Ungeeking

= "Ungeeking is what happens when behaviours developed online make their way into areas of our lives independent of the technology through which we learnt them." [1]

Description

Rohan Gunatillake:

"There are two chief aspects to what I call ungeeking. The first is relatively straightforward, namely the widespread adoption of trends and tools, which previously have been the domain of the more digitally literate few.

That which starts at the edge is assimilated into the mainstream and, as such, the value is amplified manifold, the most obvious example of this being the development of Facebook as an American university-only tool to a platform with enormous global penetration.

And just as I rolled my teenage eyes when Radiohead became the biggest band in the UK and lost the in-crowd cachet I so valued at the time, early adopters of technology always grumble when their precious services become commonplace by people who just don't get it - see the 2009 growth of Twitter in the UK.

However it is incredibly important that valuable services are given the opportunity to be even more so through mass usage - especially if the value is related to the network. And in any case, there is always another cool band.

The second aspect of ungeeking is, however, far more interesting if a little more subtle. What I am most excited about is how our digital lives are encouraging us and training us in behaviours that naturally leak into our wider lives, online or offline." (http://www.nesta.org.uk/ungeeking-the-web/)

Examples

From http://www.nesta.org.uk/ungeeking-the-web/:

Barcamp

"Barcamp is a conference format where the participants dictate what sessions are held, with every attendee expected to actively participate in some way.

As an event in itself it's as lo-tech as you can get: arrive in the morning to a big piece of paper outlining the meeting rooms and timeslots, then people use Post-it notes to fill in the grid with the topic they want to host a session around and lo and behold, you have a full self-organising conference format.

But Barcamp has its origin in Palo Alto - the hi-tech capital of the known universe. I don't think this is a coincidence.

My hypothesis is that via a deep literacy of open source software models and Web 2.0 principles, the people that started Barcamp have sufficient training in participation, self-organisation and information-gathering based on passion and curiosity that Barcamp is a web-enabled experience made flesh.

I'll go further still and say that the whole phenomenon of so-called 'unconference' (participant-led formats) is a direct result of the social web. It's the social web ungeeked into events."

Pervasive Gaming

"Pervasive gaming takes a different angle by using recognisable mechanics and techniques from computer games and moving them into physical spaces - with the results often being radically immersive experiences where you begin to relate to the people and space around you in new ways.

So just as the growth in social media is helping us relearn the art of conversation, pervasive gaming is helping us relearn sociability and engagement with public spaces."