Some weeks ago I was at the University of Linz to present my thoughts about open access (free access to scientific journals). There are a lot of similarities between open access initiatives and social media. Like social media also open access struggles a lot with semantics and not clear defined borders to close topics in case of open access they are: creative commons, open courseware and open source. This makes it very hard to discuss open access without getting into other fields. But I think this is exactly what you need to do. You need to see the bigger picture and the broader context to fully understand the topic. And if you do so you will realize that open access is (the far better alternative compared to paid content and) the best way to progress as a human race. Shared and freely accessable knowledge is the best and most efficient way to ensure that we will create better solutions in the future and for the next generations. Only when knowledge can flow and bounce without restrictions and barriers it unleashes it’s full potential.

Several studies show that scientific journals that are available for free get more citation than articles that are hidden behind financial barriers. Even scientist don’t want to go through the hassle of registration and passwords to get access to articles, humans just like to take the most easiest and convenient way. It’s great to see how much scientific knowledge is already shared via open platforms like Public Library of Science or self-archiving on various University servers and blogs. But their is even more knowledge, data & information still hidden in libraries, databases and servers. Like with humans in social media I encourage all scientist to share even more knowledge because the bigger the network the better the value for every single participant.

Here are some slides in German about the current state of the open access initiative:

DLD is a great conference and the counterpart of TED in Europe. I can hardly recommend to everyone to check out the videos it’s really super interesting content. From the videos that I have seen so far from 2009 this really impressed me. Mark Zuckerberg has some amazing statements how he (and Facebook) see’s that world:

“Facebook always defined itself as a technology company that focused on efficiency and making it possible that people can share and communicate more effectively.”

I don’t thing that a lot of other people describe the role of Facebook in the same way, but this is something that shows where Facebook wants to go in the future. Even 99,9% of the Facebook user think that it’s all about staying in touch with old friends or meeting new ones, there is something bigger going on.

“Facebook wants to make the world more open and more transparent.”

First Google started to open up the web and made it possible for all of us to find great content and it’s origin. Now it seems that Facebook takes leadership on the topic of openness and transparency and brings this to the level of relationships, pictures, thoughts…

“There is a hugh trend online towards people posting larger volumes at a higher frequency of smaller pieces of data.”

Remember the conference was already some months ago before Facebook had the latest newsfeed relaunch, but this explains the new layout of Facebook and on what they are going to focus in the future. I really like Twitter but I think Facebook will win the microblogging battle (about the largest platform) because they can reach a broader audience (currently 200 million user, around 20 million update their status at least once a day). Even Twitter is growing very fast since one year all over the world, it’s still not fast enough because Facebook can migrate users to use “status updates” even faster.

“Facebook connect is the next evolution of the Facebook platform…the long term goal is that people can build the same things inside and outside of Facebook.”

The trend that started with social networks – making digital interaction and exchange more social – is now leaving networks to reach out to the whole web. The borders between web and social networks disappear but also borders between websites get blurry. Is the screenshot below part of Facebook or YouTube or both, and when it’s one of them does it matter for consumers or is everything the same anyway – one big cloud?

I believe this will change a lot the way we communicate and use services in the future. But first let’s find out what we can actually do with Facebook, Twitter & social media and then explore the enriched possibilities of Facebook Connect (or friends connect and open id). We are at the beginning of a journey and still need to learn, experiment and fail several times till we fully understand what we have in front of us.

Like in many other countries also in Hungary you as a citizen can support a NGO with a 1% donation of your taxes. The only thing you need to do is to fill in the name of the organization you want to support when you hand in your tax documents. Sounds pretty easy and it’s a great initiative but still a lot of people are not aware of it and don’t know that you can also support Greenpeace Hungary in that way.

DDB Budapest & Greenpeace Hungary developed a print campaign to remind people that if everybody contributes a little we can protect the environment and preserve all colors of life. To raise the awareness for environmental protection the team decided to paint on the 9th of April the key visual of the campaign with chalk on one of the most frequented places in Budapest (Moszkva tér).
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Even pedestrians weren’t sure what’s going on in the beginning it didn’t take a long time till the first visitors joined the team and helped them to color the giant art work. In the meantime Greenpeace informed the visitors about their activities and the possibilities and handling of the 1% tax donation.

If you are already bored with Facebook and Twitter and you are looking for the next big thing. It’s here. Flutter – the nano blogging tool.

there is an “I” in nano blogging

via: Adren-Alina

Razorfish is doing a lot of interesting and sophisticated stuff. Here are some prototype videos of their experience project, if you want to watch more go to their vimeo channel. And if you haven’t done it already, check out their digital outlook report 2009.

DaVinci (Microsoft Surface Physics Illustrator) from Razorfish – Emerging Experiences on Vimeo.

DaVinci is a prototype/experiment that blurs the lines between the physical and virtual world by combining object recognition, real-world physics simulation and gestural interface design on Microsoft Surface.

Microsoft Surface Financial Services Application – Razorfish Demo from Razorfish – Emerging Experiences on Vimeo.

Microsoft Surface Financial Services application is a joint development between Microsoft and Razorfish. It is an innovative and engaging solution to present banking products to customers within a rich multi-touch experience.

Again I really like how they are also using info graphics to create an even better customer experience especially for complicated financial products.

Amnesia Razorfish – Staff Directory on Surface from Razorfish – Emerging Experiences on Vimeo.

The Staff Directory application uses Surface tags printed on all Amnesia Razorfish business cards to show extra information about employees such as blog posts, tweets and flickr photos.

Razorfish reinvented the business card, nice application that enriches the experience of meeting new people.

http://www.eranium.at/blog/?p=96&preview=trueI’m a hugh fan of infographics and maps and this might explain why I love this video so much. A great illustration of how you can explain and reinterpret old strories with the help of new technology.

Slagsmålsklubben – Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

Beautiful visualization and explanation of the credit crisis and another example that shows how much you can enrich storytelling with simple visuals and animations.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Looks pretty wacky right now but I think this can be possible quite soon. The first solutions for shopping advices already exist and it doesn’t take a lot to transfer into other areas and connect it with social networks.

via: Mirror Image

It started with Wikitude, Enkin and Mini and now also more and more games using augmented reality are popping up on all 3 major platforms: iPhone OS, Android and Symbian. Even if the graphics are still crappy and the game-play doesn’t feel good, it’s another small step to understand what’s possible nowadays.

Tower defense

MScape Game Demo: Roku’s Reward

HP already gives us a hint how the future of mobile gaming will look like. Seems pretty progress but we will get used to it very soon.

I’m curious when the first augmented reality application that connects QR codes and social networking profiles pops up? Can only be a matter of days.

Last month the Wikitude project released the second trailer clip explaining augmented reality and the progress of Wikitude.

Wikitude Part 2

Wikitude Part 1

Some days ago ING realeased their augmented reality software to locate ATMs.

ING – ATM (in dutch)

Can’t wait till we see more applications that mash up video, GPS data and knowledge from the cloud. We are just at the beginning. Imaging what’s possible when we stop using old thinking models in combination with new technology and finally understand what we can do with the technology that we have in our hands.