Wikipedia pilots articles via SMS http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24662267
All in a day’s work. Imagine building a house in just five hours, and I’m not talking about a Lego mansion, I’m talking about a real structure that you can live in. Dutch designer Pieter Stoutjesdijk has created an emergency shelter that can be snapped together in just five hours, reports Fast Company. Stoutjesdijk’s open source design is meant to bring shelter to people who lose their homes in a disaster. And while we’re on the topic of open source construction, check out this interview with WikiHouse co-founder Alastair Parvin, who shares details on where the open source construction set is heading.
We Must Design Every System for Privacy
If we don’t want a total surveillance society, we must consider surveillance a kind of social pollution, and limit the surveillance impact of each new digital system just as we limit the environmental impact of physical construction.
For example: “Smart” meters for electricity are touted for sending the power company moment-by-moment data about each customer’s electric usage, including how usage compares with users in general. This is implemented based on general surveillance, but does not require any surveillance. It would be easy for the power company to calculate the average usage in a residential neighborhood by dividing the total usage by the number of subscribers, and send that to the meters. Each customer’s meter could compare her usage, over any desired period of time, with the average usage pattern for that period. The same benefit, with no surveillance!
We need to design such privacy into all our digital systems.
First point/theory, as mentioned by Paul Rayment, the user scenario when watching TV is that the smartphone or tablet is out too, it is a dual screen TV watching world out there, so the TV ad is darn effective (could be interesting to see download numbers while the ad is aired and immediately after).
Second point/theory, playing a casual game is filled with stigma in the public sphere (your article is a great example of this; you are “embarrassed” to tell what level you are on!), putting casual games ads on TV makes playing the game less stigmatized, it is giving it ‘credibility’, thus making people play more and even give them an opportunity to dare spread it through word of mouth.
Thanks for a good article, would you know whether this was the first time in the whole of US (“last week”) that the commercial aired on TV?
article: http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/62953-why-does-candy-crush-saga-need-tv-ads
Paid-for online news ‘makes gains’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22961025
Also, young find news most commonly through social tools.
Online university giant coursera gets bigger
Feb 21, 13
Nice blog post on the different user cases for unique user browsing, Unique Visitor info getting more invalid with the rise of multi-device browsing in the networked society:
Unique Visitors In a Multi-Device World
http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2012/07/10/multidevice-multibrowser-visitors/
“I was in mobile advertising, I understood user acquisition, I understand all the price points, and the truth is, it’s a shitty industry,” Bhardwaj said. “It really is. The first harsh reality is: CPIs [Cost Per Install] are only going to go up. You think they’re high now? It’s going to be just like gas prices. Right now, average CPIs in the industry on the weekends are over $2, $3. There have been previous weekends where I’ve seen major players bid upwards of $10 per install. This will only go up for two reasons: new entrants, and cash influx from Asia. There are a lot of great companies in Asia who’ve been doing great games in Japan, China, and Korea, who now want entry into the US. Next you’re going to see the influx of real-money gambling apps. The LTVs [Life Time Value} of those customers are hundreds and hundreds of dollars, 10x, 20x higher than anything you see in even the greatest mobile games. I would assume by the end of Q2 next year you’re going to see average CPIs above $5.”
From this article
Speaker's Corner: Niels Christian 
Written
on Oct 27, 13