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Archive for the ‘new media technologies’ Category


The Sound of Books: There Is No App for That

In media, new media technologies on October 17, 2011 at 2:13 pm

The written word reveals a fantastic universe, inviting your mind to step out of the ordinary and envision a different reality. Eloquent sentences and literary techniques summon you to meet quirky characters, picture unknown places and see new colors. But don’t attempt to dream up any sounds. There is an app for that.

The release of Booktrack, an iPad app that creates soundtracks for ebooks, must be a signal that the human race is experiencing a failure of imagination. The goal of the product is to enrich the reading experience, to “dramatically boost the reader’s imagination and engagement,” as Booktrack writes. Yet the app is serving a purpose exactly opposite of what it seeks to inspire.

The eBook soundtracks include audio effects matched to the text. If one reads about a storm, I guess the story will be “enhanced” through the sound of thunder. Or if the eBook is about a vacation by the sea, one might hear waves crashing into shore. But what if to me the sound of waves is soft and accompanied by singing seagulls? Will the app know to bend the music through the prism of my imagination? I don’t think so. I think the soundtrack will provide me with a fixed framework and reduce the amount of personal nuances I add to the story.

I understand Booktrack’s idea to take the reader away from his or her surroundings (the approaching train, the subway chatter, the construction noises, etc) in order to focus on the text. But please don’t match sound effects to keywords in an effort to “enhance” my reading experience. Let people fantasize about a world in which music is much more nuanced than any processed sounds.

Photo credit:  jbelluch


9 Sites That Inspire The Internet Wishlist’s Creator

In media, new media technologies, technological innovation on May 8, 2011 at 8:19 pm

I recently had the opportunity to interview Amrit Richmond, the creator of The Internet Wishlist and a tireless creative strategist. We talked about her work background, how innovation emerges and how new ideas spread.

So it was just natural for me to ask Amrit for the sites she likes to visit for inspiration, new ideas, education, etc. In case you also want to draw knowledge from them, here they are:

  1. Brain Pickings
    I share Amrit’s love for this site—it is an eclectic mix of cultural “tidbits of stuff that inspires, revolutionizes, or simply makes us think.”
  2. Swiss Miss
    This is a design blog and studio run by Tina Roth Eisenberg. It seems like a neat place to check out if you are into art, UI, typography and other visual projects.
  3. But Does It Float
    Similarly to the previous site, this one also covers photography and typographical illustrations.
  4. Unurth
    This site is dedicated to street art and features colorful graffiti from all over the world.
  5. Springwise
    Headquartered in London, Springwise is a source of business ideas and inspiration to entrepreneurs. This is the first time I encounter the site but I am definitely fascinated with its idea database and considering subscribing to the newsletter.
  6. Idea Mensch
    Idea Mensch will introduce you to a community of people with ideas. It features interviews with bright entrepreneurial minds–some of whom more popular than others.
  7. Startup Quote
    This site posts a daily wise thought by popular entrepreneurs like Apple’s Steve Jobs and Mint’s Aaron Patzer. Each quote can be tweeted directly from the site.
  8. AVC
    This is the blog of Fred Wilson, a VC and principal of Union Square Ventures. I would encourage entrepreneurs to check out his MBA Mondays blog series.
  9. Both Sides of the Table
    This is the blog of Mark Suster who founded Koral, a company that was sold to Salesforce.com and eventually became Salesforce Content. This is also a great source of start-up advice and entrepreneurial topics.
Thanks, Amrit, for this list! I will be definitely revisiting these sites for daily inspiration!

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Start the Presses: From Content Management to Social Media

In facebook, journalism, media, new media technologies, newspapers, online content, social media, Twitter on February 25, 2011 at 3:06 pm

There is at least one place in Boston where you can immerse yourself in both journalistic terminology and engineering language—the Hacks/Hackers meetups. That is exactly what a roomful of new media enthusiasts did this week at the Boston Globe.

On Feb. 22, Hacks/Hackers Boston held a panel to discuss the future of news sites with some of the people building cutting-edge technologies. The panel participants included Dries Buytaert, Drupal’s creator, Adam Gaffin, founder of Universal Hub, Andrew Phelps, reporter for WBUR, and Austin Gardner-Smith of Pinyadda. Muckrock.com’s Michael Morisy was moderating the session.

Content Management Systems (CMS) and their evolution was the first topic the four entrepreneurs and journalists tackled. What has changed about CMS and how can it better address our needs? Gardner-Smith pointed out the importance of better distribution and integration of more social features in the content creation process. The panelists spent some time discussing the current CMS inability to manage ad-hoc content production before Buytaert took the conversation to another realm: mobile. He emphasized the importance of building your site for different viewing experiences. “If I was to start Drupal from scratch,” Dries said, “I would built it for mobile first.”

The question of mobile was on the table for a big portion of the panel. The consensus among the publishers was that one needs to first examine how viewers were accessing the content. While WBUR is making strides on the path of mobile content optimization, for instance, it is very aware of the fact that their audience is still very much visiting the site in the traditional way. The majority of WBUR’s traffic, Phelps noted, was not coming from smart phones and iPads yet. Their visitors were predominantly using computers and that was the reading experience WBUR would focus on improving.

Once that idea of how people access your content was brought up, it was hard not to mention one of the biggest referral sources for news organizations, Facebook. The discussion quickly jumped to social media and its usage not only for distribution purposes, but also for generating a conversation. The panelists agreed that Twitter was not great for threaded conversations between more than two people. Many mentions, retweets and no hashtags make it hard to follow an ever-evolving story. On Facebook, Phelps said, a story sticks around longer. If people “like” it or comment on it, it will surface to the top of the news feed and become relevant again. “People are likely to participate if they see someone else is participating,” he said. In that way, Facebook has become their preferred platform for building a dialogue based on shared stories.

Clearly, the panel tackled a range of topics, starting with CMS and shifting to mobile optimization and social media. But ultimately, there was one overarching question the panelists were trying to wrap their minds around. “It is all about keeping up with the Web,” Buytaert said. “And the Web as we know it is exploding.”

In-Page Search: Where Education & Journalism Converge

In journalism, marketing, media, new media technologies, newspapers, online content on December 28, 2010 at 2:15 pm

Convergence between Journalism and educationI was reading an article in the Economist when I first encountered the browser extension Apture. I had highlighted the name “Martin Luther” by accident when a pop-up appeared on my screen to give me background information about that person. I, the ultimate hater of pop-ups, found myself completely engrossed in the stories provided by that little box—all content revolving around the highlighted name. All of a sudden, my information intake was interrupted by a thought: This tool offered the perfect point of convergence between journalism and education.

Apture is an extension you can attach to your browser to optimize your reading experience. The service will give you information about highlighted words, whether that is a location, an author’s name or a theoretical term. Apture offers different types of content, including Wikipedia entries, news articles, YouTube videos and Creative Commons photos. That way readers can gain true understanding about the subject at hand. Here are some of my reasons for believing in Apture’s promising future:

It Is Intuitive to Use

In-Page Search, in general, and  Apture, in specific, do not reinvent the wheel but take advantage of readers’ existing habits. How many times have you found yourself Google-ing names, places and unfamiliar terms used in articles? I do it all the time. I know this was also how my college roommate would start reading about U.S. politics and end up discovering the unique characters in the Georgian alphabet… It is a wonderful (and often quite distracting) process of learning.

It Responds to People’s Hunger for Learning

Just the thought of learning a lot more while reading articles gives me the chills. One can easily find out more about someone’s quote or location. Think about the countless conversations you can engage with using that knowledge! This is an amazing opportunity for expansion of one’s education in academia as well as outside school.

It Challenges Journalistic Expertise

Such tool will allow readers to gain more control over their news consumption. Journalists will have to be careful about the metaphors they use and the people they quote. Does it really make sense? Now the common reader is a step closer to verifying the information used in a piece.

It Prolongs the Readers’ Stay on a Site

In-page search will certainly increase the time of a site visit. I know I remained on that Economist article for a while, reading it like a map and deciphering its familiar and foreign territories. As mentioned on Apture.com, in-page search successfully increases visitor engagement and tracks traffic data.

It Provides Publishers with Insights

That type of tool gives publishers insightful information about their readers’ interests. As the site explains, “When they use Apture to highlight and search on the page they are telling you what they want to know more about. It’s time to start listening.”

I have high hopes for social media-friendly, in-page search. Let’s see if others share my enthusiasm.

Photo credit: Jônatas Cunha

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European Tech StartUps Take On Crowdsourcing

In marketing, media, new media technologies, social media on November 27, 2010 at 7:22 pm

TechChrunch Europe recently reported that 16 startups were selected to compete at LeWeb’s competition in December 2010. As the biggest tech conference in Europe,  Le Web will definitely draw public attention to the 16 lucky sites. Four of them highlight well the element of crowdsourcing user content and making it meaningful.

Waze is a social mobile application that provides real-time traffic information. As written on the site itself, it offers up-to-date maps “based on the wisdom of the crowd.” It is run by a community of drivers from different countries. For example, when I selected to check out the traffic situation in Bulgaria, I saw the map of my home country and the following message appeared, “The driving community in Bulgaria has only recently begun developing, so it’ll take a bit of time until waze begins to deliver its full value in your area.”

TinyPay seems like a mix between Twitter & eBay. It is a web service that allows you to quickly sell items. You see a small thumbnail of the product for sale and when you click on it, you are able to share the listing on social networks, see where the seller is located, leave a comment and purchase the item with PayPal. The site also features “trending items.”

Paper.li allows users to turn Twitter feeds into a daily newspaper. From my academic research earlier this year, I found out that social media will increasingly be used for news exchanges, and this new platform reinforces my conclusion, emphasizing the importance of community-driven newsgathering.

Garmz was one of the start-ups that made me go, “Wow.” And not because it introduced a necessarily new idea–but because it introduced some form of social change, wrapped up in a beautifully designed site. It is a platform that allows you to start your own fashion label and participate in selecting the winning models by voting. “If a design is successful, Garmz handles the complete production, at zero cost and risk for the designers.” The mission and the platform seemed to have blended in an exquisite selection of fashion designs.

The notion of crowdsourcing and sharing is fueling tons of great community-driven projects and start-ups. Can’t wait to hear who the winner at Le Web’s is going to be!

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