DIY
The OLPC Laptop’s Interface Translated For Adults
A neat preview of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) user interface Aquatic Sugar, as well as an explanation of how it works:
(More about the One Laptop Per Child project? Click here for my posts on the topic.)
(Thanks for the hint, H.!)
Less bad product designs with redesignme.org
Redesignme (Flash, HTML) is a good implementation of a simple, but powerful idea: Users submit really bad product designs, then propose what could be done better and how.
That’s it.
But that’s pretty cool, too. After all, it’s the users who know about the bad usability and all the problems. It’s a pain to use? Chances […]
How Creative Commons Can Interact With Commerce
Over the last couple of years, Creative Commons licenses have become pretty widely adopted in the non-commercial field. (You’ll find a great number of blogs and podcasts under a non-commercial Creative Commons license.)
But what about commercial use? Are Creative Commons licenses the natural enemy of commercially used contents? By no means, quite the contrary. Here’s […]
How to build your own mesh network?
As you may know, I’ve been obsessing about the One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC) for awhile, for both its aims and potential. Here’s another project that ties right in, a simple guide on how to build your own mesh network. (The OLPC laptops support meshing out of the box, but if there’s no network […]
Mashup Online Magazine That Writes Itself
That’s an art project I’d love to see one of these days: An online magazine that writes itself, based on a calendar, a pre-written set of tags connected to the calendar, and a bunch of RSS feeds.
Imagine, just for simplicity’s sake, a lifestyle magazine for women. (Of course, every other type of magazine would […]
Open Source Hardware: Buglabs to ship in Q4
Tired of your bricked iPhone? You’re not alone. (Ok, to be fair, iPhones aren’t even being shipped in Germany yet, I think. But anyway.)
There’s at least two new projects that are open sourcing not just their software, but also their hardware: They’re specifically designed for hackability. How awesome is that?
First, there’s OpenMoko, an open source […]
Opening the Social Graph
Lately the web has been buzzing with talk about the Social Graph (or Social Network Portability, as others prefer to call it).
The basic question? Who owns your social network, and how can you move it back and forth between different services and applications? (You should be the only one with complete control over your […]
Do we need standards to protect customers online?
Google has decided to discontinue their online video store, effectively just taking back the DRM-”protected” videos they had sold before. (BoingBoing has a brief round-up.)
This just shows, again, how deadly all the license agreements are that all users click through on a daily basis. (Yes: you, too.) Basically, whenever you purchase or rent anything on […]
exPhone.org: How to create a simple but rich web application in just three days
Citizen Agency’s Chris Messina shares his story about a very cool pet project of his, going by the name of exPhone.org.
exPhone is one of those examples of how the web can (and should) be applied to find great, quick solutions for a problem.
Chris had a simple enough question: What to do with your old […]
The geek / non-geek split in your social network (and why old media feel so stale)*
Recently I’ve noticed again a certain, shall we say: split in my everyday life, which I’m sure some of you are familiar with. It’s a number of related splits, really.
And no, I’m not talking about the kind of work/free time aka day/night split most people feel in their offices at times. Rather, I’m talking about […]
Great guide by J-Lab: Journalism 2.0 - How to Survive and Thrive
University of Maryland’s J-Lab and the Knight Citizen News Network, who both focus on interactive journalism, have released a great hands-on guide: Journalism 2.0 - How to Survive and Thrive (Full PDF version here, print version available here).
There’s quite a bit material on this topic out there already, of course, but this report is really […]
Social Networking in plain English (and plain German)
(with German subtitles)
Click To Play
(undubbed English version)
This awesome brief video by the CommonCraft Show has been floating around the web for a little while now: Social Networking in Plain English explains, well, social networking. Quick and easy, in under 2 minutes. This is great stuff, really!
Thanks to Lee LeFever for releasing the video under […]
Banksy @ Palestine Video
Banksy has been the street artist for a few years. Even if you’re not particularly into street art you’ve probably seen a number of his works. He does a lot of stencils, but he’s also sneaked his works into art galleries, disguised as regular exhibits. His style is amazing, ironic, and often very political. I […]
Dramatic Hamster remix: You talkin’ to me?
(Click to watch the video in a new window.)
If you haven’t been hiding under a rock, you may have seen the (soon to be classic) Hamster With The Dramatic Look video. (It’s on youtube, too.)
Well, here’s a little remix fun.
(I’ve remixed it via Jumpcut, with mixed results: First, Jumpcut made me merge my Jumpcut […]
A Swarm of Angels: Movie Poster Competition
Ever thought of designing a poster? Like, one that’s going to be the official promo material for a real movie? (And a kick-ass one, too!) Well, here’s your chance.
The great independent, collaborative & community-driven film project A Swarm of Angels has started a movie poster competition.
Palla has released his latest stunning image for A Swarm […]
My name is Peter Bihr. I live in Berlin, Germany. As a freelancer, I consult on web strategies, communities, blogging and social media. In this weblog, I jot down random thoughts, ideas and news. Hopefully, you'll find some are interesting for you, too. 