Finally figured out what my book will be about

Finally figured out what my book will be about, originally uploaded by CWillaerts.

Remember I made that plan to write a book about Social Media? Well, today I've started writing. I have notes all over the place...

A crash between two bodies

BIKES - Crashing into love on Vimeo: "A metaphorical short film about bikes, movement, freedom and love. Every day mind tries to get the better of heart. Space and time have always existed and we can’t stop them. Throught the movement we discover ourself. Speed is like curiosity. A crash between two bodies. To remember us that we are not alone."

BIKES - Crashing into love from Raoul Paulet on Vimeo.

A 360° homage to Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher

Tribute to Escher in Barcelona

Cain @ransbottyn 's Social Weight Experiment

My old friend Cain describes himself in his Cain.be bio as a "Selfish prick,.." and who am I to argue that. Over the years I've seen slim Cains and fat Cains (*) and usually this also meant a radical change in his personal and/or professional life. So I'm betting this time he's preparing for something Big.
He's hooked up his Withing stats to his blog and lifestreams what he eats. Today he's at 107 kg and 582 Twitter followers. He wants to lose 32 kg before he reaches 3200 [Flemish] Twitter followers. Which will be, according to Twittercounter, in about 500 days. Why he picked 3200 followers and how he's going to distinguish the Flemish ones from the others, I don't know.

(*) Other Cains include: Cain writing "ZV" by burning out the tyres of the brand new BMW, Cain blending his iPhone, Cain going to London and throwing up in a bucket, and Cain taking his employees to a titty bar "as a teambuilding exercise".

Is your bathroom a minefield of toxins?

The latest video in the Story of Stuff series: very informative, but the tone of voice made me cringe.

Troll dolls never die

I love the new interface for Google Images:

Why troll dolls? Because, according to Plaid-creative.com, "[t]he luck-bringing, friendly-faced dolls have lasted nearly a half-century and peaked at three different points, making them a surprisingly successful fad."

In case you wonder, the latest fad [in the U.S.] are animal rubber bands called Silly Bandz.

You violate the Ninja code by falling in love

YouTube video Shazai explains the method for which the Japanese style apologizes variously.

If you feel any lump, send her to a doctor

Check out these boobs! on Vimeo: "An interactive campaign rising breast cancer awareness done by Change Integrated, Warsaw, Poland".

Check out these boobs! from nienaut on Vimeo.

From the voice-over:

Most breast cancer campaigns are targeted at female audiences, but the problem also relates to men, as it does concern their partners and wives. Why are we women left alone? Men are not matching to all those conventional leaflets and medical persuasion aimed at women, so how can we educate men on what they can easily do to help? We decided to base our campaign on a cliché, yet true insight—Men are big kids, and they learn best when playing.

I MadMenned myself

Give it a try: MadMenYourself.com

Barbie's new career: Video Girl

You might remember iJustine from her 300-page iPhone bill video back in 2007. And in case you might wonder, after over 4 years of lifecasting, she's still going strong, with literally millions of followers, subscribers and fans on Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.
Lately she has been working with Mattel and Barbie to test and promote the latest career of Barbie: Video Girl. Here's the video, with a lot of OMG's in it: If I'm not mistaken this one cost only 50$. So if you see a bunch of 11 year olds carrying Video Girls, prepare for some ruthless happy slapping.

America's moodiest states

Researchers from Northeastern University and Harvard University have been studying the characteristics and dynamics of Twitter for a while now.
Pulse of the Nation: U.S. Mood Throughout the Day inferred from Twitter (.pdf 11MB) visualises the mood of the several U.S. states throughout the day and the week. The result was mapped in this time-lapse video: Some of the highlights from this study:

• Early morning and late evening have the highest level of happiness.
• West Coast of the U.S. is significantly happier than than the East Coast.
• Weekends are much happier than weekdays.

It would be really interesting to have a similar study for Europe - although the language issues would make mapping a lot more difficult. But I'm curious to see if, for example, people in countries with economic difficulties (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) show more frustrations than others.

Influence is fluid

Conversation agent quotes on influence: "Influence is fluid. [...] This means that giving interesting things to people to do together - bringing them together around things they care about (through shared purpose), to act on those things, has more value than spotting the influencer and giving them some sort of message you expect them to go off and influence others with.” — David Cushman, Power of the Network".

More where this came from:

Conversation agent quotes on influence

View more presentations from Valeria Maltoni.

Getting lost in Berlin

The video installation crossroads (what to do) "deals with the influence of others onto one's own path of life in an abstract way."

crossroads (what to do) from Garvin Nolte on Vimeo.

So many screens that tell us what to do and we still get lost.

Time-lapse Tokyo

Floating point, "the latest Tokyo time-lapse video by [French photographer and video artist] Samuel Cockedey, features views of Rainbow Bridge, Shinagawa station, Ikebukuro, Ochanomizu, and Tsukishima."

floating point from Samuel Cockedey on Vimeo.

Keep your friends close and your enemies at that bar down the street

Avoidr uses [location-based social networking website/software for mobile devices/game] Foursquare to check where your not-friends are so you can avoid them.

Because "social" is not only about sharing with "friends" (in the broad, 2010 social web sense) and making them "like" what you do, but just as well about blocking and avoiding those you don't want to interact with. Another great example of web services as a life management tool.

In the same lines: ManageFlitter unables you to batch unfollow Twitter users for very human-like reasons, like "too talkative", "too quiet" or "not following back". ManageFlitter's dashboard tells me that so far I've been unfollowed by 36 other people using this tool.

Emotional internet radio

stereomood is "a free emotional internet radio that suggests to me the music that best suits my mood and my daily activities. it's much more than an online radio, it's a tool to create playlists for every occasion, a tool to share my emotions through the music."

Interfaces based on mood. I love it! Some older examples:

• World Mood - Mood Stats
• We Feel Fine, by Jonathan Harris
• Twitter Mood Light - The World's Mood in a Box

Who are the most influential people online right now?

Fast Company seeks to identify the most influential person online. Interesting to see how they define it:

Influence Project: "Influence is not only about having the most friends or followers. Real influence is about being able to affect the behavior of those you interact with, to get others in your social network to act on a suggestion or recommendation. When you post a link or recommend a site, how many people actually bother to check it out? And what’s the likelihood of those people then forwarding it on? How far does your influence spread?"

I can haz hooman progress?

Are lolcats a sign of human progress? American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies Clay Shirky thinks they are: