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Looking Up The Stack For What's Next
My partner Brad Burnham has written a very thoughtful piece on what's next on the technology stack after data. Brad states:
One way to look at that question is to argue that we have arrived at the end of history. The progression to date has been up the stack in a classic architecture diagram, data is on top of that stack, and nothing sits on top of the data. I disagree.
Brad argues that governance is next on the stack and values may be on top of that. I've heard Brad articulate these views privately for years. I am glad he finally put it out there so we can debate it.
Comments (7) | Posted January 29, 2007 in Venture Capital and Technology
Comments
very interesting and thoughtful stuff.
two questions:
1) what role if any should government play in the "governance" layer?
2) is brad's post maybe just a very articulate and contemporary way of saying "content is king"?
Posted by: steve | Jan 29, 2007 11:09:25 AM
Interesting post.
Instead of, "What's Next?", I would have called it, "Back to the Future!".
In some ways it seems like we may be coming full-circle.
When "online communities" began, they were differentiated by their governance systems and values.
In an era where data is ubiquitous, perhaps the key differentiating factors will again be governance systems and values.
For a fascinating discussion of this topic, see Jonathan Zittrain's, "The Rise and Fall of Sysopdom", http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/10hjolt495.html
Among other things, Jonathan traces the rise and fall of system operators or "sysops" in shaping the early online communities or, as he puts it, "From Friendly Gatherings to Restless Mobs to Friendly Gatherings: The Growth, Trashing, and Revitalization of Online Communities".
Posted by: Simon Venture Capital Brazil | Jan 29, 2007 12:38:53 PM
Fred, you really really need to read the book I'm about to attempt to summarize. Brad's post was great as well, I think he would REALLY get into this.
In his book Shaping Things design critic/futurist/Wired editor Bruce Sterling outlines an extremely compelling model for what comes next. I HIGHLY recommend it.
"Shaping Things" is a discussion of a new class of objects Sterling calls "spimes" [a pure neologism]. One definition of "spime" he offers is:
"Manufactured objects whose informational support is so overwhelmingly extensive and rich that they are regarded as material instantiations of an immaterial system. Spimes begin and end as data...Spimes are sustainable, enhanceable, uniquely identifiable, and made of substances that can and will be folded back into the production stream of future spimes. Eminently data-minable, spimes are the protagonists of a historical process."
The easiest way to get your brain around this is to think in terms of Radio Frequency Identifier tags [RFID's], which the US military is now demanding suppliers attach to supplies. They are functionally the 21st century equivalent of UPC codes, but store vast amounts of information about the product itself, it's location, it's past locations, it's past uses, etc. RFID's can also transmit this data elsewhere, where it can be aggregated and used.
Bruce really runs with the implications of RFIDs in this book, eventually arriving at a scenario in which nearly everything is "spime"-d, and humans create huge amounts of valuable data about product/objects just by using them [their uses, transformations, disposal is all recorded and aggregated].
Here's where it gets REALLY good:
Sterling then takes on applying the huge amounts of data generated by spimed objects [meta-history] to creating a truly sustainable society. History [all the data we have about ourselves] is indeed a BASIC RESOURCE:
"A technosociety skilled with spimes can maintain itself through a machine-mediated exploitation of the patters of movement of people and things through time.
"History is this technoculture's primary source of wealth. As it transits through time, due to the principles of its organization, it will increase in knowledge, capacity, wealth, and power. it has the means, motive and opportunity to sustain itself in the most profound sense of the term."
These quotes are just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on for hours about the depth and genius of Shaping Things and I certainly will if anyone would like.
Anyone interested in the future of technology and human society must read this book!
ISBN 0-262-69326-7
Posted by: Ethan Bauley | Jan 29, 2007 1:06:04 PM
Added bonus:
Shaping Things is only about 140 pages long.
Posted by: Ethan Bauley | Jan 29, 2007 1:10:56 PM
Fred,
I read Brads post, and while I have not read “shaping things” as of yet, I will. Orwellian, well, 1984 came and went without much of an incident, at least that I remember (I was 24 back then). But the fear that as we grow technologically, similar things will come to fruition, maybe in a very different form than Orwell described at the time of his writings, is always in the back of my mind. I love technology, and believe that we must pursue every possible advancement on a continuing, and aggressive basis, but much like Human cloning, we must use caution with regard to the applications of the abilities that are about to become available, whether in five years, or fifty, or five hundred.
My biggest fear is that in five, or ten, or twenty years, it wont be criminal thieves who steal our identities, or governments who watch us, it will be processors and algorithms.
Posted by: Stephen L. McKay | Jan 29, 2007 8:21:41 PM
PS
Let me clarify that by stealing our identity, I mean creating models of who we are based on every bit of data available, which will someday include everything we do, at almost every moment in our lives. Once this becomes the basis for identifying who we are, we lose our true identity. We are only recognized by other humans, by what a machine says we are, or are worth. I know, its pretty futuristic, but it is already happening in many areas of our daily lives.
Posted by: Stephen L. McKay | Jan 29, 2007 8:52:05 PM
I was half way through a post and thank god i read the comments as i was about to wax on Mr. Sterlings book too.
Its a game chaning read. And not because he has the spming concept completely flushed out. In fact i would argue that the precise 'spime' definition is still up for grabs.
I firmly believe that the combination of intelligent physical objects with data semantics in a sustainable world is the future.
I would also reccomend this as a read
http://www.amazon.com/Worldchanging-Users-Guide-21st-Century/dp/0810930951/sr=8-1/qid=1169750739/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-0531107-1551151?ie=UTF8&s=books
I would finally propose that we are not seeing a new layer being added to the stack - we are seeing a stack reboot - going back to the true physical layer, but with a back pack full of social semantics - a culmination of all we have achieved over the years of the last climb. A re-application of ubiquitous digital inteliigence to physical objects - being played out in the use of RFID, in the design of Clocky, or in the intelligent article of clothing. But it is early, very early.
I am working on a sports apparel device that is breaking the rules using a new tpye of technology. It is as close to a 'spime like' deal i have found, and i have been searching a while.
Posted by: mark slater | Jan 30, 2007 12:52:30 PM
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