Can the Invisible Web find the Invisible Expanding Collective?

Discussion on the invisibility of people and data.

Frank: I was watching a TV program about a photographer who took some photos of a group in London. And I thought, “They look interesting.  I’ll google them.” Didn’t find them.
Jill: So famous as to be on BBC but Google couldn’t find them? Who was the group?
Frank: The Invisible Expanding Collective.  A group of squatters. Or “site sitters” as they called themselves.
Jill: Ha! Of course you couldn’t find them. They’re invisible.
Frank: Well, not so invisible. There was one article in the Guardian from ten years ago. But nothing else.
Jill: There’d be something else about them. On the invisible web. The iceberg-like 90% of the internet that google can’t find.
Frank: Maybe. Like the underworld. People used to believe in ghosts. Then it was the invisible man: Wells, H.G. A mention of invisible literature: Ballard J.G. Now it’s the invisible web. Bergman, M.K.

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Voice-over
Invisible, you can do a lot of stunts, entertaining and evil.

Entertaining, as China’s Invisible man shows.

Or evil, as  Invisible Darien beats up a mime.

Quizzical, as in a movie quiz with the faces taken out.

There are many reasons why things are invisible on the internet.
One of the more interesting explanations is that of Eli Paiser  who claims search engine algorithms invisibly filter what they think we want to see. What Google serves you may not be the same as what Google dishes up for me. He talks about “invisible internet information bubbles” on TED.
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Coco Chanel and Pierre

CoCo and Pierre differ in their approach to branding.

CoCo: Looking at green is good for the eyes.

Pierre: Nonsense.

CoCo: Because you only see in black and white. You only read numbers, like “five,” not letters. So you cannot understand colors and words.
Pierre: You simplify too much. You think that people will buy your brand just because it is your brand.
CoCo: Why wouldn’t they? I invented my life. I am different. People buy my brand, they buy something different.
Pierre: But it must be practical. Your little gold dress, you cannot go to work in that.
CoCo: It is always better to be slightly underdressed.

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Voice-over
Pierre is doomed. CoCo does not employ logic. She deploys associationism. She distracts by taking the conversation in another (albeit similar) direction. Debate is futile.

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Marx Test

Test writing time for teachers comes around. 
Mark: What’s your method? 
Joseph: Go to Wikipedia, choose a topic, read the outline, get the gist, frame 6 or 8 questions beginning with the classic wh5.
Mark: The classic wh5?
Joseph: What happened? Who did it? Where did it occur? When? And Why? Then reread the article. After that, write one paragraph for each question. Piece of cake.
Mark: So I have to write a passage. What’s a good topic?
Joseph: They’re business students. An economist.
Mark: Keynes?
Joseph: Done. Two years ago.
Mark: Soros?
Joseph: Three years ago.
Mark: Drucker?
Joseph: Last year. How about Marx? He’s due for an airing.
Mark: Marx. You suggest I write about Marx?
Joseph: You’re a Marxist. Said so yourself. Your own admission.
Mark: Something from Das Kapital?
Joseph: Perhaps CliffsNotes, the manga edition?
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Voice-over
Restating ideas, recycling essays, regurgitating answers. No wonder education has problems with plagiarism. Not only are students getting answers from the internet. Teachers are grabbing tests from the internet. But if you’re a long dead economist whose theories have been a little tarnished, you may not be too choosy who dusts you off. Going along with Marx's thoughts on "private property," a Marx test may be borrowed from here. 

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Hedonistic dissonance

TinTin analyzes Haddock as a hedonistic dissonant…
TinTin: Let me get this straight. You were at Stabas at three, checking emails. Your flight was at nine. How could anyone –
Haddock: Miss the flight? It happens.
TinTin: But this is the third time in as many years.
Haddock: Well. There have been - um - mitigating circumstances.
TinTin: Is it something to do with not wanting to waste a minute? Catching the latest possible train to the airport?
Haddock: I - I don’t have a gold card to get into a lounge.
TinTin: Because you always take cheap flights. False economies. And another thing. This being the last one to board before the doors close. Hedonistic dissonance, wouldn't you say?
Haddock: Excuse me?
TinTin: The risk taker who deliberately acts to bring about a negative result.
Haddock: Not deliberate. Anyway, I can catch tomorrow’s flight.
TinTin: You’re too old to be always sailing so close to the wind.

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Voice-over
TinTin is trying to make a point, but isn't quite able to throw Haddock out of the ring who is in vehement denial. However, the jury awards TinTin the bout.
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Ukuleles as disruptive technology

Bill and George talk about unemployment in times of disruption.
George: Turbulent times.
Bill: Chaotic, even random. I mean, I’ve been to 16 job interviews and nothing, but Jack, you know, Jack?
George: The guitarist?
Bill: The same, he goes to a club week or two back, and he plays there and gets talking to a boss kind who says, “I saw you on YouTube, you want a job?”
George: A job? As a guitarist?
Bill: Teaching ukulele. To the unemployed.
George: Wha - ? That’s a jump.
Bill: Disruptive. Ukuleles are disruptive. Like Skype disrupted telephone companies. Jack says ukuleles are the disrupting technology that are going to challenge guitars.
George: Ukuleles? A disruptive technology?
Bill: Why not? They fit the pattern. They’re cheap, they’re small. Even Warren Buffet plays one. And he says they are disruptive. Here.
George: But Warren Buffet isn’t exactly unemployed.

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Voice-over
Disruptive technology, or disruptive innovations, as Clayton Christensen renamed his concept, offer many examples. Desktop printers disrupted the copy shop industry, or online news and blogs disrupted the newspaper industry, or digital cameras disrupted the film industry. So by extending the Christensen logic to a conclusion, you can argue that something small and cheap (ukulele) coming along disrupts something bigger and more expensive (guitar). And Warren is doing a great job of buffing up the image of the ukulele.
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Hope

A bag of heads are chattering on the sidewalk...


Studs: Don’t despair! HOPE! If you despair you may as well put your head in an oven.
Malthus: Isn’t that where they are taking us? Isn’t that where we are going?
Studs: I think it’s realistic to have hope.
Malthus: You overuse “hope”. 
Studs: Sure I do. Hope it’s a nice day. Hope things will get better.
Malthus: We’re heads in a bag. That’s our reality.
Studs: We don’t have to accept that. Look at it this way. If we protest, we’ll feel healthy. Something may even happen to us, biologically.
Malthus: It’s too late.Studs: Why are we born? We're born eventually to die, of course. But what happens between the time we're born and we die? We're born to live. One is a realist if one hopes.

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Voice-over
As I walked past the bag of heads on the sidewalk, I swear I heard a disembodied voice speaking Studs Terkel’s lines. About hope.
And hearing the word “hope” so often, changed my outlook on the day.
Repeating a word becomes a mantra. It can change our thought. It can change our words. It can change what we do.

This is a pragmatic approach. A pessimistic outlook can lead to depression. An optimistic outlook and belief in hope is helpful to keep us going, right to the end. 

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