Joseph Corr

from this javier dude, channel 53

And they actually rock

From javier

Humanity + Art + Technology

from rhizome.org

This is incredible, caught me off guard.

Link

Adaptive Path is creating concept videos that describe how we might be using the Internet in the future. The first one is about the future of video on the web. It’s kind of cool, and very conceptual. Worth watching. Adaptive Path is a smart firm, they often don’t get too specific for my tastes, but they always take a holistic, executive level look at an idea.

Game Link

This is absurdly cool. Using GPS data from real sharks in the wild, you maneuver a virtual ship around the sea to collect data and monitor sharks. What a beautiful mix of the real and virtual world. A logistical challenge of significant proportions, the engineering behind the site must be an interesting blend of technologies. I don’t remember the game last year, but evidently this is area/code’s second try at the same concept. Definitely one to watch.

Site Link

Subaru pokes fun at the sexy bikini shoot, by using a Sumo wrestler, and inviting the user to act as photographer. Technically sound, and a good application of the features of Flash 9 (image manipulation, video). Wouldn’t work without the nice, cohesive creative.

Article Link

Yahoo recently announced the release of BOSS which allows you to utilize Yahoo’s search infrastructure in any way you’d like. It’s an ‘open web services platform’ which means that you aren’t just massaging results the way that Google’s Search API lets you, but rather you can do higher level manipulation of not just search results, but the DB of records. The idea is that your users don’t have to ever be aware of where you got the results or records, its just ethereal data.

The BOSS Mashup Framework is a Python library with a vaguely SQL-like syntax. Using it, you can combine BOSS results with other bits of XML, JSON, or RSS/RDF. In addition to merging results, it can handle sorting, grouping, removing duplicates, and so on. Armed with this Framework (and of course Python skills) you can easily combine Yahoo’s search results with just about any other data you can get your hands on.

Ad, Wanted: Kool-Aid Man
Article Link

Art, Ugly New Buildings
Site Link and Article Link

Both via UrbanPrankster

Article Link, from ContextOptional’s newsletter.

Rundown

• Profile Changes: Lots. Instead of the wall area for apps, they have to use the sidebar. Tabs introduced for use by larger apps.
• Feeds: More flexible. One liners and short descriptions. Apps can ask the user which they want.
• Apps/Sessions: Apps will now require that they be seen before they can be added. Apps will have ‘light’ versions.
• More: Apps can add features to a profile, like ‘Favorite VW’ alongside facebook specific ones.

Very much recommend anyone working with Facebook to read the POV. It goes into detail how this may affect your current apps.

Wired Article Link

The Mountain View-based company unveiled a free service Tuesday in which three-dimensional software enables people to congregate in electronic rooms and other computer-manufactured versions of real life. The service, called “Lively,” represents Google’s answer to a 5-year-old site, Second Life, where people deploy animated alter egos known as avatars to navigate through virtual reality.

I haven’t had the opportunity to play with Lively yet (it’s currently only for Windows users), but I want to. Google likes to build on open standards, and if I can infer anything from Google Friend Connect, they want this new offering to be integrated in ways and places they haven’t yet thought of. That is a win.

I’ve been waiting for someone to do the metaverse thing the right way for a while, and Google has as Good a shot at any to accomplish this. Second Life had an interesting business but bad scaling model. Kaneva has a content problem, and tries to be an end-all-be-all for social communication. There.com has a bad content and distribution model. And Project Darkstar while awesome and powerful, is not a front-end solution. Can’t wait to see who wins.