Apps on top of the real world

This seems to be pretty cool, but as you’ll see in the ‘read more’ section, it’s much more than just ‘cool’: And here is how it works: It’s build by Stockholm-based 13thlab.com and it’s an app available on iOS. Using advanced computer vision, Minecraft Reality maps and tracks the world… Continue reading

Fred Turner on Burning Man as the Cultural Infrastructure for Commons-Based Peer Production

“Fred Turner discusses his opinions on the social phenomenon of Burning Man and how he thinks the ideals of the festival apply to the marketplace that is evolving in our society, specifically in the Silicon Valley.” Turner is also the author of the fascinating book From Counterculture to Cyberculture.  via… Continue reading

Old texts make us dream and build the future

I just finished the first session of Howard Rheingold’s online Think-Know course. It seems the participants are an amazing group of people dispersed over several continents. The next weeks we’ll dive into both the theoretical-historical background of intellect augmentation and the practical skills of personal knowledge management. We’ve been reading… Continue reading

The Global Arbitrage of Online Work – NYTimes.com

“Not all those young companies will survive, but the habit of hiring online seems baked in; 64 percent of respondents said at least half of their work force would be online by 2015, and 94 percent predicted that in 10 years most businesses would consist of online temps and physical… Continue reading

Do you believe in the Exodus Recession?

” Since 1800, technological advance has been associated with economic growth. The new stuff being built saved labor input, which was then put into the construction of other things. However, the most recent technological advances may not be growth-inducing. As Samuelson puts it, “Gordon sees the Internet, smartphones and tablets… Continue reading

How the truth unfolds itself – Hermida about new media

So, is new media a revolution, changing society in a fundamental way, or is it a slow, very gradual process? That’s one of the many questions I have after having attended the neo-journalism conference in Brussels, Belgium. Yesterday professor Alfred Hermida (University of British Columbia) gave his vision on The… Continue reading

You Can Be Active with the Activists or Sleeping with the Sleepers: Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow | Tor.com

Another book by Cory Doctorow – and I’m still busy reading Makers! Stefan Raets discusses the Doctorow’s Youthful Techno-Defiance Trilogy: ‘From Little Brother (tech-savvy teenagers take on a government-run surveillance system) to For the Win (tech-savvy teenagers take on unfair working conditions for MMORPG gold farmers) to now Pirate Cinema… Continue reading