Why Things Matter #EDCMOOC

I found the Julian Bleeker article . A manifesto for networked objects — Cohabiting with pigeons, arphids and Aibos in the Internet of Things  http://www.scribd.com/doc/14748019/Why-Things-Matter very fascinating. I'm not really sure what the connection with education, or this #EDCMOOC is, or whether the thoughts have any relevance to my teaching practice, but who ever said there had to be an application?  We've all seen news reports of the webcams scattered all over the world that document in real time the activities of animals in remote locations - there is the great white shark cruising the waters off Massachusetts, the student in Ukraine who recently observed a rare eel (I think) off the coast of Victoria, BC - not to mention the ubiquitous webcams scattered and aggregated in cities all over the world - that are occasionally fascinating to look in on, sometimes useful when checking weather or traffic conditions, sometimes scary in terms of the impact on privacy. Little discrete streams of information that, of themselves may at best be fascinating, at worst trivial and boring. What this article highlights for me is I think a question that applies not only to "Things  that Blog", but also people that blog - and here is the connection to the MOOC. We are constantly bombarded with tons of little discrete bits of information from countless sources - it may be fascinating to know that my relative in Europe had "Snert" for dinner, or that my niece just bought a new iPhone, or went to see "Django" at the movie theatre. - or maybe not. It may be hugely fascinating to talk with an educator in Ecuador or Sao Paolo via a MOOC about an educational issue. How do we extricate and interpret the "Blogjects" as Bleeker describes them - the larger meanings -the big picture that comes from aggregating all the discrete pieces of information - the social impacts, the environmental impacts of all the small pieces that we are constantly streamed with. This idea of "things that blog" was a totally new one for me. Looking for the grander pictures from "people that blog" to me are an issue in digital culture and perhaps education that we are just starting to scratch the surface of as societies, and I think represent a very large trend for the future.