Charity: water’s drill rig will tweet and let you track donations by GPS
November 21st, 2011 • Cars, Nonprofit, Social Innovation, mobile • No comments
Charity: water has been testing SPOT satellite GPS devices that will enable donors to track progress in real time using Google Maps. “Our goal is to have real-time GPS information available online for donors for years after the rig is purchased so they can see their dollars at work,” said Paull Young, Director of Digital at charity: water. “We’ll be creating an interactive map that will display the GPS information, and even creating a Twitter account for the rig that will update with GPS data.” Charity: water currently requires completion photos and GPS coordinates for project reports from all of its partners.
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Ushahidi: Tools for Democratizing Information
November 24th, 2010 • Uncategorized • No comments
The goal of Ushahidi is to create a platform that any person or organization can use to set up their own way to collect and visualize information. The core platform will allow for plug-in and extensions so that it can be customized for different locales and needs. The beta version platform is now available as an open source application that others can download for free, implement and use to bring awareness to crisis situations or other events in their own locales, it is also continually being improved tested with various partners primarily in Kenya. Organizations can also use the tool for internal monitoring or visualization purposes.
What is the Ushahidi Platform? from Ushahidi on Vimeo.
Program or be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age
October 30th, 2010 • Uncategorized • No comments
I’ve read most of Douglas’ books and it’s his most enjoyable and at the same time disturbing work to date (with the possible exception of ‘Testament’). I highly recommend this to any user experience practitioners out there. Also check out this short video about the book by Astra Taylor and Laura Hanna, the filmmakers behind Zizek!
The debate over whether the Net is good or bad for us fills the airwaves and the blogosphere. But for all the heat of claim and counter-claim, the argument is essentially beside the point: it’s here; it’s everywhere. The real question is, do we direct technology, or do we let ourselves be directed by it and those who have mastered it? “Choose the former,” writes Rushkoff, “and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.” In ten chapters, composed of ten “commands” accompanied by original illustrations from comic artist Leland Purvis, Rushkoff provides cyberenthusiasts and technophobes alike with the guidelines to navigate this new universe.
In this spirited, accessible poetics of new media, Rushkoff picks up where Marshall McLuhan left off, helping readers come to recognize programming as the new literacy of the digital age––and as a template through which to see beyond social conventions and power structures that have vexed us for centuries. This is a friendly little book with a big and actionable message.World-renowned media theorist and counterculture figure Douglas Rushkoff is the originator of ideas such as “viral media,” “social currency” and “screenagers.” He has been at the forefront of digital society from its beginning, correctly predicting the rise of the net, the dotcom boom and bust, as well as the current financial crisis. He is a familiar voice on NPR, face on PBS, and writer in publications from Discover Magazine to the New York Times.
This book can be ordered directly from O/R books.
Your Car and the Cloud
October 16th, 2010 • Cloud Computing, Social Media, automotive • No comments
An interview with TJ Giuli, a research engineer at the Ford Motor Company’s Infotronics Research and Advanced Engineering organization in Dearborn, Mich. His research interests lie in mobile computing and secure, privacy-preserving vehicular software architectures. His recent work involves architecting research software platforms to enable third-party software development on cars. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University. More
The GreenRide Challenge app, shown here, makes it easy for drivers and passengers to share rides to common destinations and to find people you would be comfortable riding with.
Little Love for the Mobile Web in App-Adoring World
April 11th, 2010 • mobile • No comments
Here’s an article written by Kunur Patel for AdAge which I recently participated in that speaks to the raging apps versus mobile web debate. Personally I’m in favor of a hybrid approach (for now atleast):
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The love affair between marketers and mobile apps is in full bloom, but the obsession with apps and the niche market they represent is coming at the expense of the mobile web, which is exponentially bigger and starving for brand dollars.
Nearly 20% of U.S. mobile subscribers used a downloaded app in January, according to ComScore, but that audience is spread across myriad devices; no one app can reach that entire population unless it is reformatted a number of times. Yet marketers are throwing their relatively tiny mobile budgets behind iPhone apps rather than mobile websites that have the potential to get in front of more consumers.
Consider: the largest app category, iPhone apps, at best only reaches 25% of smartphone users — a fast-growing segment that represented 42.7 million Americans in January, according to ComScore.
Compare that to nearly 30% of all mobile subscribers that used a phone’s web browser on any device accessing the internet, from iPhones and BlackBerrys to Android phones. What’s more, phones will overtake PCs as the most common device to access the internet worldwide by 2013, according to a study from information-technology research company Gartner.
So why are mobile sites taking a backseat to iPhone apps? Blame the Apple aura. Read More
Mobile phone as a second opinion
March 27th, 2010 • automotive, mobile • 1 comment
Originally published in Headlight Blog. Editor’s Note: Headlightblog.com recently caught up with James Spahr, a UX Lead at Razorfish and pictured below, who has been working on the Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) account since Razorfish was selected as the digital agency of record in January 2009. This past summer James worked on a mobile website for MBUSA as part of the agency’s work to support the 2010 E-Class launch. He was interviewed for Headlightblog.com by Kyle Outlaw, a regular Headlightblog.com contributor who is also a UX lead at Razorfish and one of the agency’s mobile subject matter experts.
Headlightblog.com: What were the key business drivers behind the creation of the mobile website for MBUSA?
James Spahr: The goal of the mobile website was to create a destination that mobile advertising could ultimately be driven toward. The point was to deliver products and information about the new E-Class, whether you were directed to the site from a mobile ad, accessed the site directly on your mobile phone or, while sitting in front of the TV, saw the URL and typed it in. Read More
A more connected car: On Mercedes-Benz, mobile and vehicle telematics
March 27th, 2010 • automotive, mobile • No comments
Originally published in Headlight Blog. Mercedes-Benz mbrace, a new telematics platform that Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) launched recently, is the first such system to have a companion mobile application. The app lets registered mbrace customers lock and unlock vehicle doors as well as locate their vehicle from within the vicinity of one mile. The app also lets owners contact their preferred Mercedes-Benz dealership or locate dealers in the U.S. by proximity. It provides dealer name, address, phone number and even pinpoints their location on a map. The click-to-call functionality allows for easy access to the mbrace Customer Response Center, Mercedes-Benz Customer Assistance Center and Mercedes-Benz Financial. Users must be active Mercedes-Benz mbrace subscribers to use the companion mobile application. Read More
If You Build It, Will They Come? Web Usability v.2009
October 3rd, 2009 • Uncategorized • 4 comments
Here’s an article by Ned Smith for Digital Media Buzz which I recently participated in that speaks to the changing nature of usability in the face of emerging technology, social media, and mobile:
“Though Nielsen Norman is still the éminence grise looming over Web design, time and the Web have moved on. Flash and other digital razzmatazz are no longer beyond the Web design pale and new technologies and devices such as notebooks and smart phones have arrived on the scene. Increasingly, the digital world is going mobile.
So, how is usability faring these days? Do the old verities preached by Nielson still hold true? Alex Wright is the director of User Experience and Product Research at The New York Times and the author of Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages. He began his Web work in the anything-goes pre-Nielsen days. “Like a lot of folks in the Web business, I’ve had a bit of a circuitous career, working at various times as a journalist, librarian, designer, researcher ― and once upon a time, burger flipper,” he says. “I started my first Web job back in 1995 at IBM, during the Wild West era of the Web. Back then we were all making it up as we went along, but over the next few years I began to work with some of the human factors engineers in the company’s software group, where I received some on-the-job-training in user-centered design techniques.”
Is the iPhone a Big Shiny Distraction?
October 3rd, 2009 • Uncategorized • No comments
Here’s a write up of a recent panel I participated in as a part of OMMA Global 2009 here in New York. The title of the panel was “Is the iPhone a Big Shiny Distraction?”
“There was a lively discussion around the iphone which was less about the platform and who drives the technology behind the phone and more about the reach of the iphone and iphone apps. Although it may seem like everyone has one of these big shiny distractions – ultimately the market share for the iphone represents 2.8% of US handsets (comScore 7/2009). So the panel argued if you really want to reach your audience you’ll need to look across the multiple mobile devices that are in market today. However they did say that the app store can be a good way to drive PR buzz if you can get past and climb to the top of the app popularity list.” Read More
Design Matters: A Mobile UX Manifesto
October 3rd, 2009 • Uncategorized • 3 comments
