Winter counts is an online exhibit by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The indigenous people of America, the Lakota, marked their lives by drawing pictures of special events on calenders which are known as winter counts.The Flash site leads through the history and culture and explains who the Lakota were and how they lived. It has a very nice way of counterposing old photography with their original paintings.

National Geographic is presenting an interactive atlas of the human journey according to genographic research.

The Australian features a 'weird picture' gallery.

Images of the microcosm can be viewed in this gallery. Pictures from the scanning electron microscopy lab can be seen here.The
dinoflagellates especially are fascinating

For the visual fan: Viperlibis is 'a web-based resource library of images and presentation material illuminating the study of visual perception'. Images are free for non-profit usages, all can contribute.

Not in the business of flogging cars or promoting ads, but this one is a beaut, the fake of the same brand is not funny at all.(via zeitwissen:log)

The trendspotter O'Reilly radar  is doing tagged blogging. The book hints are worth a look.

A collection of things overheard in public places in NY.

Really enjoyed reading Danah Boyd's "Autistic Social Software". Despite having been written in 2004 it has kept all of its relevance for today's social software development. It is about that 'we often frame technological use rather than build technology based on users' practices and needs'. "Let's stop trying to dumb down people through technology."

More about users as developers can be read in Democratizing Innovation by Eric von Hippel which is reviewed by Boing Boing. It is pointed out there, that the free/CC book can be downloaded. Very interesting looking chapters and intro...

Franz Kafka's weblog (1910 - 1923) is now in progress. It is available in English or German. The site 'aims to supplement that work by providing a public-domain translation in English and a space for discussion'. Nice idea!

Open Access to European Cultural Heritage Online ECHO provides an array of interesting offerings. The open access infrastructure is intended 'for a Future Web of Culture and Science'. Greek science books and manuscripts from 1600 - 1821 are digitalised

Materials on to the Canary Islands scientific voyages in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries also feature illustrations.

'The Virtual Laboratory is a platform where historians publish and discuss their research on experimentation in the life sciences, art, and technology'. Images, documents and essays can be accessed.

A timeline provides for an alternative entry route. The project was funded by the European Commission. The Berlin declaration of open access to knowledge in the sciences and humanities makes for informative reading.

Marketers are finding it useful to scan the 12 million blogs for "getting the lay of the land". "We look at the blogosphere as a focus group with 15 million people going on 24/7 that you can tap into without going behind a one-way mirror," says Rick Murray. Blog-monitoring services are asking for $30,000 to $100,000 a year to provide large corporations with these services. They know that "…blog watchers spot trends before they emerge in mainstream media"

The above is from a write-up by William M. Bulkeley. 'Marketers Scan Blogs For Brand Insights' in the Wall Street Journal on the 23.06.2005

On day later it can be read in German 'Weblogs als Ziel und Inhalt der Werbung' at futureZone.ORF on the 24.06.2005.

Is this a case of copy, translate, shake and paste?

It is great, that a network of free community-maintained "wiki" city guides exists. The one on London for example is very handy as a travel guide.

Joining interactive online maps and public transport planning/usage via  Google hacks goes one step further to provide for a sustainable urban environment. Dare to think of post-oil, post-car environments where walkable neigbourhoods become reality.

Maybe soon collaborative wikies will inform where on can find sustainable green housing, walkable urban environments, cycle paths, public transport, public places and monitor pollution. A paradigm shift in values is taking place right now, usability for urban environments becomes a necessity.

Some location based wikies are on the way..

inspired by
worldchanging-another world is here

ESA, the European Space Agency aims to understand Earth, secure the environment and benefit the economy. As part of the global monitoring system it offers many educational materials, but also beautiful images of many places on Earth. Europe under snow in March or New Zealand all look impressive. The negative impacts, such as London's pollution are also very clearly displayed. Check out how the smog eats along the transport arteries at rush hours. Good resources.

The Online Art of Science Competition by Princeton University features many wonderful images. Crystal growth in pentagons and Mandelbrot icy patterns are just a few. Soak up the micro-universe.

For the metric fans in the blogosphere:

Yahoo indexes the blogosphere better than Google

Yahoo recognises the tail of the blogosphere more than Google

via
Jeremy Zawodny

It is the first time an Australian minor got raided and prosecuted for linking to a site that may have offered illegal downloads.The Australian Federal Police raided the premises with 8 people for over 3 hours. The person allegedly linked to the MP3 WMA Land site. The minor, if found guilty may face penalites, imprisonment and/or a fine. As Alex Malik puts it: " Even if the website conducted illegal operations, should this minor be tried for aiding and abetting in these operations?" The full write-up is a must to read if you live in Australia or are concerned about liberties. The mainstream media does not seem to find it worthy of attention.

via
techdirt

The Collaborative Technologies Conference started with Tom Malone about "The Future of Work" and Lisa Kimball on "Effective Virtual Teams", 'managing and optimizing teams that are typically geographically distributed'. The listed points are applicable to any such team situation. More can be read from del.icio.us

Lawrence Lessig reported today about a new book by J.D.Lasica: Darknet: Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation, released in May 2005, it offers first-hand stories of how the personal media revolution impacts on the genres of the big Media. Mini-book chapters are available to browse and get the gist of the story.

An extensive  blogging bibliography is being maintained by Kairosnews. Dave Pollard advises on corporate policies for blogging.

Blogging

Portraits of European women are taken by the photographer and film-maker Bettina Flitner. The site can be viewed in English or German. Some strong images are of the Choreographer, Pina Bausch, the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir in her home and the writer Elfriede Jelinek .There are many more works to discover. 

An informative educational geometry site makes the geolyphs of the Nazca in the Peruvian desert its topic. It also refers to the German born mathematician Maria Reiche who devoted a large part of her life to these artefacts. Before going to the site, it is advisable to turn off your sound!

The elements of digital storytelling by Mora Paul and Christina Fiebich are exploring the 'poorly charted territory' of the 'digital frontier'. They see that this 'dynamic new space for storytelling' exists merely as a potential yet. Their enlightening site provides the reader with a theoretical overview to establish a taxonomy, analyse the current practices and quantify the effects. In 'examples' the theory is explained via a lot of very good examples. This showcase of innovative story forms is best understood, after one has taken the time to cruise through the elements.
Gulf War 2 (aka World War 2.5) is such a dynamic design. Be aware, this Flash-game is about war, but once you get past the bangs, the characters and design inspire.

Wonderful image browsing can be experienced with the the Science & Society Picture Library. From artefacts from New Zealand to anything via hypertext. A good entry is via categories of interests.

Howard Rheingold and his colleagues Andrea Saveri and Kathi Vian created a wonderful visualisation of 'Technologies of cooperation'.  An enlarged version can also be viewed. The article summarises the key aspects of the user-driven emerging technologies. The "cooperation-amplifying technologies" are seen to..."present new opportunities to change the way people work together to solve problems and generate wealth". The associated manifesto stresses the advantages of a mobile internet. Self-organising users in ad-hoc networks not consumers are the driving force.

Some businesses are already pouncing at the opportunities.

The performance of Technorati and Bloglines were compared from a bloggers' point of view by Jeremy Zawodny a while ago. Bloglines performed the fastest and Technorati was the slowest, but most comprehensive.

Both of the free services have redesigned themselves:Technorati's beta features are explained by Dave Sifry. Elsewhere the beta-thread is unfolded.

Blogpulse, now counting 12 million blogs, has also developed a new set of trend setting tools. Trend search and Analysis tools let you probe beyond quantifiable blog-presence. The Conversation ticker tracks weblog conversation threads. Here is a  quick overview how Blogpulse can be utilised by bloggers.

Chris Shermann  gave a detailed account of Blogpulse's novelties in 'Tracking trends via the blogosphere

A must:
http://www.blogpulse.com/index.html

http://beta.technorati.com/

The epidemic of mostly small white yappers is apparent,from Europe to Australia there is no lap, arm or leg free from such a pet dog. China is catching up. New York has now its glossy Vogue for pampered Barbie-pets: 'The NY Dog'. Luxury goods, boutique gear, necklaces, earrings  and dog horoscopes are available. The pet industry has doubled in the last decade. " Spending by U.S. consumers on their 153 million dogs and cats has doubled in the past decade, to $34.4 billion last year, making the pet industry the country's seventh-largest retail segment-60 percent larger than the $20 billion human-toy industry"

The production of this mono-culture of domestic (mostly urban) pets stands in stark contrast to the species extinction rates of the Earth: "Changes in biodiversity were more rapid in the last 50 years than at any time in human history... Future models are very uncertain but all of them tell us that as we move into the next 100 years, we'll be seeing extinction rates that are a thousand to 10,000 times those in the fossil record."

Dr. Phil. Andreas Goppold von der Uni Ulm stellt seine 'Konzepte und Beiträge zu MM- Design' ins Netz, die in 'Eigenregie' erarbeitet werden können. Es geht da "...um eine Multimedia-Design-Methode des Operationalen Welt-Modells. Einerseits geht es um Aspekte von Software-Infrastrukturen zur effizienten Implementation solcher Modelle. Die Hintergründe und Auswirkungen dieses Themas gehen aber wesentlich über die technischen Fragen hinaus, da es schwer zu überschauende Interrelationen von neuronal-ästhetischen mit technologischen und sozio-politischen Faktoren handelt. Es wird ein spezieller Ansatz vorgestellt, das Inter-Aktoren-System, mit dem Ziel, eine bessere Entkoppelung der künstlerischen und Design-Arbeit von der Technik zu erreichen."

Der laufende Diskurs über Usability, Interface design befasst sich meist nur mit dem Nutzen für den Menschen. Ausgelassen wird meist wie sich dessen Wahrnehmungssystem ontogenetisch und phylogenetisch ändern wird durch die Multimedia Navigation in einer Ereignis-Landschaft. "... Spezifisch geht es um die Interrelation und das Spannungsfeld von technologischen mit neuronal-ästhetischen und sozio-politischen Faktoren in der möglichen zukünftigen Multimedia-Entwicklung."

Die Titel geben hier einen kleinen Überblick:
Operationale Weltmodelle und Multimedia-Design
Trends der User Interface Technologien
Open User Interface (OUI) und Inter-Aktor Technologie
Implementation von OUI und Inter-Aktoren in LPL und Kaleida
Kunst und Neuronale Ästhetik
Neuronales, Subsymbolisches "Wissen"

A diary of ASC is kept by the hansbernhardblog. Full courses of psychotropic pharmaceuticals are interspersed with foodstuff daily.

'Altered states' resources are also kept by Danah Boyd.

To achieve ASC without bio-chemical substances is descibed in Ancestral Power, The Dreaming, Consciouness and Aboriginal Australians, by Lynne Hume.

She "... seeks to further our understanding of human consciousness by looking through a Western lens at the concept of the Dreaming. She examines the idea that Aboriginal people may have used certain techniques for entering altered states of consciousness."

Time for a cup of coffee...

John Lennon
via rageboy

FoI Declaration by Vienna scientific community

The 'Vienna Declaration: 10 Theses on Freedom of Information' aims to improve access to information in today's knowledge society. The site is available in English and German.

Participating in the digital knowledge emergence

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) hosts an 'Online Forum on Intellectual Property in the Information Society' from June 1 to 15, 2005. Everyone can participate in discussing the 10 themes. WIPO is an arm of the United Nation.

'Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Networked E-Learning' was written by John Casey in 2004." This guide aims to provide a user-friendly introduction to IPR issues for e-learning content developers and managers." The e-learning developer community can gain a lot of insights into copyright issues, written by a practicioner it offers many tips and further links on the topic. The guide is published by JISC Legal, England. " JISC works with further and higher education by providing strategic guidance, advice and opportunities to use Information Technology to support teaching, learning, research and administration.

Dear Readers

I'm still active as a link-'blog' on del.icio.us

Liebe Leser/In

Es wird weiter gelinkt über icio