I often post about data viz. Here’s a nice animated vid that compares internet data across services, outlets and country.

234 million websites

126 million blogs

12.2 billion videos viewed monthly on youTube (US)

1.4 billion email users

1.73 billion internet users

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

MIT’s Futures of Entertainment conference is held each fall. I had the privilege of speaking at the event in 2008. It’s an amazing mix of people from various sides of the industry. This past year the conference had a number of excellent transmedia focused panels. In the following panel the team behind Purefold give an inside look at the project.

From MITs site
Drawing together members of Ag8, creative collaborators, and representatives from a major brand sponsor, this panel will examine the project from a variety of perspectives. Exploring the motivations for building a transmedia project around Blade Runner, the panel looks at the potential transmedia might offer for revitalizing older properties. It explores the roles different stakeholders play in the conception and design of a project, as well as the challenges of meeting varying desires and ambitions. The panel considers whether some genres are better suited for transmedia properties than others, and looks at how to extend existing properties with substantial fan bases, considering questions of co-creation and fan/audience production.

Moderator: Geoffrey Long – Gambit-MIT
Panelists include: David Bausola – Co-founder of Ag8; Tom Himpe – Co-founder of Ag8; Mauricio Mota – Chief Storytelling Officer, co-founder The Alchemists; C3 Consulting Practitioner; Leo Sa – Petrobras

I’ve been tracking thesixtyone for a bit. The first version of the site matched social gaming with music discovery. The newest incarnation has taken a slightly different approach one which is more discovery focused with a mix of simple challenges called quests that encourage you to listen to music and gain reputation points.

The part I love about the new design is the simplicity and richness of the interface.

Of course you could look at the picture on the box but this is a cool use of AR to demo the contents prior to purchase.

Meet “Yuki-taro, the friendly snowbot” – for a million yen you can have a Snow Removal Robot that clears snow while creating igloo bricks, is GPS enabled and uses twin cameras to see.

(hat tip inventorspot)

Very much looking forward to the release of Bioshock 2 which comes out this week. I’d love to get my hands on the game bible that I’ve heard rumors about – Bioshock is a rich game world while at the same time haunting, beautiful and bizzare.

The WorkBook Project joined forces with Filmmaker Magazine to produce a number of daily videos from Park City. SABI filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah speak with Ted Hope, Jon Reiss, Mynette Louie (Children of Invention) and Linas Phillips (Bass Ackwards) to explore the solutions that are emerging for independent filmmakers – featuring some of the insights and actions that came from the 2010 Filmmaker Summit.

A visual snapshot of internet consumption – provides an interesting look at the state of the internet in 2009.

I received a mention in a New York Times article entitled Talking About a Revolution (for a Digital Age) The article also references William Castle and the experiences he created around his work. Castle was an inspiration for some of the Cinema ARG experiences I did around my last film Head Trauma. DIY and the concept of transmedia were popular topics at Sundance this year and both have been popping up more and more in the press. Here’s a trailer from 1955 where Castle – always the showman – is plugging the experience around his newest film The Tingler.

I spent the last few days at the Sundance Film Festival. When I’m at the fest I always make it a point to checkout the Frontier which is located in the basement of a mall. Its a sprawling space that brings together a nice mix of new media, tech and art. Here are a few pics.