Doug Watching

Send your text messages to the public display in the restaurant, bar or airport near you. Wiffiti makes messaging public. Not sure how they would handle inappropriate message in a public display. I tested the demo and several folks in my department watched with excitement. This could catch on.

Via Springwise

I know America bowls alone, but soon we will no longer have to browse alone. Medium lets you watch what your friends are browsing at in real time. Makes me think of how Netflix lets you see what your friends are watching.

On one level this looks pretty cool, but then again, I’m not sure how often I would use it. I like chat for quick notes back and forth, but I am not one who likes talking on the phone for long periods or chatting for long periods. I prefer face-to-face talking when possible. But it still looks cool and more communal than other site sharing concepts.

Freshen your breath and your body at the same time! Fuwarinka Functional Candy and Gum (wow talk about a mouthful) tastes great and makes your body smell good at the same time. Forget the deodorant and hand me a piece of gum!

via PSFK

Here’s a great quote from a man whose writings have deeply shaped my life:

All real living is meeting. - Martin Buber

I could write a few paragraphs of commentary or I could simply let it stand and encourage you to think about that for a little while today. Good words.

Here’s a nice little quote I came across while reading Anthony Esolen’s “Hearts Uplifted” in Touchstone.

He who sings prays twice. - St. Augustine

I tried to track down the original wording and according to the Church History Forum, this is apparently the original quote:

For he that singeth praise, not only praiseth, but only praiseth with gladness: he that singeth praise, not only singeth, but also loveth him of whom he singeth. In praise, there is the speaking forth of one confessing; in singing, the affection of one loving.”
(St. Augustine, Commentary on Psalm 73, 1)

Now while I like the theological accuracy of Augustine’s actual wording, I must admit it doesn’t pack the pithy punch of the traditional rendering.

With excited anticipation that Hollywood was responding to the customer centric worldview, I posted news about My Movie Muse last July. After three months, I am disappointed to say that so far this supposed panel of movie goers has had little opportunity to offer real opinions on the content of films or the current film-making industry.

Instead, this has primarily turned out to be My Copyright Muse, giving us lessons (disguised as surveys) about why downloading movies illegally is so naughty. Oh well, so much for thinking and communicating with real people from Hollywood. Their surveys are just as two dimensional as an old Western set.

I’ve been in Chicago this week at the Forrester Consumer Forum: Humanizing the Digital Experience. I’ll try to post some notes later this week, but I had to put up a few thoughts on one session that almost made me jump up a shout “Hallelujah!” Of course, I wasn’t sure how these “corporate folks” would respond to a Southern Pentecostal boy whooping and dancing.

Nicholas Negroponte spoke this morning about his vision of putting  a laptop into the hands of every child in the world and how he is working to make that happen. This wasn’t just blue sky dreaming. This is a clear vision that will make a dramatic launch of putting $100 laptops into the hands on children in several countries as a precursor to a larger distribution.

Working with corporations, researchers, and country leaders, Negroponte’s  One Laptop Per Child non-profit is stunning combination of problem-solving, business planning and long term visioning for our world. The implications of how this could impact learning and development as well as communication, bridge-building and more are staggering.  (Not to mention the impact upon computer technology .)

But don’t waste time listening to me ramble, visit his site and  find out what’s happening for yourself.

What does Web 2.0 have to do with church? Well, that’s a question I’ve been pondering some lately, thinking about how the world of social networking has interesting implications for people of faith. Turns out someone else has been thinking about this. Dawn sent me a link for Church Marketing Sucks: a blog look at church, Seth Godin, word of mouth, and more.

A word for the day from one of my favorite poets:

“To find my home in one sentence, concise, as if hammered in metal. Not to enchant anybody. Not to earn a lasting name in posterity. An unnamed need for order, for rhythm, for form, which three words are opposed to chaos and nothingness.”
Czeslaw Milosz

“We are here on earth to do good for others. What the others are here for I don’t know.”
– normally attributed to W.H. Auden but actually from John Foster Hall