Not sure whether this could be defined as a gadget – but it’s my object o’ the week in any case. Not sure about form, and I’m certainly not sure about function but, at the end of the day, it’s a sweet way to see what your feeds are doing in a physical sense (and that might be literally if you rested some snacks on the blocks…). If you want to know more about the “wable” – go here…

Via Infosthetics

Categories: Emerging Media
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Interesting to see a number of “design” companies relying heavily (but poetically and thoughtfully), on code to generate visualisation work these days. I know it’s nothing new, but I am genuinely excited by the possibilities inherent when really good information design, generates really good visual design generated by really good code. People are probably familiar with the work of Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar via “We Feel Fine” (check it out if you haven’t already). We Feel Fine was built using Processing, a Java-based language. I keep stumbling across a whole raft of recent design school graduates who are genuine hybrid designer/programmers – for whom the intersection of maths and art is almost incidental.

In addition I came across the latest visualisation tool in Digg created by Stamen Design in collaboration with Digg Labs. Digg Pics dynamically displays images as people vote for them – thus capturing a snapshot of Digg community activity from moment to moment in real time. Stamen and Digg Labs are also responsible for Swarm, Stack, Big Spy and Arc. BigSpy is another personal favourite largely because its creators respect the value of typography, form and colour and thus design. It’s a nice example of good code meeting good design. Stories appear at the top of the page as they are Dugg – the more Diggs a story has, the larger it appears. “Form follows function” as one of our favourite thinkers once said – or perhaps “Form Follows Data“?

Categories: Emerging Media
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A couple of weeks ago JWT, released a trendletter entitled “The Han Internet”. The term was coined by JWT to describe that part of the online world which is “characterized and shaped by Chinese language, culture and needs”. JWT claims that it would be “myopic” of advertisers and marketers to ignore the estimated 210 million Chinese already online. The trendletter explores such topics as: the unique qualities of the Han Internet and its users; the explosion of blogging; the impact of censorship on the Han Internet and how it, in turn may change Chinese views of censorship; and what approach foreign companies should use in attempting to enter the Chinese dot-com market. “The Han Internet” includes data from a study conducted by JWT in conjunction with IAC exploring current attitudes toward digital technology between Chinese and American youth.

The full report is available from JWT Intelligence

Categories: Emerging Media
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