When people actually think...

I love when a product in it's simplest form bares evidence of the people behind it actually sitting down/taking time to think new thoughts.
Musicovery is for me such a product, and watching the simple but very intuit iv GUI of this app. is very inspiring.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Future vendor of silence...

Just read about NOSO (=NOSOCIAL) which is quite interesting from a workspace point of view.

Of cause it's a bit extreme to have a (social)network to support you in your non-social efforts... but from my point of view, the facilitating of noise-free environment's might be a future commodity.

The trend is all ready forming in work spaces today. The big open office spaces are no longer the main trend. More and more social spaces, meeting, relaxing, thinking spaces find their way into the general office space. We all ready know that the mind needs "quiet time" to filter and form inputs to new meanings and ideas. So why not offer a place with complete silence for your thoughts to be heard?

Personally my imagination runs wild under the shower, and (sorry) on the toilet during the day...
When you think about it, where else are we granted complete solitude?

Where do you go to think?


Where do you get the next good idea?

Powered by ScribeFire.

No gambling in SecondLife - what will become of the alter universe build for exactly that !?

Wow, that was my first though, when I read this over at techcrunch today.

Being a bit of a fallen SL user, with an avatar left to meet it's maker (for now), it's a bit interesting to see what direction Second Life will take from here.
Maybe in the long run, it can help save SL transforming it from this sex-focused money-making world, into a more true place of social interaction. Just maybe...

I'm not jumping back into the SL world, mainly because it's still too time consuming, and my original question "How do i combine my FirstLife with my SecondLife?" has jet to be answered. I do not believe this to be the future of web(3.0) (shame on me - I don't know if web3.0 is as bad to say as web2.0 - is it?)

The true web3.0 - in terms of social interaction, will be much more based on a closer sibling of the browser we know today. I think examples like Flock and the ideas like XFN is more likely to be the near future of the web. (again I know that "web" is a huge concept, just like web2.0)

Powered by ScribeFire.

Very inspiring - watching this over and over again!

I must admit I do not work that way, but on the other hand i see no reason not to! Or at least parts of it. I'd like to meet some people once in a while, but of cause it shows the capabilities of our wonderful Internet, and some simple tools.

It's goes to show that you can do without the giant software companies, but sadly it also pokes at the core of why not so many companies are successful living the full web2.0 (shame on me) dream; It takes every one to get it rolling! I've trying running a project blog - i was tired of my boss asking "what are you doing, what have you been up to this week?", so I started a blog - the problem was, he didn't understand the value, and did not check it...

Anyways, take a look, it's a slideshare

Powered by ScribeFire.

Decentralizing your social network to multiple network services

I had read about it some time ago, and was very interested to hear that there actually was some thought put into the growing problem of multiple social networks like LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook and so on...

Each compeeting each other on different user-expierence/ social angles; business, hobby or some other form of category - Leaving the users in a bit of a predicament, since using only one network-service rule may rule out a lot of friends not associated with that network.

In effect that means you would have to join any networks your friends are using, and/or making them join yours.
Getting your friends to join a network like LinkedIn, if they are not in the business of professional networking but maybe active on MySpace, can be quite hard - and will eventually just leave you and your friends with a lot of networks to update.

Seperating the basic metadata from the network part gives you the ability (in the future) to have friends on multiple networks, but not forceing you to activly join each and every network yourself.

XFN does exactly that - Defining the social relationship between people through simple linking - an advanced blogroll if you will.

Read all about XFN here, and join!!!

Which i found through this post on Scobleizer

Powered by ScribeFire.

Site Review testing technique

I've allways used this "technique" and just glad to find a description of it. (Since i rarely take the time to describe such things myself)

A site review is basically an
unstructured inspection by a third party, typically focusing
on the site's usability and aesthetics.

Read the whole thing here

I think i have two levels of Site Review; Free-form, where i just browse a site as i would have done, being a normal user/visitor. And the more structured function specific approach where i focus on the different flows and it's functions on a website - in the order a visitor would normally encounter them.

The first approach is of cause flavored by my background to some extend and would never replace actual user-tests, but more a technique to be used in the early stages before launch.

The second makes way for iterative reviews of specific flows or functions within a flow, and would often prove the most thorough of the two.

Trying to make a reviews findings structured - because i was asked to by a friend ;) I've taken the time to make a template document with the following simple structure:

Page: [Page name or entire URL]

Screenshot: [An entire or partial picture of the page in question]

Issues: [List of issues]

Solutions: [List of possible solutions to each of the found issues]


I try to keep only one screenshot a page, making it easier for the author to scrap ones that have been corrected or dealt with.

Also on each page i put a date and time along with a page number to make sure the many pages a test might amount to has some structure, which often follows the flow of the test, making the page number quite important in understanding the entire test.

I'm also experimenting with having a Scope: [which specific part of the web page is reviewed and with what kind of angle] (eg. user perspective – flow from the profiles page after first log in)

This translates to a test conducted upon the first log in after registering on the page. Log in being excluded from the test.

This structure should be used in both the free-form and the more structured Site Review.

Update to this post: I've made a Document template, which works well using MS-Word macros. I've put the document online here (without macros)

Powered by ScribeFire.

RFID tagging the city bicycles to make them geosearchable

In Copenhagen, just like a lot of other big cities - we have free to use bicycles which is located around the city in special bike-racks. You get one by putting a 20kr - coin into the release mechanism, a coin you'll get back when you put the bike in one of the special bike-racks in another part of town.


The problem

There are never any bikes when you need them... partly because they are simply stolen, I think someone once told me that 50% of the bikes disappeared every year... that's a lot!!!


I don't think that this idea will solve that problem... or maybe it could help relocate the missing bikes if proper geo tagging is implemented.



The spark that created this idea

You take:

- City bikes concept

- An idea about RFID tagged umbrellas called Dutch Umbrella

- An online metro map, showing the current positions of all metro trains called Byens Puls (=City pulse, you know the nerve line of the city)



The Idea

Well it all most spells itself out - adding the 3 together, you get an online map showing where the city bikes are located, so you can decide where to go an pick one up, or don't bother at all. Also enabling the geo tagging /GPS, could enable a return-bike-crew to find lost bikes and put them in to use again - I know they have a crew finding lost bikes in Aarhus, but they rely on common sense - as to where people usually through the bikes after use...


Take a bit more from the Dutch Umbrella idea; I read some place (innovationlab.dk) that they are giving store owners, who offer a so called raindrop (a pick-up and drop point) valuable information of the umbrellas way around town, making interesting data on the whereabouts of your potential customers. So for example a candy-store owner can see that 60% of his customers come from the nearby cinema - making it possible for him to focus marketing and so on.

Another angle on this idea is that it provides some social public awareness. "where is everybody?" is not a question you have to ask anymore, you can check to see where all the bikes are - maybe there is a concert you didn't know about...

Where the Dutch Umbrella works well if it's raining a lot, the bike concept is better during the summer - maybe the two should co-exists...

My Personality - another test

I'm a sucker for these kind of tests, so here's one from something called 41 Questions. 1 Personality.

www.41q.com



My result



Enthusiastic, idealistic, and creative. Able to do almost anything that interests them. Great people skills. Need to live life in accordance with their inner values. Excited by new ideas, but bored with details. Open-minded and flexible, with a broad range of interests and abilities.

Careers that could fit Kåre Mulvad includes

Actors, journalists, writers, musicians, painters, consultants, psychologists, psychiatrists, entrepreneurs, teachers, counselers, politicans, diplomats, television reporters, marketers, scientists, sales representatives, artists, clergy, public relations, social scientists, social workers.

I don't know if such a test always puts out something positive - but often i get surprised how acurate they seem - maybe it's a bit like a fortune teller ;)

Powered by ScribeFire.

Why Mindmap when you can Wiki?

... or why Wiki when you can mind map?

I should hurry to say that I'm not for one and against another - they are two powerful tools in their own way. And that is exactly what I'm wondering about - when is one better than the other. I remember to have read some comment somewhere (typical of me to forget), about using wiki's as a mind mapping or brainstorming tool.

In lack of a mind mapping software installed (like Openmind og Mindmanager) I'll do it on a simple and also powerful manner... a list:

Mind map pros:
- creates overview
- quick to use
- generates a lot of keywords
- visual image of complexity
- related keywords

Mind map cons:
- lack of information
- a screen is only that big...
- hard to use on the Internet (i know there are some online mind mapping tools around - just check out the tools section on Innovationtools.com)

Wiki pros:
- all the information in one place
- related information
- links to non-existing information (wiki pages)
- born to be used on the Internet

Wiki cons:
- lack of overview
- not quite as fast (despite it's name)


Sum of it all
I think it's not all black and white... i all ways miss the nice visual overview whenever it's not there - and it could be in a lot of places in the business world today. We are so busy making lists and so on, but they aren't well perceived in peoples minds and aren't that easy remembered...

The ( ) stuff in my list above might suggest a wiki would have giving me more space and structure to elaborate, while the shortness and quickness of the list (aka. the mind map) gave me the overview to go in depth with each and every keyword - if i witched to do so...

I would say that a wiki with a mind map overview would be a killer app. - anyone with some Apollo (or adobe air) knowledge up for a challenge?

Comment
There are definitely more pros and cons to put on each of the above topics, so pls. do so if you feel the urge...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Buzan

CowParade - Do some Cow catching with your mobile

This summer in Copenhagen a bunch of cows are invading the city space - read the official explanation here.




At the moment they are moving the cow's out from their "storage" and that is actually a funny thing - because it makes the cows much more alive!! Suddenly a cow is standing in your way...

I don't know exactly for how long the cows are staying, but that is not the important thing here... the focus is the public space, and making people see and interact with it.

On the http://www.cowparade.dk/ they came up with the idea that if you saw a cow, you should take a photo of it and send it to them... that's great, but i thought if they kept moving the cows around making it more live - the competition would be all that more exciting, also encouraging people to explore their own city in new ways.

Well for now - if you spot a cow - take a photo of it and send it to: konkurrence@cowparade.dk