March 16, 2006
G/localization:
When Global Information and Local Interaction Collide
"...My talk today is about "glocalization," one of the most grotesque words that academics have managed to coin. The term itself has many interesting roots in economics, social networks and performance studies...Glocalization is the ugliness that ensues when the global and local are shoved uncomfortably into the same concept. It doesn't sit well on your palette, it doesn't have a nice euphoric ring. It implies all sorts of linguistic and cognitive discomfort. This is the state of the global and local in digital communities. We have all sorts of local cultures connected through a global network, resulting in all sorts of ugly tensions. Designers who work with networks must face these tensions and design to take advantage of the global while not destroying the local. This is a hefty challenge and one that i want us to dive into.
I want to talk about what it means to connect the global and local together in technology and how this affects the design process. I want to talk about why social software must address glocalization in order to succeed. This means thinking about all sorts of squishy stuff like language, economics, policy, culture, social relations, and values. These are not just issues for marketing or business; they directly affect how people use your technologies and, thus, how you must design them.." From G/localization: When Global Information and Local Interaction Collide by danah boyd, O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, March 6, 2006.
Posted by jo at March 16, 2006 10:18 AM
