BigShinyThing

Listen to the Frog

kermit the frogWe love the muppet wiki… and not just because thanks to it, we now know which episode our favourite muppet number ever is in (it’s Episode 401, hiking pigs). No, we love this particular wiki because it shows what wikis are all about: sharing knowledge.

People often complain that wikis aren’t ‘visual’ enough and that (ouch) they are even ugly. This is a typical web 1.0 vs 2.0 argument. Take that much-loved beast of web 1.0: Flash. We’ve written before about how misappropriated flash actually hides knowledge from both search engines and users. For evidence, see… oooh, pretty much any ad agency website you care to think of! At the core of what makes wikis tick is sharing knowledge and unless your site was designed by Eric Gill, concentrated knowledge (generally) ain’t pretty: it’s functional. Even a wiki about something as visually brilliant as the muppets on first look, looks, well a little vanilla. It’s only once you start to engage with the content (i.e. search ‘hiking’… the key signifier of our favourite muppet skit) that you start to see the real beauty of the knowledge within.

Need to Know

Product Displacement

UK culture minister says product placement “contaminates” TV programmes.

Lessons from Tyra

From supermodel to media brand.

Genius as a Product

And how to make a business from it

IM bttr

Surprise! Using IM improves kids’ linguistic skills.

Twitter “Not Pointless” Shock

Microblogging officially tips over into the mainstream

Web 3.0 Starts Today

No, really.

RIP Albert Hofmann

Inventor of LSD dies aged 102.

Make3D (Does Exactly That)!

The latest contender for ‘coolest imaging/photography tool’ turns snapshots into 3D scenes. And it works!

Skirting the issue

Women in Johannesburg have been staging a miniskirted protest

Overheard on the tube

What did the twentysomething guy say to the other twentysomething guy?

Flickr Burns

More Flickr zeitgeist

How to advertise in social media

Stop the clock!! We saw another ad on the internet!

The Day the Music (Industry) Died

A choice quote from The Economist

Way to Go, Hasbro

Toy giants crack down on Scrabulous, one of Facebook’s most popular applications

Nice to Know

100proofTRUTH Issue 5

[Image relating to the story 100proofTRUTH Issue 5]

Getty Hijacked

Video hackers take down Getty’s video ‘art’ site.

Street Art Gets ‘Urbanised’ at Selfridges

Buy a Banksy on your storecard!

The Cross Bones Geese

[Image relating to the story The Cross Bones Geese]

Brand Tags

Free association brand perception

Big Shiny …er Sea Slugs

[Image relating to the story Big Shiny …er Sea Slugs]

The Polaroid Kid

[Image relating to the story The Polaroid Kid]