Having spent 2 weeks in California for ETech 2008 as well as meetings with other like-minded people (academics, designers, start-ups, people from the entertainment/design industries and foresight think-tanks/consultants), I tried to list some of the things that struck me ("what did I learn?"). The ...
The "lagoon emergency button"
The "lagoon emergency button" is surely one the most interesting interface I've seen recently. I've stumbled across it few days ago, close to LucasArts offices in San Francisco. The red button basically controls the (nice and fake) waterfall that operates on the left of the picture. What I find im...
CACM on location-awareness and location-tracking
The last issue of Communications of the ACM featured an article about location-based services that deals with user perceptions of location-tracking and location-awareness services. Some excerpts I find interesting here: First, about the slow adoption of these technologies: "Generally, the slow adop...
Framing the inter-relationships between ICTs and urban environments
One of the best book I've read recently is certainly "The Cybercities Reader (Routledge Urban Reader Series)", a collection of articles selected and commented by Stephen Graham. The whole thing is about the ICT's influence on forms, processes, experiences and ideas of urban life. To some extent, it...
Whrrl: Social discovery for the real world
Recently stumbled on whrrl.com, which is yet another place-based recommender/annotation system that runs on mobile phones. The tagline is "Share real-world adventures and discover places, events, and people through the chronicles of others". Why do I blog this? As lots of similar system (mobile/soc...
Traces of contact in a contactless interaction
Seen in San Diego this week. A near-field interaction device, aimed at being contactless... but the patina clearly indicates some contact traces. This pictures shows the paradox between the sort of interaction we are expected to have in the city of the near future (contactless?) and past practices...
Locate outdoor power outlets
Plugfinder is a website that helps people find electricity outlets in the city, and encourages them to do some activities using them ("Charge your cell phone, cook food on a hotplate, project slides onto a building, or maybe install an inflatable sculpture"). As the FAQ says: "Why map out electrici...
San Diego: scifi city
Wandering around San Diego for ETech 2008 makes me realize how this city displays a peculiar sense of science fiction. It's not the first time that I visit that place but it's perhaps the conjunction of that tech conference and the watching of Battlestar Galactica that made me me thinking about thi...
My talk at O'Reilly ETech 2008
Yesterday I gave a talk at ETech 2008 entitled "Mobile Social Software from the inside out", which was an updated version of my overview of the issues (and some solutions) regarding multi-user location-based applications. People interested in the slides can have a look at the annotated version I've...
ETech 2008: Wagner James Au on Second Life
Although I am really not into Second Life, I have been to the Why Won't Second Life Just Go Away, Already? Understanding Web 2.0's Most Misunderstood Phenomenon by W. James Au at ETech. The blurb was: "Throughout 2007, reputed publications like Wired, Forbes, and the LA Times pronounced Second Lif...