Monthly Archives: June 2012

The Sniffer: Trends in News and Architecture

On this episode of thesniffer, Nora Young talks about a new entry to the Knight News Challenge (which is a funding contest to help re-invigorate news for the 21st century). The proposal is to engineer online news feeds so that you can access the perspective of people who are UNLIKE you. It’s to combat the problem of the social media echo chamber that we encounter when we just read the news our like-minded friends read (via The Atlantic)

After laughing my butt off, I actually got to thinking that it’s a pretty good idea. With the loss of good balanced journalism in most major media outlets these days, it really is up to us to make our own informed decisions, and like it or not, knowing what the enemy is thinking/doing is fairly important

Meanwhile, I’ve dug up what I think is a fairly a cool project in more sustainable architecture. It’s a social housing project near Madrid. I like it because it’s designed with ‘flow through’ in mind, and because it uses “cogeneration” as a power source, which allows the waste heat generated to be used for things like heating water (viaArchitecture Today).

Finally, for history buffs out there, check out Orbis, a project from Stanford University which is best thought of as “Google Maps for Ancient Rome”. Once you get to the website, just click on “Mapping Orbis”. How would you get around? (Via Ars Technica).

Exciting News – I Have a Publisher – Iguana Books

Hey all, well it’s happened and I’m as happy as a clam. I’ve decided to go with Iguana Books, a publishing house that specializes in eBooks and headed up by editor extraordinaire Greg Ioannou. And of course, for those of you old skool readers, there will be a print run as well.

I’ll be blogging about it as we approach our spring 2013 launch deadline, but for those curious to see something online and in print as well, hustle your bustle over to the tel-talk book launch in Toronto tonight. That’s Friday and the opening runs from 6-9. The actual show will be up until July 14th.

Tel-talk is a wonderful collaborative project coordinated by: Paola Poletto, Liis Toliao and Yvonne Koscielak, and the publication was made possible by the good folks at Tightrope Books. Excerpts of my novel are included in the book.

If you can, please come, and if you can’t, I look forward to seeing at the launch of  ”Night Town”, coming this spring, to a pub near you.

Plus a big shout out to Emily Niedoba and Jane Goodwin at Iguana for all of their early marketing and publicity savvy. I know my book is in good, capable hands, because these women already created a kick butt book mark. When I learn how to post it, you’ll see it.

The Sniffer, May 31st, 2012: Trends in Video Sharing and Self-Tracking

Hey all, this time I’ve found even more evidence leading to a major trend on the horizon: POV video and video-sharing trends (hear Nora Young and I talking about it on Spark). It’s well worth also watching the accompanying video showing what the frames actually look like and the quality of film. Pretty amazing stuff kids.

Now it’s Vergence Labs’ Kickstarter project on social video eyewear. It combines video-enabled glasses with a video sharing service. Are we all going to be capturing everything that goes on around us all the time?

Meanwhile, Nora Young looks at another quirky example of passive monitoring: tracking your pet! Fujitsu is set to release a device that attaches to your dog’s collar, which will allow you to monitor your doggie’s exercise. Nora and I ponder what data their pets would reveal (via Technology Review).

I think that Nora could find out where Lola is secretly eating, but honestly folks, isn’t all of this pet obsession going a little too far? This from a woman whose dog gave her away at her wedding.
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