Amusing Ourselves

The ephemerality of digital experience

john — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:24:27 +0000

In b flat is a site I’ve returned to several times in the few weeks since I discovered it. Which is something I recently realised is pretty unusual. I almost never revisit digital content. I consume it and move on. Off to the next thing, perhaps pausing briefly to add it to Delicious, or more likely [...]

Data visualization and open government: from theory to practice

john — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:41:41 +0000

In this TED talk from earlier this year, Tim Berners Lee, inventor of the world wide web, outlines what he calls the ‘next web’, i.e. a web underpinned by structured machine-readable data, e.g. XML, JSON, CSV, with hackable, consistent URLs and well-described relationships. That’s all a bit of mouthful, but what it means in essence [...]

Digital trends presentation from Mary Meeker

john — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:21:36 +0000

Mary Meeker’s Internet Presentation 2009 A presentation from influential digital analyst Mary Meeker on Internet and mobile trends. The first section is background demographic and economic data, so if you want to get to straight digital stuff flip forward to p. 29. Take home points: 1. mobile Internet’s going to be big (which is something [...]

Bomb it: street art, graffiti and tagging documentary

john — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:14:22 +0000

Bomb It - a street art/graffiti documentary featuring Cornbread, Blek le Rat, Shepard Fairey, Pez, Speed and many, many others. Message ends.

Is every company now a media company?

john — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:00:08 +0000

Wallace's observation reminds me of Adam Smith, who in the Wealth of Nations argued that in the new age of divided labour, capital and corporation every man should conduct himself as if he were a business. Applying a similar principle it seems to me that in the new media age, everyone, including companies, non-profits and individuals should conduct themselves as media companies.

A Developing Story: Creative Commons and international development

john — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:46:05 +0000

I’ve spent a significant part of the last month-and-a-half designing and building adevelopingstory.org, a not-for-profit site which aggregates multimedia about international development and the developing world. The site aggregates a wide range of material from professionally produced campaign work, to user-generated Flickr photosets, podcasts and written testimony, hopefully bringing these stories to new audiences as well [...]

Is digital strategy too important to be left to digital agencies?

john — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:37:02 +0000

A provocative post from NMA editor Michael Nutley asks if digital business strategy is too important to be left to digital agencies.

Google Social Graph API - the end of privacy on the web?

john — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:44:25 +0000

Does the Google Social Graph spell an end to web privacy?

You Tube allows rights holders to ‘monetize’ mashups and fan videos

john — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 07:18:19 +0000

An interesting post on the Google blog discusses the latest in a seemingly unending line of ’synchronised dancing at your wedding’ videos. Personally speaking, I’m a little tired of this particular meme, however, the video racked up over 10 million YouTube views in a few days, so I’m probably in the minority. Which is all very [...]

A List Apart explains why you need a content strategy

john — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:29:31 +0000

Writing in A List Apart, Margot Bloomstein explains why you need a content strategy.