ThingsAmongMany

So, I guess I’m on a lending kick or somthin’. My last post highlighted ICanLendYouThat.com, a site that allows you to connect with your Twitter friends to share your books, CD’s, and DVD’s. Well, not long after that post, I came across LendAround, a perfect alternative for those of you who haven’t migrated over to Twitter yet (and what the heck’re ya waiting for??).

Though limited to specifically DVD sharing - and really, who has CD’s anymore anyway - LendAround offers a pretty slick web interface for listing out the DVD’s in your library. Plus, it has an integrated FaceBook app to make your lending and borrowing chores even easier - once you manage to get it set up that is. As with everything FaceBook, getting the tab up and running on your profile requires a little bit of hunting. Or you can just stick to their web interface. However, my big complaint there is that there doesn’t appear to be any means of connecting with friends who might already be using LendAround without just sending an invite.

Regardless, this would be a great thing to set up in your office, for example, to create a personal Netflix service. After all, how often do you really need to re-watch The Matrix? If you want it that badly, you can borrow my copy.

I’m always interested in new services that use digital means to bring people closer in the offline world. I’m not talking about random hookups here, but the idea that our digital presence - something that can travel with us anywhere and be updated at any time - can effect interpersonal relationships is pretty interesting. And, of course, it’s manifested in a multitude of ways, especially of late.

The newest version that I’ve stumbled into is ICanLendYouThat.com. Think of this one as a digital manifestation of your personal lending library - books, CD’s (if you still have them), DVD’s, etc. You sign up for an account, enter a list of what you have to lend, and “follow” your friends to see what’s in their library. The site will connect you based on your needs to the people who have what you’re looking for. Very cool, very simple idea!

I do have a couple of thoughts that might make the site easier to use:

1. Integrate with existing networks (Twitter? Facebook?). I don’t want to have to encourage all my friends to sign up for another social network unless it’s uber-simple.
2. Partner with someone who will make it easier to update what I have to lend. These guys would be an awesome choice!
3. Why limit the offering to books, CD’s, and DVD’s? Other than books, movies and music are almost easier to get online than in person. How about hand tools? Or whatever other random stuff I might have that’s worth borrowing?

A few tweaks could make this a really useful resource!

According to the crew at Contxts, business cards are “SO 2007″. Why bother with paper when we can do it all digital these days? Though apparently they’ve been around for about a year, Contxts has been taking off over the last couple of weeks. And with good reason (especially with SXSWi only a day away).

Jump on the site and sign up for an account using either a username or your mobile number. From there, anyone can txt your username or number to 50500 and they’ll receive an SMS in return with your predefined personal information (whatever you’d like to share up to 140 characters). Pretty simple, right?

Want to give it a shot? I’m “AmongMany”… (no prank calls please!).

The other day I wrote up TwiToShirt.com, a service that lets you submit any tweet and have it printed on your choice of tees (or other items) – sidebar, it looks like they’ve redesigned the site since that post. Today, however, on a quick jaunt through Racked.com, I noticed their discussion of a significantly more awesome Tweet-on-shirt setup.

Created by Squidder, this new take integrates the new tech-trend of augmented reality. By printing a unique bar code on the shirt, a Twitterer’s latest Tweet can be displayed via any device that can read the code (a mobile device or computer with camera being the most obvious). Check it out here:

PaperTweet3d: Augmented Reality T-shirts from squidder on Vimeo.

It’s amazing what you can find on the web. Or maybe this is one of those things that’s really old and I’m just way behind the game. Either way, I stumbled onto this little flash toy a few minutes ago called Man In The Dark. Created by Miltos Manetas and Aaron Russ Clinger (anyone got a link for Aaron?) back in ‘04, it appears to have been made for the Blow de la Barra gallery in London.

There’s a mini version above, but be sure to get the full experience on the site.

PS. Miltos, for a guy who’s creating awesome flash toys, your site could use an update. The painting tool, however, is also a lotta fun!

I recently saw a tweet from someone I follow (sorry, I can’t remember who it was) about an interesting little device that I wasn’t familiar with. The tweet mentioned how excited that person was to use their new Poken (as do many other tweets). Being digitally web-curious person that I am, the first thing I did was hunt down the Poken to see what it is. I should not that I probably hadn’t heard of the Poken because it appears to be a primarily European phenomenon right now.

Turns out, it’s a cross between a Tamagachi and a business card. A Poken is a little USB-based character that you carry around in your pocket. It stores your personal social media information for whichever networks you choose to enter (I can’t seem to find a comprehensive list of supported networks). When you meet someone new, you “high-four” (like high-five, but a Poken only has four fingers, so…) your Poken with theirs and the devices automatically exchange whatever information you’ve chosen to share. When you get home, you plug your Poken into the USB slot on your computer and it uploads all of your new contacts to their respective social networks.

Despite the admitedly corny act of sharing information – how many adults really want to be seen “high-fouring” little keychain toys in public – the Poken does provide an interesting look at the collision between the phsyical act of meeting new people and our newly-found tendency to immediately “connect” with those people in the digital space. It will be interesting to see how this trend plays out over the next couple of years, and whether it takes off in a more adult format.

We (the generic and general “we”) talk a lot about social media and the connectedness of our web-based world. But the artistic side of all the data gathered is something that we don’t pay nearly enough attention to in our discussions, but there’s a ton of opportunity for interesting twists of public data…

Case in point, check out thatwasepic.com. A decontextualized collection of YouTube comments that seem somehow more poignant when removed from the slew of adolescent banter that generally accompanies any YouTube video.

Just beyond awesome! The potential for education (and toys) is sitting right there at your fingertips!

From TED:

MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables — cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning?

Learn more at David’s site.

The internet isn’t necessarily the most kid-friendly place in the world. Sure, there’s plenty of content out there that’s suitable, but without some sort of curation, your youngins are certain to run into some less than wholesome moments along the way. Tom (aka meat99) – head POKEr, internet buff, and father of two – has made it his business to remedy the situation by introducing the KideoPlayer.

A mashup of POKE’s UpL8.tv player, the KideoPlayer is a carefully curated selection of videos, handpicked from the YouTube archives to be kid-safe and often educational. In Tom’s words,

I will spend my free time sourcing, identifying and curating the safest, most educational (and most FUN) YouTube videos I can find. This ongoing list of videos will be served up in a simple little interactive package that I can sit down and play with my boys.

So if you’re a parent who’s interested in helping your kids grow up digital in a safe way, definitely check out the KideoPlayer. You’d be amazed at how quickly they’ll learn to slap the spacebar for a new video, and now you can rest assured that the content they’ll see is kid-safe.

A tribute to the show that launched NPH into early stardom, Twoogie takes your tweets and converts them to a Doogie-style interface, complete with theme song. Add your Twitter name to the Twoogie URL and it’ll display your latest tweet. Or go to Twoogie.com and you can type up a fresh tweet directly from the interface.

Need I say more? All right, I’ll top it off with the admission that I prefer NPH as Barney in How I Met Your Mother. If you’re not into this show already, get over to CBS or Hulu to check it out. It’s hi-larious!