Category: Netculture

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Search Engines And Short Term Memory (or: the digital Alzheimer)

I was looking for the source of a satirical quote I’ve read years ago and, of course, I tried Google as first tool, but with no results. The only option would have been to go back in my garage, open the boxes where I stored the old newspapers, and try to find the line I need.

This lead me to an obvious but never considered conclusion: if something is “just” on paper, is going to be forgotten because “average joe” (including me) doesn’t make the effort to go over the “search” button push, looking for sources not available online.

True, Google did launch the digital library initiative, the Gutenberg Project is releasing the ebook version of the public domain literature classics and there are similar activities elsewhere, but there will always be an off-line knowledge that people don’t care to look for because it is offline.

The final word(s): our memory goes back in the past as deep as a search engine can.

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The Rain, Matteo Renzi and His Honour Guard

The picture of the Italian Prime Minister running to avoid being soaked by the rain while the honour guard stood still under the storm is a lapsus showing his lack of self-control: instead of sharing the “fate” of his men, he just cares for himself.

Waiting for the next downpour, it might worth to read Hagakure’s “Lesson of the Storm”, 1 useful not just for handling a rainy day.

 

  1. Fear Not the Rain
    You must understand the “lesson of the storm”.
    If all of a sudden a man is caught by a storm he will run as fast as he can ? to find a place to rest not to get soaked.
    But if he does accept that when it rains one gets wet, he can stay in a calm state of mind even if soaked to the skin.
    This advice works for everything.     ↩
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Twenty Years Of Hacking In About 4 Minutes

Twenty years of hacking in about four minutes. This is a short documentary on the life of ? Metro Olografix, one of the oldest and most active digital NGO in Italy.

Proud to be there since the beginning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eoNBNaKfB4A

p.s. The video is full of trivia about people and technology. But unfortunately, Google can’t help. You have to rely upon memory, culture and experience. Brain, in other words 🙂

 

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A twenty years old jump into the future

Twenty years ago I jumped into the future.

I wasn’t actually aware of it. To me it was just matter of meeting “cool” people who, like me, loved (someone else’s:)) computers.

Twenty years after I’ve realized that I have been part of something great, though unacknowledged.

Join the Metro Olografix Twentieth Birthday Party at MO20.olografix.org.

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Don’t call us “monsters”

We are the Internet’s humanity.
Please, don’t call us “monsters”. Or “sorcerers”. Or “masked avengers”.
We are just human beings driven by a powerful desire to learn and communicate.
Crossing the physical distances, filling the cultural voids.
In a network made of people.

This is the incipit of the foreword I wrote to Giancarlo Livraghi‘s book “L’umanità dell’internet“, published in Italy about fifteen years ago.

A lot of time went by, but this is still the reason why I use the Internet.

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* Questo è il testo originale:

Siamo l’umanità dell’internet. Non fateci passare per mostri. O per stregoni. O per “vendicatori mascherati”. Siamo semplicemente persone animate da una grande voglia di conoscere e di comunicare. Superando le distanze fisiche. Colmando quelle culturali. In una rete fatta di persone.