Archives for Microcontent

It’s Time for an Open Standard for Cards

Cards are fast becoming the hot new design paradigm for mobile apps, but their importance goes far beyond mobile. Cards are modular, bite-sized content containers designed for easy consumption and interaction on small screens, but they are also a new metaphor for user-interaction that is spreading across all manner of other apps and content.… Read More “It’s Time for an Open Standard for Cards”

Interest Networks are at a Tipping Point

UPDATE: There’s already a lot of good discussion going on around this post in my public twine.

I’ve been writing about a new trend that I call “interest networking” for a while now. But I wanted to take the opportunity before the public launch of Twine on Tuesday (tomorrow) to reflect on the state of this new category of applications, which I think is quickly reaching its tipping point.… Read More “Interest Networks are at a Tipping Point”

Burma Update: Protestors Cremated Alive; Monks Massacred in Jungle

The situation in Burma is far worse than the mainstream media has reported so far. Watch this video that was just smuggled out showing soldiers beating unarmed protesters. There are now reports coming in from eyewitnesses of young school students being shot by the army, masses of injured protestors being cremated alive, and thousands of monks and other protesters being killed and dumped in mass graves in the jungles.… Read More “Burma Update: Protestors Cremated Alive; Monks Massacred in Jungle”

Envisioning the Whole Digital Person

Another article of note on the subject of our evolving digital lives and what user-experience designers should be thinking about:

Our lives are becoming increasingly digitized—from the ways we
communicate, to our entertainment media, to our e-commerce
transactions, to our online research.

Read More “Envisioning the Whole Digital Person”

'Bemes' are Defining the Blogosphere

Tom Hayes has an interesting post in which he coins the word ‘beme" to mean a meme that spreads in the blogosphere.

Michael Malone’s ABC News column on Thursday mentioning "bemes" has certainly produced a lot of interest.  Originally, I coined the word beme
to describe a meme propagated by blogs and bloggers. 

Read More “'Bemes' are Defining the Blogosphere”

Venice Project Making Heavy Use of RDF

I just found out from Pete, that the Venice Project is making really heavy use of RDF. Very interesting. Another major proof point. It’s looking like 2007 is going to be the year of mainstream RDF applications. It sounds like there are some similarities between what the Venice Project is making, on a platform level, and what we’ve already built on a platform level.… Read More “Venice Project Making Heavy Use of RDF”

What is the Semantic Web, Actually?

I’ve read several blog posts reacting to John Markoff’s article today. There seem to be some misconceptions in those posts about what the Semantic Web is and is not. Here I will try to  succinctly correct a few of the larger misconceptions I’ve run into:

  • The Semantic Web is not just a single Web.
Read More “What is the Semantic Web, Actually?”

Excellent Feedback from Om Malik

Today A-List blogger and emerging "media 2.0" mogul, Om Malik, dropped by our offices to get a confidential demo of what we are building. We’ve asked Om to keep a tight lid on what we showed him, but he may be releasing at least a few hints in the near future.… Read More “Excellent Feedback from Om Malik”

Radar Networks is Seeking Search Engineers for Large-Scale Web Mining Initiative

My company, Radar Networks, is building a very large dataset by crawling and mining the Web. We then apply a range of new algorithms to the data (part of our secret sauce) to generate some very interesting and useful new information about the Web.… Read More “Radar Networks is Seeking Search Engineers for Large-Scale Web Mining Initiative”

The Future of the Web is Semantic

Here is a good article from IBM that provides decent, not-overly-technical, overview of the technologies that make up the Semantic Web, and the value they offer.

A Cool Thingy…

This is cool Click to see why.  I think this idea has great value for viral, meme-based Web advertising. Just imagine: Advertisers could release really cool animations to add to sites, and site owners could add them into their sites for entertainment or humor.… Read More “A Cool Thingy…”

Radar Networks News…

Great news! Radar Networks, the venture I’ve been building, has received its first round of outside funding from Vulcan Capital. We are heavily in stealth mode.

Folktologies — Beyond the Folksonomy vs. Ontology Distinction

First of all I know Clay Shirky, and he’s a good fellow. But he’s simply wrong about his claim that "tagging" (of the flavor that is appearing on del.icio.us — what I call "social tagging") is inherently better than the use of formal ontologies.… Read More “Folktologies — Beyond the Folksonomy vs. Ontology Distinction”

My "A Physics of Ideas" Manifesto has been Published!

Change This, a project that helps to promote interesting new ideas so that they get noticed above the noise level of our culture has published my article on “A Physics of Ideas” as one of their featured Manifestos. They use an innovative PDF layout for easier reading, and they also provide a means for readers to provide feedback and even measure the popularity of various Manifestos.… Read More “My "A Physics of Ideas" Manifesto has been Published!”

A Blog Novel

Rohit Gupta, a Bombay-based writer, who also reads this blog, is writing a blog-novel. He has come up with an innovative way to promote it — by letting readers choose quotes from his text to “own” — by choosing a quote and linking to his blog-novel from it, he will in return link back to your blog from that quote in his novel.… Read More “A Blog Novel”

Detailed Analysis of GoMeme 1.0 Results

Greg Tyrell, a PhD student with a strong interest in bioinformatics, has put together a detailed analysis and report on the GoMeme 1.0 experiment, containing several visualizations and results of the survey. Nice work Greg!

Also in other news, Google has started indexing the results.… Read More “Detailed Analysis of GoMeme 1.0 Results”

Current State of the Weblog Tools Market

This article provides a good overview of the Weblog tools market, products, and market share.

GoMeme 2.0 – Help Test This Meme

Note: This experiment is now finished.

GoMeme 2.0 — Copy This GoMeme From This Line to The End of this article, and paste into your blog. Then follow the instructions below to fill it out for your site.

Steal This Post!!!!… Read More “GoMeme 2.0 – Help Test This Meme”

Can You Imagine What Would Happen if MoveOn.Org Used the GoMeme Concept?

I wonder if anyone from MoveOn.Org or the Republicans will notice our GoMeme experiments? (Not that I’m taking sides — I’ll simply be happy if somebody wins the election!) Grassroots political campaigns could potentially really benefit from the techniques we’re testing here.… Read More “Can You Imagine What Would Happen if MoveOn.Org Used the GoMeme Concept?”

FAQ for GoMeme 2.0

This posting is the FAQ and introduction for a new, improved, second-generation meme experiment that is designed to spread faster and more broadly than the first meme experiment. We call this kind of meme a “GoMeme” (pronounced Go-Meem), because it is a meme that is designed to Go.… Read More “FAQ for GoMeme 2.0”

RFC for a New Distributed Data Exchange System

Matt Poepping has come up with an interesting idea for how to create a fully distributed searchable database on the Net. It’s a cool enough idea and approach that people should see his RFC and comment on it. He may be onto something important here.

A New Blogging Feature: Automated "Social Syndication" Networks

Here’s an idea I’ve had recently that is related to the Meme Propagation experiment (see posts below on this blog for more about that ongoing experiment). The concept is for a new, meme-based, way to syndicate content across blogs. Here’s how it might work:

1.… Read More “A New Blogging Feature: Automated "Social Syndication" Networks”

GoMeme 1.0 — Testing Meme Propagation In Blogspace: Add Your Blog!

NOTE: This experiment is now finished.

This is an experiment in spreading ideas across weblogs using the principles of viral marketing and social networks using a new method for making content more viral, which we call a "GoMeme."

New Version of My "Metaweb" Graph — The Future of the Net

metaweb_graph.GIF

Notes:

Many people have requested this graph and so I am posting my latest version of it. The Metaweb is the coming “intelligent Web” that is evolving from the convergence of the Web, Social Software and the Semantic Web. The Metaweb is starting to emerge as we shift from a Web focused on information to a Web focused on relationships between things — what I call “The Relationship Web” or the “Relationship Revolution.”… Read More “New Version of My "Metaweb" Graph — The Future of the Net”

Ads Moving to Weblogs… Ad Space on My Site for Sale

Advertising moves to Weblogs. It had to happen eventually. Now that we’re on the subject, let me know if you want to advertise on this site.

As I predicted .. Lifelogs are coming…

I call it a Lifelog — Nokia calls it a “Lifeblog” (my terminology is better) — but it’s the same idea — a log of all the stuff you experience — your whole life, blogged and online. OK but the key is to make sure I can keep my lifeblog private — or at least parts of it private!… Read More “As I predicted .. Lifelogs are coming…”

Blogging by the Numbers

Here are some good stats on the size of the blogosphere.

From Application-Centric to Data-Centric Computing: The Metaweb

One of the big changes that will be enabled by the coming Metaweb is the shift from application-centric computing to data-centric computing. As the Metaweb evolves, information will be imbued with increasingly sophisticated metadata. HTML provides metadata about formatting and links.… Read More “From Application-Centric to Data-Centric Computing: The Metaweb”

The Metaweb is Coming… See this Diagram…

This diagram (click to see larger version) illustrates why I believe technology evolution is moving towards what I call the Metaweb. The Metaweb is emerging from the convergence of the Web, Social Software and the Semantic Web.

metaweb_graph.JPG

Blogging Study Stats Released

The Internet and American Life Project found that between 2 and 7 percent of Americans have weblogs, and about 10 percent of them update their blogs regularly. 11 Percent of surfers reported visiting blogs. The study was a random telephone survey of 1,555 Internet users with a 3 percent margin of error.