Google was built with data in mind, and since the algorithm was born our idea of information changed. Today data is what a multitude* says it’s worth. If there was a time yesterday when data was absolute, today it’s relative, mutable, fluid and real time. Do we know the exact people that generate a constant flux of reliable data? Much of what we consider data relies on predictions of futures that may exist only in some niches. The ecology of information should be better known, meanwhile we just give computers to our children without a proper social/emotive training, and they build constant, unverified raw content.

Some years ago we won in our newsletter software niche (when i was a SEO for Sendblaster) because my boss first understood that we had to treat SERPs from the final user perspective, we were monitoring SERP’s clic through rates three years before Google made public their involvement in the results and years before the caffeine official roll-out.

Young generations live the web and the communication medias in a instinctive way, they forget to search what’s inside the people they are speaking with. Their ethics are born on their mistakes since there is no-one that can really speak to the new generations, they grow alone and they are asked to teach what’s technology to their parents. And there is no training to understanding what’s information and what’s advertising.

Now the userbase may be fragmented among Internet trend setters and simple lurkers or even worse… categorized as marketers.

I need a transparent search engine that explains how to re-connect data to reliable data sources, a search engine that admits its responsibility while influencing economy and web development.

Those Facebook messages have some interest for marketers searching for their brand’s success, and for countless other uses, and they also contain useful data on human experiences of the world. Private profile messages may be anonymized for privacy issues, but pretending that the social network still remains private is like living in a world with no maps or pictures of public places.

Thoughts change and they are useful only with the history of those changes.

*multitude: the concept of multitude is easy, it is a person who represents a multitude of people.

The speaker touches a giant oled screen and the audience sees through the screen the speaker and the media displayed by a software that hides everything that on screen should be white. Simple lateral idea. I wonder if something like this already exists. Would be cool for keynotes, on-line teaching, etc.

torno un attimo all’italiano, pubblicando qui la mia traduzione personale del riassunto del libro “Sustainable Energy – without the hot air“. Grazie a Stefano per il link, e grazie a Riccardo per la notizia sul costo dell’energia prodotta con fotovoltaico e nucleare (27 luglio 2010)

scritto per la presentazione del libro Sustainable Energy – without the hot air

David MacKay

House of the Lords, 13 gennaio 2009

Le discussioni pubbliche sulle alternative nella produzione energetica tendono ad essere emotive, preconfezionate, univoche e sorde.

Ogni opzione è fermamente respinta: il pubblico sembra essere anti-vento, anti-carbone, anti-rivalorizzazione-rifiuti, anti-sbarramenti-perilmare, anti-tassa-sullabenzina e anti-nucleare.

non possiamo essere anti tutto! ci serve un piano energetico coerente. Purtroppo c’è carenza di numeri nelle discussioni sull’energia. Quando si citano numeri sono selezionati per sembrare grandi, per fare impressione, per guadagnare punti nelle argomentazioni piuttosto che per costruire una discussione che abbia senso.

La mia motivazione nello scrivere “energia sostenibile, senza riscoprire l’acqua calda” (disponibile per il download gratis su www.withouthotair.com) è stata promuovere conversazioni sull’energia, piuttosto che dedicate al “picchia e giudica”. Ho cercato di scrivere un libro onesto, educativo e divertente. Spero che il libro possa aiutare gli elementi di entrambe le fazioni, e magari possa essere utile per l’urgente stesura di un piano energetico sensato.

il libro presenta i numeri che servono a rispondere a queste domande:

• quando sono grandi le risorse rinnovabili della Gran Bretagna, in rapporto al nostro fabbisogno energetico?
• quanto devono essere grandi gli impianti di erogazione di energia rinnovabile per avere un impatto significativo?
• a quanto ammonterebbe il nostro fabbisogno se prima adottassimo forti misure per massimizzare l’efficienza?
• quali metodi per risparmio energetico offrono buoni margini e quali offrono solo un 5 o 10%?
• Le sponsorizzatissime tecnologie all’idrogeno o le automobili elettriche riducono il consumo di energia, o diventeranno un problema energetico più grande?

per quanto possibile, cerco di rifarmi a questi principi: i numeri devono essere comparabili e comprensibili, esprimere tutti i consumi e produzioni energetiche con una singola unità di misura: le energie sono misurate in kilowatt-ora (le stesse unità di misura che compaiono sulla bolletta della luce e del gas, non tradotto: costing 10pence a pop), le potenze sono espresse in kilowatt-ora al giorno, per persona. Le scelte di ogni giorno riguardano pochi kWh al giorno. Se faccio un bagno caldo, uso 5 kWh di energia, se devo guidare da Cambridge a Londra (circa 100km) andata e ritorno in un’automobile comune, consumo 130 kWh.

ecco 3 esempi di cosa impariamo quando si lavora coi numeri nei contesti. primo: staccare il carica batteria del cellulare dalla presa della corrente (quando non in uso). La prima volta che ho sentito questo consiglio era alla BBC. La verità è che lasciare il caricabatterie del cellulare collegato alla presa della corrente quando non lo si sta usando consuma circa 0,01 kWh al giorno. Questo significa che tenere staccato il caricabatterie del telefono tutto il giorno consuma la stessa corrente che uso per guidare la mia automobile comune per un secondo. Preoccuparsi di staccare il caricabatterie ogni giorno è come cercare di salvare il Titanic usando un cucchiaino.

secondo: l’idrogeno nei trasporti: tutti i veicoli che usano l’idrogeno come propulsione hanno un consumo di energia maggiore rispetto ai veicoli alimentati con carburanti fossili; mentre i veicoli elettrici (nota mia: ne approfitto per mettere un link ad alke, che produce veicoli elettrici italiani e per i quali sono fiero di lavorare!) hanno una migliore efficienza energetica rispetto ai veicoli propulsi a carburante fossile. Di conseguenza un veicolo a idrogeno renderebbe il nostro problema energetico maggiore, un veicolo elettrico invece ridurrebbe il problema.

terzo: ci sono numeri per capire la forza delle onde del mare. Si sente spesso che la Gran Bretagna ha una enorme potenzialità di impiego delle onde del mare. Ma tecnicamente quanto grande è il potenziale energetico di una un’onda rispetto al nostro enorme consumo? se 1000 km di costa atlantica fossero interamente utilizzati per la produzione di energia elettrica con il sistema Pelamis, la potenza media erogata sarebbe 2,4 kWh al giorno, per persona. E’ un enorme potenziale energetico ma il consumo medio per ogni abitante della Gran Bretagna è 125 kWh al giorno, per persona (comprende ogni energia impiegata durante le nostre giornate, elettrica, trasporti, riscaldamento, ecc.)

Quindi, uno stabilimento per la produzione energetica grande come l’intera Gran Bretagna ci darebbe circa il 2% del nostro attuale fabbisogno energetico (lo scrittore è inglese, il traduttore no

Questo concetto si applica, tristemente, a circa ogni tipo di energia rinnovabile in Gran Bretagna (vento, onde, fotovoltaico, idroelettrico, bio combustibile, ad esempio): per avere un contributo sostanziale, le energie rinnovabili devono essere adottate su scala nazionale.

e questo è il messaggio più importante: la scala d’azione richiesta per mettere in piedi una soluzione per la produzione energetica sostenibile. Anche se immaginiamo forti contromisure per aumentare l’efficienza energetica e sensori intelligenti che dimezzano il nostro consumo giornaliero (da 125 kWh al giorno a persona, a 60 kWh al giorno, per persona) (che sarebbe inferiore al consumo energetico pro-capite di qualsiasi paese sviluppato, ad oggi) non dovremmo comunque prenderci in giro riguardo alla sfida di fornire questi 60 kWh senza usare combustibili fossili. Tra le alternative a basso impiego di carbonio le tre con il maggiore potenziale sono eolico, nucleare e la produzione di energia elettrica col fotovoltaico nelle nazioni desertiche. E questa è la scala che è richiesta se volessimo utilizzare un terzo di ognuna di queste risorse: dovremmo costruire pale eoliche per un’area grande come il Galles, circa 50 centrali nucleari grandi tipo Sizewell e dovremmo tappezzare di pannelli solari una zona desertica di altri paesi grande come 2 volte Greater London (circa 3000 km quadrati).

Naturalmente, non sto consigliando questo mix delle tre opzioni; ci sono molti mix possibili, e molte alternative come il carbone pulito con la cattura del carbonio in eccesso e immagazzinamento (non confermato per ora), e sistemi di immagazzinamento dell’energia che potrebbero aiutarci con le fluttuazioni della richiesta energetica.

Qualsiasi mix scegli, se ha senso, abbiamo una enorme necessità di costruire.

il semplice sistema vento/nucleare/solare che ho menzionato richiederebbe centuplicare la produzione eolica della Gran Bretagna (del 2006), quintuplicare la produzione nucleare, i pannelli solari nei deserti richiederebbero i nuovi cavi per le lunghe distanze per connettere il Sahara al Surrey, con una portata di 25 volte superiore ai cavi che connettono la Francia alla Gran Bretagna.

non è facile costruire un piano energetico sensato, ma ne abbiamo un grande bisogno, ed è possibile. dobbiamo costruirlo.

note al documento:

David MacKay è professore di filosofia naturale al dipartimento di fisica dell’università di Cambridge, il libro “Sustainable Energy -
without the hot air” è pubblicato dalla UIT
Cambridge. www.withouthotair.com

ovviamente MacKay non è l’unica a presentare questi numeri, sono già stati spiegati per esempio alla commissione reale per l’inquinamento ambientale nel 2000 e dal comitato sul cambiamento climatico nel rapporto di dicembre 2008 (“Building a low-carbon economy”)

nel 2006 tutte le turbine eoliche britanniche hanno consegnato la media di 0,2 kWh al giorno, per persona.

nell’anno concluso a marzo 2008 la centrale di Sizewell ha consegnato 9.8 teraWh all’anno, che è circa 0,4 kWh al giorno, a persona.

Imagine a search engine capable to predict the real meaning of user’s queries beyond their knowledge gaps, we are not that far.

The spelling auto correction tools could be extended to let users know something that everyone else already knows, beyond the present knowledge of single users.

A search engine used as a knowledge tool, is still a search engine? Can we search something we did not imagine that exist? Google already proved that we can search for something we don’t even know the correct name yet. How deep can you go, Google?

I feel like and elastic rubber band, between my ideas of the free knowledge market and customer’s will to do some business together. Google seems to experience a similar (not yet painful) division between what Google can give for free and his ads.

This month I got more conversions from Facebook Ads than from AdWords. Maybe I’m just a poor marketer, but maybe something is changing.

Update: Maybe a lot of little numbers will give us some answers, just like a lot of lines can draw something that’s similar to a circle, we just have to remember that approximation of reality is not reality, and approximation may change the perception itself of reality (if reality exists, of course).

Adventures in social media web life are driving me far from a respected expertise. The more I dive deep into the web, the more I feel lost and without rules to understand who’s driving and what’s the direction. Cloud computing is going big, outsourcing seems a business… while I have been always focused in learning the more technical skills I could.

Now I’m missing the swarm direction. I wake up in the city every morning and the traffic jam is shouting at my human senses, making me wish a relaxing house in the suburbs. Failing predictions about the next big moves puzzles my mind.

Sometimes mistakes have importance, you listen and try to avoid as possible. Now it’s been a while since I cannot remember even important mistakes, and this makes me feel useless, coward and with less and less to tell. dog is shit table uncle bananas. Even After the deadline plugin is failing to correct my words.

The feeling is that I need another environment to test/try my ideas in the field. Sometimes even Internet seems small.

feelings are stronger than you think.

Like many others I’m now curious of why I’m spending most of my online time on social networks. Except for what I’m reading in the FeedReader, I’m experiencing a decrease of the quality of my online time. Maybe people is putting all their energy on those super boring Facebook statuses, they are so easy to comment with those useless likes or comments. My trusted friends are living their lives far from me and their need to post those elaborate and meaningful blog posts that I loved seems now ended.

Also casual online gaming is stealing a lot of my time. Plus finally I managed to have a private life and when I’m online I try to get only some stats about current projects, read+answer to emails and a lot of feedreading for my personal interests. All I need from an internet connection is now in my cellphone and I try to focus on work while on the PC.

I’m not happy with my productivity but I’m not in the need for a job so I keep alive only the minimum of my will to focus on my customer’s needs during online consulting sessions.

My offline world now speaks about what is online, the TV news are now mostly empty and distant stuff. I try to keep updated with my few real life friends, but it’s hard to meet in some physical places.

Since I completely detached from my work aspirations, 2 years ago I started focusing on how to achieve a personal life. Now that I’m having some rewarding time with my loving girlfriend, I’m digging in my experience to take out something interesting for my work future.

I know how to be a guide for myself during hard times of sacrifice, and that sacrifice now is invisible.

I’m also getting more and more philosophical during my work-time instead of being technical as I would like to be. Working on this side of the search engines is a matter of trust and it’s more about believing than knowledge.

Another fact about my personal life is that I left much of my need for work satisfaction behind while trying to get in touch with lost parts of my family, and my family is big now, and full of memories about each one of my relatives. While I’m still losing contact with a big part of my family, my online friendships are the same and very rewarding for the latest bunch of years (they are still M., Adam and Alessandro the undead) despite of that useless time on social websites.

There are just few moments dedicated to deep emotions, while we see silent actors looking at each other, or the same actors looking to the other actors disguised as robots. That use of silence reminded me some Korean indie movies. Maybe it’s a meta-movie too, it could speak about any verbal difficulty in human interactions. Here’s the movie recipe, if you are interested:

• 15% old people (mostly bruce willis, bruce we <3 u!)
• 30% jumping robots + explosions
• 10% silent gazes
• 5% messed up humans connected to big virtual reality environments
• 10% thriller plot
• 30% rhetorical questions

If your are interested in my personal life, after this movie something has changed (in my DNA) so I’m bravely switching  from a sentimental involvement to another almost painlessly. My business it’s ok and is shifting to SEO consulting (which i find very rewarding). Later this year I’ll go for a quick visit to friends in Arizona and California.

I’m no more a child, but I try to keep alive my inner child, when possible. When i’m deeply into some analytical task, having an alive child inside with all his creativity and lateral thought can be very useful to get new thesis to analyze.

What happens when errors and bad experiences in life force this little guy to stay silent? All the inner team get depressed and it’s difficult to get them back.

I know when I’m not ready for a jump, and I also know that I don’t have to tell anybody that I’m planning some kind of jump: because when someone know that you are trying to jump somewhere it’s natural their try to influence the normal flow of things.

They try to encourage you, they say what’s right and what’s is not right. They even say “yeah! it’s time for you to try“. And when you trust people, and you try, and you fail, there is just you and your inner guy to deal with the failure.

as Adam said some days ago, keeping things inside is painful, but most of the times does the job. Then what happens if after too many things kept inside you start losing some people? and what happens when even if you are trying, you lose anyway people during your journey? This is happening to me, and I don’t know where this road is going.

But failing with my own decision is better than failing for other people’s decisions.

where is the info stored? in a collective mind or in your friend’s mind? if you know this, you know where to start your search… but if you don’t know that… what is google doing to get to your eyes a unique place where to search for anything?

first of all google is multiplying the spaces, gmail has its own search engine, wave has its own search engine, google search do not gather info from them yet, google docs cannot search between gmail… etcetera.

is this right?

more questions: what’s special in your friend’s mind? their unique way of tagging and manipulating concepts? their life experience?

for both google has its own copies (ok ok… not identical to the real ones but man… we’re working on that). Even if we wanted a copy of our shared experiences with friends google could gather something nice, depending on our connectivity behavior .

time

it’s one of the greatest shifts between google’s on demand service and our friend’s constant streams (do we go on polling with them? or we get each single message on some kind of popup feature? (the popup feature also fits the “where” paragraph) When i’m writing facebook has the best real time feature. (update: google launches its real time search)

dispassion (neutrality)

google’s knowledge compared to our friend’s knowledge filtered by their life experience: google gives me the info to commit a perfect suicide, would a friend do the same? does google have to censor the info request if there is the proof of a bad intention?

and… when I got the info, do I still want to commit suicide? Giving the whole info could have a potential prevention ratio on bad behaviors? A search engine’s neutrality’s border is close to common people’s privacy, and privacy can be broken only at a precise user’s request or after a signed pact. Would a friend wait to see you dead before breaking into your privacy without your consent?

what?

natural language it’s just a part of the issue. do we search for info? or we search for a guide to do things? a question posted on a social network’s wall can have deep answers, just because our friends can see deeper than our first questions meanings, and they gamble a part of their involvement taking action with their words.

google is (or will be) alive. do we want him/her as a friend? do we trust/fear him/her? anyway what’s the sex of google? (lol)

half lies

our friends have ears, when we speak to them we know that it will be recorded and used somehow even against our will. google does not have ears, but every keyword typed for a search is stored and used to know more about the users. should this be more clear to people? (i mean what’s beneath that “privacy” link at the bottom of the page that only journalists and nerds read. There should be instructional flash games that must be played in order to let people know what they are using?) (update: on search engine learning)

culture

when the search engine will be able to give cross-language results? For the moment, the social network has a little solution to cultural gaps, but largely depends on the quality of each own personal network.

article references

• rrr – Finding information on search engines compared with social network
• Thomas Baekdal’s – The Future of Search is More than Social
• Thomas Baekdal’s – Where’s everybody?
• Adam’s – More and more time on social networks

• Mirror’s edge
• Syndicate
• Zak mcKracken and the alien mindbenders
• shadow of the colossus
• call of duty
• prototype