Platform or a service? That is the question

Do you go to a barber or to a hairstylist? Do you get a haircut or a hair design? Trends and fashion surely impacted the use of terminology in many industries over the years. The hi-tech arena is not different. The only thing we can say to its defense is that in many cases the evolution in terminology is accompanied by real technological developments, not just perception changes.

Think of how the web, “just web”, left the prime stage for the sake of web 2.0. Or the distance from the original LinkedIn concept to Twits. It’s just an example, of course.

And now, is “platform” the new trend pushing “web services” aside?

I’ve asked this question around for the past couple of weeks. It looks like the “platform” concept is very popular. Many developers of web services have decided to dress their companies with the air of “platform”. Isn’t offering a platform for buying and selling a lot more impressive than suggesting an online shop?

Similarly, venture capitalists say, many developers of various software solutions present their software as “an engine”. Having a software that performs isn’t impressive enough. But offer an engine – now you’re talking!

The investors are not that impressed with the new terminology. Although some treat is as “semantics only” and ignore the choice of word, others prefer it if the entrepreneurs would call their child with its proper name. That would lead to the correct market strategy, from research to penetration and management of competition.

So what is really the difference between a web service and that glorified platform?

A web service usually offers an actual solution to end users.
A web platform, however, offers a basis for the creation, by others, of services or solutions, which are then offered to end users. A platform is a basis on which you can build new things.

“The web is a platform”, claimed Tim O’reilly in his article from 2005 “What Is Web 2.0″. But some ventures have taken this concept too far. For instance- “The Meretz USA weblog is a platform for discussion of issues related to Israel and the American Jewish community…” – why not simply a forum?

In many cases it’s simply a confusion, where the usage of the term “platform” is correct – language wise, even if not venture-wise. “ParagonEX Trader is an advanced online trading platform for the Forex market”. “Erayo is the world’s first online wholesale platform for boutiques and independent retailers.” “BlogTV is a well recognized platform that has won several awards”. Qoof widget is “The Most Advanced Video Platform on the World Wide Web”.

Qoof executive chairman and founder Richard Kligman explained: “I think we just started a few years ago with the term Platform and so that is what stuck. Even though SASS (Software as a Service) may be a better fit for us now, platform is still more understood when talking to clients and investors. If I remember correctly we looked at what Brightcove called themselves and since we are the best solution for video as a selling tool, as opposed to an entertainment tool like Brightcove, we decided to go with that. I think SAAS is on its way up and will be more common in the next 12-24 months, but for now Platform is the one you need to explain less.”

On the other side there are companies who could use the sexy term, but elegantly avoided the trend:
“Fring™ is a mobile internet community and communication service that allows friends to connect…” but “Fring provides an Open API, providing 3rd party developers with the building blocks to create mobile web apps and leverage Fring community & hardware capabilities” which actually adds a platform to the service.

Things are very clear in the eyes of entrepreneur Yossi Taguri (Nuconomy). “A platform is something you build on, a service is something you give out of the box…For instance: Windows is a platform, hotmail is a service. Google app engine is a platform, Google apps for domains is a service.” Yet on the company’s web site “NuConomy helps companies better assess and understand website and social marketing performance with its free, next generation web analytics and optimization platform.” Taguri clarifies: “we have an analytics service and an advertising platform”.

You can get a hint on the perceived importance of ‘platform’ from a sentence Jeff Pulver wrote on one of his blog posts “…Facebook’s opening of it’s platform with the APIs … transformed FaceBook from a social networking application to a social networking operating system”.

So my guess is, we should be looking at the development of a lot more platforms in the next couple of years. And probably a process of separation between services or SAAS and platforms.

Games are the new School

Games development is slowly becoming a central and one of the largest global industries. Right after our basic human needs, where satisfaction and esteem start, and self-actualization follows, right there you will find games. It’s not news that games promise entertainment, and looking at cubs playing you can easily deduct the relationship between play and development, but it is becoming clearer that games are the key to learning and education.

There are of course the official “learning games”. A contradiction in term for kids: “You either let me play and have fun or you want me to study. Don’t try to trick me”, would be the kids words, even if not phrased exactly this way.

But as more social aspects get into the game play, the lesser is the need to insert formal learning curriculum into the games.

Every game is a learning game.

Over the past two years I have been researching games for all ages. Trying almost every new game I came across I’ve been having a very good time. I have an accessible focus groups, my own kids, now ages 7, 11 and 15, and they help me understand how the games work for them. There is a constant struggle between the pure fun time and the school-homework time. Most of the time they do not neglect their school obligations, but I can’t say that the afternoon school time is very obviously contributing more to their learning than the games they play.

To count just a few of the skills they have developed through online games – written verbal communications, social skills, languages (our first language is Hebrew, but in all games the communications are in English, normally begun at 2nd grade), strategic thinking and planning, design, math, memory, self management under stress, commercial and negotiations abilities, persistence and more.

Those game skills have contributed a lot to their school performance. Higher grades in English and math, better understanding and commendable discussions in history classes, improved memory in text based tests, better technical performance and computer command, and great social skills, including the ability to negotiate local peace agreements…

I am a very proud mother but I am not talking only about my kids. These skills are showing up clearly with any kids who play more online games. Observing a class or groups of kids it is easy to detect who is more exposed than others to such games.

The mix of games and education is not new, but the balance is changing. How to mix the two today, that is the question. How best use the need for games and entertainment to improve learning skills and acquire knowledge and education, and how to turn studies into a lot more fun?

Many teachers have been doing it for years: Developing fun activities in the classroom. In the recent years, however, more educators are exposed to the new digital possibilities, such as online games. The question is: can existing games be used for the school curriculum or do game developers need to create new games, according to this curriculum.

I believe a new path has to be created. A middle one. One that would enable adoption of existing games with minor modification to school curriculum, while at the same time, adopting the school curriculum to the games reality.

And this is not only because the games reflect a new reality.

More reading on the subject:
Games Learning Society Conference
Education and Learning Commons
The European ARGuing (Alternate Reality Game) project

Facebook Therapy for Teens

I have a privilege. I am connected to so many young people, my kids age, around the world, and basically invited to peek into their lives. I am not involved. I dare not speak. But I look and listen and try to grasp their reality. I have an opportunity my parents never had.

So, first of all, I am flattered, of being trusted enough. Now comes the observation. What are they talking about? What is the mood? What impresses them or occupies them? How much of their social life is managed online, and how much is offline?

And when I am looking for the answer to this question, I wonder about the difference between online and offline socializing. What does online give, that offline can’t (there’s been enough talk about the other way around…).

There has been so much criticism about the online social life. About kids clinging to their facebook-myspace pages for hours a day. Fears regarding net-safety and cyber bullying. Scares about the re-wiring of these young brains. Talks about their physical shape, changed by the growing number of sitting hours that they spend each day.

But I would like to point out some really great things that the online socializing does and might be overlooked.

I don’t know if anyone ever bothered to run a statistics about the percentage of teens who kept a diary or expressed themselves in various forms of writing 10 or 20 years ago. But I do know they percentage of teens who do it nowadays is extremely high. According to a recent publication from PewInternet.org 93% of teens ages 12-17 use the Internet. 64% of teens are content creators. Writers.

What does it mean? And why is it of significance? I am thinking writing and biblio-therapy here. Venting.

I remember what it was to be a teen. Flooded with extreme emotions. Living a daily drama. Struggling to gain my independence, discover and re-shape my self. Wanting to do well at my studies, yet stay alive socially. I used to write a diary. I also wrote hundreds of poems. That was my way of venting. However, I didn’t have too many sharing options, and at times, the feeling you are alone, was the toughest. This sort of writing was more “for the drawer”. Looking at my kids I see something else.

What social networks give them is the opportunity for a natural support group. The discovery that they are not alone. This is a great social achievement.

So once we take a break from criticizing teens’ “inappropriate” online behavior, let’s talk about the cultivation of a new type of teen empathy. It might be difficult for them to note in the classroom that one of the students is ‘depressed’, but once he wrote it on his FaceBook status it generates a flood of comments. Suddenly the depressed is not alone, they “joined a club”. There is a kind of comfort in the knowledge that you are not alone. That’s the start of therapy.

So I am watching with wonder and see the budding of empathy, caring, humor and intellect of the next generation. I am also seeing how different this blossom is, from any previous generations.

A facilitator or a teacher?

Which is it? A learning facilitator or a teacher? Which of those would better serve the future of education? The future of today’s students?

I have been pondering over this question since I read and loved the post by WM Chamberlain who wrote “…I evolved. I am a better teacher … My students have a better opportunity to succeed … In a few short years I have become less of a teacher and more of a facilitator for learning. My students are taking a responsible role in their own education.”

So here is the thing: I am not a teacher. I am a parent. I consider myself an educator, and I know I am a good facilitator of learning. But I am not a teacher. So what does distinguish people like me from teachers? Is it enough to facilitate learning?

I’ll start at the end. Some kids really do not need teachers. At least not for all topics. Not all the time. Some of the way they can do by themselves. But I wouldn’t start closing teaching academies yet. I have enormous respect for teaching methods, instructing, guiding. Even when discussing facilitating learning – there are different ways to do it. A parent-facilitator will never be the same as a teacher-facilitator. But somehow I feel there might be some things in common here: first, the credit a facilitator offers his students. The trust in the students ability and motivation to learn. Second, or perhaps this is the main thing, the ability to see the individual learner, and not a group, a class as one.

In a few years of web evolution, the importance of the individual has grown, starting with personalization features about a decade ago, and discovering the importance of the individual in huge social networks, that would not have existed without individuality.

Still, when it comes to education, no real development is happening. Wavy movements of for and against homework, recurring pressure regarding class sizes, the status of teachers, new books and booklets, replacing old books that looked so similar.

Our hope is really such unique teachers like Mr. C., who take it upon themselves to evolve professionally and bear a promise to change the future of education.

Personal Happyness Quest

“No happy mothers” is the opening line in an interview conducted by Dana Spector with Orna Landau, the author of a new book in Hebrew, freely translated to “One more love”.

No happy mothers???

It’s time to publish the following post, written about 3 years ago. It was a part of a discussion on “Digital Eve Israel”. The discussion titled “Upward Mobility” started with the question why are there so few women CEO’s and VP’s in Israel.

Reflecting on the “upward mobility” issue, I was reminded how I once was extremely ambitious and the sky was the limit. I could have been your lady CEO, had I pursued my plan accurately. But something changed in my life and made me look at things from a different perspective.

The first time I was driven off my job was after my boss at the time said “this is not really a job for married women with children”. This was a year after my first child was born. Two guys were needed to take my place during the 4 months of maternity leave I took and when I returned I was softly advised to try another position, not quite as central or demanding as my original position (but please support the guys when they need it). I agreed to try it but it wasn’t quite it, and when I asked for my original position back, I was advised seriously by my boss that this is ‘not a suitable position for married women with kids’.
That insult was the last straw in that industry, where you sometimes need to behave like a man to move upwards.

That was the first change in plans. Nearly 6 years later, a start up I was working for, averaging 12 hours per day (already a mother with 2 kids) fired me, with half the company, when I was 2 months pregnant. Knowing I was about to have a difficult pregnancy I took it as some omen and decided to stay home and get to know my kids from noon hours on. The freelance jobs I took were performed with the laptop, in bed.

After only 6 months the change was showing on their health and on their growth charts. That’s when I decided I will stay home even longer and actually skip nannies with this 3rd and last child. During this time it suddenly hit me:
As liberal and feminist as I’d like to consider myself I realized that motherhood is really a very temporary privilege. If I don’t use it to the fullest now I will never get a chance to redo it. It’s not that I haven’t been a mother before: it’s just that I have discovered the connection between the quality and quantity in the case of motherhood. The more you are there – the more you can affect the way your children learn to think, behave, react, study, communicate, not to mention their choices… I became an ambitious mother.

After a couple of years at home, when the youngest went to his first “day care”, I decided to look, again, for a position. All offers I got discussed limitless number of working hours per day, for a position to suit my qualifications. Companies demanded 10 hours per day at least. I actually wrote about it several times, but no one really cares. It’s a state-induced workholism.

That’s when I became a “CEO”. I decided I have enough knowledge, experience, expertise, ability and originality to establish my own business. I never present myself as the CEO of Lemino. But here I am, letting you know, that I am.

The fact that women are not as involved in the corporate life as men has a lot to do with the choice of motherhood, and a little to do with the way math and sciences was (sometimes still is) taught. I know only one success story in person: I can never understand how she did and does everything – a brilliant career and motherhood at a very early age. I think that determination has a lot to do with her success. But most of all – talent. She is so talented and really appreciated. And it also takes a special talent to be able to juggle between the two careers. When I asked her opinion on the upward mobility, and she is a high management in one of the largest high-tech corporations based in Israel, she said that although at the entry level they keep the numbers balanced between men and women – it changes later, and it seems like most of the time it is made by choice, when priorities change. This choice is nothing to be ashamed of, or apologetic about.

I read this book, some time ago, “I don’t know how she does it” by Allison Pearson, which discusses smartly and with a lot of humor that conflict between a career and motherhood (also translated to Hebrew). Going back to happy mothers, I think every woman finds her happiness in a different place. I think happiness is, among other things, a function of what you want, same as disappointment is a function of what you expect or hope for. Happiness, real and true, can be found in many places but bear in mind that it does change forms with time.

What’s the biggest change in the web from 2000 to today?

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been exploring an idea I had. Turned out I didn’t invent any wheel. Someone has already though about it, and quite some time ago. In fact, about a decade ago. A year or two later the idea got dumped, as so many other very good ideas had when the Internet bubble of 2000 burst and exploded.  Some venture investors are licking their wounds of that bubble to this day.

But it got me thinking, about all these fantastic ideas. Some have preceded their time in many ways. Does the fact that these companies collapsed with that bubble wave 9 or 8 years ago mean that the ideas should be erased for ever too?

Could it be that the current web era would enable a rebirth of old ideas into a better and sustainable web environment?
The first to answer me was Jeff Pulver: “I think with many things timing is everything. And what those ventures did not have the benefit of was either 3G on the mobile side or widespread availability of broadband on the laptop side. Connectivity is key and sometimes ahead of the vision.”

I began by twitting the following question: What is the biggest change that happened to the web over the past 8-9 years?

I got the following @lemino replies:

http://twitter.com/tonepedia “Noise”

http://twitter.com/YoavPerry started with “Mobility” then changed to “Portability“

http://twitter.com/ezrabutler “People”

http://twitter.com/rami_hascal “Spectrum”

http://twitter.com/stampergr “Bandwidth”

http://twitter.com/wmchamberlain “Conversation”

http://www.linkedin.com/in/gillesrapp “Google”

Of course there is no one answer to this question. All of these are true. Though I do believe that bandwidth has probably paved the way to noise, people, conversation, spectrum and even Google and Wikipedia, which I’d also add to this list.

The exception on this list is ‘portability‘. What makes it special, in my view, is that it is still very much in development with a long long way to go. It encompasses wi-fi mobility and mobile phones web surfing, while the latter is still in diapers and bears the promise of a better, more accessible, future. But what’s even more promising in “portability” is the ability to have content and applications fed into the user’s favorite destination, rather then have users go to a single web site for each interaction they desire.

Instantaneous information anywhere. Like in this visionary venture being developed by Pranav Mistry and Pattie Maes of MIT Media Labs:

So,what do YOU perceive as the biggest change in the web from the 2001 bubble to today?

Memorial

It’s the promise of young life, unfulfilled dreams, hopes and aspirations. It’s that loss. The memorial day is the toughest day of the year.

I’ve been re-reading the web page about my friend and classmate, who got killed in a fight with terrorists, near Kibbutz Manara, in the Galilee, when we were 21 years old.

Happy, careless times

He was such a talented boy. Full of life and humor. Full of promises. He got killed less than 6 months before his release from the military service. I met him only a couple months before he got killed, invited him to visit me in London after his release. He never made it.

What are we left with?

Memories. Some memories are of those lives we shared until taken abruptly. Some are memories of the pain, of the lost hopes, of what could have been.

Thoughts. Thoughts about what will be. Thoughts about new hopes, new lives, and peace. There is nothing our nation wants more.

Ping Pong and the Walls

“Hey, what’s up?? Why are you wasting your time on uploading photos to the web when you have so many documents to write?”
“Because it’s fun, it’s easy, a relaxation. It’s important for my mind to relax a little. I’m an inventor. Can’t be inventing things all the time”.
“But aren’t you avoiding the real thing?? Writing all these blog posts… really… you should be fine-tuning your business plan instead”.
“Well, I lack inspiration at the moment, so I seek it elsewhere. Online”.
“Shouldn’t you be seeking it within your documents, the incredible amount of research material you’ve been accumulating for the past months or by going over what you’ve written again and again, instead of Twittering and Facebooking??”
“You know, the roots of the business I am trying to create, the original inspiration for my idea came from my life on the net – the Facebook-LinkedIn-Meetup-Ning life. It’s my soil, there I seek my brain food”.
“Very romantic… You browse your networks daily, check your email, and then let yourself be guided spontaneously to blogs, discussions or photo albums, what’s the point of that?”
“The point is to share. Actually take part in people’s lives and let them take part in mine. The point is to ping-pong. That’s what is building the inspiration fire”.

Well, don’t worry. I am not getting all Shirley Valentine here… Luckily, I have social networking. It just crossed my mind recently, while I was visiting the Museum of Natural History in New-York with my daughter. She raised an interesting question: How is it that most of the world has evolved and advanced, passed the middle ages and the renaissance, invented machines and hi-tech, and all this time, at secluded parts of earth, primitive cultures still exist? Why have they not evolved? Is it only because of the seclusion? Because the lack of ping-pong?

I think it is. I think that had it not been for our neighboring cultures we would all remain pretty savage and ignorant. The exposure to other ways of thinking and behavior is what cultivates and inspires us, makes us tick, and click, and double click.

Social networking ping-pong has certainly worked for me. I have moved faster and further in the past 9 months, than I have in all my life. And it is getting faster by the minute.

And for all those who find themselves talking to the wall, and not just writing on people’s walls – here’s a little side kick from Shirley Valentine.

Earth day: 1. Education. 2. Peace. 3. Environment

So many teasers promoted earth day. One would have thought this could turn into a world wide environmental celebration. But as often happens with this type of events, it was mainly used from promoting this firm or the other for doing something irregular, like, cycling for office electricity or using the spinning gym to generate some power.

When asked to ponder about this day and say what it really means to me and what I’d like this day to be – I get to other places.

The first natural place I get to is Education on Earth. I have a dream in which every one on earth can get education, learn and evolve, communicate and connect. I think that if more people would be educated and knowledgeable then naturally the environmental awareness would increase. I think that given education more people on earth would be happier and kinder to each other and to our global nest. I think that education can get people more connected between them and with their surroundings, serving the Earth Day purpose.

The second place is naturally – peace. Peace should be a global task. In a peaceful earth countries wouldn’t have so spend so many resources on weapons or protection against weapons. More money would be left for education, health and yes – grooming the environment.

someone's home

On the third place is the environment. Yes, I realize that on “Earth Day” environment was supposed to come first. But let’s admit it. It doesn’t, and placing it there for a single day or month wouldn’t change global priorities. Caring for the environment today is a luxury. If we want the environment to enter people’s priority, we must first attend to the people on this earth. People for people. Hungry people. Thirsty people. Homeless. Ill. How can one expect them to care for the environment? Only when people are cared for could they join in the thinking about the environment we all live in.

Experiencing Independence

I don’t know how it happened exactly, but when I went to look at the map, my daughter thought I was going to get off, so she ran off the train, the door closed, and I stayed on the train for another station, while she was out there, all alone, on the corner of 53rd and fifth, middle of Manhattan.

While I was attempting to get right back on the train back one station, she went out to the street level to get a mobile reception. By the time the train arrived, she was outside, trying to call me, but I was under ground, no reception.

She didn’t freak out. She looked around, realized that where she was is approximately 4 blocks away from our apartment and started to head back to the apartment.

I was worried that she won’t panic or attempt to go on the next train after me and prayed that she was smart enough to remember that when you lose your parent you are supposed to stay at the same place and not move. Especially since I saw her get off and I knew where she was.

Later that evening she explained to me that she went a little further away from the subway station because she had no reception and it took her a while to realize she had to select a mobile operator. “By the time I realized that”, she said, “I was already one block away and didn’t sea the subway station at all, so I thought it would be simpler to head right to the apartment”.

The evening ended with giant smiles to conclude her little adventure.

When I was 14 I could only dream of going abroad. But I was a lot more independent in traveling around on my own, in my city of Haifa and even to Tel-Aviv. I began traveling by public bus when I was 9 years old. No cell phones then.

Still, missed being able to explore new countries. I am so happy, as a mother, to be able to travel abroad with my kids and award them with these experiences, and education.

Strangely enough, on the plain on our way to the States, I told my daughter, that while this girls’ trip is a joy for me, I can’t help thinking about my first time in New-York. Making the revelation, discovering this incredible city all by myself. I was 23 at the time. There is no doubt that this is a totally different experience then visiting it for the first time of your life with your parent, which normally would assume responsibility for … well, not getting lost, for instance.

So I could well understand how the little adventure yesterday ended with her feeling a little ‘high’. I was happy to realize how grown up a 14 year old really is.

Kids Out of the Box

During the Purim school vacation I drove my 11 year old son with his classmate to the yearly conference of StartupSeeds. On the way the two boys spoke of their creative ideas, using phrases like “thinking out of the box” and giving a new meaning to fun.

I liked it. I like their creativeness, their openness and their ambition. The conference hosted some 80 kids or more. Formally it is directed at kids ages 13 and up, but there are individual cases where it appeals to younger kids too. The warmest part of the event for me was meeting Oz Ben-Hamo and Andrey Boukaty, two 17 year old kids, who started the http://joinmylife.co.il/en/ project during the last Gaza war. Their aim was to explain to the world what kind of life are the kids from southern Israel forced to live. I “met” them online, through facebook conenctions and gladly helped them translate texts and posts to English. The blog is still alive, though the frequency of posts declined and not all posts are translated to English.

One other story that came out of StartupSeeds and made headlines on the same week was the story of Yuval Shoshan, a 12th grader, who made his first ‘exit’. He started his web venture at the age of 14.5. He received mentoring through StartupSeeds from Yaniv Golan, one of the founders of Yedda, which was sold to AOL. Yuval’s venture is a rating site – www.opinion.co.il – allowing users to rate books, music, movies, blogs and restaurants. Users can sort opinions according to genres and rate the raters and the ratings. Shoshan sold the venture, among other things, because in a short while he will have to go into the mandatory military service for 3 years.

StartupSeeds is doing a great work, obviously. I just wish there was a growing awareness of the need to educate for entrepreneurship. Some kids have it like a natural gift, others need to learn it. But entrepreneurship is a must skill for life.

It’s The Social Networks’ Fault We Are Less Social

Social networks members only interact with 5-10 percent of their network, claims Facebook’s in-house sociologist Dr. Cameron Marlow in an interview with the economist.

“Dr Marlow found that the average number of “friends” in a Facebook network is 120, consistent with Dr Dunbar’s hypothesis, and that women tend to have somewhat more than men.”

Dr. Robin Dunbar is an anthropologist who now works at Oxford University. A few years ago he concluded that the cognitive power of the brain limits the size of the social network that an individual of any given species can develop. The limit is 150 connections and has become known as “the Dunbar number”.

The Facebook sociologist puts out numbers according to which the average male Facebook user with 120 friends leaves comments on 7 friends’ photos, status updates, or wall and messages or chats with 4 friends. Female users’ numbers are slightly higher.

It all connects to some recent studies which claim, that the social networks apparently didn’t create the expected increase in the number of our social connections. No one claims it’s the social networks’ fault but researchers do claim there is a decrease in the number of the real-life, active, social connections we manage today.

Are the social networks a disappointment? Not necessarily. They can contribute to the number of casual contacts a person has. They may contribute to better self advertising of individuals, the economist article claims, but don’t expect them to fundamentally change the structure of the brain, allowing human beings to manage actively a larger number of connections.

This article got me thinking. I thought about the Facebook findings and decided to check my own statistics and network behavior.

I am not sure they have what it takes to properly analyze connections management. For instance, 9% of my 289 people network on Facebook is made of family members. An additional 10% are close friends or business associates. With all of those I keep an active connection outside of Facebook. So for me at least, the Facebook activity is mainly aimed at nurturing and growing relationships that are “networking relationship” to begin with, what the statistics refer to as casual connections.

Going back to exploring the current state of our human networking conditions. The Dunbar number is probably correct. And it could be that people today manage less “real and active connections”. And yes, it could be the social networks’ fault. Because they are overwhelming us with opportunities that start off as casual connection, and given the correct grooming, can become a real-active-connection.

Let’s check back in 5 years.

Two ideas at the cost of one

March broke of with a set of terrible storms. Winds, rain and very cold for this area. It went down to 9c degrees. I didn’t feel like going out at all. But on Monday having pre registered to attend the ISOC and GamesIS convention I have decided to ignore the storm and just do it.

And a good thing I did. Heard some interesting talks. Met interesting people. Some were contacts I have been meaning to meet for a chat for a very long time. So finally we had the chance to do it.

I met a colleague who asked me why I came. I said I like these events because they usually get the wheels going. It’s always a push, no matter where you are. He was surprised. In his view this was too much an official venue. You need some letting go, some nonsense atmosphere, don’t you?

Well, apparently, I don’t. Not that I mind doing the unofficial events too, but I was really happy when at the end of the day I knew I had a new idea for a startup, and I also knew what is the next step on my current startup idea.

Of course, this has some good sides and some bad sides. I almost dared to think that perhaps I should avoid such inspiring events so that I don’t get distracted and can keep on my track, my current startup idea. Why did I have to get this diversion now? I was almost sorry.

But then, having a new idea is exciting. So you can’t stay “sorry” for very long.

So, now what?

Beware the Social Networks!

About 12 hours ago “The Mail Online” has published an article titled: “Social websites harm children’s brains: Chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientist“.

The top neuroscientist quoted is Lady Susan Greenfield. She is an amazing 59 year old woman and a specialist on the physiology of the brain, a professor at the department of pharmacology at Oxford university in the UK.  A serious, serious academic.

I am dedicating this post to her achievements and to the Ada Lovelace day, and to this pledge.

I had to read the article several times to try and understand what she is saying. After all, she is a top neuroscientist. You can’t simply dismiss what she says. Being a mother of 3 children – I want to know.

I am already poisoning my kids with un-organic food, we live in a polluted city, there are cellular antennas in the neighborhood, not to mention their personal mobile phones. Am I doing some more damage to their brains by letting them have a Facebook account??

Anxiously I was looking for scientific hints in the article. The research conducted… the methods and subjects… anything to learn a little more. But the most scientific reference I found was: she “believes repeated exposure could effectively ‘rewire’ the brain”.

OK.

The article quotes her saying “Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo are said to shorten attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centered” and then adds the quote “My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment.”

Last month, the same lady, who is a member of the house of lords said “I often wonder whether real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitized and easier screen dialogues…, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf,” arguing that exposure to computer games, instant messaging, chat rooms and social networking sites “could leave a generation with poor attention spans”.

Well, hello and welcome to E V O L U T I O N.

Indeed not all evolutions do well for the specie. Think Mammoth for instance. Perhaps we are doomed.

But, does this mean we have to exclude all new media and stick with the old ways? Is preserving the current wiring of the brain more important than developing and arriving at new, yet unknown, places?

Here is something to think of. My 9th grader told me about her new History text book. Text books are rarely noted or gaining any sort of comment from a teenager. But she actually pointed out that this is a rather good book to study from. The book’s uniqueness is by adding several different fields of information into each page. Allowing the students to follow the main text while absorbing other types of information, some are minor others are accented.

When I encountered this fantastic presentation by Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins – things fit. I already wrote about it here.

I am not a scientist. But I believe that Lady Susan Greenfield is right. The young brains do go through some re-wiring. Sarah Robbins is right too. Students today are capable of handling a lot more information then students in the past. Call it “poor attention spans” if you like. I actually think it’s rich attention span.

I know that my Kids find it easier to absorb and process several sensory and information sources at once. They are certainly more successful at it than most adults I know and I believe they are better at it then I was as a student. Excuse me for not crediting social networking or penguin club with these achievements. I give most of the credit to the environment they are growing into and the future they are naturally preparing for.

Some of the many comments made to the article on “The Mail” try to dismiss everything as an oldie attacking the younger generation. Which makes you wonder really, about how society related to various media changes in the past century, or better yet – from print, through phones, to mass and digital media.

Still one question remains: can we really fight it, or should we find a way to use it to society’s advantage?

Control your info?? On the Internet??

I read Mark Zuckerberg’s blog titled “On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information” and thought.

I remember a time when I regretted that my phone number appeared on the printed phone directory. Once the directory was printed and circulated there was nothing I could do to change it, delete it, retrieve it or make it go away. Hundreds of thousands of people had this private information at their disposal.
I waited a whole year till the next directory was published without my details, and hoped that people quickly dumped the older, out of date, copy.

But the online life actually awards us better opportunities to control our information, even if it’s slightly more complicated.

True, we cannot control information that was already circulated, distributed, copied or passed on to our friends and contacts, and their friends and contacts. But why not enable us full control on those items which we have published or uploaded and are identified with us? This control should be definitely ours.

Not according to Facebook. Here is the phrasing of their new terms of service, the problematic part only:
“You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.”

Facebook is assuming ownership of copyrighted material. How does that settle even with the friendliest CC? They think they have a right to use any information I put on Facebook for their own commercial gain – and to use it not only when I am using Facebook, but forever. It’s as if Flickr or Picasa will suddenly decide they own all the photos on their servers and can use them for commercial gain however they like.

To be honest, I can’t imagine giving up Facebook at the moment. I am using other networks too. Good old LinkedIn at the top, and Twitter, as one of the recent I joined. But Facebook somehow allows the mixed networking of formal and non formal, friends and family, business and fun. If you want to hear and be heard – Facebook is your main channel. You need to learn of events and happenings – this is the way. There isn’t a day I don’t visit my Facebook homepage at least once, mostly more.

But I must admit I will think twice before tagging images of myself, not to mention uploading any photos I’ve taken, adding notes or blogs or any other creations. I don’t mind very much, though, about my personal profile. Mainly because I carefully created this online profile and coordinated it with my profiles on other networks as well. I carefully chose the information I wanted to post and the information I should keep to myself. On a standard Facebook profile page one is asked, for example, on political views or religion – things that are definitely not for public sharing and eternal storing.

Back to print. I gave someone a business card. Actually, believe it or not, it was on an Internet World convention a thousand years ago. On the back I wrote my private Yahoo email address. I was recently contacted by this person. Looks like my business card survived “for ever”. But I didn’t mind the survival of such info forever. My yearbook photo also exists forever. So what?

However, if the poems I wrote to my high school sweetheart when I was 17 were suddenly published, because I was once a member of some club or network who chose to store and own it – I might have been slightly embarrassed. To some people their past creations, photos or publications can be even detrimental, financially or socially.

My suggestion? Think twice about the information you are donating to Facebook, oops, sorry, publishing on Facebook.