simoncoles.org   Simon Coles Personal Blog

I’m finding Twitter is making the world feel a lot smaller. Because I work with people in different countries most of the time, and travel a lot, it already felt small. But with Twitter I can really see the rhythmn of life around the world.

I’ve just recently discovered two really interesting web sites. The first is Twistori which shows Tweets mentioning various different emotions. Simple, and quite entrancing.

From that site, I found WeFeelFine which is a really funky visualisation of similar data (but weblogs, not Tweets), but you can focus on specific demographics (sex, age range etc.).This is their Mission:

At its core, We Feel Fine is an artwork authored by everyone. It will grow and change as we grow and change, reflecting what’s on our blogs, what’s in our hearts, what’s in our minds. We hope it makes the world seem a little smaller, and we hope it helps people see beauty in the everyday ups and downs of life.

How lovely.

People are fascinating!

Or friends at BudgetSketch have launched. I’ve never really got into the traditional personal financial planning stuff before (it never really “Fit” with my life) but BudgetSketch is different… and worth a try.

Can’t think of a better time for a personal financial planning service like this, and I can’t think of a better bunch to do it. Well done guys!

Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn – and many others to come, I am sure. They allow us to share fragments of our lives.

For myself, and my social “network” the sharing is mainly amongst our peers. My children are still learning to read, although as they do they notice what Mummy and Daddy are doing on computers, and get interested in what we’re writing. At the moment that’s a something we can easily control, just by switching windows or shooing them away. Josh (8 years old) thinks that Twitter is silly because you can only use 140 characters, but he does have his own blog although he doesn’t know he can subscribe to Daddy’s.

What happens when they get their own Twitter and Facebook accounts? And we can see them, and they can see us?

Currently, I write without concern for what my children might think. But in a few months I will probably have to explain every Tweet I make, every blog post, to my eldest Son. That will probably change what I write, but it will also mean he gets exposed to a version of “Daddy” which I’m not sure we’ve ever had to deal with before.

I introduced a friend of mine, who has teenage and adult daughters, to Facebook. Their Facebook world was very peer-centered, and I am sure it was a little shocking for Mom to have free access to that. Their one message to me (I’m “Mom’s friend” – a very “I don’t know what to do with this” bucket) was “Thanks, now you’ve somewhat ruined Facebook”. Which is fair.

What happens when our children see everything we write to our peers? If we do the Social Transparency thing right, I’m sure there’s some interesting ground there.

What happens when my kids get their own accounts, talking to their peers? And we see it all?

What happens when my colleagues kids start following me on Twitter, or subscribing to my blogs? Do I need to take account of that? Do I lose something when I do so?

Historically the relationship between Parent and Child has been pretty compartmentalised. That’s going to take a hit if the kids on the same social networks as the parents. Similarly, the Work Vs Home compartments disappear if your partner, children etc. are on each other’s Twitter or Facebook list – and those of your colleagues. (and even worse, if they choose not to be!).

I’ve always thought that the Work Vs Home distinction is somewhat artificial, something that’s only arisen in the industrial revolution. Perhaps the social networking revolution is taking us back to where we belong, but it will be a shock for us all. I’d like to think the end result is richer, more understanding relationships – but there will be uncomfortable moments. Perhaps we’ll emerge with a greater understanding of each other and our various roles in life, which can’t be bad.

Wondering aloud…

There’s a lot of content written trying to compare our current problems with events of the 1970’s or 1930’s. For example, in the comments to this post.

I wonder – the people who were there in the 1930’s – what did they compare to?

Was that comparison helpful? Did it help them understand what was happening and act in a way that created the best possible outcome? Or were their comparisons unhelpful – perhaps even worse than useless?

Are these comparisons to historic events just a futile attempt at bringing certainty to a very uncertain time? Let’s face it, we haven’t had many of these kinds of events in history, and there are so many variables involved. There’s nothing to say we can draw any parallels from the past.

Perhaps it’s time to admit the map we were looking at for the past 20 years was inaccurate, and the only thing we know for sure is that conventional wisdom wasn’t all that wise.

So we’ll spend the next few years developing a new understanding. Which will be at the very least “interesting”, but we can’t avoid it, so best get on with it. At the moment the bad news keeps on coming, let’s figure out how to create good news.

Found an tnteresting presentation on how Chemical Engineering can help solve the very real problems we’re facing – get it here.

Not sure where I found this – probably somewhere in the Twitter stream… apologies for no direct attribution, I’m a bit behind on reading and it’s all just ended up as loads of Windows open in OmniWeb.