Here is a wordle created with some of the many concepts surround digital liquidity.
How would you define freedom in regards to technology?
That is a broad and yet vitally important question. I believe the pursuit of Digital Liquidity encapsulates the answer.
What is Digital Liquidity?
It is an even split between a technical measurement and philosophical concept.
Digital Liquidity is literally, how well we can control and move our digital assets. The things that get in our way and slow us down hinder our digital liquidity. Things like cost, time, learning curves and more specific things like platform, operating system, standards and propiety also hinder this ability.
Digital Liquidity, as a mindset is a more natural approach to technology. It is the concept that keeps your technology working for you and not you for it. Deep down, each and every one of us, wants these wonderful gizmos and gadgets to carry out our wishes, free flowing and uninhibited. We simply want it to work. Digital Liquidity is a measuring stick, pursuit, a wake up call as well as a wonderful opportunity
Together, the full definition of digital liquidity is a hybrid mindset/philosophy where one seeks to establish a redundant synchronistic relationship with their data, multiple systems and the web for the sole purpose of utilizing speed, simplicity, mobility to control and extend freedoms to the modern computing experience. Simply put, we all naturally want to control our digital stuff and have it quickly available whenever and wherever we may wander and we don’t want anything else to interfere.
The principles of digital liquidity, in order to keep things flowing are:
Independence
Simplicity & Speed,
Mobility,
Control.
The Implications of these simple themes are vast, far reaching yet can help us make specific choices to empower our everyday lives.
INDEPENDENCE
Platform Independence- We should strive for a computing existence that is not defined solely on one platform, operating system, or device. The goal is to be liquid like flowing water; flexible and adaptable to any form. When describing the liquid lifestyle, it should have a form that is viewable on any medium, that can take shape of its container, (think OS, phone, laptop or desktop). Our experience and thoughts regarding technology should not be reserved to the container and it is important in this day and age to rid ourself of the mental cage.
For example, I use a Mac, I also use a PC, a phone, and Linux. My digital Persona however, is not reserved to any of the boxes or brands that I use. The things that make me, me when I am at the computer or on-line, the real essence is something closer to a code that is read by all of the different devices, like the web. So in this example, understanding that when I think of the digital version of myself, I am and always want to be something independent of all of those other things, an assortment of data and code.
Digital Persona- all the digital you- the box you explore on. The digital persona is like the imperfect representation of who you are, treated as a unique operating system. What’s more you? Your favorites, images and files, browsing habits, or your iPhone, laptop or desktop. The best way to think about your computing experience is to recognize yourself as your own operating system, that is compatible with many systems but exists independently of them.
SPEED & SIMPLICITY
In order to flow freely on the digital domain we must have speed and simplicity. We do not want to waste our precious time learning to use these tools and gadgets, they are all just means to our ends. We want a simple and fast interaction to improve our productivity and effectiveness while empowering our lives. People look at the word “simple” and dismiss it as childish, idiotic, and boring. Yet when it comes to interacting with a gadget, the simple interface on the gizmo allows us to simply do amazing and complex things. The wheel, for example, is perhaps the simplest invention but look at what we have done with it. Armed with a simple and quick interface, we can change the world.
Our minds can get in the way of our goals. Our perceptions, the ways we digest information and process visual environments, consume our most precious resource; time. The training required for basic interaction is an important factor to consider. The longer the time- trade off, the more likely we are to become conditioned to use that one system. Pursuing fast routes and simple intuitive representations allows us to move closer to our goals without losing time or our sanity.
This of course is a natural human tendency to pursue familiar patterns. We all want to keep our sanity and eliminate stress yet few know how to do so when facing technology. However, balanced with a liquid awareness, we can identify and choose products, services, gizmos and applications that empower us and quickly allow us to pursue and explore our original goals.
Identifying the natural flow and encouraging the pursuit of the simpler route before using force is important. A 10 minute search for a solution on Google is far better than a 2 hour training session, especially if the kink is but one stepping stone on your path. People have an overwhelming tendency to fight their instincts and take the long and rough road to a solution. We all do this subtly. Often without knowing or knowing where to look, we attempt to reinvent the wheel.
It does not matter if we are beginning or advanced users, programmers, writers, or playful children, the bottleneck on our time sneaks into our processes and puts a wrench in the machine. It takes a lot of brain power to understand that mental process or computer process is a tool. We often forget to first check for a existing tool, before inventing our own. The first thoughts send us on
MOBILITY
Our thoughts come with us everywhere (save for the bar, bedroom, bong and some times ballot box). Computers are tools that store and communicate our thoughts, therefore it is only natural to wish these experiences to come with us and be shared with whatever we interact with and this is very obvious with our gadgets.
Fear can be immobilizing, so in order for us to be truly mobile we must be connected, synchronized redundantly and sharing with others where appropriate. This allows us to move confidently without fear, knowing that if one aspect fails it exists elsewhere and can be easily retrieved.
CONTROL
Control = security+ownership+options
Control requires us to preserve ownership over our digital lifestyle and to do that we must also keep it secure. If our habits are not secure, they can be easily stolen, copied and made irrelevant. Ownership of our data, accounts, experience, processes, thoughts and methods are all part of the Personal formula, including the filters and favorites that make up our digital DNA.
Also, one must seek to expand and preserve options so that no one element of the computing experience can dominate our lives. It is true that we eliminate options the moment we make a decision but some decisions can cripple and restrain, while others can bring you to new horizons.
Connected, Synchronized and Shared
Finding Personal Digital Liquidity
1. Understand the concept and principles of Digital Liquidity.
2. Know what your fighting for- Know thyself-Identify and accept the independent digital persona
3. Embrace intuition, identify and encourage solutions that satisfy your gut instincts and natural tendencies.
4. Avoid the things that limit and annoy you.
5. Extend and apply our freedoms to the digital domain.
Some of us our bound by logic and prefer text, representational systems. boxes and borders to more visual and organic alternatives. When you face an obstacle it is important to know what you like and to encourage the pursuit of the things that empower you. We all interact and arrange things in a unique formula but share common patterns. The people who create our wonderful tech toys often forget or ignore the natural reactions, and we are sometimes forced to use these crappy tools.
There is an unspoken expectation that the monkeys who design and build these systems have the end user in mind the whole time. They often don’t and many forces work against consumers. Engineers get wrapped up in their craft and forget who ends up using the work. Not to bad mouth them (as most of my friends and colleagues are engineers) but this notion is general knowledge and almost cliche to mention. More often though, it is the money hungry corporate structure that cranks out these soul sucking devices. Greed ruins most products. Microsoft for example has knowingly unleashed crappy products on the world. They have also kept crappy mentalities that prevented them from innovation. Apple and iTunes as well as the iPhone and App Store have an ongoing saga that provides both a blessing and a curse to users all in the name of profit.
It is important to rid ourselves of the idea or expectation that others have our best interests in mind. It is natural to think it in the coorporation’s best interest to make something with you in mind, yet business is a balance between craftsmenship and profit and rarely is profit the first to suffer in the name of survival. The responsibility falls to the individual; the consumer. Digital Liquidity must be a mindset, a personal pursuit and must not be a corporate product.
