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I finally found a name for the blog that is something other than my name. I know, my name is still on there… I can explain.

My name was a good place to start off with for the blog in order to bring my Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook… you-name-it accounts back to the same place and have it all make some sense. But never, for a moment, did I think that it would be  the sole thing to let those who might read the blog  know what it was about. Assuming, of course, that anything I might have to say would ever interest anyone.

My problem in giving the blog a proper name was that I wasn’t sure what exactly I was writing about. Guilty. I’m a hit-the-ground-running sort of person (on a somewhat relevant note I also eat pizza the other way around and start with the crust) and failed to follow the step-by-step procedures for blogging that make it clear that you shouldn’t start writing before finding a purpose based on the audience you are reaching out to. I knew this much – I enjoy writing, I read a lot of what others write, I watch / listen to news and I’m really (shall I say ricidulously?) interested, curious and in touch with the ongoings of social media, the Web and the changing technological landscape that is reinventing the communications industry and our society.

I realize that this describes a lot of people out there so I knew it was important to find my own voice and reason for b[log]eing within such a broad scope.

It hit me the other day when I was watching TV with my friends. To make a long story short, I annoyed them (and I say that in a loving way) when I mentioned something about Twitter, that I had read on Mashable that sort of related to what we were watching.

“One track mind”? Nah. That wouldn’t have been a good name because I try to be well-rounded. It just happens that I’m the token geek in the group and the only one that knows Twitter isn’t a mixed drink.

I did realize that I like to take things in and any time I see/watch/hear/you-get-it something – anything – I find a way to tie it all back to communications, the Web, social media, technology, public relations, my life… those things I am most passionate and make an effort to learn more about.

I thought about “Taking it in” but decided against it two seconds later when I noticed how many inappropriate connotations it could lead to. Some people clicking on my blog from the results of a Google search may have been quite disappointed.

flickr user: etohaholic

I let the subject go for a moment and picked up The New York Times crossword puzzle. As usual I worked my way through it. I filled in the words I knew and guessed the words I didn’t know the clues for by using the letters of seemingly unrelated words to help me out. Eureka.

I once wrote that my favorite words were collaboration, sharing and drank. Well, throw integration in there.

I find it fascinating when I see how much integration happens at all levels and all aspects of life and how much it helps us make sense of our society’s “big picture.” I”m talking “Beatiful Mind” sort of stuff here… minus the conspiracy part.

This post hereby makes it official, “Down and Across” is the blog’s new name and it’s just the right amount of ambiguous so that I may still write about all the things that interest me from (hopefully) an original point of view (my point of view, which explains why I kept my name on there) and that will make it worth wrtiting and taking the time to groom and improve on it more and more.

The best part? Crosswords. Newspapers. I love that I found a name that references something I am hugely fond of and have great respect for.

I wish I had taken bets back in the day to try to guess which of the futuristic gadgets featured on the show would make it in the real world first.

To be honest, my money would have been on the housekeeper robots.

However, yesterday I caught a tweet about 12seconds.tv, which is basically a video version of Twitter. Brilliant concept. Today I read a post on Mashable about  YouTube adding social networking capabilities. Right on. And minutes before I posted this I learned about Fliggo.

So I was wrong on my Jetsons prediction. And I should have known better. There was no way that cleaning one’s dwelling could ever be more important than communicating with family, friends, peers… people.

I remember when Facebook first came out with its video application. I found it odd to see a freeze frame of an unflattering close-up of someone’s face in my inbox. From the looks of it, it may be my own face on someone else’s inbox pretty soon – all unflattery-looking.

None of this is breaking news. I’ve seen plenty of blogs that post videos but I do wonder just how much this will catch on, in lieu of  the written word and for personal communication. Remember, this post was originally about The Jetsons family and their microcosm.

Afterall, video is faster and it may solve the problem, at the receiving end, of not being able to pick up on the sender’s tone, mood, etc. due to the lack of face-to-face interaction.

Video, for better or for worse?

Everywhere I turned, the one thing I kept hearing people talking about was the new Google Latitude feature on mobile Google maps and iGoogle gadgets. The service is available in 27 countries and allows users to let others know where in the world they are located. If you choose to opt-in (because that would be the only way Google could ever get away with this) you can use Latitude to find friends and communicate with them via SMS, Google Talk or simply by dialing their phone number.

The feedback, per usual, is both positive and negative. Some were delighted with the news because it shows just how increasingly accessible and open our world is becoming, and others shivered at the thought of being exposed and having their privacy put in jeopardy.

A few days ago I was listening to NPR’s Studio 360 and heard the story of Hasan Elahi who, after suffering the biggest scare of his life when he was arrested at the airport shortly after the attacks of 9/11 and was held in custody as a terrorist suspect, started recording his every move and posting information about his whereabouts on a Web site. Elahi’s decision to publicize his privacy and keep track of himself was motivated by fear and not a willingness to share his life with others - practically a complete deviation from the norm where most people are unwilling to post any personal information online because they are afraid others may be able to trace their steps.

As I have mentioned before, we are entering an era where the traditional definition of privacy is coming into conflict with what is happening with technology and the power of the Web. How do we deal with that? Baby steps? Do we just hit the ground running and correct mistakes along the way?

I signed up for Google Latitude today but I have to tinker with it before I can say anything about what I think about how it works. I will say this though – our lives are getting streamlined and I have no qualms with getting a little outside help to make some aspects of my every day a bit easier.

I am a very private person but I’ve never felt that my integrity or confidential information are under any sort of threat by having an e-mail account, a profile on LinkedIn… this blog…

Think about this… how much of what has happended during this recession could have been prevented if we thought differently about privacy… leading to transparency… leading to accountability… leading to a participative society???

A friend was at a club and was approached by the proud owner of an iPhone who asked her what her favorite flower was and disappeared after she answered “lilies”. He returned moments later with a sketch of a lily he drew using an application I think might be Sketchinz but I’m not completely sure.

These were his words, “Here is a lily, let me get your e-mail and I’ll send it to you.”

He got her… letters? I guess you can’t say “digits” anymore. Those days are starting to be long gone.

The other day I read on a blog (couldn’t find it again) how someone had proposed using Twitter.

I remember when skeptics worried that technology and the internet were replacing face-to-face interaction, thus diminishing people’s social skills and their ability to establish close, long-term relationships with others. I always felt comfortable and confident on e-mail and AIM. I’m not necessarily shy but I definitely think those tools do wonders for those who are a bit more reserved and kept to themselves. They bring down barriers to entry if you will.

Wait, I immediately regret that last sentence.

My feed gets a massive dose of blogs daily that talk about the latest applications, sites, updates and online tools available to all web users, which as of last week include even my grandmother in Quito, Ecuador, the unchallenged epitome of the phrase “out of the loop”… or so I thought. 

And yet I don’t see many blogs that talk about us – the web users. It seems to me that we have arrived at a new phase of human evolution. We have adapted in order to use the resources available to us but with a new twist – we also happen to be the creators of these new resources. We have changed the very ecosystem we live in and slowly but surely, by general consensus we have made things like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Google search, Digging, bookmarking, sharing, etc. essential to our personal and professional functions.

We have posed ourselves with the challenge of evolving and we are all doing so. Ask my grandma.

Things like Twitter, Google, etc. are almost second nature to my generation and it looks like it’s only a matter of time and further evolution until they are concepts that are innately familiar to us.

The interesting thing is that many – or should I say ALL – of these sites are in constant evolution as well. They adapt according to our needs and then we tweak them in return. It’s the best vicious circle I’ve ever known of and have had the chance to get sucked into.

What about survival of the fittest? Am I out because I can’t Tweetdeck? Do my blog and Facebook profile keep me in the game? The beauty of it all is that collaboration and participation still have degrees. But we certainly need to react to the fact that the web is evolving the world as the world evolves the web. Our institutions need to adapt as do our industries and ourselves.

How fast? In which way? … that is the evolving dilemma.

The new pick-up line

The Friday after Thanksgiving a few friends and I went to Mantus Lounge, a very posh club in Dallas that, regretfully, people seem to frequent more for its poshness than for the DJ/owner’s unmatched (according to me at least) ability to mix songs seamlessly and almost effortlessly. 

It was while scoping out the dance floor that I witnessed one way in which new media and technology have changed ways in which people interact with each other, even face-to-face. 

In an act of either cleverness or cheesyness (you be the judge) somebody placed his iPhone in front of my friend displaying a game of tic-tac-toe  where he had made the first move and it was now up to my friend to decide whether or not to continue playing. The novelty of this compelled my friend to participate and see the game through to the end. Later, the guy confessed that he had let her win as well – clearly the man left nothing to chance.

No further conversation ensued after the game and that brief moment during which two complete strangers connected with each other. However, for the rest of the weekend and now until the end of time through this blog post, I discussed with family and friends just how many aspects of our lives are being enhanced or completely revamped by the apparently unnecessary applications we have found for technology and new media.

We can now break out into random light saber fights, we never have to worry about songs getting stuck in our head because we can’t figure the title or artist and, as of Friday night, I learned that pick-up lines are a thing of the past as well. I can’t imagine the original tic-tac-toers would have ever seen this coming.