Tag That Image, Visual Bookmarking Sites Worth Blogging

We have all heard, by now, of the social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Delicious. These sites allow people to tag articles and other text deemed interesting so that others may enjoy reading them. Now, however, other sites have been developed that allow people to, instead of bookmarking articles found on the Web, bookmark visual images found on the Web.

Three sites geared toward visual bookmarking have been created so far; FFFFound, We Heart It, and Vi.sualize.us. The article I read, by Jenna Wortham, states that, although the sites are far getting the hype that other social bookmarking sites are getting - Digg boasts 35 million users a month, they are gaining a steady following. The article describes the sites as "similar to a white walled gallery, they present their goods with little to no flourish..." making the Web pages simple, clean, and user friendly. This type of clean and easy to use interface is key in allowing the web pages to gain popularity and compete with other social bookmarking sites.

FFFFound was created in 2007 by a Tokyo based design firm. This particular visual bookmarking site is unique in the way that it has placed a cap on the number of members allowed to join the site. This was done out of fear that if there were too many people involved in bookmarking images to the site it might become unmanageable and cluttered. Anyone, however, can brows the image catalog.

Of all three sites, Vi.sualize.us is said to offer the most variety. Things such as t-shirt designs and artsy studio shots can be found on this site. Now Vi.sualize.us has almost 10,000 members and 300,000 images. We Heart It was created by a designer who could not get onto FFFFound. The article compared We Heart It to Flickr but with a more avant-garde feel. The site also allows its 16,000 member to tag video from sites such as YouTube, and it is estimated that a new selection is added each minute.

As other bookmarking sites allow meeting and event planners to stay up to date on news and things that might be happening in their industry, perhaps this tool will allow meeting and event planners a different use. It seems that these visual bookmarking tools might be useful to planners looking for themes or creative ideas for their next social event.

Google Unplugs Lively as Hype Fades Over Virtual Worlds

For the past several weeks in class we have been having the discussion about where virtual worlds stand in our industry and whether they will move forward in success or failure. Reading the technology section in the New York Times today, there was an article, by Ashlee Vanice, about how Google plans to put the kibosh on its Lively application at the end of the year. The company claims that that they want to prioritize themselves and focus on projects which are most important (I am assuming that means things such as G1). However, the article states that, in the past, Google has been more than willing to leave the beta tag on its debut applications for months and months while Lively has only been out since July and already found itself facing the end of its run. Will we see this application in the future, or is done for good?

In other virtual reality news, the article also discussed dying enthusiasm with Second Life. Reactions to the things that go on in Second Life are similar to those found in class. Vanice writes that the things appealing in Second Life to it's hardcore enthusiasts are generally boring or creepy for most others. Stephanie is definitely not alone! Some say that there is not that much to do in Second Life, and while it was thought to be the thing that shook up online business, it is falling quite short for some.

We speak about all the ways in which these online worlds can add value and innovation to the meetings and events industry, and with the current economic crisis providing businesses with a lack of capital, the tools that these applications possess seem like the perfect fix! Perhaps these virtual worlds are only appropriate for specific industries, such as ours. Are developers of these programs marketing their products to too broad a market? The article never really mentioned the impact, if any, of virtual worlds on the hospitality industry. Will the creepsters win and see their virtual worlds gain a second wind in the eyes of technology consumers, or will the creeped out triumph, making this new and somewhat odd technology a thing of the past?

Real Life Applications of Microsoft Surface

So although I blogged about it last week, I am still interested in this whole Microsoft Surface thing. Last night I went to see the new James Bond movie, Quantum Solace (it's really good!), and they were using a technology identical to Microsoft Surface in several different scenes. I thought this was really cool because normally when I watch movies or shows about secret agents I tend to think all the technology they use has yet to be developed, or is not available to the public; hidden in some secret government warehouse. This, however, is available to the public and is being used in several different applications! It's not only for secret agents!

I began to do a little more digging into the use of Surface in real life - not just in the movies. I discovered that MSNBC used Surface technology during the recent election. News casters were using Surface to present the electoral map and the battleground states. In a video with one reporter, he is using Surface, the table like form of it, while the screen in front of him is projected onto a monitor to his right showing viewers what he sees when he looks down at the table. The camera crew was, however, taking shots of the actual Surface screen to allow viewers to see what it looks like in use.

Seeing Surface being applied and used in this kind of situation put new ideas into my head about how the events industry might use the technology. Last week I said that event managers could use Surface as a conversation piece between attendees, or as a tool that would help them learn more about the companies in attendance to the event. Now, however, what if Surface could replace PowerPoint presentations by speakers at conferences, or replaced business pitches to clients. It would provide for a more interactive presentation and keep attendees more interested in what is on the screen instead of having them zone out and/or not pay attention to the PPT no matter how many fun graphics or animations were on the screen. I'm excited to see how Surface will take off in the future.

Sheraton Tries Out Microsoft Surface

I believe only once in class we have discussed Microsoft's Surface technology. When looking for a topic to blog about this week, I came across an article on Meetings Industry Megasite discussing its introduction into the hospitality world. I got curious and decided to investigate. The article, by Marshall Krantz, states that Sheraton's in New York, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, and San Francisco, are offering the use of Microsoft Surface to guests in the hotels. Sheraton is the first major hotel chain to offer the tool to the public. The program started in August with Starwood Hotels and Resorts using the five previous mentioned hotels in a pilot program that could become chainwide.

The article goes on to describe Sufrace as a 30 inche, rectangular table looking object. Inside the screen, five cameras sense hand touche and gestures that allows users to manipulate the digital objects on the screen with their hands instead of a mouse. The Surface website describes the product as having been designed with vaious industries in mind, including the hospitality industry. Microsoft claims that Surface can help companies to enhance customer experiene and increase loyalty, increase revenue, and reduce operational costs.

As of now, the tool is limited to only three functions in the five specific Sheraton hotels; guests can gather information about the local area, play music, and find information about other Sheraton properties. However, Krantz states in her article that the product allows users to interact with the hotel as well as interact with each other. I think that it would be cool to see Surface used in events and meetings. Perhaps the tool could be set up and used in a way that would allow attendees to learn more about the companies that are hosting the meeting or event, or even about other companies that are in attendance to the meeting or event. It would also be a cool tool for attendees to use as method of interaction with each other while in attendance. Its awkward to attend an event and not know anyone, erhaps this tool could serve as a kind of conversation starter.

For now there are only a select number of companies using Surface on a broad scale - Sheraton hotels being one of the only hospitality related. It will be interesting to see how the product is percieved and how it takes off from where it is now.

Politics and Technology

So in my search to find information about politics and technology, I found a site literally entitled Politics and Technology. I thought this site might provide some interesting information. The subtitle on the page explained how the site would explore how candidates are using the net as an organization tool. Although the page had little information on the presidential campaigns going on now, i.e. McCain and Obama, it did have one helpful link that pointed me in the right direction.

On the Politics and Technology website was a link to a site called Blue State Digital. This particular site uses online tools such as, individual fundraising, online advocacy, outbound email, social networking, and content management to help make internet communities available for candidates, cause-related organizations, and other companies. Blue State Digital acts as a broad outreach to help gain public support for candidates and their organizations for specific causes and issues.

What I liked most about the site was that it offered case studies of people that had used BSD successfully. One such case study was about the Obama campaign. His campaign used the site to fundraise, motivate social networkings, and to promote events. BSD stated that the Obama campaign made full use of the fundraising tools the site had to offer, helping to raise over 17 million dollars. The campaign also used a toold known as True Match; new donars were brough to gether with their matching donar personally enabling them to meet and discuss their committment to the cause. From the information I gathered from the case study BSD also acts as a kind of registration site that allows authorized campaign managers to set up and promote events and other fundraising activities. It also allows them to do such thigns as manage community content and blog programs. BSD also tabulates statistics automatically so that managers can monitor performance and make modifications to maximize results from using the site.

I guess I really never considered how the use of technology plays a role in todays politics. It only makes sense that political figures would use technology as it has become such an integral part of peoples lives today. It is so much more efficient and allows campaign managers and the candidates to reach a greater population of people and stay more connected to them. From my investigations, BSD appears to be doing a great job at providing numerous tools to allow political campaigns to do just that.

Technology in Action

This past Wednesday I attended the BizBash Event Style Expo at the Javits Center. The Expo was filled with some really cool and interesting companies, as well as a lot of fun and interactive exhibitor booths. While I was walking around I kept seeing these hand held black box-type things that people kept holding up to one anothers badges. I quickly realized that these objects were scanning that barcodes on each attendees badge, collecting the information associated with their name in BizBash's registration system.

Earlier this semester, Denise blogged about a tool called Mingle360. This device is used by pointing one's own MingleStick to anothers, creating a wireless connection between the two that allows the exchange of information such as name, company, position. It basically acts as an electronic business card. It's the perfect networking tool, as it is easy and efficient and helps reduce paper waste from printing business cards!

The tool being used at BizBash, however, was a little different. As I went from booth to booth, the exhibitors would scan the bar code located on my tag and receive all my information that had been entered into the computer system upon my registration. Though I wasn't able to find out the name of the barcode scanner being used at the event, I did some research afterewards and found many products similar to what I had seen at the trade show.

One such product is called the Gizmo. Advanced Expo Solutions International makes two versions of the Gizmo, the Gizmo Jr. and the Gizmo PLUS. The junior version of the product is the size of a car key and is easy to operate. The PLUS model is larger and takes the look of a Blackberry or PDA. The PLUS can record data from bar codes as well as store photos, document images, and audio files. Event planners can rent these to have onsite for exhibitors to use to capture data of individuals for prospective sales, or to capture data from attendees to create or add to an email listserv.

It was really cool to see technology in action at an industry event. And, it has made me wonder if buisness cards will truly become obsolete in the near future.