{"id":67,"date":"2009-03-02T12:10:48","date_gmt":"2009-03-02T17:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/yvettewohn\/2009\/03\/02\/ubiquitous-human-computing-and-personal-connectivity\/"},"modified":"2009-03-02T12:10:48","modified_gmt":"2009-03-02T17:10:48","slug":"ubiquitous-human-computing-and-personal-connectivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yvettewohn\/2009\/03\/02\/ubiquitous-human-computing-and-personal-connectivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Ubiquitous human computing and personal connectivity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(cross-posted on arcticpenguin)<\/p>\n

In a recent episode of the cartoon King of the Hill<\/a>, Bill\u2013 an overweight and depressed character who loves to eat\u2013 falls in love with the woman who takes his orders at the local fast food drive-in, only to find out that she is working from a call center in Arizona. He drives out from Texas to meet her, but discovers that she is a young girl who is repelled by him at first sight. Crestfallen, he comes home.<\/p>\n

Such scenarios may even increase in the future, according to JZ. In an interview with Nokia\u2019s Ideas Project<\/a>, Z talks about \u201cubiquitous human computing\u201d<\/a> where an organization uses human resources like fungible resources\u2013 combining the minds of people in various locations to solve the problem at hand. He gives examples of people working at home \u201cplugging in\u201d to various jobs from one location.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur technology has outpaced our social development, and our ability to build the kinds of social and cultural structures around the new technology that tend to temper and channel its use,\u201d he says in the interview, adding that the \u201ccheap networks\u201d are what make ubiquitous human computing possible.<\/p>\n

While this collective force\u2013one that moves Wikipedia and one which Z hopes will fuel Herdict<\/a>\u2013 is certainly cost efficient, how effective is it in utilizing advanced human resources? I still believe that some kind of personal element is required to make the most of people\u2019s abilities and is that personal connection combined with the incentive of networks that brings out true productivity. Without that personal connection, you can only reach a certain level of quality.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure that in the future, people will develop tools to make communication via technology a more personal experience, but I\u2019m worried that before it gets to that point, people will stop wanting to make the extra effort it takes in dealing with face-to-face communications. Even now, as I work remotely\u2013 most of my assignments\/conversations with Z are through email\u2013 I wonder if I am becoming less sociable, burrowing deeper into my hole of specific interests. Email communications cuts out small talk because you can get right to the point. I find that my work emails are becoming more like archived instant messages or brief tweets with less full sentences and only absolutely necessary information. Mobile computing (iPhones and Blackberrys,etc) encourage this.<\/p>\n

On the plus side, I can dress comfortably, feel inhibited about multitasking, and not be bothered by officemates who talk loudly on the telephone or smell bad. I don\u2019t have to wait in front of someone\u2019s office for a 15-min. slot. I can pick my nose, fart, or belch at will. I can play computer games full screen without worrying about someone looking over my shoulder. However, I don\u2019t know if someone\u2019s mother is sick, if their kid was in the school play, if they have an obsession with Battlestar Galactica\u2026 or have attention disorders. Such things may not seem important and are things that may bog down productivity in the short run, but are elements that keep people connected even after the task at hand is finished. And when it comes time for the next project, they are reasons for those people to work more efficiently\u2013 a relationship that becomes more productive over time.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, I always seem to be coming back to the idea of sociable networking<\/a> (not social networking) and craving for a way to make technology a more personal experience. I think integrating more voice and video is a step in that direction. While text is certainly rich in terms of the expanse of creative interpretation that it lends, I think sound and sight adds the degree of personal connection that can enhance relationships. Ultimately I think that touch and smell are what seal personal experiences, but hopefully we won\u2019t invest in technology to the extent that we want those elements remotely instead of in person.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(cross-posted on arcticpenguin) In a recent episode of the cartoon King of the Hill, Bill\u2013 an overweight and depressed character who loves to eat\u2013 falls in love with the woman who takes his orders at the local fast food drive-in, only to find out that she is working from a call center in Arizona. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4247,980],"tags":[4319,4852],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cyber-culture","category-social-networks","tag-sociable-network","tag-ubiquitous-human-computing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yvettewohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yvettewohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yvettewohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yvettewohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yvettewohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yvettewohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yvettewohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yvettewohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yvettewohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}