Before delving into geeky detail about how the Hive will work (getting you the reader “lost in tall weeds,” as journalists say), I’ll first try to give hypothetical yet illustrative examples of how actual people might use the Hive.
To start, I’m going to pick on Louis Gray, a tech blogger in Silicon Valley.
To make the Hive’s channels efficient and effective, members will divide themselves by HAT – that is, into the roles and passions they want to bring online. This division is natural and intuitive; it reflects the top level means we all have of managing our lives in the real world, every day.
Louis might pick (not in passion-order here):
- Tech Blogger
- Father
- Sports Nut
- Music Lover
Louis would assign each one of these hats a color, so that he can see and manage his life, easily integrating his online experience with his offline reality. For example, if he assigns “Tech Blogger” the color red and “Father” the color blue, then if he will instantly know the mental bucket incoming communications fall into, even before he knows who sent them and without the need to read a subject line. Segregating communications, putting them into their proper “space” to save when time, mood and location is appropriate, becomes a breeze.
Which brings us to the second major, natural way we all manage our lives – by SPACE.
- A. Public
- B. Social
- C. Private
- D. Intimate
In the Hive, each of these spaces will be represented by geographical shapes. These shapes can be tapped (on the iPhone, for example) or clicked (on a computer), to open up discussion that flows to us like email. (The Hive will actually replace the need for email.)
1A Tech/Public – Four shapes govern any public space. Under Louis’s tech hat/public space, he will likely use them all. Again, all will be outlined in red, so that that Louis will know which ones are for his tech hat, even when they aren’t sorted by hat.
First, a triangle that brings up Louis’s own deposits along with their stats.
public broadcast, one to many, transmitter
Second, an inverted triangle that holds public objects from other broadcasters who Louis subscribes to wearing his Tech hat.
aggregated public broadcasts, receiver side
Third, is a star that Louis uses to segregate out one particular broadcaster of interest, in order to catch all of his or her posts quickly.
single public broadcast, receiver side
Fourth, a trapezoid represents a “stage,” which in Louis’s case would be “The Social Geeks,” but the shape can also be used by “The Gilmore Gang,” etc.
public broadcast, few to many, transmitter side (and also receiver side)
1B Tech/Social - There is only one social symbol: a beehive shape. Louis can move in and out of this space at any time and will see and can interact with posts from whomever happens to be there. The social space is “live” only, and posts are kept only 60 minutes after the poster leaves.
Live, unstored, many to many
1C Tech/Private – There are two shapes in the Private space
A circle means that the space is private, but open to new members joining. When somebody searchs “Louis Gray” or “tech blogger,” she will be shown Louis’s public feed and any open private groups he might belong to, as an invitation to subscribe (free trial, if there is a fee) or to join.
A square means that the space is private and closed. It is not seen by anybody outside of the private group members, much less offered to outsiders.
D Intimate Four shapes govern the intimate area, which is never assigned hats: an oval (meaning friend), a diamond (meaning boss or co-worker), a heart (closest friends and family) and an apple (teacher or classmates) [Note: these are just examples: Louis can assign his own symbols in the Intimate space, however he chooses.]
Intimate areas will usually be one to one, but they can also be few to few. For example, Louis could have an intimate group that includes his wife and parents.
In the next post, we’ll briefly look at Louis’s “Father” hat, and I’ll explain how all this “fractal’ing” of Louis Gray benefits him, his family and his readers.
Tags: Louis Gray
