what I meant to say at lift - part two - big red (Thanks to Tinker for the picture) This is more of what I meant to say at Lift. (Part One is here). And it explains why I was messing around with this Big Red Button. Clearly lots of the future is going to be about screens. Touch and screens. Presentations and PowerPoint are an example. This reinforces, and is reinforced by, a particular school of presentations/talks which imagines them as an exchange of minds facilitated by language, occasionally supported by imagery. We should be thinking of all the things we can to make ourselves more watchable. I've been thinking about this for a while, but being completely devoid of ideas for Lift, and having come to know Alex and the Tinker crew I thought I'd ask them if they could build an elementary version of this idea, so at least I'd have something new. And it works as I'd imagined. It's a lovely thing, but I think it's just a beginning. Anyway.
Actually, half of all iPad Books are Fiction - O'Reilly Radar Suggestions to my previous post inspired me to normalize our metadata1 for titles available through the U.S. iBooks app. A comment prompted me to rollup iBooks publishers into publishing conglomerates2: Comments from other readers gave me the idea to map the 100+ iBooks categories to the more familiar BISAC categories. Doing so means over half of all iBooks titles are Fiction3: The distribution of titles across the BISAC categories varies by publisher. [Click HERE to enlarge.] I also computed the MEAN price per paid title within a (BISAC) category4, for each of the major publishers. (1) Data for this post includes titles available through the U.S. iBooks app from 4/15 through 5/4/2010. (2) In creating the equivalent chart for my previous post, I didn’t include titles from Project Gutenberg. (3) Share of the major FICTION categories can be found HERE. (4) Even with the BISAC categorization, Cookbooks is one of the higher-priced categories.
what I meant to say at lift - part one - sharing My talk at Lift seemed to go down quite well but I remember leaving the stage thinking of all the things I'd meant to say; my own fault for trying to cram an hour of stuff into 20 minutes. So I thought I'd try and elaborate on some of it here. This post is what I meant to say while standing in front of this picture of one of Roo and Leila's tapes. Earlier in the year I'd heard Clay Shirky talk at SXSW - it was an incredibly helpful set of thoughts and had me thinking about sharing and physical stuff in a way that hadn't occurred to me before. He referred to Why We Cooperate and talked about three modes of sharing and why they're different. Sharing Goods - the hardest to do, because if you give a physical good you no longer have it, you're deprived of it. Sharing Services - like giving helping someone across the road - you don't lose out on physical stuff but it's an inconvenience. And, crucially, he points out, we're taught all the time that sharing is good. We're not there yet. Anyway.
On Twitter, Followers Don't Equal Influence - Research by Scott Berinato | 9:30 AM May 7, 2010 It could be that Twitter research is popular because Twitter data is free and so accessible. That’s okay. Gift horses are just as good for riding. The best, latest entry in Twitter research is the handiwork of Meeyoung Cha from the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Germany. Cha called her paper, “The Million Follower Fallacy,” a term that comes from work by Adi Avnit. We asked Cha about the findings, published by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. HBR: What impelled you to look at this? Cha: There’s a lot of focus on Twitter’s follower count. I think it would be too strong to claim that follower count is a bad metric. Now a very interesting question would be, “How should one measure influence?” What are the implications of your research to businesses — both the ones wondering how to use Twitter and the ones wondering what mentions of their brands on Twitter mean? Some of your conclusions seem obvious.
The future of news Twitter for Android vs. Seesmic for Android. Who Wins? With today’s release of the official Twitter client for the Android platform, it’s only fitting that we give you a side by side comparison and let you know which one remains standing. Until today, I have used Seesmic on my Motorola Droid for quite some time. I’m very pleased with it, overall. The latest revision even included a widget that will show a random tweet from the timeline of someone you’re following, and allows a quick-access to post a new tweet of your own. We’ll look at a comparison of three main areas: Aesthetics, Features and Overall. Aesthetics Side by side, the Twitter app is much “prettier”. Seesmic uses a color scheme that stays true to the desktop client, sporting a gray background with red highlighting. So for aesthetics, there’s no hands-down winner. Features This is where the lines start to diverge. Twitter’s official client offers a pretty extensive list of options, including the choice of photo upload and URL-shortening service. Both apps have custom widgets. Overall
How the iPad is Transforming Web Design This series is supported by Rackspace, the better way to do hosting. Learn more about Rackspace's hosting solutions here. The iPad has only been on the market for six months, but already it has had an impact on the way content is created and consumed. Already we're seeing more and more people at airports, coffee shops and on the train using their iPads to read books, browse the web and watch video. We're also seeing web designers transform their websites and web apps to look more like iPad apps. We think this is a trend that will only continue to gain momentum as the iPad continues to sell and subsequent tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the BlackBerry PlayBook hit the market. Check out three areas where this is happening already. 1. When Apple redesigned its Me.com webmail interface back in May, it was clear that the way apps were designed for the iPad was going to have a big impact on how Apple addressed its own web apps in the future. 2. 3. Series supported by Rackspace
What Happens When You Deactivate Your Facebook Account Facebook is a big part of millions and millions of peoples' lives, but what happens when you pull the plug? Last night I met a man who walked to the edge of the cliff and nearly deactivated his Facebook account. He took a screenshot of what he saw after clicking the "deactivate my account" link on his account page - and it is pretty far-out. That man considered quitting Facebook because it was having an adverse emotional impact on him and I'll spare him and his contacts from posting the screenshot he shared with me. I have posted below though a shot of the screen I saw when I clicked that button myself. Check it out. Can you believe that? Apparently my wife's good friend and one of my co-workers are really going to miss me if I leave, though. Admittedly, this is also kind of funny at the same time. This is just loaded with obnoxiousness.
mischer'traxler the idea of a tree 'The idea of a tree' is an autonomous production process which combines natural input with a mechanical process. It is driven by solar energy and translates the intensity of the sun through a mechanical apparatus into one object a day. The outcome reflects the various sunshine conditions that occur during this day. Like a tree the object becomes a three dimensional recording of its process and time of creation. The machine 'Recorder One' starts producing when the sun rises and stops when the sun settles down. The process is not just reacting on different weather situations, but also on shadows happening in the machine’s direct surrounding. Various the 'idea of a tree' - objects are possible. The concept of introducing natural input into a serial production process suggests a new way of looking at locality. material: stainless steel construction on a wooden trolley; solar panels, electronic components; and various ... dimension: 145cm x 65cm x 185cm
Wikipedia And PediaPress Now Allow You To Create Books From Content In English Last year, we reported that the Wikimedia Foundation and PediaPress had partnered to allow you to assemble your own wiki pages from Wikipedia and print them out in book form. Today, the feature is being extended to the English language and all U.S. users. Previously the ability to create books from the English version of Wikipedia was exclusive to signed in users, because of scalability issues. Users can then arrange the order of the articles, choose a cover photo and give the book its title and an editor‘s name. Currently, PediaPress offers paperbacks, but plans to add hardcovers with color images soon. The Wikimedia Foundation receives (only) 10% of the gross total for each book sold.
Get It - Google TV Google TV software comes built right into some TVs, but if you don’t want to buy a new TV you can simply buy a set-top box that plugs right into any HDTV and gives you exactly the same functionality. There are no recurring fees and it even updates itself automatically. Buy online Add Google TV to nearly any HDTV. Sony’s innovative remote control is optimized for Google TV with a large touchpad, backlit keyboard and a 3-axis motion sensor for gaming. Comment via email and view entire photo albums in Google Buzz Posted by Henry Wong, Software Engineer One of the things people like best about Google Buzz is the ability to have conversations in the comments. But until now, if you were reading a post in an email client (like the native mail app on your phone or Outlook), you couldn't easily join in on the conversation -- you could only email the original poster. Plus, last week we made it possible to view entire photo albums in Buzz (rather than the handful of photos from a given Flickr or Picasa album you could see before). We're chipping away at the feature requests we've been receiving, so keep them coming.
NFB/Interactive - National Film Board of Canada At the NFB we like change. For 70 years we've experimented, innovated, and produced a legacy of technical and creative firsts in cinema, animation, and documentary. Think McLaren, Lipsett, Brittain, and Jutra; Stereoscopic 3d, VTR, and participatory media. Today, the way we create, consume, and connect with each other changes by the minute. It's the result of artists and storytellers of all sorts utilizing new technology, to explore new forms of creation, for a new kind of Canada. The stories they're telling here are new, but share a lot in common with the work that came before: they present distinct voices, strong points-of-view, and unique perspectives. So let the conversation begin. Scary or otherwise.