The World, Filtered*

WorldVoice Radio Offers Tweet-like Experience for Audio
http://www.psfk.com/2009/06/worldvoice-radio-offers-tweet-like-experience-for-audio.html

"Positioning itself as a sort of hybrid between podcasts and Twitter, RnSK Softronics‘ WorldVoice Radio iPhone app allows users to share short audio messages or musings. Users set up their own in-app station, which is categorized geographically and assigned a personal “frequency” identification, which can be supplemented with personal information and a unique icon if desired. This information is then made available in the app’s station directory, which users can browse and save selections from via a favorites list. Audio dispatches are recorded through the iPhone’s mic, with an obvious Twitteresque emphasis on brevity—though longer recordings can be imported from any computer if so desired. One can imagine WorldVoice joining Twitter within a citizen journalist’s toolkit, though it remains to be seen whether that rare, concise insight possible via the latter can be squeezed into 30 seconds’ worth of speech."

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Jerri FitzGerald, Who Treated Herself at South Pole, Dies at 57
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/us/25nielsen.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries

Potentially lost in the news about Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawecett was this obituarty for Jerri FitzGerald.  Her story caught my attention back in 1999 when she had to treat herself for breast cancer while at the South Pole.  She was a brave and adventurous women and I am sorry to hear of her passing.

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Start-Up’s Software Goes to Employees for Company Forecasts
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/start-ups-software-crowdsources-company-forecasts/?ref=technology

"To get the best predictions about when your company’s latest product will ship or how it will sell, you might try asking your employees — anonymously. A start-up, Crowdcast, began selling corporate forecasting software on Thursday that does just that.

The employees on the front lines — the sales team talking to customers or the people packaging new products — have firsthand information that could be valuable to executives. But top management do not always get the most accurate information, because employees do not want to tell them the bad news, or they want to underpromise so the boss thinks they are outperforming...

...Here’s how it works: companies pay an annual fee for the Web-based software and employees start out with a certain amount of virtual money. When people inside the company pose a question — such as when a new game will be ready to ship or whether a competitor’s new drug will get regulatory approval — employees offer a response and choose an amount to bet on its accuracy. In comments, they can anonymously explain their reasoning. Then, if they are right, they get more money and a louder voice in the future; if they are wrong, they lose money and do not have as much to bet later on."

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Dave Eggers inspires youth to express themselves through storytelling
http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/64/dave-eggers-storytelling-kids

"...Call it "trickle-down eggersnomics"—ever since his immensely successful 2000 debut, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Eggers has used his royalties to help others. He devoted some of that money to 826 Valencia, which helps children in poor neighborhoods of San Francisco with their writing skills and homework. Meanwhile, he runs McSweeney’s, a publishing house that offers a platform for unknown writers and brings out a series of books in which those on the margins of society—such as prisoners and undocumented immigrants—get the chance to tell their stories. Eggers is using his Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Prize—a $100,000 award given by the TED arts and ideas conference that grants the recipient "one wish to change the world"—to inspire people to put time and energy into helping inner city kids in public schools. "You do what you can," Eggers says."

One of Eggers' projects is a Brooklyn Based tutoring and homework service located in lower Park Slope.  To help fund the operation there is a great tounge in cheek store the Brooklyn Super Hero Supply Company.  Pick up some Anti Matter and do a good deed (http://www.superherosupplies.com/)

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Everything You Wanted to Know About Semantic Technology, But Were Afraid to Ask (at SemTech 09): Or what isn't Semantic Tech
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/everything_to_know_about_semantic_technology_at_semtech_09.php

"...Bear in mind that semantic technology can be as heavy and stifling for any audience as stem-cell research can be to high-school students. But Carla Thompson of Guidewire did a terrific job of coming up with discussion topics and moderating the panel. Everyone survived the ordeal without any sign of dozing.

Despite the positive outcome, some responses from the panelists made me wonder if we should go back to the basic question of, "What is semantic search?" Or, better yet, what isn't semantic search? Here is my list:"

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Bike Clothing that Doesn't Suck: How Government Does Fashion
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/transport-forlondon-bike-clothing.php

"In the US this might awaken the age-old debate about the proper role of government, but back over in 'socialist' Europe, Transport for London (TfL), the authority responsible for running the capital's transportation system (including a whole bunch of fancy new hybrid buses), is not averse to doing what it can to make cycling easier - and that apparently includes fashion design (we can't all bike naked!). OK, so the designs above aren't exactly at the cutting edge of cat-walk fashion - but they are also not ridiculous lycra outfits in neon colors. And let's face it - if the brief was to design practical, comfortable bike clothing for urban commuters, we'd hardly want them to go too cutting edge. There are others out there, however, who are less afraid to make a statement."

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A Better World By Design
http://www.abetterworldbydesign.com/speakers.php

I went to the innagural 2008 A Better World by Design Conference last fall in Providence Rhode Island.  This is a RISD/Brown Student run conference.  The conference was engaging and I met a wide array of fascinating people.  I got an email the other day announcing some of the confirmed speakers.  The 2009 edition is lining up to be just as good.

The Future of Collaborative Networks
http://ostatic.com/blog/the-future-of-collaborative-networks

"...Vendors of this social software have repurposed social media tools from the consumer web by wrapping them in an enterprise message. Suddenly social networks, social bookmarking, forums, blogs, video sharing and microblogging are the new path to productivity. Alas, it has become all too clear that individually these applications have not delivered for the enterprise in a meaningful way. As a result the industry has seen a bevy of enterprise social software suite vendors returning to the 1990s with product development that is driven by feature checklists.

"Social profiles: check. Friending: check. Blogs: check. Tagging: check...." This approach to software development does not work. The resulting application suites are monolithic, inflexible, not extensible, expensive to scale and are invariably difficult, if not impossible, to integrate with other enterprise technologies. This class of software forces business users to adopt the myopic social visions imagined by the developers, which are nearly identical to their corresponding consumer web implementations. In short, social software is not solving business problems. In fact, these applications only serve to treat symptoms of the problems businesses face. They exacerbate the real problems within businesses by creating distractions and, worse, proliferate more disconnected data and application silos.

Rather than focusing on socialization, one to one interactions and individual enrichment, businesses must be concerned with creating an information fabric within their organizations. This information fabric is a federation of content from the multiplicity of data and application silos utilized on a daily basis; such as, ERP, CRM, file servers, email, databases, web-services infrastructures, etc. When you make this information fabric easy to edit between groups of individuals in a dynamic, secure, governed and real-time manner, it creates a Collaborative Network."

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New best practices paper on social media monitoring, engagement, measurement
http://blog.foghound.com/2009/06/new-best-practices-paper-on-social-media-monitoring-engagement-measurement/

"...a new study on emerging best practices in social media monitoring, engagement and measurement based on interviews with large corporations like Cisco, Intuit, GE and with the top monitoring technology providers (Visible Technologies, Radian6, Cymfony, Market Sentinel), who have fascinating stories based on existing clients and from the RFP/sales process."

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New Mac Laptops Use Batteries Sealed for Power
http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20090624/new-mac-laptops-use-batteries-sealed-for-power/?mod=ATD_rss

"The majority of laptop computers come with removable batteries. This approach allows you to pop in a fresh spare when your battery runs out of juice between charges, and to easily replace a battery when its lifespan is over.

But there’s a dirty little secret about removable-battery laptops owned by average consumers: Hardly anybody buys extra batteries. Research firm NPD estimates that fewer than 5% of consumers buy a spare. So, a small trend has begun in the industry: More electronic products are being designed with their rechargeable batteries sealed inside. For instance, Dell’s (DELL) new high-end laptop, the Adamo, has a sealed battery, as does the excellent Flip pocket video camera.

The leading proponent of this idea is Apple (AAPL), which has often led the industry in introducing or removing components from computers. This month, Apple unveiled two revised MacBook Pro laptops with higher-capacity, sealed-in batteries. In fact, Apple’s entire line of laptops now uses sealed batteries, except for one low-end MacBook model from last year’s series."

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Ending the Spreadsheet Chaos
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Applications/Ending-the-Spreadsheet-Chaos-420263/?kc=rss

Podcast: "A3 Solutions CEO Robert Lautt explains how enterprises can get spreadsheets under control."

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Awesome Autodesk Flame Demo
http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/awesome_autodesk_flame_demo_13847.asp

"Autodesk's Flame software is responsible for the visual effects in everything from high-end product renderings to Hollywood movies. Check out digital artist Rosano Lepri's impressive Flame reel, which features text overlays telling you what he's adding to each shot:"

Kiss reality good bye

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Kapitall, Like a Wii for Investment, Puts Democratic Spin on Financial Tools
http://www.readwriteweb.com/readwritestart/2009/06/kapitall-like-a-wii-for-invest.php

"A startup in the finance vertical aims to democratize investment by providing a more usable interface for financial tools and perhaps even ward off future financial calamity by decentralizing control of financial markets.

Current tools, such as Yahoo! Finance, are considered intimidating, complex, and overwhelmingly boring at a time when understanding of and interest in investment are more critical than ever to global economic revitalization. Kapitall gives investment a new face, one that will be familiar to Gen X and Y users, most of whom are novices to finance but experts in social applications and online or console gaming.

We had a telephone conversation this afternoon with Kapitall rep Eben Esterhuizen. He told us that Kapitall started when a THQ/Atari video game developer wanted to build an online investing application. He joined up with a technical lead at Bloomberg, Apple's Human Interface head Cordell Ratzlaff (the man behind OS10), and a managing director at Morgan Stanley."

Comment: I recently chatted with the Gaspard de Dreuzy, CEO of Kapitall during Internet Week.  This is an interesting play melding investing with data visualization born out of the gaming world.

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$100 Laptop Becomes a $5 PC
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22919/

The open-source education software developed for the "$100 laptop" can now be loaded onto a $5 USB stick to run aging PCs and Macs with a new interface and custom educational software.

"What we are doing is taking a bunch of old machines that barely run Windows 2000, and turning them into something interesting and useful for essentially zero cost," says Walter Bender, former president of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project. "It becomes a whole new computer running off the USB key; we can breathe new life into millions of decrepit old machines."

Bender left OLPC last year to found Sugar Labs, which promotes the open-source user interface, dubbed Sugar, and educational software originally developed at OLPC. Bender has dubbed the new effort Sugar on a Stick. The software can be downloaded for free from the Sugar Labs website as part of the new initiative, which will be announced at a conference in Berlin today."

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Deloitte Study Warns About Social Networking Ethics
http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2009/06/22/deloitte-study-warns-about-social-networking-ethics/

"Does employee participation in social networking sites put companies at risk? A new study from Deloitte LLP says yes, there is considerable risk, and companies need to be more proactive in fostering awareness of social networking ethics.

Deloitte LLP’s 2009 Ethics & Workplace Survey (PDF available here.) found that 30% of employees and managers say that social networking is now a vital part of their business and operations strategy.  However, Deloitte also finds “there is great reputational risk” associated with social networking, as 74% of respondents believe it is “easy to damage a brand’s reputation via sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.”

Forty-nine percent of employees say company policy wouldn’t change their online behavior. Twenty-seven percent don’t consider the ethical consequences of posting comments, photos, or videos online. More than one-third don’t consider what their boss, their colleagues, or their clients may think of postings."

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Link To The Best Parts In Your Videos
http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=blWIBM1jE-w

I am sure this is old news for some folks, but I just got wind of this.  You can deep link into specific sections of Youtube videos.  As they wrote on their blog

"To create a deep link, append the following to the end of a YouTube video URL: #t=1m15s. This says to link to the time 1:15 - you can replace the numbers before the 'm' and the 's' with anything you like.

As an additional bonus, if you mention a specific time in a video comment, e.g. "haha 1:14 is funny", this will become a hyperlink. Viewers can simply click on the time and the video will automatically jump to the point you are referencing. Pretty cool huh?"

The Green Light Approach
http://www.bertdecker.com/experience/2009/06/the-green-light-approach.html

"Most successful people have a 'forward lean.'

In our Communicate To Influence program we draw a parallel to the Ready Position, a posture that comes from all types of athletics, where you are on the balls of your feet. You can't be back on your heels and be "ready" - ready to move fast in tennis, basketball, skiing - any sport. You have to always be fast on your feet to move in any direction.

In speaking, when you are habitually in the Ready Position you are physically and psychologically forward. You WANT to get out there and talk, and convince and influence - you can move!

My friend Ben Sottile has been CEO of several companies, and coined another name for moving forward that I've found very useful. He calls it the Green Light Approach. We all operate under one of the three traffic lights, and he advocates Green."

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Sugar on a Stick: Learning Platform Runs on Any PC or Netbook In The Classroom
http://www.sugarlabs.org/index.php?template=press&article=20090624&language=english#20090624SugarLabs

"Sugar Labs™, nonprofit provider of the Sugar Learning Platform to over one-million children worldwide, announces the immediate availability of Sugar on a Stick v1 Strawberry. Available free for download at www.sugarlabs.org, Sugar on a Stick can be loaded onto an ordinary 1GB USB flash drive and used to reboot any PC or netbook directly into the award-winning Sugar environment. It runs on recent Macs with a helper CD and in Windows using virtualization. Sugar on a Stick is designed to work with a School Server that can provide content distribution, homework collection, backup services, Moodle integration, and filtered access to the Internet. Today’s Strawberry release is meant for classroom testing; feedback will be incorporated into the next version, available towards the end of 2009."

This is the same OS that runs the OLPC. 

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Pentagram Papers 39: Signs
http://pentagram.com/en/new/2009/06/pentagram-papers-39-signs.php

"We have all seen the homeless on street corners holding hand-scrawled signs. Their messages are desperate, heartbreaking, and at times, even humorous. These naked forms of self-expression have unintentionally become some of the most basic, raw and compelling examples of graphic communication in our society today. The 39th edition of our privately published Pentagram Papers series was designed by DJ Stout. It features signs from the personal collection of the legendary musician and writer Joe Ely and photographed by Randal Ford. These images are combined with a series of large-format portraits of the homeless by Austin-based photographer Michael O’Brien, who worked with Alan Graham, president of Austin’s Mobile Loaves & Fishes, and Brother Duane Severance, a pastor to the street people. Ely wrote the book’s foreword.Lee Aase is the manager for syndication and social media for Mayo Clinic. This means he’s in charge of making in-depth health and medical news content available directly to patients and interested consumers in order to encourage feedback, dialog, and sharing of information. He is also the chancellor of Social Media University, Global (SMUG), an institution that provides training in social media. In this interview he explains how the Mayo Clinic uses social media as a marketing and communications tool.

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Beth Kolko and Design for Digital Inclusion
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010019.html

"Beth Kolko manages the Design for Digital Inclusion research group at the University of Washington, a group that includes undergrads, grads and faculty across fields, focusing on a wide variety of topics: technology in Central Asia, non-instrumental uses of technology, technology and autism, games for development, and other topics.

Uniting her work is a basic questions about technology use in different communities: What ICTs (information and community technologies) are adopted in diverse communities and why? The “what” gets very complicated in this question - a technology may be used very differently in one community than another. The overarching questions focus on what people in diverse communities do with ICT, and how can we design better technologies and policies?"

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Designing for Care
http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/health-care/

"The world of healthcare is constantly evolving, ever increasing in complexity, costs, and stakeholders, and presenting huge challenges to policy making, decision making and system design. In Design for Care, we'll show how service and information designers can work with practice professionals and patients/advocates to make a positive difference in healthcare.

In Design for Care, Peter Jones will:"

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How to Use Social Media: An Interview with Lee Aase of Mayo Clinic
http://blogs.openforum.com/2009/06/23/how-to-use-social-media-an-interview-with-lee-aase-of-mayo-clinic/

"Lee Aase is the manager for syndication and social media for Mayo Clinic. This means he’s in charge of making in-depth health and medical news content available directly to patients and interested consumers in order to encourage feedback, dialog, and sharing of information. He is also the chancellor of Social Media University, Global (SMUG), an institution that provides training in social media. In this interview he explains how the Mayo Clinic uses social media as a marketing and communications tool."

JibJab: He’s Barack Obama
http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/hes_barack_obama

This is the funniest JibJab political cartoon yet.  A must watch

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Google Launches a Community Service Search Engine
http://mashable.com/2009/06/22/all-for-good/

"We expected that President Obama might use the enormous social media influence he accumulated during his campaign to encourage community service. And earlier this year, Serve.gov was launched as part of this direction.

Today, however, Google (Google) has gotten in on the project, launching All For Good, a website that aggregates volunteer opportunities from around the US from a number of charities and other websites. All For Good is also now being used to power the search portion of Serve.gov"

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Learning from How Designers Think and Work
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/maeda/2009/06/learning-from-how-designers-th.html

"When I was in business school, Stanford's d.school was just a glimmer of a thing living in a trailer across campus, barely known to most of us business students. Five years later, there is much discussion in the business world about design's evolution from producing of objects to producing a broad framework for ideas and solutions, including recent thought-provoking commentary from both Paola Antonelli and Bruce Nussbaum. Before coming to RISD, I loosely understood "design" and "design thinking" as a methodology focused on ethnographic research, rapid prototyping, and iterative process, already married closely to business innovation. To me, a designer's tools felt like the combination of social science and business that had attracted me to product marketing: conducting user research, defining a product, testing it and revising. I remember going to a design strategy conference at IIT and being struck at how similar it felt to market research conferences...

..I see now that designers are people who can make information emotional and visceral, who can make a bigger impact by thoughtfully marrying form and content. They are "experience perfectionists," the ones who always ask about the space a meeting will occur in so they can arrange the room and have music or images playing when people walk in. They are obsessed with materials; they can have a completely literate and thoughtful conversation about the width of a rubber band being used as a book binding, and how it will change the way the book is perceived."

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Webware 100 Winners!
http://www.webware.com/100/

"Welcome to the 2009 Webware 100! Below you'll find 100 Web apps in 10 categories voted to be the best of the best by Webware readers and users of the apps themselves.

Be sure to also see the new 11th category, Editors Choice, for a list of 12 products that we feel merit inclusion in this year's awards program, even if they weren't big enough to win the popular vote.

Congratulations to the winners of the Webware 100!"

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Why the Microgrid Could Be the Answer to Our Energy Crisis
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/137/beyond-the-grid.html

"Why small-scale, local power -- the microgrid -- could be the answer to our energy crisis. And why the big utilities are fighting it with all they've got."

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Picture Show: A Quiet Heaven in Vrindavan, India
http://www.good.is/post/picture-show-a-quiet-heaven-in-vrindavan-india/

"The Indian village of Vrindavan is believed by many Hindus to be the physical manifestation of ‘heaven’ as well as the place in which the deity Krishna assumed human form thousands of years ago and lived a single life as a man. The Hindi word vrinda translates to “a devotion to spiritual purity.” To Krishna devotees, the village and the miles of hills surrounding it are extremely sacred."

THis is a nice collection of photographs.  I went to Vrindavan years ago - kind of an odd, sleepy very spread out town.  Home to the Hari Krishnas.  Morning is the most peaceful and atmospheric time in any Indian town.

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25+ Useful Infographics for Web Designers
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/25-useful-infographics-for-web-designers/

"Infographics can be a great way to quickly reference information.

Instead of pouring over figures and long reports to decipher data, an infographic can immediately make apparent exactly what a dataset actually means.

Below are more than 25 infographics that can be useful to web designers."

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Foot-Pumped power for phones at summer festival
http://springwise.com/eco_sustainability/powerpump/

"For the hordes of people camping out at music festivals this summer, recharging their mobile phones no longer has to be an issue. If they have access to an Orange Power Pump, a minute of physical exercise is all it takes to juice up their phone.

Mobile network operator Orange has teamed up with renewable energy experts GotWind, who have created a tiny wind turbine that can be hooked up to a standard airbed footpump, enabling users to pump juice back into their phones. The turbine is no bigger than a pack of wet wipes, and can generate enough energy to power 5 minutes of call time in about 60 seconds of foot pumping."

The Joy of Less
http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/the-joy-of-less/?em

"“The beat of my heart has grown deeper, more active, and yet more peaceful, and it is as if I were all the time storing up inner riches…My [life] is one long sequence of inner miracles.” The young Dutchwoman Etty Hillesum wrote that in a Nazi transit camp in 1943, on her way to her death at Auschwitz two months later. Towards the end of his life, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen,” though by then he had already lost his father when he was 7, his first wife when she was 20 and his first son, aged 5. In Japan, the late 18th-century poet Issa is celebrated for his delighted, almost child-like celebrations of the natural world. Issa saw four children die in infancy, his wife die in childbirth, and his own body partially paralyzed.

I’m not sure I knew the details of all these lives when I was 29, but I did begin to guess that happiness lies less in our circumstances than in what we make of them, in every sense. “There is nothing either good or bad,” I had heard in high school, from Hamlet, “but thinking makes it so.” I had been lucky enough at that point to stumble into the life I might have dreamed of as a boy: a great job writing on world affairs for Time magazine, an apartment (officially at least) on Park Avenue, enough time and money to take vacations in Burma, Morocco, El Salvador. But every time I went to one of those places, I noticed that the people I met there, mired in difficulty and often warfare, seemed to have more energy and even optimism than the friends I’d grown up with in privileged, peaceful Santa Barbara, Calif., many of whom were on their fourth marriages and seeing a therapist every day. Though I knew that poverty certainly didn’t buy happiness, I wasn’t convinced that money did either."

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Can a Project Manager Survive without Windows?
http://pmtips.net/project-manager-survive-windows/#comment-2345

"My wife has been a Mac user for nearly two years now.  She loves it – but she’s a photographer, among other things, so she’s a Photoshop pro and has found all things Photoshop have been much easier to perform on a Mac.  I’m her tech support, and I can say that my job has definitely been much easier since she got her Macbook Pro.  However, I was on the outside looking in and ‘winging it’ on everything until I was sort of forced into the world of Mac in March of this year.

My Windows Vista laptop blew through its third hard drive in just over a year (meaning, of course that it was no out of warranty!).  My wife went through her same speech again…”Why don’t you just get a Mac?”  Frustrated with my Gateway and all things Windows and knowing that I still have my backup HP laptop running Windows XP as a crutch, I decided to “just do it.”  I must say I haven’t looked back yet.

...The backlash from my colleagues was immediate.  “How can you PM with a Mac?”  “What about running MS Project?”  “How can you survive?”  And my favorite one from my 19 yr-old son (becauseI had been a Windows lifer), “It’s sort of like turning an atheist to Christianity!”

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OpenProj
http://openproj.org/openproj

"OpenProj is a free, open source project management solution. OpenProj is a replacement of Microsoft Project and other commercial project solutions. The OpenProj solution has been download more than 1,250,000 times in the few months since launch and is being used in over 142 countries. A free download of OpenProj is Click to enlarge in a new windowavailable here and is distributed under the CPAL license. OpenProj is ideal for desktop project management and is available on Linux, Unix, Mac or Windows. It even opens existing Microsoft or Primavera files. OpenProj shares the industry's most advanced scheduling engine with Project-ON-Demand and provides Gantt Charts, Network Diagrams (PERT Charts), WBS and RBS charts, Earned Value costing and more. There is literally no time or effort involved in switching to OpenProj, and your teams can manage projects on any platform for free. Projity worked closely with leaders in the commercial and open source industries in preparation for the release of OpenProj. It is a welcome addition, not only for project management users, but also for users in all software segments. Microsoft Project retails for $999.99, is installed on 7% of all Office desktops and drives over $1 billion in revenue for Microsoft. OpenProj fills an important gap in the desktop market, as a key component in the Office family of products now has a replacement available on Linux, Unix, Mac or Windows. OpenProj was also selected for inclusion with Star Office suite boxes in Europe. The OpenProj solution has been translated into French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, Galician, Persian, Russian, Korean and Chinese. We are looking for further documentation and translation assistance. If you are interested contact us."

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Olympus E-P1 'digital Pen' - in depth preview + samples
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0906/09061601olympusep1.asp?from=rss#Pin_Hole

"After a carefully constructed teaser campaign Olympus has officially launched the E-P1, its first Micro Four Thirds camera and the worst kept secret in the photography industry, thanks to a deluge of leaked information ahead of launch. It's a compact mirrorless interchangeable lens camera that mimics the styling of the company's Pen range that was popular in the 1960s and 70s. The camera is built around an image-stabilized 12 megapixel sensor and incorporates a 3.0" LCD. The E-P1 is available with a 14-42mm kit lens that retracts into its barrel when not in use, much like the lens of a compact camera. Check out the news story, lots of images and our full hands-on preview after the link."

Comment: While this is being pushed as a retro camera for style mavens, there is a lot of interesting aspects to this.  Micro Four Thirds, interchangeable lenses, multiple aspects ratios (including square).  This is being introduced in honor of the ground breaking Olympus Pen camera.  This camera is in the same camp as the Ricoh Gx 200, but has the advantage, to my mind, of a fixed lens (one that does not retract).  Takes HD Movies too!

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Opera "Reinvents the Web" with Unite, Makes Every Computer a Server
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/opera_reinvents_the_web_with_unite_makes_every_com.php

"Opera has been buzzing up our inboxes lately with rather vague press releases on how it planned to "reinvent the web."

Well, we've just received concrete confirmation of exactly what that means. Their new product, Opera Unite, "turns any computer into both a client and a server, allowing it to interact with and serve content to other computers directly across the Web, without the need for third-party servers."

Opera Unite aims to make hosting and sharing data as simple as navigating around the Internet. It purports to give users greater control of their data while still allowing for easy sharing of files and information between all web-enabled devices. The Unite services are based on open web standards to permit developers to design cutting-edge applications with ease. Opera even claims that creating a full-service application will now be as easy as coding a web page.

Unite is now available in the Opera 10 desktop browser from Opera Labs, and services run directly in the browser. Directions for setup are also available at that page."

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Cloud computing and open source face-off
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=543

Cloud computing remains one of the big topics in software this year despite considerable and ongoing concerns over lock-in, lack of control, and security. The siren song of ease-of-development, reduced costs, highly elastic scalability, and next-generation architectures has many in IT and in the Web community carefully weighing the benefits and risks.

Along the way, open source has become a key enabler for cloud computing by providing both cheap inputs (as in free) as well as rich capabilities to providers of cloud services. The writing, however, is beginning to appear on the wall: the cloud computing industry will use open source as leverage for a new generation of proprietary platforms-as-a-service, very much like the established Web 2.0 services in the consumer space have used open source platforms to capture and create lock-in around data.

Better Bike Lane Signage Is Low-Cost, High-Impact Solution for Urban Cyclists
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/alissa-walker/designerati/better-bikeway-signage-low-cost-high-impact-solution-urban-cyclists?partner=rss

"While the rest of us spin our wheels waiting for that infrastructure cash to kick in so that we can have a smooth new bike path to ride on, Los Angeles-based designer Joseph Prichard has a much better idea--one that not only gets bikers on the road, but makes them safer too. His proposal, Better Bikeways, calls for a simple, cost-effective overhaul of bikeway signage instead of the pricer options of paving new routes or marking dedicated lanes on the streets. Plus, it raises awareness for drivers who may not know they're sharing the road with two-wheelers. "Unfortunately all too often the role of signage is overlooked during the design of new bicycle routes," he writes in his introduction. Even better, he says, good-looking signs can work as an advocacy campaign for biking alternatives. "Effective widespread signage can be a powerful tool in convincing people to take up cycling as a mode of transportation." Here are some of the concepts presented in his signage system: "

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Tufte's Invisible Yet Ubiquitous Influence
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2009/id20090610_157761.htm?campaign_id=rss_innovate

"At 67, Tufte (pronounced TUFF-tee) defies easy categorization. He has been a university statistician and a public policy wonk. And these days, he's more excited about turning bulldozers into sculpture than the abstractions of information analysis.

But Tufte's fame all flows from a rethinking of information design. He has consulted with IBM (IBM) on how to cultivate innovative thinking, helped The New York Times redo its information graphics and advised NASA on mission-critical software interface design. "[Tufte] has made it clear that in a cluttered Information Age we need methods of cutting through the brush," says Steven Heller, a design educator and critic who has been art director of both The New York Times Book Review and Screw magazine."

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F**This: A Hub for New Yorkers to address infrastructure complaints
http://www.core77.com/blog/technology/f_this_a_hub_for_new_yorkers_to_address_infrastructure_complaints_13742.asp

"The Infrastructurist, a blog started in 2009 to report on American Infrastructure, recently launched F** This!, "a place for residents of America's largest city to identify and fix problems with the local infrastructure." The project uses software from SeeClickFix, and allows users to report on problems, watch problem areas, vote for repairs, and close tickets. The project is still in a very early stage, but we encourage you to test it out and help The Infrastructurist iron out the kinks!"

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Post-it Stop Motion Video
http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/postit_stop_motion_video_13741.asp

"It's all over, but we'll post it (ha ha) anyway. DEADLINE, a clever little film from SCAD senior, Bang-yao Liu. Love the soundtrack from Royksopp (they capture the sound of design, don't they)."

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Google Fusion Tables
http://tables.googlelabs.com/public/tour/tour1.html

" Upload small or large data sets from spreadsheets or CSV files.

Visualize your data on maps, timelines and charts.

Pick who can access your data; hide parts of your data if needed.

Merge data from multiple tables.

Discuss your data with others. Track changes and discussions. "

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Is Internet Access a Fundamental Human Right? France's High Court Says Yes
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_internet_access_a_fundamental_human_right_franc.php

"France's highest court, the Constitutional Council, ruled that access to the internet is a "fundamental human right" this week in striking down a controversial "three strikes" anti-piracy law called Loi Hadopi, according to a report today from the UK Daily Mail. Were such an opinion agreed upon by other governments around the world, the implications would be striking.

Conversely, are peoples' fundamental human rights being violated when they don't have access to the internet? It's tempting to consider internet access a luxury, but consider the increased quality of life that comes with the huge jump in access to cultural and logistical information the internet brings. We think this is an important opportunity to think about expanding our understanding of human rights."

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Art on the iPhone
http://www.openculture.com/2009/06/art_on_the_iphone.html

"“The National Gallery is the first ever gallery to make its paintings accessible through a downloadable iPhone application, making it possible to take a mini tour of the Gallery anywhere in the world.

The Gallery, in partnership with Antenna Audio and Apple Inc., has designed a new application for iPhones and iTouch devices that enables people to explore a sample of the collection while they’re on the move. Designed to appeal to art enthusiasts and fans of the Gallery, this application is the first of its kind to be released by a major gallery."

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Agile Software Development Project vs. Standard Software Development Project
http://pmtips.net/agile-software-development-project-standard-software-development-project/

"If we were to take a large software project and run it both ways – standard and Agile – and then let’s assume that both work perfectly…no re-work, no missed requirements, etc.  At the end of each version of the project, what shape would the budget be in?

My assumption is, that if everything else is equal…meaning it all goes smoothly with either process…then I would tend to believe that the ‘standard’ process would result in less expense and less effort.  Prove me wrong…I want to hear from the readers – especially Agile promoters.  Over the long haul – the entire project portfolio – I can see it being the better way to go in terms of cost due to less re-work.  But in a perfect world – which is a fairy tale, I know – wouldn’t the cost be less with the standard process of running a software project?  I’m not anti-Agile at all, so please don’t read it that way.  I’m just trying to provoke some thought and discussion here..."

Better Bike Lane Signage Is Low-Cost, High-Impact Solution for Urban Cyclists
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/alissa-walker/designerati/better-bikeway-signage-low-cost-high-impact-solution-urban-cyclists?partner=rss

"While the rest of us spin our wheels waiting for that infrastructure cash to kick in so that we can have a smooth new bike path to ride on, Los Angeles-based designer Joseph Prichard has a much better idea--one that not only gets bikers on the road, but makes them safer too. His proposal, Better Bikeways, calls for a simple, cost-effective overhaul of bikeway signage instead of the pricer options of paving new routes or marking dedicated lanes on the streets. Plus, it raises awareness for drivers who may not know they're sharing the road with two-wheelers. "Unfortunately all too often the role of signage is overlooked during the design of new bicycle routes," he writes in his introduction. Even better, he says, good-looking signs can work as an advocacy campaign for biking alternatives. "Effective widespread signage can be a powerful tool in convincing people to take up cycling as a mode of transportation." Here are some of the concepts presented in his signage system: "

--------

Tufte's Invisible Yet Ubiquitous Influence
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2009/id20090610_157761.htm?campaign_id=rss_innovate

"At 67, Tufte (pronounced TUFF-tee) defies easy categorization. He has been a university statistician and a public policy wonk. And these days, he's more excited about turning bulldozers into sculpture than the abstractions of information analysis.

But Tufte's fame all flows from a rethinking of information design. He has consulted with IBM (IBM) on how to cultivate innovative thinking, helped The New York Times redo its information graphics and advised NASA on mission-critical software interface design. "[Tufte] has made it clear that in a cluttered Information Age we need methods of cutting through the brush," says Steven Heller, a design educator and critic who has been art director of both The New York Times Book Review and Screw magazine."

--------

F**This: A Hub for New Yorkers to address infrastructure complaints
http://www.core77.com/blog/technology/f_this_a_hub_for_new_yorkers_to_address_infrastructure_complaints_13742.asp

"The Infrastructurist, a blog started in 2009 to report on American Infrastructure, recently launched F** This!, "a place for residents of America's largest city to identify and fix problems with the local infrastructure." The project uses software from SeeClickFix, and allows users to report on problems, watch problem areas, vote for repairs, and close tickets. The project is still in a very early stage, but we encourage you to test it out and help The Infrastructurist iron out the kinks!"

--------

Post-it Stop Motion Video
http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/postit_stop_motion_video_13741.asp

"It's all over, but we'll post it (ha ha) anyway. DEADLINE, a clever little film from SCAD senior, Bang-yao Liu. Love the soundtrack from Royksopp (they capture the sound of design, don't they)."

--------

Google Fusion Tables
http://tables.googlelabs.com/public/tour/tour1.html

" Upload small or large data sets from spreadsheets or CSV files.

Visualize your data on maps, timelines and charts.

Pick who can access your data; hide parts of your data if needed.

Merge data from multiple tables.

Discuss your data with others. Track changes and discussions. "

--------

Is Internet Access a Fundamental Human Right? France's High Court Says Yes
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_internet_access_a_fundamental_human_right_franc.php

"France's highest court, the Constitutional Council, ruled that access to the internet is a "fundamental human right" this week in striking down a controversial "three strikes" anti-piracy law called Loi Hadopi, according to a report today from the UK Daily Mail. Were such an opinion agreed upon by other governments around the world, the implications would be striking.

Conversely, are peoples' fundamental human rights being violated when they don't have access to the internet? It's tempting to consider internet access a luxury, but consider the increased quality of life that comes with the huge jump in access to cultural and logistical information the internet brings. We think this is an important opportunity to think about expanding our understanding of human rights."

--------

Art on the iPhone
http://www.openculture.com/2009/06/art_on_the_iphone.html

"“The National Gallery is the first ever gallery to make its paintings accessible through a downloadable iPhone application, making it possible to take a mini tour of the Gallery anywhere in the world.

The Gallery, in partnership with Antenna Audio and Apple Inc., has designed a new application for iPhones and iTouch devices that enables people to explore a sample of the collection while they’re on the move. Designed to appeal to art enthusiasts and fans of the Gallery, this application is the first of its kind to be released by a major gallery."

--------

Agile Software Development Project vs. Standard Software Development Project
http://pmtips.net/agile-software-development-project-standard-software-development-project/

"If we were to take a large software project and run it both ways – standard and Agile – and then let’s assume that both work perfectly…no re-work, no missed requirements, etc.  At the end of each version of the project, what shape would the budget be in?

My assumption is, that if everything else is equal…meaning it all goes smoothly with either process…then I would tend to believe that the ‘standard’ process would result in less expense and less effort.  Prove me wrong…I want to hear from the readers – especially Agile promoters.  Over the long haul – the entire project portfolio – I can see it being the better way to go in terms of cost due to less re-work.  But in a perfect world – which is a fairy tale, I know – wouldn’t the cost be less with the standard process of running a software project?  I’m not anti-Agile at all, so please don’t read it that way.  I’m just trying to provoke some thought and discussion here..."

Use Microsoft Outlook With Google Apps For Email, Contacts, and Calendar
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/06/use-microsoft-outlook-with-google-apps.html

"ver the last year, we've had a razor sharp focus on making it as easy as possible for businesses to deploy Google Apps. In the last few months you've seen some of the results, from offline Gmail to user directory synchronization to full Blackberry® interoperability.

Today we're excited remove another key barrier to enterprise adoption of Google Apps with Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook lets you use Microsoft Outlook seamlessly with Google Apps Premier or Education Editions.

Many business users prefer Gmail's interface and features to products they've used in the past. But sometimes there are people who just love Outlook. For them, we've developed Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. It enables Outlook users to connect to Google Apps for business email, contacts and calendar. And they can always use Gmail's web interface to access their information when they're not on their work computer."

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Facebook to Launch Vanity URLs for All
http://mashable.com/2009/06/09/facebook-vanity-urls/

"The vanity URL is an important aspect of most social media websites. Being able to choose the URL for your social profile (i.e. Twitter.com/BenParr) not only makes it easy to share with others, but helps you claim a little piece of social media space as your own.

While Twitter (Twitter reviews) and MySpace (MySpace reviews) provide vanity URLs for all profiles, Facebook (Facebook reviews) does not. Facebook’s been experimenting with the vanity URL for select Fan Pages (i.e. Facebook.com/Mashable), but just moments ago, Facebook announced that this Saturday, June 13th, vanity URLs will be available to all Facebook profiles and Fan Pages."

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Urban farming: the new dot com?
http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/2009/06/urban_farming_t.php

"In September a new event called Agriculture 2.0 will introduce a select group of alternative agriculture entrepreneurs to investors. SPIN-Farming LLC, together with NewSeed Advisors will co-host Agriculture 2.0 in New York.

Roxanne Christensen, co-author of the SPIN-Farming online learning series, says a wave of innovators is developing profitable models for sustainable alternatives to industrial agriculture. These new entrepreneurs are developing breakthrough technologies, approaches and business models that, she says, "can help create a post-industrial food system that is less resource intensive, more locally-based, and easier to monitor and control".

When I first wrote about SPIN-Farming here last July, I was intrigued by the idea of a franchise-ready sustainable farming system that could be deployed quickly and on a wide scale. (That is the concept behind SPIN Farming; it stands for S-mall P-lot IN-tensive)."

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Kimai - open source time tracking
http://sharebrain.info/resources/time-tracking/kimai-open-source-time-tracking/5881/

"Here we have a free open source timetracker that tracks work time and prints out a summary of your activities on demand. Yearly, monthly, daily, by customer, by project, by action …
Usage is really easy. Due to Kimai’s web browser based interface it runs cross-platform. Likewise you can install it as a web service or as a single-user program on your local workstation.
Kimai does not have to run to do the recording. You can even quit your browser. Your time is still recording until you stop it from any web browser that has access to your installment. It is designed to hold lots of users but you can use it for a single user if you need to."

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The D.I.Y. Mini-Nation
http://ideas.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/the-diy-mini-nation/

"There are those who “blue sky” ideas to re-imagine society and there are those who “blue sea” them — like the folks at the Seasteading Institute of Palo Alto, Calif.

Bankrolled by a PayPal co-founder and run by a grandson of the free-market economist Milton Friedman, the institute’s goal is self-sufficient, deep-sea platforms “where those who are dissatisfied with our current civilization can go and build a different (and hopefully) better one,” as its Web site says."

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Smartphone Rises Fast From Gadget to Necessity
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/technology/10phone.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

"In today’s recession-racked economy, penny-pinching is a national pastime. But people are still opening their wallets for smartphones.

Sales of BlackBerrys, iPhones and other smartphone models are rising smartly and are projected to increase 25 percent this year, according to Gartner, a research business. Widely anticipated new models like the Palm Pre, which went on sale nationwide on Saturday, will help fuel that growth. Meanwhile, total cellphone sales are expected to fall.

The smartphone surge, it seems, is a case of a trading-up trend in technology that is running strong enough to weather the downturn. And as is so often true when it comes to adoption of new technology, the smartphone story is as much about consumer sociology and psychology as it is about chips, bytes and bandwidth."

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The Power Of Mind Mapping
http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/09/mind-mapping-wikis-technology-cio-network-mind-mapping.html

"Mind mapping, a form of visual outlining, may seem superficial, but once mastered it provides a powerful tool for managing information overload and the hyperbolic multitasking of the modern world. Recent advances in shareable mind maps take the power of this technique further, enabling groups to quickly capture and organize a massive amount of ideas. This week, I take a look at why mind maps are effective and how they can amplify your productivity."

Morgan Stanley's Matrix: An App From the Future
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/morgan_stanleys_matrix_an_app_from_the_future.php

"Financial services company Morgan Stanley released an incredibly ambitious new application this morning called Matix and many of its features will make hard-core web users hopeful that apps like this will emerge in other sectors as well. Matrix is a Rich Internet Application, or software that sits on the desktop but leverages web connectivity, and it's pretty as can be...

...Matrix lets users combine their own uploaded data in CSV format with historical data compiled by Morgan Stanley. Sharp looking data visualization options are baked in to help with decision making. Real time data is fed into a dashboard type environment as well...

...The Matrix product combines human-curated content chosen by Morgan Stanley's employees with algorithmically filtered content from the raging river of news and financial information that threatens to overwhelm users."


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Glue’s Social Browsing Add-on Jumps onto Multiple Browsers
http://mashable.com/2009/06/08/glue-ie/

"Launched late last year, Glue is a browser plugin that connects you to your friends while you are surfing the web. It creates a simple-to-use bar at the top of your screen that will show you what friends and strangers have said about a movie, gadget, or web page, making surfing the web a more social experience. You can even import your Twitter and Facebook friends to get started.

Yet while you can import friends from multiple social networks, only those using Firefox (Firefox reviews) could join you in commenting and reviewing web pages. That is until today, however, when Glue’s creator Adaptive Blue, announced Glue for Internet Explorer, bringing its service to what is still the world’s most widely used browser.

The release of Glue for IE means that users on multiple browsers can see each other’s visits, comments, and activity. It also provides the same recommendation and commenting system available on Glue for Firefox. If you’re an IE user, you can download Glue here."

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Visiting the High Line: An Amazing New Park Opens in Manhattan
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/finally-amazing-new-park-opens-manhattan?partner=rss

"Great news for New Yorkers and design fans alike: After years of wrangling, delays, and uncertainties, the High Line, an astonishing urban park built upon the remnants of an abandoned stretch of elevated railway, is opening tomorrow. Fast Company was at the preview, and here, we bring you the first images of the completed park."

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ZipCar iPhone App Makes Renting Cars by the Hour Even Cooler
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2009/06/09/zipcar-iphone-app-makes-renting-cars-by-the-hour-even-cooler/

"I was pleasantly surprised to hear that a ZipCar iPhone application will be available soon. This application will allow ZipCar members find available vehicles, reserve them and more. Once you reserve a car you can unlock it with the ZipCar iPhone application. If you have trouble locating it, you can use the app to beep the vehicle’s horn."

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The Visual Dominates - Mehrabian Revisited
http://www.bertdecker.com/experience/2009/06/the-visual-dominates-mehrabian-revisited.html

"...The most important takeaway is that when there is an inconsistent message, the listener will overwhelmingly judge the visual cues more as to whether they like (trust and believe) the speaker. And realize all this happens at the unconscious level."

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Peddling Sustainability in Southeast France
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/peddling-sustainability-in-southwest-france/

"At France’s annual agricultural fair, the Drôme district has been granted a much envied spot in the organics section in recent years, positioning itself as the national model for sustainable development.

Indeed, the Drôme’s growing reputation as the most environmentally-aware territory in France is part of a calculated strategy in which the district aims to become Europe’s “rural Freiburg” — or an agrarian equivalent to the German town famous for its ecological urban planning."

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VizualPV3D
http://www.juxtinteractive.com/work/vizualpv3d/

"VizualPV3D is a Flash Visualization Application that provides a GUI interface to create and manipulate objects in 3D scenes using Papervision3D.

VizualPV3D was originally created by JUXT Sr. ActionScripter, Gary Stasiuk, to help produce the Adobe Brilliant site. Over the past few months Gary has invested a great deal of time and passion into evolving this labor of love so he can share it with the world.

This version of VizualPV3D is a public release alpha with many of the planned features complete or at a stage where they can be used and/or tested by Flash users. Several new and extended features are in the queue for addition to the application in the next few months."

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Reconciling social computing with the enterprise
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=504

"The pervasive presence of social software and today’s highly open, interactive, and remixable Web embedded deeply into our personal lives is increasingly allowing us to experience a new way of living. And it’s one that bears less and less resemblance to the workplace all the time, with significantly differing behaviors, skills, tools, and expectations. This situation creates a delta that, sooner or later, will simply become untenable for many organizations. We simply aren’t keeping up with the pace of change, never mind that not all workers are experiencing the change of the modern world the same way or at the same speed. Media sharing sites, social networks, and social tools have become embedded deeply in a large percentage of people’s lives, just as long as we remember it’s not everyone.

This increasing distance between these two worlds creates a gap — a disconnect, even — that increasingly cuts organizations off from their most valuable assets (their people) and also exerts a subversive force on organizations as their workers help themselves to the tools of their own volition, bring their (and arguably better) new behaviors and processes to work, and try to get things done with them, whether that’s crowdsourcing, Enterprise 2.0, online customer communities, etc."