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Google offers an online tour of the Ocean

February 5, 2010 in Environment, Social Media, Tech, Web, awesome, multimedia, video | No comments

awesome…

Ah, the sea. The big blue. From sharks to shipwrecks, from the perfectly formed pipes of Hawaii’s waves to the dark and chilly depths of the deepest sea trenches, it’s one of Earth’s most fascinating habitats – one that people love watching and exploring.

Tonight, Google is bringing Internet-bound ocean lovers a new portal to the amazing biological and topographical diversity that lies beneath the waves. If you’re into underwater environments and you’re down with Google Earth,we highly recommend checking out Ocean Showcase, Google’s latest product release.

via Google Rolls Out Ocean Showcase: It’s a Multimedia, Underwater Street View.

Apple announces e-book store

January 27, 2010 in Tech, Web, mobile, multimedia | No comments

The iPad is priced much lower than I would have anticipated ($499) and looks like it will be rivaling the Kindle. I like the pitch, that now your books can have video and audio–so, you don’t need to read anymore?? I am not sold on e-books yet but the notion of flooding videos and audio into the books is cool, potential great teaching tool but also scary if it begins to outweigh the importance of prose and the actual skill of reading and retention.

The iPad will support the popular ePub format and authors will be able to embed multimedia such as photos, videos, and audio files directly into books. That’s a cool feature for standard books and an outstanding feature for textbooks. Imagine your history book containing video and audio snippets.

via Apple announces e-book store.

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Holy awesome online map…

December 14, 2009 in Causes, Environment, Social Media, Tech, Web, non-profit | No comments

Check out this mapping tool created by the design firm Modernista! (recent Webby nominee) out of Boston for the National Park Foundation–the site is called this land is your land (now I have Woody Guthrie stuck in my head).

I like the overlay of comments used on top of the pictures used to represent the park–this is an easy way to start building a community feel around a location and makes the image feel active and alive (potential great tool for environmental groups).  The site also uses the more traditional and common map views as a sidebar element with content overview of the Park.

http://thisisyourland.nationalparks.org/

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Hurry, buy your Chinese (or Hindi or Arabic) URLs Now!

October 30, 2009 in Tech, Web | No comments

from Tech Crunch: ICANN the governing body for naming conventions on the world wide web  announced that URLs will no longer be limited to Latin characters opening the way for the massive audiences in China, India and the Arabic speaking countries to claim and use URLs in native language characters. It also opens the opportunities for URL name grabbers to make a mint on claiming top level URLs in these languages–although I am not sure how that will work because ICANN has to approve each language at the Country-level first? However, it ends up working in practice I am sure someone will figre how to profit.

The proposal means domain names could be written in languages such as Greek, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi or Cyrillic and be understood natively by the servers that connect computers together over the web. Currently, domain names can only be displayed using the Latin alphabet letters A-Z, the digits 0-9 and the hyphen, but in the future countries will be able to display country-code Top Level Domains (cc TLDs) in their native language.

The organization will launch a fast-track process for approving the Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) scheme on 16 November, and the first IDN-compliant addresses should be in operation by the middle of next year, said ICANN President Rod Beckstrom.

From the statement:

It will allow nations and territories to apply for Internet extensions reflecting their name – and made up of characters from their national language. If the applications meet criteria that includes government and community support and a stability evaluation, the applicants will be approved to start accepting registrations.

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Tumblr: The easiest way to Blog? true

October 28, 2009 in Cycling, Social Media, Tech, Web, multimedia | No comments

As I was reviewing David Gillespie’s slideshow deck titled Digital Strangelove – or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Internet (please click the link and take a few minutes to review–well worth it), which is an amazing slide deck discussing the Intention Economy–what the Web is going to be–check it out and enjoy!–he noted an online application called Tumblr…

So, I took a brief break and ended up on Tumblr, creating a micro blog platform in under a minute, Tony K’s into the Ether. My goal is to have the Tumblr posts feed into Tony K’s got something to Say. This site will still be primary vehicle for writing but Tumblr allows a very easy way to post my “lifestream“, shorter updates and thoughts, pics and events, it integrates to Facebook so my friends can keep up-to-date and it sends my notes to Twitter (finally, I have a way to interact with Twitter that is not a forced activity just because I work in online communications!). One thing that really struck me was the capability to upload posts via e-mail–this single item has kept me hooked since 6am. Finally, a way to get rich content from various experts within an organization without having to train or change anything they do, think about what this can do for a more robust integrated online outreach strategy…

The barrier to entry is removed, so there is nothing left but to engage and let the ideas flow.

I encourage everyone to check out Tumblr–it doesn’t constrain you like Twitter and does not make everything about the destination, like Facebook–it is yours.

As part of my effort to gain sponsorship from a bike company (or a local shop: Conte’s, City Bikes, The Bike Rack, Bonzai, Revolution Cycle, Capital Hill Bikes–Jamis, Felt,, Trek, Giant, Scott and to establish an in-kind services relationship (free online communications strategy and outreach  for  Tour D’Afrique and the sponsoring bike company) I will be using Tumblr as a keystone in the creation of my outreach strategies

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Google developing it’s own Droid phone?

October 20, 2009 in Tech, Web | No comments

Just read on Mashable that Google is in production on their own Droid phone that is anticipated to be open and low-cost (I think the low-cost part is up to interpretation, $50 bucks would be cool–just in case they’re listening).

“If talk of the Google phone plan is true, the entrance of a unlocked, low-cost, Web-friendly touchscreen device will probably undercut other Android (Android) phone efforts by players like Motorola, Samsung and Dell.”

If you are reading this on Facebook, come join the conversation and leave comments on Tony-K.org

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Want to make cartoons?

October 16, 2009 in Filmmamking, Tech, Web | No comments

Here’s your chance with GoAnimiate, it’s easy, awesome and online.  I am really digging the Star Trek theme available for cartoon creation fun! I have not fully investigate the site but there is a point system that seems to allow for more functionality–the FAQs have more detail.

And for the Domo fans out there, go animate with Domo!

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Labor in the Cloud (LaaS)?

October 15, 2009 in Development, Tech, Uncategorized, Web | No comments

Read Write Start has an article about a new Give Work  iPhone App which allows for tasks to be given to workers in refugee camps via cell signals. Tasks are small such as searching for copyrights on images but the potential is huge. The two groups that teamed up are Samasource and CrowdFlower.

Could microwork based on digital tasks become a  new and viable economic model, and provide a needed boost to Developing countries? Software as a Service (SaaS) has certainly taken root and is common in business practices–your life in the Cloud.

I remember reading about the explosion of cell phones throughout the African continent and how the economic models were beginning to change–cell minutes being traded as currency–in the time frame since the initial boon, connectivity may be better today making the LaaS market ripe for potential. While reading the original post my mind was instantly drawn to the notion of using microtasks for QA testing of new websites and applications-could Labor as a Service become a new way to deliver better tested products in shorter time (all while helping to increase the welfare of others)?

I’d be interested in hearing what you think about this topic, leave a comment…

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