Aug 25

Icons of the Web

By admin cloud computing, communication-standards, design concepts, information aesthetics, infosthetics, insights No Comments »

A large-scale scan of the top million web sites (per Alexa traffic data) was performed in early 2010 using the Nmap Security Scanner and its scripting engine.

We retrieved each site’s icon by first parsing the HTML for a link tag and then falling back to /favicon.ico if that failed. 328,427 unique icons were collected, of which 288,945 were proper images. The remaining 39,482 were error strings and other non-image files. Our original goal was just to improve our http-favicon.nse script, but we had enough fun browsing so many icons that we used them to create the visualization below.

The area of each icon is proportional to the sum of the reach of all sites using that icon. When both a bare domain name and its “www.” counterpart used the same icon, only one of them was counted. The smallest icons–those corresponding to sites with approximately 0.0001% reach–are scaled to 16×16 pixels. The largest icon (Google) is 11,936 x 11,936 pixels, and the whole diagram is 37,440 x 37,440. Since your web browser would choke on that, we have created the interactive viewer below (click and drag to pan, double-click to zoom, or type in a site name to go right to it).

via Icons of the Web.

Jun 03

John Underkoffler points to the future of UI

By admin UI, communication-standards, design concepts, insights, uncategorized No Comments »

In February 2010, the man who built the technology of Minority Report twice — once for the movie, and once in real life — spoke at TED about the future of user interface design.

Yesterday, TED posted John Underkoffler’s entire fifteen-minute video presentation — a copy of which you’ll find right after the break.

Get a curated glimpse into his company’s tech in the following demo, and hear from the man himself when the gloves might come off. And if that doesn’t satisfy your appetite, read an in-depth interview with Underkoffler at our more coverage link.

May 19

Google Wave opens doors to public, asks old friends for new chance

By jeromewagner communication-standards, online tools, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

Google Wave opens doors to public, asks old friends for new chance.

By Ross Miller posted May 19th 2010

To think, it was about this time last year that Google first unveiled its collaboration tool Wave, and today the company’s taking out the invitational step and opening it to the public at large — which begs the question, did anyone not have an invite that wanted one at this point? It’ll also be now available in the enterprise-centric Apps suite for no extra charge.

On the developer side of things, expect some more open source code be unleashed, including most importantly the rich text editor. Can’t say we’ve really dug around in the service ourselves since its beta launched, but co-creator Lars Rasmussen tells us we should be giving it another go. He further acknowledged that they’ve got some work to do on educating users on the best ways to use the service, which at this point seems to be mid- and small-scale collaboration. To that end, expect some new tutorial videos, and with any luck, some amusing animation.

via Google Wave opens doors to public, asks old friends for new chance — Engadget.

Apr 15

BCS Service Management Specialist Group

By admin communication-standards, industry best practise, it-projects, proffesional bodies, uncategorized No Comments »

BCS Logo

BCS Service Management Specialist Group

Subject: Multi-sourcing – How Ready Are You?

Date: Monday 10 May 2010

Time: Registration & refreshments at 18:00 with talks commencing at 18:30. Finishing around 20:00 followed by wine, finger food and informal networking.

Venue: BCS, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London, WC2E 7HA.

See http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/london-office-guide.pdf

for directions.

Speaker: Daniel Jones, Partner at TPI

Synopsis:

Many organisations today are working with multi-sourced IT services; some have arrived at this state through disjointed sourcing activities whilst others have set out with the strategic objective of working with best of breed providers, spreading their risks by avoiding lock-in to a single supplier and at the same time realising IT cost reductions. The rise of Business Process Outsourcing, cloud based services and globalisation are all contributing to pressure for adoption of multi-sourced IT services.

A new approach is required for end to end governance and performance management that enables organisations to realise their objectives in a multi-sourced model. This talk sets out risks and challenges that accompany Multi-sourcing, and proposes the approaches necessary to achieve the intended level of service performance and the planned financial outcome. Examples from both Public and Private Sectors will be explored.

About Daniel: A graduate of the London Business School, Daniel has spent over 20 years in consultancy, application development and IT services in senior roles for a number of major service providers and working with clients in the Media, Pharmaceuticals, Retail, Financial Services, Pharmaceuticals and Public Sectors. Prior to joining TPI he was the Managing Director, Civil Government and Healthcare at EDS, responsible for the delivery of BPO and IT services to a portfolio of clients, many of them operating with multiple suppliers. He is currently responsible for TPI’s Public Sector business.

Registration: This event is free to current BCS members and £15.00 (+VAT) for non members.

please use www.bcs.org/events/registration to register for this event.

Apr 08

iPhone OS 4 unveiled, adds multitasking, shipping this summer

By admin MobileOS, communication-standards, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

By Paul Miller posted Apr 8th 2010 1:43PM

Breaking News

Just a bit more than a year after we first laid eyes on iPhone OS 3.0, Apple is back with the latest big revision of the OS that powers the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

iPhone OS 4 is shipping this summer iPad in the fall, and the developer preview will be out today. iPhone 3GS and new-gen iPod touch will get all the features, but some features wont make it to the iPhone 3G, original iPhone, and older iPod touches. The biggest new feature is multitasking, which Apple says is going to be the “best” implementation in the smartphone space, though its obviously not the first.

App switching is activated by double tapping the home button, which pulls up a “dock” of currently running apps, and Apple claims it can do this without hurting battery life or performance for the front app.

Unfortunately, this multitasking wont be available for devices older than the 3GS and new iPod touch. Multitasking is just one of seven different new “tentpole” features, including Game Center, enhanced Mail, and more…

via iPhone OS 4 unveiled, adds multitasking, shipping this summer — Engadget.

Mar 12

Visualizing the Issues behind Food Dependence: How to Feed the World?

By admin communication-standards, design concepts, it-projects, uncategorized No Comments »

If you appreciated the depth and level of detail of the now classic infographically animated The Credit of Crisis – Visualized, you will probably also like the following! “How to Feed the World?” [dvanw.com] explains in more than 8 minutes the intrinsic issues involved with international food dependence and the existing regional differences of food intake, in both quantity as quality.For instance, in Europe, people have access to a varied, large diet, while the available affordable? food in Africa does not cover the normal human needs, causing African people to die about 20 years younger on average.

What are the reasons for this injustice? You can watch the answer in the movie below.The movie even discusses the feasibility of some potential solutions, such as increasing the cultivated land area, increasing the yield of a given agricultural area, increasing the use of organic products, introducing innovative watering techniques, and so on, and finishes with a concrete recommendation of where you have the ability to make a difference.

via Visualizing the Issues behind Food Dependence: How to Feed the World? – information aesthetics.

Mar 11

Mobile Apps for the Military

By admin MobileOS, cloud computing, communication-standards, design concepts, insights, network-security, uncategorized No Comments »

In todays military, handheld systems are characterized by a tight integration of specialized hardware with a narrowly focused software suite. Most of the handheld devices are heavily optimized for a particular task and are ill-suited for general-purpose use.

A soldiers radio, for example, has very limited data capability and essentially no multimedia capability. Current language translation devices support neither messaging nor collaboration of any form. This inflexibility in function is further exacerbated by the militarys own acquisition process, a process that can take years to complete and involves an unwieldy linear process of formal requirements definition, technology development, and system certification.

The current process adds considerable costs and introduces schedule delays to the deployment of new, cutting-edge technologies. Furthermore, there is a real risk that these very technologies will be obsolete by the time they are in the warfighters hands.A transformation in technical approaches and business processes is called for.

DARPA seeks to overcome current limitations and give our military ready access to the leading edge capabilities.As envisioned by DARPA, this transformation will:• Result in the rapid development of applications and system enhancements that keep up with the fluid demands of warfighter on the ever-changing battlefield; • Demonstrate both affordability and scalability that enable pervasive use, targeted especially among the end-users at lower levels in the military echelon;

• Encourage and support open competition among a broad set of suppliers in the military applications development process; and

• Support new business models and streamlined processes to incentivize a broad community of suppliers.The primary purpose of this RFI is to discover sources of commercial and non-commercial apps with potential relevance to the military specifically the national security community more generally.

These apps may be used in situations such as the tactical battlefield, for humanitarian assistance, and in disaster recovery efforts. DARPAs initial interest will focus on apps developed on the iPhone or Android platforms that can be used today with little or no additional research and development expenses. Application providers may already have offerings in the commercial marketplace that could be adapted to meet these needs.In order to meet this objective, DARPA extends an invitation to the developers of currently existing apps encouraging them to submit a whitepaper about their product offerings.

via Mobile Apps for the Military – Federal Business Opportunities: Opportunities.

Mar 01

The State of the Internet Infographic Video

By admin cloud computing, communication-standards, design concepts, insights, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

via YouTube -- State of The Internet.

Feb 19

Treemap of Live Twitter Messages Dealing with the Winter Olympics – information aesthetics

By admin MobileOS, cloud computing, communication-standards, insights No Comments »

In an apparent trend set by some of their latest work for the US online media, like the MTV Award Twitter Tracker, data visualization firm Stamen Design recently released an interactive treemap [nbcolympics.com] showing the tweets that deal with the current Winter Olympics in real-time.

A subtle (almost invisible?) sparkline on the top shows some stats and the relative amount of tweets over time. The larger the rectangle, the more tweets have appeared about that topic. Individual rectangles can be selected for more detailed tweets about that specific topic. More information is available on the Stamen blog.

via Treemap of Live Twitter Messages Dealing with the Winter Olympics – information aesthetics.

Feb 15

Wholesale Applications Community

By admin 24x7 Management And Support, MobileOS, cloud computing, communication-standards, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

Wholesale ApplicationsCommunity

Will establish a simple route to market for developers and provide them with access to a customer base of over 3 billion customers.

The alliance aims to unite a fragmented marketplace by involving players from all related industries to create a community based on openness and transparency to the benefit of all.

We believe our model presents the most compelling format on the market where developers will thrive and customers will reap the benefits of greater choice.

Who’s involved?

A number of the world’s leading telecommunications operators and device manufacturers are launching an open global alliance, that will establish a simple route to market for developers and provide access to the latest and widest range of innovative applications and services to as many customers as possible worldwide.

Together, we have signed a memorandum of understanding with the aim of building an environment or ’wholesale applications community’ where innovative applications can be developed irrespective of device or technology.

The new alliance, which represents more than three billion customers worldwide is inviting players from across the ICT industry, not only operators and developers, but also handset manufacturers and internet players to join forces to create an initiative based on openness and transparency. We believe this model presents the most compelling format on the market where developers will thrive and customers will reap the benefits of greater choice. Furthermore, the GSMA is supporting this initiative.

Membership

The members currently include América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, Mobilkom Austria Group, MTN Group, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Softbank Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor Group, Telia Sonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, VimpelCom, Vodafone and Wind, as well as Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson device manufacturers.

We expect this list to grow and we are inviting players from across the ICT industry, not only operators and developers, but also handset manufacturers and internet players to join forces.

Role and purpose of the alliance

The primary role and objective of the alliance is to create a ’wholesale applications community’ that will establish a simple route to market for developers, in turn, providing access to the latest and widest range of innovative applications and services to as many customers as possible worldwide. This alliance will deliver scale unparalleled by any application distribution ecosystem in existence today.

What this means for customers

For customers this means a broader choice of innovative applications and services available on a wider choice of devices than ever before.

What this means for developers

For the developer, particularly small developers, the alliance will create an environment in which they can flourish and create applications in a straight-forward and effective manner. Today, the route to market for developers is challenging requiring them to approach multiple operators. The alliance will provide a single gateway for developers to access a vast potential customer base (over two billion with limited cost to the developer and this in turn will provide the maximum possible return on investment for them.

In addition, the alliance will utilise existing technical standards, rather than creating new ones to allow developers to access operators’ assets, for example network capabilities or API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) more easily. In practice this means that developers will only have to create one version of their application and this can be used on multiple types of devices and operating systems (such as Symbian, Android, Windows etc) which is not the case today.

via Home | Wholesale Applications Community.

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