Archive for July, 2009

It would look something like this:

(Via SwissMiss)

In a world that’s bombarded by Social Media Experts, Blog posts about “maximising your ROI on Twitter” and meetings about your Facebook ‘strategy’, it’s so refreshingly wonderful to read someone who puts all that bullshit to one side, and gets to bones of why the internet is so fabulous … and what social media is actually all about.

Jess, my online friend from Something Changed is preparing for some social media presentations, and has put together some thoughts about why she loves the internet. It doesn’t contain statistics about how many 18-35 year olds use Facebook. It doesn’t tell you what your company ‘weblog’ strategy should be. And it doesn’t event contain the phrase ‘Web 2.0′.

Instead, it’s a celebration of the funny, mesmorizing, addictive, bizarre and ultimately the bonding experience that the web provides. Entitled, ‘Why I love the Internet‘, the post is a roller coaster ride, where she discusses ‘Six main categories of “opportunities for prosperity and pleasure” you can get online, including:

• Being fascinated, engrossed, delighted
• Research/Analyse/Fan
• Play/create/remix
• Express yourself/build identity/curate your personality
• Make friends/connect
• Have your say/Achieve Change

It’s worth checking out just on the strength of the links included. In fact, I recommend you click on every link.  You’ll end up with a much better understanding of why the internet is the greatest medium – far better than any social media expert could ever explain.

Something Changed is a gem of a read, and something I look forward to reading. I suggest you head straight there if you haven’t done before.

Flarf is a form of poetry made by combining together phrases from random web searches. Here’s an early example:

“Yeah, mm-hmm, it’s true
big birds make
big doo! I got fire inside
my ‘huppa’-chimp(TM)
gonna be agreessive, greasy aw yeah god
wanna DOOT! DOOT!
Pffffffffffffffffffffffffft! hey!”

Flarf started off as a joke but then these joke poems that people were coming up with “evolved from ‘bad’ to ‘sort of great’”.

(Via Kottke)

Or anywhere, for that matter. Want to to learn about anything?

Yes, the internet is like drinking from a firehose but use it wisely and you can learn from the best, about anything.

Experientia have just posted a list of HCI (Human Computer Interaction) video lectures from Stanford. As a result, I’m having an “I love the internet” moment. And you too can learn about what you want, from the thoughtleaders in that field.

Never before in history have we had access to so much amazing stuff from the comfort of our loungeroom.

How great is it?

That is all.

I’m rather excited by Quirky, who are taking a new approach to product design by crowdsourcing.

Got a new product idea? Submit it to Quirky (for a $99 fee, mind you). If your idea is chosen, it is then thrown over to the community of designers and marketers. The community helps you to flesh out the idea, by by submitting and voting for product names , logos, packaging and the product design itself.

Once the product concept is complete, it is then offered for pre-sale. Enough people pre-order it, and it gets made. The product ideator, and those who contribute along the way are given a generous cut of the profits.

Currently there are 5 items up for pre-sale, with no manufactured products just yet. But the early concepts look promising. I like the look of this split personality USB stick, as reviewed by engadget.

It will interesting to see how well Quirky do. It’s certainly an interesting business model, although paying $99 to submit an idea will be an obvious deterrent for many. That said, I can see this site having a huge appeal for all of us wannabe inventors out there.

The power of using colours is that it’s easy to instantly understand the current status of your business. Something red? Better make a plan to fix it. Got a couple yellow areas? Ask your manager what she’s doing to address it. Notice a few green items? Congratulate the team!

I really liked Ryan Carson’s recent piece on measuring your key performance indicators with Red, Yellow or Green formatting. You can see his example spreadsheet here if you are interested.

Ink Calendar make use of the timed pace of the ink spreading on the paper to indicate time. The ink is absorbed slowly, and the numbers in the calendar are ‘printed ‘ daily. One a day, they are filled with ink until the end of the month. The calendar enhances the perception of time passing and not only signaling it. The aim of the project is to address our senses, rather than the logical and conscious brain.

via EveryDay UX

Dear Old People Who Run the World,

My generation would like to break up with you.

Everyday, I see a widening gap in how you and we understand the world — and what we want from it. I think we have irreconcilable differences.

You wanted big, fat, lazy “business.” We want small, responsive, micro-scale commerce.

You turned politics into a dirty word. We want authentic, deep democracy — everywhere.

You wanted financial fundamentalism. We want an economics that makes sense for people — not just banks.

You wanted shareholder value — built by tough-guy CEOs. We want real value, built by people with character, dignity, and courage.

You wanted an invisible hand — it became a digital hand. Today’s markets are those where the majority of trades are done literally robotically. We want a visible handshake: to trust and to be trusted.

You wanted growth — faster. We want to slow down — so we can become better.

You didn’t care which communities were capsized, or which lives were sunk. We want a rising tide that lifts all boats.

You wanted to biggie size life: McMansions, Hummers, and McFood. We want to humanize life.

You wanted exurbs, sprawl, and gated anti-communities. We want a society built on authentic community.

You wanted more money, credit and leverage — to consume ravenously. We want to be great at doing stuff that matters.

You sacrificed the meaningful for the material: you sold out the very things that made us great for trivial gewgaws, trinkets, and gadgets. We’re not for sale: we’re learning to once again do what is meaningful.

The awesome Generation M Manifesto, by Umair Haque. Read more about it here.