A couple weeks ago I tossed out a new web experience called Chatroulette. A couple friends got an "experience" they didn't want but a guy named Merton is using Chatroulette to create some pretty funny web content. His YouTube videos have gone viral with millions of views and you can't help smiling as you watch these spontaneous improvs.
(Click image for full-size viewing in a new window)
While the bulk of sales are still in-store, the gap is not terribly wide. Perhaps not surprisingly, e-commerce sales seem to outpace in-store sales across several specific categories, including books and magazines, clothing, and electronics. The glaring exception where offline sales far outnumber online is drugs & health aids.
Boing Boing points us to a very interesting Wall Street Journal Article that explores how homeless people are using the Internet. Corey Doctorow also predicts that within five years, network access will be declared a universal human right. Lots of great brain food all around.
The WSJ reports:
Like most San Franciscans, Charles Pitts is wired. Mr. Pitts, who is 37 years old, has accounts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. He runs an Internet forum on Yahoo, reads news online and keeps in touch with friends via email. The tough part is managing this digital lifestyle from his residence under a highway bridge.
“You don’t need a TV. You don’t need a radio. You don’t even need a newspaper,” says Mr. Pitts, an aspiring poet in a purple cap and yellow fleece jacket, who says he has been homeless for two years. “But you need the Internet.”
Mr. Pitts’s experience shows how deeply computers and the Internet have permeated society. A few years ago, some people were worrying that a “digital divide” would separate technology haves and have-nots. The poorest lack the means to buy computers and Web access. Still, in America today, even people without street addresses feel compelled to have Internet addresses.
There's seems to be quite a bit of conversation going on lately about the use of or at least the unhealthy "addiction" to social media and blogging. I find it ironic that these convos are taking place online but whatever. I think it is important to reevaluate our motives and time wasted on FB, Twitter, MySpace (does that even still exist), and all the others. But, as we watch Flowerdust shut down her Facebook and InternetMonk contemplate the use of these technologies (in a great article that you need to read BTW), let's all have a little laugh at this...
The city of Amsterdam has held an ‘adaptive reuse design competition’ to redesign two abandoned sewage treatment silos in Zeeburgereiland. With one of the three silos set to be converted into an office building, the remaining towers silos were open to proposals. Amsterdam-based NL Architects submitted a design that would see the structures adapted into a ‘Cultural Silo’ and a ‘Climbing Silo’.
NL Architect’s design was not chosen for the competition, the Amsterdam City Council choosing the Annie MG Schmidt House design by Arons en Gelauff.
I love how countries and organizations are going more "open-source" in their approach to change and expansion. It's the understanding that creativity and ingenuity aren't locked up in a few "gifted elite" but given the chance, everyone has something to contribute.
As always, I'm thinking... "What can the Church learn from this?" How different would the world look if all our local churches were truly people-empowering? I have a feeling that the leaders would experience less burn-out and the people wouldn't be as bored.
You can fight it. You can wish for the "good ol' days". You can ignore it and continue with business as usual. But none of that will stop the fact that times are changing and at an exponential rate.
Last year U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave a public speech questioning the need for more privacy protections.
This year a Fordham University law professor teaching a course on privacy gave his class the project of turning up publicly available information on Scalia.
The fifteen-page dossier completely flipped Scalia out.
"It seems that Professor Reidenberg successfully created an active learning environment where his students took control and learned the subject in a way they will not soon forget."
Snip: His class turned in a 15-page dossier that included not only Scalia's home address, home phone number and home value, but his food and movie preferences, his wife's personal e-mail address and photos of his grandchildren, reports Above the Law.
If you are interested in following this story, including a discussion of privacy and ethical considerations, here is a link to a blog which provides further detail.
This little tidbit makes me wonder how local churches should be thinking differently about their corporate gatherings. It's obviously not all about broadcast anymore. And, It's not hard to think that in a decade or even sooner, the local church might cease to exist as we know it. I wouldn't be surprised if there was only one corporate gathering every month or so, and even then only to celebrate what God is doing through the Body in service to each other and the community.
Astonishing data from Nielsen showing just how fragmented our attention has become.
The average time for a site visit in March of 2009 was 56 seconds. This puts tremendous demands on the efficiency of web design, meaning designers have to make sure people get what they need as quickly as possible. Perhaps this is why most websites look the same.
It also calls into question the depth that people want to go into to learn more.
I know, I know. You can't trust studies and polls and all that. But it's interesting and not all that surprising actually...
"According to a new Harvard Business School study, eight of the top ten states in terms of online porn consumption were ones where McCain won in the presidential election. Professor Benjamin Edelman analyzed anonymised credit cards receipts from a large online porn company. Based on their limited data, the largest consumer is Utah.
