Internet

Open source intelligence and pool parties.

In Innovation, Internet on 19 June 2008 with no comments

Kids in England are using Google Earth to find potentially untended swimming pools in which to have Facebook-organized dips with their friends. My parents’ pool is in the middle of this map. Let’s have a party there next Tuesday night. View Larger Map
If you’re new to Tightgrid, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. [...]

Chinese websites mourn

In China, Commerce, Disaster, Internet on 27 May 2008 with no comments

Chinese corporations and multinationals doing business in China toned down the colors on their websites after the devastating Sichuan earthquake. Most opted for black.
Although white more commonly signifies death and mourning in China, black is a more effective way of expressing grief on the white background of a Web page.

Local government yet to discover Paypal.

In Commerce, Criticism, Innovation, Internet, Local Government on 12 May 2008 with no comments

One of Terry Heaton’s criticisms of municipalities is that a lack of competition has kept them from adopting all those convenient little innovations that make internet commerce a relative breeze. It’s very difficult to find an online vendor asking you to use anything but your internet connection and a credit card to complete a transaction. [...]

Where the streets have no name (online mapping services must rely on landmarks).

In GPS, Geography, India, Internet, Mapping on 5 November 2007 with no comments

Indian business blog Trak.in reviews three mapping services’ coverage of the subcontinent. They look at Yahoo, RouteGuru and MapMyIndia. Creating roadmaps of India is challenging “given the unorganized and inconsistent naming standards of the Indian roads” or the lack of road names in the first place.
When asked to provide directions from point A to point [...]

ISSI 2009

In Events, Internet, Rio de Janeiro on 1 November 2007 with no comments

Welcome ISSI 2009 conference attendees. Feel free to leave comments regarding the conference and your projects or visit the official site. I look forward to seeing you in Rio.

Vint Cerf on the future of the internet in developing countries

In Digital Divide, Future, Google, Internet on 18 October 2007 with 1 comment

Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, Vint Cerf, on the future of the internet in developing countries:
When Google News for mobile devices became available in French, the biggest spike in usage outside France was in Côte d’Ivoire.
In the developing world especially, the proliferation of mobile devices and improvements in the ability of those devices to access the [...]

ISSI 2009 / 12th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics

In Events, Internet, Rio de Janeiro on 11 October 2007 with 1 comment

The 12th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics will be held in Rio de Janeiro from July 28-31, 2009. This past year’s conference was held in Madrid.
I hope to attend. The welcome page for the conference provides plenty of good information.
I’ve opened comments to allow for discussion of the event.