All Annotations of apophenia: Why Web2.0 Matters: Preparing for Glocalization[Preview]

saved by24 people, first byKaala souza on 2006-03-02, last bySigalon - Swedish Frog on 2008-07-23

• buzzwords associated with web2.0 include: remix, tagging, hackability, social
  networks, open apis, microcontent, personalization. people discuss how the web
  is moving from a read-only system to a read/write system and
  they focus on technologies like greasemonkey, ajax, rss/atom, ruby on rails.
• Why Web2.0 Matters: Preparing for Glocalization
• glocalization usually refers to a sort of internationalization where a global product is adapted to fit the local norms of a particular region. Yet, in the social sciences, the term is often used to describe an active process where there's an ongoing negotiation between the local and the global (not simply a directed settling point). In other words, there is a global influence that is altered by local culture and re-inserted into the global in a constant cycle. Think of it as a complex tango improvisational dance with information constantly flowing between the global and the local, altered at each junction.
• A global village assumes heterogeneous context and a hierarchical search assumes universals. Both are poor approximations of people's practices. We keep creating technological solutions to improve this situation.

• In business, glocalization usually refers to a sort of internationalization
  where a global product is adapted to fit the local norms of a particular region.
  Yet, in the social sciences, the term is often used to describe an active
  process where there's an ongoing negotiation between the local and the global
  (not simply a directed settling point). In other words, there is a global
  influence that is altered by local culture and re-inserted into the global in a
  constant cycle. Think of it as a complex tango improvisational
  dance with information constantly flowing between the global and the local,
  altered at each junction.

• It was about creating a global village. Yet, packing everyone into the town
  square is utter chaos. People have different needs, different goals. People
  manipulate given structures to meet their desires. We are faced with a digital
  environment that has collective values.

• Our first rough approximation at this was the individual vs. the collective.
  The personal is critical - it is the maximal localization and contribution stems
  from the individual first. Think about tagging - it's all about starting with
  the individual and building into collectives. But the goal should not be
  universal collectives but rather locally constituted ones whereby one
  participates in many different local contexts. This is critical because the
  individual and the collective do not exist without each other; they are
  co-constructed and defined by their interplay. Individual identity gets crafted
  in context of a collective and collectives emerge through the interplay of
  individuals.

• 

• Web2.0 is about glocalization, it is about making global information
  available to local social contexts and giving people the flexibility to find,
  organize, share and create information in a locally meaningful fashion that is
  globally accessible. Technology and experience are both critical factors in this
  process, but they themselves are not Web2.0. Web2.0 is a structural shift in
  information flow. It is not simply about global->local or 1->many; it is
  about a constantly shifting, multi-directional complex flow of information with
  the information evolving as it flows. It is about new network structures that
  emerge out of global and local structures.

• Web2.0 also requires keeping local cultural values consciously present at all
  times. There is a great potential to be problematically disruptive, to destroy
  local culture while trying to support it. We all have a tendency to build our
  needs into technology but the value of Web2.0 is to allow everyone to build
  their needs into the technology, not just those doing the building. Trampling
  culture would be devastating.

• Neither China nor the RIAA really wants Web2.0 to happen and folks like them
  have the potential to really foul it up.