See how information propagates on the web.
Done for NYT stories but the underlying code can be used by anyone.
http://nytlabs.com/projects/cascade.html
Contributed by Gareth Kay
DisplayContent is a thought-provoking augmented reality proof of concept to come out of the Pachube International Internet of Things Hackathon.
via fastcompany
This data visualization of civilian casualties in Afghanistan shows what web browsers can render without the use of plugins. In the words of the Developer and Designer, George Michael Brower:
That this visualization can be viewed in-browser is a testament to the promise of modern web technologies such as WebGL, HTML5 and CSS3, all of which were leveraged in this piece. As browsers adopt support for these standards, developers and their audience will enjoy fewer barriers to rich experiences, hopefully increasing the visibility and appreciation of code as art. Thanks to Ricardo Cabello for three.js as well as Chris Lauritzen and Jono Brandel.
Contributed by James Craig
From former Stamen and Barbarian Group people comes Bloom.io, a new startup in San Francisco focused on data visualization with game design.
And some of their products:
Contributed by Jeremy Adirim
“Conductor,” a new HTML5/JavaScript project by Alexander Chen of Google Creative Labs, tracks the movement of the NYC subway system and produces the twangy sounds of a stringed instrument when train paths intersect. You can also use your mouse to interact with the strings to add your own flair to the music.
Via Mashable
Picture what things would look like if they happened somewhere else on the map with the BBC’s Dimensions.
via flavorwire
Twittermood is a project started by a multidisciplinary group of researchers from Northeastern and Harvard that seeks to understand the relationship between mood and geography through complex Tweet analysis.
In analogy to individual neurons firing together to add up to the human consciousness, the billions of tweets have meaningful macro-states that contain information about the whole system rather than the individual tweeters. But we need to do a little data mining to extract meaningful information about these states, to expose our collective states of mind.
(Sune Lehmann via Complexity and Social Networking Blog)
This poster summarizes the team’s findings thus far:
As part of the project, they created the following tvideo, documenting a 24-hour mood cycle on Twitter:
A wonderful translation of myriad data points into something insightful.
Eric Fischer has created an awesome map using Flickr data to highlight differences in how tourists and locals inhabit New York City:
Tourists and locals share an uneasy detente at times on New York’s crowded streets. When it comes to photography, however, there’s evidence that these two tribes dwell in different cities.
Eric Fischer, a 37-year-old computer programmer from Oakland, Calif., created a map using geotagging data on the photo-sharing websites Flickr and Picasa to plot the points in New York(and 71 other cities) captured by shutterbugs. He then devised an ingenious system for separating tourists from locals. A user with many shots of the same city taken over a wide range of dates is deemed to be a local, and marked on the map with blue dots. Tourists get a red dot. (Yellow dots could not be placed in either camp).
(via WSJ blog)
Ever wanted to leave a trail breadcrumbs through the city for your friends or to keep for later use? The folks over Urban Informatics have created an app for that: Dispomaps.
DispoMaps enables you to share your current location on an online map with anyone. The map is constantly updated as you go, using your iPhone’s GPS.
DispoMaps is easy to use. Launch the app, switch Location Sharing to “ON,” and decide how you want to share your location: via SMS, email, twitter, or facebook.
Your recipients will be sent a link to a unique web page displaying a map of your real-time location. Once you have arrived at your destination, you can easily dispose of your map by switching Location Sharing to “OFF.”
Lots of potential uses. Here are a couple that come to mind:
1 – Travel efficiencies/Mass Maps: Monitor your daily movement vs. others and then add efficiencies.
2 – Shared Explorations – Friends can literally follow in each other’s footsteps. Or, if meeting, they can easily locate each other, making meeting up easier than ever.
3 – “A night with [insert celebrity]” – Now Kim Kardashian can take her Twitter audience along with for a night on the town.
Foot note: One of the coolest features of the app is the disposability of the maps. Maps are made and can be shared and then easily deleted through the app. This could make for some very interesting time-sensitive, live events.
Last week, everyone and their Facebook loving grandmother saw the social media giant take over the web in one fell swoop. That’s right kids, Al Gore may have invented the internet, but Facebook now owns it.
Their new API, the Open Graphs protocol, allows every site to now integrate with Facebook using a slew of “social plug-ins”. Consisting of one line of code, each plug-in ties directly back to the users profile and newsfeed, allowing them to like, comment, recommend, etc instantly on partner sites like CNN, but have it show up both on CNN and Facebook.
Sound kinda familiar? That’s because a more primitive form already existed under the branding of “Facebook Connect”. With Open Graphs though, “Connect”, which was much more limiting and time consuming to integrate, has now been rendered obsolete.
The Graphs API allows for a much more detailed and branded experience across the board on participating sites. Instead of just seeing a users name, you now see their profile thumbnail and what they recommend. Here’s a pretty interesting example of its use in the Levi’s Store:
Want to see what your Facebook friends are looking up? Browse the web through friends’ likes at likebutton.me
The biggest win for developers is that they have removed their 24 hour caching policy, allowing us to keep users information indefinitely and not have to constantly stay connected with Facebook server’s (which is highly inefficient). But what’s really genius about the update is that the process of logging in to participate has been completely eliminated. Instead, you are only given the option to opt out, allowing your friends and preferences to follow you across the big ol’world wide web.
For more info, go straight to the source:
http://developers.facebook.com/plugins
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/
