Paper Bits
Digital, Paper, Notes, Bits.
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2012-08-03
Source: nypl
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2012-05-16
Source: nypl.org
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2012-01-16
The Mundaneum, an institution created in 1910 by Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine, aimed to gather together all the world’s knowledge. An Archive with more than 12 million index cards, some consider it a forerunner of the internet. Otlet dreamt that one day all the information he collected could be accessed by people from the comfort of their own homes.’
The Mundaneum is utterly fascinating to me, for reasons that should be obvious…
Source: spiegel.de
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2011-06-12
Agreed. Imagine this applied to airline boarding passes, so that your boarding pass updates if your departure date or time changes - no more running across the airport because you didn’t hear the announcement in time.
Or how about price stickers in shops? You wouldn’t need to walk around with a price gun, updating prices every week.
These things are all true, and excellent business cases for an innovative technology.
But really? I just want to search and summon my online library of cards out onto my desk where they used to live, at will.
I’ve wanted that since 2005. It’s insanely frustrating that, six years later, we still don’t have all the pieces to make it work.
Source: urbanscale.org
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2010-11-08
UI15: Stories we think we know best
At UI Conference 15 in Boston, in Kim Goodwin’s scenarios workshop.
Source: flickr.com
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2010-11-05
Source: book-zz.blogspot.com
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似非PoIC用IcPod(改) -1 (by Macride)
I wish I could ever keep the cards this organized. Mine look like giant, pixellated desk-dandruff.
Source: Flickr / macride
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2010-11-03
Implementing the Demon-Haunted Notebook
I recently posted a sketch of a notebook that demands use, and complains loudly to you and others when you neglect it:
The notebook would have a unique name and id, and a daemon would watch for “tribute” — online sharing of what you put in it.
The tough bit of implementation would seem to be defining a way to pay tribute, and to make it fun and easy, rather than onerous.
Here are some ideas towards that goal, compiled quickly over coffee with no real editing.
Magic Email Address
The notebook could have a “secret email” address; take a photo and share it with the daemon via email.
Good: Simplest. Photo-and-email is built into every cameraphone in the world. Easy to understand and explain.
Bad: Least “magical” feeling of the options. Needs the daemon to act as a gateway to your other social services, which is a bit more of a pain to build.
Magic Twitter/Flickr Tag
The notebook could come with a twitter hashtag and/or account. Take a photo of the book and post with the hashtag, and the daemon accepts it as tribute.
Good: Simple. Posting photos with specific hashtags is a tested and acceptable use pattern, and it’s trivially easy to write a bot to watch for them.
Bad: Not much, really. More spammable than other options, maybe? Requires you to point the daemon at specific accounts/feeds?
Magic Camera
An RFID tag in the book activates a desk-mounted camera when you place it in the right spot; a picture is taken and posted to the daemon by special client software running on a PC connected to the camera and RFID reader. The daemon then posts the picture to one or more preset social sharing systems; it acts as a gateway.
Good: all you have to do is put the notebook in a specially-prepared area to capture to the daemon.
Bad: requires a specially-prepared area with an RFID reader, document capture camera, PC running special software, etc.
Magic Image Parsing
The book’s pages could be marked with an easily-parsed visual marker in a predictable location: when you photograph or scan a page and submit it to, say, Flickr or Twitpic, the daemon processes the image, identifies the marker, and accepts your tribute.
Good: no hardware or software required on client end, works with any given cameraphone, can watch an RSS feed or twitter stream so daemon doesn’t have to act as gatekeeper
Bad: requires some very clever image processing mojo on the server side. Also, visual markers are often large and ugly, and take away from the notebook canvas
Magic Pen & Notebook
You could use a Pulse LiveScribe and a prepared notebook, with special client software running on the livescribe pen. As soon as you docked the pen to charge it, the daemon would something something magic and your stuff is shared.
Good: No special behavior required except use of the notebook and regular docking of the pen, once software is installed on the pen.
Bad: The LiveScribe is a horrible writing experience, akin to using one of those cheap multiple-color plastic pens you sign your work order with at a mechanic’s office. Its software is clunky and painful to use, and the special-microdot notebook paper is slick-feeling and unlovable.
I’d need a demon to force me to use it.
…So?
That’s it, really. A thought experiment, taken too far.
I have no real plans to implement this. Maybe someone will find it interesting and run with the idea, and perhaps not: time will tell.
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Old 3x5 cards box (by s_h_i_r_o_u_t_o)
I am humbled.
Source: Flickr / shirouto
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Source: Flickr / qb96
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Electronic Time Stamp (by s_h_i_r_o_u_t_o)
As someone who’s been handwriting the date on thousands of index cards for five years, let me just say: D’oh.
Source: Flickr / shirouto
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2010-10-28
Welcome!
This thing is brand new. It may change up a bit, as we’re just now getting an idea for what it’s for.
Right now, it works like this:
- Scan cards into a big unfiltered pile.
- Reblog some of those cards to the index-card sketch blog, and add tags.
- If there’s more to say, elaborate on the main blog.
At the moment, there’s rather a lot of text and things on the card blog, but that’s because I’m iterating. Which is a nice way to say “making things up as I go along.”
(crossposted to main site because, um, stuff.)
Source: cardstack
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Best design quote, EVER.
I can look up from writing this and see the card above my desk.
(via sketchcards)
Source: Flickr / jazzmasterson
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Right, so, working this out. Apologies for the public navel gazing.
Now there’s a separate tumblr for receiving scanned and captured index cards. That will keep this space from being clogged with every single sketch I do. Nobody wants that.
In the middle is a shared tumblr that might act as a kind of highlights reel. I’m not sure how useful it will be in its current incarnation…
Source: cardstack
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2010-10-26
Source: Flickr / jazzmasterson
