A few weeks back, I asked a customer perusing dictionary stands at the Michigan Ave store how he used his dictionary in his personal work method.

His response spurred a few compelling questions. Although a vast plane of information seems at ones’ fingertips with access to services like Google, Wikipedia, Ask, and the hive-mind of Twitter, Del.icio.us, Mosio, and GigaFloat, the most valuable quality of the physically limited codex is the exposure to peripheral content. Every search term is contextualized within its alphabetical neighbors. The user experience of examining a physical page could arguably be a richer experience if one is not only interested in learning about a single subject.

Merriam-Webster Online offers this option of lateral discovery, albeit through a separate step removing oneself from the primary search via the “Browse words next to:” link.

Merriam-Webster: example of lateral discovery -

Traditional web-search platforms have made great steps to isolate relevant content for each search term, innovating the format of such results to include video and audio as well as traditional text links. However, what would happen if peripheral context was introduced? Would there be a demand for a user interface that rewrites the nature of why one chooses to search for content online?

A compelling long-term direction for online lateral search, using a multimedia engine only possible in a digital platform, would be to experiment with the dissolution of dependence upon the act of reading for gathering pertinent information. The authority of verbal communication over visual, auditory, temporal, and spatial modes of learning could be challenged in exciting new methods for augmenting cognition.

Although it occured a few weeks ago, I gave my first public presentation on what I have learned as a result of community engagement over the past year.

Today’s Guest Speaker: Ryan Rasmussen

I was invited to speak before Northwestern’s new ‘Word of Mouth Marketing and Communications’ graduate classroom, offered as part of the Integrated Marketing Communications Program at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. [about]

I always felt a bit more comfortable speaking in text (perhaps a shared symptom of an emerging digital culture.) However, I am pleased to have presented relatively effectively. For my first presentation, I think it went well.

Driving back home along Lake Michigan on Lake Shore Dr., I discovered something surprising. I was fixated on the student experience of the presentation rather than my own. Teaching the tools of collaboration, sharing the stories, and encouraging the pace of innovative ideation among peers was the real value of this experience to me. I left wanting to have done more.

The volley of ideas within this group is live, in public view, and streaming with critical responses to the learning experience – NUWOM student posts

As Duc pointed out, a recent episode of CSI: NY included footage taken in the Suffugium sim within Second Life.

I couldn’t help but express some excitement. This was where I cut my metaversal teeth. It remains a favorite sim.

Click To Play

Patrick Rhone recently paid a visit to the State St. store in Chicago, discovering the existence of the Circa sample bars. As previously discussed, these are workstations where employees work with customers to build completely custom notebooks as free samples. [1] [2] [3] [4]

The obvious implication of handing a free custom notebook to a curious customer is the increased probability that customer will ‘get hooked’ on the product.

Nonetheless, I am still thoroughly amused with the diction Patrick used, taking this analogy to the next level when calling the sample,

The store was stocked with, from what I could tell, the full catalog of Levenger goodness. The staff was amazingly knowledgeable and helpful. They even had a table where they helped you build a free Circa notebook. You could choose which page types, ring colors and add ons you wanted in it. Obviously this is simply a gateway drug to get you hooked on the product (as I already am) but it sure was effective. I built one in the Junior size (half letter size) with a nice mix of gridded pages, cornell style pages, some daily agenda pages and a pocket in the back.

Click To Play

Each node is a thread. Each connection is a link. The scope of influence upon the silent audience [lurkers and long-term future of organic search conversion] becomes easier to understand when the interface is modified to display the “social web.” This is the value of converting brand ‘talkers’/evangelists into better teachers through collaborative ideation and seeding indigenous collaborative web technologies for mass distribution of consumer generated marketing.

To see video in full screen click here.

Ryan, at Brassing Adds Character, has taken a Dremmel to his Oasis Notepad Holder.

His fast-prototyping of the desktop pad has sparked some compelling notions for making this product mobile. I am curious how adding a handle to this product could start a new series of mods.

Link to LevengerHack photo tag

“Pulp-Based Computing is a series of explorations that combine smart materials, papermaking and printing. By integrating electrically active inks and fibers during the papermaking process, it is possible to create sensors and actuators that behave, look, and feel like paper. These composite materials, not only leverage the physical and tactile qualities of paper, but can also convey digital information, spawning new and unexpected application domains in ubiquitous and pervasive computing at extremely affordable costs.”

ambient intelligence group