Everything Is Recorded

My use of social media Seesmic is altering the way I dream. There is a reason for my becoming involved in this nascent community, aside from the fact that I find such early-stage communities fascinating. I seem to have connected with a group of likeminded people whom I wouldn't have minded meeting in any situation, it's as simple as that.

March 30th is, we are told, the lifting of the alpha-veil, the grand opening of the gates, and the moment which this sometimes cliquey and self-defensive bunch is in some measure dreading, and recently there have been self-reflective discussions about whether this will spell the inevitable downward spiral, YouTube style, for the site.
Maybe, maybe, and only time will tell whether the policies of community care (I love that, it sounds like we are all deranged) which have borne fruit so far will work as Seesmic is scaled up. There is always noise in any system; success depends on the ration of noise to conversation, as much as it does on the level(s) of discourse available. One of the delightful things about Seesmic for me is that I can simultaneously be deeply serious and childishly playful, which is exactly how my mind works.

If Seesmic plunges inexorably downmarket, it will not fail, though it will become a very different kind of social event. Given that users can re-create smaller Seesmic spaces within the system, which suit the conversations that they want to have, this might benefit many people, especially those shy ones who lack the courage to leap into the sometimes hurly-burly of the ever-increasing speed of the pubic timeline and speak from the heart, those sensitive intellectuals who wish to carefully tease out a subtle idea, or just folks who articulate clumsily and don't want to be derided for their pains.

Attractive though the unified single space is, using Twitter as an example, since when did anyone try to use that highly populated public timeline as a resting place? It would be like trying to recline on an avalanche, a total impossibility. To keep the junk levels down, it would seem that some elementary tools are required, including the ability to create private groups, separate timelines, and to block individuals who insist on saying "Hitler" whenever they show up before the garden is opened up to a million happy picnickers.

Meanwhile, the dream. I dreamed I was on the phone to a certain well-known podcaster... and oh, the air turned blue. What I don't say in this Seesmic is that I walked about for the first few minutes of today in the mistaken belief that it had actually happened. So, perhaps everything IS recorded, and perhaps Seesmic is indeed real life.