Roll your own lifestream with Sweetcron

Whilst there's certainly no shortage of hosted lifestreaming services to choose from, almost all of them are limited in the degree to which you can customise them. Sweetcron, on the other hand, is self-hosted (i.e. you install it on your own server) and open source, so is fully customisable / extensible. Created by an industrious Tokyo-based freelance web producer, Yongfook, it's an absolute joy to use. My current job means I don't get the opportunity to get my hands dirty with code anymore, so I've been enjoying tinkering around with Sweetcron's PHP and CSS to create my own lifestream and modules (the Last.fm module in the above screengrab is of my own composition). The only limitation of Sweetcron versus the current market leaders (apart from the barrier to entry created by self-hosting) is that it doesn't enable you to follow other users' lifestreams (although every instance of Sweetcron produces an RSS feed you can subscribe to). It's actually closer to microblogging service Tumblr in functionality and is likely to appeal to users who would otherwise have downloaded Wordpress.

Paying for paper: the great magazine mystery

I spend so much time reading text on a screen these days that it's been both a novelty and a pleasure to have a couple of decent length train journeys this weekend to give my eyes a break and do some old-school magazine reading. After some prevaricating in Smiths, prompted by the bewildering array of titles now on offer (Media UK lists 1,956), I plumped for Wired, EDGE, T3 and Retro Gamer with my subscription copy of Empire tucked away in my bag for good measure. The total cover price? £21.88 (an average of £4.38 per title).

What struck me about this (apart from how readily I seem to part with money at train stations) is how much of the content I am paying for in dead-tree format is available for free on the net. (all the Wired articles, all the EDGE and Empire reviews, much of T3's news and features). And I'm seemingly not the only one shelling out in this way. According to a recent PPA Marketing overview, consumer expenditure on magazines has increased by almost 50% in the decade since the dawn of the internet (11% in real terms) with more of 'the internet generation' (whatever that means) reading consumer magazines than any other age group.

So, why do we do it and will this behaviour change once high-speed wireless internet access becomes ubiquitous and eMagazine readers become affordable (or, more likely, their functionality starts being adequately replicated on entry-level mobile phones / other multi-function devices)? I suspect it's a mixture of habit, convenience and a well-established relationship with the physical product which keeps us buying and which wireless devices and electronic ink cannot yet match and may never totally supplant. I also wonder if there's something reassuringly finite about a magazine in this era of unlimited information; a bound and curated volume of stuff that an editorial team has deemed worthy of my attention versus an increasingly unwieldy feedreader with hundreds of unread items...

Do you still buy magazines which offer some or all of the same content online for free? If so, why?

True Knowledge: a search engine which shows its workings

Whilst Cuil has hoovered up a great deal more press attention (one news cycle hyping it up, the next knocking it down), the lower-profile True Knowledge strikes me as a far more interesting and innovative new search product. Currently in invite-only beta, it starts from a fundamentally different premise to most search engines; that by assembling a library of verifiable facts, which can then be combined using logic rules, in can answer a wide variety of questions from its own knowledge database.

Whilst the majority of queries won't yet return a result (it is currently drawing on a database of just over 100 million facts about 4 million things) those that do give an exciting glimpse of what the product could become. For example, asking 'Who was president of the US when Barack Obama was a teenager?' shows how eleven facts have been combined to give four correct answers (pasted below, along with a couple of other examples which illustrate how True Knowledge handles ambiguity in the question by providing multiple possible answers and explaining the logic). Impressive stuff.

I have 20 True Knowledge beta invites to give away - email me (the name of this blog at gmail.com) if you'd like one.

The devil in the detail: small but significant interface touches

They say that God / the devil is in the details and, when it comes to user interface design, I think they may just be right. The difference between a functional but uninspiring product and a product which is a joy to use is so often in the smallest, sometime almost imperceptible, touches - something which Apple understands only too well and has built much of its recent success on. Below are five example of tiny interfaces touches which make all the difference in the user experience of a product. Anyone got any other favourites?

Dynamic iCal icon



This definitely falls into the 'so subtle you might miss it' category. So used was I to the dumb/static icons of the Windows desktop that I initially failed to notice that the Calendar icon on my iPhone was updating every day to show the correct date. Such a simple thing but once I'd spotted it, I no longer had to open the app to check the current date - a real time-saver. I then spotted that the same functionality was present in the iCal dock icon in Leopard (but not, alas, in previous versions of OS X). Microsoft take note.


iPhone real-world physics



The discrete application of real-world physics to the iPhone interface is one of the things which makes it such a joy to use; pages bounce, icons wobble, emails fold up and disappear into the trash can. It's the visual design equivalent of haptic technology (e.g. force feedback) which reassures the users that their actions are having an effect on the objects they're interacting with; something the PC desktop has historically been so terrible at (e.g. "I think I clicked on it but nothing seems to be happening. I'll click on it again. Oh shit, now two of the things have opened...")


Blippr 'characters remaining' progress bar



The 'characters remaining' countdown is, in and of itself, a neat interface innovation and has now become a standard on mobile phones and microblogging services. However, it is Blippr's visual representation of this by means of a lowly progress bar which recently caught my eye on the basis that it's easier for the brain to absorb this information in peripheral vision when it's visually represented.


Wisia image suggest from Google Images



The thing that impressed me most about new Q&A service Wisia was not the wisdom of their particular crowd (who seem about as wise as most internet communities do in aggregate - i.e. not very), but the feature which automatically pulls in images from Google Image Search for you to associate with your answer. They offer the same functionality when choosing your profile picture so, in my instance, my avatar was automatically suggested as one of the top Google Image results for my chosen username (fabricoffolly).


TripSay profile completion ranking



Incentivising users to complete profile information is a perennial challenge for site owners keen to glean as much demographic data as possible. Many opt for a progress bar which reassures users they're nearly done, others promise greater functionality for those with completed profiles. TripSay has come up with a simple but ingenious approach to this problem which is to show your profile completion status relative to other users (i.e. as a ranking), informing me that "8360 people have rated more places than you" and tempting me to rate more with the knowledge that I could "Rate just one more place to advance to #7810".

Catching up / BBC short-form video nuggets

Just back from a week's media-free* holiday (*excepting the Saturday Guardian, Gavin & Stacey and Season 5 of The Wire) and spent much of yesterday catching up with inbox, feed reader and iPlayer. On the assumption that you're probably not that interested in the highlights of my inbox, below are a few tasty nuggets from my TV/video viewing; Britain From Above, Maestro, Kermode Uncut and the Olympics TV trail - all great examples of short-form video, made sharable thanks to the BBC's rather splendid Embedded Media Player (EMP), the unsung hero of the iPlayer story. More great short-form video on the BBC YouTube channel and each of the above sites (Britain From Above is especially worth a visit - it took me ages to decide which clip to share there are so many gems). Right, back to work...

Facespook & Liberty News

The above screengrab and below video embed are both from Facespook; a neat little viral campaign to promote Spooks Code 9, which premieres on BBC THREE this Sunday. It uses technology from Oddcast to enable users to upload a mug shot of themselves which is then rendered onto the protagonist in the video; a neat fulfillment of a prediction I made last September having seen the Dexter icetruck.tv campaign and the Facebook Bob Dylan app:

"Whilst neither implementation is perfect (both suffer from problems with word wrapping), they're both impressive and an interesting indicator of a likely future direction for promotional videos, which will no doubt soon incorporate user-submitted photos and videos, as well as text, to further personalise the marketing message"

Also worth checking out is Six to Start's accompanying alternate reality experience, Liberty News and Adrian Lobb's Guardian blog post which asks whether the Spooks Code 9 website is better than the show and, more significantly, whether the future of television drama is actually on the web. I, unfortunately, won't be able to pass judgement as I'm off on holiday in about 9 hours to a land where the iPlayer doesn't stream. See you in a week.

Report

BBC Vision's internet portfolio / My elliptical job title explained

'Senior Portfolio Executive, Internet - BBC Vision Multiplatform' - there's no denying that I have fairly incomprehensible job title. All of the words kind of make sense on their own but when strung together, not so much. So, mostly for the benefit of my parents and girlfriend (who frequently have to try and explain what I do), here's an attempt to break it down into some semblance of meaning...

First, the easy bit. BBC Vision is the "the biggest integrated multimedia broadcast and production group of its kind in the world" which officially launched in November 2006 with "a mission to create great [content] for audiences in the rapidly changing digital world". In other words, television but without the 'tele' bit being a foregone conclusion - any form of visual media which delivers the BBC's public purposes is potentially on the cards. The Multiplatform department within BBC Vision is tasked with leading the group into the shiny multiplatform future, on the web, on mobile, on interactive TV and on other 'new platforms' (games consoles for example).

So, what does that BBC Vision's internet portfolio comprise? Well, there's the TV component of BBC Programmes, which automatically generates a page for every episode of every BBC TV and radio programme (176,000 pages and counting). There's also a constellation of enhanced or '360' programme sites which build on the foundation of the automated episode pages to provide more immersive and interactive brand experiences. These span all genres: Drama (e.g. Doctor Who, Heroes, Torchwood), Entertainment (e.g. The Apprentice, Last Choir Standing, Dragon's Den), Comedy (e.g. Have I Got News For You, The Mighty Boosh), Documentary (e.g. Bruce Parry's Amazon, Britain From Above), Science and Nature (e.g. Springwatch, Oceans), Arts & Culture (e.g. The Culture Show, Liverpool 08), Music (e.g. Maestro, T in the Park, Pop on Trial), Food (e.g. Chinese Food Made Easy), Gardening (e.g. Garderners' World, Chelsea Flower Show), Religion (e.g. The Passion), Childrens (e.g. M.I. High, Funky Fables) and no doubt a few others I've forgotten.

The portfolio also includes a growing number of properties made specially for the web, such as Mark Kermode's new video blog, Kermode Uncut (see earlier post) or Bloom which promises "smart choices for the carbon conscious". For children there are products like Me and My Movie, MyCBBC and Adventure Rock, whilst for teens there's the BBC Switch offer, which includes the innovative Sound Index and interactive online dramas Signs of Life and Meta4orce. In the Learning domain there are evergreen products like Languages, Blast, Bitesize and Ouch! and shorter-term campaigns such as Thread, Headroom and Bare Facts.

As well as content destinations, the portfolio also comprises a range of navigational/discovery aides such as the TV homepage and sites for the main TV channels: BBC ONE, BBC TWO, BBC THREE, BBC FOUR, BBC HD, CBBC and CBeebies (BBC Parliament and the BBC News channel are looked after by BBC Journalism). It also encompasses a suite of genre portals (Arts and Culture, Comedy, Drama, Entertainment, Ethics, Family History, Film, Food, Gardening, Health, History, Lifestyle, Parenting, Religion, Science and Nature), modules on relevant Topics pages (see earlier post), as well as aggregations around seasons (e.g. White Season, Beauty Season).

And last but not least, there's a small product you might have heard of called BBC iPlayer (although this is currently managed by the BBC's central Future Media & Technology team).

So that's the portfolio. As for the Senior Executive bit of my job title, I'm still working that out... ;-)

It's worth noting that every site mentioned above has/will have launched/relaunched in the 12 months since my boss, Simon Nelson, unveiled Vision's new multiplatform strategy in September of last year. Not a bad year's work imho...

Round-up of round-ups

Max mentioned in passing yesterday that some of his Stateside chums had enjoyed my round up of Innovative online shopping interfaces and suggested that I provide an aggregation of similar product round-ups in the side bar of this blog. I've done so and also pasted it below for the benefit of RSS subscribers who rarely visit the site in person. Inevitably some of the lists are now a bit dated, although its an interesting chronology of what product sectors I considered blog-worthy over the last couple of years. Anyone got any suggestions of which product areas I should cover next?

iPhone apps (Jul 2008)
Twitter apps (Jun 2008)
Keyword trending tools (May 2008)
TV character blogs (Apr 2008)
Music apps - part three (Mar 2008)
Lifestreaming services (Mar 2008)
iPhone web sites (Nov 2007)
Virtual worlds in development (Oct 2007)
Virtual worlds (Oct 2007)
DIY live video streaming services (Aug 2007)
Facebook applications (Jun 2007)
Internet TV services (May 2007)
Niche social networks (Mar 2007)
Profile aggregators (Mar 2007)
Music apps - part two (Feb 2007)
Wii music and video sites (Feb 2007)
Technology trends (Dec 2006)
Widgets (Nov 2006)
Music apps - part one (Oct 2006)
Video sharing sites (Aug 2006)
Music discovery apps (Jun 2006)

And for the sake of completeness, here's a round-up of my non-tech related round-ups:

Albums of 2007 (Jan 2008)
Films of 2007 (Jan 2008)
Songs from film soundtracks (Sep 2007)
Films of 2006 (Jan 2007)
Albums of 2006 (Jan 2007)
Singles of 2006 (Dec 2006)
Music videos (Oct 2006)
Films of 2005 (Jan 2006)
Albums of 2005 (Dec 2005)
Films of 2004 (Feb 2004)

Crowdsourcing my holiday reading - the sequel

Following the success of my previous attempt to crowdsource my holiday reading (the above books were all purchased and enjoyed as a result of comments left on that post), I'm once again on the scrounge for top literary tips to keep me entertained by the pool this summer. My post on 22Books gives a flavour of my fictional proclivities whilst the topics covered by this blog give a fair indication of my non-fiction interests. Any recommendations which result in a purchase get the recommender a free book of their choosing from my BookRabbit bookshelf (below).

Innovative online shopping interfaces

Ever since the dot com bubble burst all over Miss Boo in the early noughties, online retailers have tended to steer clear of innovative interfaces in favour of a no-nonsense Amazon-style approach (browse categories, search, scan product description/images/reviews, add to shopping basket - you know the drill). However the advent of Web 2.0 and its associated technologies has encouraged developers to start pushing the envelope again in this area. Below is a round-up of some of the more innovative interfaces currently out there. Have you stumbled across others? Add them in the comments below.

Zoomii
http://zoomii.com



Billing itself as the "real" online bookstore, Zoomii Books attempts to emulate the experience of browsing shelves in a bricks and mortar retailer, presenting book covers on virtual shelves and linking through to Amazon for those all important affiliate dollars.

BrowseGoods
http://browsegoods.com



Also piggy-packing on Amazon's extensive inventory, BrowseGoods gives you a floor plan view of a virtual department store and enables you to zoom in on departments Google Maps-style until you reach individual items.

Kinset
http://www.kinset.com



The next step on from Zoomii and BrowseGoods, Kinset provides a fully immersive 3D shopping experience. Currently requires a download (PC only), although a Flash version is flagged as 'Coming Soon'.

Etsy
http://www.etsy.com



Not new but still great; in addition to pioneering a new online market sector (everything handmade), Etsy also boasts a a number of interface innovations such as browsing by colour, time or location.

Like.com
http://www.like.com



Like.com invites visitors to "shop visually" with the aid of a 'detail search' and colour, shape and pattern matching tools.

Panic Goods
http://www.panic.com/goods



Panic is a Mac software developer with a nice sideline in designer tees. The apparel store employs a simple drag and drop mechanic for adding items to your shopping cart which makes me want to buy more t-shirts (not that I really need any encouragement).

KnickerPicker
http://www.knickerpicker.com



KnickerPicker's Dressing Room takes the multiple product photos of rival sites like figleaves.com to the next level by providing interactive video of the garments being worn by a model who most closely resembles your bodyshape. Your chosen model saunters from stage right in black lingerie and heels, ready to 'come closer', 'walk back' or 'turn around'. May just attract some male visitors not necessarily looking to make a purchase methinks...

limitedCargo
http://www.limitedcargo.com



A cross between Startup Schwag and The Million Dollar Homepage, limitedCargo offers a numbered, limited edition run of a single product from a brand partner. Buy one and you get a square on the product page to upload an image and a link.

HEMA
http://producten.hema.nl



Not strictly speaking a shopping interface, Dutch department store HEMA deserves a mention for it's domino effect product page. That Honda Accord ad has a lot to answer for...

Why Dr. Horrible is on-demand event TV and Joss Whedon is the new Radiohead

There are a numerous reasons why Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is noteworthy; here are ten of them:

1.) It's a 40-minute, 3-part musical superhero comedy produced specifically for the internet (no really)
2.) It's a Joss Whedon production (he of Buffy/Angel/Firefly fame), starring Doogie Howser, M.D.
3.) It was written during the WGA writers' strike to circumvent, in the words of Mr. Whedon, "the Forest King system"
4.) It was reportedly made in under a week for a low six figure sum
5.) It's being distributed for free, with a view to making money on iTunes downloads, merchandise and a subsequent DVD release (hence the Radiohead comparison)
6.) It's available internationally via Hulu (which is normally US only)
7.) But only for a few days (Act I went up on Tuesday, Act II on Thursday and Act III on Saturday; all three come down today) making it a rare example of 'on-demand event TV'
8.) The official site crashed under the demand, peaking at a reported 200,000 hits per hour
9.) It's currently occupying spots 1, 2 and 3 in the iTunes TV Shows chart
10.) A Google search for "dr. horrible" already returns 361,000 results

If you haven't checked it out yet, then you'll have to get your skates on as the video comes down in a few hours. Here's a trailer:


Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

Annual Report word clouds mini-meme

Looks like my BBC Annual Report word clouds sparked something of a mini-meme after being picked up by the BBC Internet Blog and The Guardian's Digital Content blog. Below are clouds from the BBC Worldwide Annual Review (created by Dan Heaf), the BBC Scotland Annual Review (by craa22uk) and Ofcom's Public Service Broadcasting Review (by Rhona Parry). Anyone spotted any others?

Top Ten Best iPhone Apps

So, the App Store is finally with us but which of the 694 apps currently available are worthy of your click (or in some cases, cold hard cash)? Here's a quick run down of my current top ten (sure to change on an almost daily basis as more apps appear).

1.) Remote (Free)



A complete no-brainer but no less brilliant for that, Remote allows you to use your iPhone (or iPod Touch) as a remote for iTunes and AppleTV, including the ability to control your AirTunes speakers.

Download Remote from iTunes

2.) Twitterific (Free)



The best Twitter desktop client comes to the iPhone and is equally brilliant. Nice additional features include a one click update of your location with your geo-coordinates and easy upload of photos via TwitPic.

Download Twitterific from iTunes

3.) Super Monkey Ball (£5.99)



Every bit as fun as those early demos suggested and the perfect showcase of the potential of the accelerometer as a game controller. It's not a push over either.

Download Super Monkey Ball from iTunes

4.) Shazam (Free)



A technology which has finally come of age, Shazam identifies music from a short (c.12 seconds) snippet. The iPhone app includes links to related content on iTunes and YouTube and the ability to attach photos or send to a friend. Available for free for a limited time only.

Download Shazam from iTunes

5.) Enigmo (£5.99)



'The Incredible Machine'-style puzzler which won Best iPhone Game at this year's WWDC. Fiendishly addictive.

Download Enigmo from iTunes

6.) GuitarToolkit (£5.99)



A must for any aspiring Hendrix, GuitarToolkit offers a chromatic tuner (which works as well, if not better than my current standalone tuner), audible tones for tuning by ear, a metronome and a chord library. A quality app.

Download GuitarToolkit from iTunes

7.) Exposure (free)



Slick third-party Flickr app with an easy-to-browse thumbnail-based interface. Covers all the main bases plus a 'Near Me' function which accesses your iPhone's geo-location and shows photos taken nearby. Ad-free version available for £5.99.

Download Exposure from iTunes

8.) Ms. PAC-MAN (£5.99)



The genuine article, developed by Namco and oozing with retro charm. The choice of controller (D-Pad, Swipe or Accelerometer) is a particularly nice touch (the Accelerometer is the least successful of the three).

Download Ms. Pac-Man from iTunes

9.) Urbanspoon (Free)



Restaurant finder with a novel randomisation mechanism (fruit machine reels) which enables you to 'hold' location, cuisine style and/or price and then shake for a recommendation. London is the only UK city at present.

Download Urbanspoon from iTunes

10.) Evernote (Free)



A app to help you remember stuff (hence the elephant logo), Evernote lets you make text, photo and audio notes and integrates with a web and desktop client. It's stand out feature is its ability to make text within images searchable, which works surprisingly well.

Download Evernote from iTunes

Related fabric of folly posts:
iPhone 3G: first impressions
Round-up of best made-for-iPhone web sites/apps
Apple TV + iPhone = games console?

iPhone 3G: first impressions

Queues, stock shortages, activation woes; most of the coverage of the iPhone 3G launch hasn't been about the product itself, which is a shame because, on the evidence of my first 24 hours of usage, it represents a small but significant step forward which goes some way to delivering on the promise of the launch strapline: "The iPhone you've been waiting for" (a phrase which may be starting to assume an unintended poignancy for some frustrated would-be customers).

I purchased mine from one of the many O2 stores on Oxford Street (I'd never realised quite how many until yesterday) having spent a frustrating few hours trying to order one online on Monday. The first thing that struck me on unboxing was just how similar it is to iPhone v1. Sure, the metal back has been replaced with fingerprint-friendly plastic and is now more bevelled (no doubt to disguise the fact that it's actually 7mm thicker - a trick Apple learnt with the MacBook Air), but face-on it's not easy to tell them apart (the iPhone 3G is on the right in all of the below photos).







Once booted up and activated, I was struck by how crisp and bright the screen looked which was unexpected (although may have more to do with the protective film I have on my original iPhone). First port of call was the Maps application to try out the GPS which was every bit as cool as I'd hoped, marking my location with a pulsating blue dot which followed me down the road as I walked. Next stop was the Apps Store which was characteristically easy to use and had furnished me with a screenful of new apps within minutes (I'll write a more detailed post about some of the available apps at a later date - suffice to say that the quality is variable at this point :)

As for the main point of differentiation - the 3G - it's hard to comment just now; I had it in mind to do a speed test of both handsets but at the time of writing the UK O2 3G network appears to be down (doh!) Certainly the progressive download of YouTube clips was pretty nippy when I tried it earlier and web browsing is much less like the bad old days of dial up. Oh, hang on a minute - we're back up... a quick visit to iPhone speedtest puts the connection speed at a respectable 1632kbps.

Teething troubles aside, the addition of 3G and GPS addresses two of the major competitive deficiencies of the original iPhone and keep it at the front of the smartphone pack. All that's lacking now from my point of view is a decent camera, Flash support and some sort of clipboard functionality. I'm hoping the latter two will arrive as software updates over the coming weeks/months; the camera I guess will just have to wait for iPhone v3.

If you haven't already got an iPhone then I'd heartily recommend signing up for one (maybe once all of the nonsense has died down in a few weeks). Existing iPhone owners needn't rush to upgrade although I sense that the increased browsing speed could make all the difference when deciding whether to consult the web when out and about.

Track buzz around your blog posts with AideRSS

Just discovered AideRSS, a neat little service from a small Canadian company which analyses RSS feeds and assigns each article a PostRank™ (wonder what inspired that trademark? ;-) based on the number of times it has been bookmarked, dugg, blogged about, commented on and tweeted. Ostensibly a tool for readers to filter which articles are worthy of their attention, it also functions as a handy way for content creators to gauge the buzz around their missives. Above is a snapshot of some of the highest ranked posts on this blog in recent months, the most popular of which (a comparison of 15 lifestreaming services) was bookmarked 83 times using del.icio.us and generated 34 diggs, 33 blog posts, 20 comments and zero tweets.

Socialmeter (below) performs a similar function for individually input URLs, scanning assorted social sites to generate bar charts and an overall score. YackTrack, as the name suggest, focuses exclusively on tracking conversations and commenting.

Related fabric of folly posts:
The word on the web: 7 keyword trending tools
5 lessons I've learnt from blog stats
Google Trends for Websites