called "self-interest" or private gain. A cynical individual may delude his audience for what he considers to be their own good, or for the good of the community, etc.
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Lockers lower churn for Japanese love hotels
00:18 UTC » Japanese Culture - Marketing
I was listening to a marketing presentation the other day and learned an interesting fact. As most of you know, Japanese homes are very small so even married couples often go to "love hotels" to make love. Churn was high and customer retention was traditionally very low because most couples like to experiment with all of the interesting features in the variety of hotels. Recently some love hotels started providing rental lockers, which at first sounds a bit counter-intuitive. Married couples found it convenient to store adult toys and other things that they didn't want their children to find in these lockers. These lockers created a relationship between the customer and the hotel and dramatically increased customer retention. Now these lockers are used to store all sorts of "Not Safe For Home" things.
Apparently, lockers in almost any industry are a great way to lower churn.
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November 29, 2003
Off to Helsinki
Off to visit Marko in Helsinki.
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Larry Page and Sergey Brin parody blog
06:30 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Heckling - Humor
Larry Page and Sergey Brin Parody Blog
I've wanted to do a blog for ages but Sergey couldn't manage to set up MovableType. Apparently it's "Just too difficult".Via Aaron Swartz on the Google WeblogAnyway, the other day he suggested that it would be a thousand times easier to just buy Blogger.com.
So we did.
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November 28, 2003
Docomo phones will become your wallet
13:44 UTC » Network Technology - Wireless and Mobile
Sony and Docomo have announced that they are working together to put contactless IC chips in phones. Sony's FeliCa (type C contactless IC chip) is slowly becoming a defacto standard in Japan. (The government is backing a different standard, type B.) Currently the Japan Railways, AM/PM and others are using it for payments. Many companies use it for company ID's. The problem is that you can't see how much is left in your card and it's a pain to "charge" the card with more money. Putting it on a phone lets you download money from your bank and see how much is left. I worry about the privacy and security issues, but connecting an RF payment system with a phone totally makes sense.
I have a theory that Docomo has to become an identity/payment company and dump the voice and other bit-pushing businesses and go flat rate or free on the network. Docomo should buy a credit card company and use the bit-pushing business as a stick when collecting money. There are some regulations regarding payment businesses that make it difficult, but I'm sure the government would waive this if there was enough of a social need. Right now, the transaction business that credit card companies do doesn't make money. This has driven credit card companies to become loan companies that lobby the government to allow them to charge crazy interest rates. These interest rates cause people to end up in debt hell and commit suicide. If Docomo replaced credit cards as the primary non-cash transaction, credit system and could use network service termination to lower the collection costs, I bet they could make enough money on the transaction business to cover the bit-pushing.
Docomo is Japan's biggest mobile carrier that does about $8B / yr in data revenues.
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Being vicariously giddy on a good day
07:33 UTC » Introspective - Joi's Diary
Cory just had the best day of his writing career. danah was a "giddy little girl" yesterday. I get vicariously giddy when my friends are giddy on a good day. As Cory points out, his day was the best day "so far". That's key. Wouldn't it suck if you started your life with the best day ever and it kept getting worse? Much better to start with the bad days and have each day get better.
Does this mean that people who are born into luxury have a harder time having a good life than someone who starts out below average and ends up developing a great life? I guess it depends on what makes you happy.
The mundane parameters of my life (money, attention, health...) are cycling like crazy, but I definitely feel like my life continues to get better. I would say that the primary source of happiness for me is the quality of the human beings I get to spend time with. Although many of my favorite people have passed away, I think I am hanging out with more interesting people today than any other point in my life.
So in the spirit of the weird American holiday thank you. All of you.
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John Patrick on blogging
06:41 UTC » Blogging about Blogging
Interview in eWeek with John Patrick on blogging. John Patrick, the former vice president of Internet technology at IBM, is an old friend and an advisory board member of Neoteny. He helped IBM embrace the Internet. He's a great voice in this discussion because he's very familiar with corporate CIO behavior.
Via Gen Kanai
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Voices in my head
I'm chatting with Loic right now. Loic has a very distinct French accent. I hear his voice in my head. I've always had a problem reading and I think it's because I tend to hear text rather than read it directly. The interesting thing is that when I know the voice of the author, I hear the author's voice. The voice can cause a very emotional reaction. The other day, when I was reading an email, I got so excited I even noticed a taste. It was a kind of email induced synesthesia.
With iChat, maybe because of the real-time nature and the icon/face, the voice seems much more clear.
Am I crazy?
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November 27, 2003
I hope my cosplay didn't start all of this...
17:40 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Books - Japanese Culture - Joi's Diary
Andy Baio pointed out that maybe my costume party influenced the cover of the bloggers book. Hmm... What a scary thought. At least that would make Kuri-chan the guy with the poo-poo on his head...
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Mimi's bento moblog
16:32 UTC » Japanese Culture - Moblogging
Xeni chats with my sister Mimi on NPR and Mimi talks about her bento moblog. The bento moblog reminds me of when my mother used to make bento for me when I was growing up in Birmingham, Michigan. I was HORRIFIED when she would pack onigiri for me because everyone would make fun of my rice ball or call it a bomb. Yikes.
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danah in the NYT
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Cosplay or costume?
Speaking of cosplay, I wonder if my "costume party" last year was actually cosplay. Hmm....
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compelling environmental movie
14:27 UTC » Energy - US Policy and Politics
Yup. Great movie. Watch it.danah boydcompelling environmental movieSay whatever you want about Leonardo. But global warming movie is a really beautiful and compelling little reminder to the masses in a non-aggressive way. WATCH IT.
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November 26, 2003
The Memoirs of Joi Ito
Someone sent me a copy of "The Memoirs of Joi Ito". It came in from Canada without a return-address. (My assistant opened it.) It's a book based on The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes with all of the references to Sherlock Holmes replaced by "Joi Ito". It's from www.customizedclassics.com which lets you create customized books like this. You can also customize the dedication. This books says:
Dedicated to the world's most famous detective, who has yet to be discovered, a legend in his own mind, J.I.I first thought it might be an advertisement from the company, but with this snarky dedication, I decided it must be someone I know. I asked Boris, the main joker I know in Canada, but it wasn't him. Was it you AG?
Anyway, haha. Very funny. ;-p
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Creative Commons Moving Image Contest deadline approaching
The Creative Commons Moving Image Contest deadline is December 31st. Don't miss it!
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Spider Jerusalem
06:39 UTC » Books - Media and Journalism
Speaking of Journalists, Spider Jerusalem from the Transmetropolitan series rocks. Thanks to Warren Ellis for making him and Cory for turning me on to Transmetropolitan.
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Can you tell a coder from a cannibal?
The Programing Language Inventor or Serial Killer? Quiz.
Can you tell a coder from a cannibal? Try to work out which of the following spent their time hacking computers, and which preferred hacking away at corpses instead.Funny.
Via Markoff
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November 25, 2003
Sabrina
Xeni wonders about Sabrina. It must be a cultural thing. Seems perfectly normal to me... ;-)
 Governor Tanaka of Nagano dressed up as a "yashii" copyright Kyodo News |
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Do you have a shagbile?
05:48 UTC » Wireless and Mobile
Another great line from "the effects of mobile telephones on social and individual life" by Dr. Sadie Plant.
Dr. Sadie Plantseveral people confessed to using two mobile handsets, one for general use and the other for affairs; one respondent in London referred to the latter as a shagbile.
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Mobile phone body language
05:36 UTC » Wireless and Mobile
My sister just sent me a link to "the effects of mobile telephones on social and individual life" by Dr. Sadie Plant, a report for Motorola.
Just reading it now... There is a section on the body language of people on mobile phones. Do you adopt the speakeasy pose or the spacemaker pose? Do you have the firm grip or the light touch? Do you have the scan or the gaze. ;-) I wonder what you can tell about the person by how they interact with their mobile phones...
I'm a spacemaker-scanner with the light touch usually... but I think it changes based on my environment.
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Nokia rocks on
05:04 UTC » Joi's Diary - Wireless and Mobile
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November 24, 2003
Me, myself and I
10:53 UTC » Identity - Japanese Culture
This reminded me of something that I've always wondered if anyone had studied academically. In Japan, we have many pronouns for "I". I personally use several of them. I use ore when I want to be casual and assertive. I use boku when I am casual and humble. I use watakushi when I am formal and assertive, and I use watashi when I am formal but less assertive. There are others. Each one has a different set of memories and social situations where I assert myself. It's a different "I" even though the "me" may be different. My theory is that Japanese can more easily navigate and deal with the multi-faceted identity that danah talks about in her paper because we have so many names for ourselves. Does this make sense? Are there other languages that have a plethora of "I" pronouns? Does anyone know of any academic work in this area?danah boydAdam Smith (1976/1790) separates identity into the object versus acting self, while Mead (1934) refers to me versus I.
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What's At Stake?
04:56 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - US Policy and Politics
Interesting multi-author pseudonymous political/US-election-related blog called "What's At Stake?". Reminds me of Locke and Demosthenes from Ender's Game.
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November 23, 2003
ECD Video on the hydrogen economy
I've written about the Hydrogen Economy before, but I just uploaded a 100MB Quicktime Movie from ECD about hydrogen fuel storage technology and the hydrogen economy. Features Stanford R. Ovshinsky (CEO/founder of ECD) and Bob Stemple (Chairman of ECD and former chairman of GM). ECD invented Nickel Metal Hydride Batteries (NiMH). The basic phenomenon of NiMH is a solid material that can absorb hydrogen. It is quite stable. The battery works by storing and releasing hydrogen inside of a closed container to store and release electrical energy. Similar materials can be used to store hydrogen fuel as well as to convert hydrogen to electricity in the form of a fuel cell.
The problem is fuel cells are still a ways away, storage is difficult and the infrastructure for production and distribution is not in place. ECD's solution, which I think makes the most sense is to use their solid storage system for storage and distribution, make a hybrid vehicle that uses a hydrogen combustion engine and a battery. Long term, we should switch from making hydrogen from fossil fuels and put in place a solar powered electrolysis network. The first phase looks like: fossil fuels->hydrogen->solid storage based distribution->hydrogen combustion->batteries->electricity->power. This will get us started. Eventually it should go to solar->hydrogen->solid storage based distribution->fuel cells->electricity->power.
I used to work for ECD and am still involved with the company so I'm a bit biased. ;-)
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November 22, 2003
Reverend AKMA can't prove that Jesus wasn't half-dolphin
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Dvorak on blogs
13:58 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Heckling - Humor - Media and Journalism
Oh cool! Dvorak is bashing blogs again. It must be that time of year again. He probably needs more traffic.
Oops. I broke my promise not to make fun of journalists who don't blog... But I'll make an exception for journalists who like to tease me too.
UPDATE: Steve Gillmor takes the bait and responds to Dvorak.
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Six Apart Announces First License of its TypePad Personal Weblogging Service to NIFTY, one of Japan's Leading ISP's
07:08 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Joi's Diary
 The Trotts shaking hands with the CEO of Nifty, Mr. Furukawa |
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November 21, 2003
Six Apart Gathering tomorrow in Tokyo
16:31 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Joi's Diary
Six Apart gathering tomorrow at 3pm. See you there! (Sign up on the Six Apart page.)
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November 19, 2003
My position on the US
07:40 UTC » Privacy - US Policy and Politics
I just received an email from one of my best friends urging me to stop fueling disinformation and anti-Americanism. He also urged me to stop comparing the US to Nazi Germany. I've also had some private email exchanges with some conservatives about some of the issues I've written about lately. I've started feeling like a politician trying to keep my liberal and conservative friend happy by mostly posting questions, posting notes of other people's comments and quoting people. Now that I'm being urged from both sides, I guess I should clarify my own position.
Here is where I stand. What I'm mainly against is the conservative media in the US and the right wing one-liners like "bomb Iraq to democracy" which I saw on a lot of conservative web sites before the invasion of Iraq. I remember very clearly Colin Powell's speech at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. I was moved by the speech. He made me feel like maybe it was the right decision to go into Iraq... but he hung his whole argument on WMD. I still have not been convinced that the invasion on Iraq was the right decision, but I'm probably willing to hear arguments more than my more liberal friends.
What disturbs me the most about this administration is the drift towards secrecy, the Patriot Act and profiling with the assistance of advanced technology. I think that is REALLY BAD and I am not convinced that profiling really works.
Regarding my quote of Pastor Martin Niemöller... I'm not comparing the US to Nazi Germany. It's an eloquent statement about the necessity to look out for human rights, even those of people who are not in your tribe. I think human rights are at risk globally. It's easy to see abuses and say things about human rights abuses in other countries, but I'm just urging American to watch out for the stuff happening right under your noses.
Although I am a liberal, I find some of the anti-American stuff a bit over-board and I find some of the conservatives arguing convincingly on many issues. I may become emotional at times, but I'm trying to keep my thinking above the emotional level. I will try to present what I believe is a balanced view here and I want to thank all of the people who have posted here and sent me thoughtful disagreements and urgings. (Although some of the disagreements have been not-so-thoughtful.)
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November 18, 2003
Notes on discussion about the US and Japan at the Izu Conference
17:56 UTC » Blogging about Blogging
I just posted my rather rough notes about from the discussion at the Izu Conference about the US and Japan on the Chanpon blog.
I haven't yet put together the identity analysis part. I need to noodle a bit more on this.
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Identity and cultural context
12:51 UTC » Social Software - Wireless and Mobile
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November 17, 2003
Technorati growing pains
17:24 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Search
David Sifry writes about growing pains at Technorati. He apologizes for the slow response, but assures us he's on the case.
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