Category: Technology
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Tagging -2.0?
I was at first impressed with the power of folksonomy-based tagging (in the sense of allowing users to invent their own taxonomies and metadata for information objects). But now I’m not so sure. I just attended a SXSW panel called “Taxonomy 2.0”, with Tom Vander Wal, Prentiss Riddle, Rashmi Sinha, Adina Levin and moderated by…
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Asynchronous Instant Messaging
You’re chatting with someone over an instant messaging app, when this happens: you: How can I help you? foobar: I need some ideas for a Flash nav… Can you send me that link we saw last week? (you then start typing a very long reply, only to see this next question pop up before you’re…
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Unfamiliar Workspace = Greater Productivity?
Can working in an unfamiliar environment, away from all of your everyday tools and resources, actually help you work more efficiently? I’m starting to think it does. Instead of working late or using the Behavior VPN, lately I’ve been packing all of my working files onto a company “floater” laptop and bringing the whole computer…
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Old mental models never die…
Log in! (photo from the Computer History Museum) In usability testing with consumers (i.e., non-computer experts), I have noticed that a huge number of people use the expression “log on” to simply mean “go to a web site”. They’ll say that they’ve “logged into Google”, suggesting that they’ve entered a user name and password, when…
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I just dont get this whole bo.okmar.king thing.
What ARE these things?? Zeldman’s gang over at Happy Cog have just designed and launched the brand new ma.gnolia, a new social bookmarking tool. Ma.gnolia seems to be something like del.icio.us, of course (as if you can’t tell already by the product’s na.me). And there are other sites, too, like Outfoxed and Stumbleupon, which also…
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Olympic Special Effects as Information Design
I am not much of a sports fan, but I am always impressed with the information design on many TV sports broadcasts. I love the little icon in the corner of many baseball broadcasts that quickly sums up the current game status: score, inning, who’s up, who’s on base, etc. And of course, the virtual…
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History Revealed Through Cross-Referencing
There is a great new series on PBS called African American Lives, in which Henry Louis Gates, Jr. interviews nine high-profile African Americans (including Oprah Winfrey, Chris Tucker, and Quincy Jones) about their family histories. I’m enjoying both the historical aspects of it and the technological inspirations I get from it. Documents and photographs have…
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Google, Information Liberator?
It occurred to me that of all the different ways that Google makes money, none of them include charging us, the general public, for access to information. There is no “Google Premium”, no “walled gardens”, no subscription or pay-per-view service. All of their revenues come from selling inclusion within that information space, but not access…
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Inventing the Mouse
There’s something about 1950’s and 1960’s black and white video recordings that I find hypnotic and deeply compelling, particularly when they document important or interesting people and events. From the 1969 moon landing to the Eichmann trials, these videos mesmerize me. Every frame has an eerie, spectral glow, making faces and people a little bit…
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ZOMBIES!
I just re-read Alan Turing’s “Computing Machinery and Intelligence“, for something like the 5th time. It’s worth reading every few months or so just to see how cogent, thorough, and prescient it is. I can’t punch a hole in it. And everything I’ve ever read where someone else tries to punch a hole in it…