Take The Stairs
Category: Blog
Could Wikipedia write itself?
Rebecca J. Rosen reports in The Atlantic on an effort to automate more of the updates in Wikipedia through the new project called Wikidata.
The current plans are for the project to roll out in three phases over the next year. The first phase, set to be completed by this August, is the centralization of all the different points of data in Wikipedia across languages whose updates could be coordinated. The second phase allows for people to begin collaboratively building the database’s datasets. They hope to finish that by the end of this year. The final phase “will allow for the automatic creation of lists and charts based on the data in Wikidata.” By March of next year Wikimedia Deutschland hopes to turn the database over to the Wikimedia Foundation.
There’s more information about Wikidata on Wikimedia.org.
What does it take to come up with a really great idea? This drawing from Christoph Niemann’s latest book called Abstract City tries to answer that question.
(via swissmiss)
Quantify: Creativity
Google’s Think Quarterly has a series of data nuggets about the vast amount of creative output is published to the web every day.
iwdrm:
“If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?”
A map of my home town in watercolor
User Experience vs. User Interface
Arthur C. Clarke Predicts the Internet & PC (by openculturevideo)
In 1974 Arthur C. Clarke told the ABC that every household in 2001 will have a computer and be connected all over the world. Courtesy of Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Type Connection
Type Connection is a dating game for typefaces. To win you have to pair up a typeface with it’s most compatible mate. Yes, that’s geeky. Yes, there are good explanations and aesthetic objectivity in which typefaces work together well.
Start by choosing a typeface to pair. Like a conventional dating website, Type Connection presents you with potential “dates” for each main character—without the misleading profile photos and commitment-phobes. The game features well-known, workhorse typefaces and portrays each as a character searching for love. You are the matchmaker. You decide what kind of match to look for by choosing among several strategies for combining typefaces. Along the way, you explore typographic terminology, type history, and more. By playing Type Connection, you deepen your own connection with type.