Month: October 2007

I want to Twine

On By RachelIn semantic web, social networkingLeave a comment

Can I use that as a verb? Well, I’m going to anyway.

If you haven’t seen or heard of Twine, it’s a new Semantic Web Application from Radar Networks. The project was kept secret for quite a while, but Nova Spivack unveiled it last week at Web 2.0.

From what I’ve seen, it’s a social, semantically enabled, co-brandable information collecting & sharing service. Well, that makes it sound a lot more clinical than it really should. Picture something like Facebook+Digg+del.icio.us+flickr+blog+email+??. Only it’s smarter because, while allowing you to tag the content you want to share, it also extracts concepts and makes tagging suggestions. By “co-brandable” I mean that one can create different communities, and they’ll sort of stay distinct, but your profile can cross communities and mingle. Or something like that.

Honestly, there’s probably more to it that I’m not able to express. I requested an invite to the beta on Monday, but haven’t heard back yet. I’ll post more when I do and I’m able to try it out first hand.

Dopplr: Discovering ‘the Net’

On By RachelIn social networkingLeave a comment

Dopplr Badge Recently I joined Dopplr, a new travel-oriented social networking site. Or social networking for frequent travelers. Or something like that. To be honest, I’m still not really sure what it’s for.

I’ll admit, I joined it because it has a straightforward, clean design, and the tone is light, fun, and polite in a very British way. It doesn’t seem like the kind of social networking site that’s going to pressure (or trick) me into inviting everyone I’ve ever sent an email or instant message. It doesn’t seem like the type that’s going to give me the hard sell, or pimp out my personal info.

Ok, no major barriers to entry. So I tried it. But, as I said, I’m still not quite sure I get the point. I connected to some people I know. I added information about some trips I’m going to take. I discovered that a Europe-based conference buddy will be going to SXSW, where our paths will cross again. Kinda cool, I guess. And…now what?

I’ve read some posts (including this one by creator, Matt Biddulph) which say it’s designed to increase serendipity. Well, I guess I can invest some time in pursuing a goal like that.

Digital Design Outlook

On By RachelIn article, design, semantic webLeave a comment

My company, Avenue A | Razorfish, has published a Digital Design Outlook book, and an accompanying blog. I contributed an article providing a user experience perspective on the Semantic Web. I’m excited about the potential for bridging the gap between really powerful semantic technologies and elegant and effective user experiences. I think this is one of the major digital design challenges of the next few years.

For more details, read my article, The Semantic Web We Weave, on the Digital Design Blog.

Earn it, social websites!

On By RachelIn content strategy, disinformation architecture, social networkingLeave a comment

Recently a couple of my friends joined Shelfari and I received email from them, inviting me to join. The messages were friendly, but generic. The only variation was the user name and email address of each friend. This seemed particularly weird because the folks at Shelfari clearly wrote the email very carefully to sound casual and personal, but really, what are the chances that both of these friends would say:

I just joined Shelfari to connect with other book lovers. Come see the books I love and see if we have any in common. Then pick my next book so I can keep on reading.

Click below to join my group of friends on Shelfari!

Next came the part that really bugged me…

Continue reading “Earn it, social websites!” →