Ionrock Dot Org

Tim had some thoughts on communication that struck a chord . I remember a fellow developer coming into my cube and describing how Apple's word processing software handled styles using vectors. Essentially, if a paragraph, word or character fell on the styles vector, it would get applied. This seems really small and simple, but in the world of word processors, this is a very elegant way of working with style.

What Tim describes is very similar to the concept I call communication vectors. The idea is that communication occurs on different vectors that establish the defining details of the communication. For example, the volume of your voice when speaking could help describe whether you are speaking quietly to your child before bed or yelling over a the crowd at a concert. Based on the vectors you can describe different modes of communication and likely predict how best to handle unknown situations.

The context of my theory is MySpace. The issues behind MySpace and most web application thought processes is that they only function on one particular vector. MySpace handles the social acquaintance very well along with casual relationships. Facebook on the other hand arguably appeals to more meaningful relationships. The problem with social networking sites is not that they offer advantages to different vectors. The problem is the user can only communicate on the given vector at one time.

This problem is not specific to social networking sites. The problem occurs because each service that provides communication does so in a silo. This means that users can really only communicate in one vector at at at time. Without the full spectrum of vectors available in communication, you find that there is a lack of expressiveness and subtlety. In some arenas this is probably a good thing, but overall, it becomes clear that extending communications digitally will always be inferior.

The solution is to allow subtlety and expressiveness enter the spectrum of vectors available in digital communication. While it is not clear how this can be accomplished, it seems obvious that removing the barriers between the available vectors is the first step. If it no longer is a problem moving from the casual conversation to a serious issue, then there becomes the potential for a spectrum of vectors. This alludes to moving the services out of the silos and towards the user.

This reflects the real world in that there are times where casual conversations occur in a casual location. In other words, friends go to mall for a casual good time. At the same time though, the mall does not define the conversation as casual. What defines the communication is the tone and the subject matter. You can have conversations anywhere that are casual. What makes the determination regarding the tone of communication are those involved. Again, this means pushing the interaction and communication to occur between users instead of at a location.

Conceptually this is pretty simple stuff, but in practice it is very complicated. Users need to be able to extend their personality and persona on the web while still allowing the social barriers to be present. Users need to have the ability to reveal different sets of information that define who they are. They also need to reliably reveal private details to specific people. This needs to be simple and automatic from the user's perspective, which is very difficult.

Really the issue is essentially how can we create systems that let people express who they are and have that persona effect their communication without forcing users to add each and every bit to the picture of who they are. It is a complex problem, but as we continue to push and pull the structure of the web, people will eventually gain the tools they need to improve communication on the web.