Amazing!

Amazing showcase created by students from Wroclaw Institute of Technology

Web 2.0 Highlighter

Markkit is a web2.0 text highlighter.

Twitter Just Landed

Just Landed - 36 Hours from blprnt on Vimeo.

I found this nice visualisation of tweets containing phrase: "Just landed in..." by Jer Thorp.

Horizontless Map of Manhattan

"Here & There is a project by S&W exploring speculative projections of dense cities. These maps of Manhattan look uptown from 3rd and 7th, and downtown from 3rd and 35th. They're intended to be seen at those same places, putting the viewer simultaneously above the city and in it where she stands, both looking down and looking forward.

The projection seen here is a combination of city manipulations in modelling software, and choosing the best lens for the simulated camera. The nearby buildings obstruct the view if you get that wrong, or the distant ones stop working as a conventional map. There's fine tuning and instinct. Let's not demo the power of 3D applications, but make a map which is both useful and optically awesome to look at."

Twitter Magnets

A cool and interesting website called Twitter Magnets where you can create your own short poems and post them on twitter.

Amazing 3D projection

An amazing showreel of 3D projection from Easyweb

Copyrights in the digital age

People have always copied things. In the past, most items of value were physical objects. Patent law and economies of scale meant that small scale copying of physical objects was usually uneconomic, and large-scale copying (if it infringed) was stoppable using policemen and courts.

P. Biddle et al.

However, the popularisation of Internet and digital media removed those boundaries. We live now in copy and paste world. Internet became synonymous of ‘no rights reserved’. 1000s of files are shared every day. Music and movie industries were affected the most by this phenomenon. But with the growing popularisation of Web 2.0 everyone is affected now. The piracy is no longer affecting giant industry moguls but all internet participants like me and you. Some of us, don’t care about copyrights, whether their creation is modified or copied some would like to be credited and some would like to have some sort of royalties paid. We have to be aware that nothing is entirely free. As Nobel-prize winning economist Milton Friedman said: "There is no such thing as a free lunch." We can refer this quote to the copyrights as well. Someone had to spend an x amount of time and resources to create a blog entry, take a picture or write a computer program. These authors may not seek always financial advantages; nevertheless their work should be protected against unlawful use.
The Creative Commons licence fills the gap between ‘All Rights Reserved’ and ‘No Rights Reserved’ concepts. It allows authors to state under what conditions and in what way their work may be used.. We should be all aware of the risk and boundaries of living in today’s information society but the copyright law ought to promote and foster creativity rather than strangling it.




Sources:
Copyright Infringement - The Dark Side of Web 2.0
P.Biddle, P. England, M. Peinado, and B. Willman, The Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution
L. Lessig, Free Culture

If we are all amateurs, there are no experts.

Peter Steiner 1993

Before the internet it seemed like a joke: if you provide an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters one of them will eventually come up with a masterpiece. But with the web now firmly established in its second evolutionary phase – in which users create the content on blogs, podcasts and streamed video – the infinite monkey theory doesn’t seem so funny anymore.

John-Paul Flintoff

The expansion of the Internet and the rise of user generated content websites gave people almost unlimited possibilities to express and share their opinions and thoughts with others. Wikipedia became one of the most popular websites, although the value of its content is often questioned. Everyone can create a new entry or contribute to it. In comparison, encyclopaedia Britannica was ranked 5,128 in 2007 in the list of most visited sites. It is creating an information noise, and is getting more and more difficult to select and even find information we are interested in. This huge stream is not necessarily a bad thing however it is not controlled in any way and it just getting bigger and bigger. And as Flintoff points out instead of creating masterpieces, the millions of exuberant monkeys are creating an endless digital forest of mediocrity: uninformed political commentary, unseemly home videos, embarrassingly amateurish music, unreadable poems, essays and novels. It is creating an information noise, and is getting more and more difficult to select and even find information we are interested in. This huge stream is not necessarily a bad thing however it is not controlled in any way and it just getting bigger and bigger.

Not everyone is talented or posses required level of expertise yet in the Internet there are no restriction. This is its beauty and its curse. Let assume you need a surgical treatment and you live in the world where everyone can be a surgeon. There are well qualified surgeons that graduated medical schools and have x years of experience and we have wannabe surgeons, who have no experience or relevant knowledge. Who would be your choice? However, you can find many good artists who, if not the Internet, they would not be able to attract any audience. The Internet allowed them to become independent from media moguls and their power. Unfortunately, this massive amount of wannabe stars makes finding those gems a real challenge in today’s Web 2.0 world.

Chris Anderson defined the concept of Long Tail that states that our economy and culture is shifting from mass markets to million of niches. It chronicles the effect of the technologies that have made it easier for consumers to find and buy niche products, thanks to the "infinite shelf-space effect"--the new distribution mechanisms, from digital downloading to peer-to-peer markets that break through the bottlenecks of broadcast and traditional bricks and mortar retail. Andrew Keen in his book “The Cult of the Amateur” states that the more self-created content that gets dumped onto the Internet, the harder it becomes to distinguish the good from the bad – and to make money from any of it.

You don’t have to be expert to produce a valuable or interesting post or piece of music. The Internet sometimes is the only chance to some talented amateurs to present their skills and talents. Sites like YouTube and MySpace provided a great platform to people and artists to gain popularity. There will always be amateurs and experts, although the latter are slowly being suppressed by the former.

Source:Techcrunch.com


Sources:
Amateur Internet
Web 2.0 The second generation of the Internet has arrived. It's worse than you think.
Thinking is so over
The Long Tail
The Cult of the Amateur by A. Keen

Effing Hail - a cool and addictive game

I've recently found this cool looking game called Effing Hail.

Your task is simple: control an updraft of air to keep falling hail in the upper levels of the bee-, sea-, dee- and effing-spheres so that it has time to grow into massive stones, which you then let fall free to crush an increasingly complex ecosystem of houses, skyscrapers, planes, satellites and civilians themselves below.

Via Offworld

A cool tool for web designers

I found this cool and very useful tool from Allan Jardine.

Design is a suite of web-design and development assistive tools which can be utilised on any web-page. Encompassing utilities for grid layout, measurement and alignment, Design is a uniquely powerful JavaScript bookmarklet.

Design features the following components:

* Grid - overlays a highly configurable layout grid over a web-page. Grid can be set to match any set of dimensions, allowing easy development of CSS layouts in the web-browser.
* Rule - displays rulers on a page, with all the expected features of the rulers found in a desktop design application, including guides which snap to block display elements and origin location control.
* Unit - allows measurements to be made between any two points on a web-page, giving basic information about each of the points clicked on, and drawing a line on the page for the measurement.
* Crosshair - draws a crosshair cursor on the page to assist in layout alignment. Cursor information is also presented in a tooltip.

I found it extremely useful when working on web development projects.

Newsmap

Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. Its objective is to simply demonstrate visually the relationships between data and the unseen patterns in news media. It is not thought to display an unbiased view of the news; on the contrary, it is thought to ironically accentuate the bias of it.

The algorithm created by Marcos Weskamp and Dan Albritton creates an amazing mosaic of the news from all over the world.

Newsmap

Career Evolution in Advertsising

Found at

Web Trend Map 4

A cool and useful Web Trend Map. This years' map is based on the layout of Tokio Metro Map. Only 1,000 pieces will be printed.

Download here

More Info here

Internet Explorer 8.1 Eagle Eyes

Loaded with exclusive features such as a new JavaScript engine, support of WebSlices and full web standards support (CSS 3), IE 8.1 is speculated to debut in this summer.

It has lots of handy features for web-developers and its faster than any current browser, plus it scored 77/100 in test how web browsers are compliant with web standards.

Why Microsoft didn't release this version instead of IE8?

The rest of the story

ONEvideo DVD trailer

Trailer from an amazing rollerblading video

6th sense for $350

A new technology has been unveiled. You can use your fingertips to interact with the environment.



Is it going to be the future of interaction?

And Now For Something Completely Different...Creative Class

According to Richard Florida’s Creative Class theory, the new class has emerged. The new class capable of being the driving force of the economy. The high number of scientists, computer professionals and programmers, architects, engineers, graphic and product designers, entrepreneurs, educators, artists and musicians can guarantee a strong economic growth. Can it? Florida is using an "Creativity Index" to estimate the potential economic efficiency.

The Creativity Index is a mix of four equally weighted factors: the creative class share of the workforce; High-Tech Index; innovation, measured as patents per capita; and diversity, measured by the Gay Index, a reasonable proxy for an area's openness to different kinds of people and ideas.
(R. Florida, 2002)

Florida believes that these factors are correlated with economical performance of a given city. The cities with high Creativity Index can attract more creative and innovative workforce and as a result they can improve economic performance and gain substantial advantage over non-creative cities. We can spot a shift from industrial to information economy. The creative class is now a key economic force and companies and governments should do anything to attract them. But does this correlation really exist?
According to Florida’s critics, this theory is too much separated from economics basics. The cities with high creative index are actually doing poorer in comparison to the cities with lower creative index.

Although Florida’s book bristles with charts and statistics showing how he constructed his various indexes and where cities rank on them, the professor, incredibly, doesn’t provide any data demonstrating that his creative cities actually have vibrant economies that perform well over time. A look at even the most simple economic indicators, in fact, shows that, far from being economic powerhouses, many of Florida’s favored cities are chronic underperformers.
(Steven Malanga, 2004)

There is no proven link between indices proposed by Florida and economic performance, at least not in the positive way. The creative cities' economies are underperforming comparing to national economy or cities with low Creativity Index. This theory has emerged during dot-com bubble era and was based on the cities with strong technological industry, but today, years after speculative bubble has burst, these cities are not performing well.

Florida's survey were mainly conducted on American continent, but are there any Creative Class cities in Europe, and how is Celtic Tiger performing in comparison to others. Among 5 cities from Roland Berger survey which European cities were most effectively competing for the Creative Class and which have best laid the groundwork for the move from the industrial to the knowledge age, Dublin was on 3rd place along with Amsterdam. According to the survey the Creative Class workers constituted 36.9 percent of the total workforce in Dublin, comparing to the 1st place Copenhagen with creative workforce of 62.5 percent and runner-up Barcelona with 43.9 (Follath & Spörl, 2007). Ireland with its Celtic Tiger image and ambitious plans to become Silicon Valley of Europe has a great potential to become a strong magnet for creative class. There are definitely solid foundations in blue chip companies like HP, IBM or Microsoft as well as high number of higher education level students (Thomas Hüetlin, 2007). The future looks bright for the Creative Class in Ireland.

I can agree with Florida that creative class exists but, in my view, this theory is too idealistic and has no foundation in economics of the real world. We cannot base plans for economic growth on circular logic and indices vaguely correlated with economic performance. The economy is much more complicated to describe it through Florida’s theory and we have to take other factors into account as well to make correct decisions.

Sources:

The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida, Washington Monthly, May 2002

The Curse of the Creative Class by Steven Malanga, City Journal, Winter 2004

Forget London and Paris: An Inside Look at Europe's Coolest Cities by By Erich Follath and Gerhard Spörl, Spiegel Online

Dublin's Second Coming by Thomas Hüetlin, Spiegel Online

Ireland could become Silicon Valley of Europe by Harry McGee, Irish Times

Web 2.0

Microsoft Labs 2019 - vision of the future

"How will emerging technology improve our productivity in the years ahead? What opportunities will arise from evolving trends and global change? Microsoft has collaborated with customers, partners, and thought leaders across multiple disciplines to develop scenarios that explore how long-term trends, customer challenges, and emerging technologies might converge to improve our lives, both at work and home."

Looks great, especially virtual newspaper or wallet. I wonder how many of these ideas will actually become real products. What do you think?

Who watches the Watchmen??

It's today!!!!

Logo design

Proper logo design is crucial for company and its brand. It can strengthen the brand identity or destroy it. Looking for some materials for my project on logo design I have found a bunch of nice websites and I thought I will share them with you.

1. A nice article on Design Trends in 2009

2. History and evolution of famous brands' logos

3. A great example of graphic identity documentation of MIT logo

4. Amazing flash animation on meaning of colours

5. How not to design logo if you really care

I hope you will them useful.

Resetting your CSS

I found this cool website on how to nicely reset you CSS, so you can do your styling in more efficient way while avoiding cross browser issues. Reset CSS

Web Development

I found a great website Browser Shots for checking browser compatibility of your website. You can see how your website will appear in different browsers without the need of having them all. I think it's pretty useful tool for web developers.

Does the Technological Determinism vs. Social Shaping debate accurately describe the relationship between Technology and Society?

In today’s complex world it is extremely difficult to describe all changes using only one of the mentioned theories. It is the technology that shapes and affects our behaviour as the only force in the universe or is it opposite as stated by the Social Shaping theory? Are we still in control of the technology or we are merely puppets in hands computers and AI?

The advent of Internet increased the speed of information flow, the world is changing at the pace never seen before and it’s constantly accelerating. At the foundation of many of the inventions that changed our world was necessity. Necessity to solve problems, make our lives easier, safer, longer. It was the human factor that was the force driving to look for new solutions, not the technology itself. There would be no technology without humans, so it is, in my opinion, not true to state that the technology is the only factor that shapes the society. In fact those two are in constant relationship and they are continuously affecting each other.
Newly introduced technology, whether it is a mobile phone, a new feature in the car, was designed by humans, but as the time goes by, the technology is changing our behaviour – nowadays almost everyone has mobile phone and we can’t imagine how we could have lived without it. Our needs are changing, we now want to send videos, see each other while talking on the phone so the mobile phones are modified to suit our needs. Evolution?

Evolution towards what goal? In my opinion, there will be a shift towards technology, however still with a strong social factor, even if the product is invented or designed with the aim to create a need or desire within society. It was created to be used by humans. The current pace of technological development is so quick that human might become the unnecessary link in that process. Virtual life, perfect employees, development of AI and robotics might become the obvious thing. Are we going to live in the matrix or as just memories encapsulated in the machines – ghost in the shell*?

In the end, it is, it was and it will be the society that influences and steer the technology. The only difference is its input to that process. The role of the society as the leading factor may be decreasing over time. Can technology become a society itself, without us – humans? Evolution.

*Ghost in the Shell is a Japanese cyberpunk manga created by Masamune Shirow. The main character, Motoko Kusanagi, is almost completely mechanized; only her brain and a segment of her spinal cord remain organic.

Intro

Hey, the first entry of my blog about digital media and not only...

Trailer from great documentary movie about rollerblading
Barely Dead