ORCM Architecture Model Transcendence, part 3

ORCM Architecture Model Transcendence, part 3: Diffusion-based limitations override

(source: http://erelations.info/orcm-architecture-model-part-3/)

Relations created online have some advantages over «offline» relations, at least in a business context. Such an advantage is the massive scale of a message dissemination.

Whereas in the early stages of the history of humanity a message could be distributed to more than one person it was difficult to do and involved someone to write the message (most people could not write since they did not have the required education), someone to deliver the message (sometimes you also needed a horse, donkey or a damn camel), as well as someone to read it (most people could not read). It also involved material resources and in most cases it stopped right there (there were no Costco or Staples to sell you 10,000 pages + printer bundles back then, remember?). All those factors combined contributed to a fairly limited level of message distribution, which progressed quickly when large numbers of people gained access to education, printing methods were developed, etc.

But there were still many limitations to large-scale message distribution. Those limitations are to a large degree abolished now on a worldwide scale. This is mainly because with the advent of online communications you still need someone to write the message (most people can write since they possess the required education), someone to deliver the message (all you need is a pc, smartphone, etc.), as well as someone to read it (most people can read, although they may not be «at the same level»). It does not involve much material resources, since all those great businesses have put in place cloud-based IT infrastructures so all you guys may write and propagate all sorts of content through their servers and application interfaces, email servers and social networks, this mostly with no charge, which is of course wonderful!

The downfall of the democratization of the writing process is that your piece about socio-politically derived gender-influenced perception of Dali's works may be lost in a massive influx of information from which it will appear as no more than a drop lost in a sea of not particularly significant data (marketers will at this point roll their eyes will muttering «SEO», but that's another story altogether on which countless posts were already devoted). Think of it this way: if there were millions of papyrus scattered around the earth and you could pick some from the trash around the corner (or buy a thousand papyrus for 11.99$ from you-know-where), most likely nobody would care about this one piece of papyrus, right? So the staggering numbers of posts, blogs, tweets and various electronic pieces of literature do cause a loss of uniqueness; no one really cares about a particular, individual electronic writing unless it combines several factors such as significance, being directed towards a particular niche, excellent writing skills, etc. The overall quality of a post may then increase its potential for persistence in the cosmic cloud of Web-based I/O (input/output) interactions.

But one particular trait of capitalistic societies (which is fine overall, of course) is to capitalize (duh!) on any activities of said society. Online communications are no exception to this rule, even more so in recent years with millions of new users having gained access to the Net (that means a huge market share is potentially available). In order to profit from this increase in online population content will be created for the specific purpose of generating interest for brands and products. For the content to be seen by a significant number of folks, techniques & methods will be developed to trick search engines to consider as significant something that would otherwise be discarded as spam or insignificant. There you have it: content quality will be lost to the power of money. And with more and more bots pushing product/brand-based generic content on blogs/social networks through automated processes there is a risk that social media will lose some of its potential for communicating, interacting and sharing precious knowledge with others. You know, the «social» part of social media? Or we could re-label all that brand media...

Well like they say, 'nough said: that's it for your fave blog series; we will leave the ORCM Architecture Model Transcendence trilogy on this apocalyptic note.

ORCM Architecture Model Transcendence, part 2

Persistence-based limitations override

(source: http://erelations.info/orcm-architecture-model-part-2/)

ORCM Architecture Model Transcendence, part 2: Persistence-based limitations override

Relations created online have some advantages over offline relations, at least in a business context. Such an advantage is transcendence over persistence-related limitations.

Throughout its history humanity used two main forms of communications: speaking and writing (there is also sign language but it is used on a smaller scale). The former can have a powerful timely impact but its relevance fades over time, while the latter tends to retain a greater degree of importance throughout the years. For example, tribal cultures with exclusively oral-based traditional knowledge tend to fade away while cultures based around writing-based knowledge thrived. This is simply based on the fact that sounds are invoked than disappear while written forms of communication remain by default (although they do disappear when we shred/burn the piece of paper it is displayed on, etc.). But even that rule is changing now as online websites/sharing software/social networks (YouTube and all) are introducing the concept of massive distribution/dissemination of oral communications. Still, the oral form of communication is harder to control than the written form; for example SEO functions are based on written words and the software is not able to scan for spoken words (well surely some guys are drilling down this stuff as I write so it should revolutionize online marketing practices soon to the immense joy of SEO-obsessed marketing capitalists). Could a dying/dead native language be saved/brought back to life through social media propagation then? Why not.

Online relations do not really introduce the concept of an «eternal» communication, as those already existed in one way or the other. For example, the Egyptian papyrus are dated thousand years old and still exist today; those drawings on some cave wall could also be considered early forms of communication (maybe there were a bunch of keywords in that drawing, who knows). We could then assume that there can be a form of persistence regarding traditional forms of communications (writing, drawing, folkloric songs, etc.). Social media just does that in a gigantic, enormous scale. Those Egyptian papyrus were «managed» by kings (pharaohs, tsars, or their equivalent), i.e. only the elite of society could read and then write. Even when having acquired the knowledge of writing one would still have to gain access to proper tools and materials to engrave writing into stone. Whereas a handful of people controlled written communications around that time, today almost anyone can gain access to a device (pc, tablet, smartphone, gaming console, etc.) that will enable her or him to post something in the cloud, where it will exist and stay «alive» for everyone to see (well, potentially lots of people), this for an unlimited time (in theory).

But there is no magic there. Although fairly improbable, let's say there is a revolution/war/insurrection of some kind where Taliban-like figures seize power on a worldwide scale. They could then judge the online world as too hard to control, perceive it as a potential threat that enables people to collaborate, acquire and diffuse knowledge, evolve and take part in such similar, evil-inclined activities. To make it short those guys decide to «destroy the Net». They go to where cloud servers of ABC Inc. are located and blow them up, destroy those big cables under the sea, block all power sources and force us to cut wood and burn it to survive the cold months, etc. So there you go, all this social media stuff is gone. Yes, it will not happen but the mere fact that this kind of scenario is technically possible to some degree just serves as a reminder that underneath all this unfathomable online 2.0 magic you still need an IT infrastructure.

Part 3 (final part) of this thematic dissertation will discuss diffusion-based limitations related to online VS offline communications.