Some of those things were things that haven't come to pass, or have several more years before they come to pass (for instance, nanotechnology). Others came but my direction would have been the loser (scripting languages for web content; I thought a LISP-oriented language would be ideal, but Java, Perl, PHP, Python and others won the day), or others made them happen (I really believed in the future of the multiplayer game).

Well, I think I've hit on something basic and fundamental, that when I say it, it doesn't really speak the whole story:

Ubiquitous computing isn't about having hardware everywhere, or being one with our computers - it's about extending our senses and knowing, having things processed for us and the repetitive tasks handled for us seamlessly, and having access to information (and more importantly, knowledge and expertise) when we need it.

You are forgiven for being totally unmoved.

Nonetheless, that's a big deal if you think about it, and this is just my five minute, inarticulate exposition on the matter:

People, including myself, used to talk about wearables and personal area networks and augmented reality. While those are compelling applications for the imagination, they just aren't panning out, at least not in the timescale and applications we envisioned.

Instead, what if, rather than being personally associated with us, it's our personal information? Think a more grassroots-developed, weblog-centric idea. We all publish our information, public and private, sort of a private information store, some of which may be public. We pool our information and have it accessible anywhere through any device.

Autonomous agents cull and process our data, handle workflow, connect discussions that take place in our own private spaces, like we're speaking to our "audience," but we may be having the conversation with numerous others who are automagically discovered and referenced and brought to our attention through fully-automated searches, trackback, referers, topics and hot media.

We use media aggregators to watch news ourselves, or watch communities that we may like. From there we may dive in, or just passively take information in, or refer to it in our own spaces, interweaving our own information space with the commons.

Indexing and cross-referencing goes on automatically through the very use of the browsing tools. People investigating and writing naturally search for sources, but the librarian work can be automated to an extent. Information is processed finely by machines that know us well through extensive profiling over time.

Over time, we have programs that aren't really intelligent in themselves, but become our assistants, helping us find links and ideas that we never encountered before. They automatically mine the information commons and link up with ideas in our private information stores. One can use this functionality, coupled with generalist knowledge, to achieve specialist results.

In short - building a universal, pervasive noosphere that every thinking person contributes to, to the betterment of all.

This is the stuff that gets my juices flowing. An idea that, properly executed and adopted, changes things. Makes a difference. Empowers individuals.

However, one thing I've found is that empowering other minds doesn't always pay the bills. It's a nice concept, but how do you make money on it? This was an eternal question at many dot-coms (other than the ones who provided a service that no actual merit, which was an alarming majority of them).

How do I make this come about? What is feeding into this? Surely, the weblog community is a harbinger. It's decentralized, the tools are pervasive and able to be built by many and used by scores times more, and the standards are forming yet fluid enough to allow for innovation, and there is lots of space for new ideas and concepts. Further, it has business applications to store and organize the knowledge of an organization and share it within and without, but it can be harnessed to many different goals.

It's a good first-pass at the problem that couldn't be seen coming to this degree five years ago. (That's what I love about technology.) Further, it's early enough in the game that you can look at the field of contenders and say, "surely, if someone was going to win the battle it'd be one of these guys," but then, they're all trying to solve different problems in this space. What's the problem if I try to solve another one in this space with my own code?

Add to this the fact that I have a history in doing personal writing and storage of personal information online, developing software and websites, participating in and building online communities (back to BBSing, 1981 and 1984, respectively), my continued interest in online community even in the "interim years" where I was post-BBSing but not 100% plugged-in with the 'net yet (circa 1986-1989)... this seems like an obvious choice to me.

On a related note, I have figured out something fundamental about my job.

I have been put back in the driver's seat of writing code all the time to Make Things Happen�. Basically, if we need something done that needs to be scripted or we need a tool or utility to do it, I am to build it. I am the logical equivalent of the toolsmith for the Desktop group where I work.

Even though I get to design and code and build, what do I really do? I repackage Windows APIs and basic functionality to do things more quickly than it takes a field support person to do. I don't get to build applications, I build little applets. A lot of little freakin' applets.

I like to build things that empower and interconnect and inform, and instead I build applications that allow for easier ways to make clinical workstations that automagically log into the network with a given username and password.

Big whoop. Can you see why my job is a bit more frustrating than it was before?

What I need to do is write some application. While I have at least one slated at work, I haven't had time to attack the problem at all. For now, I write other people's applets and build libraries of code that I'll need to write this application. The actual movement to write the application is far off in the future, because I keep getting pulled aside for quick one-off programs that divert me from the larger goals.

However, this doesn't satiate my need to develop something of substance. These fifty and five-hundred line applets don't excite me. Of course, this is why I need to develop on my own time. The star of this is my content management system, or more aptly, a place to pour my head into web-accessible content.

What's more, no one at work would truly understand - to them, being able to develop is being able to develop, and they don't understand the nuances between the different types I'm discussing here. Also, I have to develop code that is necessary at work, and right now we need those applets. Therefore, I keep my mouth shut there, use the experience and will build here at home as time makes itself available.

What I really wish I could find was one person at work whom I could trust and would be interested in developing (and competent to develop) these concepts with me. Unfortunately, I don't think that anyone there would have the skill or interest.

Where do you find people interested in this sort of thing? Oh yeah... online...

restlessmind