theMechanism worked closely with the Ansari X PRIZE Foundation right up until Burt Rutan won back in October of 2004. We continue to support X PRIZE Founder, Dr. Peter Diamandis’ recent efforts, including the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE and the Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, which will help the world to both live and travel more efficiently in the near future. The reason I mention this is because I accidentally stumbled on Peter featured in an excellent (and Freely downloadable) series at iTunes called TED Talks.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started in 1984 as a conference to bring together people from those three worlds, and is an “invite only” event.
Dr. Peter Diamandis speaks about Stephen Hawking experiencing Zero Gravity. To hear him speak so vividly and excitedly about this unusual event is inspiring and encouraging.
As designers and thinkers, it’s our duty to try to learn how to apply ourselves to helping the planet. Taking some time to watch and be inspired by Peter, Philippe Stark and John Maeda (to name only a few) at the TED Conference, is a great start.
Dave Fletcher is a Founder and Creative Director at theMechanism, a multi-disciplinary design agency with offices in New York, London and Durban, South Africa. Dave’s still trying to figure out how to get an invite to TED, but he’s getting closer…
Jeffrey Barke is senior developer and information architect at theMechanism, a multimedia firm with offices in New York, London and Durban, South Africa.
Sorry, would love to write more, but completely beat after four hours of sleep and an intense day learning about the latest Google projects. Until I'm able to write a wrap up, check out my photos and audio from the keynote and some of the sessions. (Note—the audio quality might be poor. These are unedited recordings made from the audience using an .mp3 recorder)
Can We Get There From Here? by Alex Russell
Part 1:
Part 2:
Secure Collaboration—How Web Applications can Share and Still Be Paranoid by Mike Samuel
Improving Browsers in New Ways: Gears++ by Chris Prince
Part 1:
Part 2:
Jeffrey Barke is senior developer and information architect at theMechanism, a multimedia firm with offices in New York, London and Durban, South Africa.
I'm totally stoked about my first trip to San Francisco for Google I/O, a two-day "developer gathering focused on pushing the boundaries of web applications using Google and open web technologies."
Today is the last day of early bird registration, so if you're going to go, register quick and save a hundred bucks.
I'll definitely be writing more about this as the date approaches…
Jeffrey Barke is senior developer and information architect at theMechanism, a maxi-media firm in New York City and London.
This seems like a very cool idea and I think theMechanism will get involved:
Posted by Mano Marks, Geo APIs Team. Our friends up at NetSquared recently opened a mashup challenge to engage developers in helping nonprofits realize some of their web ideas. The concept is pretty simple. First, nonprofits post ideas on data they have and what they'd like to be able do do with it on the web. Then, product managers and developers peruse projects and sign up to help produce specs and bring them to life over the course of the next month. Nonprofits with the coolest mashup at the end are eligible for grants totaling $100k at this year’s NetSquared conference in May. This year there's extra emphasis on openness, from standards and data to software and ideas. If your mashup can itself be mashed up, all the better. Mix and match APIs from different sources as you see fit—the only goal is to meet a need that a nonprofit has expressed. We like this idea a lot, and we want to help it—and potential volunteers like you—succeed. On March 7, we’ll be hosting a hackathon at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, for participants, where you’ll be able to talk shop with API experts from Google. We'll also be inviting gurus from other API providers in the area to join us so you get all the help you need. If you sign up to work on a project you’ll hear more from NetSquared about this event and others like it. Go check out some of the projects, think about how you might be able to apply your design skills and API wizardry to help these groups out, sign up, and mash away!
I'm totally stoked about my first trip to San Francisco for 
