The word “publicacy” was coined by Scott Cleland, author of the insightful web policy The Precursor Blog, as a needed antonym to “privacy”. In the age of Web 2.0 social networks, mobile phone GPS, cload computing, and a growing variety of “wisdom of crowds” data analysis, the “publicacy ethos” – that “if technology innovation can make information public, it should be public and that there should be no permission or payment required to access, use or remix this new ‘public’ information” – becomes an increasingly important subject for discussion and debate. As this NY Times article explains, you’re leaving a digital trail and tracking that trail is valuable learning – both commercially and societally.… more

If you haven’t done so yet, set aside 80 minutes and watch the preview that Google delivered last week of its forthcoming Wave communication platform. You’ll be hearing a lot about it soon, I’m sure. Wave may very well replace email and will certainly play some key role in consolidating the oodles of social media services competing for our attention.

Impressive in its scope and ambition, obviously, but also a very good sign that Google has created Wave to be open source and “federation” friendly.… more

It’s the industrial design equivalent of science fiction: 100 completely unreal inventions.

(Thanks Clay)… more

Recently I re-read Geoffrey Moore’s classic “Crossing the Chasm”, a great technology marketing book that came out in the 90s. It’s about marketing and selling disruptive technology products to mainstream customers. Although some of the case studies naturally date the book, it remains just as instructive now in 2009 as it did over a decade ago.

There are a few key sections worth highlighting (excerpts below): identifying the chasm, moving from early market to mainstream, niche segmenting, and creating a whole product. Food for thought…

What is the Chasm?…

“We have enough high-tech marketing history now to see where our model has gone wrong and how to fix it.… more

Recycling: Each year, Americans throw out enough soda pop cans bottles to reach to the moon and back—twenty times.

Kissing: The science of kissing is called philematology.

Nutrition: A person will usually swallow around 250 times during dinner.

Dolphins: Just a tablespoon of water in a dolphin’s lung could drown it.

Volcanoes: Japan has 10% of the world’s active volcanoes.

One should learn something – at least one thing – new every day. That being the goal, this site of Random Facts, will overload your daily diet.

(Thanks Rose)… more

It’s clear reading The Audacity of Hope that Barack Obama isn’t just a good speaker but he’s also a very good writer, exceptionally talented at conveying thoughts and ideas articulately, intelligently, and with flow. It’s a book that so obviously framed his whole presidential campaign, which as we all know now has thankfully turned the page on the redacted scribbles of the Bush-Cheney years. It’s a book about his background, experience, approach, beliefs, and aspirations.

Besides the obligatory pre-campaign introduction that most political personality books share, there are a couple things that really stand out about Obama in The Audacity of Hope.… more

Twitter has forced me to confront head-on something I so fervently rail against: close-mindedness. It’s personal this time though. It was my own close-mindedness.

You see, I finally relented and joined Twitter last week – something I stubbornly refused to do for a few reasons, namely: I’m too busy, it’s too shallow/banal/narcissistic, and what’s the point really. Basically for the same short-sighted reasons that many railed against blogging waaaay back in the early naughts, I struggled to see the value of

Twitter (and its various apps) deliver a few valuable things. Firstly, it’s effectively a faster search engine than Google.… more

100 (Non-Design) Blogs that Every Web Designer Should Read, according to Kelly at Wed Design Schools Guide.… more

“You will not get that on United Airlines. I guarantee it.”… more

The remixers manifesto:
1. Culture always builds on the past.
2. The past always tries to control the future.
3. Our Future is becoming less free.
4. To build free societies, you must limit control of the past.

This manifesto forms the thesis of the excellent new documentary called Rip! Rip! is about the battles raging between copyright and copyleft; between the creators, publishers, protectors, and remixers of culture. Following the mash-up musician Girl Talk, the film is itself a provocative mash-up of numerous copyrighted songs and images. And, true to form, it is partially available online with an explicit invitation to remix the whole damn thing (see Open Source Cinema).… more