Extras

Jon Udell: A Google Maps walking tour of Keene, NH

Posted on by charlie

On a tip-off (once again) from the inestimable Matt Jones, of a "great hack of google maps by john udell". It’s really cool that Udell creates this trail from his walk that then uses Google Maps to show not only the trail, but photos and videos at certain way points.

What excites me, and I think this is what Matt is pointing at, is that Udell’s system is like Lifeblog in that it basically is automatically recording one’s life. Udell just sorts it by location rather than time. Udell could use his phone as the Life Recorder, as we do, by automatically collecting the way point pictures and videos, instead of manually collecting the photos and videos himself (I keep pestering GPS-dude Chris Heathcote to try this out).

A few things Udell said that were interesting: 1) that this should be simple; 2) that here’s a tool to actually collectively annotate the planet.

Cool.

Link: Jon Udell: A Google Maps walking tour of Keene, NH.

We’ve been toying with ideas like this, since we do have some location info in Lifeblog. But our granularity, for various reasons, is nowhere near the same as Udell’s. If we could have such granularity, we’d clearly connect it with maps somehow. Indeed, when you start connecting relevant meta-data to objects, the different ways of viewing them gets interesting. And I don’t mean just first level meta-data such as location, time, or date, but meta-data on the meta-data handling info (who saw me, who sent me, who was I sent to), or frequency info (how many times was I viewed, how many times was a message sent to someone). yada yada yada – this is nothing new in meta-data circles. 😉

Announcements

MonPuteaux.com (Puteaux 92800): Essai de publication de photo en “live”

Posted on by charlie

Christophe Grébert, of "Mon Puteaux" fame, is now a Lifeblogger! This guy is so cool – he got fed up with how the mayor (and cronies) were governing his home town and started a blog to expose the suckers. It’s so cool. His readership is actually larger than the total population of the town!

I think the mayor will be sorry now that Christophe can easily post while on the go – instant exposure and even more acountability for the mayor and the town government.

Way to go, Christophe!

Link: MonPuteaux.com (Puteaux 92800): Essai de publication de photo en "live".

Hmm, and after a while he’ll have a growing archive of all this in his Lifeblog PC timeline. Vau!

BTW, he did this on his own. Just let it be known that if I give anything to anyone that they would normally have to pay for, I’ll let you know. (I’m a bit paranoid lately in the transparency space; I’m giving a talk and will be talking about corporate blogging, so…)

Announcements

Pausing for station identification

Posted on by charlie

On another blog I manage that’s work related, it was pointed out to me that it wasn’t clear who owned the blog (it was an oversight). So I updated the About page to reflect the nature of the blog and ‘paused for a station identification’ so that it would be clear what was going on.

In a way, I think it’s important to do the same here, since I actually haven’t really revealed myself much here (I am not comfortable promoting myself).

Cognections is a personal site and has two public blogs:

  • The main home blog – On this blog I post musings, statements, and reflections, looking for connections between precognition, cognition, and recognition (how philosophical). It’s pretty personal. This is the one I use to mostly blog images and videos.
  • My Lifeblog blog (this one) – since I am head of marketing and sales in the Lifeblog team at Nokia, Lifeblog is a large part of my life. I am hooked on it, especially on my phone. Of course, being in my position, I get nervous promoting my enthusiasm for Lifeblog (it’s an authenticity thing), so I try to frequently make the point clear that, additionally, I am on the Lifeblog team, especially the more enthusiastic I get. I AM MAKING THAT POINT NOW, AGAIN.

Also, I am very very careful not to turn this blog into some sort of sales and marketing site for Nokia. That would be gross. Such a site I would locate smack-dab in the middle of Nokia.com. Right? Here I just want to be myself – enthusiastic for Nokia products (which I was before I joined Nokia – you can Google for proof), excited to share what I know, and a bit on the edge, just to stir things up.

Nonetheless, this is a personal blog, and I try to be honest and up-front with everything I do. Now that you’ve read this, don’t forget to whack me when it seems I am deviating from my mission.

Thanks!

Reflections

Stickers

Posted on by charlie
My phone
My phone
My computer
My computer


Joi Ito recently posted a picture of some stickers on a laptop cover. Seems like not only was the laptop cover prominent in a movie, but had a sticker from his dear Infoseek.

He’s posted other photos of laptop stickers before, and so have I (Mena and Minna, for example). But, since I’m not so computer-based, it’s my phone that gets plastered.

This is my second phone I’ve done this to. Most of my stickers actually have some story associated with them, sometimes even after I stuck them on. And I’m already on my second layer as some stickers fade or lose relevance and I stick another on top.

I find it fun, like some physical substantiation of thoughts and memories. And unlike some 17-inch PowerBook, I don’t have much space, so I need to be thoughtful and creative.

In contrast, the first thing I did when I got my laptop was to actually remove the Windows and Intel stickers. The only sticker I put on was an RFID sticker that SMSs me ‘I have your laptop’ when some one reads it with a Nokia NFC cover. So maybe not as many stickers on my laptop as others, but at least mine does something cool.

General

Anina is something

Posted on by charlie

I have the good fortune of being able to meet creative, enthusiastic, and interesting people. Through some wierd path, I met Anina, truly a new kind of supermodel.

After some long chats, I relized that all she needed was a bit of support to flower and do some really cool things with Lifeblog (she contacted me because she realized what she could do). She’s really mobile crazy (check out her movies and graphics) and technically savvy and has come up with some great ideas for blogging.

One of her ideas is a ‘caught blogging’ where she posts a hint as to where she’s at or going to be and folks need to ‘catch’ her, usually with a photo that they can post.

Link: LIFEBLOG.anina.net: Cought blogging!.

Another idea is to duel someone with blogs where they basically try to out-blog each other. Her first duel ended in a disaster because for some reason (maybe Lifeblog?) nothing worked and she couldn’t post.

Link: LIFEBLOG.anina.net: Kicking the living Lifeblog out of me!

And then of course, she’s gone nuts with her Digital Pen.

Link: LIFEBLOG.anina.net: Today’s post

She’s not doing this for me (or Lifeblog or Nokia), but for herelf (she’s not some Nokia spokesperson or anything – ugh!). It’s really her thing. She’s the one coming up with the ideas and doing everything. I just supply her with gadgets and not much else. I just find it interesting to watch, and what happens, happens.

Like I said, creative folks only need a bit of support. And I like what creative folks like her do.