20 years ago: WorldWideWeb invented

This week will be a view back to the roots of internet and modern computers.
Last friday 20 years ago Tim Berners-Lee proposed the web.
His project proposal includes the main idea of a the modern web, including hyperlinks.
HyperText is a way to link and access information of various kinds as a web of nodes in which the user can browse at will. It provides a single user-interface to large classes of information (reports, notes, data-bases, computer documentation and on-line help).
At this stage the web was far away from providing pictures or even video files.
But it's amazing what this little project has become today...

Dying of... Newspaper

New developments in technology cause very often the dying of an old technology. The car replaced the carriage, the phone replaced the telegraf.
It's hard to see old technology dying. Mostly, the old technology survives in a niche, carriages are still run in Vienna for tourists, the old vinyl still has its lovers.
When talking about emerging technology many people so the newspaper as the next dying media, killed by the faster, multimedia newspages in the web.
Newspaper Extinction Timeline
We'll see if they are write, but with technology like the iPad and the eReaders maybe noone will really miss the old, big format newspaper...

World wide web? - nope...

Today I want to write again about one of my favourit topics, my life as a German in Ireland.
Living in a world with internet makes many things easier. I get up, read my German Newspaper as pdf.
I have access to my friends through social networks like facebook and for 5€ per month skype allows me to call every landline in Germany as long as I want.
In Germany I didn't watched much TV, but from time to time I enjoy it. In the German news are often reviews about new TV-Shows or Event which I then could watch online, cause midwhile almost every TV-station offers there programm about one week after it was first sent in TV. So the live-factor, being in front of the TV when the show runs is less and less important.
But in Ireland I can't watch the German TV even with internet. After an advertising (which surprisingly works) I see the following black screen:

Sorry, this video is not available in your country

It's a pity that I can't watch German TV in times of a global world...

Online Shop integration in youtube

The mashup of moving the own homepage into a existing plattform seems to be a new trend. After the examples I gave of fhm-online.de (moved to facebook) and the agency Kamchatka moving to twitter now there is another example:
The label frenchconnection goes new ways with their online shop. It's totally launched and integrated at youtube.
The idea of product videos is not new, but to fokus the whole shop on this videos and have to videos not on their own homepage, but on youtube is a big step.



The whole shop can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/frenchconnection

Google Street View II

Google Streetview has finally started in Germany. But not in all places, only a small demoversion of some famous tourist attractions and, yes, in Oberstaufen!
Never heard of Oberstaufen? 95% of the Germans think the same, but the small village in Bavaria, close to the Alps landed a big PR succes.
Like the little village of Asterix in France, the little Oberstaufen is different from the rest of Germany.
Most of the German communities were critical about google streetview, but the politics and the inhabitants of Oberstaufen saw their chance to become famous and lead a lot of tourists in their small village.
And they succeed. No newspaper today without the name Oberstaufen in it, every TV station shows pictures of it, when reporting about the start of street view.
Like this video from the ARD, the biggest TV station in Germany shows, the people in Oberstaufen are proud and happy to be the first village in Germany with street view.
http://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/video/ondemand100_id-video800474.html

This story shows, how emerging technology and open minded people create best advertisement for free... Concratulations!
And here is how it looks:

Größere Kartenansicht

Sleep longer with the iPhone4

The negative news about the iPhone 4 take no end.
First there was the bad quality of reception, then the problem of the real glass display, which broke very often. A friend of mine working at apple Germany told that 80% of the new generation of iPhone and iPod touch come back with broken glass.
At the weekend, when the clock's all over Europe turned one hour back, iPhone 4 users which relied on the alarm had another nice surprise the next day. Instead of going one hour back the iPhone clock of the alarm stayed constant, which means that iPhone users could sleep one hour later, but maybe miss their morning meeting. The reactions of the users where mixed, some thanked apple for one hour more sleep, others were really pissed off...

reactions on twitter to the newest iphone4 bug

A possible solution to solve all this problems shows the following video:

doing a PhD

Yesterday we visited again the nexus-centre to listen to Kevin O’Mahony, who's doing his PhD in Digital Media Design.

After a short introduction of the nexus-centre in general Kevin told us about his work and his CV.

After having graduated at the CIT as Master Kevin started to go on with his Master project and doing research for a PhD.

The project is about a multi-touch table which supports group meetings in one room, but also in different rooms, which goes in the field of virtual teamwork.

After talking about the project as such he showed us his 5-D model to do research, which is very interesting in terms of the project proposal.

To open our minds to the possibility of doing a PhD after graduating he showed us on the one hand his work, and the nexus centre as such, and on the other hand he gave us some useful tips what to think about before apply for a PhD.

To research 3 years in a field requires a strong interest in that area. The next point is, that you can't do research for fun but for industrie who can earn money with your ideas. If you are clear with those 2 points you can start with the research proposal and finally apply for the PhD:

1. Interests in researching and developing further in this area 
   
2. Research and Development where there are opportunities to work on industry related projects 
3. Research Proposal - Objectives, Innovation, Technical Challenge
4. Application Process  

The meeting was very interesting, nothing better then get in contact with former students who did the same course and see what they do today.

More about Kevin and his project can be seen at http://multitouchmeetingroomtable.blogspot.com/