Everytweet.com

I spent my Saturday experimenting with Twitter, JQuery and PHP. I've been feeling the sublime pull of Twitter and was thinking that there was something mesmerizing about the world's thoughts floating through the ether in <140 characters at a time. And I wondered what the experience would be to just sit and watch it pass. While I could easily get to all public tweets at Twitter, I thought that just seeing them one a time for just long enough to read them would be somehow more powerful. And I think I was right.

Go to Everytweet and just sit and watch and read for a few minutes. It will make you think. I think.

Dubai is the Ultimate Innovation

Beehive Media has been doing business in Dubai for nearly three years. I have worked with real estate developers, the Government, and the foundation established by Sheikh Mohammed himself. I have seen the city grow in that short amount of time and have witnessed at fairly close proximity the strategic vision, targeted initiatives and successful execution of tactics to turn a city in the desert into the center of the world.

While mistakes have been made, and there are problems in Dubai, the amazing thing is that it has started to become what it was envisioned to be. I have not been to anywhere with a more cosmopolitan mix of people, with a vision as grand or with an energy for business that is greater than Dubai. Every time I go, I am impressed with progress, both seen and unseen.

While I don't know that I would want to call Dubai home, it is worthy of the attention and wonder it has received in recent years. Recently I was able to visit Palm Jumeirah - one of the man-made mega-projects rising from the Gulf. It is a wonder to behold and awe-inspiring to see what man can create. Ignoring ecological issues, it is breathtaking. I was even able to witness it being worked on - one rock at a time being placed by a crane on the outer barrier.

Truly remarkable.

Memoires in Dubai

There is a store in Wafi City, a mall in Dubai, that houses the most bizarre and original retail experience I have ever witnessed. Memoires is like walking into a Pottery Barn if it were designed and stocked by Tim Burton after he had dropped 5 hits of acid. I strongly recommend that if you find yourself in Dubai and you're looking for something new, go there. It is truly unique.

Empires are Bubbles

OK, this isn't so much an innovation as an observation. I was thinking about why some empires crumble dramatically, leaving failed states and cultures in their wake (sometimes leading to the collapse of the founding state/culture), while others sometimes retract calmly and deliberately without destroying the heart of the empire (think the UK.) So, it seems, empires, are sometimes like bubbles. I have no idea if this is an original observation, but I've been thinking about it for several days and it feels like there's something there.

Mass High Tech Citizenship Award Winner!

I am extremely proud to announce that Beehive Media is a 2008 Tech Citizenship Award winner. This award, presented by Mass High Tech, recognizes "22 technology companies in New England that have excelled at giving back to their communities." Being one of just a handful of small companies on that list is especially gratifying.

We redesigned, rebuilt and maintain the web site for Project Just Because, a non-profit serving needy families throughout Metro West. This organization is truly a front-lines service organization helping those most in need without barriers and without bureaucracy and we are very proud of our ability to help them succeed. Since launching the web site, they have grown tremendously and attribute a large amount of that growth to the web site.

Hot Drinks, Cool Hands

I LOVE product design. And I truly love this particular solution to a simple but common and heretofore not well-solved issue.

http://www.stephenreed.net/products_ceramic_cup_2.html

Innovation is Over-Rated

Despite the title of this blog, I couldn't agree more with this article in the Harvard Business Review:

http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/berkun/2008/07/why-innovation-is-overrated.html

Innovation isn't really the point - solving problems is. So ignore our title, we mean what he means!! :)

Multi-touch display - on a sphere!

Multi-touch displays are one of the great innovations of the past couple of years. The ability to zoom and/or scale objects by simply pinching or spreading two fingers across a display is an incredibly intuitive and useful feature. I use it constantly on my iPhone and I can't wait till I have a laptop and/or Minority Report-like computer to do the same. When Microsoft announced its Surface tabletop display, it was an exciting moment for us. We have had several clients who we feel can use these displays though we have yet to implement it for anyone. Our real estate clients in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are likely to use them for events or sales centers. And our Knowledge and Innovation clients will use them for conferences and presentations.

And now, along comes something that pushes it all to a new level. Microsoft has announced a multi-touch display in the shape of a sphere!



We built a Google Earth and Flash application (first in the world mashup of Flash and Google Earth, according to Google) for a client in Abu Dhabi for which this would be perfect! Imagine, you see the Earth - on a sphere! You zoom into Abu Dhabi. You see a 3D city being built on an island. You zoom in and fly around and watch videos and.....I think I better hop on the phone now with them!

My External Brain

Whether it's my reliance on gadgets (iPhone, computer, etc.) or the hyper information overload of our times or the outcome of the activities of my youth ('nuff said) or just a genetic reality....I have a terrible short-term memory. Actually, my long-term memory ain't so hot either. Not for the important things - things that I really KNOW and have to KNOW, I really KNOW. But as I come across interesting things, information, research, helpful tips, etc., if I want to capture them, I have previously relied on my gadgets. But bookmarking a web site, copy/pasteing into a document, using digg or deli.cio.us, etc., have only taken things so far. I just came across the next level.

Evernote!

This is a software application (Windows and Mac) and a web tool that allows you to quickly and easily save snippets of information from your clipboard or entire web pages to a centralized spot. More importantly, all of the info is searchable, including text within images - supposedly even HANDWRITTEN NOTES!! While this all sounds too good to be true, the video demo is inspiring. I've just signed up and am testing it out - so far, so good!

As the founder refers to it, this is like having an external brain - something to keep track of everything you need. Just what the doctor ordered!

Evernote

Seeing Context and Scale in these Sublime Photos

This is a fascinating set of super high resolution photos from Chris Jordan. They consist of some interesting environmental and political statements using very interesting photos that must be amazing to see in person - one is 10X23 feet in real life. But the interactive zoom feature works pretty well. They do an amazing job making big scale issues understandable in a visual way. This is data visualization done in a compelling and artistic fashion.

Chris Jordan Photos

Copy/Paste/Paste/Paste/Forget/Find/Paste/Paste FOREVER

As the web site says "Have you ever copied a link to a webpage and couldn't for the life of you remember the link later on?" This tool fixes that - download and install this app and it will remember everything you copy/paste and post it online for retreival and/or sharing. Great idea! And it is a solution to a very specific problem.

controlc.com

Stop Motion Animation of All Kinds Rocks!

This stop animation created in Buenos Aires and Baden is a mind-blower both in terms of the execution, the artistry and the visual language. Not quite sure what is being said here, but I was mesmerized.

Animation from the Walls of Buenos Aires and Baden

Claymation Rocks!

This is a fantastic claymation ad - completely captures the imagination and is a fantastic example of claymation and time-lapse.

Claymation Ad

The Power of Wii

They say "we" are smarter than "me". And Wii is super smarty pants. (They say that, right?)

Multiple cool uses for the Wii remote - incredible hacks - like a Wii whiteboard and Wii head tracking!

Wii Hacks

Browser Testing for Web Development

You can download and install a million and one different browsers on your various PCs & Macs OR you can run a simulator (how reliable are they) OR you can try this out:

browsershots.org

The Ultimate Time Suckers

Watch your life tick by.

Timeline
Analog/Digital Clock

Different Interface

This has been around for awhile but is worth thinking about - interacting around the web without clicking. Not quite the right solution, in my mind, but the problem needing addressing is legitimate. The mouse is outdated!

www.dontclick.it

Clarity in Projects

What is the biggest problem in every project that goes wrong? Every single time! C'mon people! It's communication, right? I thought you said "this". You were thinking "that". I didn't emphasize "x" strongly enough. Your boss was expecting "y". This cartoon sums this up to a T.

Bad Project Communications

We Love Maps & We Love Information

Thank you Google for making maps cool again! (Were they ever not cool?) Well, thank you for putting them in front of the world in such a big way!

We have built a mashup of Google Earth and Flash and we're always looking for interesting ways to use maps to tell stories. We built a series of interactive maps for the Arab Strategy Forum in Dubai in 2006 (using Flash.) AND we're working on a video right now for the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Foundation that uses extruded maps to tell data stories.

Here is a great Google Maps mashup:

Wikimapia

Puts EVERYTHING into perspective

perspective

Visual Thesaurus meets Pandora

This is a very good idea, with some decently executed Flash but overall I'm a bit disappointed with the user experience. It falls a bit flat and I'm left feeling the visuals are just eye candy, not really serving a purpose. But I want them to serve a purpose like in the Visual Thesaurus. I WANT the lines to join things in a meaningful way, and the related music to be related in an understandable way. Being able to pick "positive" v. "dark" or "energetic" v. "calm" is also interesting. It's a nice place to listen to music but doesn't wow me with the UI.

Musicovery.com

Micro Finance Meets Personal Lending

If you like Prosper and you like the idea of micro finance.....

Kiva

Seems like a great idea - the kind of thing that can really change the world.

Solid State Drives We Can Live With!

Finally - another vast leap in hard drives is coming!! This article says we'll have affordable, giant solid state drives SOON! (Like in a couple/few years.) This will make a lot of things we do better and easier - carry an entire small business' worth of data on a thumb drive! Carry massive amounts of video everywhere you go. Can you say 1,000,000 songs in your pocket?

Solid State Drives of the Future

Simple Software

Many of you have probably read about or used simple software. There is a long-standing debate - would you prefer a simple solution that includes fewer features or bloatware that has 10X what you need? The answer is that everyone wants simple features but the problem is that not everyone agrees on what those features should be, which the software companies then react to, developing bloatware to appeal to everyone. 37Signals has done a great job balancing this need to satisfy the need while delivering simplicity. I use their mini-CRM, Highrise, and their project management tool, Basecamp. Like most users, I have some grips - where is my Entourage Sync?!?!?....and why can't I forward email and assign it to someone OTHER than the original sender's contact info?!?!? But overall, the user experience and feature sets are excellent. And they offer an API, so theoretically, someone could fix the Highrise Entourage sync deficiency. Hell, maybe Beehive Media will look into creating a solution to make Highrise sync with Entourage!

Design and the Elastic Mind at MOMA

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/

This is a very interesting website with lots of cool links. To me, though, it is impossible to navigate.

Problems:
How do I actually read what's in each blurb?
How can I get the little bubble to disappear?
Is there any rhyme or reason to the navigation within each section?

This is cool for cool's sake, I think.