We are looking to establish a new relationship with technology, with progress, with ourselves. 
We have had enough of technology to restrict and control. Enough of turning the world virtual 
purely for notions of efficiency. Enough of bad interfaces and half-thought-out systems.

We are looking to make technology usable, ambient, helpful, invisible. 
Technology that invites function, rather than dictates it.

I’m not sure if that’s any more specific, though. Is this a good enough starting/turning point?

This use of language deserves more attention.

What is “a computer”? Is it the screen? The hardware? The software? The functions that all of these offer in combination? The Internet? The bugs?

Is a phone a computer? Is a freeview box?

The language used in and around computing is fascinating precisely because it is something invented, talking about something that is invented. We, as a tech industry, create not just objects, but function. We innovate not just in the realm of things but in actions. The “iPad” is not as important as what it lets “you” (or certain users) do.

But in creating these functions (and these objects) we also give them names. A bit like the way we use names for different cooking techniques – “saute”, “fry”, “par-boil”, etc.

At first, mapping these names to functions – and then carrying out the functions – is a difficult process, involving learning, trial and error, and re-adjustment.

Now imagine having to relearn how to cook every 5 years, because someone, somewhere, in a world well removed from your own, had “discovered” new techniques (or, more probably, tweaked existing ones). Suddenly all recipes switched to using terms such as “frycassee” (is that different to fricasee?), or “mor-boil”.

Would you bother with the new recipes, or would you stick to the old ones that you know, can make easily, and taste perfectly good?

The key thing here is about the effort it takes to learn new phrases – even, or especially if they either don’t mean anything substantially new or different, or (more frustratingly) nobody else knows what they mean either.

OK, linguistic hurdles aren’t unique to the technical realm. But it is the realm in which we most closely tie them to “things that the user is expected to do”. In this case, language becomes blackmail, a key that you need to have access to in order to use the system.

The geeks’ secret is that we know language means nothing – or that language only means things in context. Code makes things work, but only when pumped through a certain compiler. More abstract terms such as “the cloud”, or even technical terms in a technical/non-technical context (when does it matter if you use the term “picture” rather than “jpeg”, “png”, or “picture file”?) loosely get ignored, or get loosely defined, and made more concrete on a “need to know” basis.

But that doesn’t help those who don’t want to know.

I wonder if one day we’ll be able to reduce our dependency on the mains, and charge small devices (or large ones?) off an array of this kind of thinking – from energy produced by walking on floors to roadside turbines.

Distributed power capture. Recycle everything.

Tempted to buy one for inspiration, as well as my trips to London. I wonder what else the paper-reveal could be used for…

While the Council have said that cheques will need “accessible and acceptable” alternatives before being give the heave-ho, charities have raised the issue of the complexity of technology being a barrier to use to old people. Furthermore, cheques seem a favoured way to send money in the post or via untrusted carriers (such as schoolchildren and to pay tradespeople who don’t carry Chip-and-PIN devices. Cheques may be expensive to process, but they’re also safe and lightweight to move around.

Emptytech is interested to hear what you think – are there alternatives to cheques that are usable and accessible? Is modern banking, with its focus on security tokens, phishing attacks and “virtual” cash too confusing? How can we improve the way in which we move money around?

As usual, comments welcome here on the blog, or as @replies via Twitter (which should also appear here).

OK, maybe I’m gushing rather unfocusably, and PR efforts always do their best to, uh, think different, but this YouTube video for Nikon’s Coolpix camera/projector (DPReview) shows how something fairly simple can be used in fairly unexpected (if rather weird) ways.

(via Wired)

So do we take technology as a plaything for granted? Or do we waste too much time on incessant chit-chat? Are our idle conversations network builders for greater things, or do they prevent us from moving towards real goals and real action?

(N.B. Hopefully any comments via Twitter will be picked up as comments here.)

1. Theme

For the website, I’ve installed the minimalist theme from techdesigns, for the simple fact that it’s closest to what I have in mind for the eventual site design. Apart from the simplicity, I wanted to get away from the “blog” design that so many sites have – a list of articles tucked one under the other, a never-ending downward stream of item-after-item. I like the way this theme focuses on the navigation – more browsing, than catching up. More exploration than scrolling. It’s only in version 1, and I’ve had to make a few small tweaks, but I look forward to seeing where we can go with it, especially as more content gets rolled in from outside.

2. Twitter

For Twitter integration, I’m currently playing with 3 plug-ins running alongside each other. There’s decent overlap between them, but it seems as though each does or doesn’t do one thing slightly better. here’s what I’m playing with, and why:

• Twitter Blog – for posting articles from the blog to Twitter (as it doesn’t seem to be able to turn them off, although this post is the first try), and for turning tweets into blog posts as it apparently does hashtag filtering.
• Twitoaster – for gathering @replies on Twitter and turning them into blogposts.
• Twitter Tools – for posting weekly digests of Tweets, which I may or may not turn off later…

I may have to re-think this combination, but it’s all part of the process. I’ll definitely be reporting back on how well this is working over the next few weeks (e.g. do I really want to tweet every post?)

What are you using to integrate Twitter with WP? Does it work for you? Is it even a good idea? Feel free to comment here, or tweet replies to @emptytech and test the system out…