Gneumatic

ShiftSpace is a social media tool that creates “an open source layer above any web site.” What users can accomplish in this layer varies depending on their goals and intentions. Some Shift Spaces are purely utilitarian, providing the ability to leave notes or highlight passages of text. Other Spaces function in a more interventionist capacity; using Greasemonkey, the ImageSwap and SourceShift Spaces enable users to alter a page’s content and display. Finally, Trails enable mapping and linking of Shifts across sites/pages. Features in development include social networking capabilities and a P2P distributed architecture.

This video gives a good overview of how it all functions together.

Original post: We Make Money Not Art

I’m still wrestling with this article by Jaron Lanier, but thought I would go ahead and post the link until I’m able to articulate my thoughts. I’m very ambivalent about much of what he has to say. There are plenty of valid points concerning the dangers of group-think and ‘hive mind’ mentalities, but he also seems way too dismissive of the egalitarian potential of bottom-up production and ordering of knowledge. Fascinating, difficult and thought-provoking nonetheless.

I went to an IXDA-sponsored talk with Peter Morville promoting his book Ambient Findability last night. Peter didn’t lead with any opening remarks and immediately opened the floor to questions instead. So the discussion started out a little slowly, but quickly picked up steam. Things really began to get interesting as talk around Web 2.0 morphed into a consideration of how Information Architecture and Interaction Design overlap.
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