Virtuaalne inimkett - inimluse uus tase

Mnjah. Ma olen nii vana küll, et mäletada, kuidas rahvas 1989. aastal Tartu raekoja platsil miitingut pidas ja siis bussidesse suundus, et Balti ketis üksteisel käest kinni hoida. Tänapäeval on ühtsustunde näitamine palju mugavamaks tehtud -- tugitoolist tõusmata võid hiirega klikata ja oledki kellestki hoolinud.

Või kas ikka oled?

http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/oslobomben/lenke.php

Haridusest nii ja naa

Tervishoid ja haridus on kaks valdkonda, millest me kõik kõike teame. Sellele vaatamata kisub Eesti haridusvanker viimasel ajal üha rohekm kiiva, nii et tema päästmiseks taas kord üks komitee kokku kutsuda tuli. Juuni viimaseil päevil sai komitee maha kenakese hulga teesidega, mis sisaldavad kahtlemata virnade viisi õigeid mõtteid, kuid jäävad paljude eelmistegi mõttekodade head traditsiooni järgides üsna deklaratiivseteks.

Mõtlesin siis ka oma rumala peaga, kuidasmoodi peaks välja nägema koolisüsteem, mis ei tekitaks karjakaupa alaharitud mehi. Ja mõtlesin nii. Mis siis õieti juhtuks, kui kool polekski klassideks ega tundideks jagatud? Õpetajal oleks tööaeg 8st 5ni (sealhulgas tund lõunapausi omal äranägemisel), mille jooksul ta viibib oma klassiruumis ja kuhu õpilased võivad tulla, kui neid vastav aine huvitab. Kõik vanused segamini. Kõik teemad segamini. Nii nagu elu ise ju ka tegelikult on.

Mingeid lõpu- ega riigieksameid ei peetaks. Noore inimese eksamiks saab tema tööintervjuu, kus selgub, kas ta on omandanud midagi, mida elus vaja läheb. Kui eksam ebaõnnestus, võid alati kooli tagasi tulla ning õppida lisaks asju, mis ennist puudu jäid. Või teha seda töö kõrvalt, kui tunned, et elu eest liiga kiiresti ära läheb.

Loomulikult eeldab säärase korra sisseviimine muutusi nii inimeste mõttelaadis kui kogu süsteemis. Esiteks peavad koolid hakkama õpetama midagi, mida inimestel actually vaja läheb või mis neile niisama huvi pakub. Teiseks peavad õpetajad suutma oma ainest väga vabalt ja senisest tunduvalt laiemalt üle käia. Enam ei saaks nii, et vaatad kivisse raiutud raamatust jupi õhtul välja ja hommikul laulad poolunistele tegelastele ette. Pigem peab õpetaja end kogu aeg kõige uuega kursis hoidma, et osata vastata neile naasklitele, kes ennast lõunaks maast lahti veavad ning siis küsima hakkavad, miks maailm just niimoodi ringi käib, nagu ta käib.

Ahjaa, ja muidugi peavad meie haridusametnikud üle saama kinnisideest kõike kogu aeg mõõta ja tabuleerida. Armas Eesti riik, Sinu edukuse ainsaks mõõduks on konkurentsivõime kasv globaalsel turul. Ning korrelatsioon riigieksamite pingeridade ja meie rahvusvaheliste edulugude vahel muutub minu meelest järjest ähmasemaks.

Why isn't technology really making our life easier

So, the theory goes like this. Technological advancements have provided us with the tools to achieve much more than a human has ever been able to throughout the history. Vehicles transport us over long distances very fast, digital networks allow sending and receiving information even faster, computers extend our ability to remember and process data in volumes previously unimaginable. All in all, we get our job done faster, easier and in every other respect more efficiently, leaving a lot of time for the family, fine arts, or anything else one might enjoy.

So why is it the case that we actually have less time, more work and need antidepressants to fight burning out? The answer is paradoxical -- the same need for efficiency that motivates us to produce all these tools also prevents us from using the freedom obtained by using them. Oh, you got your work done thanks to our brand new software package? Cool, there's some more! You did not have to fly overseas and were able have your business meeting over Skype? Excellent, let's schedule 10 Skype meetings for tomorrow. You bought a faster car? Nice, then you can get to the office 15 minutes earlier and write one more report.

Hence I ask all the technology salesmen -- please do not advertise your product as something that makes anyone's life easier. It does not.

How are Garage48 projects doing 10 months later?

Garage48 is a series of events targeted towards creating technology startups in 48 hours. This far, four events have happened, two in 2010 and two in 2011. It seems to me that it is still too early to say anything about the success or survival of the projects of the three last events, but the long-running results of the first development weekend held in April 2010 have pretty well settled by now. I thought it would be interesting to go through those projects and analyze their current status.

I present my findings in the list below, where I describe the projects, their last recorded activities, some comments and my verdict, whether the project can be considered live, dead or something in between. It is not always very easy to say, whether a project is dead, if the website is still up and the original content is still accessible. Since almost all the projects are also represented on Facebook and Twitter, I mostly took the decision about liveness based on recent activity on these sites.

So here it comes.

Garage48, Tallinn, April 2010

1. Kratid.com. The last Facebook entry comes from October 17, 2010, the last Twitter entry from February 10, 2011, but its message is "We are hibernating" and the last entry before that one was on August 30, 2010. My verdict: almost dead.
2. Wannalunch.com. Last activity on site December 31, 2010, last activity on Facebook October 10, 2010, last activity on Twitter November 7, 2010. My verdict: dead.
3. Coctailroulette.com. Last activity on Facebook July 6, 2010, last activity on Twitter April 22, 2010. My verdict: dead.
4. Iseehitaja.ee. The forum has 0 posts, last blog entry April 27, 2010, last activity on Facebook November 6, 2010, last activity on Twitter April 27, 2010. My verdict: dead.
5. Localvortex.net. Last activity on site February 21, 2011, last activity on Facebook February 24, 2011. My verdict: alive.
6. Talepath.com. The website redirects to http://crapwall.com/, last activity on Facebook April 19, 2010, last activity on Twitter April 18, 2010. My verdict: dead.
7. Namefy.com. Last activity on Facebook August 7, 2010, last activity on Twitter April 28, 2010. My verdict: dead.
8. Prygikast.ee. Last activity on Facebook February 25, 2011, last activity on Twitter February 25, 2011. My verdict: alive.
9. Keepatouch.com. The weabsite is dead, last activity on Facebook October 10, 2010, last activity on Twitter June 22, 2010. My verdict: dead.
10. Mysocial.name. Last activity on Facebook June 5, 2010, last activity on Twitter June 5, 2010. My verdict: dead.
11. Poliitik.eu. The website is contentless, last activity on Twitter April 18th, 2010. My verdict: dead.
12. Seenele. Last activity on Facebook September 21, 2010, last activity on Twitter September 21, 2010. My verdict: dead.
13. Subtuutor.eu. Last activity on Twitter April 18th, 2010. My verdict: dead.
14. Off The Couch. It is a Facebook app without a Facebook or Twitter page. It looks running but no-one seems using it. My verdict: practically dead.
15. TwistList. Website is not responding, last activity on Twitter May 13, 2010. My verdict: dead.
16. MyShopping. The website promises a soon-to-come service called LetsMeetHere, no further information about MyShopping. My verdict: dead.

We can see that the only two surviving projects are map-based applications for finding some services. Is there a pattern here? I think I will wait for a few months and analyze the outcome of the second Garage48 event as well. Stand by.

Facebook teeb õnnetuks

Eks see ole midagi, mida me kõik kusagil kuklasagaras salaja juba natuke aega teame. Nüüd siis ka ametliku teadustulemusena: kasu, mida Facebookis sidemete ülalhoidmisega saavutada võib, jääb palju väiksemaks kahjust, mida pidev vajadus Facebooki lahti klõpisda meie närvisüsteemile põhjustab.