Joi Ito's Web

Joi Ito's conversation with the living web.

Blogshares shuts down »

Joichi Ito
Dec 03, 2003 - 14:28 UTC »

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Seyed Razavi has announced that he has shut down Blogshares. As Jeff Jarvis says, "It was fun while it lasted."

Look forward to seeing what Seyed is cooking up next that's kept him too busy to run Blogshares...

Thanks for the heads up Jason

   
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Speaking of turtles... »

Joichi Ito
Dec 03, 2003 - 13:59 UTC »

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Speaking of turtles... don't forget the badgers...

   
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Cocolog launches and Nifty CEO Mr. Furukawa starts a blog »

Joichi Ito
Dec 03, 2003 - 00:13 UTC »

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The TypePad powered Cocolog offered by Nifty just launched and the CEO, Mr. Furukawa has started his own blog. Blog on Furukawa-san! (Sorry, it's in Japanese.)

   
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MobileWhack »

Joichi Ito
Dec 02, 2003 - 19:56 UTC »

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Rael Dornfest just launched MobileWhack.

MobileWhack is all about that mobile handset, palmtop, hiptop, ipod, or laptop in your pocket, purse, briefcase, or dangling from your utility belt. It's about squeezing every last ounce of mobility out of your mobile device.
Looks cool!

   
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Elk, moomin and ice breakers »

Joichi Ito
Dec 01, 2003 - 13:22 UTC »

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From left to right. whiskey rings at Hvitträsk, Elk "Wallenberg" receipe, the childhood home of Tove Jansson, ice breakers
Amazing Finnish day yesterday. Started the morning meeting Marko's mom and dad. Then we went to Hvitträsk.
Marko
Hvitträsk was built 1901–1903, by three architects, Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen. The main building, designed in National Romantic style, built of logs and natural stone, was both a common studio and a home for Eliel Saarinen and Armas Lindgren. Gesellius lived in the courtyard building. The Saarinen home is a museum today, and the courtyard building has a restaurant and a café. Hvitträsk and the garden in English style are surrounded by beautiful nature.
Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen were basically three young and really smart architects from Helsinki Polytechnic, graduating just 8 years or so after the first architecture program there. They lead the field of architecture in Finland and paved the way for generations to come. It seems like they were an edgy, hyper-motivated team trying to change the world through their lifestyle. It reminds me of etoy. Everything from the furniture to the clothing was design by the team. One funny thing was the "Whiskey Rings" in the main living/party room. If you had too much whiskey where you couldn't stand on one leg while holding on to a whiskey ring, you had to go to bed.

In the evening we went to Keitto Kokka, a famous restaurant in Helsinki. We had a "Game Food Course". We cooked our own wild game meal while being tutored on wild game, cooking and wine. I worked on the Elk. We also had hare and pigeon. It was absolutely amazing and fun. The passion of the chef and the sommelier was also completely contagious. Unfortunately, as the evening went on, my jet lag kicked in an I almost passed out at the end. Apologies to the other guests. ;-)

During dinner, Lisa took me out on a short break to see some sites near the restaurant. I got to see the impressive ice breakers, sitting in the harbor waiting to be called out to break lanes in the ice as the ice starts to form in the sea.

We also passed the childhood home of Tove Jansson. She is the author of the Moomin series which was my main memory of Finland growing up as a child. I loved to watch Moomin on TV in Japan. Lisa told me that Tove was said to be a lesbian and that she was not allowed to read Moomin growing up as a child. Tove supposedly lived on a loft hanging over the main room that her father had built and wrote about the wild parties that her parents threw that would leave her loft swinging. I didn't know anything about the author of the Moomin series so this connection to a childhood memory was very interesting.

Thanks Marko et al!

   
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Meeting Marko's dad »

Joichi Ito
Nov 30, 2003 - 23:41 UTC »

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Read more of Goffman's "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" thinking about how I consciously and sub-consciously show or hide facets of my identity depending on the context. Today, Marko introduced me to his mother and father. His father is Martti Ahtisaari, the former President of Finland and a very well known global diplomat famous for his skill in crisis management. I had heard a lot about his father and was looking forward to meeting him in person. As I was taking my morning shower, I was watching myself thinking about what I was going to talk about with him, trying to imagine what things would be interesting and how those things would affect his opinion of me. It was an odd thing. I consciously watched a lot of the things that I do sub-consciously and realized how much I was actually managing and presenting my identity. What might we have in common? Do I want to talk more or listen more? Do I need to impress him? A lot of things were going through my mind.

Having said that, the shower rehearsal wasn't really necessary and we had a very comfortable breakfast. I found Mr. Ahtisaari to be a down-to-earth and receptive person with an extremely positive global outlook. I also had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Ahtisaari. I can see where Marko gets that "Mr. Diplomat" style. ;-)

   
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Accent chameleoning »

Joichi Ito
Nov 30, 2003 - 17:08 UTC »

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This relates to my last post. In an email exchange, someone mentioned that their friend switched to broken English when speaking to their foreign friends. When asked why, she replied that otherwise they would think she was elitist.

I find that my English language accent is SO affected by who I'm talking to that it's embarrassing and I'm self-conscious about it. I sometimes try to resist it, but it happens. I see other people doing this too, but I find mine particularly bad. It is obviously happening in my sub-conscious, but it might have something to do with the "girls playing dumb" thing.

   
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Do girls play dumb just to let guys show off? »

Joichi Ito
Nov 30, 2003 - 14:19 UTC »

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Goffman wrote this in 1959. Is this true today?

Goffman
American college girls did, and no doubt do, play down their intelligence, skills, and determinativeness when in the presence of datable boys, thereby manifesting a profound psychic discipline in spite of their international reputation for flightiness. These performers are reported to allow their boy friends to explain things to them tediously that they already know; they conceal proficiency in mathematics from their less able consorts; they lose ping-pong games just before the ending.
Mirra Komarovsky
One of the nicest techniques is to spell long words incorrectly once in a while. My boy friend seems to get a great kick out of it and writes back, 'Honey, you certainly don't know how to spell.'
According to the marketing talk on bowling alleys that I heard the other day, there is a funny behavior that is quite common. The guys try very hard to impress girls at the bowling alley and they start out OK, usually doing better than the girls at the beginning. These guys start to get tense and begin to perform more poorly towards the end. The girls, on the other hand, start to get the hang of it, remain relaxed (which is important for bowling) and usually win at the end, leaving the guy grumpy. Many bowling alleys have ping-pong tables which allow the guy to try to regain their pride and allow the girls to give it back.

A Meta Note: reading a book while thinking about what to blog is a slow, but interesting way to read a book. I hope you don't mind if I continue to share short passages that trigger weird musings...

   
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Dan's got RSS on his Treo 600 »

Joichi Ito
Nov 30, 2003 - 13:36 UTC »

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OK I've got gadget envy. Dan blogs about his RSS feed on his Treo 600 and says he wants a client that lets him blog easily from it too. Anyone know of anything good? Ado, want to port Kung-Log to PalmOS?

   
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Erving Goffman describes Dvorak »

Joichi Ito
Nov 30, 2003 - 00:20 UTC »

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Mimi and danah both refer to Erving Goffman's book, "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" so I've started reading it with digital identities and blogging in mind.

Goffman
It should be understood that the cynic, with all of his professional disinvolvement, may obtain unprofessional pleasures from his masquerade, experiencing a kind of gleeful spiritual aggression from the fact that he can toy at will with something his audience must take seriously.
This TOTALLY reminded me of Dvorak. He always as a gleeful look when he talks about his performances.
Goffman
It is not assumed, of course, that all cynical performers are interested in deluding their audiences for purposes of what is called "self-interest" or private gain. A cynical individual may delude his audience for what he considers to be their own good, or for the good of the community, etc.
Dvorak again. By the way, I love Dvorak and think he's hilarious, but it's watching the performance that I love.

   
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