101 Culture

Another version of the magazine's future

Since Berg showed their interpretation of the eReader for magazines, the iPad has been released. Here's a magazine concept that was inspired by it.

Time to think about the Internet instead of just letting it happen

You must all read this. It's terribly important that you make the time.

DAVID GELERNTER is a professor of computer science at Yale and chief scientist at Mirror Worlds Technologies (New Haven). His research centers on information management, parallel programming, and artificial intelligence.

And he's just published an essay entitled 'Time to think about the Internet instead of just letting it happen'.

There are so many good thoughts in there. And I'll examine lots of them over the coming weeks.

But the point of the essay is this:

"The Internet is no topic like cellphones or videogame platforms or artificial intelligence; it's a topic like education. It's that big. Therefore beware: to become a teacher, master some topic you can teach; don't go to Education School and master nothing."

"No moment in technology history has ever been more exciting or dangerous than now. The Internet is like a new computer running a flashy, exciting demo. We have been entranced by this demo for fifteen years. But now it is time to get to work, and make the Internet do what we want it to."

The democratisation of advertising

One of the main themes that I write about digital culture is democratisation.

Publishing is the obvious one. The web is gradually giving the whole world the ability to publish, for better or for worse. But the partner to publishing is advertising. And, as the ever insightful Jan Chipchase points out, Facebook is, through the simplicity of its platform, democratising online advertising.

Flyposting has long been the preserve of 'consumer' advertising. But Facebook's simple platform allows us all to create a campaign in minutes. And along with that comes targeting, segmentation, reach and effectiveness, usually phrases reserved for marketing departments.

Skinput: your arm becomes a touchscreen

The iPhone has shown us the benefits and possibilities of touchscreen. And the iPad announcement showed just how excited the world gets about that. But what's next?

If Chris Harrison has his way, it'll be Skinput, where your arm becomes the touchscreen.

By detecting the waves sent through your flesh as you tap your arm and combining that with visuals projected on your arm, you have the whole world that the iPad offers, without the pad. Well almost.

As well of probably becoming useful and invisible tech for us at some point this is a great visualisation of what digital information and its networking is becoming: a layer of invisible information surrounding us at all times. Check the vid for ultimate nerdings... awesome stuff.

found via Core77

Some nice little mirror robots

I want them. I want them to greet me when I get home.

Social production and the economies of small

I've long been meaning to write a post inspired by Makers and earlier thoughts on production from 100k linked garages..

But John's deck on social production and BBH Labs' recent post on the economies of small do a much better job. So read them.

And BBH Labs:

A final point on size - we’re all used to hearing the number ‘150′ cited as the ‘optimum organizational size’. As the business strategist Tom Peters put it in 1994:

“Arguably, we got away with violating this limit during the age of mass production and hyperspecialization, when the traditional craftsmen’s imagination was subordinated to machine logic. Now, brains, imagination, craft, and whole jobs are once again the order of the day and 150 people, give or take, may again be the right group size.”