THE INFINITE CONVERSATION

Start Here

March 8, 1998

Beginning with the realization that the web is the most efficient way to store and disseminate information. to students, clients, friends and colleagues. (Redundancy busting.)

Subsequent rejection of custom (multiple) websites. "One site should fit all." (Further rendundancy busting.)

Fascination with the dynamics of attention. See Goldhaber's Attention Economy. Alamut as a record of my own attention. (Mindfulness: Paying attention to what one pays attention to...)

Classification/taxonomy problems: The timeline seen as the solution for organizing information. (The gestalt of experience.) Serialization.

Intermittency. The addictive quality of intermitent updates. Skinner's Variable Interval Reinforcement.

Intermediate State

Many affordances. Aggregation of like-minded individuals. Generosity. Infinite 'conversations' (discontinuous through space and time). 'Levels' of discussion.

The ability to leverage my own eclecticism.

Searchability -- linking to previous inquiries -- pattern recognition. Newton: "I stand on the shoulders of giants." The possibility to stand on one's own shoulders.

Research into the nature of public and private. Jouke Kleerebezem:

"I cherish my hestitation about what to publish and what not."

Radically externalized (and extended) memory ie. The Literature:

'The Literature' is the docuverse, the universe of all documents, the sum total of all the text, images, sounds, films etc. that have ever been part of the system, (i.e. all versions, both past and present).

Emergent properties (experienced through practice).

I.e. Web Presence and Absence.

Weblog behaviors: (originally published 23.10.99):

(1) Linking, (2) Name-dropping, (3) Propagating information, (4) Re-contextualizing experience, (5) Opinion-ating, (6) Souvenir collecting, (7) Stroking, (8) Stroke soliciting, (9) Dialog-ing, (10) Brand building, (11) Displaying, (12) Prioritizing.

Future

Accumulated value.

Emergent form. Not a diary. Not a published column. (Differences: embedded in its context, scalable creator/user experience, searchable, interesting structural possibilities.)

Communities of individuals?

Data mining. Proust and a documented life.

The development of a family estate. An online will.

Link Pages

Team Generosity (those who I read - update list)

Metascene's (aka Fred Pyen) net.art.links (not weblogs)

Eatonweb Portal (including Dutch weblogs)

Community Weblogs: Metafilter

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