Every year, the evil geniuses at WIRED Magazine put together a high-tech expo that showcases the global innovations that are transforming our world. They call it NextFest.

Now in its 5th year, this modern day World's Fair includes unique and bold exhibits, interactive art, games, robotics, and more. If you are into gadgets and geekery, then the 30-40 exhibits WIRED has planned will knock your Underoos off.



2008 is the 5th year of WIRED NextFest and the the city of Chicago is hosting again.

Over the past 5 five years, WIRED NextFest has drawn over 150,000 visitors combined in San Francisco (2004), Chicago (2005), New York (2006), and Los Angeles (2007).


Here are a few of the most anticipated WIRED NextFest 2008 exhibits that everyone is talking about:

Hoverit Lounger
Don't just sit - Hoverit. That's the slogan of this 2-person British design-oriented furniture startup. In what they promise is the first in a series of magnetic hover furniture, the experience is (according to the company) more like floating than sitting. The lounger's etheral appearance is accentuated by the designers choice of material, a clear acrylic plastic.

The acrylic is not a cushion, but the give of the magnetic forces acting beneath a persons body weight, is probably makes the experience quite different from a normal, earth-bound, rigid plastic chair.



HumanCar
The HumanCar just might be an eco-loving carpooler's dream come true. Four seats provide and a roof provide a measure of comfort, and four rowing handles (for human-powered battery charging) provide the power. HumanCar's first commercial vehicle, the Imagine, features an exoskeletal safety cage chassis with advanced steering built in, dual electric motors, and variable human power input. HumanCars will be manufactured in central Oregon.



Interactive Kiosk Prototype - EA Sports
Camera-based interaction with near photo-realistic animation of Dwayne Wade, NBA basketball star. The concept of interactive installations and kiosks based on this prototype is work for an upcoming Gillette corporate promotion that will include Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Derek Jeter, and Thierry Henry, and offer a platform for playing 1-on-1 interactive mini-games with sports stars. Overall, the platform uses a display, interactive camera, and digital animation hardware and software that are state of the art.

NextFest is free and open to the public. It's like a annual high-tech museum trade show exhibit.


WIRED NextFest: CHICAGO * Sept. 27 - Oct. 12, 2008 * MILLENNIUM PARK


To learn more about WIRED NextFest, summon the Internets to bring forth WiredNextFest.com.


methodshop

Labels: events, tech news

For the past few months, bloggers have been buzzing about the "Big Tent" at the #DNC08. Well, now that America's Democratic National Convention is underway, we finally got to see the Big Tent in action. The Big Tent is a facility for the alternative media hosted by DailyKos, the Sustainability Alliance and ProgressNow, with Digg, YouTube, and Google as corporate sponsors.

The two-story tent was made available for alternative and indy journalists and bloggers who didn't have a home base to report from for the political conventions. Everyone from small town soccer moms to Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, is blogging from the Big Tent in Denver.

The Big Tent is very luxurious compared to dirty cramp press rooms frequented by traditional press. Journalists and bloggers who signed up for a slot in the 8,000 square-foot facility get unlimited access to WiFi, phone/iPod/laptop charging stations, yoga classes, 10 minute massages, smoothies, comfy couches, a baby changing area and live entertainment. Oh yeah, food and drinks are included as well and the free beer starts at 1pm. The Big Tent is even handicapped accessible. I wouldn't be surprised if some traditional journalists decided to work "off site" in the Big Tent and avoid the skanky press rooms all together.



Flickr photos by socalmom and Steve Rhodes

At only $100 a pop, the Big Tent won't make back their total investment, let alone profit off of the 500 bloggers who booked time in the facility. So what do sponsors like Google gain by providing Big Tent services to bloggers? First of all, Google is getting a lot of exposure and press (this article included). Google also gets to promote their software and services, like Google Docs, Picasa and Blogger, to influential journalists and bloggers. Google has even included a kiosk in the public area of the tent where anyone can post videos on YouTube. Google will also have a major presence at next week's #RNC08 and demo some real time video search tools.


Flickr photo by socalmom

This year, the Democratic National Convention has credentialed more than 120 blogs but that's not nearly enough. People aren't content being spectators anymore, they want to participate using Internet tools like Twitter, blogs and YouTube. The privately funded Big Tent is meant to handle the overflow but it's already overflowing.

With MSNBC's facility down the street from the Big Tent, it will be interesting to compare mainstream versus alternative journalism's location facilities.

*MethodShop.com is powered by Blogger.


methodshop

Labels: events, tech news

While attending a Personal Democracy Forum panel titled "New Ways of Making (and Spending) Money Online," Kate Kaye from ClickZ News presented 2 charts showing online ad spending by U.S. Presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during their Democratic primary runoff.

Based on FEC filings compiled by ClickZ News, Obama outspent Clinton 6:1 online. Obama also geotargeted his ads, especially in North Carolina, and helped voters find local polling places. As a result, Obama's campaign ads accumulated millions of online impressions and helped Obama secure North Carolina. Did the Clinton campaign underestimate the power of Internet advertising?




The Obama campaign spent $3 million dollars online between January and April 2008





In comparison, Hillary Clinton only spent $500k online between the end of 2007 and April 2008

Notice anything missing from these charts? Google is gobbling up all the advertising money and big name news sources like New York Times and MSNBC.com are completely missing.

Are ad buyers making a mistake? When it comes to political advertising, what's more valuable - cheap clicks or niche audiences?



BlogAds.com CEO, Henry Copeland, goes over his notes before participating the Personal Democracy Forum panel titled "New Ways of Making (and Spending) Money Online"


methodshop

Labels: advertising, events, tech news

http://www.methodshop.com/2008/06/twitter-intergration-into-modern.shtmlI'm sitting in the Rose Hall at the Personal Democracy Fourm #PDF2008 right now at Lincoln Center and they've placed power ports throughout the main auditorium. They've also installed an almost spotless high speed WiFi Network.

Why? Almost every attendee at this conference is a blogger, reporter, or podcaster?







While the presence of power and WiFi makes life easier for bloggers, it also puts a lot more pressure on the speakers. Having a laptop in front of you while a boring speaker is on stage is a powerful distraction.

For example, Jonathan Zittrain just left the stage. He gave an amazing lecture based on his upcoming book "The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It." When Zittrain was on stage, the quiet background noise of fingers typing disappeared.

But what happens when there's a bad speaker on stage? Just take a look around at the laptop screens. Blogging and word processing windows get minimized and people start checking their Facebook pages and email.

Twitter has also been fully integrated into the modern expo or conference. A few years ago, only hardcore techies were using Twitter at a conferences. But now you can Tweet using a variety or clients on your mobile phone or laptop. Conference organizers know this and several conferences like PDF have used Twitter scanning services like Sumerize.com and Twemes.com to take questions from remote attendees and even people sitting in the audience.





Just add a # symbol to your Twitter Tweet and Twemes will automatically add it to a separate page for an event. Here's the Twemes page for #pdf2008 if you want to check it out: http://twemes.com/pdf2008






methodshop

Labels: events, social networking, tech news

While attending the 2008 Personal Democracy Forum in New York City today, we got to spend some time with Gary from Meetup.com.

Meetup.com is a networking portal that (based on what happened here yesterday John McCain will probably never use) helps organize face-to-face group meetings of people with common interests. The site is very easy to use. Users just enter their ZIP code and search for topic they want to meet about. The website then helps them find a group and arrange meeting times and places.




So who what kind of groups are on Meetup.com? The groups vary from Knitting clubs and Britpop fans (see image below) to Ron Paul supporters.



Why is Meetup.com here at the Personal Democracy Forum conference (#pdf2008)? Because local groups are powerful... especially in politics.

In 2004, the Howard Dean U.S. presidential campaign was able to quickly mobilize thousands of supporters using Meetup.com. More recently, former 2008 US Presidential hopeful Ron Paul was able to take advantage of Meetup's services. Ron Paul still has over 97k members on the site and over 1,500 global groups. Why? Once organized, groups can reorganize themselves, change leadership and even evolve their focus. For example, after Ron Paul's 2008 bid for President ended, his supporters transitioned into "Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty" and were able to continue promoting awareness around issues that the group members had in common.

When Meetup first launched in 2002, the site organizers first tried to arrange meetings of its members in unfamiliar venues and around topics people weren't entirely interested in meeting about. Since then, Meetup has stepped back and let their users take charge. Meetup just provides tools like iCal and RSS feeds, announcements and step-by-step tutorials for organizers.

So the next time you need to find a group of romance novel fans, iPhone software developers, hikers, poker players, Barack Obama supporters or even lesbians with breast cancer, just head on over to Meetup.com and use their online tools to take your life offline.


methodshop

Labels: events, tech news

UPDATE: Paramount spokeswoman Brenda Ciccone made this statement in response to reports that Paramount is abandoning the HD-DVD format: "Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD-DVD format." The statement didn't specify if Paramount would also produce Blu-ray DVDs in addition to HD-DVDs. It will be interesting to see how this story pans out.

According to the Financial Times, Paramount is going to drop their support for Toshiba's HD-DVD after Warner Brothers pulled out of the HD-DVD camp last Sunday night. This will most likely put the final nail in the coffin of the HD-DVD format and end the biggest home entertainment format war since Betamax vs. VHS.

I just gave the bad new to one of the guys in the Toshiba booth at #CES. He wasn't happy. Their HD-DVD focused booth looks a little silly now.

Why the sudden switch? Why did Paramount go over to Sony's Blu-ray so quickly? Insiders are saying that a clause in Paramount's contract allowed the company to drop HD-DVD in the event that Warner Bros decided to back Blu-ray.

Paramount currently distributes DreamWorks Animation films and many believe that DreamWorks will probably follow Paramount over to the Blu-ray camp.




Blue-ray Members:

• Warner Brothers
  
• Walt Disney
• 20th Century Fox
  
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Paramount (rumor)
  
• DreamWorks (rumor)
• Sony Pictures
• Sony PlayStation
  

HD-DVD Members:

• Universal Studios
  
• The Weinstein Company
• Microsoft Xbox
  

Paramount would have been a major content producer for HD-DVD. Paramount has several major blockbusters being released this year including the latest installment in the Indiana Jones franchise.


methodshop

Labels: ces, events, tech news, video

While I'm getting over jet lag and waiting for the press office at CES to open so I can pick up my badge I thought I'd blog about the DVD format wars...

Last night, on the eve of the CES, Warner Bros. delivered what may turn out to be the decisive blow against the HD-DVD format.

Warner Bros. one of the largest publisher of DVDs in Hollywood, announced it will back the rival Sony-developed Blu-ray format exclusively starting on June 1, 2008. This means 5 of the top 7 movie studios have all gone Blu-ray.



Obviously the Warner Brothers announcement made the HD-DVD group (Toshiba/Microsoft/Intel) crap their pants. In fact Toshiba canceled a scheduled press event and claims to be "quite surprised" by the decision.

I don't know why people even argue for HD-DVD. Blu-ray has more storage. A dual layer Blu-ray disc can hold 50 GBs compared to HD-DVD with only 30 GB. Isn't more better?


methodshop

Labels: ces, events, video