SML Data

I have been building my CMS for a while now. The idea of building a database came from noting that I have lots and lots of content that needs to be indexed. I'd like to put everything happening in my life so that I can possibility find hidden structure (emergence) within the structure. I believe that my multitudes of interests (the leaves) are preventing me to discover what I'm about (the tree).

Coming up with the database structure and figuring out an efficient way of accessing those data with unknown criteria was problematic. I'm not a database architect, most certainly lack the know-how to structure a scalable database architecture that can index everything about my life. So I decided to create my outsourced my CMS and database--free CMS database via user-generated content sites.

It works something like this:

• bookmarks: delicious
• music: acidplanet
• writing: blogger (or wordpress, haven't decided yet)
• photography: flickr
• portfolio: flickr
• flash 'experiments': still looking for a good database
• videos: you tube
• books: librarything
• book recommendations: amazon
• mails: most likely gmail
• news: probably twitter

Utilizing ugc sites to manage my content has many benefits

• My data are hosted on very safe environment, usually with very good backup systems, all for free
• Management of the content can be performed using tools specifically created for the management of those content.
• The CMS on those sites will continue to improve as the next generation comes, and I save on the need to improve my own administrative tools, which can become time consuming
• Accessing data on the services are easy through the their respectively constantly improving APIs
• The application to drive all the content become very easy to host--as the size required to host the large database is no longer an issue

Putting my data access API together is still at the works since the original idea from 2007--but the important fact is that it hasn't stopped me from content creation. One of the key problems in many startup is not having data to play with. Now that all of my 3rd-party content portals have enough data to play with, the development effort has been moving much rapidly since the original idea inception back in 2007.

Paul Pangaro + SML

Thanks to the thoughtful and generous introduction from Hugh Dubberly (SML Wiki), I met up with Paul Pangaro at his place, where I enjoyed a delightful and inspiring conversation about his philosophies.

I had problems keeping track of all the topics discussed on my Moleskine, and so it was wonderful that Paul sent notes, links and references back to me as an email as we speak. SML Thank You

SML Notebook

Designing for Conversation

• ThoughtSticker / PP
• Various unfulfilled concepts, including 'YES AND NO" button concept. Instructions for Design and Designs for Conversation / PP
• Journalism and the Future of Media for conversations and concepts for design / Claudine Boeglin + PP
• The Non Sequitur— allows anonymity to see what changes as a result
• A model of Entailment Mesh / PP
• Mobile devices should be neither mobility nor devices / PP (PDF): piece written for Dubberly's column in INTERACTIONS about getting beyond "mobile devices and "social networks"
• ThoughtShuffler / PP

Random stuff

• Transcendental Meditation (Wikipedia) by Maraheshi Mahesh Yogi
• Occam's Razor

I also learned an important lesson from Dr Wires: "ideas do not have to be taken seriously to have an impact."

Related SML Universe

• SML Flickr Tags: Paul Pangaro

Global color usage diagram in 25+ Useful Infographics on Web Designer Depot

Using data collected from Adobe Kuler, Adobe teamed up with Stamen and created Adobe Kuler Pulse, a fantastic user interface allowing users to explore colors with respect to geographical location and time. I liked the idea but wishes to see if there are any observable patterns, and that's when I created the following diagram using micro/macro principals.

Some nice folks put it on Web Designer Depot as one of 25+ Useful Infographics for Web Designers a week ago, which is quite an honor.

What would be even more delightful though is if Adobe would provide APIs to allow folks to mash it up with all kinds of extra stuff--something I sure would love to get my hands on now that I'm playing with Python :)



Global color usage with respect to time and location
Compiled using Adobe Kuler Pulse by Strategically Mutated Lifeforms
kuler.adobe.com/#pulse

Time: The four seasons of 2008
Location: USA, UK, Germany, Japan, Brazil

View Large (1024x1024 jpg)
View Original (4000x4000 png)

UI Design credits: Stamen Design, a design and technology studio in San Francisco. (reference: Contagious issue Seventeen)

Adobe Kuler is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Strategically Mutated Lifeforms are part of the SML Universe. All screenshots captured on 2009-01-11.

Mopeds, Euro sedan and high-tech tanks: the story of Windows, Mac and Linux

After 10 years since it was originally written, this passage extracted from Neal Stephenson's witty essay remains to be my favorite readings of or relating to Linux and opensource software. True to spirit, the author made it freely distributable online at the book's official web site a few years back. I thought that I'd share with you as it gives a great intro to my life-changing experience since I've switched my main OS from Vista to Ubuntu about half a year ago...

The analogy between cars and operating systems is not half bad, and so let me run with it for a moment, as a way of giving an executive summary of our situation today.

Imagine a crossroads where four competing auto dealerships are situated. One of them (Microsoft) is much, much bigger than the others. It started out years ago selling three-speed bicycles (MS-DOS); these were not perfect, but they worked, and when they broke you could easily fix them.

There was a competing bicycle dealership next door (Apple) that one day began selling motorized vehicles--expensive but attractively styled cars with their innards hermetically sealed, so that how they worked was something of a mystery.

The big dealership responded by rushing a moped upgrade kit (the original Windows) onto the market. This was a Rube Goldberg contraption that, when bolted onto a three-speed bicycle, enabled it to keep up, just barely, with Apple-cars. The users had to wear goggles and were always picking bugs out of their teeth while Apple owners sped along in hermetically sealed comfort, sneering out the windows. But the Micro-mopeds were cheap, and easy to fix compared with the Apple-cars, and their market share waxed.

Eventually the big dealership came out with a full-fledged car: a colossal station wagon (Windows 95). It had all the aesthetic appeal of a Soviet worker housing block, it leaked oil and blew gaskets, and it was an enormous success. A little later, they also came out with a hulking off-road vehicle intended for industrial users (Windows NT) which was no more beautiful than the station wagon, and only a little more reliable.

Since then there has been a lot of noise and shouting, but little has changed. The smaller dealership continues to sell sleek Euro-styled sedans and to spend a lot of money on advertising campaigns. They have had GOING OUT OF BUSINESS! signs taped up in their windows for so long that they have gotten all yellow and curly. The big one keeps making bigger and bigger station wagons and ORVs.

On the other side of the road are two competitors that have come along more recently.

One of them (Be, Inc.) is selling fully operational Batmobiles (the BeOS). They are more beautiful and stylish even than the Euro-sedans, better designed, more technologically advanced, and at least as reliable as anything else on the market--and yet cheaper than the others.

With one exception, that is: Linux, which is right next door, and which is not a business at all. It's a bunch of RVs, yurts, tepees, and geodesic domes set up in a field and organized by consensus. The people who live there are making tanks. These are not old-fashioned, cast-iron Soviet tanks; these are more like the M1 tanks of the U.S. Army, made of space-age materials and jammed with sophisticated technology from one end to the other. But they are better than Army tanks. They've been modified in such a way that they never, ever break down, are light and maneuverable enough to use on ordinary streets, and use no more fuel than a subcompact car. These tanks are being cranked out, on the spot, at a terrific pace, and a vast number of them are lined up along the edge of the road with keys in the ignition. Anyone who wants can simply climb into one and drive it away for free.

New users of Linux are almost always exposed to it through a member of the userbase, insuring that they have at least one person on-hand who can answer their inevitable questions and undo their horrible mistakes. The above is a romanticized description of the Linux experience, because it implies that the ubiquitous Linux veteran is not a factor. Unfortunately, Linux was not designed for end-to-end ease of use -- in that respect, it was not "designed" at all.

Customers come to this crossroads in throngs, day and night. Ninety percent of them go straight to the biggest dealership and buy station wagons or off-road vehicles. They do not even look at the other dealerships.

Of the remaining ten percent, most go and buy a sleek Euro-sedan, pausing only to turn up their noses at the philistines going to buy the station wagons and ORVs. If they even notice the people on the opposite side of the road, selling the cheaper, technically superior vehicles, these customers deride them cranks and half-wits.

The Batmobile outlet sells a few vehicles to the occasional car nut who wants a second vehicle to go with his station wagon, but seems to accept, at least for now, that it's a fringe player.

The group giving away the free tanks only stays alive because it is staffed by volunteers, who are lined up at the edge of the street with bullhorns, trying to draw customers' attention to this incredible situation. A typical conversation goes something like this:

Hacker with bullhorn: "Save your money! Accept one of our free tanks! It is invulnerable, and can drive across rocks and swamps at ninety miles an hour while getting a hundred miles to the gallon!"

Prospective station wagon buyer: "I know what you say is true...but...er...I don't know how to maintain a tank!"

Bullhorn: "You don't know how to maintain a station wagon either!"

Buyer: "But this dealership has mechanics on staff. If something goes wrong with my station wagon, I can take a day off work, bring it here, and pay them to work on it while I sit in the waiting room for hours, listening to elevator music."

Bullhorn: "But if you accept one of our free tanks we will send volunteers to your house to fix it for free while you sleep!"

Buyer: "Stay away from my house, you freak!"

Bullhorn: "But..."

Buyer: "Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"

SML Life Card

Introducing the SML Life Card. It's like the Joker except it's brighter.

QDOS = Digital presence tracking metrics

Screenshot: http://qdos.com/user/See-ming-Lee/3a0f686c608b5a3da8200b97aacdfc48/html

QDOS is an service which measures a person's digitial presence, which is a formula based on the person's popularity, impact, activity and individuality.

QDOS index fluctuates overtime, and was most evidential in my recent absence from Internet play. The charting application (not shown here) can plot a person's QDOS over time. I wish that there is a way to chart multiple person over time though.

According to today's report, I have higher influence than Julia Stiles at the moment, having a Q4916 (the higher the better) and a ranking of #2,166 out of 67,660 actively tracked profiles.

To put things into perspective, Robert Scoble has Q6064 (ranking #628) while Pete Cashmore (Q7313) is at #187. Barack Obama has a Q11733 and is the top-ranked person at the moment, followed immediately by Britney Spears, 50 Cent and Beyonce Knowles.

What's your QDOS like? Find your QDOS and post a screenshot on Flickr.

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

SML Massify Pitch: Crazy is Good

Created my first pitch on Massify today:

http://www.massify.com/pitches/crazyisgood



I hope that I'll be able to do a bit more interviews with the folks the next time I head out again.

About Massify
Those of you who is unfamiliar with Massify: it's a film production social network / community that unites filmmakers, actors and fans in the pursuit of great film. The site provides tools targeted to filmmakers, as well as abundant space for users to showcase their portfolio and reels. In addition to features commonly found on other social networks, Massify also partners with recognized film production companies and organizes competitions to promote and attract talents.

Their latest competition is a music video challenge where directors will get to pitch ideas for the rock band Low vs Diamond. The winner will get to work with Epic Records and RSA Films - a great opportunity for aspiring filmmakers indeed.

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Facebook: New Design Rollout 2008

www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=667218034

Facebook started rolling out a new site design on July 20, 2008 for users to preview and test the functionality of the site. The new design has been under testing since the beginning of this year, and more than 100,000 Facebook users have participated in user testings which led to many layout and features included in the final version.

The profile page comes with a single status feed + the wall, with additional info and photos pulled into separate tabs. All the applications have been grouped into the Boxes tab. The users can add additional application tabs as required (similar to iGoogle fucntionality).

Tabs should address the insane load-time with many profiles, but the added benefit to Facebook is that there are now more opportunities for them to display ads - so it's a win-win situation for the company as well as the user.

You can check out the new design at www.new.facebook.com


©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Animoto = Generative music video using photography

I have been meaning to try out Animoto for a while now and I finally got to it today. The service analyzes photos and music to create a video slideshow.

Images can be uploaded or imported via popular photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Facebook, SmugMug, etc. For the soundtrack, you can either upload your own or pick from their music library, which covers several different genres, from classical to electronica, from jazz to indie rock.

As with any generative services, the results are mixed. You don't really have a say on how the effects will be mixed together. But it is good if you need to throw something together quickly.



SML Photography from See-ming Lee 李思明 SML on Vimeo.



Coney Island Mermaid Parade / 2007-2008 / See-ming Lee from See-ming Lee 李思明 SML on Vimeo.

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Utata > Explore

Most people flock to Flickr Explore to discover interesting shots, but the algorithm is a bit of a hit or miss sometimes. Provided that you have pretty good photography skills and have a good idea of who it works, you can game the engine.

The best way to find photography on Flickr that speak to you is to discover your own gem. In many ways, explored photographs are already discovered. While on the surface it appears that you are finding something rare, in reality you are already one step behind the machine. Why let the machines decide your fate. Find stuff on your own.

Lately I've become active in the Utata pool again, because almost every photo feature there has depth that speaks volume. Don't take my word for it. Run up to the Utata pool on Flickriver. It's a better way to explore and find hidden talents.

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Swurl = RSS aggregation with sweet timeline

seeminglee.swurl.com/timeline



Swurl is yet another RSS aggregation service that I just discovered. it has the usual list view (see seeminglee.swurl.com) but also a timeline view that places your activities around the activities themselves, instead of locking them into a calendar view. I like this.

Unlike most services which requires you to go about to invite your friends to join the service, it fetches your contacts from various services into the friends list automatically.

More goodies > FriendFeed is that Swurl apparently imports your complete set of Flickr data, not just recent stuff like FF. In this sense, I can see Swurl function better as a history trail.

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Opera emotional stickiness

Checking out Flowgram today and came across this video of an opera singer in the "top viral videos of the year" collection. The collection comes handy in verifying some of the principles made by the book I'm reading at the moment: Made to Stick: simplicity, unexpectedness, emotions, stories.

Britain's got talent paul potts nessun dorma !!!by allsortofvids103

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Gecko Reflow

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

One vision, one line of thought, and classical music

I love TED, but it is not often that I find myself watching the same video over and over again. Using classical music as a medium, Benjamin Zander re-ignited my passion for classical music, my sense of purpose in life, and inspired me to not think about the tiny details which do not matter, and focus on experiencing everything with one broad stroke.

Benjamin Zander: Classical music with shining eyes



©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

How do you design? by Hugh Dubberly

www.dubberly.com/articles/how-do-you-design.html



In this 147-page book (available for download as PDF), Hugh Dubberly collected over one-hundred descriptions of design and development processes in hopes to foster debate about design and development processes.

The book asks interesting questions:
+ How do we design? Why do we do it that way?
+ How do we describe what we do? Why do we talk about it that way?
+ How do we do better?

...with practical goals in mind:
+ reducing risk (increasing the probability of success)
+ setting expectations (reducing uncertainty and fear)
+ increasing repeatability (enabling improvement)

It's an interesting and inspiring read. Highly recommended.

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Orange: First internet balloon race

Orange launched another advertising campaign: the world's first internet balloon race.



The game is a little bit different than most other internet games in that the game does not occur on one site, but instead occurs among multiple sponsor sites. Anyone can be a sponsor--all you need to do is submit a URL to the game.

Anyone can join the game and get a balloon. The only way to move ahead though, it appears, is when you visit a site, or when anyone decides to give you a boost or when you landed on a site that would give you extras.

The whole experience feels a little bit like web-ring meets 1010wins. If you are determined to win the race, you ended up visiting a ton of sites that you normally won't get to. The 'sponsors' in turn get some brand exposure. In this sense Orange is providing a free advertising platform in the name of an internet game, and through doing so create brand awareness for itself... power to the users?

via CrackUnit

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Foldable display concepts by Johnny Lee

Johnny Lee from Carnegie Mellon University demonstrates some of his ideas on how we can simulate displays on flexible and foldable surfaces in order to fit large interactive display into our pockets. Tracking is accomplished using the Wii Remote and IR LEDs.



via Aaron Rutledge

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Wordle.net = tag clouds with beautiful typography

More visualization goodness: Wordle.net generates typographically beautiful tag clouds via a del.icio.us username or words submitted on your own.

SML Del.icio.us Tags


SML Flickr Tags: Use http://www.fluffykittens.com/wordle/ to generate the data needed.


©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Many Eyes = Community for data and data visualization

I found an interesting site called Many Eyes a few weeks ago. It's a collaborative environment where users can upload data sets and use one of the site's visualization module to create interesting visualization.



To create the visualization seen above, I first grabbed the complete list of tags from my Flickr account using the flickr.tags.getListUserPopular method. I then formatted the results (tags and tag count) to the format required by the site. After my data is uploaded, I chose to visualize my data using the Bubble Chart format.

Here's an interactive version where you can explore my tags in detail, or search for a tag.

In the screenshot captured above, I searched for my initials SML and highlighted all the tags that contain it. The reason there are so many instances of it being used is partly because I like to use very specific tags, such as SML.Graphic-Design and SML.Appendectomy to easily get to my stuff on the public pool without the need to use combinations or username.

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2008

I had a lot of fun photographing the Coney Island Mermaid Parade last year so I went back for seconds this year. As I process my photographs, I noticed that I am inherently attracted to really colorful things. The photographs bear similarity to my information design projects :)

Related Flickr Sets
+ Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2008
+ Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2007















©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe