community and technology - justin
watt
What is a "third place"
and why are they important?
They are distinctive informal gathering places, they make the
citizen feel at home, they nourish relationships and a diversity of
human contact, they help create a sense of place and community, they
invoke a sense of civic pride, they provide numerous opportunities for
serendipity, they promote companionship, they allow people to relax and
unwind after a long day at work, they are socially binding, they
encourage sociability instead of isolation, they make life more
colorful, and they enrich public life and democracy.
The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops,
Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a
Community by Ray Oldenburg
What is a "smart mob" and why are they
important?
Smart mobs emerge when
communication and computing technologies amplify human talents for
cooperation. The impacts of smart mob technology already appear to be
both beneficial and destructive, used by some of its earliest adopters
to support democracy and by others to coordinate terrorist attacks. The
technologies that are beginning to make smart mobs possible are mobile
communication devices and pervasive computing - inexpensive
microprocessors embedded in everyday objects and environments. Already,
governments have fallen, youth subcultures have blossomed from Asia to
Scandinavia, new industries have been born and older industries have
launched furious counterattacks.
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution by Howard Rheingold
Why are people "bowling alone" and
why is this important?
Putnam warns that our
stock of social capital - the very fabric of our connections with each
other, has plummeted, impoverishing our lives and communities. Putnam
draws on evidence including nearly 500,000 interviews over the last
quarter century to show that we sign fewer petitions, belong to fewer
organizations that meet, know our neighbors less, meet with friends
less frequently, and even socialize with our families less often. We're
even bowling alone. More Americans are bowling than ever before, but
they are not bowling in leagues. Putnam shows how changes in work,
family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers, women's
roles and other factors have contributed to this decline.
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American
Community by Robert D. Putnam
What is the "creative class" and why is it important?
The distinguishing
characteristic of the creative class is that its members engage in work
whose function is to "create meaningful new forms." The super-creative
core of this new class includes scientists and engineers, university
professors, poets and novelists, artists, entertainers, actors,
designers, and architects, as well as the "thought leadership" of
modern society: nonfiction writers, editors, cultural figures,
think-tank researchers, analysts, and other opinion-makers. Members of
this super-creative core produce new forms or designs that are readily
transferable and broadly useful---such as designing a product that can
be widely made, sold and used; coming up with a theorem or strategy
that can be applied in many cases; or composing music that can be
performed again and again.
The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming
Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life
by Richard Florida
Building
Communities with Software By
Joel Spolsky
In software, as in
architecture, design decisions are just as important to the type of
community that develops or fails to develop. When you make something
easy, people do it more often. When you make something hard, people do
it less often. In this way you can gently encourage people to behave in
certain ways which determine the character and quality of the
community. Will it feel friendly? Is there thick conversation, a
European salon full of intellectuals with interesting ideas? Or is the
place deserted, with a few dirty advertising leaflets lying around on
the floor that nobody has bothered to pick up?