Showing posts with label categorisation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label categorisation. Show all posts
Microsoft Viral Search
What does it mean for online content to “go viral”? An analysis of almost a billion information cascades on Twitter news, videos, and photos has produced the first quantitative notion of whether something has indeed gone viral, thereby enabling further research into topic experts, trending topics, and viral-incident metrics.
Read more at Information Aesthetics.
Read more at Information Aesthetics.
Automated Storytelling
We live in the era of Big Data. Never in modern human history have companies and individuals had more (and more complex and reliable) numbers, statistics, and metrics at their disposal: from box scores to earnings reports to housing prices to placement-test results, we are at sea in an ocean of numbers and awash in spreadsheets. As artificial-intelligence pioneer Kris Hammond explains in this film, the great challenge in the Big Data era is understanding the stories those numbers tell and, just as important, connecting the right people with the right stories.
“This is what Hammond and his company, Narrative Science, do: create fluidly written, micro-targeted news stories from massive amounts of raw data—and do it hundreds of thousands of times, and slightly differently for each reader or listener. The recipient could be a fast-food franchisee seeking to understand what menu item sells best at what moment of the day, at what time of year, even in what weather, so he can optimize point-of-sale strategies. “
“Our entire job,” says Hammond, “is to humanize data. It is to be a communication bridge between the numbers and the knowing.”
Read more on the Future of Storytelling.
“This is what Hammond and his company, Narrative Science, do: create fluidly written, micro-targeted news stories from massive amounts of raw data—and do it hundreds of thousands of times, and slightly differently for each reader or listener. The recipient could be a fast-food franchisee seeking to understand what menu item sells best at what moment of the day, at what time of year, even in what weather, so he can optimize point-of-sale strategies. “
“Our entire job,” says Hammond, “is to humanize data. It is to be a communication bridge between the numbers and the knowing.”
Read more on the Future of Storytelling.
The age of mega-viral content
Gangnam Style became world famous for its South Korean creator Psy's extreme electro-pop soundtrack, neon stylings and novel dance moves. What really made me take notice was the fact that it was the first YouTube video to top 1 BILLION views (currently at 1.5 billion at time of writing). A billion views is an almost unfathomable number but this video has (amongst many other things such as paving the way to creating mega-viral content) provided a benchmark in 21st century history for us to look back and remember the age when people who were online were collectively consuming the same content in near real-time.
Psy's new video called 'Gentleman' is another noticeable piece of online content since it has managed to secure 60 MILLION views in 2 DAYS purely because it is the next piece of content to come from Psy. 60 million views in 2 days is a ridiculous statistic and one that is often overlooked in articles elsewhere given its predecessor's success. 60 million in 2 days is mega-viral. But it will become a perfectly normal figure within the next 6 months. The rate at which content can go viral and then mega-viral is increasing as networks of people are able to share content faster and faster. Ultimately there will be a point in time where there will be one channel online, the mainstream, that plays the most viral piece of content for that day / hour / minute. We can already see the first steps of this in Twitter's #hashtag trending list.
The content delivery model is still based on the old-school method of users being fed the latest information from an authoritative source. People currently look to content-hub websites (Reddit, Buzzfeed, news websites etc) or to tastemakers for what's hot since they are considered the authority on what should be watched right now. Incredibly, some mega-memes like the Harlem Shake have even been jumped on as a direct way to make money for the man.
However that is changing as online social groups are becoming more fragmented and specialist. The opinion of a known friend is more valuable than an entertainment source and online social groups are now evolving their own tastemakers, those who are always posting the latest videos in their feeds - we all know one person like that. The fact that they still look to get their content from entertainment sources is irrelevant. What is relevant is that there is now someone, a real person, a trusted person who is filtering this content and then sharing the stuff that they think you'd like.
This TED Talk from Kevin Allocca neatly explains “Why videos go viral”. Put simply, anything new that consists of the magic three ingredients will go viral: to gain recognition it must be noticed and promoted by a select few people (tastemakers) with a large number of followers, then it must allow anyone to participate creatively in their own way, and lastly it must have complete unexpectedness.
Although that video describes how how quickly the music charts can change based what’s popular with online communities, it is also listing the founding pieces of content that were around at the time that people started to all tune into the same content together. The ancestors of mega-memes.
Very soon there will be a very strong sense of community online as a whole, and it will become comforting to all be online together, all consuming the latest content together. This will reflect humanity online; what people currently find funny, sad, interesting, shocking, and so on. This already exists but it's in various places and is very disparate - to say the Twitter community, or the Reddit community, or the Guardian online community who comment on articles is representative of humanity online is incorrect. Those are still relatively small groups of people who have been drawn together by a common interest. What still needs to happen is for people to come completely together online in one place. This is essentially a hive mind and in its early stages is one that is only used for watching Gangnam Style, but imagine a future with the power of that many people all focussing on the same thing together at the same moment in time. It'll happen once the platform for it is available, and when it does it will dwarf everything else that came before it.
Psy's new video called 'Gentleman' is another noticeable piece of online content since it has managed to secure 60 MILLION views in 2 DAYS purely because it is the next piece of content to come from Psy. 60 million views in 2 days is a ridiculous statistic and one that is often overlooked in articles elsewhere given its predecessor's success. 60 million in 2 days is mega-viral. But it will become a perfectly normal figure within the next 6 months. The rate at which content can go viral and then mega-viral is increasing as networks of people are able to share content faster and faster. Ultimately there will be a point in time where there will be one channel online, the mainstream, that plays the most viral piece of content for that day / hour / minute. We can already see the first steps of this in Twitter's #hashtag trending list.
The content delivery model is still based on the old-school method of users being fed the latest information from an authoritative source. People currently look to content-hub websites (Reddit, Buzzfeed, news websites etc) or to tastemakers for what's hot since they are considered the authority on what should be watched right now. Incredibly, some mega-memes like the Harlem Shake have even been jumped on as a direct way to make money for the man.
However that is changing as online social groups are becoming more fragmented and specialist. The opinion of a known friend is more valuable than an entertainment source and online social groups are now evolving their own tastemakers, those who are always posting the latest videos in their feeds - we all know one person like that. The fact that they still look to get their content from entertainment sources is irrelevant. What is relevant is that there is now someone, a real person, a trusted person who is filtering this content and then sharing the stuff that they think you'd like.
This TED Talk from Kevin Allocca neatly explains “Why videos go viral”. Put simply, anything new that consists of the magic three ingredients will go viral: to gain recognition it must be noticed and promoted by a select few people (tastemakers) with a large number of followers, then it must allow anyone to participate creatively in their own way, and lastly it must have complete unexpectedness.
Although that video describes how how quickly the music charts can change based what’s popular with online communities, it is also listing the founding pieces of content that were around at the time that people started to all tune into the same content together. The ancestors of mega-memes.
Very soon there will be a very strong sense of community online as a whole, and it will become comforting to all be online together, all consuming the latest content together. This will reflect humanity online; what people currently find funny, sad, interesting, shocking, and so on. This already exists but it's in various places and is very disparate - to say the Twitter community, or the Reddit community, or the Guardian online community who comment on articles is representative of humanity online is incorrect. Those are still relatively small groups of people who have been drawn together by a common interest. What still needs to happen is for people to come completely together online in one place. This is essentially a hive mind and in its early stages is one that is only used for watching Gangnam Style, but imagine a future with the power of that many people all focussing on the same thing together at the same moment in time. It'll happen once the platform for it is available, and when it does it will dwarf everything else that came before it.
UX is not UI
Interesting 'infographic' from Erik Flowers on the common misconception that being classed as a User Experience Designer can be incorrectly understood as someone who focusses just on user interface design. The interface is not the solution and a good user experience does not stem directly from a good user interface, there are many more factors involved (as illustrated below).
How long different animals live, in vintage ISOTYPE infographic. Austrian sociologist, philosopher, and curator Otto Neurath, who was born 130 years ago today, and his wife Marie pioneered the International System Of TYpographic Picture Education in the 1930s, laying the foundation for modern infographics.
via the incredible Brain Pickings
via the incredible Brain Pickings
Digital library in Bucharest metro station
This is an idea that has been seen on the Bucharest metro - as you wait for your train use your mobile to scan a book from the bookcase printed on the walls and then you'll have something to read on your journey. Fantastic!
via Reddit
via Reddit
VW - The Original Click
VW Auto parts have found an innovative way to use YouTube to get people thinking that there’s something wrong with alternative part suppliers; that imitations are poor quality.
Revolutionary User Interfaces
The human computer interface helps to define computing at any one time. As computers have become more mainstream the interfaces have become more intimate. This is the journey of computer technology and how it has come to touch all of our lives.
Now this is really cool; an interactive timeline that describes the milestones in human computer interaction over the years.
Check it out here - http://timeline.verite.co/examples/user-interface/
Pictures of People Scanning QR-codes
Great new website called Pictures of People Scanning QR-codes.
No posts yet.
http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/
and this is just as entertaining wtfrqrcodes
Fresh Impressions on Brandmarks (from a 5-year-old)
A fantastically fresh look at brand logos from a 5 year old.
Dark Patterns: User Interfaces Designed to Trick People
Normally when you think of "bad design", you think of laziness or mistakes. These are known as design anti-patterns. Dark Patterns are different – they are not mistakes, they are carefully crafted with a solid understanding of human psychology, and they do not have the user’s interests in mind.
Read more over at Dark Patterns
Dark Patterns: User Interfaces Designed to Trick People (Presented at UX Brighton 2010)
View another webinar from Harry Brignull
Read more over at Dark Patterns
Guide to updating your status
Here's a guide for those of you who might have wondering where to post your status updates..
The 10 principles of interaction design
Chad Vavra, interaction design director at The Barbarian Group, rounds up 10 key rules that make good interaction designs and designers and that you need to understand before you can break them.
via NetMagazine
30 years of UI and devices
Really fantastic collection of interactive devices.
Over the past 30 years, designer, writer, and researcher Bill Buxton has been collecting input and interactive devices whose design struck him as interesting, useful, or important. In the process, he has assembled a good collection of the history of pen computing, pointing devices, touch technologies, as well as an illustration of the nature of how new technologies emerge.
via BuxtonCollection
Star Size Comparison
How do you describe planetary and star size to someone? I love this video for succeeding in showing the viewer the mega-scales and proportions that exist in space.
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