Open Social Architecture

Taking John Naughton's view that that the really important thing about the internet is that it was built with a few small principles in mind, which has allowed it to be a global surprise-generation scheme, you can do a very old thought experiment and wonder "What does this idea from technology reveal about about society".  So the question is what would an open social architecture look like - a set of ground of boundary conditions or starting points embedded in social relationships that provide a global surprise-generation scheme.  A follow-up is how is such an architecture generated.

Network science can help - we have some ideas now of how networks grow, some basic ideas about the link between conditions and emergence.  What does this look like in terms of social relationships (mixes of strong and weak ties). etc. etc.  Back to technology what sort of technologies can support this?

Wireless energy efficiency

According to a New Scientist article there are a number of developments in store for wireless energy supply to mobile and household devices.  The article quotes a representative of the Energy Saving Trust, who points out that their quoted rates of efficiency (10%-60%) means they are a potential source of significant inefficiency.

If this is true, then it would be worth compiling a set of modelled applications, using life-cycle analysis for wired and wireless powered devices and typical energy usage in modern households.

Indigenous contracts

In development work, it's quite often the case that an external organisation wishes to forms contracts with local actors to undertake development activity.

At the extreme you might consider the World Bank negotiating a development project with illiterate representatives of an indigenous tribe.  Typically there is talk of either representation (through a civil society or governmental organisation) or capacity building or both - the issue is that the Bank has a particular way of framing contracts, of creating a formal basis for the trust that underpins the transaction - If you do this, then we will do that, and so on.

There's a similar situation around contracting research with developing country partners - they might be very good researchers without necessarily being able to provide the sort of evidence that a body commissioning research recognises.

Contracts are institutionalised both formally and informally - in other words they depend on a written agreement, but also by a set of understandings by both parties about what a contract means, how it will actually be reinforced and what action will be taken by the contracting parties in the case of a misunderstanding or conflict over it.  You can't write absolutely everything down, and in the end contracts stand on a degree of trust too.

Trust relationships seem fairly universal to humanity, although the cultural expression and situated institutionalisation varies a lot.  So the question is whether rather than the local actors learning to institutionalise a contract in the style of the world bank style, whether the World Bank can develop a capacity to understand and then enter into contracts in a style that is closer to local norms.

Car queues

Coming through customs in my car I was left wondering how much fuel was eaten up in long queues of cars waiting their turn, each having to move 3 metres forward every 2-5 minutes.  Multiply that by every vehicle entry into the UK over the year, each cold-started on a ferry, and the emissions could be interesting to think about doing something about.  Queuing systems, mobile staff, ramps and tracks all come to mind.  Might even have some application at drive-in MacDonalds.

The size of the dark web

It might be true that we can have no firm basis to estimate the size of the ‘dark web', partly because of problems with definition.  However why not try and establish an envelope – the outside defined by traffic (stochastic) or energy use (deterministic), and the inside defined by what we know about it already.

Supply chain efficiency

What happens to supply chains when the oil price triples?

Participatory technologies review

This one is kind of obvious at the moment - but someone should sit down and have a look at what we've actually got in terms of the facilitation of social learning using different technologies.  How do different technologies shape conversation, dialogue, self-representation, empowerment etc. etc., not to mention what people enjoy.