November 11, 2005
Virtual presenters
Meet the virtual weather presenter. "Televirtual, based in Norwich, launched Metman and Metgirl initially for stations who cannot afford to have their weather presented by 'real' broadcasters. But managing director Tim Child said the implications for the future of broadcasting and the media in general were endless. He said the reason weather forecasting was chosen for the prototype was because of its relatively small knowledge base and its formulaic nature. The speech engine used for the voice is the most complex part of the creation and requires up to 30 hours programming input by reading sample forecasts."
EDP24
November 10, 2005
Growth of VOIP
Internet phone calls on the rise. "A third of people in the US and Europe will abandon phone lines in favour of wireless and broadband telephony come 2009, say analysts Gartner. Broadband telephony is gaining ground among consumers as people become more confident users of their high-speed net connections. It offers a cheap alternative to fixed-line voice calls. By 2009, 70% of voice connections around the world will be wireless, the Gartner report found. This is due to falling mobile costs and greater penetration in countries such as China and India. "
BBC NEWS
November 03, 2005
Relating items through tags
Shadows 1.0. "If you choose to install their toolbar, you can click on “Shadow Page” from any web page and be redirected to that page’s Shadow Page. This page is a collection of metadata gathered from user bookmarks. For instance, here is the Shadow Page for Apple’s iPod Nano. The Shadow Page includes notes from users who have bookmarked the iPod Nano web page, a tag cloud of tags used to describe the page, users who’ve tagged it, etc. A user can choose to make any bookmark private, but any public bookmarks are included on the Shadow Page."
TechCrunch
My TV show
Telecommuting Video Blog. "This guy, Ravi Jain, is shooting a weekly video blog from the driver's seat of his car during his daily commutes between Jamaica Plains and Allston, MA (or five hours of "studio time," as he puts it). He has guests on (who are bumming rides), and when his wife commutes with him, they do a "Regis and Kelly" type show (or at least that's how Ravi fancies it), with some "marital banter to start the show" (oh joy!)."
Boing Boing
October 26, 2005
Free phone calls?
Voice phone calls to be free within years: eBay CEO. "In a few short years, users can expect to make telephone calls for free, with no per-minute charges, as part of a package of services through which carriers make money on advertising or transaction fees, eBay's chief executive said on Wednesday. "
Reuters.com
Blogs with very short entries
Tumblelogs. "On my web travels the other day, I came across a new (to me) kind of weblog, the tumblelog. [...] A tumblelog is a quick and dirty stream of consciousness, a bit like a remaindered links style linklog but with more than just links. [...] Different ways of displaying various types of content...remaindered links, regular posts, book reviews, and movie reviews are all displayed differently. I'm working on incorporating photo albums and perhaps a daily photolog...as well as a couple other different types of content. "kottke.org
October 25, 2005
Online bullying
Confronting Bullies Who Wound With Words. "The new online dimension of bullying has grown to the point that Scope, a nonprofit group that provides educational services to school districts, convened the Island's first conference on bullying in cyberspace at Stony Brook University on Sept. 28. Five hundred teachers, administrators, technology experts and students from 3rd to 12th grade took part. On the Internet, said Betty Kauffman, manager of Scope, "you can take a kid who is 4 feet 11 and thin as a rail, and be the biggest bully in the world, but in real life he couldn't do it." "
New York Times (may require free registration)
October 18, 2005
P2P e-mail
SnapMail. "Unlike instant messaging, SnapMail uses peer-to-peer technology and does not rely on Internet servers to send mail within your local network. This makes SnapMail a very fast in-house messaging system that complements your Internet email. All of your messaging can be conducted without fear of accidentally sending mail out of your company."
Lifehacker
October 10, 2005
New forms of collaboration
Networking: A Special Section. "Companies are drawing on collaborative models that first blossomed in nonbusiness settings, from online games to open-source software projects to the so-called wiki encyclopedias and blogs to speed up innovation. This networked collaboration is creating new opportunities and disrupting industries. New styles of work and, in business schools, new theories of innovation are rising."
New York Times (may require free subscription)
September 28, 2005
Centralizing everything in your blog
Project Comet. "Community Aggregation: Gives you the ability to create individual blogs and share sections of them with other users in an elegant and customizable way. Multiple Streams: Provides a single place to keep everything that is important to you. A record of your life is created by incorporating streams from various media, like music, photos, videos and other blogs into a single customized blog with an identity of its own. "
Six Apart
September 27, 2005
Mimicking humans
Brit's bot chats way to AI medal. "George is a "character" which has learned its conversation skills from the interactions it has had with visitors to the Jabberwacky website, and through chats with Mr Carpenter. Mr Carpenter thinks that in the not-too-distant future, it may be that programs or robots talk and act in place of humans, mimicking human behaviour. "
BBC NEWS
September 21, 2005
Physical and virtual social networks
Superstar Tokyo. "To play, place your own stickers (with a star on it to recognize participants) wherever you want and collect the stickers of other players by shooting them with your phonecam. Whenever a player snaps a Superstar sticker both players earn points. A link is then created between the two players. From this point on, any time either player earns points (by shooting a new sticker or by having their sticker shot) the other one will also earn points (though not as many)."
we make money not art
September 16, 2005
Instant wireless networks
An instant and mobile wireless mesh network. " California-based start-up company, PacketHop, is about to launch a software to enable mobile and instantaneously reconfigurable mesh networks. If you have a 802.11-enabled laptop or PDA, you will be able to send, receive and route data. According to InformationWeek, this could be primarily used by police officers "caught in a dangerous situation that requires teamwork and fast communication." "
Primidi
August 30, 2005
Dual mode phones
Number of mobile/wi-fi handsets to reach 66m in 2009 - report. "Dual-mode mobile/wi-fi handsets will be the key driver to mass consumer adoption of VoIP. By 2009, over 66m mobile/wi-fi handsets will be in operation, according to a report from market research firm In-Stat. "Digital Media Europe
RSS: Geeky or mainstream?
RSS failing to gain audience mindshare. "Nielsen/NetRatings polled 1,000 members of its research panel who read blogs. It found that nearly two-thirds of the respondents either never heard of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or did not know what the technology is used for. The study found only 11% of Web log readers use RSS to monitor blogs"ArsTechnica
August 25, 2005
Smart tags
QR Code Gets Active for Lost Children. "Fujitsu developed a new technology that embeds IDs, IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, IP packets (both IPv4 and IPv6), and a "pulse signal" that can be directly sent out to the Internet into non-digital media including printed QR Codes. The technology for example allows for easily sending out notification messages by attaching QR Codes to things, people, etc. Using this technology, in a few days, the compay will test a system for notifying parents about their lost children at Shima Spanish Village in Mie Prefecture. QR Codes are attached to children -- if they are lost, someone can use a scanner to read their QR codes. The information encoded in the QR Codes includes the email address of a server machine. When it is scanned, the system automatically send email to the server, then the server notifies their parents using SMS."RFID in Japan
Community lending
Ripple. "Ripple cuts the banks right out of the picture by allowing anyone to act as a bank and grant credit within the Ripple system to anyone they know. The system keeps track of the source of all IOUs, so that debts that are not repaid are automatically borne by the issuer."
Project Homepage
August 24, 2005
People creating media
Citizens do media for themselves. "D Lasica's ourmedia is a place online where anyone can publish their own digital home movie, music, photos, or even plain old blog for free. [...] Since its inception in March 2005, not-for-profit Ourmedia has attracted more than 31,000 international members, and now plays host to 22,000 separate pieces of media, from travelogs to tastes of family life."
Smart Mobs
Growth in blogs
Visiting the blogs. "A new report out by a leading Internet research company has revealed that fully 30 percent of American Internet users visited blogs during the first quarter of 2005",this CNET news article says.According to it "almost 50 million--or one in six--Americans spent at least some time on blogs during that time frame.That's a 45 percent rise over the year before".Smart Mobs
August 10, 2005
Women using technology
Women more likely to text than men. "...young women are more likely than their male counterparts to use a computer and more likely to own a mobile phone and use it for text messaging."ElectricNews.net
August 08, 2005
IM and SMS popularity with teens
Teens spurn e-mail for messaging. "...instant messaging was proving the most popular way to chat with friends. Three-quarters 75% of online teenagers in the US have used IM, the survey found, with personalised features proving popular."
BBC NEWS
Some post-blog predictions
10 for 10. "Recently, a few people asked me over lunch: what's next after blogging and podcasting? [...] This has all got me thinking about what technology-driven trends will revolutionize how companies communicate. Here's my list of 10 trends to keep an eye on for the next 10 years."
Micro Persuasion
August 06, 2005
More tagging
Web Tags Gain Backers at AlwaysOn. "The phenomenon of tagging the Web appears to be gaining more converts, as another online startup embraces the metadata annotations and as even enterprises begin to take note of the trend."EWeek
Tagging instead of sending
del.icio.us links for: you and me. "The del.icio.us team released a fun new feature: tag a link for:username for bookmarks you want other del.icio.us users to see. I'll be watching for:ginatrapani, so if you're a del.icio.us user with a link for me, tag it up."
Lifehacker
Robotic companions
Gentle Purr of the iCat. "The iCat is another robot with facial expressions - designed by Philips to stimulate and study Human-Robot interaction. It's equipped with a camera, a microphone, a speaker, and a variety of touch sensors and multi-color LEDs, to help the robot interact more fully with its human counterparts and gain some semblance of a "personality."
Gizmodo
July 07, 2005
Meeting strangers
YOU-WHO social networking cellphone game. "...after mutual consent to play YOU-WHO, one player acts as the "mystery person" feeding bits of information about their appearance to the other player who eagerly draws their cutesy image on their screen. The phones then "call" each other revealing the players' locations and identities."
Engadget
July 06, 2005
Blogging business
Blogging While Browsing, but Not Buying. "Online merchants are starting to test Web logs, which are akin to online diaries, in hopes of giving their stores more personality and giving customers a reason to return even when they're not in the mood to buy. But for companies like Bluefly.com, eHobbies, Ice.com and others, blogs are so far afield from typical retail functions that they will take time to master."
The New York Times (may require free subscription)
June 27, 2005
Data vs. voice access
Airline passengers love inflight SMS, hate voice calls. "While the majority of respondents would not approve of passengers making voice calls during flights, some 64 percent of respondents indicated their approval of using mobile phones for data services such as SMS. Of the 11 specified wireless activities, in-flight messaging emerged as the most popular choice among respondents."The Register
June 14, 2005
Classes by phone
Get your next college lecture delivered to your video phone. "UK's Coventry University is broadcasting its lectures straight to the 3G handsets of its students. The lessons are filmed, whittled down into 15-minute edited segments and sent to the students' 3G phones "so they don't have to get out of bed in the mornings."
Engadget
Visualizing social relationships
Your social world on a phone screen. "A series of avatars on your phone screen represent your friends, acquaintances or relatives. The frequency of all digital communications (they can include voice calls, voice Messages, SMS, MMS, e-mail, Instant Messaging, VoIP, etc.) between you and each person, which the system monitors, determines that avatar's posture: an alert stance indicates frequent recent contact, for example; a lethargic posture or turned back means neglect. You can also register non-digital contacts manually."
we make money not art
June 03, 2005
Community through technology
Beyond Kiwanis: Internet builds new communities. "cell phones, e-mails, instant text messaging and Blackberries are helping mobile, busy Americans link up with neighbors on their commutes to work, in the middle of the night and on business trips."
USATODAY.com
Business podcasting
Podcasting Sneaks into Business. "Paradyne, the networking company, is diving into podcasts for internal communications. "We've seen such good results with podcasts," writes marketing manager Eric Knapp in an e-mail, "that we're thinking of issuing iPods to our entire sales force." Next up for Paradyne? Video podcasts for training within a month or two."Gizmodo
May 16, 2005
Technology providing social cues
Ambient social networking interface. "Before entering the Sparks environment, each user pre-selects a number of interests from a pool of keywords. Within the environment, Sparks projects the keywords in an aura on the floor around the user. The aura follows the user within the environment, and augments the visual cues people use to capture initial impressions about another person."
we make money not art
May 12, 2005
Self created audio guides
Students make their own MOMA audio-guides. "Students at Marymount Manhattan College's Department of Communication Arts are recording their own audio commentary on the Museum of Modern Art's exhibits. They're also inviting others to make their own homemade audio guides to MOMA, which they'll collect and post online."Boing Boing
May 11, 2005
Proximity aware phones
See and be seen. "Nokia has launched Sensor, a software that uses Bluetooth to indicate and start proximity interactions - i.e. people within 10-30m of you. You create a folio - like a little web page - that others in your physical location can see. Then you can check out the folios of other Sensor users nearby, exchange messages, and share files."
Smart Mobs
May 09, 2005
Wiki + Blog + lists
Backpack personal organizer. "Backpack's a fun combination wiki, weblog, to-do list and calendar that's featureful but not overwhelming. Make a page that contains check-offable lists, images, dated notes, and files about a project or idea. Link pages and share them with others for collaborative editing. Set up reminders that get sent to your email or mobile device about project deliverables - or to water the plants or pay the rent. Subscribe to page changes in your newsreader, and reminders in your calendar applicaton."
Lifehacker
April 28, 2005
Celebrity blogging
Celebrity Blog Set to Launch. "Norman Mailer, David Mamet, Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Walter Cronkite, Gwyneth Paltrow, Harold Evans and Tina Brown are just a few of the 250-plus names recruited by Arianna Huffington, commentator, one-time Republican and candidate for governor of California, to create an ber-blog that will offer a round-the-clock commentary on our life and times."
PSFK
Communication addiction
'Infomania' worse than marijuana. "Workers distracted by email and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers, new research has claimed. The study for computing firm Hewlett Packard warned of a rise in "infomania", with people becoming addicted to email and text messages."
BBC NEWS
April 08, 2005
VOIP popularity
US to embrace VoIP. "Those clever boffins at IDC reckon the number of residential VoIP users will rise from three million at present to 27 million by the end of 2009. Despite its slow start, VoIP is beginning to take-off with punters hooked on the cheaper call charges on offer."The Register
April 04, 2005
Technology for group identity
the secret lives of teenagers . "BuddyBeads are techno-jewelry items that facilitate non-verbal and emotional communication among group members, through codes and signals which the group decided upon together."
interaction design - Ivrea
April 01, 2005
Sending messages with gesture
Japanese Research: 'Tossing' Data between PDAs. "Small movements mean the data is aimed at close-by receivers, strong movements mean a far toss. The system works with a light emitted from the PDAs that is registered by a camera that calculates the destination for the data exchange."
I4U News
2D barcodes in ink
Stamkey stamps transfer personal info to your cellphone. "Stamkey [...] allows you to embed information in a 2D tag called a QR code - essentially a bar code that encodes information in both the x and y axes instead of along the usual unidirectional strip. The Stamkey stamp is then readable by a cameraphone, enabling transmission of the encoded data into your phone."
Engadget
March 22, 2005
Assigning features to body parts
Biometric Speed Dialing. "For instance, touching the [sensor] with an index finger would dial Mom; touching it with a ring finger would dial Sweetie; touching it with the middle finger could dial the office."
Gizmodo
Blogging stats
Gallup on Blogs. "Some useful results ... about 75% of people in the US use the Internet ... just 12% of people read blogs at all ... and 56% of consumers dont appear to know what they are. Most of the results are regarding political blogs."IFTF's Future Now
March 09, 2005
Future mobile communications
rb.log. "The video you are about to see portrays the kind of technological advances that could transform our world over the next ten years. The events depicted are fictional, but the potential of NTT DoCoMo's cutting-edge technology is very real. Our third-generation (3G) FOMA service is already operational throughout Japan; and by 2010, we hope to have fully brought our vision of advanced mobile communications to fruition."
DoCoMo
February 25, 2005
Wi-fi on the highway
VOIP At 80 MPH: RoamAD, WiVOD Claim World's Wold's First Wi-Fi Highway. "In a live demo users were able to make multi-party VOIP conference calls at over 80 miles per hour across the network. [...] Initially the network will serve police, fire, ambulance and US Border Patrol operations. Later, according to RoamAD, other "community agencies, schools, business and local residents" will be added as the network expands."Extreme Tech
Technology support for seniors
Talking dolls for Japanese senior citizens. "Talking toys have become such a hit that some elderly people have embraced them as substitutes for the children who have grown old and deserted entire neighborhoods in the rapidly greying country."
Boing Boing
February 21, 2005
Robots in medicine
Domo Arigato, Doctor Roboto. "The 5-foot, 200-pound robot is equipped with a screen, zoom video camera, microphone and speakers that allow a physician to speak with and examine their patient and review charts, all while being remotely steered by doctors using videoconferencing and movement controls run through a secure Internet connection that is dropped into a wireless network at the hospital site where the robot is working."Tech Review
January 28, 2005
Two-way internet
Information Wants to be Liquid. "Hegland's project, Liquid Information, is kinda like Wikipedia meets hypertext. In Hegland's web, all documents are editable, and every word is a potential hyperlink."Wired News
January 27, 2005
RSS driving phone alerts
feedbeep :: rss notification. "FeedBeep is the final link between you and the wealth of information published on the internet. Hundreds of thousands of data feeds are available in RSS format, and now you can receive alerts about events worldwide - as they happen - right on your SMS-capable phone."
Feedbeep
December 17, 2004
IM & SMS pushing out e-mail
Online Communication And Collaboration: Teenagers Show The Future. "Since their kids are all using IM for personal reasons, a lot of adults are using it during the day...they can tell them 'do your homework, do your laundry.'" As new services like voice and video messaging get added to the IM programs, it will likely be kids who help promote the emerging technologies."
Robin Good's Latest News
Wearables in the workplace
Wired and ready to wear. "Commercial inventions such as the Apple Computer iPod or personal data assistants (PDA) are the most well-known forms of wearable computers; everyone uses them, from grocery clerks to CEOs. The U.S. Armed Forces are adopting wearable computers rapidly as well, but their devices will tend to be more rugged than commercial wearables, and their missions more critical than just scheduling meetings or doing inventory."
Military & Aerospace Electronics
December 07, 2004
Ambient monitoring
Wearables for everyday objects. "This key-chain radio station broadcasts the sounds you make through regular FM radio and shares them with people hidden from your eye. It works only within a radius of about 20 meters. The sound quality is not very clear, but people can guess what you are doing. In addition, the lower sound quality reduces concerns about privacy issues."
we make money not art
December 06, 2004
Biometric association
Biometric Phone: Pantech GI100. "You can also associate each of your fingers (provided you don't have more than ten) to speed-dial numbers, so you just have to touch the sensor and your phone will discreetly place a call."
Gizmodo
Living online
Her So-Called Digital Life. "Hodder, a 37-year-old internet consultant, spends almost her entire life on-screen. She carries her laptop almost everywhere she goes, traipsing from cafe to cafe looking for Wi-Fi to hook into. She downloads pirated movies and even television shows off the net, shops there and pays all her bills, too. Her blog, Napsterization.org, explores how technology alters the media landscape. Although technically based in the San Francisco Bay Area, she lives, works and plays on the web."Wired News
December 01, 2004
The impact of new communications technology
New Forms of Online Communication Spell End of Email Era in Korea. "The ebbing of email is a phenomenon peculiar to Korea, an IT power. Leading the big change, unprecedented in the world, are our teens and those in their 20's. The perception that "email is an old and formal communication means"is rapidly spreading among them."Smart Mobs
November 26, 2004
Walk-around displays
The SeeLinder: Make 3D holographic video calls, at least eventually. "SeeLinder uses a 360-degree digital camera and cyliderical tube to create real-time three-dimensional holograms that'll let you view the person you're talking to from almost any angle (i.e. you can walk around them and stare at the back of their head while their talking, etc.)."
Engadget
Video-conferencing the family
Waving Hello, From a Distance. "But there is anecdotal evidence that face-to-face electronic communication is gaining a foothold beyond the executive suite, and that the typical home users are no longer the stereotypical geeks straining to see each other over crude Webcams connected by sluggish modems."
The New York Times
November 17, 2004
Landline and VOIP phones
The DUALphone: Cordless landline phone that also makes Skype calls. "To make Skype calls you've gotta plug it into a USB port on your PC (and leave your PC on), but instead of dialing a number, the phone has a LCD display that shows which of your contacts are online. Just pick one of them, press a button, and you're connected. We're sold."
Engadget
Exchanging info through touch
iBand adds IR to the handshake. "By simply shaking someone's hand (assuming both are wearing iBands, which is another issue), you can transmit your data while receiving his. Each user has a unique led symbol that is also exchanged, and the more people you have met, the more your LED changes shape into those new friends' icons."
Engadget
November 11, 2004
Social networking in the marketplace
Shopping With My Friendsters. "Late last month, Buy.com bought the social networking site Metails.com, with plans to sell items that people are buzzing about with their online friends. Analysts said more sites could follow, particularly as the cost of Internet advertising rises."The New York Times (may require free registration)
November 05, 2004
VOIP goes mainstream
VoIP heads for the big time. "VoIP applications and services, which allow residential customers to avoid call charges, could grab up to 13 per cent of the European phone market by 2008."The Register
Mobile technology in higher education
M-Learning 4 Generation Txt?"Michele Forman, the 2001 National Teacher of the Year in the United States, notes that her high-school students became very attached to their wireless laptops. They significantly increased their personal writing and composition. Such machines become prosthetics for information, memory and creativity."TheFeature
November 04, 2004
Context based communication tools
A Mobile Web That Knows All About You. "Recently, a group of students at CMU developed an application for MyCampus called InfoBridge, which lets users post and read "virtual posters" about upcoming events. For example, say a user has indicated that she likes track and field events. She'll be notified about events as soon as another person makes a virtual poster about it, unless she's sitting in class. If that's the case, she won't be notified until class is over."
TheFeature
November 03, 2004
Displays in clothing
NYX Wearable Displays. "The display is quite flexible and is not raised from the surface of the fabric. To show scrolling text or a graphical animation, just plug in your a Palm Pilot loaded with the NYX software and enter whatever you want. From club kids to traffic cops, wearable displays will soon be fun, informative and sometimes annoying."
Cool Hunting
November 02, 2004
Crowd participation
Backchannel Notes - Bleecker. "Last night we ran an experimental "backchannel" during Julian Bleecker's talk in the Zemeckis Media Lab. Backchannel refers to making the crowd chatter public, the idea that the students or audience can discuss during a lecture in a way that becomes part of the shared intellectual space."
just in teractive
Video dating
Video dating can be great but you have to find the right signals. "My date with Yara Khalife does not go well. I thought that opening the call with a shot of a garden gnome was amusing. She looks confused."
Telegraph
October 22, 2004
Location-based environments
The Bluetooth shopping centre. "Tomorrow will be launched the bluepulse location-based service which enables people within a Sydney shopping centre get on their phones the information they want about their surroundings. Based on a shopper's "profile" which is developed over time, the system is always looking for things of relevance."[1].jpg)
we make money not art
October 20, 2004
Blogging with other media
BlogFlix creates photo videos for photoblogs, works with any blog hosting service.. "Welcome to BlogFlix, a new online service for creating and deploying moving pictures in blogs and webpages. As a web-based tool, BlogFlix brings pages to life with videos and video-like photo effects."
BlogFix
August 24, 2004
RSS for calendaring
RSS gets down to business. "The RSSCalendar program allows users to convert and publish their calendar data as an RSS feed. Friends, co-workers and customers can subscribe to the calendar feed and automatically receive notices of new appointments, which can be viewed through an RSS reader or imported to a Web-based calendar or Microsoft Outlook."Globetechnology
August 18, 2004
Digital rejections
The Paper Napkin email rejection service. "Give them anyname@papernapkin.net (or paamail.com, to be less suspicious), tell them it's your address, and when they write you, they'll automatically get a response telling them how badly they've been rejected."Paper Napkin
August 14, 2004
Ad-hoc social (Bluetooth) networks
Bluetooth Umbrella Networks. "A team called "Umbrella.net" [] has developed a prototype system of Bluetooth umbrellas that facilitate "sudden, striking, and unexpected connections between people in public and urban space" by forming ad-hoc mesh networks when unfurled."
Gizmodo
August 09, 2004
SMS for kids
Magic Messenger for kids. "Today's fast-paced world demands ever more of our children and the Magic Messenger is here to help. It's a neat little device with a full QWERTY keyboard that connects to a landline and lets you send text messages to both cellphones and regular phones (converting your child's message to speech if the recipient's phone isn't text message-capable).
Engadget
August 06, 2004
Ubiquitous computing efforts
MIT Project Oxygen: Overview. "They will help us automate repetitive human tasks, control a wealth of physical devices in the environment, find the information we need (when we need it, without forcing our eyes to examine thousands of search-engine hits), and enable us to work together with other people through space and time."MIT
August 02, 2004
Taking technology to remote communities
DIGITAL DIRTBIKE. "Digital Dirt Bike is a solar-powered information and communication center on wheels. A local technician drives from village to village, delivering treatments for common plant, animal and human diseases; weather forecasts; supplemental school lessons; and vocational information for farming and industry."
IDSA
July 30, 2004
Social networks for work
Online social networks go to work. "But there is growing evidence to support claims that some social networking services (SNS for short) can be a powerful professional ally to businesses — in particular, independent entrepreneurs and smaller companies, for whom each new personal connection is a significant business building block."MSNBC
July 26, 2004
Virtual design studios
Virtual Design: As clay fades, GM shifts toward digital imagery . "The studios allow designers and executives to view three-dimensional, full-sized representations of vehicle designs. Designers can rotate images, change lighting and see surfaces in detail. Design teams in different parts of the world will be able to review and revise projects together at the same time."AutoWeek
International VOIP
Skype close to launching global Net call service. "Skype Technologies SA, which offers software that allows users to make free phone calls over the Internet, said Friday that it is closer to launching a new prepay service in which users can make cheap calls to any phone around the world from their PCs."InfoWorld
July 19, 2004
Searching for information through your social network
IM taps social networks. "The prototype combines IM with a pair of advanced functions to support the social network-based search process. It contains a more precise and sophisticated user profile than most IM and a referral agent that automatically handles the information-querying process."Smart Mobs
July 14, 2004
Video conferencing your family
It's almost like being there. "By putting people in touch with the actual faces of our loved ones, we experience a much deeper sense of emotional connection with them, because we understand in a way that we simply cannot if we don't see them, what exactly it is they are feeling. We have a much better understanding of their emotional state."
csmonitor.com
July 13, 2004
Messages from beyond the grave
Video Headstones. "A Burlingame, California, entrepreneur has filed a patent for hollow headstones fitted with flat LCD touch panels that will allow the deceased to play messages to visitors from beyond the grave..."
Gizmodo
More bloggers
8,000 bloggers born every day. "That means that a new weblog is created somewhere in the world every 5.8 seconds. Of these, a reported 36 per cent irritate friends or family with their twitterings, while a staggering 12 per cent attract the attention of lawyers with their biting commentary."The Register
July 09, 2004
RSS feeds for everything
ListGarden RSS Feed Generator. "The ListGarden program is a tool for manually creating and maintaining RSS feeds."Software Garden Products
June 28, 2004
Peer-to-peer development
Q&A With MIT's Nicholas Negroponte. "Peer-to-peer is key. I mean that in every form conceivable: cell phones without towers, sharing leftover food, bartering, etc. "BW Online
VOIP to landlines
Outed: Skype project to dial real phone numbers. "I just spent nearly ten minutes on the phone to Paris, at a cost of about 10 pence. Using Skype, dialling a Paris landline number, that is."The Register
June 25, 2004
Knowing who's sending you e-mail
Sender ID e-mail spec submitted to standards body. "Sender ID maintains lists of IP addresses from which sent e-mail can be traced, and if adopted as a standard, could provide a way to close loopholes that allow e-mail senders to spoof or fake the origin of their message."InfoWorld:
Quick e-mail
Push To Talk Pioneer Announces Unique 'Push To E-mail' Application. "...allows users to send a streaming mp3 voice message from their phone to any e-mail recipient quickly and easily by simply pressing the Direct Connect(R) button on the side of every Nextel phone."Forbes.com
June 23, 2004
Computers for harsh environments
NetworkAnatomy Homepage. "CommanderGauntlet (currently in development) is a comprehensive wireless communications device incorporating voice, data, audio, video, text messaging and extreme lighting."
June 22, 2004
Technology confusion
North Americans confused about VoIP. "...six in ten of those who have heard of VoIP are confused about how the Internet-based telephone service really works."The Register
June 20, 2004
Converged handhelds
petfrog: portable network-software of the future. "The petfrog is the first wireless communication and computing concept with a totally integrated hardware, software, and content user-interface."
frog
Wi-fi phone networks
Grand Haven, Michigan's citywide WiFi phone service. "...anybody willing to install enough hotspots could build their own wireless phone network on the cheap."
Engadget
Jamming celphones and wi-fi
Italy School Foils Cheats by Blocking Phone Signals. "Mobile phone-savvy teenagers tempted to cheat on exams by sending text messages or scanning pictures of tests could be thwarted by a device that jams signals inside the school walls."Reuters.com
June 17, 2004
Adoption of mobile devices in the public sector
Councils go mobile to cut red tape. "The London Borough of Lewisham has found maintaining its 30,000 tenanted homes far easier since it gave its workforce of plumbers, joiners and other maintenance staff mobile devices."
BBC
What weblogs are good at
Weblog networks as social ecosystems . "A great summary of why weblogs are critical social networking tools and a bung of valuable reference links."
Mathemagenic
June 16, 2004
Checking up on your pets
Remote pet-cam. "Named 'Peppot Camera' (the translation failed this one) the camera sends the images to your email so you can check up on Rover while on vacation."
Engadget
Consumer cellphone use
Wireless. "Part phone, part computer, part TV, and part radio, the newest cell phones blur the divisions of technology."BW Online
June 14, 2004
Moving to voice over IP
BT to Scrap Traditional Phone Network. "British Telecom PLC announces plans to move to IP telephony for most of its 28 million customers by 2008"EWeek
June 11, 2004
Making connections with people
MOBILE USERS IN SINGAPORE MAKE NEW FRIENDS WITH BEDD. "searches automatically to meet people for friendship and dating, buying and selling and letting people know when their family and friends are close by, allowing users to then meet immediately via free Bluetooth chat messaging, SMS, MMS, Call, IM or Email."
www.hardwarezone.com
June 10, 2004
Emergency alerts by phone
Arizona expands Amber Alert distribution to public. "The Arizona Amber Alert system for child abduction notifications is expanding its distribution system so that people can receive them by e-mail and other high-tech means."KVOA
Social networks for specific groups
College Facebook Mugs Go Online. "Thefacebook is modeled after schools' traditional facebooks -- booklets with names, photos, interests and other information about students. The site started in February and is expanding rapidly."Wired News:
June 07, 2004
Teenage blogging
Teenagers reach out via weblogs. "He found the gender split in blog use was 50-50. But worryingly, teens tended to reveal more personal details on blogs than in chatrooms and forums. "
BBC NEWS
Virtually annotating the city
urban tapestries. "The Urban Tapestries software platform allows people to author their own virtual annotations of the city, enabling a community’s collective memory to grow organically, allowing ordinary citizens to embed social knowledge in the new wireless landscape of the city."
SoMa
June 02, 2004
Meeting through mobiles
A BlackBerry Throbs, and a Wonk Has a Date. "He: "You and me -- tomorrow night -- dinner." She: "Sure." And that was that."
The New York Times
June 01, 2004
Computers do the hiring
Companies Leave First Hiring Step to Computers. "Companies including The Sports Authority Inc., Blockbuster Inc. and the Golden Corral Corp. steakhouse chain have also adopted the online screening systems. Many companies using the systems have installed in-store terminals or telephones equipped with screens and keyboards especially for the purpose, while others direct people to apply on company Web sites."EWeek
May 28, 2004
Weblog festival from iran
The First Persian Weblog Festival. "Regarding the everyday increase of use of internet in Iran and the wonderful statistics for the number of Iranian weblogs, which involve a great large amount of the web's Persian content, we decided to hold the first festival for Persian weblogs and internet magazines."weblogfestival.com
May 21, 2004
What if all small/medium business services move online?
Web veteran turns to world of work. "Through the On Instant software, firms can manage customer contacts and sales leads, recruit staff, find funding, publicise what they do, search for partners and talk to staff and other network members."BBC NEWS
May 19, 2004
Personal area network of gadgets
Checking out IXI's Personal Mobile Gateway. "Rather than offering a combination cellphone/PDA/camera that does tries to do everything in one device, a company called IXI is pushing their idea that people should instead carry a whole bunch of gadgets that use Bluetooth to connect together in a little network via a Personal Mobile Gateway, or PMG."
Engadget
Smart homes helping seniors
Smart homes offer a helping hand. "To help people cope, Accenture researchers are concentrating on five main projects: Persuasive mirrors; Connective tables; Shared scrap books; Interactive pictures; Activity monitoring"
BBC NEWS
Sending SMS to another driver
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS. "TEXTJAM links a vehicle's number plate to a driver's email address and sends sms text messages to the owner's mobile phone in real-time. You can send and receive email and sms text messages along with other drivers, knowing only the other driver's number plate."TextJam.com
May 17, 2004
Using Blogs at work
The Virtues of Chitchat - Making I.T. Work. "Why wouldn't it make sense for an IT project manager to post a blog - or "plog" (project log) - to keep her team and its constituents up-to-date on project issues and concerns?"CIO.com
May 13, 2004
Online worship
3D online church. "Welcome to Church of Fools, the UK's first web-based, 3D church, which opened this week on May 11th. Please read our house rules, and then click here to enter the church. Created by Ship of Fools and digital media agency specialmoves as a three-month experiment, Church of Fools promises to be one of the most ambitious attempts yet to do church on the internet. Click and read below for news and info."
Church of Fools
May 12, 2004
Slow adoption of multi-media phone messaging
Picture messages slow to take off. "Euro 2004 and the Athens Olympic Games could prove the turning points for the technology in Europe, it believes. There is some evidence to support this theory. MMS adoption in Asia rose on the back of the 2002 football World Cup."BBC NEWS
May 10, 2004
Personal area networks that aren't connected to the web
WiFi.Bedouin. "WiFi.Bedouin is a wearable, mobile 802.11b node disconnected from the global Internet. It forms a WiFi "island Internet" challenging conventional assumptions about WiFi and suggesting new architectures for digital networks that are based on physical proximity rather than solely connectivity."
techkwondo
Phone calls over Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi Phones Could Be Next Trend in Thrift. "Many college campuses also have extensive Wi-Fi networks. Dartmouth College, a leader in campus Wi-Fi, now gives students software for making free long-distance calls over the wireless network."Yahoo! News
May 06, 2004
Gadgets from design teams
NextFest: The Shape of Things to Come. "They're as small as your cell phone, more powerful than your desktop, and packed with 10 years of future tech. Five design giants build the supergadgets of 2014."
Wired
May 04, 2004
VOIP communications integration is good for the disabled
How VoIP Can Connect the Disabled. "While VoIP is creating quite a stir in the telecommuncations field overall, it's an especially promising technology for people with disabilities."Business Week
April 12, 2004
RSS on any device
RSS and Mobile Devices. "So, what does all actually this look like on a device? Well, heres what I look at each day. For these examples, I made this article an RSS feed on my site. I didnt need to publish 100 different ways, just once and it was go to go."
dailywireless
April 09, 2004
Distributed meeting
Distributed Meetings: A Meeting Capture and Broadcasting System (PDF). "In this paper we describe a system that provides these features, as well as a user study evaluation of the system. The system uses a variety of capture devices (a novel 360 camera, a whiteboard camera, an overview camera, and a microphone array) to provide a rich experience for people who want to participate in a meeting from a distance."
Microsoft Research
April 07, 2004
Keeping contact info up to date automatically
Helping People on the Move Keep Addresses Up to Date. "After downloading Plaxo's free software onto either the Outlook or Outlook Express e-mail program, a PC user can choose which friends to ask for current contact information. Recipients can provide new contact information, decline the request or ignore it."NYTimes
April 01, 2004
Virtual worlds for socializing
My Avatar, My Self. "I'm in There, the most ambitious virtual world yet. Created by a coterie of programmers, Silicon Valley moguls, and Hollywood animators, who have raised about $37 million (and endured at least one round of layoffs), There is a big gamble on one little idea: that the future of online communication looks like a video game. But it's not a game. People don’t come here to battle dragons or ogle Lara Croft. They come to hang out. They come to socialize. And they come for the hot tubs."
TechReview
March 31, 2004
A more immersive videoconferencing system
impoint. "The locale conference table will be seamlessly integrated in a virtual conference scene including other remote participants represented on a large display and under correct perspective."
The Heinrich-Hertz-Institute
March 24, 2004
Long MIT article on Social Networking
New social-networking startups aim to mine digital connections to help people find jobs and close deals.
."Companies like Spoke Software of Palo Alto, CA, are building applications that automatically sort through this data and then apply social-networking-analysis techniques to weight connections and generate corporate sociograms showing the strongest paths to target customers."
March 18, 2004
Systems for making smart choices about how to contact you
Beware of geeks bearing 'presence'. "True presence, where everybody who needs to contact you knows where you are and what you're doing, is years off and requires surmounting a host of technical, business and behavioral challenges."CNET News.com
March 11, 2004
Timeline of your mobile phone items
Log your life via your phone. "The Lifeblog software automatically arranges all the messages, images, videos and sound clips people capture with their phones."BBC News
March 04, 2004
Dynamo: multi-user, large screen shared workspace
Dynamo: a communal, multi-user surface that supports cooperative sharing & exchange of digital media. "Dynamo is a situated display system, normally configured to use two large, publicly visible wall displays. Dynamo is multi-user. This means that each user has their own pointer on the communal display. This may be via their own laptop, tablet PC, or via wireless mice & keyboards provided."
Dynamo Interactive
Japanese translation PDA
Robo-talk helps pocket translator "Users can talk into the device and it will talk back in almost-perfect Japanese in a second.It has voice recognition, digital voice translation and a voice synthesiser to talk to users, explained Chris Shimizu, NEC's corporate relations manager, and the quality of the voice spoken back to users is much more human than robotic."
BBC NEWS
Classes piped to In-School suspended kids
Suspended kids log on to Web class - 03/01/04 "Cameras record every minute of Beverly Pearson’s day as a high school English teacher. When Pearson strides to the blackboard, a lens swivels to track her movements. A microphone captures each word.It’s all piped electronically to a nearby building at Coffeeville High School where students stuck in suspension can follow Pearson’s class or any other lesson at the school by logging onto a computer and tracking the classes on the Internet.
Detroit News
44% of US internet users have contributed material online
Americans get personal online "The report, entitled "Content Creation Online", notes that "while blogs or personal online journals have captured the attention of the technology community, most of those who have made contributions have done so in less cutting-edge ways"."The Register
March 02, 2004
Mediachest: eBay-like loaning, not buying
Organize, borrow, loan, and share books, CDs, DVDs, and video games "Mediachest is a social software site that allows users to inventory their collection of physical media items and search the collections of their friends and friends-of-friends for items such as DVDs or books that they would like to borrow."mediachest.com
March 01, 2004
Laptops with phones
Notebooks to dial up built-in phones "Manufacturers plan to start selling notebooks with integrated Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) this year and plan later to offer notebooks with built-in cell phone capabilities"CNET News.com
February 27, 2004
Miners learning skills through video conferencing
Miners tap into video goldmine "Despite a challenge of translating from Kyrgyz to Russian to English, they told compelling stories about the need for more technical knowledge.Other video conference sessions looked at safety and investment issues. In one conference, participants from the Kyrgyz Republic were able to quiz specialists from the IMF in Washington about certain regulatory issues.
BBC NEWS
February 26, 2004
Wavemarket location based blogs
"WaveMarket extends recent, fast-emerging blogging technology into a wider circle. Any mobile handset user can now share information on anything--restaurants, safety warnings, missing children, truck tracking or buddy finder alerts. Through WaveMarket's "master blog," everyone becomes an instant broadcast journalist on location, and through our blog, WaveMarket becomes their distribution channel."Wavemarket
NetPhone sales surge
Sales of Net phone gear surge on VoIP "Worldwide sales of Internet phone equipment rose 31 percent in the last three months of 2003 and could triple by 2007, as demand surges for voice over Internet Protocol gear, according to analyst firm Infonetics Research."CNET News.com
February 17, 2004
Future thinking from Vodaphone
Various future vision resources from Vodaphone. "In this website we will enable you to explore what we think that future might look like, experience some of the changes we believe will happen, and tell us what you think of them."Vodafone
January 28, 2004
Blog searchers
BlogPulse and DayPop are both tools that mine blogs for key phrases, sites and people of the day. BlogPulse describes itself as "automated trend discovery for weblogs".GlogPulse.com & DayPop.com
January 19, 2004
January 05, 2004
Social networks in the office
Contact Network 2.5 allows employees to create social networks in which contacts can be shared to create new introductions and sales leads.eWeek
December 05, 2003
Tables that connect people
An MIT Europe project that attempts to connect two loved ones seperated by distance through the use of two tables, a bunch of RFID tags and a couple of projectors.Wired News
Bluejacking: More then just a fad?
Could there be more to Bluejacking (the act of secretly sending messages to strangers on Bluetooth phones) then just some random fad might suggest?Gizmodo
November 20, 2003
November 18, 2003
Collaborative calendar
Upcoming.org is a collaborative events calendar in whicm members add events going on in their area. These are then used to drive sites like Gothamist.comUpcoming.org
Smart tags for events
nTags are smart badges, used at a recent Pop!Tech conference, that allow exchanging of personal details and other info, as well as notification of conference schedules.New Scientist
Friend of a Friend (FOAF)
the friend of a friend (foaf) project attempts to create an XML standard for describing an individual and their friends, that can then be navigated. Kind if a role your own friendship network.foaf-project.org
November 17, 2003
Using the Internet to set up face to face meetings
Meetup is a website that helps people with similar interests, in cities around the world, meet face to face.Meetup.com
November 07, 2003
Internet public radio
Here's an internet radio playing radio that broadcasts chanels from Peercast, a P2P internet radio network.cacheop
November 06, 2003
VOIP enters prime time
The question is what VOIP replacing long distance phone networks means for PC telephony. Surely its a positive? A lot of the VOIP adaptors don't require a PC, though.A VC
October 09, 2003
VOIP with no PC
Here's a little box that you can carry with you and connect to any internet connection and it does voice over IP. No PC required. And no geographical boundaries. Unlimited use talking to someone else with the same box.CNET News.com
September 01, 2003
The power of word of mouth
Word of mouth. This is a great example of how word of mouth, though rapid communication technology like SMS and IM, could burst the bubble of marketing hype really quickly.The Hollywood Reporter
August 11, 2003
Spontaneous group events
So called Flash Mobs are spontaneous group events, with people called to a specific location by e-mail, SMS or the web, to perform some task and then rapidly disperse.New York Times
Micro payment newspaper
Redpaper offers a collaborative, micro-payment newspapers in which readers provide, or pay small sums for, newspaper articles.RedPaper
Web cliques
These are websites, usually focussed around a specific theme, to which you apply for membership. The owner of the site sets the rules and conditions for membership.Wired News
Simple Multimedia Websites/e-mail
This is a sort of website/e-mail generation site that's supposed to be easy to add Multimedia elements to, and then share with others. Blog 2.0?Netomat