In which shared circles are you? A killer new feature by the CircleCount folks
We all have seen posts by users who are welcoming new followers and wondering who added them to a shared circle. Until now finding out who to thank for adding you to a circle was an interesting treasure hunt since Google + does not inform you when you are included in a shared circle.

The CircleCount folks are releasing a new very useful table that will inform you in which public circles you have been included. This will help folks that see suddenly increase in their number of followers understand who has included them in which circle and give them the opportunity of thanking them. This feature is available in your profile page in http://www.circlecount.com/ (Login and select Your Profile)

You can view the latest shared circles here:
http://www.circlecount.com/sharedcircles/

And view the details of a shared circle (A recent example where I was shared):
http://www.circlecount.com/sharedcircle/?id=z12kvzch0xyogr0ty23dvt5hasm3xpczg04

And if you want to read about other features in CircleCount, check the following article:
http://mediatapper.com/taking-advantage-of-circle-count-features/

Follow the +CircleCount page for latest news on their new features

How the Suggested Users List is skewing follower distributions
In nature distributions follow the power law. This does not apply to the current follower distributions in Google+. Thanks to new data made available by +CircleCount it became clear that it is skewed. I put together some slides in the style of +Gideon Rosenblatt.
The question is: Why is there only one SUL? What about country specific SUL's?. Finish people should get to read the great +Jaana Nyström. Italians should get +pio dal cin, British should get +Kol Tregaskes, Dutch should get +Max Huijgen, Frenchman +Samantha Villenave, Spanish +Mercè Gamell and many more. But also great folks in the US that really represent what G+ is about should be exposed. Some examples: +Giselle Minoli +James Fierce +Rebecca McMillan +Gregory Esau +Mark Traphagen +Evo Terra +Paul Stickland +Chris Lang, +Jack C Crawford and many other folks in other parts of the planet such as +Rahul Roy +Susanne Ramharter +Rod Dunne +Lars Fosdal, and others that are working on spreading the collaboration spirit that makes Google + a great place.
So +Vic Gundotra, +Natalie Villalobos let your team make Google+ better!

A collaborative effort on how to improve Google+
Collaboration is the modus operandi in Google+. Based on that spirit Brian Gundersen got a group of Google plus users to put together their ideas on how would they improve the existing Google+ platform. We collaborated putting our ideas on how to improve Google + together. The authors and ideas are:

+Brian Gundersen - Nested Circles
+Giselle Minoli - Enhanced Tools for Wordsmiths
+Miguel Rodriguez - Preview function
+Gideon Rosenblatt - Venn Diagramming Circles
+Thomas Morffew - Mobile Page Management
+Rod Dunne - What's Hot in Your Circles
+Sophie Wrobel - Comments management
+Susanne Ramharter - Bookmarking posts, Filter circle or streams on tags or keywords
+Evo Terra - Squishing Gnats / Banning Trolls
+Fraser Cain - Better notification system
+Mark Traphagen- Analytics for pages and profiles

Read the article on +Media Tapper and let us know if you have any additional suggestions, and which of these suggestions you would really like to have.
http://mediatapper.com/collaboration-is-the-modus-operandi-in-google-plus/

Collaborative circle
I dont usually share circles, but when I do, I share circles of collaborative folks. In the last few months I have been involved in a couple of collaborative efforts that have resulted in common publications or pages. The folks in this circle have participated or help us spread the word on our work:

Coauthors of the article on ideas to improve G+:
Organized by +Brian Gundersen, Ideas by: +Giselle Minoli +Gideon Rosenblatt +Thomas Morffew +Rod Dunne +Sophie Wrobel +Susanne Ramharter +Evo Terra +Fraser Cain +Mark Traphagen

Coauthors on the Maslow article:
Initiated by +Rod Dunne and +Denis Labelle, reviewed by +Giselle Minoli and +Jack C Crawford

Coauthors in Agile+
+James O'Sullivan +François Gyöngyösi +Alan Dayley

Folks that help us spread the word:
The best redactor: +Grace O'Malley and the folks at +Media Tapper
Our connectors: +Morgaine LeFaye +Jaana Nyström +Rebecca McMillan +Mike Elgan +Denis Labelle +Gabriel Vasile +James Barraford +Gregory Esau +Chris Lang +Thomas Harris +Michael van der Galien +Daniel Sandstein +CircleCount +Mercè Gamell +Up Your Plus +Max Huijgen +James Fierce +Alex Grossman
And no collaboration circle is complete without +Dan Soto

These are all folks worth having in your circles, they all carry the G+ collaborative spirit. If you have other suggestions on people missing in this circle please let me know in the comments section.

What motivates us to post on Google+?

I wrote an article on MediaTapper where I analyze the intangible rewards of people posting in G+. This based on the Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose motivational principles as described by Daniel Pink.

http://mediatapper.com/what-motivates-us-to-post-on-google-plus/

What has been your experience when creating content for G+? Do you consider that the factors delineated in the article are in-line with your motivations for posting?

The Google+ mindset
"The big G and business" are running a reprint of my article on how Google+ help us improve our mastery, autonomy and purpose.

According to the theory, while the efficiency of repetitive work can be increased by additional monetary rewards, when it comes to intellectual work there are three major motivation principles:
Autonomy: Freedom to do work your own way to achieve the goals set. Having the choice of technique, to direct your own tasks. Determining ways to navigate and improve your life on your own.
Mastery: The opportunity to extend and expand abilities and capabilities. Achieving optimal workflow and the perfect relationship between person and task. Improvement is the goal. Adjusting work tasks to ensure clear goals, immediate feedback, and calibrating challenges with abilities.
Purpose: Work toward a greater objective. How does what you do fit within the big picture? Is the world a better place as a result of your work? How can you give back to society? Is what you do ethical? Doing something that matters; serving a cause larger than our selfish needs.

Read the rest under:
http://thebiggandbusiness.com/magazine-html-version/january-2012/features-january-2012/the-google-mindset

A new collaborative effort on how to improve Google +
A group of Google+ users got together and we put our ideas in writing on how we see the platform can be improved.

+Jaana Nyström believes Google can use its current language detection algorithms to categorize posts. +Lars Fosdal suggests having autocomplete for categories. +pio dal cin looks forward to a time based system for notifications. +Jack C Crawford suggest logical operations with circles and +Susanne Ramharter proposes defining categories for communities. +Brian Gundersen wants to be able to share to followers and +Miguel Rodriguez suggests exposing thematic streams to followers. +paul stickland packs several suggestions to improve readability, while +jUKKA Kansanaho wants a client for Windows mobile phones. And the cherry on the top comes from +Giselle Minoli musings on the art of sort

A special mention to +Denis Labelle who brought us all together and our editor at Mediatapper +Grace O'Malley.

Read the details in the Mediatapper article:

http://mediatapper.com/improving-google-plus-more-ideas-by-actual-users/

Why Google+ gets you in flow state, and it is hard to put down

Most people that praise Google+ mention that this is the place where you make new acquaintances, not where you keep in touch with old ones. I believe that truly Google+ fans have embarked in an intellectual discovery path across the optimal learning path. They reach flow status while curating their stream and engaging with other plussers.

http://mediatapper.com/why-google-gets-you-in-the-flow-and-why-it-is-a-good-thing/

Crowd sourced article on how Maslow hierarchy applies to G+ (Part 1 from 2)


Maslow’s belonging stage is possibly the most social of all – feelings of belonging-ness: the need to love and be loved. The first mechanism for this in Google+ is creating your own circles. Straight from the get-go, Google knew immediately that we were going to want to have default circles for family, acquaintances and friends. Our sense of belonging in the real world starts out from this focus point. On top of that, on Google+ we have an unlimited ability to expand our circles of friends (well, up to a limit of 5,000 at the present time), acquaintances and colleagues. Simply by doing a search on a subject we are passionate about, we will find posts by individuals providing feedback, advice and insight. We can then add these people to a specific subject created circle that we get to name.

Read the crowd sourced article by +Rod Dunne and myself with collaboration from +Giselle Minoli +Jack C Crawford and +Denis Labelle
http://mediatapper.com/discovering-your-tribe-on-google-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-applied-to-social-media-part-1/

Extended collaboration circle
Thanks to all the suggestions for people who are into collaboration in Google+, and making this a better place. I've compiled all suggestions into a new circle which I'm sure will be an excellent addition for anyone in Google+

Hi to all new faces
I want to welcome the over 1000 folks who have circled me in the last two weeks. I like to write about the psychology behind social media and I have prepared a list of the most popular articles I have published in the last months. I will also make my Kindle book available for free on the 14th of February.
http://www.amazon.com/power-social-media-ebook/dp/B006NOG5JC

- Maslows hierarchy of needs applied to social media. Crowd sourced with contributions by +Rod Dunne , +Denis Labelle, +Giselle Minoli, +Jack C Crawford and the folks at +Media Tapper )
https://plus.google.com/u/0/115970504272079730559/posts/JQspw63wHrz

- What motivates us to post on G+ https://plus.google.com/115970504272079730559/posts/7z6KvkBv4uL

- Why G+ gets you in the flow state and why it is a good thing. https://plus.google.com/115970504272079730559/posts/VrKk4FyenYE

- The G+ smart swarm https://plus.google.com/115970504272079730559/posts/Vf6knA4JNue

- Your time perspective affects how you build your friendships
https://plus.google.com/u/0/115970504272079730559/posts/SNwKjhfeVj3

- Which improvements bring Google to social media
https://plus.google.com/u/0/115970504272079730559/posts/36XsBsxyQGf

- The power of diversity
https://plus.google.com/u/0/115970504272079730559/posts/9F51qo3Ut46

- Why media stars top the most followed lists
https://plus.google.com/u/0/115970504272079730559/posts/3HoMqGXH59u

- Google + is the new meme exchange
https://plus.google.com/u/0/115970504272079730559/posts/ioTmbvwd59Z

- When less information is more
https://plus.google.com/u/0/115970504272079730559/posts/AkKtY999auR

And if you want to know how the Kindle book was put together you can also read about it here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/115970504272079730559/posts/fC7Cr7oN9Gb

Will Google+ increase the IQ of humanity?

When I joined Google+ it became soon clear that this was not the place to stay in touch with old friends but a place to find new interest based acquaintances. Basically once you circle someone who has interests similar to yours, doors open in form of meeting other like-minded people. In my case one thing that happened was that several of my new friends were telling me about this online AI course being offered at Stanford.


I think Google+ is helping increase the IQ of the entire world by making learning opportunities as this known to a larger pool of people. Also the amount of interaction in Google+ by fellow students helps you keep true to your goal, simply because you are reading about it often. It is good peer pressure.

Do you have any learning experiences to share that started in Google +?

Check the full article at Mediatapper
http://mediatapper.com/google-will-increase-the-iq-of-humanity/

Google+ is a smart swarm.
http://mediatapper.com/the-google-plus-smart-swarm/

Swarms are one of nature’s most impressive organisms. There seems to be something special on how a swarm of birds or school of fish move around. It looks as if it was one single organism even though it is created by each one of its participants by following very simple rules.

Smart swarms use decentralized control and multiple interactions in their distributed approach to problem solving. Google+, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks follow this recipe. They allow for friendly competition of ideas and diversity of knowledge but have effective mechanisms for narrowing choices. The mechanisms that Google+ uses are a little different than its competitors. By opening streams to everyone and doing away by the reciprocity requisite for entering a discussion they broaden the amount of topics in which users can participate. Each user stream results from indirect collaboration while being shaped by the forces of influence. These last 2 elements are the strong points of Google+ since it allows for larger post size and exposure to a wider audience.

What is exactly an intelligent home?

My team and I have been working the last few years on technology for intelligent homes. We believe that an intelligent home should adapt itself to the needs of its inhabitants. For example, our light needs change according to the time of the day. In the morning we need warm and intense illumination, while in the evening we want to relax and need less light. We leave our homes and want all devices that should not consume energy to be off, and when we come home we need again light, either natural coming through open blinds of a window, or from a lamp.

Our homes should react to our requests based on external circumstances such as time of the day, whether it is bright or dark outside, and whether we are at home or not. Assuming the user wakes up every week day at 7:00 AM, we expect a truly intelligent home to open the blinds in the morning during the summer, and to turn on the lights in the house during the winter. During the winter we expect it to open the blinds on the sunny side when the sun shines to warm up the home, while during the summer we expect it to close the blinds during the day if there is sun and nobody is home to keep the house cool.

In a nutshell, we expect an intelligent home to adapt to the user activities and the environment.

We also expect from an intelligent home technology the ability to evolve with time. We want a technology that will adapt itself to the user interfaces of the future and a technology that can interact with other intelligent devices at home, or with intelligent agents in the cloud.

Digitalstrom products provide connectivity to electrical devices in the home over the existing power cables. This includes every lamp, light switch, blinds and any device plugged in. This network of devices is connected through a server mounted in the electrical cabinet to a local area network. Our applications begin with the intelligent, comfortable and energy efficient orchestration of lights, shades and any electrical devices at home.

Digitalstrom components are based on a high volt IC in a small size clamp. Its minimal size allows mounting it behind existing lights and switches. This allows retrofitting houses using the existing power cables. Each digitalSTROM clamp can switch, dim, measure electricity and communicate its status. Having a processor on every clamp enables the system to use a decentralized intelligence architecture.

Our application is absolutely customer driven. To make it easier to use, the preprogrammed standard is very context driven and the system can be controlled out of the box using existing electrical light switches. The light switch is the ultimate user interface and digitalstrom uses an event driven paradigm. There are predefined events such as “I am leaving home”, “I am going to sleep”, “I am having breakfast”, “I am watching TV”. All these events can be called by flipping a switch or using our smartphone apps. Digitalstrom enabled devices know how to react when these events are called. The system also benefits from knowing the context where the user lives, i.e. which devices are in which rooms. This enables the system to predefine intelligent behavior while allowing the user to modify this initial configuration at will.

Some links with more information:
Product catalogue: http://www.aizo.com/de/produkte/documents/aizo_Produktkatalog2011.pdf
Technology overview: http://www.aizo.com/en/technologie/overview.php
Digitalstrom server developer pages: http://developer.digitalstrom.org/

#digitalstrom

Do you want to publish your work?
Amazon launched the Kindle Direct Publishing program allowing authors to create electronic versions of their work and submit them to their Kindle book store without paying a dime upfront.The process of submitting a book has the following steps:

1) Write the content
2) Format the content into an eBook
3) Create a book cover and other supporting elements
4) Submit to the Kindle shop and promote it

Read the details in the article:http://mediatapper.com/how-to-be-an-e-book-author-and-publisher-in-4-easy-steps/

A summary of my experiences:
I got news from the program from +Guy Kawasaki Created and published the book on the 19th of December, and made it available for free from the 23 to the 25th of December. I promoted the book 4 times in my stream. On the publishing day, and then informing my close circles, the secret Santa group created by +Carter Gibson , and the public stream once the book was available for free. The book got downloaded some 450 times until the end of the year, with the lion share of these downloads coming from Amazon.com. Amazon.uk was the second ranking site, followed by the .de, .it and .es sites. No one downloaded any books from the .fr site: I guess it reflects the number of my French-speaking followers.

RESHARE:
10 commandments for everyone with a brain by Bertrand Russell
Excerpt from +Gregory Esau's post:


The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:

1--Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2--Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3--Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4--When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5--Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
6--Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7--Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
8--Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent that in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
9--Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10--Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

Reshared text:
"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric."

from Bertrand Russell’s “Liberal Decalogue"

I don't want my iGoogle to go away
If you are an iGoogle user you have probably seen the notice that the service will go away on the 1st of November 2013.  This decision makes me wonder if the company is in touch with its users at all...
You might wonder: what are the benefits of iGoogle for its users and for the company?
1) iGoogle allows you to have a start screen with all the information you need right away.  My landing page has 6 elements: Calendar, Translate, Weather, Bookmarks, Tech news and TED.com.  I need the Calendar day to day to see when the next deadline is going to fit.  I need the weather to know if I should get my shorts or my boots out, and I need Translate to help me with all the German to English to Spanish to French terms I use at work.  But the one I use most is Bookmarks.  It allows me to keep my most important links anywhere I go.
2) iGoogle is probably the most valuable screen space that Google has.  They have tons of widgets, and most important, they are well known and established.  It is all integrated within Google, I dont need to keep my login info in cookies all the times.
3) I've looked for replacements, I only found one that is half way usable: http://www.netvibes.com.  You know what would I do if I was Apple or Microsoft? Buy netvibes right away and grab the opportunity to steal users away from Google.

But really, what is Google thinking? Focus is good, but this looks more like bullimia...

Do you use iGoogle? Do you already have a replacement ready?

Is Google + increasing the speed at which ideas spread?

Memes are “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture” . They try to replicate and to persist within the population that keeps them alive. Social media sites such as Google+ turbocharge their spread speed and reach. Market vigilantes keep memes in check by challenging their accuracy. Google+ also provides vigilantes with better tools to eliminate memes that cannot hold ground on their own.

Times are over when marketers could push a meme with a new sassy packaging change. Memes have a new leveled playground and this, I believe, is good news for us all.

Which are the memes you have adopted as a result of being on Google+?

Resharing to match CC timezone_

http://mediatapper.com/social-media-sites-are-the-next-meme-exchanges-2/

Spring cleanup at Google+
Have you noticed some days a decrease of followers? Using data from +CircleCount I compiled data from the follower plussers: +Max Huijgen +Morgaine LeFaye +Mercè Gamell +Rod Dunne +Susanne Ramharter +pio dal cin +Lars Fosdal +Paul Stickland and fellow swiss photographers +Johan Peijnenburg +Thomas Leuthard and +Athena Carey. A pattern appeared showing a reduction in followers by most folks on some days.  Is Google cleaning up the user list of spammers and blocked profiles?
http://mediatapper.com/is-google-purging-their-plus-database/

Greetings from Snowy Switzerland.
Thanks for getting the community started +Athena Carey 

Apps for your home

Apps are everywhere: in your smartphone, in your television and even in the web browsers in your laptops.  These code snippets enrich our lives by allowing us to enhance the functionality of our devices with applications that fit our living styles.  When a hardware manufacturer opens its architecture to enable 3rd party app development it allows creative individuals to do something else with the underlying hardware.  Adding sensors and actors to the mix result in new ideas that would otherwise not have been conceived. 

We created a platform for apps in the digitalSTROM home control and energy management system to allow application developers to implement their ideas.  The first apps that came were from portals where you can upload your energy consumption information such as www.bidgely.com or www.eragy.com. Apart from providing you with visualization of your energy usage they can also provide you with recommendations on how to reduce your energy consumption.  There are other apps that allow the user not only to upload consumption information but also the energy created by the solar panels installed in your roof as done by the Swiss start-up company Nambu http://www.nambu.ch/referenzen/nambumeter. This allows you to schedule the start time from large electrical devices such as boilers or geothermal heat pumps to match the time when your home is generating energy.

We are just getting started with applications that will make your home smarter.  One engineer in our team wrote an application that ensures that only one room is lit at home by turning off light in other rooms when he operates the light switch as he walks into a new room.  This is of course an application that works for him because he lives alone.  It would not work for me and my family, but that is not the point. There will be other folks in his circumstances that would use this application to reduce their energy consumption.  Last time I checked this automatism turned off the lights 55% of all the times the light were turned off in his apartment.  

We have also written some basic applications that are general purpose and can be used by any customer. There are applications that allow you to turn devices on or off at the times you want.  An application that would operate your blinds, lights and other electrical appliances to simulate you are home during your holidays.  Another app allows you to configure to receive events when some events at home occur.  But my favorite is an application that got started as a student project.  It allows you to configure actions that should occur when one event triggers.  You can use this app to for example ask your networked web cam to send you a mail every time that somebody rings at the door.  Or you can turn off the WiFi on your router when you turn off the lights to go to sleep for the evening. 

If you had a system that allows you to control your electrical devices at home, which apps would you like to have?  I would love to read about your ideas in the comments. 

More info under www.digitalstrom.com
#digitalstrom   #smarthomes  

This is what I call a Wednesday pic :-)

The power of diversity in G+

Social media is the modern melting pot of humanity. The diversity of users allows the discussion threads to have a wider set of ideas being exchanged. By reading through this diversity of opinions we enrich our world view.

What is interesting is that by opening our intellects to multiple points of view we broaden our capacity of solving problems. Some of the best advertising campaigns do this, but so do some of the most successful companies in the world, or some of the greatest collaborative projects made possible by the Internet. Next time you look up something in Wikipedia take a look at the discussion page for the topic. You will see the lively discussions going on under the covers for the topic you are looking up. You can sometimes see heated discussions on conflicting points of view on how to define a topic. I think it is these exchanges of ideas among a wide audience that balances the views and allows us as users to come to the best definitions.

Google Plus is a great multicultural forum. There are pages like the 10.5 site created by +Dan Soto that gather the power of this diversity to come up with new ideas. Dan is crowdsourcing the creation of humorous lists such as “Things you wish you knew before you had your first child” His contributors bring in several suggestions and he can then select from a larger pool of ideas than his own. There are many other similar forums being shaped in Google Plus, on many different topics.

How have you felt diversity enrich your life?

Read the full story here:

http://mediatapper.com/become-better-problem-solvers-and-live-richer-lives-with-social-media/

What do you want your smart home do for you?
Which ideas come to mind when you hear the words Smart Home.  Which functions do you expect it to do for you?  Lets start a discussion and see what we all want!

#smarthomes   #cebit2013   #cebit   #digitalstrom  

Making energy consumption transparent helps reducing energy waste

We all would like to save energy because we understand that we can not keep wasting our resources as we are doing now. The issue is that most energy bills are not itemized. We don't know how much energy has been spent by our light bulbs, or by our vacuum cleaner, or our refrigerator. Trying to reduce energy under these circumstances would be like trying to go on a diet without understanding the caloric contents of the food we eat. We would probably cut on vegetables and feast on chocolate.

There are several sites in internet that would keep track of your energy consumption, provided you have a sensor or a meter that can upload this information to their servers. I have installed at home a digitalstrom.com system which allows me to measure the energy consumption per circuit breaker. There are cloud services in the internet that would allow you to upload your consumption data, and would provide analytics and recommendations on making your home more energy efficient. Some examples are bidgely.com or eragy.com. My consumption values are uploaded every few minutes with a minute resolution to my bidgely.com account. The accompanying graphic visualization of the energy consumption is taken from my account and is for one recent Saturday.

The figure is for the circuit breaker that covers my living room, dining room and kitchen but without the electric range and oven. The regular bumps in the figure represent my refrigerator. It has some 3 cool down cycles every 2 hours and peaks at about 100W every cycle. On that Saturday I timed the use of electrical devices, this is why I know that the other peaks are when my microwave, kettle and vacuum cleaner were used.

What can we conclude from this picture? Will buying a new more efficient refrigerator help me reduce my energy consumption?. The conclusion here is that a large part of my energy consumption comes from my lamps. At some point in time I have above 400 W of consumption for a steady 2 hours. I have a total of 7 lamps, 4 of which use up to 4 high volt halogen light bulbs at 25W each. If I would replace these lamps with others that use only 3 LED light bulbs consuming 7W each I could bring my energy consumption for my lamps down to a maximum of 100W, without having an impact in my family lifestyle.

Note that you do not need to have special metering hardware installed to start investigating where your energy waste is coming from. There are some sites that allow you to measure and plot this by periodically entering your electricity meter values in a web site. One such site I know of in Switzerland is Oscar BKW

Now that I know what needs to be changed, the hardest part lies ahead of me. I will need to get my wife to a lamp store to select a model that fits her tastes. Next time you are at IKEA and see a couple looking critically at every lamp, that might be me :-)

Disclaimer: I work for Aizo which is the company that manufactures digitalstrom components.

Roman roads and bridges, Arab walls and towers. Synagogues, churches, monasteries and above all, friendly people and great food in Toledo

A gift for you


Spanish: Feliz Navidad
German: Frohe Weihnachten
Italian: Buon Natale
French: Joyeux Noël
Swedish, Norwegan: God Jul
Finish: Hyvää Joulua
Albanian: Gëzuar Krishtlindjet
Turkish: Mutlu Noeller
Czech: Veselé Vánoce
Slovak: veselé Vianoce
Portuguese:Feliz Natal
Latin: lacus non leo
Polish: Wesołych Świąt
Basque: Eguberri on
Estonian: Häid Jõulupühi
Català: Bon Nadal
Quechua: Allinlla Raymi
Pig latin: Erryma Maschrista
Serbian/Croatian: Srećan Božić
Danish: Glædelig jul
I want to thank you all for enriching my life these last few months in Google+. As a token of appreciation I have made my Kindle book available for free from Amazon until the 25th.

You can get it from here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006NOG5JC
It is also available in the German, Spanish, Italian and French stores.

Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did puting it together

Snowy December
All is white around us, and the sun came out to see it all.

#zensunday   #snow  

Ripples of the collaborative article on Maslow with the new extended ripple view
The new Ripple view feature allows you to view how a URL was shared in G+. It allows you to see all "root" posts. Got some data for our last collaborative post on Maslow hierarchy as applied to Google+. You can see that Mike, Gregory, Giselle, Mediatapper and me created a set of reshares among others.
For part 1:
https://plus.google.com/ripple/details?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmediatapper.com%2Fdiscovering-your-tribe-on-google-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-applied-to-social-media-part-1%2F

For part 2:
https://plus.google.com/ripple/details?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmediatapper.com%2Fdiscovering-your-tribe-on-google-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-applied-to-social-media-part-2%2F

Quite interesting for a collaborative post
+Rod Dunne +Denis Labelle +Jack C Crawford +Giselle Minoli
Made popular with help from
+Gregory Esau +Mike Elgan +Grace O'Malley +Media Tapper

Spring dress
I walk every day past this not very special tree. Today it surprised me with its branches full of flowers. A hymn to spring. Happiness for everyone.

Danny Sullivan wrote a few months ago that Google had created with Google+ the equivalent of the Apple store for Apple fans. By this he meant how the Apple stores are full of true Apple fan boys and girls that go there as if it was a worship place to admire the company new products. Basically he was calling us Google+ users Google groupies

http://mediatapper.com/the-place-where-google-groupies-get-together

Some of my travel companions:
+Jaana Nyström +midori chan +Morgaine LeFaye +Liz ℚuilty +Jack C Crawford +James Barraford +James Fierce +James O'Sullivan +Giselle Minoli +Carter Gibson +Susanne Ramharter +Rod Dunne +pio dal cin +Denis Labelle +Mercè Gamell +Brian Gundersen +Mike Elgan +Max Huijgen +Kol Tregaskes +Daniel Sandstein +Natalie Villalobos

Dont like the weather as it is?
Try changing it with the new Google weather control.
But hurry up, it only works today... :-)

https://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=nl&q=zurich+weather#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=zurich+weather&oq=zurich+weather&aq=f&aqi=g-c1g2g-c1g1g-c2g1g-c1g1&aql=&gs_l=serp.3..0i7j0l2j0i7j0j0i7l2j0j0i7j0.468188l469248l1l469624l9l9l0l0l0l2l127l645l8j1l9l0.frgbld.&psj=1&fp=1&biw=1280&bih=735&cad=b&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb

#aprilfools

Snow at 500 meters

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Good night laughs
via +Mercè Gamell

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Suggestions for advanced Google+ users
This article weaves together feedback from the likes of +Mike Elgan , +Jaana Nyström , +pio dal cin , +Morgaine LeFaye , +Mercè Gamell and an overview of interesting +CircleCount features . This is feedback that I have either gathered from these users in Hangouts, or posts I have been involved with.

Do you have additional feedback you want to share?

http://mediatapper.com/you-know-the-basics-now-what-advanced-google-plus-suggestions/

Tuesday morning sun by the lake

How to set up your circles on Google+

I suggest using People, Topic, Following and utility circles to organize your stream and posts.

The defining feature of Google+ is the ability to group your stream in multiple circles. In this article I want to share with you some ideas on how to organize them. Once you start following enough people you need a way to organize yourself to avoid feeling like a stranded passenger in a train station watching the wagons speed by you.

Before we get into the details of the circle names lets take a look at the kind of activities that you might want to do in Google+:

1) People circles are for keeping in touch with your family and friends. This basically allows you to recreate the Facebook atmosphere with the benefits that you don't just shotgun your comments to everyone. You can create circles for your family, school friends or work friends.

2) Topic circles. You have many different interests and some of your friends share those interests, but not all share all interests. Creating topic based circles allows you to post to circles of people that you know would be happy to receive news on a given area. You might have friends who like to see your pictures, others that share the same sport interests as you, and yet others that love kittens (Yep, we all have weaknesses)

3) Following circles. Google+ is a place where you meet new people that share similar interests to yours. Some of these people will have broad interests that you might want to keep in touch and can not fit into a topic. These can be kept on your favorite circles. Or you might want to add new people to a discovery circle and watch their posting before deciding to move them into your favorites

4) Utility circles. These would help you organize yourself better. For example, you might want to keep a copy of all your outgoing conversations. No problem, share it to an outgoing folder. Or you might need to edit and view your posts before committing them. Or maybe you just want to bookmark some post for later viewing. Here is where you can create empty circles that are not shared with anyone but you.

While the “People” and “Topic” circles are self explanatory, lets dig into some details on the Following and Utility circles. Lets assume you are interested in Artificial Intelligence topics, and have found several shared circles on that or related topics. You would like to analyze the content that is being posted in these circles before adding the persons to your favorites circles. There are several ways to do this:
- Import that circle and start browsing the content filtering the folks that interest you or
- Create a Discovery circle where you place all the new curators and listen to it a few days. You can then start removing content posters that does not fit your interests. The benefit of this approach is that it allows you to add people to this ever source of content as you find them.

Another great way to get content for a Following circle going is to save a search in Google+ based on your topic of interest. Note that Google+ will sort the search results putting what the people that you are already following write, but it will also add new relevant posts. Once you’ve found someone whose posts you like just add them into the Discovery circle

The utility circles have several purposes. Google plus has no current way to easily find posts shared only to one or a few users. You can create a Personal Outbox circle to cover this need. It is correct that posting to few users could be replaced with just mailing them. But often you want to share with them content you found in Google+, and heck you are already logged in, why copy the URL and mail it?

And while you can always edit a post, you might want to check how it will look like before posting it. This is important if you need to resolve bold italics or other formatted text. You can use a Drafts circle for this with the additional benefit that you can keep non finished drafts in there. Just remember that after you are happy with what you see, you can not just re share it to Public. Google+ will not allow you to post a private post into Public. You can copy-paste the content into a new post.

There are several ways of bookmarking posts in Google+, like using the +1 button. However the easiest way I have found is to post content that you find to an empty private circle that I call “Bookmark”. This allows you to go back to the items you wanted to show someone else later.

Note that sharing allows you to use any intersection of circles you want. You can for example post a picture to:- Work friends, Photography, and Outgoing at the same time.

A comment on how this might evolve. You have probably seen people already using Twitter like hashtags in their posts. Combining this with the search facility will definitely prove powerful, assuming you can keep up with the tags being used. Also the ability to save searches allows you to filter your main stream using keywords.

I hope this set of ideas might ease your life in the cicleverse, and look forward to any comments or new ideas you might want to share with us on how you have organized yourself.
Special thanks to +Kol Tregaskes for the initial ideas on this topic, and to +Jaana Nyström, +James Fierce and +Grace O'Malley (the folks at Media Tapper) for their valuable feedback

Networking your home

Imagine a world where your networked devices would react to events in your house. A web cam that would take a picture every time someone ringed your door bell when you are not home. Or a system that informs you via an e-mail notification that your freezer has not used any electricity in the last 2 hours indicating that something is wrong. Or having your lights dim and your blinds go down when you turn on your TV so that you can watch that sport event. If this scenario sounds unrealistic, just look at how your car will now adapt the seat to your preset driving position, will turn its lights on when you enter a tunnel, and some of the new models will break for you if you are getting too close to the car in front of you.
Networking technology is becoming ubiquitous in our homes. A walk through the aisles of your local electronics shop will take you from internet radios to networked televisions passing through networked cameras and of course our smartphones and tablets. On the other side of your router you find a plethora of networked services that can provide you with local weather information keep a log of your energy consumption and even allow you to react to events in a myriad ways in the case of IfThisThenThat
These technologies are here to make our life easier in a large number of small ways. Let me share a personal story to make my point. As an employee of Aizo I have had a digitalstrom system installed at home since 2010. Digitalstrom products provide connectivity to electrical devices in the home over the existing power cables. This includes every lamp, light switch, blinds and any device plugged in. This network of devices is connected through a server mounted in the electrical cabinet to a local area network. As part of the deal my wife and I had to participate in a feedback session where we were asked several questions as of how we were using the system, and what we liked of it. When my wife was asked if she would have approved the expense of the close to 2,000 US dollars that the installation would have cost her answer was a solid no.
Fast forward a few months. One afternoon I went to our basement to grab something from our freezer just to discover that the freezer had no power. We asked our kids, who of course did not know anything about the freezer being disconnected despite of the fact that they had been playing in the room next to it with some of their friends. Needless to say, all food in the freezer was spoiled, including some of those Spanish specialties that my wife had brought from her home town. At the time we were developing a plug adaptor that is able of measuring if the device connected to it is consuming electricity or not. Had we had one such device behind our freezer we would have gotten a mail from the system telling us that the freezer had not consumed electricity in the past few hours and the food would have been saved. When I then rephrased the question to my wife: “Would you pay 2,000 US for a system that will help you avoid having the contents of your freezer spoiled in the future” her answer turned to a solid yes.
I think it is usually not one single reason why we will have one such system. For my wife it was the peace of mind of not losing the contents of the freezer. For somebody else it might be saving energy by ensuring that devices and lights are off when nobody is home. Yet for other it might be the peace of mind of having lights and shades simulate someone being home while they are on holidays. The moral of the story is that if you want to get approval from your better half for getting a smart home installation done, it is important to present them the use cases that will be of their interest.
There is one piece of the puzzle missing to unify all these networked devices. An intelligent home needs to have a low power server that is always on and is able to control not only the lights and shades, but also to communicate to the networked devices in your home, as well as cloud services that provide information of interest to your house. You could have this server look for the weather information and pull in your sunshades in case of rain. The server could also turn off the wireless radio on your router when you leave your home, protecting the integrity of your data while you are away. Or you could look at your electricity consumption data in a server in the cloud, and benefit for their energy analysis capabilities receiving tips on how to increase the efficiency of your home. The digitalstrom server is this central piece of the puzzle that can orchestrate your networked devices and your electric devices at home. Welcome to the new world of networking devices working together for your benefit. An era that is also compatible with your better half.
For more information check: http://digitalstrom.com

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A new graphical way to multiply
Check the video for the instructions. It is a great way to explain what "thinking out of the box" means.
You can use a different color for the line to represent a 0.

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How to multiply. Japanese style. VERY COOL!

Beautiful day by the lake

Spring is finally here

#sunday

Back from visiting family in Mexico
The food was excellent as usual. 

Happy robochristmas!
From the lab of a good friend of mine
Autonomous Christmas Lab

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Meanwhile on the other side

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Proverbs Illustrated for Nerds, Episode #34 of 100.

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Great explanation of G+ in terms of memes
I like his point of view that G+ is a stab into the "corporate communications" guy. They have to become real, and have real humans interacting with their public.
Hat tip to +Mark Traphagen

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Is Google+ making the web personal?
This is an brief article about G+ and psychology...

Have you noticed how much altruism or giving there is on Google+?
Every Google+ post is a potential "meme" (unit of thought or behavior that replicates itself).
The classic by Susan Blackmore, "The Meme Machine", proposes that meme theory explains altruism better than genetic theory.
Other things being equal, more people will observe altruistic behavior than selfish behavior, will like the altruistic person better than the selfish one, and will be more likely to adopt the behaviors of the altruistic person than the selfish one.

So, you guessed it, I find the psychology of a new platform very interesting.
When asked to sum it up for friends I say:

Google+ makes the web personal

It would seem we have access to more people than ever, with new ways of interacting.
In the future, even more than now, we know search engine results will be personalized to include more posts from your G+ circles.
But even the G+ platform gives access and the ability to interact - it feels we are truly connecting!

Here are just a few ideas that have been running through my brain...
Let me know what you think!

People buy people, so what about brands?

This is going to be very interesting for brands, as with profiles, people come first on G+.
I don't know about you, but I don't want enjoy interacting with a page or a profile without a face as much as a person.
I do enjoy the interactions with certain business but would rather they had some pics to make it more human.
So, if you are a part of a business, large or small, I am wondering if you will need a face to front it?
Could this, in time, increase corporate accountability as well?
Check out +Denis Labelle if you are getting started in this area. Quality suggestions and superb curation.

Engagement

So, we have a fast flowing stream in front of us. How do you stand out from the crowd and grab people's attention?
We often take this forgranted and just 'post' but individuals and businesses may like to tease out some of the psychology as well.

This is the first consideration: Does the post engage attention for those people who will see it?
This will depend on who has circled you as well as who you then select to receive the post.
You may send just to a circle or, by mentioning people in the post for instance, you can push a notification toward them.

1. What is the title? does it grab attention? could it be written to engage people better?
2. Does the image reflect the title? Does it add any value? Is there anything else you could add to it?
Most importantly...
3. Is it for your benefit or *readers' benefit? Business need to look at doing things for other people - not just pushing ads into our streams.

The outcome of the engagement stage is: "have I given anyone a good reason to click anything..."
In other words - the more personal you make it the more likely it will encourage engagement.
In other words, you relate to them and they respond.

Check out +Jaana Nyström on this: http://goo.gl/X14E3

Interaction

This, it would seem, is one of the absolute musts to having a positive experience on Google+
Without interaction people are simply 'throwing posts into the stream'.

With Google+ you have an interaction with someone when someone:

+1s the post
There is potential for starting a friendship through interactions, but +1s are a very light touch.
But even people that have a large number of circlers both to +1 comments that want you to know are appreciated.
Wonderful people like +mike fox still take time to say "thanks" by +1ing comments

comments on a post
This is a great way for people to get to play!
You find likeminded people simply by seeing how your comments are received. I find humour to be an important element, as +Lee Smallwood +Rob Dunn and +Jack C Crawford well know!
This will be interesting for businesses as people need to play - it cannot be an automated.
Yet, so many people, like +ed milliband (UK politician) haven't yet learned that interaction is the key. This is not a passive site - post and run.
It is all about interaction.
In time, relating to politics, we could even have voting for relevant members of an interactive group. All we would need is someone to create a little plug in and...
Ok, maybe I am getting carried away :)

shares a post
This is social validation by the person sharing. When someone shares a post they are saying to their circles: "hey, check this meme out."
They may well put a few caveats in the comments before sending it on, but by clicking 'share' they are supporting that post's concept being spread further.
If the social risk is too high, people will not share. So, you need to make a judgement of whether something is suitable for YOUR audience.

People can do a mixture of all three.
Also...

Say my name, say my name... (Destiny's child playing in the distance...)

Outside of postings themselves, people often name someone by adding them, for example, into their text.
+Rahul Roy for instance asked to make sure he was included in any posts that may interest him.
This breaks through the noise and makes it more personal. This is an excellent way to let people know you appreciate what they do.
But if it is used carelessly, it will be a way to trash a blossoming relationship...

Then we have Hangouts

Hangouts can be very personal. People share their lives and their experiences in a format that is new and exciting.
I was included in a hangout for the #versus debate with +Jemima Khan and +Tony Curzon Price which was excellent.
This is personal contact with people who are influencers in the world at large.
Business can host hangouts but there will need to be a face to it.
I even jumped in on a hangout with Fox New's +Maria Quiban who was lovely, just to say hi.

So, could all this start a trend of making business personal again as well?
Chatting with +Matt Olsen and +Phillip Olsen , who have a new vitality business, I can see they are able to get input from anyone in the world.

What will be the future of self/business interactions?

We shall have to see how this evolves but...
Individuals, businesses and organizations can also do an*enormous amount of research* on all of your public postings. Much of what would be hidden in your Facebook profile is made public.
We can only hope businesses use this information whilst seeing me as a person*: engaging me, interacting with me and relating to me* as a person, not as a set of data.
It will be the users of the platform that will decide upon the memes within the culture - that includes posts as well as the informal code we are building around the nature of our interactions- what is "ok" and "not ok" to do/say/post etc.
Most of all, I'm really enjoying the ride and hope my non G+ers will soon join to experience it as well.

Many thanks to +Johan Horak +Linda Dee for all the positive interactions.
And for all the tips: +Rehan Ahmad (about circling) +Mark Traphagen (search results and so much more) and +Dolidh Young for a load of practical G+ user tips.

#futureofgoogle + #googleplus #psychology #googlepsychology #smallbusiness #smallbusinessmarketing #guardian #telegraph #thetimes

Fantastic animation of what is going on inside your body

Drew Berry shows in this video how a cell divides. Great visualization helping understand the marvelous thing living organisms are. Worth watching

http://www.ted.com/talks/drew_berry_animations_of_unseeable_biology.html

How Google+ gives you control back from the algorithm bubble you live in

You know that Google will return different results to each one of us based on our preferences? Eli Pariser calls this the filter bubble. And while this filtering is good for the user experience of many sites, the issue is that you don’t have control over what gets filtered out. This might result on your internet experience being biased. And what is worst is that you won’t even know that other views exist, they are beyond your digital horizon.

In Google+ you curate your own stream, so you get the control of the information that you see back. You decide who you want to follow. Of course you will gravitate to what your interests are, but at least you do have the choice to get other opinions if you want them.

Also the people that you follow will handpick their posts. There is no hidden algorithm deciding for you what to read.
http://mediatapper.com/how-google-gives-you-control-back-from-the-algorithm-bubble-you-live-in/

Rainbow over the lake
The weather was changing the whole day, rain, sun, and rainbows

How to present complex topics in a way that the Google+ crowd would pick them up
For this you need to provide the readers with a glimpse and a hook. A glimpse of the topic you are presenting so that their brain can understand within less than a second what your topic is about. A hook so that they will feel compelled to keep on reading.

Google + users engage in heavy nexting in their streams. Our brains will decide in a split second if the topic of a given entry interests us or not. Here is where a good glimpse comes handy. No matter how “dry” your topic you can pimp it up by having a great picture summarizing it.

http://mediatapper.com/a-glimpse-and-a-hook/

Interesting ideas on education
Sir Ken Robinson argues that the current education system is so last century, and was created with other needs in mind. He correctly points that the current Ritalin epidermic is affecting our kids just as they should be more active.
An interesting speech with a great accompanying RSA animation.

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

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Stone age in Switzerland
Chocolate was nowhere to be seen...
Via +martin shervington

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The Stone Age in Switzerland...

#science #evolution #Archaeology #Paleontology #LOL

Meanwhile somewhere in Switzerland

Bonus points to the first who can guess where was this picture taken.

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Uploading me there now
Over a secure protocol of course :-)

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#GeekPrideDay

When your stream flows so fast it stresses you
As users join Google+ they sometimes go from an empty stream to adding a circle or two of 100+ interesting people. After this they start drowning in information only some of which is of interest to them. This situation can generate unnecessary stress if they try to cope with all the data coming their way. In his book, “The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less,” Barry Schwartz explains the reasons behind this stressful situation.

It has been proven that the rational side of our brain can deal with only a handful number of choices. As soon as this number increases the amount of information parameters we need to juggle explodes and choice becomes a random act.

If we look at this from the view of the new Google+ user, (s)he starts reading information on many different subjects at once. Most Google+ curators have wide ranges of subjects they like following and therefore sharing. The phenomenon resembles the kid going to the candy store and wanting this lollipop, those chocolates, these cookies, until they reach the cashier and realize they cannot pay for all they chose. In this case the cashier is the amount of time we can afford to spend taking in all the information on our stream.

Schwartz has several suggestions on how to choose better. The first of them is to identify and prioritize your goals. Then you have to select and evaluate how each option you have fulfills your goals. And the last one is to modify your goals as your needs are evolving.

And one last but important concept on missed opportunities; just as that kid in the candy shop, we will never be able to gather all information there is in the world. We are better off by giving up areas of knowledge that are not relevant or of interest to us. If we consciously decide which of these we did not really want, we will not regret “missing something”.

Read the full story here:
http://mediatapper.com/who-to-follow-on-google-plus-when-less-information-is-more/

tl;dr: Reduce your stress by pruning your following list in G+

Calling all chocoholics in chocoland
"Le Salon du Chocolat" will take place in Zürich this weekend.
Apart from chocolate dresses, contests, and activities for the kids, there will be , well, lots of chocolate!
http://zurich.salon-du-chocolat.com/accueil.aspx

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I did not decide to reshare this :-)
The four scientists on the panel denied the existence of free will, arguing that human behavior is governed by the brain, which is itself controlled by each person's genetic blueprint built upon by his or her life experiences. Meanwhile, the two philosophers cast the dissenting votes, arguing that free will is perfectly compatible with the discoveries of neuroscience.

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Crowdsourcing: How we wrote an article about how Maslow applies to social media
Last week MediaTapper published a crowd sourced article on how Maslow theories apply to social media. I was lucky to be part of the team that put the article together. Today I want to share with you the process that was used to create, edit and publish something that is produced by multiple people.

It all started with +Rod Dunne publishing a picture of his view on how the Maslow hierarchy would apply to Google+. +Denis Labelle reshared the image and an interesting discussion ensued in his post. +Giselle Minoli wrote in a comment that she would like to read an article on Maslow written together by Rod and myself.

+Jack C Crawford helped us with some edits and the article also got posted by +Mike Elgan. Read below the tools that we used and how the process went. It was fun to be part of this creative process. I can only recommend it to you.
http://mediatapper.com/crowdsourcing-using-online-media-to-produce-publish-and- promote/

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Sunday evening laughs
Via +Kimberly Hayworth 

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(via +Lauren Massa-Lochridge.)

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Billie jean with a fresh touch
Via +Jack C Crawford

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Cover that beats the original

Rarely does a cover of a great song come along that beats or is even equal to the original - Marianne Faithful's cover of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" is one in my book.

Here's another - a knockout cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" - that makes you listen to it with fresh ears.

It doesn't hurt that one half of the duo is a dead ringer for Johnny Depp.

Added photos to Would you like a day of Commoogling?.

The cows know
Spring is finally here. The cows are out. They must know. They are enjoying the spring flowers and the view :-)

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Imagine a future when your car drives you places
Interesting video from BMW showing the technologies they are developing to get cars drive on their own. Wonder when will we get to be driven by these cars?

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Sometimes I wish I was 22, and not 42. The next generation is going to have some seriously amazing technology.....

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A honor to be noticed by +Promote You
Our little collaboration effort was noticed by the great +Michelle Marie and posted on the new +Promote You page.
Of course, credit goes to the folks that collaborated: +Jaana Nyström +Lars Fosdal +pio dal cin +Jack C Crawford +Giselle Minoli +Brian Gundersen +Susanne Ramharter +jUKKA Kansanaho and +Paul Stickland

Now lets get the easter eggs ready!

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Improving Google Plus: More Ideas By Actual Users

A great article by +Miguel Rodriguez with suggestions for Google+ improvements pulled together by a collaborative group of Google+ users.

Miguel is primus motor in a gang of people that collect and refine user suggestions for the Google+ dev team. A lot of good ideas have been brought into daylight from him and his circles.

Merry Xmas in many languages


Spanish: Feliz Navidad
German: Frohe Weihnachten
Italian: Buon Natale
French: Joyeux Noël
Swedish, Norwegan: God Jul
Finish: Hyvää Joulua
Albanian: Gëzuar Krishtlindjet
Turkish: Mutlu Noeller
Czech: Veselé Vánoce
Slovak: veselé Vianoce
Portuguese:Feliz Natal
Latin: lacus non leo
Polish: Wesołych Świąt
Basque: Eguberri on
Estonian: Häid Jõulupühi
Català: Bon Nadal
Quechua: Allinlla Raymi
Pig latin: Erryma Maschrista
Serbian/Croatian: Srećan Božić
Danish: Glædelig jul
Greek : Καλά Χριστούγεννα!
Dutch: Gelukkig Kerstfeest
Binary:
01001101 01100101 01110010 01110010 01111001 00100000 01000011 01101000 01110010 01101001 01110011 01110100 01101101 01100001 01110011 00100000
Any more you want to contribute?

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Ever used lucid dreaming?
Lucid dreaming is the ability to wake oneself up in a dream and, occasionally, exert some degree of control over its contents.

I actually go to bed with broad ideas about my articles, and then wake up and write them in one shot.

Hat tip to +Rebecca McMillan

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Going home
I'll be going home to Mexico for the next few days. There is a place in the Caribbean a few hundred kilometers from Cancun called Holbox. It is near a nature reserve full of birds and fish. It is a quiet place with no cars or tarred streets, where everyone drives golf carts in the sand.
The beaches are natural, full of sea shells and in the night the stars shine in all their splendor. As an additional bonus there is almost no WiFi and very weak cell coverage.

Happy new year to all of you in advance!

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/22185144

Will there not be enough work for all of us?

Josh Hunt wrote a thought inspiring article on the fact that technology is replacing the need for humans in the work place. This is nothing new, it has been happening since we mechanized agriculture and robotized manufacturing. It is already getting its share in services and it is already making all forms of R&D and engineering more productive.

The question is what can we do? Shall we reduce our working hours to ensure more people get an occupation? It is partially what is happening in the US, where the number of partially employed has increased since the last crisis.

I remember reading a proposal from some socialist party here in Europe that everyone should get a minimum wage paid to cover basic existential needs. Somehow it is already happening with all the unemployment programs for those who remain unemployed for a long time.

I truly think that work is what keeps us human beings sane. I don't believe in a Disneyland like future where robots do everything for us and we just live our life like monkeys in the zoo.

What are your thoughts?


(Via +Andrew Carpenter, could not reshare public since it was posted to a limited circle)
http://thefuturist.co/technological-unemployment

The story of Nikola Tesla
The story itself is worth watching, but the way Marco Tempest shows it with projection mapping on different surfaces makes it really entertaining.

http://www.ted.com/talks/marco_tempest_the_electric_rise_and_fall_of_nikola_tesla.html

Making engineering jobs attractive for girls
The Girl's Day in Germany has the goal of getting young teenager girls to know what engineers do and hopefully decide for a technical career.
The day will be held tomorrow all through Germany.  Today there was a preparation event in the Bundeskanzlei where several girls  went to look at the the career possibilities in engineering.

We at digitalstrom were lucky to be one of the companies that could show how interesting it is to be an engineer. Some of our female colleagues were there showing our technologies.

Almost forgot to mention, Ms Merkel came by our little booth as well

#girlsday2013   #girlsday   #digitalstrom   #femaleengineer  

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Fantastic visual representation of the flight of the bumble bee

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+Dirk Talamasca shared a video by this guy of Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata, and I started digging through more of them and found this awesome visualization of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee. I really love creative ways to visualize music, especially when it shows the relationship between different parts of the piece in ways which aren't at first obvious.

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SO EFFING HILARIOUS! Thanks, +Matthew Campagna!

Which parts of your routine would you like to have your smart home automate for you?
A few days ago I was invited to a conference to present the home automation technologies that my team and I are working on. The opening remark by the lady moderating the event started with two show of hands questions. The first question was: “How many of you have a smartphone?” to which almost all hands raised. The second question was: “And how many of you have a smart home?” with the opposite results.
A valid question is how to define a smart home?. There are several angles that can be used to answer the question. But being a technologist I prefer the following definition: In a smart home the fixed electrical wiring is replaced with a flexible, signal based system that allows the home to react and adapt to events created by its inhabitants. This means that a smart home will have at a minimum a set of addressable devices and a communication medium.
Without knowing much about you I can describe your morning ritual to include the following activities: Your alarm clock will ring and prompt you to stand up from your bed. If your bedroom is dark you will operate some switches to get some light. After a personal hygiene detour you will go to your kitchen and get something to drink and eat. For this you will use multiple electrical devices in your kitchen (coffee machine, tea pot, microwave, juice maker, refrigerator, toaster). If you are like me you will get some background sounds as company (radio, TV). And finally after you finish your breakfast, you will walk through your home turning off lights and other devices before getting ready to leave your home to go about your day.
In the above scenario all devices operate independently from each other. They do not know that it is morning and you are getting ready for your day. You need to operate each one of them. A smart home will know your daily routine and where possible orchestrate your electrical devices to do what they are supposed to do for you in the mornings without you having to operate each appliance individually. It would open your blinds or turn your lights a few instants after the alarm clock rings. It will get your background music going and your coffee machine or tea pot to be ready for you when you walk into your kitchen. And it will turn off all your devices when you leave your home.
There are several home automation systems available in the market that can control some of your electrical appliances. For example, in the digitalSTROM system we use a powerline based communication to control lights, shades and other electrical devices. However to make your home really intelligent we also need to communicate to other devices in your home that already have a networked interface. Maybe your TV or radio have already networked capabilities. And probably your smartphone or tablet device is also capable of connecting to your local network over WiFi.
To make this orchestration possible we engineered a small piece of hardware that runs Linux and hosts an application that can not only control your digitalSTROM enabled devices, but also communicate with any networked device in or outside your home. This server has a set of applications that allow you to create automata to perform tasks in your home for you. The easiest example is an automaton that turns off lights in given rooms if they are not turned off after a given amount of time. This is useful for transit rooms such as staircases, corridors and entrances. A more elaborated application allows you to have part of your home react based on events that happen in other places of your home. One of the best examples I know of comes from a friend. He has a 5 year old son who usually wakes up in the middle of the night to use the restroom only to go back to sleep without turning the light off the. My friend programmed his system such that if he holds the button in his bed sided lamp for 3 seconds it will turn off the lights at his son’s bedroom. Another example is to use one of our energy measuring plugs to connect your washing machine, and get an email when the machine finishes its load of laundry.
There is one last important aspect to this intelligent home approach: Less can sometimes be more. By this I mean that the human inhabitants must be the ones in control of what goes on at home. An important decision when configuring automatic events at home is to analyze which should be automated and which should just be left to be controlled by the users. It is a failure of many such systems in commercial buildings that not only turn off lights or shut down blinds without understanding that there are still people on these offices, but also force their uses to trick the system to get back to the state that they want.
Which parts of your routine would you like to have your smart home automate for you?
#digitalstrom #homeautomation #smarthomes

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Our new collaborative article on suggestions how to improve the G+ platform
You might be interested +Denis Labelle +Gabriel Vasile +Natalie Villalobos +Mike Elgan

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A collaborative effort on how to improve Google+
Collaboration is the modus operandi in Google+. Based on that spirit Brian Gundersen got a group of Google plus users to put together their ideas on how would they improve the existing Google+ platform. We collaborated putting our ideas on how to improve Google + together. The authors and ideas are:

+Brian Gundersen - Nested Circles
+Giselle Minoli - Enhanced Tools for Wordsmiths
+Miguel Rodriguez - Preview function
+Gideon Rosenblatt - Venn Diagramming Circles
+Thomas Morffew - Mobile Page Management
+Rod Dunne - What's Hot in Your Circles
+Sophie Wrobel - Comments management
+Susanne Ramharter - Bookmarking posts, Filter circle or streams on tags or keywords
+Evo Terra - Squishing Gnats / Banning Trolls
+Fraser Cain - Better notification system
+Mark Traphagen- Analytics for pages and profiles

Read the article on +Media Tapper and let us know if you have any additional suggestions, and which of these suggestions you would really like to have.
http://mediatapper.com/collaboration-is-the-modus-operandi-in-google-plus/

Salon du Chocolat
Had a busy morning in Zurich visiting a chocolate exhibition. Lots of small chocolate shops presenting their best creations. There was also a section with dresses made out of chocolate. Also some presentations from some professional chocolate cooks on how they make that great stuff.
I think I am done eating chocolate until next month at least :-)

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Great idea by +Jari Huomo, getting long posts in an eBook format for the road
He put together a list of long posters, ordered their articles by popularity, and created a .mobi file for each.
And special thanks for introducing me to calibre, great utility!

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Encouraging long posts to Google+

What is the maximum length of a post in Google+? I have no idea.

Here is anyway some new e-books for you, created from posts longer than 150 words. Google+ is more than just pretty photos. 

Who is your own favorite "long poster"?

+Christina Trapolino
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26005155/books/Christina%20Trapolini.mobi

+Evo Terra
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26005155/books/Evo%20Terra.mobi

+Giselle Minoli
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26005155/books/Giselle%20Minoli.mobi

+Jaana Nyström
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26005155/books/Jaana%20Nystrom.mobi

+M Monica
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26005155/books/M%20Monica.mobi

+Mark Traphagen
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26005155/books/Mark%20Traphagen.mobi

+Max Huijgen
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26005155/books/Max%20Huijgen.mobi

+Michelle Marie
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26005155/books/Michelle%20Marie.mobi

+Miguel Rodriguez
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26005155/books/Miguel%20Rodriguez.mobi

+Mike Elgan
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26005155/books/Mike%20Elgan.mobi

+Vivienne Gucwa
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26005155/books/Vivienne%20Gucwa.mobi

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Going to reset my brain now :-)
Conventional wisdom holds that recently formed memories are replayed during sleep and in the process become more sharply etched in the brain.
Emerging evidence suggests that sleep also serves as a reset button, loosening neural connections throughout the brain to put this organ back in a state in which learning can take place.

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Our Brain May Disassemble Itself in Sleep:
Scientific American via Rachel Armstrong

*Beautiful Carcassonne."
We always try to stop here and travel back in history.

Saving the forest one papertowel at a time
Remember:
1) Shake (12 times, your hands)
2) Fold (The towel before drying your hands)

Worth the 5 minutes of your time
http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_smith_how_to_use_a_paper_towel.html

A sunny Easter Monday in Rapperswil by the lake of Zurich.

All you wanted to know about the evolution of music
A very nicely put presentation with a charming musician as for the whats, and hows of music. And it helps to learn that the difference between happy and sad is only 37 Hz.
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_tilson_thomas_music_and_emotion_through_time.html

My smart home checks the health of my refrigerator

Some of you might be familiar with the case of the refrigerator open door where all food in there goes bad.  It happened to me a few years ago when one of the kids together with his friends "inadvertently" plugged off the big freezer in the basement.

Wouldn't it be great if my smart home could watch over the refrigerator for me?  This is indeed possible.  Every refrigerator has a "heartbeat" that can bee seen in the energy consumption over time.  The pattern of energy consumption is the compressor turning on and off to cool down the contents on the freezer.  The frequency and lenght of this pattern depends on the type of the compressor, on the ammount of food inside of the refrigerator and also on the difference of temperatures between the freezer and the external air.

Provided this data is available a smart home system could monitor the operation of the refrigerator.  If the energy consumption stays near zero for a period of time longer than what its normal heartbeat it would mean that the device is unplugged.  If it remains on for a longer period of time compared to its normal operation it would mean that the door remained open.  The home owner can be alerted for both events using e-mail, twitter or other means.

Together with my team we are currently developing such a feature. We hope that in the future these unhappy surprises can be avoided at most homes.

Which other energy monitoring tasks would you like to do your smart home for you?

#cebit   #digitalstrom   #refrigerator   #energyefficiency  

The fort of San Juan de Ulua in Veracruz Mexico
Family history says that my grandfather quit the Mexican marine by swimming from this fort to the port of Veracruz.  He had lost the silverware of the fort commander when he was bringing him his food and feared the reprimand.

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Collaborating in G+
Nicely put by +Brian Gundersen
What has your experience been?

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Google+ - Google's Collaborative Engagement Engine

“What is Google+?” These words have often floated down my stream, and have been the subject of many popular blog posts. To be honest, most of us didn't know what to make of this network when we joined. Is it social media? Is it a blog? What is Google+? I decided to step back, post helpful and engaging content, and learn how other users categorize this platform.

Recently, +Gideon Rosenblatt helped paint a clearer picture with his "Shared Interest Graph" theory. I've seen Gideon post about this interpretation before, but being a visual person it didn't click until I saw the slideshow he created: http://goo.gl/7CgKw.

"A service for sharing our interests with those who share our interests."

We may share a number of interests, but collaboration is what brings us together. I believe that it is collaboration that drives this network, and is the factor that sets Google+ apart from similar platforms. Google has streamlined the process of finding like-minded individuals, and I’ve had the privilege to interact with some great people on this network.

People like +Miguel Rodriguez, +Giselle Minoli, +Gideon Rosenblatt, +Thomas Morffew, +Rod Dunne, +Sophie Wrobel, +Susanne Ramharter, +Fraser Cain, and +Mark Traphagen. Using Google+ as our base of operations, we organized a team of fellow Google+ users from scratch, and created a document full of ideas on how Google can improve this platform: http://goo.gl/uJxEK.

Every part of this process was enjoyable for me. I had set a personal goal to get at least 10 people to contribute to the blog post. I sent out messages about my idea - not everyone said yes. But that was ok! Some may have been preoccupied, others may have been uninterested. This forced me to interact with people I had no prior contact with, and I ended up finding some truly awesome engagers that I may not have met!

Engagement is the heart of collaboration. If you do not engage, you cannot collaborate. So go out there. Meet some new people. +1, share, and create.

Use this service to find what drives you on Google+.

The manifest of a generation

by +Piotr Czerski

We grew up with the Internet and on the Internet. This is what makes us different; this is what makes the crucial, although surprising from your point of view, difference: we do not ‘surf’ and the internet to us is not a ‘place’ or ‘virtual space’. The Internet to us is not something external to reality but a part of it: an invisible yet constantly present layer intertwined with the physical environment. We do not use the Internet, we live on the Internet and along it. If we were to tell our bildnungsroman to you, the analog, we could say there was a natural Internet aspect to every single experience that has shaped us. We made friends and enemies online, we prepared cribs for tests online, we planned parties and studying sessions online, we fell in love and broke up online. The Web to us is not a technology which we had to learn and which we managed to get a grip of. The Web is a process, happening continuously and continuously transforming before our eyes; with us and through us. Technologies appear and then dissolve in the peripheries, websites are built, they bloom and then pass away, but the Web continues, because we are the Web; we, communicating with one another in a way that comes naturally to us, more intense and more efficient than ever before in the history of mankind.

Read the rest under:

http://pastebin.com/0xXV8k7k

Hat tip to +Jeff Jarvis

The original Pixar lamps video
Thanks to the post of a good friend I remembered about this first video by Pixar from eons ago.  A great story that opened up our current computer animation era.
Pixar Jr.

Kids of the future

All Geek dads and moms should watch this video where Thomas Suarez, a 6th grader explains how he got into App development. Also a great watch for all my educator friends.

Thanks for +Jason Salas for the tip. Resharing to public.

TEDxManhattanBeach - Thomas Suarez - iPhone Application Developer. . .and 6th Grader

Matching Yearly goals with Scrum development using the Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose concepts from Daniel Pink's book Drive

Those of you familiar with the Scrum development process know that it is all about empowering the team, and have it organize itself. All of us working in a medium or large organization know about the famous yearly goals and bonus. Scrum development and yearly goals are actually conflicting goals. I want to share with you how we are trying to get yearly goals that make sense by borrowing the Autonomy , Mastery and Purpose concepts from Daniel Pink's book Drive.

If you are not familiar with Daniel Pink's book there is an excelent RSA animation here: RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us (Thanks to +Christa Laser for mentioning it in an earlier post).

Basically what we have done is to define the personal goals of all the development team around the Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose principles. These goals live in the same set as the company goals on revenue, quality, and the department goals of keeping the budget and finishing products on time. This is an example of how we have worded them:

Autonomy : Freedom to do work your own way to achieve the goals set. Have the choice of technique and direct your own tasks. Come up with suggestions on technologies, tools, process and other activities for our project work. Look for ways to improve our ability as a team.

Mastery : Extend and expand your abilities and capabilities. Try to achieve flow in your work: the point where the relationship between the person and the task is perfect. Improvement is the goal. Adjust your work tasks to ensure you have clear goals, you can get immediate feedback, and the challenges are well matched to your abilities.

Purpose : Work in purpose of some greater objective. How can our team give back to society through work?. How is the world a better place as a result from our work?. How can you give back to our team? Is what we do ethical? Do something that matters, do it well and do it in the service of a cause larger than ourselves.

All team members are given these goals and are judged at the end of year on all 3 concepts. Now, you might think that this goes against the rule set by Pink in Drive that remuneration can backfire. Well, fact is that most engineers see the bonus as part of their promised salary and having this tied to their personal development gives them skin in the game. Besides you save the discussions at the end of the year when the goals of the company made the original goals set in the beginning of the year obsolete.

Do you have any other ways you use to manage Scrum teams and stick to the yearly goals principles of companies? I would love to hear them.

Thanks to +James O'Sullivan for getting me writing about Scrum in G+

Do you know where do people you follow are located?
There is a new Chrome extension to help you find out. It will appear under your stream list.
chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mcfifkeppchbjlepfbepfhjpkhfalcoa
You might need to refresh the page for it to load.

The only one that can not be found is +Ron Garan since the space is not yet part of google maps:-)

Thanks to +Gary Tivey and +James Fierce for pointing this out. Resharing to public.
And +Liz ℚuilty Now that I know you are down under a few things fall in place :-)

Augmented reality of the future

I dont think it is a matter of if but when we are going to see these devices. Imagine the applications!

Thanks to +Ernest Weke Maina for the hint (Resharing to public)

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/11/23/computerized-contact-lenses-could-enable-in-eye-augmented-reality/

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Psychoanalyzing the Wolf

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Gals, Guys: Some reading material for your non geeky significant other to understand us better. Share it with them so that they also get something from G+

http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html

beautiful colors this morning
Over the lake of Zurich

Favorite music visualization
This fish eye visualization of Beethoven's 5th is fantastic to understand the structure of the music. Good night and enjoy!
Beethoven 5th Symphony, first mvt. (fisheye graphical score)

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Rio Secreto
A good idea for the upcoming holidays
Via +Alfonso Meneses 

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"Rio Secreto: Mexico's Secret River"

Rio Secreto: Underground river in Riviera Maya, Mexico

Rio Secreto is a new tourist attraction in the Riviera Maya that thrills visitors with a visit to a natural underground river and the limestone cavern system it winds through. Discovered in 2007, the cave is part of a 7.5-mile long network that is still being explored and mapped.

My article on how I got introduced to HDR photography by Google+ was published this morning on Mediatapper. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range imaging, and it basically consists of taking several shots of the subject at different light exposures, and then merging the results. You dont need expensive special equipment to do this.

Google Plus has improved my photography life. I am now taking more photos, looking into more detail at the angles and getting better shots with the smart-phone camera that I always carry along. I hope this article will also help you improve your photography life too.

Special thanks to +midori chan and +Kol Tregaskes for the inspiration and the helpful links they published. Also thanks to +Grace O'Malley and +James Fierce for the review.

http://mediatapper.com/my-introduction-to-hdr-photography-on-google-plus/

A Rainbow in a cloud. Seen on this sunny day. There's got to be a name for this phenomena. Anyone knows?

The fort of San Juan de Ulua in Veracruz Mexico.
It has a small but interesting museum on precolonial art. It used to be a prison, a garrison and is now a museum.

What is a +1?
The best answer goes to +Mike Elgan
I picked it up on the thread of +Chanchal Bhatia and could not resist to reshare it with you.
The original thread:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/110549739567411012555/posts/Y7SbUn9nMTB
The same would apply to the like in FB btw...

Wait 42 years to unlock a phone
A friend of mine is having some issues with his iPhone.
He will have to wait 42 years to enter his code again.

Maybe his gandchildren will be able to do it
#funfriday   #funny   #iphone  

Pictures from the beautiful old town of Annecy.