Seventeen hearts in seventeen mouths

Mark Hurst's Good Experience blog once again lives up to its name:

"A Kindle trick that changes the reading experience"

Mastery

If I had to choose a single slide to talk about the future of education, this might be it.

Why I haven't blogged in months

I've received a few "ahems" for not blogging in awhile. My explanation:

I've been busy with some fun and rewarding projects.

Along with so many others, I've found myself channeling much of my online energy into micro-blogging, which is simply more efficient for sharing quick thoughts and recommendations. In particular, I use my Google Reader stream to share the top 5% of what I'm reading and thinking about.

I'm interested in putting some more energy back into my blog, as a way to share not just what I'm thinking about, but what I'm thinking. So going forward, expect posts that are relatively infrequent, but potentially longer and more thoughtful. I am heading to Maine next week for Pop!Tech, which should be great brainfood, so expect at least one or two updates related to that.

The future is not here yet

On September 11, 2001, my mom called and woke me up to tell me what was happening. For some reason, likely shock, my first thought was to go to the web. It took over ten minutes of searching before I found a buried Yahoo! story referring to NYC's "once majestic skyline." At that point, I turned on the TV and like everyone else was there for the next several hours.

Since then, networked media has become personal, local, and ubiquitous. I've come to expect, as have many others, that citizen journalists will be the front line defense in flu outbreaks or terrorist attacks.

So I'm sad to report that at least today in San Francisco, one of the most networked cities in the world, old-school news sources still get there first, and slowly at that.

• I looked out the window about 30 minutes ago and saw a giant plume of yellowish grey smoke rising from the Mission.
  
• I went on Google News and did several searches for "San Francisco and fire" -- no updates
  
• I checked my local Facebook network, Outside.in, and SFist - no news
  
• After 20 minutes of occasional searching online, I heard news helicopters overhead -- I turned on the TV and saw the "breaking news" report from an SF local news station.
  

As expected, the cause was a big house fire, not a terrorist attack or "airborne toxic event." But it saddened me to realize how slow our media sources really are, or might be, the next time something more serious happens.

How Google innovates

A great summary of how Google pursues innovation, and why your company might want to think twice before following their lead. (From Nicholas Carr.)

Winning and losing

One of last year's stickiest, fastest-growing, most thought-provoking, and purely enjoyable online gaming properties was Bogglific -- the homegrown, free, networked version of Boggle on Facebook.

There are many creative ways that Hasbro could have handled its intellectual property concerns without alienating the thousands of passionate users who used Bogglific every day.

Sadly, as of today, they went with a plain ol' cease and desist.

From the Bogglific home page:

Bogglific to Close Down :-(
Hasbro, Inc. has sent a DMCA notification notice to Facebook regarding Bogglific. They claim it violates their trademark, and violates copyright over the Boggle rules.

I'm no lawyer, and can't see how it violates copyright. But I have neither the time nor the money to fight this, and Facebook has given me a grace period of 48 hours to shut the application down voluntarily.

You might be interested to know Scrabulous is in the same boat, but they have the resources to fight their battle. Hopefully they will be successful.

Sorry, guys. It was great fun while it lasted. You're a fantastic bunch, and it's a pity that Hasbro doesn't realise that Bogglific helped its Boggle sales by introducing all your Facebook friends to the game, not hindered it. That is sadly how the litigious US works.

Note that the Bogglific forum will be deleted by Facebook, so you may wish to post further discussions to the Bogglific Addicts group (which is not run by me.)

The Axe and the Dove

The Dove "Onslaught" video has stirred up controversy for parent company Unilever, which also markets Axe deodorant. From today's AdAge:

'"Onslaught" also accomplished what four years of racy Axe ads hadn't -- getting the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood to demand Unilever stop running Axe ads. While the group already was aware of Axe and of Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, the specifics of the "Onslaught" push set it off.'

A complex story about the marketing biz, corporate integrity, and social media.

Imogen Heap: "Just For Now"

A fantastic YouTube clip to start your Monday. Imogen Heap sings a round with herself, mixing it in real-time.

Blackle.com is the new green

Heap Media has responded to Mark Ontkush's observation that a black background version of Google would save 3000 Megawatt-hours a year by going ahead and building one.

From a usability perspective, white type on black is clearly harder to read, so I don't think this is a final design answer. But I like how Blackle sparks conversation about new and better ways to green the web. Kudos.

(Thanks to Todd for showing me this.)

Blaise Aguera y Arcas @ TED

Holy cow.

As advertised: Rainbows End

While fighting the latest cold this week, I finally got around to reading Vernor Vinge's sci-fi novel Rainbows End. It in every way lived up to its hype. A seamless and sophisticated look at the world of 2025, and where current technology and social media trends might be heading. Thankfully, it's also a well-written and engaging story.

Digital utopians

I saw Fred Turner (author of From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Catalog, and Rise of Digital Utopianism) give an interesting talk earlier this week. Next Thursday 11/9, he'll be joining Brand, Kevin Kelly, and Howard Rheingold for a panel discussion at Stanford. Anyone wanna go?

Your news, your way

Anderson Cooper, take note—the future of customized, aggregated news reporting might look something like this. As blogged in 3pointD.

Why blogs matter

Last three sentences in today's BW article about Six Apart:

(1) "Yes, blogging will change your business," says [Andrew Anker, Six Apart VP for corporate development].

(2) "But it will also change the way you talk to your kids."

(3) It even might change who gets to be famous.

Bubblegeneration

I've been reading Umair Haque's blog at Bubblegeneration for several months now—it's some of the best, most provocative thinking about digital media that I've come across.

The site might look a bit messy, but there are some real gems, both in the ongoing blog, and in the downloadable PPT presentations (e.g., "The New Economics of Media").

Netflix extends brand into indie film market

As blogged in 5 Blogs Before Lunch.