Eggblogg

Photoshop, fakes and the fear of technology

How do you feel about X-Factor competitors using Autotune to disguise their poor singing skills? Or celebrities having their figures or complexions adjusted in Photoshop prior to publication? 

If we are to believe the flurry of indignant news items in recent months, we 'the public' are being misled, and we don't like it. The message seems to be: it is very important to be genuine, because if you pretend to be something you're not, you are at best a cheat and a fake and at worst a damaging influence.

In other words, when we turn to the media we expect to be entertained and presented with aspirational people, but they must be real. To recall a computer term, WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) seems to be the order of the day.

And all this in parallel with the fledging of social media -  could there be a connection? After all, aren't we continually being reminded of the importance of authenticity? Do we not only admire, but expect more transparency, more authenticity from people in the public eye? Facebook is all about real names and real people - it's quite different to the MUDs and online communities which were the first online networks 15 or so years ago. On the other hand, Twitter is awash with fakes, many of them more entertaining that the real thing. There are sites dedicated to creating fake personas and the sad truth still holds that on the internet, no-one knows you're a dog.

There's another possible explanation though - the media's love of tech-horror stories. After all, nobody on the X-Factor gets accused of being fake for wearing shedloads of makeup or having hair extensions, and adverts for fake eyelashes are all over the TV.

Perhaps that's a different sort of fake because it's got nothing to do with technology, and technology is the real fear - today Photoshop, tomorrow human cloning.

Photo credit: ellf.ru

Two heroes for Ada Lovelace Day

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, when bloggers worldwide are invited to write about a woman in technology or science who has inspired them. It's a small way of celebrating the many women who have shaped our world, often unseen and unacknowledged.

The first of my women heroes is Grace Murray Hopper (1906 - 1992), who has perhaps had more publicity lately than when she was alive. An American US naval officer (she retired as a Commander and accrued many honours and distinctions over the years), Grace is credited with developing COBOL, one of the first programming languages that was closer to English than to machine code. When you think about it, that was the first step towards making computing more accessible, taking it from the lab to the living room, and at a time when for women to be successful in their field they had to be exceptional. (Some might argue that's still the case to a certain extent.)

I first came across Grace Hopper when I was doing my Digital Media MA in 2000, when I had no idea there were female pioneers in computing, despite having studied computing and artificial intelligence at university in the 1980s. (Then again, I'd never heard of Vannevar Bush, either, so I can't put that down to sexism.)

Woman hero number two is a personal one - my maths teacher Mrs Ward (funny how I never knew her first name). She had such a relaxed manner, and the gift of making pure maths seem very natural. Solving a quadratic equation became an absorbing task, and lessons passed so quickly I wondered where the time had gone.

I think Mrs Ward stimulated in me the joy of intellectual pursuit - giving yourself the time, space and quiet to think, allowing your mind to go wherever it wishes. To this day, to spend time in quiet work still feels to me like the ultimate indulgence.

'Plain English' doesn't automatically mean 'better communication'

Last week I was reading about how The Local Government Association (LGA) has banned a list of words and phrases in the interests of 'effective communication'. Here's the list.

Now I'm all for cutting through the jargon and demystifying things. I have my pet hates when it comes to certain cliches. And I like to think that brevity is my middle name.

But is the word-cleansing promoted by the advocates of 'plain English' the right response?

It's very easy to poke fun at some of the phrases on this list and wonder at their usage - 'horizon scanning' or 'predictors of beaconicity', for example. But are council workers really supposed to stop using words like 'guidelines' or 'priority'?

I have two major issues with 'plain English' prescriptions of this kind.

Firstly, there are no 'good' and 'bad' words when it comes to communicating effectively, in the same way that there are no 'good' and 'bad' foods when it comes to maintaining a balanced diet.

It depends on the context, the participants in the conversation and the intentions of the speaker. Jargon evolves naturally and is not evil in itself, nor are cliches.

The harm occurs when people use language as a weapon of exclusion or obfuscation, without regard to whether or not the message will be understood.

Secondly, simplifying language doesn't necessarily improve its comprehensibility. The reason cliches spread like wildfire is because they are so easily and quickly understood.

And word-choice isn't just a matter of stating facts. Individual words or phrases are loaded with additional meaning, particularly when spoken, which is all part of the communication process.

It might have useful if the LGA could have produced a document spelling out the importance of appropriate word choice, style in context and some illustrations of the effects of inappropriate jargon and how it alienates people or disguises the truth.

But that would probably have required too much effort and relied too much on the judgement of the individual to interpret.

Far easier to produce a list of yet more black and white 'rules' so that everyone now knows how to communicate effectively, and their performance can be measured (rather than 'benchmarked') on an appraisal ticklist. Let's eliminate all jargon, cliches, pet phrases, quirks, creativity, spontaneity and personality, so everyone talks and writes the same. Sorted!

(Photo credit: swcp630)

Another news coup for Twitter as plane crashes into the Hudson River

It's funny how I sometimes see a newspaper headline over someone's shoulder on the train and think 'surely that's not news? I heard about that days ago on Twitter'.

Yesterday's US Airways crash proved the point that Twitter has added a new dimension to citizen journalism. Here's how it was covered.

Twitter was the tool through which the first news and amazing images surfaced, with the TV channels trailing in their wake - I love the caption 'Twitter User on MSNBC' over the 'Breaking News' pictures!

Sponsoring Sophia

The daughter of a neighbour and friend is leaving next month for India, where she will spend 2 months volunteering at Bija Vidyapeeth, a centre for sustainability based on ecological principles. She is travelling mostly overland, and after leaving India will spend time at the Lotus Children's Centre in Mongolia before making her way home, again overland. All this before starting university in October 2009.

When the norm these days seems to be for young people to be obsessed with their iPods, music, celebrities and shopping, it's fantastic to hear of those who clearly want to make a difference to the world and are prepared to do something about it.

Sophia has raised the money for this trip by working all hours at various part time jobs and by completing a sponsored cycle ride to Devon (in November!). I'm delighted to have helped out with a donation towards her trip, which will undoubtedly be both challenging and exciting, and a real education in all sorts of ways.

Sophia is planning to keep her family & friends updated on her journey on her blog and I'll also post news here from time to time.