thoughts: October 2008 Archives

The problem is simple, what kind of body should the mekwa have? It's a creature that takes your face and gets beamed from mobile to mobile, satisfying its apetite for surprise and adventure, fulfilling its owner's wishes.

A few months back I started observing the behaviour of some deep sea creatures. They inhabit a very large ocean that brings most of its nutrients in the form of a light drizzle of decaying matter. I have lived in london for a while now, I can relate to the slight drizzle and the very large ocean of opportunity.

Because of the darkness, the apparent lack of context that is usually provided by light, creatures have evolved to perform in fantastic new ways in order to attract mates or prey.
You can almost see houses of style at play as they empower people to perform in all sorts of colourful ways.

What if we were to play with an architecture of participation that at its core has desires/wishes. One that is not driven by what others have done, but by what others will do? This is the differentiating driving force behind Mekwa. "I want you to produce for me and I will produce for you". My thesis argues that if empowered with a structure that focuses on the near future (desires I wish fulfilled) as much as on the near past (what desires were recently fulfilled), users will question the assumed historical authority of their own identity and enter a realm that allows them to better shape it.

In order to simplify my thought process for Mekwa and other services in the making, I have started thinking about them as simple tools. A hammer is a tool. Microsoft word is a tool (a little more complex, but its core functionality can still be achieved with a mechanical typewriter, or pen and paper).

The hegemony of the couch and a simple broadcast model where a few produce for the many to consume is being challenged. The time we 'waste' apparently distracted in front of the TV, consuming, is aptly called the cognitive surplus. One way we have of carving some of this surplus is by implementing architectures of participation that will convert some consumers into users. Social networking sites, UGC structures, wikis... they all carve a little bit of all the cognitive surplus and transform it into social capital.

The broadcast model, however, is still very pervasive, even amongst architectures of participation, the reason is simple: Architectures of participation are being built around the core act of consuming. If I was made to draw it I would imagine an enveloping layer around the core consumption need that transforms consumers into users.