Category: new media technologies

The Sound of Books: There Is No App for That

The written word reveals a fantastic universe, inviting your mind to step out of the ordinary and envision a different reality. Eloquent sentences and literary techniques summon you to meet quirky characters, picture unknown places and see new colors. But don’t attempt to dream up any sounds. There is an app for that.

The release of Booktrack, an iPad app that creates soundtracks for ebooks, must be a signal that the human race is experiencing a failure of imagination. The goal of the product is to enrich the reading experience, to “dramatically boost the reader’s imagination and engagement,” as Booktrack writes. Yet the app is serving a purpose exactly opposite of what it seeks to inspire.

The eBook soundtracks include audio effects matched to the text. If one reads about a storm, I guess the story will be “enhanced” through the sound of thunder. Or if the eBook is about a vacation by the sea, one might hear waves crashing into shore. But what if to me the sound of waves is soft and accompanied by singing seagulls? Will the app know to bend the music through the prism of my imagination? I don’t think so. I think the soundtrack will provide me with a fixed framework and reduce the amount of personal nuances I add to the story.

I understand Booktrack’s idea to take the reader away from his or her surroundings (the approaching train, the subway chatter, the construction noises, etc) in order to focus on the text. But please don’t match sound effects to keywords in an effort to “enhance” my reading experience. Let people fantasize about a world in which music is much more nuanced than any processed sounds.

Photo credit:  jbelluch

9 Sites That Inspire The Internet Wishlist’s Creator

I recently had the opportunity to interview Amrit Richmond, the creator of The Internet Wishlist and a tireless creative strategist. We talked about her work background, how innovation emerges and how new ideas spread.

So it was just natural for me to ask Amrit for the sites she likes to visit for inspiration, new ideas, education, etc. In case you also want to draw knowledge from them, here they are:

  1. Brain Pickings
    I share Amrit’s love for this site—it is an eclectic mix of cultural “tidbits of stuff that inspires, revolutionizes, or simply makes us think.”
  2. Swiss Miss
    This is a design blog and studio run by Tina Roth Eisenberg. It seems like a neat place to check out if you are into art, UI, typography and other visual projects.
  3. But Does It Float
    Similarly to the previous site, this one also covers photography and typographical illustrations.
  4. Unurth
    This site is dedicated to street art and features colorful graffiti from all over the world.
  5. Springwise
    Headquartered in London, Springwise is a source of business ideas and inspiration to entrepreneurs. This is the first time I encounter the site but I am definitely fascinated with its idea database and considering subscribing to the newsletter.
  6. Idea Mensch
    Idea Mensch will introduce you to a community of people with ideas. It features interviews with bright entrepreneurial minds–some of whom more popular than others.
  7. Startup Quote
    This site posts a daily wise thought by popular entrepreneurs like Apple’s Steve Jobs and Mint’s Aaron Patzer. Each quote can be tweeted directly from the site.
  8. AVC
    This is the blog of Fred Wilson, a VC and principal of Union Square Ventures. I would encourage entrepreneurs to check out his MBA Mondays blog series.
  9. Both Sides of the Table
    This is the blog of Mark Suster who founded Koral, a company that was sold to Salesforce.com and eventually became Salesforce Content. This is also a great source of start-up advice and entrepreneurial topics.
Thanks, Amrit, for this list! I will be definitely revisiting these sites for daily inspiration!

Start the Presses: From Content Management to Social Media

There is at least one place in Boston where you can immerse yourself in both journalistic terminology and engineering language—the Hacks/Hackers meetups. That is exactly what a roomful of new media enthusiasts did this week at the Boston Globe.

On Feb. 22, Hacks/Hackers Boston held a panel to discuss the future of news sites with some of the people building cutting-edge technologies. The panel participants included Dries Buytaert, Drupal’s creator, Adam Gaffin, founder of Universal Hub, Andrew Phelps, reporter for WBUR, and Austin Gardner-Smith of Pinyadda. Muckrock.com’s Michael Morisy was moderating the session.

Content Management Systems (CMS) and their evolution was the first topic the four entrepreneurs and journalists tackled. What has changed about CMS and how can it better address our needs? Gardner-Smith pointed out the importance of better distribution and integration of more social features in the content creation process. The panelists spent some time discussing the current CMS inability to manage ad-hoc content production before Buytaert took the conversation to another realm: mobile. He emphasized the importance of building your site for different viewing experiences. “If I was to start Drupal from scratch,” Dries said, “I would built it for mobile first.”

The question of mobile was on the table for a big portion of the panel. The consensus among the publishers was that one needs to first examine how viewers were accessing the content. While WBUR is making strides on the path of mobile content optimization, for instance, it is very aware of the fact that their audience is still very much visiting the site in the traditional way. The majority of WBUR’s traffic, Phelps noted, was not coming from smart phones and iPads yet. Their visitors were predominantly using computers and that was the reading experience WBUR would focus on improving.

Once that idea of how people access your content was brought up, it was hard not to mention one of the biggest referral sources for news organizations, Facebook. The discussion quickly jumped to social media and its usage not only for distribution purposes, but also for generating a conversation. The panelists agreed that Twitter was not great for threaded conversations between more than two people. Many mentions, retweets and no hashtags make it hard to follow an ever-evolving story. On Facebook, Phelps said, a story sticks around longer. If people “like” it or comment on it, it will surface to the top of the news feed and become relevant again. “People are likely to participate if they see someone else is participating,” he said. In that way, Facebook has become their preferred platform for building a dialogue based on shared stories.

Clearly, the panel tackled a range of topics, starting with CMS and shifting to mobile optimization and social media. But ultimately, there was one overarching question the panelists were trying to wrap their minds around. “It is all about keeping up with the Web,” Buytaert said. “And the Web as we know it is exploding.”

In-Page Search: Where Education & Journalism Converge

Convergence between Journalism and educationI was reading an article in the Economist when I first encountered the browser extension Apture. I had highlighted the name “Martin Luther” by accident when a pop-up appeared on my screen to give me background information about that person. I, the ultimate hater of pop-ups, found myself completely engrossed in the stories provided by that little box—all content revolving around the highlighted name. All of a sudden, my information intake was interrupted by a thought: This tool offered the perfect point of convergence between journalism and education.

Apture is an extension you can attach to your browser to optimize your reading experience. The service will give you information about highlighted words, whether that is a location, an author’s name or a theoretical term. Apture offers different types of content, including Wikipedia entries, news articles, YouTube videos and Creative Commons photos. That way readers can gain true understanding about the subject at hand. Here are some of my reasons for believing in Apture’s promising future:

It Is Intuitive to Use

In-Page Search, in general, and  Apture, in specific, do not reinvent the wheel but take advantage of readers’ existing habits. How many times have you found yourself Google-ing names, places and unfamiliar terms used in articles? I do it all the time. I know this was also how my college roommate would start reading about U.S. politics and end up discovering the unique characters in the Georgian alphabet… It is a wonderful (and often quite distracting) process of learning.

It Responds to People’s Hunger for Learning

Just the thought of learning a lot more while reading articles gives me the chills. One can easily find out more about someone’s quote or location. Think about the countless conversations you can engage with using that knowledge! This is an amazing opportunity for expansion of one’s education in academia as well as outside school.

It Challenges Journalistic Expertise

Such tool will allow readers to gain more control over their news consumption. Journalists will have to be careful about the metaphors they use and the people they quote. Does it really make sense? Now the common reader is a step closer to verifying the information used in a piece.

It Prolongs the Readers’ Stay on a Site

In-page search will certainly increase the time of a site visit. I know I remained on that Economist article for a while, reading it like a map and deciphering its familiar and foreign territories. As mentioned on Apture.com, in-page search successfully increases visitor engagement and tracks traffic data.

It Provides Publishers with Insights

That type of tool gives publishers insightful information about their readers’ interests. As the site explains, “When they use Apture to highlight and search on the page they are telling you what they want to know more about. It’s time to start listening.”

I have high hopes for social media-friendly, in-page search. Let’s see if others share my enthusiasm.

Photo credit: Jônatas Cunha

European Tech StartUps Take On Crowdsourcing

TechChrunch Europe recently reported that 16 startups were selected to compete at LeWeb’s competition in December 2010. As the biggest tech conference in Europe,  Le Web will definitely draw public attention to the 16 lucky sites. Four of them highlight well the element of crowdsourcing user content and making it meaningful.

Waze is a social mobile application that provides real-time traffic information. As written on the site itself, it offers up-to-date maps “based on the wisdom of the crowd.” It is run by a community of drivers from different countries. For example, when I selected to check out the traffic situation in Bulgaria, I saw the map of my home country and the following message appeared, “The driving community in Bulgaria has only recently begun developing, so it’ll take a bit of time until waze begins to deliver its full value in your area.”

TinyPay seems like a mix between Twitter & eBay. It is a web service that allows you to quickly sell items. You see a small thumbnail of the product for sale and when you click on it, you are able to share the listing on social networks, see where the seller is located, leave a comment and purchase the item with PayPal. The site also features “trending items.”

Paper.li allows users to turn Twitter feeds into a daily newspaper. From my academic research earlier this year, I found out that social media will increasingly be used for news exchanges, and this new platform reinforces my conclusion, emphasizing the importance of community-driven newsgathering.

Garmz was one of the start-ups that made me go, “Wow.” And not because it introduced a necessarily new idea–but because it introduced some form of social change, wrapped up in a beautifully designed site. It is a platform that allows you to start your own fashion label and participate in selecting the winning models by voting. “If a design is successful, Garmz handles the complete production, at zero cost and risk for the designers.” The mission and the platform seemed to have blended in an exquisite selection of fashion designs.

The notion of crowdsourcing and sharing is fueling tons of great community-driven projects and start-ups. Can’t wait to hear who the winner at Le Web’s is going to be!

Three Google-backed Sites that Blew My Mind

Have you ever wondered what types of start-ups Google would back up? Now is the time to satiate your curiosity and learn about some hidden gems in the new media landscape.

The industries represented in the Google Ventures portfolio come as no surprise. They range from software engineering and payment services to companies involved in scientific research and energy consumption. But three of the featured start-ups fascinated me the most:

English Central & the Power of Languages

English Central is language learning software that uses interactive (and current) video to teach English. As a non-native English speaker, I thought the platform was engaging and very intuitive to use. What is more, it makes the process of learning languages fun and enjoyable. I only wish they could develop it for other languages too.

Recorded Future & the Impulse for Predicting Trends

Recorded Future is an analytics engine that plays with the concept of predicting the future. It uses existing information online and creates a scientific approach to mapping trends. It is definitely a fun way to visualize data and rationalize the occurrence of certain events.

SCVNGR & the Fun of Games

SCVNGR is a gaming platform that invites people to visit places and perform certain tasks in order to win points. Recently, it drew tons of attention in the blogosphere as well as in mainstream media. I like it because it is based on the concept of games and entertainment, two activities people always want to be part of.

Did you see something else in the Google Ventures portfolio that grabbed your attention? Share it in the comments!

Photo credit: Jeremy Brooks

The Politics of a Site: Paying $4.3M for a Tourist Portal

Building a website can be expensive. Paying $15 annually for my WordPress domain name, for instance, is always painful. But if you plan on impressing readers with appearance rather than content, plan to spend a lot more. Like, millions.

The Bulgarian Ministry of Regional Development recently announced its plans to spend 6.5 million leva (about $4.3 million) on building a new travel portal to advertise the country as a major tourist destination. The site, which currently exists here, will be revamped to include a lot more multimedia content like photos and videos. It will also be available to be viewed in nine languages.

So how exactly is the money going to be spent?

According to the Bulgarian newspaper Money, the budget will be split into building the actual site, collecting professional content and then advertising it on the Internet. All in all, that should add up to $4.3M, right? Right.

It sounds like this project extends good ol’ corruption to the Web, allowing people with power to make irrational decisions on behalf of “the people.” Not sure who will be building the site or contributing content for it, but it must be someone famous. As a reader commented on the topic, “For 6.5M they might as well hire Lady Gaga to sing a song about Bulgaria, and keep the change.”

Photo credit: Kenny Miller

The Mirror Culture: Can video chat change relationships?

If you have made at least one video call on Skype, you have experienced a mix of vanity and guilt. Though you are speaking with somebody else, your eyes remain glued on your own image in the left-hand corner of the screen. You fix your hair, straighten your posture and put a sweet, static smile on your face. Preoccupied with your own looks, you forget about the bigger picture—the face of your conversation partner.

Most people would agree that video chat has made us more vain. The fact that there is a video webcam that makes you pretty confirms this idea. But has video chat really changed our conversation dynamics?

I would argue so. In video chat, one’s identity is being reconstructed in real-time. You can model your reactions, focus on your own conversation efforts and express your ideas in an unusual for you way. It is as if you are holding a mirror in your left hand and communicating ideas with your right hand. Are you getting distracted?

I know I am. That is why I rarely turn on the webcam when talking to my parents on Skype. I am afraid that I will lose my spontaneity when I do so–calculating each smile or wink. This screen culture transforms me. Is it transforming you?

Photo credit: notsogoodphotography

Lean back, raise chin & look straight: Proper sitting for computer work

If, like me, you greet your computer first thing in the morning and close it last thing at night, neck spasms must be part of your health concerns. You know, tight muscles in the neck, sore shoulders and sporadic headaches. But since you won’t drop computer work, you might want to consider adopting the habits of proper sitting.

With the rise in one’s computer usage, postures become especially important to alleviate health problems. While desktops require people to sit in chairs and directly face the monitor, lap tops have changed our postures by letting us work in bed and on the floor. These habits, my healthcare adviser explained recently, cause us to type hunched over for hours. And that is no good.

So, what can we do to alleviate this health concern?

Take a Proper Sitting Position
When working in front of a computer for a long time, sit in a chair facing the monitor. Your head should be straight, the keyboard directly in front of you and the monitor just below your eye level. Make sure your chair offers good support for your lower back.


Perform Rehabilitation Exercises
Consider performing rehabilitation exercises even if you don’t yet suffer from neck spasms. For every hour of prolonged sitting, you should do some neck rotation and stretching. Summit Medical Group offers a series of good exercises that can improve your blood circulation and posture.

These are two important ways in which you can alleviate health problems related to computer work. That is, until we start using the SixthSense to do our work and have to adopt new habits.
Image credits: Fairview & NathanaelB

How the digital ecosystem redefines our perception of time

One thing my friend’s aunt who has cancer has been talking about recently is how people measure time based on their work schedules. You are either at work or off work, and this seems to be the only way people define time. Until today, that is.

With an increasing number of people working and finding entertainment online, our perception of time is rapidly changing. Technological innovation has tempted us to take up work tasks in the small hours of the night and engage in non-work related activities during regular work hours. In other words, the artificially erected barrier between time for industrious occupations and spare time has be shaken.

According to a 2004 research published by NIOSH, employees in America work the highest number of hours annually compared to those in other countries. In the U.S., one would work about 350 more hours per year than one would in Europe, the study showed.

Yet that doesn’t mean all Americans work from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m on weekdays. In fact, a 2004 Work Schedules and Work at Home survey showed that about 30 percent of wage and salary workers “have flexible schedules on their primary jobs.” The digital ecosystem contributes to this elimination of strict work schedules and reinforcement of a different perception of time.

The continuously blurring line between fixed work hours and leisure activities is one reason that newspapers are facing a crisis. As economist Hal Varian noted in a blog post for Google, news is increasingly consumed in a work environment while the print press remains an activity for one’s leisure time. In the past, readers flipped through their papers in the mornings and evenings, outside of  the professional space. But today, when breaking news stories and controversial Op/Ed pieces are only a click away, readers can scan them duirng work hours.

Social networks have also helped redefine our notion of time and space. Facebook and Twitter, for instance, definitely contribute to the intersection between one’s professional and personal identities. For many, it has become increasingly harder to keep one’s private persona at home.

The work bars emerging across the U.S. today have become a spatial demonstration of this redefinition of time. They illustrate the blurring line between home and work, leisure and work in a very palpable manner. The coffeehouse, a place historically associated with recreation and  casual chats, now hosts visitors engaged in work projects. Thus, the work bars remix the traditional office environment with spaces for relaxation.

The digital ecosystem, redefining established work habits and familiar spaces, is undoubtedly changing our perception of time. The question is, how do you like this change?

Photo credit: ToniVC and T ART