User:Fako Berkers/project1

Build, break, broadcast / Users and abusers

Essay

I would like to investigate an user that we have not spoken of yet. I call this user the info user and it's basically everyone who uses information a lot, because it is their profession or because they are interested as amateurs in certain topics and want to know about things. Also the info user might be children and young adults who are curious about the world and need information to fulfill their urge.

I would like to characterize the different types of info users in greater detail and see what their needs might be. It crossed my mind that I might do this with interviews or through literature research. I can also take my own experiences as info user into account.

When I know which kinds of info users there are and what they need I would very much like to make a connection with idea's on how to create a system which serves these users. I call this system (which like the Memex and Dynabook will not be build fully) the info#envo, which stands for INFOrmation ENVirOnment. I suspect that the idea of an information environment is important because I think users should be empowered to control their own information within their own (digital) environments. On systems existing today I find that the possibilities of play with information is very limited. This is usually due to the fact that current systems are build on very old paradigms and metaphors (like the computer as typewriter). I might place the idea's for info#envo within the context of older system idea's like Memex and Dynabook, but that depends a little on my progress I suppose.

It is my opinion that the info user has become an important (real) user now that knowledge has become a resource in the knowledge economy. Yet I would not like to solely focus on these "information workers", but also see if information can be of value in different ways then dollar signs to other users.

Intervention

My idea for an online intervention is based on my opinion about current information systems. As said above these systems are often limiting, because the underlying design idea's haven't changed for a long time. But it also happens that info systems are limited because the creators want them to be that way. For instance the way how Google has designed their GoogleAds. If you search Google and visit sites connected to the GoogleAds program it will insert adds that to Google seem relevant for you. They are however mostly relevant for the sites that you've been visiting, because they want you as a customer (again). From the perspective of the info user this design is completely utterly boring. As an info user I want to know what I don't know and don't want to be stalked by information that I do not care about anymore. I want information to be like an adventure, not the same over and over again and I think a lot of info users feel the same way.

I would like to place a hack on the GoogleAds program. This hack will transform the Google business model into a service for their users. What it does is that it changes the advertisements into something else, which is probably more interesting and certainly more surprising. I would like to leave it up to the crowd what this other thing is, but the crowd will be limited. You can only upload new content for the ads, replaced by the hack, by going to a belhuis and upload it from there. Hopefully I can convince some belhuis owners to work with me and make the hack a default. This would offer a stage for and by belhuis visitors, next to other users who might use the hack instead of Google.

Previous idea's

You can read about the idea's that I had before here. It says something about my performance ambitions as well as other ideas for possible interventions.