Enghreifftiau o ddatganiadau sy’n blino fi:

‘Bydd y wefan yma yn gweithio yn iawn efo pobol ifanc ond fydd hen bobol ddim yn iwso fo’.

‘Mae diddordeb mawr gyda fi yn y pwnc ond does dim gobaith o ran y system ‘ma. Achos dw i’n hen.’

Dw i wedi sylwi’r agweddau yma yn aml iawn gyda phobol Cymraeg.

Siwr, rydyn ni’n gweld straeon am ddefnydd o’r teclyn newyddaf yn y wasg tu allan i Gymraeg o ran y ‘silver surfers’. Oh wow, mae hen bobol yn defnyddio e-bost (tua 1997-2000), blogio (tua 2002-2006), Twitter (tua 2010-2011) achos maen nhw eisiau cyfathrebu fel pobol eraill! QUELLE SURPRISE! (Gweler y darn am oedran yn y llyfr Cognitive Surplus gan Clay Shirky neu cofnod Suw).

Dw i ddim wedi gwneud unrhyw ymchwil go iawn ond dw i wedi clywed enghreifftiau o’r brawddegau uchod, yn Gymraeg yn enwedig, eithaf lot yn diweddar. Y gwir yw:

1. Mae pobol sydd ddim yn gyffyrddus/hyderus gyda thechnoleg gallu bod yn ifanc.
2. Ac mae pobol sydd yn gyffyrddus/hyderus gyda thechnoleg gallu bod yn ‘hen’ (beth bynnag ydy ‘hen’).
3. Bydd pobol o bob math yn defnyddio pethau defnyddiol a diddorol os fydd gyda nhw cyfleoedd go iawn.
4. Os rydyn ni – a’r wasg – yn tybio bod unrhyw grŵp neu demograffig yn geidwadol neu rhy araf neu tu hwnt i obaith, bydd rhai ohonyn nhw yn mabwysiadu’r ystrydeb i ryw raddau.

Rydyn ni’n cyfeirio at manteision pobol dros 50 oed neu 60 oed, sef profiad, straeon, weithiau doethineb. Dylen ni. Ond pa mor aml ydyn ni’n clywed am ymdrechion i ddysgu gyda’n gilydd – fel pobol o bob math gyda’n gilydd?

Darllena’r llyfr ac Here Comes Everybody, dyna ni – fy adolygiad.

Y peth pwysicaf yw, dyw Shirky ddim wedi gorffen y llyfr. Dw i’n gofyn mwy o gwestiynau ar ôl y llyfr. Bydd rhaid i ni gorffen y waith. Dw i ddim yn siarad am adeiladu busnesu neu y Google nesaf; dw i’n siarad, fel Shirky, am mudiadau, newid, datrys problemau. Mae’r maes dal yn hollol agored.

Dw i’n methu anghytuno gyda Shirky yma ar tudalen 180 (clawr meddal):

The choice we face is this: out of the mass of our shared cognitive surplus, we can create an Invisible University – many Invisible Colleges doing the hard work of creating many kinds of public and civic value – or we can settle for Invisible High School, where we get lolcats but no open source software, fan fiction but no improvement in medical research. The Invisible High School is already widespread, and our ability to participate in ways that reward personal or communal value is in no imminent danger…

Creating real public or civic value, though, requires more than posting funny pictures.

Mae Shirky yn atgoffa fi o’i ffrind Tim O’Reilly yma, gweithia ar bethau pwysig – a phaid â taflu defaid.

Ond mae gweithgareddau chwaraeus yn bwydo’r projectau pwysig. Dyw’r gweddill ddim yn gweithio fel ‘na yn fy mhrofiad. Er enghraifft, addysgodd Sleeveface fi llawer mwy na fasai unrhyw un yn disgwyl gyda ‘lluniau doniol’. Nawr dw i ddim wedi trwsio llawer o broblemau cyhoedd neu dinesig chwaith ond o leia dw i’n meddwl amdanyn nhw bob dydd.

Wrth gwrs mae Sleeveface yn llawer well na lolcats! Ond mae Shirky wedi ateb ei pwynt ei hun gynt ar tudalen 18:

Let’s nominate the procss of making a lolcat as the stupidest possible creative act… Formed quickly and with a minimum of craft, the average lolcat image has the social value of a whoopee cushion and the cultural life span of a mayfly. Yet anyone seeing a lolcat gets a second, related message: You can play this game too…

… a change from what we’re used to in the media landscape. The stupidest possible creative act is still a creative act…

Much of the objection to lolcats focuses on how stupid they are; even a funny lolcat doesn’t amount to much. On the spectrum of creative work, the difference between the mediocre and the good is vast. Mediocrity is, however, still on the spectrum; you can move from mediocre to good in increments. The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something, and someone making lolcats has bridged that gap.

Fel ffrind o’r iaith dw i bach yn cenfigennus o diwylliannau gyda’r gweddill.

Dyn ni wedi elwa gyda WordPress, Firefox ayyb a phaid anghofio Wicipedia Cymraeg.

Ond mae’r sefyllfa dal yn teimlo fel bod Shirky a’i ffrindiau wedi cyrraedd at tudalen 180 ond dyn ni dal ar tudalen 18, mewn ffordd. (Mae fe’n gallu cymryd teledu yn ganiataol hefyd ond stori arall.)

Dyw’r hanes o ddatblygiadau cyfryngau ddim yn ‘damweiniol’. (Gweler hefyd: Nicholas Carr a defnydd ‘accidentalism’ gan Shirky).

Rwyt ti’n gallu gweld hwn yn mudiadau cerddorol. Daw punk a wedyn post-punk. Roedd punk yn angenrheidiol fel chwildro DIY.

DIY arlein

Felly beth yw’r peth mwyaf ‘punk’ ti’n gallu postio arlein?

Dw i ddim yn siarad am gerddoriaeth punk o’r 70au yn enwedig, dw i’n siarad am yr agwedd.

Bydd rhaid i ni torri trwy’r ceidwadaeth o gymdeithas Cymraeg hefyd. Gwnes i trio esbonio PenTalarPedia i rhywun mis diwetha. Atebodd hi ‘ond dyw e ddim yn rhywbeth swyddogol‘…

Tro nesaf, gofynais i ‘oh wnest ti ymweld PenTalarPedia ar y diwedd?’. Atebodd hi ‘Do. Mae’n anghyflawn. O’n i eisiau gweld y lleoliadau saethu’.

Cyfryngau newydd go iawn, Lost a Lostpedia

Dyn ni dal ar y cyfnod ‘mynd i’r capel mewn Levis’ gydag arlein.

Wedyn ti’n gallu cael dy Geraint Jarman, dy Datblygu, dy Tŷ Gwydr, dy SFA, dy Gorky’s a dy Tystion.

Dim sylwadau. Pingnôl punk yn unig.

• really useful
• game-changing
• paradigm-shifting
• enormously successful web app.

Bear with me because I know exactly how it will all pan out.

In true web 2 fashion my app would get better as more people joined, harvesting their many billions of click patterns to form the ultimate dataset. So, ideally it would suffer from early scalability problems that I would of course cunningly find a way to overcome.

All this would be topped off by a default graphical front-end of such jaw dropping beauty and simplicity, that usability gurus would gush literal torrents of saltwater into their keyboards (in a good way) – impairing their collective ability to appraise its feature set.

We’re not talking about some mere lunchtime mash-up here. (As if auto-marking, say, actual canine poo dollop locations on Google Maps is ever going to secure your status in the geek stratosphere.) Rather than try to content myself with teasing out piecemeal insights from someone else’s API, I would be the one bestowing access to my extensive library of database query functions. Just when those nerds are reeling in gratitude from their last RSS hit, I would smack them with another announcement – yet another tantalising update detailing a few choice procedure calls they will be skipping class and otherwise putting off normal life in order to try.

In time, I could expect a series of approving blog posts from industry veteran Tim O’Reilly, in which he would insightfully re-align everyone’s perception of my thing not merely as an app: but as a platform. And also encourage governments to embrace it for the good of humanity. And also change his mind about a blog post title, as evidenced by the URL (in a good way).

I won’t go deeply into the whole money aspect right now, but in 24-carat contrast to many before me I would obviously earn cash along the way rather than rely on some upcoming flip-over event involving an established key player.

Clay Shirky (the socio-techno-analyst) would adopt that wry smile of his – while itching to reference it in his numerous speeches and writings. Such would be its awesomeness. It’s collaborative, it’s social, it’s got news in it somehow. Make no mistake, if you’ll liken “traditional media” players to the dinosaurs then this is surely the asteroid.

Now, the only thing I need is an idea.