Almaty is a relatively small city where virtually all of the social context is built on personal social ties. The degrees of separation here are likely fewer than six and even though crossing the city itself can take substantial time and effort, crossing it socially can be a quick thing... even if you haven't lived here for 16 years.
Although the Kazakh internet is relatively young and still quite slow, KazNet sports several fairly mature electronic resources that have been around for years. Center of Mass, a relatively simple discussion forum, was initially developed more than 7 years ago by local Almaty computer geeks in order to have a space where they could exchange ideas, ask advice and simply hang out. Being the only bulletin board around, however - friends invited other friends who invited their friends and eventually, Center of Mass grew to today's respectible traffic of 350 thousand unique users per day. In a country of barely 16.5 million people this can be seen as quite an achievement.
Center of Mass is a force in Almaty - a resource in daily life, a space to chat and discuss just about anything from children to cars to the more philosophical questions of love and the Internet, a way to meet people. People who spend a lot of time on the forum are called "CTshniki", many sport site logo stickers on their cars and feel they are part of some kind of interesting cabal. As one person explained - if your car breaks down in the middle of the road and you have the sticker on the car, another person from the site (someone you've never seen before) with the same sticker will most likely stop and help without asking too many questions. CTshniki are part lore and part truth around here and the site is well known and popular enough to generate rumors. In many cases people acknowledge the potential of the site - as rumors float of factions on the site intentionally hatching plans to affect real estate prices purely through the Internet.
Given the level of activity on the forum and the complex social structure it has developed over time to manage the volume of traffic and posts, I wondered how it survived the kind of media environment here in Kazakhstan. The country is well known for being sensitive to various flavors of political commentary. Turns out, the site survives because it does not allow ANY politically charged discussion on the site. This is heavily policed and explained in detail in the rules of behavior. It's an interesting choice and one that makes sense if you consider the mindset of the people who run the site - its purpose is exhange of help and practical information, its result is creation of a zillion of communities that regularly meet in-person and throw parties, its means of survivaly is not allow people to talk about things that go beyond help and practicality... why talk about things you can not change?
09 May, 2009
07 May, 2009
Soulful contact with a less hectic past for the ultra mobile
My classmate is one of the movers and shakers of the young generation of Kazakhstan. He arrived to meet me, dressed in a suit and permanently attached to a mobile phone and a blackberry - simultaneously talking on one and typing on the other. He is extraordinarily busy and sports the kind of mobile lifestyle that many in the US talk about as maddening (here it's seen as absolutely, incredibly, insane). When asked about friends, he laughs and tells me that he sees his family once or twice a week... friends? non-work-related friends? not very often.
As a typical mobile professional, he talks of the Internet and its capabilities as perfect tools for perfecting his work and for increasing efficiency. He does not need an office - just a phone, a blackberry, his laptop and wifi. The latter can be gained through the phone if necessary. Everything, even here in Kazakhstan can be purchased, oragnized and delivered via the Internet right from his office for a small fee. "Its all about developing further trust in the Internet - as more people trust the internet with their financial information, more services can be created."
He uses FaceBook, but never actually accesses the site. FB is a way to instantly communicate with his overseas colleagues and everything is done via blackberry - it looks exactly like any other IM. He is not interested in accessing the site itself, updating his own status or browsing someone elses', looking up something unrelated to work there. The very reason here to use FB is that there are times when there is no point in calling, you can just send a quick note without going through the motions of cultural pleasantries. Skype is also useful because it's important to see facial expressions when making deals. No matter how I try to turn the conversation toward personal contacts, we come right back to business and efficiency. There is no time for planning or organizing outings - if something happens and he is notified, he will make an effort to join in. Otherwise, it's work and family. Even odnoklassniki, a site for friends, is for him also a site where there is a forum of his family, where they exchange messages on the account of too hectic a life to meet otherwise.
Yet at the end of our conversation, this ultra-mobile professional softens - odnoklassniki.ru is important - it's nice to know people remember you, it's important to find lost contacts ... He gets a sudden forlorn look on his face and then tells me how pleasant it is to check on old flames and contacts from college and high school. To him, there is value that translates to some kind of soul in managing to keep however faint ties with people who aren't part of his hectic, ultra-mobile life.
As a typical mobile professional, he talks of the Internet and its capabilities as perfect tools for perfecting his work and for increasing efficiency. He does not need an office - just a phone, a blackberry, his laptop and wifi. The latter can be gained through the phone if necessary. Everything, even here in Kazakhstan can be purchased, oragnized and delivered via the Internet right from his office for a small fee. "Its all about developing further trust in the Internet - as more people trust the internet with their financial information, more services can be created."
He uses FaceBook, but never actually accesses the site. FB is a way to instantly communicate with his overseas colleagues and everything is done via blackberry - it looks exactly like any other IM. He is not interested in accessing the site itself, updating his own status or browsing someone elses', looking up something unrelated to work there. The very reason here to use FB is that there are times when there is no point in calling, you can just send a quick note without going through the motions of cultural pleasantries. Skype is also useful because it's important to see facial expressions when making deals. No matter how I try to turn the conversation toward personal contacts, we come right back to business and efficiency. There is no time for planning or organizing outings - if something happens and he is notified, he will make an effort to join in. Otherwise, it's work and family. Even odnoklassniki, a site for friends, is for him also a site where there is a forum of his family, where they exchange messages on the account of too hectic a life to meet otherwise.
Yet at the end of our conversation, this ultra-mobile professional softens - odnoklassniki.ru is important - it's nice to know people remember you, it's important to find lost contacts ... He gets a sudden forlorn look on his face and then tells me how pleasant it is to check on old flames and contacts from college and high school. To him, there is value that translates to some kind of soul in managing to keep however faint ties with people who aren't part of his hectic, ultra-mobile life.
06 May, 2009
The Internet and the older generation
Just like Moscow is vastly different from the rest of Russia, Almaty is different from the rest of Kazakhstan. Where it might be playing second fiddle to Astana on the account of not being a capital anylonger, it certainly remains the main center of the country. Just like Astana, Almaty sports advanced communication infrastructure and Internet access is becoming commonplace. So commonplace, that I encounter it in homes and places where I do not expect.
Yesterday I went to visit a friend of my grandmothers'. She insisted we meet at the apartment of her friend since she is getting her kitchen and bathroom redone in her apartment. Fine, I came by and of course, Russian/Kazakh grannies sat me down to a meal. As we chatted over pirogi's, a variety of salads and intermittent pronouncements that I must eat more as I am obviously too thin, the older ladies (both in their early 70s) started talking about the Internet. Both have access at home, use email and wonder in amazement at the offerings of Skype. Certainly they depend on their son in case and daughter in the other, to set things up and to explain their function. Both, however, also know to find information on the Internet and enjoy sending email - cheaper and quicker than mail. Nobody sends regular letters anymore anyway, wouldn't get an answer that way, but with email it works much better.
The opening of the borders - lower restrictions on international travel and money becoming one of the few limiting factors to that kind of travel make such mobility seem possible and even more or less commonplace. People talk of travel to other countries as something they would like to do themselves if they can ever figure out how to afford rather than some wonderous ability of others. There is a firm sense that "we can go anywhere" even in the older generation here, even though most people that I speak with are happy to stay just where they are, here in Almaty.
Yesterday I went to visit a friend of my grandmothers'. She insisted we meet at the apartment of her friend since she is getting her kitchen and bathroom redone in her apartment. Fine, I came by and of course, Russian/Kazakh grannies sat me down to a meal. As we chatted over pirogi's, a variety of salads and intermittent pronouncements that I must eat more as I am obviously too thin, the older ladies (both in their early 70s) started talking about the Internet. Both have access at home, use email and wonder in amazement at the offerings of Skype. Certainly they depend on their son in case and daughter in the other, to set things up and to explain their function. Both, however, also know to find information on the Internet and enjoy sending email - cheaper and quicker than mail. Nobody sends regular letters anymore anyway, wouldn't get an answer that way, but with email it works much better.
The opening of the borders - lower restrictions on international travel and money becoming one of the few limiting factors to that kind of travel make such mobility seem possible and even more or less commonplace. People talk of travel to other countries as something they would like to do themselves if they can ever figure out how to afford rather than some wonderous ability of others. There is a firm sense that "we can go anywhere" even in the older generation here, even though most people that I speak with are happy to stay just where they are, here in Almaty.
05 May, 2009
Age, changes and technology
One of consistent themes in the countries of FSU is that of renewal, rebuilding and restoration. The old little church, that used to be the only functioning Russian Orthodox church in the city when I was a kid, has been restored and looks just about brand new. When other forms of faith had collapsed in the collapse of Soviet Union, many turned to churches for some kind of emotional and moral support. The churches provided (for a fee of course). Near the well kept church and grounds however, what used to be a large bazaar, is now a sorry small collection of stalls huddled against the road. The rest of the space is a lot with broken up asphalt and trash. Along with the renewal efforts, there is an accompanying process of things falling apart.
As I walked along the church grounds, an older woman walked up to me. "Honey, she said, do you happen to have a mobile phone?" "Sure, I said feeling somehow generous, what do ou need it for?" "Oh, could you tell me the time? she asked and then explained, see nobody has watches these days, they all tell time by mobile phones so I learned to ask if they have one first, then they I know they will tell me the time."
I was visiting friends of my grandmother - similar to her in age, living on a meager pension in their 80s. As we sat on the couch and talked, drinking tea and watching the Russian version of court-TV (since TVs are never off around here it seems) she was telling me how they manage on their meager pension and how she desperately wants a mink coat, but that's the same as not eating for six months... Suddenly we were interrupted by a loud sound of a mobile phone ringer - aunt Lida calmly turned and picked up what turned out to be a mobile phone. She had trouble answering it, but eventually figured out how to call back and then spoke with her husband for a few minutes. "We all have these mobiles, she told me, you can't really get along without them! We got our youngest grandson a cheap one first some years ago, now he has a nicer one and we all have one. It's nice to be able to call at any time from anywhere and it's safer." She explained that her husband has a mobile with a camera and other things, but he doesn't really use that and she wouldn't really know how. They don't send those text message things though they've seen them on their grand-son's phone, but calling - that they do all the time. It's cheaper to call, since her husband lives on their dacha, 50 kilometers out of town most of the summer, coming back into town just once a month to collect his pension. Calling on a regular phone - it's a long distance call, but on a mobile it's much cheaper so they call each other all the time - they are old, anything can happen.
It seems the tariff and pricing system here has a fairly substantial effect on mobile phone use. Similar to many developing countries, here landlines are expensive and the need to communicate drives people of all ages to adopt mobile phones, to maintain connections as families and friends move around in search of jobs and better lives. The need drives adoption and use and then we see examples of grandmothers in their 80's texting grandchildren to feel less lonely.
As I walked along the church grounds, an older woman walked up to me. "Honey, she said, do you happen to have a mobile phone?" "Sure, I said feeling somehow generous, what do ou need it for?" "Oh, could you tell me the time? she asked and then explained, see nobody has watches these days, they all tell time by mobile phones so I learned to ask if they have one first, then they I know they will tell me the time."
I was visiting friends of my grandmother - similar to her in age, living on a meager pension in their 80s. As we sat on the couch and talked, drinking tea and watching the Russian version of court-TV (since TVs are never off around here it seems) she was telling me how they manage on their meager pension and how she desperately wants a mink coat, but that's the same as not eating for six months... Suddenly we were interrupted by a loud sound of a mobile phone ringer - aunt Lida calmly turned and picked up what turned out to be a mobile phone. She had trouble answering it, but eventually figured out how to call back and then spoke with her husband for a few minutes. "We all have these mobiles, she told me, you can't really get along without them! We got our youngest grandson a cheap one first some years ago, now he has a nicer one and we all have one. It's nice to be able to call at any time from anywhere and it's safer." She explained that her husband has a mobile with a camera and other things, but he doesn't really use that and she wouldn't really know how. They don't send those text message things though they've seen them on their grand-son's phone, but calling - that they do all the time. It's cheaper to call, since her husband lives on their dacha, 50 kilometers out of town most of the summer, coming back into town just once a month to collect his pension. Calling on a regular phone - it's a long distance call, but on a mobile it's much cheaper so they call each other all the time - they are old, anything can happen.
It seems the tariff and pricing system here has a fairly substantial effect on mobile phone use. Similar to many developing countries, here landlines are expensive and the need to communicate drives people of all ages to adopt mobile phones, to maintain connections as families and friends move around in search of jobs and better lives. The need drives adoption and use and then we see examples of grandmothers in their 80's texting grandchildren to feel less lonely.
02 May, 2009
Chance meetings
I was walking to a cafe that offers wifi here in Almaty. I've been spending quite a bit of time here lately, using their wireless and people-watching. This morning there was an interesting group of people here with name-tags. These kinds of things signify purposeful meetings so I walked up and asked what they were doing here. Turned out these were the professionals from Almaty who hang out on a relatively new Russian social network site called professionaly.ru. Today was their first meeting of its kind and the people that I initially met, were friendly and willing to exchange business cards. I am extremely low on business cards now, and I keep thinking of that huge box in my office full of those useless things.
As I explained to the collection of professionals the purpose o my presence in Almaty, one of them suggested that I speak to one of their number who might have more interesting things to say on my topic as she is a psychologist. She was very forthcoming, offering to connect me with professors in the department of psychology at Kaz University here in Almaty whose students have done work on similar themes to mine. She also sketched out a rather interesting theory of how and why people use the Internet to meet others. Some of her ideas were in line with some of hte older ideas put forth by Sherry Turkle and Lee & Spears. Others were somewhat more interesting and she got very excited whe I suggested that her ideas were of interest to me and that if my research leads me more in a psychology direction, maybe we should write something together. It's always kind of neat to meet people who are academically and intellectually curious and so forward with their ideas. In short, she suggested that in seeking out others on the Internet, just like in any other social space, people seek two main things - structure (as she conceptualized formalities of belonging) and warmth (or a kind of emotional feeling of belonging and feeling wanted, needed and valued).
This kind of breakdown of belonging is something I've been thinking about quite a lot and I actually think she is right. She approaches this from a profoundly psychological point of view, but there are also sociological and anthropological ways of thinking about this that eventually result in the same kind of idea - we do seek structure to our lives in the form of social obligations bourn out of belonging to people and groups that place demands on us as a cost of that belonging. We also seek the benefit of that belonging that is the warmth and the emotional security that such belonging provides. The structural aspects of belonging are not entirely a cost in that they are also a form of signalling to others the fact of belonging in our own lives. They are also a form of signifying our social worth to ourselves in the structure of social business of our lives. Arguably, social worth is one of the more important self-markers in the development of self-esteem.
This cafe is interesting as I see a few people come here with laptops and use their wifi, but for the most part, especially during the holidays this weekend, people come here to meet and chat and spend time together. I see maybe one or two laptops, usually being used inside the relatively empty cafe, while the outside portion is packed and I am usually alone here with my foreign-looking mac (most computers here are PCs). Generally everyone has a phone and they are using their mobiles constantly. Also, everyone smokes, which makes the inside of this establishment untenable for me, the softie American.There are very very few people here who are sitting at tables alone. In fact, I am pretty much the only one. Even with laptops many people are here with someone else, showing, discussing.
Almaty is a funny place. It is no longer a captial, so the pace of life here is a bit slower. Yet it is the most populous city with the largest number of insitutions of higher education in the country. It is also the oldest Soviet city here. Thus it is the cultural and business center, where Astana is the government and maybe financial center. There is a qualitative difference between Amaty and Moscow but I can't quite pin it down yet.
As I explained to the collection of professionals the purpose o my presence in Almaty, one of them suggested that I speak to one of their number who might have more interesting things to say on my topic as she is a psychologist. She was very forthcoming, offering to connect me with professors in the department of psychology at Kaz University here in Almaty whose students have done work on similar themes to mine. She also sketched out a rather interesting theory of how and why people use the Internet to meet others. Some of her ideas were in line with some of hte older ideas put forth by Sherry Turkle and Lee & Spears. Others were somewhat more interesting and she got very excited whe I suggested that her ideas were of interest to me and that if my research leads me more in a psychology direction, maybe we should write something together. It's always kind of neat to meet people who are academically and intellectually curious and so forward with their ideas. In short, she suggested that in seeking out others on the Internet, just like in any other social space, people seek two main things - structure (as she conceptualized formalities of belonging) and warmth (or a kind of emotional feeling of belonging and feeling wanted, needed and valued).
This kind of breakdown of belonging is something I've been thinking about quite a lot and I actually think she is right. She approaches this from a profoundly psychological point of view, but there are also sociological and anthropological ways of thinking about this that eventually result in the same kind of idea - we do seek structure to our lives in the form of social obligations bourn out of belonging to people and groups that place demands on us as a cost of that belonging. We also seek the benefit of that belonging that is the warmth and the emotional security that such belonging provides. The structural aspects of belonging are not entirely a cost in that they are also a form of signalling to others the fact of belonging in our own lives. They are also a form of signifying our social worth to ourselves in the structure of social business of our lives. Arguably, social worth is one of the more important self-markers in the development of self-esteem.
This cafe is interesting as I see a few people come here with laptops and use their wifi, but for the most part, especially during the holidays this weekend, people come here to meet and chat and spend time together. I see maybe one or two laptops, usually being used inside the relatively empty cafe, while the outside portion is packed and I am usually alone here with my foreign-looking mac (most computers here are PCs). Generally everyone has a phone and they are using their mobiles constantly. Also, everyone smokes, which makes the inside of this establishment untenable for me, the softie American.There are very very few people here who are sitting at tables alone. In fact, I am pretty much the only one. Even with laptops many people are here with someone else, showing, discussing.
Almaty is a funny place. It is no longer a captial, so the pace of life here is a bit slower. Yet it is the most populous city with the largest number of insitutions of higher education in the country. It is also the oldest Soviet city here. Thus it is the cultural and business center, where Astana is the government and maybe financial center. There is a qualitative difference between Amaty and Moscow but I can't quite pin it down yet.
29 April, 2009
Otherness and being
Moscow is surprisingly comfortable. It's like finding an old coat from childhood, putting it on and discovering that it not only still fits, but fits in all those old and very comfortable ways where every wrinkle is familiar. I wonder whether this comfort may impede by ability to see and notice differences from the western cultures that I now represent. It makes me wonder about the anthropological notion of otherness and its perceived necessity. The comfort I think blurs differences, making them too evident and normalized for me to see their presence. On the other hand, that same comfort gains me entry to both people and places, because my own comfort in this environment makes them more comfortable with me. Or am I imagining? The process of this research so far has been about developing both professional contacts and personal relationships with people and in order for this to happen, I had to be open with people about myself and my goals. I have ended up with several potential friendships from a mere seven days in Moscow. Now on to Almaty - where comfort, familiarity and personal closeness are going to make my work, I suspect, even harder.
25 April, 2009
Moscow size and sociality
Moscow is a very large city, where the population of Moscow proper is nearly as large as all of Kazakhstan. Registered population of Moscow is about 10.5 million people, with estimates of unregistered residents (read illegal immigrants) anywhere between 2 and 4 million people. The total population of Kazakhstan is 16 million people. Moscow is very large. Despite the fact that the majority of the population lives in apartment buildings all around, the diameter of the city is about 40 kilometers. The city has an extensive metro network, a number of trams, buses and mini-buses and it's streets are permanently full of traffic. Because of the size and the problems with traffic, it is essentially impossible to get anywhere in Moscow on time by car. You either get there very early or very late. The more relevant alternative is Metro, which functions just as well as it did during the Soviet times and is relatively cheap (a single costs about a dollar, but can come down to about 50 cents if you buy more than one ride at a time).
Metro in Moscow is nothing short of spectacular - the Soviets were trying to make a statement as they built the Metro as an expression of nationalism and communist might as well as a transport and a bomb-shelter system. The older stations are very grand, with statues and ornate ceilings, mosaics and gorgeous plaster work. The newer stations are a bit more sparse, but still beautiful. Despite the efficiency of this form of transport and its reach, getting from one end of Moscow to another will take about 2 hours. This has a huge effect on how people socialize here. They plan occasional meetings, where everyone heads out to "nature" but generally this is all about calling each other up and seeing whether you are in the same area and have time for a quick coffee. people also develop relationships with others who live nearby and they maintain those relationships until they move. Many of those do not survive moves because the distance precludes in-person interactions and the whole point of those relationships was in fact in-person interaction.
Moscovites are social and the favorite past-time is what they call "to sit" - that is to sit down, share a coffee or an alcoholic beverage and to talk. The length of the encounter and the amount of liquid and food consumed defines how "well" people had managed to "sit". The location of these "sittings" is negotiated, where people compromise on meeting "in the middle" to shorten distances and length of travel - many in my interviews complained that going over to someone's house was harder because of the distances and cafe's were a poor subsitute. As Moscow looses it's parks to land development, fewer public spaces are left for the purpose of "sitting" but those are still there, are amply used.
Metro in Moscow is nothing short of spectacular - the Soviets were trying to make a statement as they built the Metro as an expression of nationalism and communist might as well as a transport and a bomb-shelter system. The older stations are very grand, with statues and ornate ceilings, mosaics and gorgeous plaster work. The newer stations are a bit more sparse, but still beautiful. Despite the efficiency of this form of transport and its reach, getting from one end of Moscow to another will take about 2 hours. This has a huge effect on how people socialize here. They plan occasional meetings, where everyone heads out to "nature" but generally this is all about calling each other up and seeing whether you are in the same area and have time for a quick coffee. people also develop relationships with others who live nearby and they maintain those relationships until they move. Many of those do not survive moves because the distance precludes in-person interactions and the whole point of those relationships was in fact in-person interaction.
Moscovites are social and the favorite past-time is what they call "to sit" - that is to sit down, share a coffee or an alcoholic beverage and to talk. The length of the encounter and the amount of liquid and food consumed defines how "well" people had managed to "sit". The location of these "sittings" is negotiated, where people compromise on meeting "in the middle" to shorten distances and length of travel - many in my interviews complained that going over to someone's house was harder because of the distances and cafe's were a poor subsitute. As Moscow looses it's parks to land development, fewer public spaces are left for the purpose of "sitting" but those are still there, are amply used.
24 April, 2009
Moscow and the experience of the border
My arrival in Moscow was rather exciting where even before I was able to set foot in a city, I was forced to pay fines and seriously consider what being deported would look like. This experience wasn't nearly as dire as it sounds. In fact, it was entertaining! Let me explain.
On the flight to Moscow I glanced at my visa and realized that my visa was dated a day later than when I was arriving. I am not sure where the hiccup occurred and why. It was probably my fault but I wasn't going to admit that to anyone just yet. When I landed, I walked up to the border and presented my passport, hoping they wouldn't notice that I was a day early. Fat chance. The border-patrol lady categorically told me that she couldn't let me in to the country since my visa was invalid for today (it would become valid in 14 hours) and that they were probably going to send me back. Another woman marched up - short skirt, big heels and a uniform - and walked me over to the side. She was non-plussed by my issues, she was busy deporting some guy from Tadzhikistan by the looks of his passport. A Delta representative arrived and briefly talked to me, looked at my passport and promised to go to the consulate representative to see if he might FEEL LIKE extending my visa by one day.
A few minutes later the Delta rep came back and handed me a form to fill out - I, such and such, got a visa for these dates, arrived on this date, can you please extend my visa. I had to give a reason for why I showed up one day early. I hesitated. She looked over at me and firmly said - you couldn't find a plane ticket for the right date. Well I guess that will work! It did... $25 later I had a visa, but my "issues" weren't over just yet. A very nice, self-effacing young man from the border patrol came by and informed me that by trying to cross the border with an invalid visa I violated some laws and will now be fined and additional 2060 Rubles (about $70). He then proceeded to produce a written record of my transgressions, which took over an hour as he pecked with one finger at the keyboard with a look of determination. Then he printed the records, discovered he made a mistake, printed it again, got some liquid white-out and fixed something else, copied, stapled, removed staples, copied and stapled again. Finally I had in my hands the written record of my transgression. We then walked over to the financial office to pay my fees.
A friend of mine that was meeting me at the airport met us along the way. He tried to hand my handler the required fee. The border-patrol guard in uniform looked at him and then said - we aren't standing on the road and I am not a cop here. Since we STARTED this in an official manner we should finish it that way. Of course, on the road, it's all easier and a lot more straight-forward...
Did you catch that last one? He essentially told us that I should have just bribed him, but since I didn't here we go walking to yet another bureaucratic hole. Good morning to you, Mother Russia... Feels like home.
On the flight to Moscow I glanced at my visa and realized that my visa was dated a day later than when I was arriving. I am not sure where the hiccup occurred and why. It was probably my fault but I wasn't going to admit that to anyone just yet. When I landed, I walked up to the border and presented my passport, hoping they wouldn't notice that I was a day early. Fat chance. The border-patrol lady categorically told me that she couldn't let me in to the country since my visa was invalid for today (it would become valid in 14 hours) and that they were probably going to send me back. Another woman marched up - short skirt, big heels and a uniform - and walked me over to the side. She was non-plussed by my issues, she was busy deporting some guy from Tadzhikistan by the looks of his passport. A Delta representative arrived and briefly talked to me, looked at my passport and promised to go to the consulate representative to see if he might FEEL LIKE extending my visa by one day.
A few minutes later the Delta rep came back and handed me a form to fill out - I, such and such, got a visa for these dates, arrived on this date, can you please extend my visa. I had to give a reason for why I showed up one day early. I hesitated. She looked over at me and firmly said - you couldn't find a plane ticket for the right date. Well I guess that will work! It did... $25 later I had a visa, but my "issues" weren't over just yet. A very nice, self-effacing young man from the border patrol came by and informed me that by trying to cross the border with an invalid visa I violated some laws and will now be fined and additional 2060 Rubles (about $70). He then proceeded to produce a written record of my transgressions, which took over an hour as he pecked with one finger at the keyboard with a look of determination. Then he printed the records, discovered he made a mistake, printed it again, got some liquid white-out and fixed something else, copied, stapled, removed staples, copied and stapled again. Finally I had in my hands the written record of my transgression. We then walked over to the financial office to pay my fees.
A friend of mine that was meeting me at the airport met us along the way. He tried to hand my handler the required fee. The border-patrol guard in uniform looked at him and then said - we aren't standing on the road and I am not a cop here. Since we STARTED this in an official manner we should finish it that way. Of course, on the road, it's all easier and a lot more straight-forward...
Did you catch that last one? He essentially told us that I should have just bribed him, but since I didn't here we go walking to yet another bureaucratic hole. Good morning to you, Mother Russia... Feels like home.
31 March, 2009
Google, Burning Man and the Bohemian Factory
Fred Turner gave a talk today where he proposed a way to look at Burning Man as a cultural infrastructure of Google. That's a pretty big statement and he presented a very interesting, sophisticated analysis of this claim. Burning Man is a huge cultural and ideological institution in the Bay Area where Google is situated and the technical community comprises a large proportion of annual participants. Burning Man, for all intents and purposes is a techno-art festival, focused on maintaining a culture of creativity, acceptance, self-expression and gift giving. The basic idea is that participants generally attend in groups that project-oriented for making art and community simultaneously.
Google's founders and at the very least the engineering contingent of its employees heavily participate in Burning Man every year. In 1999 the founders famously shut down the company for a week during Burning Man.
Turner's argument is that the founders and the management of Google spend a lot of effort creating and maintaining and environment in the company that supports some of the ideological underpinnings of burning man. What's more, the festival itself serves as a site of cultural production of ideology for Google. But there is more. Turner also argues that Google has managed to harness the Burning Man community for development and production of new media. Burning Man then, becomes a bohemian factory for Google. The idea here is that the gift giving at Burning Man can turn into product development for Google. In practical terms this can manifest in burners creating things that Google can then deploy as part of its suite of products. That development is, of course, done for free in the spirit of gift giving of Burning Man.
Turner uses Marx and Durkheim's ideas of base and superstructure (or organic solidarity vs. machinistic exchange if you will). His main argument is that unique affordances of IT have facilitated a new relationship between culture and industry. where before a "base" generated a "superstructure", now we see cultural "superstructures" becoming a form of an industrial "base" This transformation is facilitated by digital networks but NOT driven by them. This last one is an important point - technology doesn't drive cultural changes, it merely grafts itself onto cultural forms.
This sounds interesting and certainly provocative but I don't buy it for one specific reason: Turner does not address that there is something specific about Google's ability to harness this "bohemian factory" to its ends. There are two IT companies that have managed to become flagship symbols of counter-culture - Google and Apple. Apple, however, doesn't figure in Turner's narrative and its' recent history with upset customers suggests its Bohemian Factory hasn't been working all that well. So why Google?
I think the one thing that was missing from Turner's analysis, is the interesting nature of Google's forms of capitalization and its business model. What Google might call its "product suite" most of us, unwashed masses, call "a service" that is FREE. There are very few Google offerings that require subscription of any kind and even then, as is in case of Google Earth, the majority of the functionality is free. Most of us, users, do not actually observe the process through which Google makes money. So if Google were to introduce a new service, it has the ability to reach the largest number of people quicker than anyone else, providing huge numbers of users for a new free doo-dad. The "FREE" aspect of things fits with the Burning Man ethos of gifting and the pleasure of making things for people's enjoyment. The Bohemian Factory works for Google because it can not see how what it creates becomes a product that generates income. This opaque nature of Google's business practices is the result of unique affordances of IT and the world in which we currently live. As long as there are no immediate physical signs of money changing hands (and adsense is too minor to really pay attention to) the Bohemian Factory will create products for free for a major corporation and not think twice about it.
Google's founders and at the very least the engineering contingent of its employees heavily participate in Burning Man every year. In 1999 the founders famously shut down the company for a week during Burning Man.
Turner's argument is that the founders and the management of Google spend a lot of effort creating and maintaining and environment in the company that supports some of the ideological underpinnings of burning man. What's more, the festival itself serves as a site of cultural production of ideology for Google. But there is more. Turner also argues that Google has managed to harness the Burning Man community for development and production of new media. Burning Man then, becomes a bohemian factory for Google. The idea here is that the gift giving at Burning Man can turn into product development for Google. In practical terms this can manifest in burners creating things that Google can then deploy as part of its suite of products. That development is, of course, done for free in the spirit of gift giving of Burning Man.
Turner uses Marx and Durkheim's ideas of base and superstructure (or organic solidarity vs. machinistic exchange if you will). His main argument is that unique affordances of IT have facilitated a new relationship between culture and industry. where before a "base" generated a "superstructure", now we see cultural "superstructures" becoming a form of an industrial "base" This transformation is facilitated by digital networks but NOT driven by them. This last one is an important point - technology doesn't drive cultural changes, it merely grafts itself onto cultural forms.
This sounds interesting and certainly provocative but I don't buy it for one specific reason: Turner does not address that there is something specific about Google's ability to harness this "bohemian factory" to its ends. There are two IT companies that have managed to become flagship symbols of counter-culture - Google and Apple. Apple, however, doesn't figure in Turner's narrative and its' recent history with upset customers suggests its Bohemian Factory hasn't been working all that well. So why Google?
I think the one thing that was missing from Turner's analysis, is the interesting nature of Google's forms of capitalization and its business model. What Google might call its "product suite" most of us, unwashed masses, call "a service" that is FREE. There are very few Google offerings that require subscription of any kind and even then, as is in case of Google Earth, the majority of the functionality is free. Most of us, users, do not actually observe the process through which Google makes money. So if Google were to introduce a new service, it has the ability to reach the largest number of people quicker than anyone else, providing huge numbers of users for a new free doo-dad. The "FREE" aspect of things fits with the Burning Man ethos of gifting and the pleasure of making things for people's enjoyment. The Bohemian Factory works for Google because it can not see how what it creates becomes a product that generates income. This opaque nature of Google's business practices is the result of unique affordances of IT and the world in which we currently live. As long as there are no immediate physical signs of money changing hands (and adsense is too minor to really pay attention to) the Bohemian Factory will create products for free for a major corporation and not think twice about it.
13 February, 2009
On writing...
Academic writing, or, really any writing is something that I find incredibly painful and always have as long as I can remember (all those tears shed over school papers). This is a problem because my career of choice is built around writing as a way of expression. Writing is this sort of voodoo thing for me - filled with ritual, painful effort, overwhelming weight of the knowledge of others that may be involved in the creation of current prose and general terror of getting things wrong. There is meaning, weight and the expectation of others' opinions that is embedded in the writing and in the outcome. As my career progresses, I am spending more and more time trying to write... but not really accomplishing much.
Why? I had expected that no matter how hard writing appeared to be, once I wrote my whole dissertation, writing would become that much easier, my own gained expertise giving me confidence to write. Writing, it turns out, is more about self-confidence than anything else. So I wrote my dissertation, hating every moment of it. I wrote it, defended it and got handed the degree. Then I took a job where I was hoping to spend time writing and rewriting my dissertation for publication and soon I discovered that academically, writing-wise, I had become mute...
Over time in grad school I hadn't realized that I had built up a series of rituals and a collection of spaces where I could, finally, write. It wasn't in my office, or my desk at home, but my couch or a particular table in a specific coffee shop. My writing also had to happen in the afternoons in the coffee shop or after 10 in the evening at home, and absolutely required inordinate amounts of tea. The spaces in which I wrote had to have a particular kind of mess around them - the books and papers that were related, stacked in uneasy teetering piles by the couch or piled on the windowsill of the coffee-shop. Rarely looked at or read, but there as a form of moral support and instantly visible anchoring.
In my new home, I couldn't seem to find the right space to write... The couch was too uncomfortable, the desk too large and somehow not right, the coffee shops with a vibe that didn't match. So I grappled and grasped at something, trying hard to figure out both a space in which I could write and a way to quite my mind, to settling it down so it could help me produce text. I seem to have summarily failed.
My self-confidence about my expertise is not present, it is at an all time low as I try to broach less familiar literature and ways of thinking. So I madly read and find myself unable to integrate, process and figure out the spaces in which I can contribute my voice. In some strange way, I had lost my voice and became speechless, effectively mute. I flounder as I worry about saying things that may be seen naive, obviously unaware of existing knowledge and just plain wrong.
What to do? Reading more does not seem to help, but maybe acknowledging that I need my rituals and I need to create or identify a space that can help quiet my neuroticism about writing. Acknowledging that for the most part I am being neurotic and unable to write simply because I don't think I can say something interesting enough or new enough is only good if I can get past this. Can I? We'll see.
Why? I had expected that no matter how hard writing appeared to be, once I wrote my whole dissertation, writing would become that much easier, my own gained expertise giving me confidence to write. Writing, it turns out, is more about self-confidence than anything else. So I wrote my dissertation, hating every moment of it. I wrote it, defended it and got handed the degree. Then I took a job where I was hoping to spend time writing and rewriting my dissertation for publication and soon I discovered that academically, writing-wise, I had become mute...
Over time in grad school I hadn't realized that I had built up a series of rituals and a collection of spaces where I could, finally, write. It wasn't in my office, or my desk at home, but my couch or a particular table in a specific coffee shop. My writing also had to happen in the afternoons in the coffee shop or after 10 in the evening at home, and absolutely required inordinate amounts of tea. The spaces in which I wrote had to have a particular kind of mess around them - the books and papers that were related, stacked in uneasy teetering piles by the couch or piled on the windowsill of the coffee-shop. Rarely looked at or read, but there as a form of moral support and instantly visible anchoring.
In my new home, I couldn't seem to find the right space to write... The couch was too uncomfortable, the desk too large and somehow not right, the coffee shops with a vibe that didn't match. So I grappled and grasped at something, trying hard to figure out both a space in which I could write and a way to quite my mind, to settling it down so it could help me produce text. I seem to have summarily failed.
My self-confidence about my expertise is not present, it is at an all time low as I try to broach less familiar literature and ways of thinking. So I madly read and find myself unable to integrate, process and figure out the spaces in which I can contribute my voice. In some strange way, I had lost my voice and became speechless, effectively mute. I flounder as I worry about saying things that may be seen naive, obviously unaware of existing knowledge and just plain wrong.
What to do? Reading more does not seem to help, but maybe acknowledging that I need my rituals and I need to create or identify a space that can help quiet my neuroticism about writing. Acknowledging that for the most part I am being neurotic and unable to write simply because I don't think I can say something interesting enough or new enough is only good if I can get past this. Can I? We'll see.
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