Emily Chang – Designer

I came across an old blog post of mine that caused a double-take. The post, titled “One-Screen Access to Your Life” isn’t about Netvibes or another Web 2.0 application, but cites a story at the New York Times from November 2002.

Yale computer scientist David Gelernter is glad that the Microsoft trial is behind us, because “operating systems are lapsing into senile irrelevance,” and we need to move on to the future. And what will the future be all about? “Every piece of digital information you own or share will appear (in the near future) in one universal structure”–one to which you’ll have access from any Net-connected computer anywhere. “I have time for only one screen in my life,” says Gelernter. “That screen had better give me access to everything, everywhere.” The universal structure, dubbed Scopeware, will be a narrative, 3D stream of electronic documents flowing through time.” The future (where you store your calendar, reminders, plans) flows into the present (where you keep material you’re working on right now) and on into the past (where every e-mail message and draft, digital photo, application, virtual Rolodex card, video and audio clip and Web bookmark is stored, in addition to all those calendar notes and reminders that used to be part of the future and have since flowed into the past to be archived forever).”

Wow, every piece of my digital information forever. Clearly, the future is not yet here. We have a lot of work to do to reach the digital brain (and the semantic web) that we can already envision.

In “Pocket-size screen’s new rules”, Laura M. Holson writes:

Mobisodes are more popular among teenagers in Europe and Asia, largely because the advanced technology in use there makes it easier for them to be viewed. And much of the original video programming now being produced is short and derived from youth-oriented television properties.

It seems only natural that youth culture would adapt first (and be targeted by marketers) with mobisodes, or mobile episodes.  With the advent of Apple’s video iPod, I’m sure there will be an even greater rush to produce short video series for mobile devices with adults in mind.  While the TV serials don’t hold as much interest for me personally, I hope some of the more creative independent networks (online and alternative media) produce content-focused or more artistic mobisodes.

Via Mobisodes: microcontent mobile at SmartMobs by Bryan Alexander.

[Update: This post is left up for historical reasons. Since the date of this post, Charlie and I have emailed and we called a truce in the comments below. This is a non-issue now.]

This morning I was checking my inbound links and came across a post, “I’m Off eHubwatch“, by Charlie O’Donnell of Union Square Ventures.

In his post, he criticizes both the validity of eHub as a resource and also vents his frustration over the business-merit of the applications that are currently listed. I’ll let you read his post for yourself, but here are a few comments from my point of view.

eHub was created as a resource list of new web applications that I found innovative or notable. I wanted a way to keep up with the flood of new web applications and services and a list on my blog was a simple way to do that. In the spirit of sharing, I launched the list on my blog, knowing that others were probably interested in the same space. Soon after, I started receiving emails daily with new suggestions for applications as well as people telling me to keep it up since they found eHub useful.
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One of my favorite new character designs is cactus girl from tokidoki, a series of art, t-shirts and accessories by Italian artist Simone Legno.  I’m pleased to see he’s launching cool new vinyl toys next month – cactus friends (shown above).  Tokidoki means “sometimes” in Japanese and cactus girl certainly exemplifies that attitude – cute and prickly.  I’ve recently started collecting “designer toys” inspired by the creative art book, Vinyl Will Kill!, but more on that in another post..

Update:  thanks to Jenny who sent me these links to more of Simone’s work.  He designed two rooms for this competition and did a cover for a journal project.

I’m also happy to report I’ve now added Cactus Girl and Bastardino to my collection – bought them here in SF at the KidRobot store.  I’ll post some photos when I get a chance.

eHub has been thrilled to hear from so many of the creators of web 2.0 applications, services, and sites.  There are already twenty live eHub Interviews including:  BlinkList, CafeSpot, CentralDesktop, CiteULike, Codase, ColorBlender, CommunityWalk, elfURL, eyeOS, fileNice, goowy, Kiko, MapStats, Netvibes, Openomy, PageBites, Plazes, Protopage, Voo2do, and Writely.  Check daily for new interviews!

Our new t-shirts from Giant Robot SF (Max’s is 2K and mine’s Gamma-Go).

Like you, I’ve been reading much of the commentary online about Web 2.0 at various blogs and sites the last month or so, and particularly this last week as the O’Reilly Web 2.0 conference came and went here in SF.

While many have provided insightful thinking into the social implications and technical innovations of this current wave of web, it seems that much of what I’ve read in the last couple of weeks could be described as a kind of black and white analysis of what makes Web 2.0 and what doesn’t, or a volley between business speculations (bubble or no bubble, who bought who, which company CEOs took potshots at whom during the panels). In some cases, the conversation has simply broken down into a display of mano a mano egos or a rush to judgement without the patience to see the forest for the trees (eg. the commenters in this post). Suffice it to say, I haven’t been impressed with those discussions.

I’d like to point to three conversations about web and technology that did effect me this week, and ask that you also have a look – and then act.

Technology can save lives
At Get Real, Stowe Boyd, well-known media subversive and President/COO of Corante, writes a compelling post in Recovery 2.0: Or Maybe Disaster 2.0? Stowe makes several points, but primarily, he challenges us to take personal responsibility and collective action to enact a “new model of civil authority.” Make “a pervasive investment — at the local or municipal level — in disaster-resistent wifi mesh technologies.” Learn how by reading his post. For a background on Wi-Fi mesh networks, read the MIT Technology Review article, Long-Distance Wi-Fi: Protocol extends the range of wireless networks.

Turn influence into action
Author and agent of change, Seth Godin, and his collaborators in The Big Moo are also taking individual and collective action to change the world – one school at a time. In Thanks to You, Seth posts photos of “first school built as a result of sales of The Big Moo.” Support the building of more schools by purchasing a copy of The Big Moo and then tell your friends, readers, and colleagues to do the same.

Protect digital rights and support free culture
Creative Commons, the organization known for working to create creative licensing system that “values innovation and protection equally,” has launched a fundraising campaign. Lawrence Lessig, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Creative Commons and Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, has been blogging each week about the need for support and a continued movement towards the protection of free culture and digital rights for authors and creators who want to license work as “Some Rights Reserved.” As Lessig writes, “…we believed that by building a buttress of free culture (meaning culture that can be used freely at least for some important purposes), we could resist the trends that push the other way. Most importantly, the trend fueled by the race to “digital rights management” (DRM) technologies.” Read CC in Review: Lawrence Lessig on How it All Began and support Creative Commons with a donation.

Our world. Our humanity. Our rights. If Web 2.0 is about people, let’s make a difference.

In my last post, I marveled at the traffic to my site and around the social web. If the 1800 of you that have bookmarked eHub in del.icio.us or the 6798 daily unique visitors to my site gave a mere $10 each to a cause you believed in, that would be a total of $85,980.

For our part, Max and I both donated to Creative Commons. We’ve always done pro bono work for nonprofits and now, as Ideacodes LLC, we plan to do several pro bono projects a year. Most recently, we helped create the Sogan Foundation website, a nonprofit currently raising money to build The Tibetan Institute of Science and Technology (TIST) in Golok, Tibet. The TIST will be the center of instruction at the Capitol City Tibetan High School, the first and only Tibetan high school to serve the people of Golok. To become involved or to donate, please visit the contribute page.
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eHub turns one month old today.  Read the blog post, a Statistical Month in Review.

Today is the one month birthday of eHub. I started blogging here at emilychang.com on September 3. A week later, I made eHub as a resource to keep up with the rapid-fire development of new web apps, services, and social trends that I had already been following with a keen eye. I’ll post thoughts about the social and conceptual implications of this month’s growth, but for the moment, I’d like to share some quantitative data.

I launched eHub with 64 resources listed and in the last month, the number has grown to 241. I’ve received over 250 submissions and am still parsing through the queue and adding each day (in addition to other additions found through search, bookmarking sites, RSS and blogs). For eHub Interviews, which launched on October 5, Max and I received an amazing positive response rate of 75% from creators of Web 2.0 applications, services, and concepts. In the last week, 10 interviews have gone live and more than 40 more will be released in the next several months, and continuing steadily thereafter.

When I started emilychang.com, my Technorati rank was the default 771,696 (0 links from 0 sites). A month later, my site ranks 2,093 (633 links from 355 sites). See below for the actual numbers and dates.

Technorati Rank for emilychang.com:
Sept 6 – 771,696 (0 links from 0 sites)
Sept 11 – 229,177 (12 links from 8 sites)
Sept 13 – 175,258 (28 links from 11 sites)
Sept 14 – 151,172 (30 links from 13 sites)
Sept 15 – 78,642 (44 links from 25 sites)
Sept 17 – 30,782 (82 links from 56 sites)
Sept 18 – 27,656 (92 links from 61 sites)
Sept 23 – 21,638 (112 links from 74 sites)
Oct 2 – 5,276 (356 links from 194 sites)
Oct 3 – 4,277 (409 links from 224 sites)
Oct 5 – 3,028 (511 links from 279 sites)
Oct 8 – 2,436 (589 links from 323 sites)
Oct 11 – 2,093 (633 links from 355 sites)

Technorati Blog Search:
Current rank for emilychang.com as of today at 12:19 AM PST

#2 in blogs > ruby (Sam Ruby is #1!)
#5 in blogs > ajax (Jeffrey Veen is #4)
#8 in blogs > web+2.0 (Stowe Boyd is #6)
#10 in blogs > web
#11 in blogs > san+francisco
#14 in blogs > design
#20 in blogs > internet

eHub RSS feed traffic:
Sept 12 – 22 circulation and 118 hits
Oct 7 – 3147 circulation and 13741

eHub and the social web:
1796 users have bookmarked eHub at del.icio.us (that’s an average of 60 people a day for 30 days or 2.5 people an hour).

568 diggs at digg.com
99 members furled.
41 comments at Metafilter on Sept 30.
36 blinks at BlinkList.

Ranked web:
eHub ranked #5 on Daypop’s Top 40 on October 2.
eHub ranked #95 on PubSub’s Top 100 on October 3-4.

It’s been quite a month, to say the least. A blog’s success or the power of an idea can hardly be measured purely quantitatively, but what these numbers demonstrate is the true power of the viral, social, and networked web from a creator/blogger’s perspective.
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