Technology+Culture+People // テクノロジーとか、人とか、文化とか。

I met with an old teacher of mine from middle school.

After talking to him, I realized that a good leader strives to gain respect. A bad leader assumes that they deserve the respect.

Same-sex marriage bill passes New Hampshire Senate

On Wednesday, the Senate voted 13-11 in favor of the bill, which differs from the House-approved version in that it distinguishes between civil and religious marriage. It allows each religion to decide whether to acknowledge same-sex marriage but extends the option of civil marriage to any two individuals, … “To achieve further real progress,” he added, “the federal government would need to take action to recognize New Hampshire civil unions.”

Congratulations, and good luck with the remaining half of the endeavor: becoming the 5th state allowing same-sex marriage.

There has been several issues regarding this bill, and similar bills in other states, of whether or not to protect the religious freedom of persons and institutions to refuse ceremonial marriage of same-sex couples. Personally I think it is fine to allow people and institutions to refuse a request that they do not believe in, simply because it is a matter of belief. Just like how one believes that same-sex marriage should be legalized, there are others who believe that it should not. I believe a law is there to protect the rights and freedom of one to pursue its happiness with equal integrity as their neighbors, regardless of backgrounds and beliefs. This law provided same-sex couples with rights that they have long deserved and yearned for, however I also do not think it should force certain people to do what they do not believe in.

It’s all about mutual understanding, peace, and harmony.

Google Wave

Wow.

Google has built another ultra amazing application. This web application, still in it’s elementary stage of development, has many amazing functions that can revolutionize the flow, efficiency, and the variety of communication online. Please please look at the demo (it’s about 80mins long, but absolutely worth the time), or go to this fabulous blog article that concisely summarizes its functionality.

What is so amazing about this tool is not just the functionality but the extensibility of the program. Google built this application solely from Google Toolbox, and has opened the program for extension by developers, both on the server-side and client-side. As it already is, it will become an amazing communication application in a year. I am absolutely astonished. What’s so inspiring about this group of people is that they found possibilities of improvements in conventional functions that we’ve already taken for granted. For example, until I saw that demo, I never gave a second about how cumbersome quoting certain passages within an email article could be. I have very high respects for people who are always looking for improvements.

Personally, I was really delighted to see the Rosy, the automatic translation extension, which the demo can be seen around 1:12:00. Going beyond the boarders of language -how futuristic!

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グーグルがまた凄い事をやってのけた。先週末発表されたGoogle Waveは、恐ろしく革新的なコミュニケーションツール。詳しい情報はこの記事を参照。何が凄いかって、メールとインスタントメッセージの垣根を越えたリアルタイムコミュニケーションと、それを支える操作性とUI、そして数多くのユーザー目線にたった機能はもちろんなんだけど、その拡張性が素晴らしい。Google Waveは全てがGoogle Toolboxで作られていて、もちろんオープンソース。デベロッパーはクライアントとサーバーサイドの両方を拡張する事が可能となっている。

何よりも刺激的だったのが、大多数のユーザーが既に受け入れていて慣れてしまっている厄介ごとを発見して、改善点を見いだしていること。例えば、メールのインライン引用がめんどくさいだなんて、改めて思った事はあるだろうか？僕はこのビデオを見て、ただただ納得するしか無かった。

これ、ほんと、ウェブ上のコミュニケーションに革命を起こすツールだと思う。。。すげー。個人的には、同時通訳のRosyという機能がお気に入り。言語の壁をリアルタイムで越えるなんて、なんて未来的なんだ。グーグルまじすげー。。

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1215/p01s04-woap.html

It’s always interesting to see how foreigners view our culture.

http://www.ireport.com/

I just found out that CNN has a user-generated news website where users can upload their own news stories on the web. Each registered user can have their own account to share their “news” either by text or video. Anyone, by theory, can become a journalist.

Unfortunately, as of now, I feel like this website is no different than YouTube in the sense of the structure of service and content quality. The structure of service is in the form of a typical user generated media where the service provider, CNN for this case, only provides a space for the contents to be uploaded. Although “iReport.com” does provide a bigger user motivation compared to YouTube, by giving air time to note-worthy videos, majority of the uploaded videos are neither journalistic or interesting. By definition I guess these videos do provide report of current events, and therefore could qualify as “news,” but it is truly hard to distinguish the videos on Youtube and that of iReport, at least as of now.

What is missing? Whatever iReport is, in order for it to stand out it must provide a service that only it can provide. I’m sure civilian journalists are able to give great insight on, say riots, domestic conflicts, the reality of child abuse, name any event that a typical mass media cannot fully disclose. iReport must provide a framework and infrastructure that encourages its users to post unique videos and stories that mass media cannot cover.

I do feel great potential in user generated media, especially because its content structure is not directly affected by its service provider. TV stations can directly affect the content of its shows by funding decisions, etc, whereas it is extremely difficult for YouTube to control their content prior to the upload (the best they could do is to delete videos that have already been posted). Simply speaking, there will be more “unfiltered” channels for people to make a statement, and to read stories that are told in others’ perspectives. Yes, there are chances that there would be more biased or incorrect information, but such environment will at least require us to be smart about the information that we take in. We as consumers and viewers will be forced to change our blindly receptive attitude towards information, and take a responsible role in the process of journalism.

On a final note, my only concern for civilian journalism is the dilemma of user motivation and ethical decision making. Let’s say, for example, that there are two people on the street, one pointing a gun at the other and threatening to kill that person. A responsible civilian journalist has the following choices: to take a picture and post it on iReport with a short comment on the incident using their cell phone, or go ahead and call the cops. I feel like if more people label themselves as journalists, more people will make the decision in the former. As a matter of fact, an extremely similar case happened in the Akihabara Massacre, where some civilians became more caught up in taking photos of the scene than helping those who were injured.

Come to think of it, I guess the phrase “civilian journalist” is an awkward phrase in itself. I believe that, before anything else, we are all humans and therefore must base our decisions on humanistic and communal values. That’s just my thought though. If you disagree or want to know what I really mean by the world’s vaguest phrase “humanistic and communal values,” go ahead and shoot me an email or something.

http://www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com/

What an amazing experience. Dialogue in the dark is an awareness raising social-franchising company that offers roughly an hour-long experience in total darkness. Each session is offered up to eight people, at least in Japan. Each member in the group is given a White Cane and is guided by a blind person to experience a world without light.

I attended this event with the people at my company, but it would have been much more of an unique experience if it was with people who I didn’t know. I really cannot describe the whole experience. If anybody is interested, I strongly urge you to attend!

I was slightly disappointed with my co-workers who viewed this event mostly as an entertainment. The only reason why we may feel even slightly entertained is because we can actually “see.” That world of complete darkness is not real for us who are guaranteed light. Every night when we close our eyes to go to sleep, we are promised to see the sun when we open our eyes again in the morning. In spite that fact, it was really difficult for me to “enjoy” the whole experience (don’t get me wrong, it was hands-down a WONDERFUL experience).

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素晴らしい体験だった。

完全なる暗闇。一組８人。それぞれは白杖を渡され、盲目の人をガイドとしながら暗闇の世界を約１時間体験する。僕らが日常に置いておそらくもっとも依存しているであろう視覚を奪われる体験は、言葉では到底説明しがたい、とても興味深いものだった。唯一残念だった事は、一緒に行った人達がそれをおおむねエンターテイメントととらえていた事だろうか。僕は幸い健常者であり、光が約束されている。あの世界は所詮虚構であり、日常ではない。しかしその反面、あれが日常的な世界の人も居る。僕が感じた恐怖、不安、音と感触と気配だけの世界。それを日常として生活をする人が居るという事実が頭の隅から消えず、素直に「エンターテイン」される事ができなかった。

不思議な、貴重な体験だった。

ComScore: Facebook is conquering Europe

ComScore said Wednesday, the only countries where Facebook isn’t the No. 1 or No. 2 social network are Germany, where it ranks fourth; Russia, where it’s seventh; and Portugal, where it’s third. Facebook’s biggest stronghold in Europe is still the U.K., where it has 22.7 million active users, followed by France with 13.7 million.

Now that Europe has caught on with Facebook after translations have been available since last January, it’s now time for worldwide Facebook developers to start making cool tools and API’s. Recently, I was quite amazed and impressed by how convenient Facebook Connect was. This can be speed up and simplify any online registration process if applied correctly. Comcast Town, a project recently launched by Takayoshi Kishimoto and the creators from Unit9 uses Facebook also uses Facebook Connect. I love it when things become simpler.

2009 Webby Awards, Official Honoree, Best Visual Design -Function

100 Cheergirls, a website that I partook in the production process, was recognized as one of the Official Honorees of the 2009 Webby Award in the Best Visual Design section. Yay!

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去年関わらせてもらった「100チアガール」が、2009 Webby AwardのBest Visual Design部門でOfficial Honoreeを受賞しました。日本で言う入賞です。まぁ世間的に見たら対した事無いかも知れないけど、自分の関わった作品が何らかの形で評価されたって事で、実は結構嬉しいですw　やたー。

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20090328-00000563-yom-soci

愛知県半田市の市立中学校で、１年生の男子生徒１１人が、担任で妊娠中の女性教諭を「流産させる会」をつくり、この女性教諭の給食に異物を混ぜるなど悪質な嫌がらせを繰り返していたことが２８日、わかった。

このニュースを目にしたとき、酷い不快感を覚えた。

悲しさや怒りを通り越して、恐怖と憎しみに似たものを感じた。

年齢が中学生だからだろうか。

もしこの騒動がどこかの会社で、

部下が上司に対してやっていた事だとしたら、僕はただあきれていただろう。

ただ、これからの日本を担っていく中学生がこういう騒動を起こした事に

僕は恐怖と憎しみを感じた。

イタズラとそうでないものの線引きは何処でするのだろうか。

So I’ve recently moved into a new apartment, and I haven’t had Internet in a while. Then today, I found out that there is free wifi in the lobby area of the apartment. So here I am. I am only surprised by how dependent I am on the Internet in collecting news and information.

Take a moment and think back on your daily life.

How much Internet do you use, and what other source of information do you have besides the Internet? (gossips not included)  How much of those information do you take seriously, and how much of those information influence your actions?

I feel like information is like water:

Some take it for granted, some are deprived from it. We suffer in the lack thereof, but we drown in its excess.