Personas is a project created by Aaron Zinman for the Metropath(ologies) exhibit at the MIT Museum. When you enter your name in the dialog box, Personas attempts to build a visualization of your online identity using information accessed by the internet and natural language processing. The result is a color coded diagram that “shows how the internet sees you.” Mine is above.

It’s a neat idea even if it isn’t entirely accurate. There aren’t too many people with my name, so I imagine the results are mostly related to me. However, if my name was John Smith it would be a different story. But perhaps that is the point. We can’t always control what results pop up in Google when someone searches our name, so how the web views us (and others who share the same name) influences how others see us as well, for better or worse.

link: personas


Speaking of unconsumption, PSFK introduced me to the phenomenon of “hand-me-ups.” The concept of handing-up was even featured as the word-of-the-day at Urban Dictionary and defined as:
“Where the young generation in a family adopts and purchases new technology product at a fast rate, and old versions (that are in working order but are not up to current standards) of that technology product are given to the parents or older generations of family.”
What I find interesting is how younger generations are giving their parents and grandparents out-dated iPods and digital cameras while simultaneously discovering older technology like vinyl turntables and Polaroid cameras. They’re handing-up while getting hand-me-downs. Maybe the overall concept is “tech trading” and in each case, both generations are dealing with technologies that are largely unfamiliar to them and helping each other master the learning curves on these devices.

via PSFK
photo via flickr (graciepoo)

Some time ago I came across a wonderful blog titled Unconsumption. If consumption is the act of acquiring an object, unconsumption is anything that happens to that object after acquisition. In short, the blog is about recycling, reusing, and creative re-purposing of items that would be discarded otherwise.

Some recent highlight from Unconsumption:
- a TIE Fighter made of Starbucks cups and coffee stirrers
- Dumpster pools in Brooklyn
- a trivet made out of wine corks
- packing materials transformed into a play area
- old playground ball made into a hanging planter

photo via readymade blog

By now you’ve probably seen it or at least heard of it. A wedding video featuring a choreographed dance routine as the bridal party enters the ceremony has received over 11 million views in 10 days.

What’s not surprising is how fast the video spread, nor is it surprising the group was invited to recreate the dance on Today. But the fact the song in the video - Chris Brown’s “Forever” - leaped into the top 10 on iTunes is surprising considering Brown’s career tumble after an assault scandal involving his ex-girlfriend Rihanna. According to Soundscan, “Forever” sales increased from 3,000 to 50,000 in one week, while sales of Brown’s 2008 album Exclusive went up 130%.

What does this mean for artists and record labels? For starters, it means they should stop the ridiculous censoring and silencing of YouTube videos that feature even the slightest snippets of their songs.

Just this month, Warner Music Group - perhaps the most prolific censor - removed the audio from a popular Keyboard Cat/Hall & Oates mash-up. Were the creators of the video earning any money from that mash-up? Probably not. Would that video help expose people to Hall & Oates and perhaps bump up sales figures? Absolutely. If I were Daryl Hall or John Oates, which unfortunately I am not, I would be furious at Warner right now.

Luckily for Chris Brown, Zomba Records - a division of Sony Music - kept their hands off the wedding video, and they brought in a nice little sum of money as a result. And the happy couple was able to share their wedding experience with their family and 10 million new friends. Everyone wins.

Source: Viral video increases music sales (Razorfish’s Amnesia Blog)

The first video below is a recent spot for Cellcom, a major Israeli telecommunications company. A vehicle carrying Israeli soldiers patrolling a wall separating Israel and Palestine is hit with a soccer ball coming from the Palestinian side of the wall, but instead of responding with violence, the troops engage in a playful back-and-forth game with the Palestinians. The spot ends with a voiceover roughly translating to “What do we all want? Some fun, that’s all.”

The Guardian criticized the spot for trivializing the conflicts between the two sides, and one blogger suggests the ad highlights “how mainstream Israel likes to see itself and the Palestinians.” A Facebook group protesting the ad has over 2,300 members from Israel, Palestine, and other countries around the world.

So what happened when citizens from the Palestinian village of Bil’in, in their weekly demonstration against the Israeli wall, decided to kick some soccer balls over to the Israeli troops? See for yourself.

An interesting note that should be mentioned is the Cellcom ad was produced by McCann Erickson Israel, part of McCann Worldgroup, whose guiding philosophy is “Truth Well Told.” Do you think this Israeli cellphone ad showed the truth?

Thanks to EB for the original link that brought this to my attention.