steve kwan user experience designer

An update on life

(May 24th, 2007 - 2:43PM)

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been three weeks since my last update.

I want to get into the habit of updating this site more often. I've said it before, but it's not a matter of having nothing to say. It's a matter of motivation. I feel pressured to make each post count, to say something meaningful and helpful every time, and that means that each post requires a lot of effort.

Here's a general update on my life.

I saw Spider-Man 3 twice. It didn't get much better the second time around. Although it was decent, and certainly watchable, it paled in comparison to the first two. I'd never been bothered by Tobey's acting in the past, but in this movie, it really stands out. The romance scenes are perhaps worse than those in Star Wars: Episode II. I was really disappointed, because I loved the first two movies and had high expectations for this one.

After seeing Spider-Man 3 for the first time, I returned to my car to find that someone had hit me and run off. I'll need to pay a $500 deductable to get my car repaired.

An old acquaintance that I never thought I'd see again is now back in my life. I'm trying to decide what this means and whether it's a good idea to be speaking. I think that sometimes it's best to cut your losses and move on.

I saw Sadie and Dean for the first time in years. It was fantastic to see them again! They've just gotten married. I'm so happy for them, but also a bit envious because they're so far ahead of me in the love game.

I've been going to the gym a lot. Today will be my seventh consecutive day. I found out that I can bench 220lbs.

Work has been going very well. I'm on the third revision of our application interface. Today we had a big meeting to discuss the progress so far and the managers had at it like a piñata. But that's not a bad thing. That's the type of feedback we need.

I've been seeing a girl. Kind of. We're not dating, but we're hanging out. Who knows.

I'll hopefully update more often as time progresses.

Digg and the problem with mob mentality

(May 4th, 2007 - 12:47PM)

As the entire Internet seems to know, on May 1st Digg suffered a total implosion when its administrators attempted to censor stories about the HD-DVD key being leaked. In theory, the HD-DVD key can be used to circumvent copy protection measures on HD-DVDs. When Digg received a cease and desist order, they opted to remove all stories containing the HD-DVD key from their site.

Digg's user base lashed back by spamming the front page with stories about the key and burying all other stories, rendering Digg.com entirely useless. The fiasco finally settled down when Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, bowed to the pressure and agreed not to censor the key anymore.

Digg is a user-generated news site, meaning that readers choose which stories make it to the front page and which are considered irrelevant. The problem with user-driven sites is that in extreme cases like this, the "community" can act in ways that are contrary to the best interests of the site. In this case, Digg's community may have landed Kevin Rose in a lot of legal trouble.

The Digg implosion is a perfect example of what's wrong with Web 2.0 and user-generated content.

The premise behind sites like Digg is that there is wisdom in the crowd, and if you let the masses dictate content for you, you'll wind up with top content. Unfortunately, the crowd is not smart. The intelligence of a mob is less than the sum of the intelligence of all of its members. We've known that for thousands of years; that's why we have authorities for our knowledge, such as newspapers, archives, and libraries. Criticize these great institutions all you want, but the fact of the matter is that they have standards for the quality of their information.

Digg isn't a reputable news source. It's an online mob. The Digg "community" is biased, immature, and as we now know, self-destructive. They claim that they spammed the HD-DVD key on Digg because "censorship is bad" and they're "fighting for free speech." They claim that the HD-DVD key is just a number, and nobody has the right to own or protect a number. But as many of Digg's more astute commenters have said, these "freedom fighters" would surely be singing a different tune if the numbers being "liberated" were their credit card numbers.

When Digg's users revolted, they weren't protecting free speech. They were bandwagon jumping. If you read some of the comments that Diggers have posted on this issue, you'll see that they've inflated their egos dramatically. Here's a quote that someone posted on Digg:

"The digital fucking Boston tea party and I was there to see it happen. You guys know that in 50 years people will be studying this shit in school? Goddamn. It'll be interesting to see how they rebel then (of course, we'll be dead then)."

This was posted by someone known only as "thethresh." Isn't it funny how easy it is to be courageous when you're anonymous?

Digg's May 1st implosion wasn't about free speech; free speech has limitations. It wasn't about democracy; democracy has laws. It was about propping up egos at the expense of Kevin Rose, and trying to get something for free when we should be paying for it.

This, of course, is all irrelevant, because Digg isn't a news institution. It's just a website, and websites come and go. Digg will be long forgotten in a few years. But if we learn one thing out of this "rebellion," it should be that user-generated content is not a replacement for solid, authoritative knowledge. A mob of a thousand is not as good as a single, authoritative expert.

Sorry Digg, but I'll stick with the real news sources.