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What people think they know about collaboration, facilitation,...

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:51:48 -0400

What people think they know about collaboration, facilitation, and teamwork is wrong. Instead, take the Marshmallow Challenge and see how tall a tower your team can build from 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow.

Stanford psychology professor Stanley Milgram once posited any...

Mon, 10 May 2010 12:19:00 -0400

Stanford psychology professor Stanley Milgram once posited any two people were connected via six degrees of separation. A new quantitative study now shows most Twitter users are connected via four degrees, but with a twist. Twitter relationships have a short graph diameter and low reciprocity, unlike all previously-known human social networks. In addition a non-power-law follower distribution anomaly makes some supernodes very efficient for distributing news, as the pictured retweet tree illustrates.

My Delicious tag cloud, as illustrated by Wordle, reveals a...

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:51:00 -0500

My Delicious tag cloud, as illustrated by Wordle, reveals a section of interests. Even though Delicious has long been the most popular linkmarking service, two years ago i stopped using it as my main linkshare collection and began using it along with a Firefox Add-On to tag and share links between computers and browsers, and incidentally to share with others. Since then, Foxmarks debuted for sharing default Firefox links between computers and occasionally for other browsers, and Delicious has resumed more prominence. For my other linkmarks, see also these collections.

NetFlix Prize contenders choke on Napoleon Dynamite? State of Art in Collaborative Filtering · New York Times Magazine

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:30:00 -0500

NetFlix Prize contenders choke on Napoleon Dynamite? State of Art in Collaborative Filtering · New York Times Magazine:

…and I Heart Huckabees, Lost in Translation, Fahrenheit 9/11, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Sideways, according to this well-written in-depth New York Times Magazine article Sunday. In one contender model, Napoleon Dynamite accounts for 15% of the total error, and a small group of mainly independent movies above totals more than half the remaining error. To paraphrase the article: when a previously unknown team introduced one significant improvement, singular value decomposition, and smashed into 4th place, other teams soon followed suit and now all top ten use the technique.

Writer Clive Thompson wondered: The question haunting Netflix as well as recommendation engines used by Amazon and iTunes: Just how predictable is human taste? If we can’t understand our own preferences, can computers be any better? Sometimes the way singular value decomposition groups movies makes sense, but other times no rationale seem apparent. The algorithms find connections so deep and subconscious, even customers themselves wouldn’t recognize why.

Detroit's Rise and Decline · a Property Map through Time · Trulia Hindsight

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:08:00 -0400

Detroit's Rise and Decline · a Property Map through Time · Trulia Hindsight:

Map, visualize, and explore the development of housing. In this Trulia real estate mashup in Microsoft Virtual Earth, see how Detroit and modern industrial cities thrive and die property by property through the rise and decline of housing. See in the timeline how economic boom and bust create waves of building. Detroit center city has now laid quiescent, dormant, for over 70 years.

As the interval between successive paradigm shifts approaches...

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 01:03:00 -0400

As the interval between successive paradigm shifts approaches zero, technological singularity happens. From that point, all future paradigm shifts happen apparently all at once. Evidence shows not only doubling every year, character intrinsic of information systems including computing and biology, but the rate of change itself growing with exponent 1.1. Imagine a world of superhuman intelligent machines learning and rebuilding themselves exponentially faster than our ability to comprehend. Imagine seemingly infinite computing operating, growing, and adapting at the speed of light. Then lever it and feed it back into every other domain.

Hack your Canon point-and-shoot into a compact programmable super-camera

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:33:00 -0400

Hack your Canon point-and-shoot into a compact programmable super-camera:

Add multiple Camera Raw formats, live zebra preview and color histograms, motion triggers, time-lapse, extra-long exposure, stacked exposures, 1/25000 shutter, 1/64000 flash sync, auto-bracket, framing grids, longer video, calendars and tons more to your consumer Canon camera using the free, opensource, camera-hacking project CHDK. The Kit enhances embedded Canon Digic II and III firmware by loading the hacks from a memory card whenever you wish to use it. To turn it off, restart the camera. To stop using it, delete the files. It’s easy and non-permanent.

The Kit can also run scripts to trigger and perform actions, for programmable interval time lapse or motion trigger fast enough to capture lightning. Programmers can write their own, and better yet, programmers already have written large collections ready for download. Since many programmers actively develop the Kit, new features debut regularly.

For a straight-forward guide, see this Wired How-To Wiki too.

organization and governance guidelines for boards of directors

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:57:00 -0400

organization and governance guidelines for boards of directors:

Laws require corporations, as legal entities owning property, entering contracts, and assuming debt, have a governing board of directors, accountable as a fiduciary to its shareholders, members, or the public. These governing boards organize and operate according to articles of incorporation, bylaws, resolutions, and policies, oversee corporate purpose and plans, select and supervise management, ensure sufficient resources for the organization, and ensure compliance with laws and regulations. This linked page outlines and links many more pages covering governance and policy; roles and responsibilities; operations and systems; accountability and ethics; staffing, compensation, communications and the issues of running an organization. It also covers director training as a comprehensive overview and exemplar of how boards should work. The scope and volume of information make it suitable for a weekend workshop with additional homework in addition to a checklist and toolkit to introduce best practices.

Find your friends · Flickr

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:20:00 -0400

Find your friends · Flickr:

Some websites import friends utterly wrong, but Flickr gets it right. Their revised finder no longer asks for your password to other sites before logging in as you to fetch your address book. Such interactions can compromise password and site security. Most people reuse the same small set of usernames and passwords. A not-so-small number of sites store cleartext passwords; they can even mail it back to you. Regardless how well sites execute security, a breach at any other site can compromise security across many user accounts across many sites.

Several weeks ago a Web 2.0 company launched a Gmail backup app that asked for addresses and passwords, which at least 1777 unwitting folks provided. In addition to backing up Gmail as expected, the app also socked away the address and password combo. When the scheme was exposed, the company claimed debugging code made it to production inadvertently.

I can see scenarios where governments may be the least of our worries. Much more likely are significant others’ jealous exes who are also system administrators, and hacked sites with weak security. The sooner we move away from passwords and shared-secret systems, the safer we’ll be.

Flickr now joins that cause and can dig up friends across instant messenger and e mail address books at Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, and Google Mail without asking for your password on these other systems. For those already logged into the target site, the follow-ups ask only to authorize the transaction. For those not yet logged into the target site, note the url. Requests for passwords come only from the target site itself, as with OpenID.

After a few minutes, Flickr found missed and misplaced friends, nearly doubling my Flickr contacts to over 100. This is how finding friends should work. Other sites, take heed.

Though Facebook, Myspace, and other “walled gardens” now...

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:31:00 -0400

Though Facebook, Myspace, and other “walled gardens” now dominate the online social network category, cracks in the wall may have appeared.

Here in a live chart, updated weekly, Google Trends shows...

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:55:00 -0400

Here in a live chart, updated weekly, Google Trends shows aggregate search on OpenID and breaks it down by country, city, and language. Recent news announcing support from Yahoo, Google, IBM, and Microsoft drive spikes in interest, which ought drive later adoption. Notably, expect OpenID to take off in Korea, Russia, and Japan, more so than in the United States or even the English speaking world.

For those who like Safari’s clean interface, and want a...

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:40:00 -0500

For those who like Safari’s clean interface, and want a more fully featured feedreader but hesitate to buy products, NewsFire (for Mac OS X) is now free, two months after Newsgator made NetNewsWire free, likely in response to opportunities and competitive offerings by Google Reader, NetVibes and other web-based aggregators. For those who have yet to try any feedreader, they make lifehacking your information load a whole lot more worthwhile.

The Good Guy Behind “Don't Be Evil” and Google Mail

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:52:00 -0500

The Good Guy Behind “Don't Be Evil” and Google Mail:

Not very many Rochesterians have hit it big at Google or in Silicon Valley and have their own Wikipedia entry, so the few who do, stand out. In many ways, they seem like ordinary folks with ordinary schedules and ordinary tribulations, but just got lucky. They can also have an amazing talent for programming and new enterprise. In this 4000 word interview, read about one of them: Paul Buchheit.

If something is wrong with the copy, you can probably blame me. Even experienced eyes sometimes miss things read too many times. One footnote to the interview, in editing the transcript, i changed none of the dialog or wording, using only paragraphs and punctuation to render the sequence of words readable and comprehensible

A big warm thanks go to Rajesh for inviting me to contribute questions for the interview, and for turning me onto FriendFeed.

Calendar Quirks: How people use personal calendars · Cognitive Daily

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:23:00 -0500

Calendar Quirks: How people use personal calendars · Cognitive Daily:

I would have been curious what distribution across demographics and psychographics uses social calendars. Merely replacing paper with computers without adopting innovations offered by the technology kinda misses the point. Most electronic and online calendars let users collaborate to set up meetings, but few people now share their calendars so software agents can suggest dates and schedule meetings. Instead, they propose dates via e mail through multiple round robins of okay and not okay. That gains hardly any productivity and maybe even hurts it. I suspect most people would prefer their computer work for them than to work for their computer.

stories i dugg | Digg

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:35:00 -0500

stories i dugg | Digg:

Digg began ostensibly as alternative to Slashdot. Its founders found Slashdot too closed, dominated by articles an elite group of editors found interesting. Though Digg used algorithms and not a cabal of anointed editors, many users complained a defacto cabal of frequent users did dominate the front page. In response, January 2008 Digg modified their algorithm to select for diversity and independence. Though it may in effect be more fair, i find it dominated by pubescent boys and articles they find interesting. Though i use it, i prefer Ma.gnolia, Faves, Reddit, and other recommenders.

NoseRub: a decentralized, social network integration protocol

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:22:25 -0500

NoseRub: a decentralized, social network integration protocol:

A protocol, implementation, exemplar and inspiration for a decentralized social network, NoseRub uses already available standards such as OpenID, FOAF, and RSS to support truly decentralized social networks. Several sites, such as sister site Identoo, already implement it. Based in Bonn and Köln, Germany, but under an MIT license, and hosted at Google Code, it’s free and opensource.

Saved By: John Lam | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: social networks, social media,

kuler · Adobe Labs

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:37:00 -0500

kuler · Adobe Labs:

An experimental palette sharing site for graphic designers, based on Shockwave Flash and Adobe Air, here create harmonious color themes online and publish them as resources for others. Explore, create and share color palettes. For sharing swatches, it’s the neatest thing i’ve seen since the Pantone color Matching System. Now, go calibrate your monitor!

Saved By: John Lam | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: graphic design, color, palettes, tool, tags, …

Barnraiser

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:38:42 -0500

Barnraiser:

Barnraiser builds opensource OpenID servers and a collaboration package which uses OpenID, which install on Apache with PHP5 and MySql. Though many people already have OpenID identities at America Online, Yahoo, and Live.com, this gives organizations ability to create user identities on their own server, free from commercial sites, large identity providers, and even smaller providers.

Saved By: John Lam | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: OpenID, social media, …

What Groks Your Blog, from Servers to Spiders to Readers (an interactive graphic)

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 06:46:00 -0500

What Groks Your Blog, from Servers to Spiders to Readers (an interactive graphic):

While writers write for their intended readers, an impressive array of software processes blogs. From ping distribution to trackback, from reply management to aggregation and resyndication, posts zip across the Internet to be found by all kinds of search tools and interested readers. This makes blogs different from other web pages, bulletin boards, and content management systems. In addition, readers can subscribe to and follow blogs using handy desktop feed readers such as FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, and browser-based feed readers such as Google Reader; they need not take time nor hassle to open another browser page to read the latest entries. See this Wired interactive graphic to see how cyberspace groks blogs.

Yahoo! OpenID

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:46:00 -0500

Yahoo! OpenID:

Yahoo now supports OpenID 2. With http://flickr.com/photos/UserName Flickr users can also use their Flickr identity!

“Why OpenID? Are you tired of creating a new account on every web site you use? Do you avoid new web sites because they come with yet another username and password? Do you paste stickies with password hints all over your computer monitor?

“OpenID, an open technology standard that solves all of these problems, lets you use your many accounts and now Yahoo! accounts to sign into hundreds of web sites! And this list grows every day!

“Once you enable your Yahoo! account for OpenID access, you can simply tell any OpenID enabled web site that you are a Yahoo! user. You will be sent to Yahoo! to verify your Yahoo! ID and password and then signed in to the web site. It’s that easy.”

saved by John Lam | see details | give thanks

tags OpenID, identity, social media, social computing, Flickr, Yahoo!