MediaShelf Blog

We mine the past to uncover the information left behind by our predecessors, and through that information we come to know something of their experiences.  Likewise, we mine the information produced by our contemporaries.  This information we uncover is an information footprint.  Everybody has an information footprint.  In contrast with those who have gone before us, participants in the modern world have much larger footprints.  We have so much information that we easily get lost in it.  Our filing cabinets, computers, hard drives, CDs, Zip Drives and the internet itself are all haystacks in which we constantly find ourselves digging for needles.  While this is inconvenient when we are seeking that information for ourselves, it kills almost any prospect of sharing that information with other people.

I want us to create an internet where the stuff you find goes deeper.  Up until now, the wired populace has done a pretty good job of generating and sharing massive amounts of information, but most of the time that information only goes one layer deep.  Currently, the internet does not reflect even a fraction of the real stories we have to tell.  When it comes down to it, all you get is text, hyperlinks, and miscellaneous files (images, PDFs, audio, video).  There is very little to differentiate the relative meaning and value of all these components.  I want more than videos floating in a preformatted index with a generic, popularity-driven search experience.  I want more than monolithic, tag-driven photo galleries.  I want to encounter information that is meaningful to people, presented in ways that reflect this rich, personal meaning.

I believe that the way to achieve this depth is to encourage people to become the stewards of their own information.  The stuff that is really meaningful to us has value because there is a story behind it.  Currently, we strip away all that meaning by tracking our digital stuff by generic means.

I challenge you to demand more from your (digital) information footprint.  Like it or not, the information you produce tells the world a story about you.  It’s up to you to arrange, expose, and weave that information as you see fit.

The world is full of people who are driven to tell the story that lies behind their digital stuff.  They want to draw the connections and fill in the gaps.  I have a hunch that if I start listening to these people, letting them tell me their stories, I will find myself creating a very different kind of web application to suit their needs.  To put this in computer science terminology, I aim to collect use cases.  Usually in software development the technology comes first, and use cases serve as a means for refining the technology.  I’m going out on a limb and letting the stories come first.  The technology will follow naturally from that.

So in mid-November, I moved out of my Minneapolis apartment, gave away most of my furniture and put the rest of my belongings in storage.  A week later, I set off to the Airport with nothing but a laptop, a carry-on suitcase, my backpack and an iPhone.  My current itinerary has me traveling until at least late May 2008.  When I told my friends about these travel plans, they began referring to the journey as a tour.  The idea stuck.  I’m setting off on a listening tour, where my main priority is to practice hearing people more clearly.  Seattle, New York, Boston, London, Berlin… I’m visiting these places in search of people with stories to tell.

As I encounter people, listen to their stories, and reflect on the technical implications, I will be using this blog as a sounding board.  Case studies, personal accounts, technical opinions, they will all accumulate here.  If you’re interested, keep watching.  In the meantime, I’m listening.  What’s your story?