“The most complete exposition of a social myth often comes when the myth itself is waining.”
- Robert M. MacIver, 1947.

The Nokia keynote from end 2006. Their map to the future….

It used to be quiet around here. Peaceful. Oceanic.

That was in the long ago time.
We were all one, then.
Not a matter of belief. A fact.

You could see the Web, plain as day,
spread out across the land.
Nothing frayed, nothing torn.

Just me, and all my Relations.
Weaving the shimmering, beautiful web.
Each shining strand connected to each shining,
lightwoven strand.
All one.

Maybe it began with one little fray,
one little link that broke in some insignificant place.

Crevices opened. Cracks.

It doesn’t matter what you call me. I’ve had a lot of names.

These are my children. Some of them got lost along the way.

Too many are forgotten, buried by the years.
Some have returned, some are beating like hail on the roof,
some are voices howling like coyote in the wilderness,
some are your own ghosts wandering through your sleep.

They want to come Home.
The Web needs mending.

Hi guys, i’ve seen some fantastic inspirational pieces here! WOW!

Being an idea/design guy, i’ll leave the metalevel filosofy in capable hands but do like to contribute on a more basic user oriented level So here’s my take on it untill now.

I agree, it’s not at all about technology but about ZE people and all their different needs. The current state of technology is still doing a very poor job there. In ‘92 when i graduated from industrial design we’ve been discussing personalization of Design for 5 years , but technology was simply not that far yet. Since then massproduced but personalized technology is here (see build your own nikes, spreadshirt (simple) The technology is there, and the need is there more than ever! (see the fragmented non excisting marketing target groups and the need to be personal , different and be a star…) No other time have been so about ME standing out, being unique, different but still a part of…Ok, so to me it’s about personal needs in a fastly personalizing ME world, where we check in to different tribes, groups, communities as needed, when needed. What you need for all the above is a multi purpose morph connector to those tribes, groups, communities etc ..

E-butler
In Peter F Hamiltons book Pandora’s star (highly recommended!) there’s a device in the form of a bracelet that everyone is using called the e-butler: it’s capable of catering to every communication/learning/info need you have.. right there and then, email, voice, data, maps, tap into any network or community but also enabling you to interface and auto-drive any vehicle needed, it can teach you every skill you need to know or have or perform that skill on autopilot for you, on the spot thru speeddownloading manual’s and tutorial and nano-interface that info with your neural nanonics (hardwired into your brain). And ofcourse there’s all kinds of blackmarket e-ware that lets you hack, tap, tweak and spy, also through your neural-nanonics e-butler.

Todays mobile devices are a long way from the e-butler, but what i like about this project is that we are providing Nokia with at least a glimpse on what the future could hold for them. Show them where it could go, thru peoples actual needs of communication, contribution and information. The phone as a multi purpose connector, plugable into every kind of content, tribe, community via every channel on every location, all the time.
Harware/software/content: i don’t care, i want now what i need now. Easy, simple of use & efficient.

Nokia’s Npad: Personalize your Nokia connector
So instead of pre-packaging a whole slew of unwanted and unneccesary applications into all phones, why not have the user fill in a simple profile or upload one, and after this has been done, you can connect your Nokia phone to the Nokia Personal Application Databank (Npad) of any Nokia shop/website and the database will squirt all the relevant apps/widgets for your particular profile & needs into your personal Nokia phone..

I’m thinking databases, games, widgets/modgets of FON, Plazes, Netvibes, Rebtel, Xing, YourScene, Pushy, all our cool Result customers and many many more. Nokia partners with all of the above and your profile decides what you need in your phone, it recommends new tools based on your browsing profile ( + you can update your profile or override choices) or quickly pre-select from preset user profiles etc..

Nokia’s Upad: (User Personalised Application Device
Based on the above thought of e-butler and Npad, why not have a modular connector ?
A basic connector module with all basic communcation needs, on which people can connect add-on devices by Nokia, 3rd party and 1st party (homebuild) like Hi-def camera’s, sound modules, all kinds of in and output modules, special interest modules and ofcourse all kinds of skins and other fashionable statements.
Firmware based on a linux or opensource symbian variant for all our hacker programmer friends out there.

Idea one for the Npad phone
There’s the nokia game offcourse, but i’m having an ARG, MMORPG (And check this) in mind that has clues hidden in all our cool 2.0 Result customers: Netvibes, Technorati, Torget, Glife, Yourscene, in Web Power’s emails, Caliber Media’s SBG’s , accesible via FON, Rebtel, Wengo and hidden on Plazes, etc.. Nokia’s ARG 2.0 a game tour through the coolest 2.0 sites and companies out there. Roles you could adopt are Software builder, Connector, Designer, Information architect, content provider, gamebuilder Together you need to find clues and tools and content and software too virtually build phones & wares and fill them with content in a team effort. maybe sell too. the best idea’s win (maybe endproducts are diggable/voted by the public (see Sellaphone below) .. Hosted by Nokia & Result ARG 2.0 cool prices : Money & Build your own Nokia. see below

Idea two for the Upad Phone and for the Npad
Sellaphone 2.0! : openVC.com/Sellaband..
Everybody can posts cool new ideas, phone designs, mobile apps, ui’s, games, features, accesoires, softwares, add-ons on a sellaband/diggable site Top 3 ideas rated in various categories are build by Nokia and distributed , maybe a limited edition. The ideamakers need to support and pitch their ideas with bp, cases, viral user support, pre-rounds (maybe thru a international X factor contest ) Winners in hardware or software or content (Films and Culture are categories too): publicity , Prizes (tailored thru their needs/wishes) Slogan: Nokia enabeling your vision and your idea gets realized you’ll get a retainer + commision per item.. Build your own phone! Open source phone ..fully 2.0!

Here.

I’ve got appointments with Bob, I’ve got one, for a stretch of time with Sander…

I would like to meet as a group from 4PM – 5 PM thursday
Sander’s stretch of time is a bit long, so we need to work out what we’re going to do during that time
friday: need to fill that in, but meeting bob from 5PM til about 8

I can’t play anything by ear and need to plan. I hate meetings where nothing is accomplished but being together, so let’s decide beforehand what we’ll use that time for. I’ll hate myself if we’ve only been sitting around. Let’s make those meetings productive and a time to get together, decide on actions, go our separate ways, do stuff and check in again. I love seeing you all, but let’s put preparations first, socializing second….

Aat, Minne, when do you foresee meeting up? We can discuss the whats and the whys in wednesdays IM session….

Guys, generously aided by Bob, my high maintenance self and me will be in the jolly carlton hotel on vijzelstraat corner singel. In order for this to work, you need to come to me, I need to do dwarslaesie stuff every 3 hours, so my circle is smallish, also, there are only a few locations where I can go. So that narrows it down somewhat.

I have: a substantial part of thursday afternoon until about 5
friday all day, but with breaks because of the dwarslaesie stuff and I need to rest, evening too, but until 8pm, not much later
saturday until about 2PM with breaks, preferably at the hotel if i can hang on to my room. hotel lobby is always available.

I want this to be efficient, so I’m not going to drag myself around town much, it will be too exhausting. also i need to plan in advance because of my IC schedule, so I need to set up appointments with you guys, I know it’s a drag. Would love to have dinner on friday together…
I know it’s a drag, but as i said – high maintenance….

can you comment with suggestions for a schedule in this post? that way I can plan things. I need to know how, who, what, where, when by wednesday evening at the latest. Very difficult to bring my computer because I can’t carry much stuff, so we’ll need to work around that…

“the ecosystem test”. The ecosystem test asks whether a platform can enable a large group of average, poorly funded players with little to no domain experience deliver compelling solutions.”

Brilliant presentation by two fantastic entrepreneurs! http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/02/mp3_of_founders.html

I know Aat already did a test, acting as if our ideal Nokia device already existed. reaction: “where can I buy one”. Aat, could you do this and shoot videos of your interviews and upload them, over this week?

Other than that we need to figure out how to teach, as Bob put it yesterday. For that I want your input. I’ll be in Ams next week, ultra available as my high maintenance self…I am meeting someone from a metaverse (inthegan from flickr) but I can devote much time to figuring out the meeting format: i’ll be available thursday, friday, much of saturday….please make use of that!

guys? your input?

The Loss of Important Infrastructure can be as simple as a hard drive dying or as complicated as a unexpected lack of compatibility between required-but-dodgy modules in years-old program code. It can rise from a network outage, or a disasterous upgrade attempt. However this happens, the result is the same: a mad scramble among the members, statements of what the community means to them, a call to arms, and a declaration/offering of support. The community is in danger of disappearing! If we just band together and show the world how strong we are, we’ll survive this unexpected bump in the road. Sometimes the PIE causes the crisis themselves by deciding not to go on, and others might offer to take the community out of their hands. And sometimes it’s just a matter of everyone chucking in $10 and a new drive is bought. This critical event can often be the first time a community realizes that it really is a community. It can also be the first time it realizes it is not. This is also an excellent time to shoot the TC, hide the body and plant a bush over it. By the time the smoke clears, nobody notices we’re down one asshole.

The Radical Change in the Makeup of the Place can occur with the influx of money, the spontaneous leaving of a lot of VCPs, the shifting of PIEs, or even the HOG burning out and not uploading a newsletter any more. The software, the hardware, it’s all fine. But the makeup of the people has shifted, and maybe you find out that you weren’t showing up because of the cool door games or the flash animations or the porn uploads but because of the people, people who are now gone. When a community is sold off or merged or otherwise affected by outside parties who want to squeeze it for a little street cred or even cold hard cash, they can often find out that they have been gifted with an empty shell and the crab has crawled away overnight. Either way, it is often the sign of the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning, or the beginning of a new beginning. When you look back from the perspective of years, you can tell that something changed, something deep. Please bear in mind, this is an absolutely unavoidable occurence and people constantly think it’s something that can be protected against, but you can’t, as long your community is actually composed of human beings.

What I’m going to write now isn’t really rocket science… But important when focusing on the mobile experience. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/25/1817217&from=rss. Delay and especially quality are a big problem in paid content. So are paid applications. There is so much free (and “free”) good stuff online, that if where to pay for something on my mobile… It better be uber good.

Then there’s the usability aspect, things should be dead simple and if a bit more difficult, very rewarding. When you look at rewarding websites like eBay, every action is either simple or highly rewarding.

Up to the social networking, rewards and simple. Yes Nokia can and should be the (mobile)hub between my networks. As native, I have never made up an avator that didn’t slightly resemble me. So it would not necessarily have to make it easy to switch from identity to identity. The hub needs to enable MY identity from anywhere to anywhere!

the long tail biting its own tail…

I love you