Rands In Repose gives a good overview of the varieties of Web Design for engineers. Engineers are uncomfortable with ignorance, but worse, we’re bad at asking for help outside of our domain of expertise. This primer is the first step at building a solid bridge between our professions. So, chill. This is not a definitive design guide, it’s a place for engineers to start thinking about design and if you happen to learn something about how we think — super. Graphic Design... Interaction Design... User Experience Design.

old Reality Hacker writer (more)

Interesting profile of Etsy and Rob Kalin. (more)

Ulla Mutanen built an Interactive installation using NFC-supporting Mobile-s. The idea of Green Touch is to encourage the DOTT07 exhibition visitors to explore the design objects on display and learn about their production and environmental impact by touching them with NFC-enabled phones... Green Touch brings the Thing Link interface to mobile devices. We used Nokia 6131 NFC Edition phones running a custom Java midlet.

Back in April John Robb suggested The solution is to improve our Resilience to these systemic shocks through a social and Economic Transition that follows this simple formula: Localize production; Virtualize everything else. (more)

Chris Anderson on the application of the Network Economy to physical-product businesses (Maker). (more)

aka Alternate Reality Game

Venkatesh Rao thinks the Network Economy ("entrepreneurial") revolution isn't here yet. We've mostly seen the pre-game show so far. The revolution proper is just getting started. The intellectual foundations haven't been laid completely yet. To understand the missing pieces, you need to first review the history of the story so far, and draw some inferences... (Here are) The Top 10 Milestones in the Pre-Game Phase (Micro ISV)... Here are just a few of the major missing foundational pieces...

often a trick: http://www.acceler8or.com/2012/01/remote-control-the-interactivity-myth/ (from 1993!) (more)

A Dutch Advertising agency made a First Person Shooter Computer Game tied to Google Maps. Google killed that. Despite Google’s disapproval of machine guns, it seems to me inevitable that gaming will incorporate Google’s vast database of location imagery. And it doesn’t have to be a first person shooter. What about using it in a Second Life-type game? A Virtual World based on the Real World. (more)

part of Tim Leary's SMIILE formula (more)

Clay Shirky tries to clarify the definitions of Publish, BroadCast, and Inter Act (Inter Active) with the BlogWeb Context.

John Thackara on the Post-SpecTacle City. Hearing about these storytellers reminded how much we have lost, in the "developed" world, of the un-mediated, impromptu interactions that once made cities (Urban Design) vital. We now design messages, not interactions. The world is awash in print, and ads, and billboards, and packaging, and spam. Semiotic pollution. Brand intrusion at every turn. Our buildings are now about one-way-communication, too. Sports stadia, museums, theatres, science and convention centres. Such buildings do an accomplished technical job: they deliver pre-cooked experiences to Passive crowds. And whom do we have to thank for this semiotic pollution, for the catatonic spaces that despoil our physical and perceptual landscapes? The "CreativeClass". That's who's responsible. In the same way that mill owners optimised Mass Production, the creative class has optimised the society of the spectacle... Sophisticated Paris, in its bid for the Olympics, says that (Spectator Sports) is replacing culture as an attractor in urban regeneration. "The role that investment plays in the Games of the 21st century will be comparable to that played by industrialisation at the end of the 19th century", burbles their bid. Claude Bebear, chairman of the Paris Olympics Committee, does not think of sport as kicking a ball around a field. He thinks about twenty million dollar sponsorships, and the well-being of the people who provide the spectacle... Spectacles may be spectacular, but they are low bandwidth. "I believe that a desirable future depends on our deliberately choosing a life of action, over a life of consumption. Rather than maintaining a Life Style which only allows to produce and consume, the future depends upon our choice of institutions which support a life of action". That was Ivan Illich, in 1973. Thirty years ahead of the rest of us, Illich argued for the creation of convivial and productive situations - including our cities. A sustainable city, Illich understood, has to be a working city, a city of encounter and interaction - not a city for the passive participation in entertainment. What matters most in a post-spectacular city is activity, not architecture. (follows up with ideas about WireLess connectivity improving the ability of people to connect in the city)

Cool concept Of The Day: Interactive Wall Paper display.

Biz World, co-founded by Tim Draper and Catherine Hutton Markwell, aims to teach kids about Entrepreneurship and investing (Personal Finance). All 3 programs seem designed 13 45-minute sessions.

author of The World Is Flat (more)

Bill Seitz or BullShit depending on your perspective

Python Web Framework (more)

When Platform players try to control all related spaces, rather than forming a more fluid EcoSystem. (more)

Google is buying Zagat. The Portal wars are alive! (more)