Monthly Archives: August 2005

every second, a new blog is born

There’s a good “state of the blogosphere” post up on Technorati. According to the latest analysis, there are approximately 14.4 million blogs, and that number is on track to double every 5.5 months, with a new blog created each second. A noteworthy statistic, and one that has remained constant for at least a year, is that approximately 55% of blogs are active. So, high rate of birth, and high rate of stagnation. That’s the web.

rollable paper-like screens

flexible_portable_bw_display_Polymer_Vision_350.jpg Color_prototype_portable_display_with_mobile_Polymer_Vision_350o.jpg
Some future fantasy fare from Polymer Vision, a subset of Philips. These screens are paper-thin and use e-ink to produce a reflective display that consumes little power and can be read in sunlight. Read a book and then roll it back up into your phone. This stuff is only a few years off.
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More info from Philips.

lexis nexis as multimedia library

criticalmention.jpg Lexis Nexis, an indispensable resource for the more-than-casual web researcher, announced it will be adding video to its news and archive database, as part of its pay-as-you-go AlaCarte service. Clips will cost a few bucks a piece, more or less what a text article does now, and can be emailed to other readers for an extra fee.
The service will be powered by Critical Mention, a Manhattan start-up with a growing video database and several big licensing agreements already under its belt. The move into video parallels recent developments at Google, and particularly Yahoo!, whose video search engine makes it easier to track down clips across the web. But Lexis Nexis will be aimed at more rigorous researchers, primarily businesses, universities, and government agencies.
This brings a broadcast medium into what has traditionally been textual territory, underscoring some of the big questions: what does it mean to “write” with video? What does it mean to “quote” video?
(image: Critical Mention)

zoom quilt

zoomquilt.jpg Dan came across another nice example of a zooming interface, which we believe suggests a new spacial conception of the page. The “Zoom Quilt” is a playful piece, apparently the fruit of a collaborative art project. I can imagine this working wonderfully for a children’s book. I wish, though, that the path could fork.
For more on zoom:
“infinite canvas comics”

“the page as a spandrel (or not)”

e-slates in kenya

A pilot program in Kenya gives 54 fifth grade students pocket PCs in lieu of textbooks (BBC story). Known in the school as “e-slates,” the handheld computers run on open source software and contain digitized print textbooks, but could eventually support multiple media materials. The whole classroom is connected through a wireless network, which allows texts to be updated seamelessly, and may ultimately enable homework assignments to be passed between teacher and pupil without a single sheet of paper. But that will depend on a reliable network connection and a steady supply of electricity, neither of which are a given.