(note: this post is cross-posted on the Pop!Tech blog) 

At first glance, the Rosetta Disk might be mistaken for a small CD - except for the fact that it’s made of titanium and nickel, of course.  Well, that and the fact that it contains no digital data, but instead has 13,500 pages of text etched onto its 3-inch surface.   

Recently released by the Long Now Foundation, the Rosetta Disk, in all its miniature glory, is aremarkable artifact of human knowledge.  Conceived as a “modern Rosetta stone” the disk contains 1500 different language translations of the book of Genesis: 1 - 3 (just in case you’re wondering, you need a 750-power optical microscope to read it).  Made of non-corroding metals, it has an estimated shelf life of 2,000 years.

Eight years in the making, the Rosetta Disk project was envisioned as a solution to the question of how a society could transmit and store its knowledge over the centuries ( see Kevin Kelly’s post for a full write up on the project).

Just in time for the holidays, there are two remaining First Edition Rosetta Disks, each available for a donation of $25,000.

(Image courtesy of Worth1000.com; thanks David for the heads up!)

More thoughts on the Swiss Army Knife of the Future:

Lee Shupp sez:

“For me, it’s not so much a Swiss Army knife as a next generation iPhone, with new features like:

• Air quality monitor that lets me know if I’ve come across major toxins, viruses, or biowar;
• Auto translator so I can communicate easily across cultures;
• Built in survival beacon if my plane/boat/4 wheel drive goes down;
• All my contacts with location of those who choose to give me access;
• Voice recog so that I don’t need keyboard or dial buttons;
• Built in digital assistant who tells me details I need as I need them;
• Crime database that alerts me if I’m entering someplace sketchy;
• Electronic ID that I can use for any legit purchase I don’t mind being tracked;
• Barometer or other weather devices to know when weather will be changing;
• Auto Myers/Briggs eval or some similar way of determining optimal communication strategy for different learning/com styles;
• Everything securely and privately backed up in the cloud, so that this device can actually be many devices in myriad forms as context changes.”

Steven Devine wrote in via Bruce Sterling’s post, with this suggestion:

“In 20-50 years, my Swiss Army Knife will include:

• It will run Linux.  Ubuntu version:  Zooming Zooplankton.  (Your first warning.)
• Ten meters of one ton test buckyfiber.  I will not be able to afford the auto-spooling grapple-hook, but it will slice an engine block in half if I pull really hard, only not on new cars.  Lord only knows what those are gonna be made out of by then.
• It will connect to my bluetooth earpiece, my tv glasses, and whatever wi-fi-like stuff is available.  I will try to download an illegal applet that can spoof spime chips.  It will inform on me and get me arrested, processed, fined, and sentenced in ten seconds flat.  Dadgum Swiss….
• A very sensitive removable microphone+camera capable of broadcasting back to the main unit (500m range).
• 10 m fiber optic probe with patented Gecko-Grip ™ Dandelion Tip.
• A scanner that can determine the dimensions and structure of an object and order a duplicate from an online fabricator.  IP surcharge added automatically if object is still under patent, copyright, trademark, or whatever the heck else they think up by then.  Dadgum Swiss….
• It will accept snap-on attachments for additional functions — upgradable on-the-fly.
• It will be able to tell if I am dead, alive, asleep, incapacitated, or by interrogating gait analyzing surveillance cameras, if I am too wasted to drive.  Dadgum Swiss….
• It will be able to remind me to take my meds, whatever the heck those are gonna be by then.
• The Medic-Alert applet will inform emergency responders that I have an account with Alcor, so get my carcass on ice, pronto, I already paid!
• It will contain a credit card-like device, a UPC code scanner, and a database of my belongings, along with what insurance policies (like theft, breakage, loss, or obsolescence) I have on each one.  Hurray for the Dadgum Swiss!”

Note: this is a follow-up to this post, where I invoked the power of the Lazy Web to consider the future of the world’s most famous tool.

Originally developed in 1897, the Swiss Army Knife (SAK) is an icon of design and a brand legend. It’s one of those rarified objects that have reached metaphorical status, crossing cultural divides to become a euphuism for utilitarian dependability. Although the SAK is best known for its array of handy tools, perhaps its most useful function is as a barometer of societal change, a steel-forged mirror reflecting how our technology, economics and politics have evolved over the last century.

 Over the last 100+ years the Swiss Army Knife has morphed with the times, adjusting to the shifting needs of both the modern solider and the weekend warrior. When it was first introduced the inaugural SAK featured the essential tools of the 19th century day:  a cutting blade, a screwdriver, a can opener and a punch.  The latest high tech version (circa 2007) features a laser pointer, a digital clock, an LED light and a USB flash drive. A commemorative version issued in 2006 is a portable encyclopedia of a century of human technological progress: appropriately called The Giant, it’s nearly 9 inches thick and has 85 features (see this LunchOverIP post for the complete list).  

More than a tool, the SAK is also a pocket-sized victim of globalization, a cross-cultural artifact of the global economy. Since its inception the SAK has been produced exclusively by Swiss companies. But in 2007, when the Swiss government was looking to commission more knives for the Swiss army, it was required by WTO rules to open the bid to companies around the world, not just the two native Swiss manufacturers. 

One thing that hasn’t changed is Swiss nationalism.  The iconic logo represents the enduring Swiss values of neutrality and practicality (leave it to the Swiss to develop a weapon that at its core is militarily benign - not many brigades have surrendered under the threat of a pocket knife siege- and yet universally practical).

As a harbinger of social and technological change, what can we expect from the Swiss Army Knife of the future?  What features will it incorporate in 25 or 50 years that will be indispensible to soldiers and citizens of the future? I posed this question recently to a handful of colleagues; here are their responses:

Paul Saffo:

“I’d assume access to ultra-compact high-density power supplies, so consider a Swiss Army Knife with a built-in plasma torch. Also a retractable reel of carbon nano-fiber cablewith tiny motor drive for emergency building descents a la McGyver. Oh, and a built-in sdr (software defined radio) to call the paramedics when one accidentally slices off their fingers with the nano-cable.”

Randal Moss, CEO, The World’s Most Dangerous Company:

“The SAK will follow the ultra personalization trend that everything is going towards. SAKs will first off be custom manufactured to meet specific needs and more importantly fit perfectly in your hand. Forget the features - it is all about YOUR KNIFE. Using biometrics your hand size will go into the SAK manufacturing database and they will select blade size and handle contour to fit you like a glove. SAKs will have a bio lock preventing anyone other than you from opening it and accessing the features. SAKs will be wimax linked devices and carry internal flash memory to hold and disburse select data. SAKs will carry eHealth records, as well as come with options to record and catalog certain biological metrics.

The knives will forgo steel and instead employ ceramic polymers for ease of use when traveling, as well as saving weight. Leather punches will be replaced with laser pointers, and heat sources (think flameless lighter). The magnifying glass will be replaced with an optical scanner that can access databases via wimax to identify millions of objects and present data about them to you via onboard speaker, or save the data for future access.

An on board microphone will link into a global system of language translation programs and provide near simultaneous translation, as well as reverse translation. Of course each SAK will also come with a GPS geo-locater to tell you, and whom ever else you want to know exactly where you are, and give directions on demand.

Marcus Barber:

 ”Water purification/’lab on a chip’ tester; Cholesterol and blood sugar check; Language decoder (for those of us westerners who think it’s everyone else’s job to learn to speak English).”

Bob Treadway, futurist:

 ”Truth detector; Adjustable laser instead of metal knife, pliers, file, etc.; Locator and emergency communicator for those lost in the wilderness; Zero point source or high efficiency solar power supply; Cloaking system to allow it to be carried past the TSA-equivalent of the future.”

Last year we highlighted five extraordinary women in the Pop!Tech community.  Well, the idea was such a good one we decided to do it again.  This week’s Friday Five looks at some of the amazing women that made Pop!Tech 2008 special.

Photo by Kris Krug

HEATHER FLEMING, Catapult Design

Some speakers use animated graphics to make their point; others rely on high-tech demos (or in the case of Kelly Dobson, repurposed home appliances).  True to her spirit of ingenuity, however, Heather Fleming introduced the Pop!Tech audience to the Hippo Project with the help of a naked Barbie.  Fleming, a 2008 Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow, told the audience that she followed what she thought was a straight-forward career path: she got a degree in engineering, dutifully worked for a design firm creating “stuff”, all the while patiently waiting for Martin Fisher to call and offer her job so she could do work that really mattered to her.  She never received that call, so instead she founded Catapult Design, where she’s using her engineering expertise to solve problems for the developing world such as low-cost wind turbines and innovative cookstoves.

Photo: Sheila Kennedy

SHEILA KENNEDY, Portable Light Project

Sheila Kennedy is an architect and associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She was a speaker Pop!Tech ‘07, where she first introduced the Portable Light Project: a non-profit initiative that’s creating new ways to deliver renewable power and light to the developing world by embedding flexible photovoltaic materials, digital electronics and solid state lighting in textiles, enabling people in the developing world to create and own energy harvesting textile blankets, bags and clothing.  I had a chance to catch up with Sheila, see the latest prototype (shown above) and hear the good news: that the Portable Light project was selected as one of 25 laureates in this year’s Tech Awards sponsored by the Tech Museum of Innovation.  (Side note: another one of my favorite projects, the Solar Electric Light Fund, led by two-time Pop!Tech speaker Bob Freling, is also a nominee).

Photo by Kris Krug

MARIAN BANTJES, Artist

I’m not sure how to describe Marian Bantjes.  She’s a graphic designer, an artist, a typographer, a writer … maybe a better word would be a modern day “graphicographer”.  The definition is fitting for one whose work defies convention, for an artistdesignergraphictypographer who brings letters to life, creating as one person described “thoughtful art and artful thought.”  She left the field of graphic design because she “didn’t want to spend her life making landfill.” That’s bad news for landfills, which will most surely never see the beautiful, inspiring and provocative works she does today.

Photo by Kris Krug

SUZANNE SEGGERMAN, Games for Change

Suzanne Seggerman thinks that digital games and teenagers have a lot in common:  both are just growing up and they are often misunderstood.  While 97% percent of all teenagers play video games, contrary to popular belief the two most popular are puzzle and racing games - not violent games as most would assume.  Seggerman is president and co-founder of Games for Change (G4C), an umbrella organization which supports individuals and organizations using digital games for social change. The website is a virtual encyclopedia of games that tackle social issues such as human rights, poverty, environment, global conflict and politics. Games like Peacemaker which challenges players create a workable solution for peace in the Middle East by becoming one of the leaders in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or Food Force, a game that helps players understand the challenges of dispensing emergency aid in war zones. Seggerman is steadfast in her belief that video games can change the world for the better by creating environments that teach young people to see complex social issues from multiple perspectives. 

Photo by Kris Krug

PRITI RADHAKRISHNAN, I-MAK

Priti Radhakrishnan is looking for a fight.  And not just any fight: the Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow is a patent lawyer who’s taking on some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies and demanding that they make their drugs affordable to developing nations.  Radhakrishnan is the co-director of I-MAK, a non-profit team of lawyers and scientists working to strengthen patent systems and encourage innovation in new medicines by challenging unsound patent systems globally. I-MAK (which stands for Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge) reviews pharmaceutical patents to strengthen patent examination, and selectively exposes unmerited pharmaceutical patents - which drive up the cost of essential drugs and prevent them from ever being accessible in less developed countries for poor patients. Radhaskrishnan’s team is working to create technical analyses of 100 critical medicines and patents, which will help preempt the granting of unmerited patents, increase accountability and ultimately make lifesaving drugs more affordable.

Note: this is cross-posted on the Pop!Tech blog. If you don’t read Pop!Tech, stop by and have a look around. It features a cadre of stellar bloggers and is chock-full of interesting ideas.

(Photo credit: Chosun Ilbo) 

I have a new addition to my ever-growing list of favorite robots (including those that play the violin, teach science and comfort the elderly): a robotic plant. Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper is reporting that the robot research laboratory at Chonnam National University has developed a robotic plant that has humidifying, oxygen-producing, aroma-emitting, and kinetic functions. As someone who has been directly responsible for the slow (albeit involuntary) death of scores of houseplants over the years, this is - literally - music to my ears.

In fact, that’s part of the point. In addition to several real-plant characteristics (such as emitting oxygen, moisture and aroma), the four-foot-tall robotic plant also responds to external stimuli including people, music and light. According to the article “when a person comes within a 40 cm radius of the flower, its supersonic sensor perceives the approach, the stem bends towards the person, and the buds come into full bloom. When the person leaves, the plant returns to its original state. If a person’s voice becomes louder than a certain level, the flower buds will come into bloom, and the stem shakes slightly to suggest a greeting. When the room lights up, the buds open and close, and when music is played, the plant dances.” Users could build a “robot garden” of several robots embedded with a ubiquitous networking system or use them for indoor interior decoration.

Finally, plants with a purpose! No more composting, weeding or watering. Come springtime, stop by my robot garden and smell the circuitry.

Today the world welcomes its newest democracy.

Sixty years ago the remote Himalayan country of Bhutan was, by thoughtful intention, stuck in the Middle Ages.  The small Buddhist kingdom saw its first wheeled vehicles and the end of feudal serfdom in the 1950s. Today - a few relatively short decades later - thousands of electronic voting machines will record the results of Bhutan’s first ever general election, and with it, the birth certificate of a new democracy.

Trapped between India and China, Bhutan is a small country (about the size of Switzerland) with a population of around 700,000. The nation has a reputation for being protectively insular; it’s never been colonized and a century of royal rule has stressed the preservation of tradition and culture: a national policy of Etiquette and Manners includes a compulsory dress code (knee-length robes for men and ankle-length “kira” dresses for women) in public places; television and the Internet were only cautiously introduced in 1999. Bhutan is perhaps best known to the outside world for its policy of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which advocates that cultural traditions and the environment not be sacrificed in the pursuit of economic development.

Yet despite its self-imposed isolation, the country - at the specific and determined behest of its kings - has followed a careful, thought out plan to join the modern world.  In 1998 Bhutan’s fourth king, Druk Gyalpo  (”Dragon King”) Jigme Singye Wangchuck announced his plans to transition the country from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy, voluntarily reducing the scope of his powers and ruling with the advice of his government.  In 2005 he declared that the country’s first national democratic election would be held in 2008, saying in part, “The sovereignty, stability and well-being of a country must be placed above everything else.  The country is more important than the king.” It was a move of remarkable foresight for a king who ascended the throne at the age of 17, and earned him a spot on Time Magazine’s list of “100 People Who Will Shape the World” in 2006.

In the West we talk a lot about the rapidity of change, often referring to the explosive adoption rates of mobile devices, or our ever-shrinking electronics, or the how fast Facebook is growing. Yet these data points pale in comparison to the type of change that Bhutan is embarking on.  In preparation for the social and political transformation ahead, Bhutan’s Election Commission spent two years canvassing the entire country with a massive civics lesson, educating villagers about their role and responsibility as citizens of a soon-to-be-democratic country.

In 2006 King Wanchuck abdicated the throne to his son, 28-year old King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wanchuck, who will oversee Bhutan’s first steps as a democracy.  Today, Bhutan’s citizens are voting for their first-ever National Assembly. The new leaders - nearly all of whom are in their 20s and 30s - will write the next chapter of Bhutan’s unique history.  How this remote country handles the growing pains of democratic ideals is yet to be seen; like any democracy, conflict is to be expected, perhaps even courted.  Will Gross National Happiness survive? How will Bhutan’s citizens - and their new leaders - negotiate the social and political changes of this next period of modernization?  How will Bhutan respond to being led by many voices, rather than one?

It’s not often that a democracy is born in relative peace; in Bhutan’s case the credit can be laid at the feet of far-sighted leaders and a community that values spiritual harmony above economic gain. Bhutan has undergone remarkable changes in the last 50 years; one can only wonder what the next fifty will bring.

How do we visualize cyberspace?  For all of the serendipitous surprises the web has to offer, it’s ironic that the traditional metaphors for cyberspace are about as appealing as a rush-hour traffic jam (”information superhighway” anyone?).  Ah, but the web is so much more than an electronic pileup of bits and bytes!  Looking for a little visual pick-me-up, this week’s Friday Five sent us spelunking for some of the more interesting and entertaining visualizations on the web.  Enjoy!
 

Packet Garden

One of my all-time favorite web apps, Packet Garden allows you to harvest your IP traffic and grow your own personal Internet garden.  As the website explains “To do this, Packet Garden takes note of all the servers you visit, their geographical location and the kinds of data you access. Uploads make hills and downloads valleys, their location determined by numbers taken from internet address itself. The size of each hill or valley is based on how much data is sent or received. Plants are also grown for each protocol detected by the software; if you visit a website, an ‘HTTP plant’ is grown. If you share some files via eMule, a ‘Peer to Peer plant’ is grown, and so on.” A world based on your digital data is born.

Flight Patterns

Whatever else you do today, watch this video.  It’s simply one of the most mesmerizing visualizations you’ll ever see.  Digital artist Aaron Koblin used FAA flight tracking data of aircraft traveling across the United States to create this visually stunning interpretation of globalization.

 Universe

I’ve said in the past that I’m the (unofficial) president of the (unofficial) Jonathan Harris Fan Club, and here’s another reason why.  “Using the metaphor of an interactive night sky, Universe  presents an immersive environment for navigating the world’s contemporary mythology, as found online in global news and information from DayLife. Universe opens with a color-shifting aurora borealis, at the center of which is a moon, and through which thousands of stars slowly move. Each star has a specific counterpart in the physical world - a news story, a quote, an image, a person, a company, a team, a place - and moving the cursor across the star field causes different stars to connect, forming constellations. Any constellation can be selected, making it the center of the universe, and sending everything else into its orbit.”  Like all of Harris’ work, it’s beautifully rendered and brilliantly thought-provoking.

TwitterVision 3D

Sometimes it feels that Twitter has turned the world into an “endlessly chattering global family.” The micro-blogging site has nearly quadrupled its user base in the last nine months, registering over 900,000 members.  Where are all those Tweets coming from? The 3D version of TwitterVision gives you a pretty good idea: it visualizes random Twitter posts from around the world in all of their profound and mundane glory.  Created by Dave Troy, Twittervision is part of the new MoMA exhibit Design and the Elastic Mind.

3D Mailbox

OK, this one’s just for fun. 3D Mailbox has a seemingly impossible mission: Make email fun.  The program turns your email program into a simulation of LAX airport traffic. From the site: “Every email you send or receive is represented by a jumbo jet. New email comes to the arrivals terminal, or to custom hangars (mailboxes) that you define… departing mails leave via the departures terminal. Based on the origin or destination of your mail, each message is depicted by any of over 80 world airlines. Get a message from the UK, it comes by Virgin, British Airways. Send a message to Italy, it goes out on Alitalia or EuroFly. Emails with attachments are carried by the couriers: FedEx, UPS, DHL, and CargoLux.” While the program has gotten its share of mixed reviews (primarily from tech analysts who perhaps take email a bit too seriously), the video trailer alone is worth a look.  And yes, that’s “Spam Air” in the picture above.

Running Notes from SXSW ‘08; for more blog coverage check out: the SXSW Interactive Community Blog.

If you’re over the age of 35, don’t bother reading the rest of this post. 

Why? Because what follows will likely be incomprehensible to you in the same way that portable, pocket-sized wireless telephones once seemed like objects of science fiction to a generation before you. In short, you’re not going to get it, and you’ll likely finish reading this post feeling like you don’t understand anything about web 2.0, or technology in general, and that the future is passing you by.  Which is likely true.

That said, if you want to know what your kids will be doing for the rest of the online lives, read on.

One of the highlights of SXSW Interactive was the panel PMOG: The Web as a Play Field.  PMOG stands for “Passively Multiplayer Online Game”; according to game designer Merci Hammon, PMOG “transforms the existing topography of the internet into a game world for players to vandalize, annotate, and curate.”  Huh? In short, it’s a new online game that turns the web into a game world. What that means in a practical sense is that players download a plug-in for their Firefox web browser.  In the vernacular of game designers and Navy fighter pilots, the plug-in installs what’s known as a Heads Up Display (HUD); the rest of us might think of it as a dashboard or toolbar. With the HUD turned on, players can leave “gifts” for one another on regular websites.

The catch, of course, is the definition of “gift”.  If the player is an Ally, you might wander onto your favorite website and find that they left you a crate filled with tools (tools being generally useful and as such, appreciated).  If the player is a Rival, however, you may find a mine that will explode in your face.  Not to worry, though: you can retaliate by planting a “St. Nick” for your rival, which causes his next mine not to work.  

There are two main differences between PMOG and other multiplayer online games such as World of Warcraft or Everquest.  The first (and key) difference is that PMOG is played asynchronously, meaning you don’t need to be online at the same time as other players to participate.  You also don’t need to be in the same space: because PMOG uses the entire web as the game world, players don’t have to download (or play on) a separate platform. There’s no Second Life-type of world: PMOG simply creates an additional layer onto the existing architecture of the web.

All of this means that if you can’t spare a few dozen hours a week to play World of Warcraft, you can turn your everyday web surfing into a game (says CEO Justin Hall: “We’re building a game that’s actually LESS popular on the weekends”). To keep track of who’s winning, players earn “datapoints” (the game currency) just from regular browsing - every unique URL you visit is worth two datapoints.  In addition to gifting crates and exploding mines to other players, you can also go on player-designed missions which lead you on virtual tours of related sites (for example, the “Tech News Tour” mission includes visits to Engadget, Gizmodo, Digg and Slashdot). The goal, says Hammon, is to encourage people to broaden their experience with the Internet by exploring places they’ve never been on the web. A little like StumbleUpon, part of PMOG’s attraction is the fun of discovery and serendipity (although one could easily imagine a later version in which advertisers create sponsored missions that give users some “reward” for completing them).

If all this sounds simply like fun and games, think again. Aside from being interestingly quirky and original, the basic premise of PMOG could change the way we interact with the web and with each other while online.  Today we experience the web in a distinctly anti-social way: we surf alone, interacting with content, not people. But the ability to leave metaphorical “crates” and “mines” allows us to annotate the web in a very personal way and then share that experience with others. 

As I said in the beginning of this post, many people will look at PMOG and see at best another online game and at worst, yet another way to waste time at work. But what it really offers is a glimpse of the future: what the Web can, should and truly is meant to be: a social universe where content and people co-exist - if not in perfect harmony, then at least with a cache of St. Nicks.

If you think a new web app comes out nearly every day, you’d be partly right - it’s actually closer to about five per day. Google has popularized the practice of crowd-sourcing product development by releasing “beta” versions of unfinished products into the world for its customers to play with.  I admit to being a bit of a beta geek; the lure of being the first kid on the block to know about the coolest new web toy is irresistible to a futurist who loves to see around the corner to the future.  There are thousands of betas in the marketplace, which made finding a handful of them to feature for this week’s Friday Five more than a little difficult.  That said, here are five products in beta that we think are worth keeping an eye on.

Grand Central

Grand Central seeks to solve an increasing problem in the mobile age - converging multiple points of contact into one. The basic idea around GrandCentral is “one phone number for all your phones, for life.”  The service provides a single number tied not to a phone or location, but to you.  According to the website, with GrandCentral “you can be reached with a single number, answer a call at any phone you want, seamlessly switch phones in the middle of a call, as well as check messages by phone, email or online.”

(Thomas Friedman’s talk at Pop!Tech, subtitled in Kiswahili)

dotSUB

dotSUB is quietly staging a revolution on the web. Its mission:  to make online video content accessible to the millions of non-English speakers by offering open-source translation services. The idea is deceptively simple: think YouTube meets Wikipedia: users can upload videos, films (even TV programs) for either the rest of the world or dotSUB’s team to translate. Translation services are either “closed” (utilizing dotSUB’s team of freelancers) or “open” (posting a video on the site and letting volunteers translate it for free, wiki-style).  For a great example of the service in action, check out Pop!Tech speaker talks (called Pop!Casts) which are translated via dotSUB into nine languages.   

MetaNotes

MetaNotes is “social graph paper” on which users can paste stickynotes containing text, images, videos, and widgets, creating scrapbooks to track and remember any topic.  It won the top “Experimental” website at the 2008 SXSW Interactive Awards last week, the category which tracks “cutting-edge and trend-setting destinations that are pushing the envelope and challenging our perceptions of the web.” While it still has a ways to go (i.e., it really needs private spaces for users to post notes); MetaNotes’ intuitive interface is familiar and user-friendly. And: it plays well with others, integrating with sites like Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Pownce, and Photobucket.

Google’s Experimental Search

Courtesy of the brainiacs at Google Labs comes the Experimental Search project which offers new visualizations of search results including a timeline, map, or in context of other information types. With these views, G-Tech (the ambiguous but patent-pending-sounding term for “Google Technology”) extracts key dates, locations, measurements, and more from select search results so you can view results in multiple dimensions. Timeline and map views work best for searches related to people, companies, events and places. Info view shows all the data found for each result, to help you select the best choice.

Museum of Modern Betas (MoMB)

Aptly named, the Museum of Modern Betas is the go-to place to check out and track web apps that are in beta.  In fact, we think it should be called the Motherload of Modern Betas - since it opened in two years ago its listed over 4000 sites that are in beta, helpfully organizing them into categories such as Top 100, Most Anticipated, Recently Added and by Language.  The large number of sites it tracks makes getting in-depth information about each one difficult, but active links are provided.  The MoMB is a like a giant playground for the future of the web, perfect for those who don’t want to wait for the new ‘new thing’ to arrive.

P.S. - Last but not least, here’s a bonus track: keep Wello Horld on your watch list; it’s still in alpha and very hush-hush, but I want to go on record as being (one of) the first to say “I told you so!” when it launches.  

P.S.S. - If you’re wondering why I didn’t include PMOG as a beta to watch, stay tuned.  It’s so cool it deserves it’s own blog post.

 In a few hours I’ll be doing a session at SXSW ‘08 called The Futurist’s Sandbox: Scenarios for Social Technologies in 2025, with my colleagues Wayne Pethrick, Jamais Casico, Stuart Candy and Jake Dunagan. As the title suggests, we’re presenting four “experiential” scenarios that explore how social technologies might evolve over the next few decades.  What are experential scenarios? They’re scenarios that engage the audience in the narrative of the future story; as such they’re much more interesting to tell (and watch) and give you a hands-on feel for what the future might look like, rather than a written story in which you’re left to imagine the details in your head. Since we have the last session of the conference and I fully intend to go directly from there to the nearest party, here’s a sneak peak at my scenario, called Can You See Me Now?

As information technologies continue to propagate the world, the electronic exhaust of our click stream is generating unprecedented amounts of metadata.  Rather than a useless by-product however, metadata is a valuable resource, an untapped gold mine of previously invisible patterns, intentions and relationships.  How can we recycle and repurpose metadata to expose the hidden layers of connections between people, objects and environments? In the future will we use metadata judiciously, or will we create a world of information obesity?  How will social technolgies instantiate themselves in a world scaffolded by metadata?  Maybe they’ll look something like this:

The Unauthorized Lifelog of Cory Doctorow, Volumes 1 - 6 (pre-release, March 2025)

Turn objects into Blogjects with DNA Markers, customizable with your DNA

The new bling: iCandy contact lens stream up to 5000 info channels directly to your eye

The Emotional Forecast

Protect yourself against anger mobs with Anger Away!

More notes on the session and descriptions of all the scenarios will be up soon.  Many, many thanks to Pinkergreen Design for creating the above future artifacts!