"In anthropology it's very clear that the environment that you create influences people and how they behave", Spolsky explained. "People will come into the environment and behave according to what you built in certain subtle ways; ways that you probably didn't think about."
He points to the Scalinata della Trinita dei Monti, or the Spanish Steps to further his point. "They were built to be stairs," he said, "from the Spanish Embassy at the base, up to the Trinita dei Monti at the top." Instead, they've become the "living room" for backpackers in Rome. "Partially it has to do with the steps being the perfect comfortable height to sit on," he said, but also, they provide a fantastic view of the Piazza di Spagna at the bottom.
"This was completely non intentional," he explained. "Similarly, the user interface you create for your applications will influence how people behave."
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Monday, 11 May 2009
The Social Semantic Web
About social semantic web
The Social Semantic Web
View more presentations from John Breslin.
Finding Experts on the Web with Semantics
finding experts
Finding Experts on the Web with Semantics
View more presentations from John Breslin.
Sunday, 10 May 2009
Twitter - Threat or Opportunity?
Twitter has something that is completely different from any other service of the same genre – it can work as an add-on to other tools online. That’s right – we can consider Twitter as an upgrade to the user’s needs and purposes online. Better yet, Twitter can work towards a company’s objectives and even a fellow website purposes. Consider the following examples:
- Digg – Digg is a Social Bookmarking website. What Twitter does is, instead of having all sorts of digital scrap on the top popularity links due to having the same “credible” individuals posting and using convenient titles such as “TOP 10 MICROSOFT vs. APPLE and IPHONE PICTURES” (all the basic keywords to attain first place on Digg’s homepage), Twitter allows the users to select the people most in tune with their preferences and just check the postings and links placed by them. Yes, I said it’s not a Social Bookmarking service, but the fact is that more users are using Twitter to share their common interests and “work” related information. Which leads me to my next point;
- Linked In – A professional social network, Linked In is probably one of the best sources of information for head hunters to find their targets. It’s like an online résumé. But what Linked In lacks (or simply users don’t use it to that purpose) is information regarding the involvement of the target with the type of job he has. Is he a simple Joe who just does his 8 hours of work and doesn’t do much more or is he this information powerhouse that would be valuable for the company? Simple – if this person has a Twitter account, you can check just the type of information he shares and is interested in simply by following him and checking who he is following. Sure, you can always say that the Linked In target is not exactly Twitter’s target, but consider that most Twitter users are professional above 35 years-old.
- MySpace and Facebook – Here’s the bigger issue. How to mashup Twitter and these two while the first two have a service that sort of works the same way Twitter does. Well, consider this – how much stuff do you have on your wall to check? With Twitter, you can focus the attention towards where on the Profile you want people to look at without all the crowded information about the Quizzes you did.
- Youtube – Having recently added a Twitter sharing button, Youtube has definitely discovered the potential in Twitter for it’s business. Twitter users are used to follow up links and, like I mentioned before, are more prone to go to a link to Youtube placed by a trusted followed source that on any other place.
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- Digg – Digg is a Social Bookmarking website. What Twitter does is, instead of having all sorts of digital scrap on the top popularity links due to having the same “credible” individuals posting and using convenient titles such as “TOP 10 MICROSOFT vs. APPLE and IPHONE PICTURES” (all the basic keywords to attain first place on Digg’s homepage), Twitter allows the users to select the people most in tune with their preferences and just check the postings and links placed by them. Yes, I said it’s not a Social Bookmarking service, but the fact is that more users are using Twitter to share their common interests and “work” related information. Which leads me to my next point;
- Linked In – A professional social network, Linked In is probably one of the best sources of information for head hunters to find their targets. It’s like an online résumé. But what Linked In lacks (or simply users don’t use it to that purpose) is information regarding the involvement of the target with the type of job he has. Is he a simple Joe who just does his 8 hours of work and doesn’t do much more or is he this information powerhouse that would be valuable for the company? Simple – if this person has a Twitter account, you can check just the type of information he shares and is interested in simply by following him and checking who he is following. Sure, you can always say that the Linked In target is not exactly Twitter’s target, but consider that most Twitter users are professional above 35 years-old.
- MySpace and Facebook – Here’s the bigger issue. How to mashup Twitter and these two while the first two have a service that sort of works the same way Twitter does. Well, consider this – how much stuff do you have on your wall to check? With Twitter, you can focus the attention towards where on the Profile you want people to look at without all the crowded information about the Quizzes you did.
- Youtube – Having recently added a Twitter sharing button, Youtube has definitely discovered the potential in Twitter for it’s business. Twitter users are used to follow up links and, like I mentioned before, are more prone to go to a link to Youtube placed by a trusted followed source that on any other place.
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How to Listen for Opportunities on Twitter
You’ll note there are all different kinds of variations on how you can narrow your search, including:
- Specific words, phrases, hashtags (#gnomedex, for example).
- Locations and proximities.
- Time spans.
- From specific users.
- With happy or sad emoticons. :) :(
- With links.
And more.
Evolution of a Facebook-Killer
Plenty of people have been wondering about which company might come along and dethrone Facebook. What if the answer is so obvious that you wouldn't notice until all the pieces came together?
What if the answer is Google: Maker of Gmail, Picasa, YouTube, Blogger, Maps, Latitude, Docs, Calendar, Gtalk, and now Google Voice--some of the best-designed, well-connected apps on the Web. Unlike social Web's golden child Facebook--which released a flimsy API that ginned up some okay apps, and a whole lot of crappy ones--Google built its network from the bottom up.
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What if the answer is Google: Maker of Gmail, Picasa, YouTube, Blogger, Maps, Latitude, Docs, Calendar, Gtalk, and now Google Voice--some of the best-designed, well-connected apps on the Web. Unlike social Web's golden child Facebook--which released a flimsy API that ginned up some okay apps, and a whole lot of crappy ones--Google built its network from the bottom up.
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Tools and Applications For Linked Data
What are the things on the web that we can't do easily now?
- Finding the most relevant research papers.
- Finding papers on new topics in which you may not know the correct keywords
- Finding the optimal hotels when traveling
- Optimal travel from start to finish
- Track threads on news
- Mashup applications
- Analyze scientific datasets
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