Andy Woodruff at Cartogrammar has created a series of maps that use Flickr as a paintbrush.

A Box Life encourages re-use by tracking the life and use of cardboard boxes.

A group of computer scientists from the University of Washington’s Graphics and Imaging Laboratory have created an algorithm that improves the technology behind Microsoft’s Photosynth to render massive environments in 3D.

Volkswagen have released a new campaign to support the launch of their latest vehicle, the VW Tiguan. Called The People’s Reviewer, they rolled out a search for a new type of car reviewer. Over 1000 people applied for the role via YouTube and email entries. This was whittled down to nine contestants, who were then given the opportunity to drive the Tiguan for a week, try out its features, and record a short video review. Starting September 3rd, the public will vote for the best, and the winner will take home a Tiguan. There’s something in it for the public [...]

PSFK is proud to announce news that we will host a Good Ideas Salon with YouTube next month. On 6th August 2009, PSFK and YouTube will host a Good Ideas Salon in the Bay Area. For the event, Mia Quagliarello (Product Marketing Manager – Community YouTube) will moderate a panel of community experts — Jen Burton (Senior Community Manager, Digg), Heather Champ (Director of Community, Flickr) and Matthew Stinchcomb (VP – Community, Etsy) — to discuss what can be learned from the passionate people who visit these sites, how relationships are fostered at scale, ways to engage with users, and [...]

Getty Images has partnered with Flickr to create “The Flickr Collection” – a collection of images that reflects the passion of a community of photographers worldwide, featuring uniquely personal images with an authenticity rare in stock photography.  The featured Flickr photos cover a range of subject matter and are available in rights-managed and royalty-free licenses.
This collection is geared towards creative professionals who rely heavily on imagery for their daily work. PSFK has partnered with Getty Images and will be testing their new Flickr Collection during the months of July and August.
We will be featuring images from the collection in [...]

People are sharing bit.ly briefened links to video taken and uploaded minutes before and other protesters in Tehran hold their phones up high to record and share their activity with Iran and the outside world.
The developments in the use of the web to share, access, edit and discuss information about the crisis in Iran show just how modern news organizations are failing to deliver news in the way the public want to seek it.
Iranians and observers abroad are using right this minute Twitter, blogs, Flickr and YouTube to share information about what is happening within Iran at a speed that [...]

Chili’s new ad campaign, centered around the cheeky mockery of imaginary rival “PJ Bland’s,” is making the web and social media strategies of the latter a surprising priority; cardboard-only eatery PJ Bland’s sports a Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube, presence, while the real restaurant still lacks all three.
[via MediaPost]

GOOD Magazine has made an archive of its wonderfully designed ‘Transparencies’ series of infographics available on Flickr. The images span myriad graphic styles and cover compelling, disparate topics, from global sugar consumption to public transit.
[via Kottke]

In the past month, a debate about photographic techniques has developed over the best method of capturing an image effectively.  A recent essay on the New York Times Lens Blog argues that so-called “slow photography” allows the photographer to find the right moment and frame everything precisely.  Fred R. Conrad discusses more in his essay, Slow Photography in an Instantaneous Age:
One advantage of using larger formats is that the process is slower. It takes time to set up the camera. It takes time to visualize what you want.
When doing portraits, it enables the photographer to talk and listen to subjects, [...]

Using 35 million geotagged photographs from Flickr, David Crandall and a team from Cornell University have created accurate global and city maps from the data alone. Plotting the raw data from the photos (geotags, text descriptions, key visual features) onto a blank canvas revealed the planet’s familiar landscape, as well as  where in the world people were placing their attention. They also discovered some interesting facts from the experiment, such as: New York is the world’s most photographed city (12 million images), and the midtown Apple Store is the fifth most photographed location in the city.
[New Scientist via The Morning [...]

Following their ‘Kindness as Currency’ TV ad which debuted last week, Absolut is engaging with people in a range of surprising ways this week in London. All around the city, the brand is handing out freebies to people who perform an act of kindness, which could be as simple as smiling at someone. At cinemas in Islington and Clapham, customers exchanged high-fives and compliments for free snacks and drinks, and in Shoreditch and Soho, a simple smile earned people a free coffee. Details of upcoming ‘kindness’ events for the rest of the week are being posted on the Absolut Kindness [...]

The folks at Information Architects recently unveiled their annual web trend map overlaid on the Tokyo subway system.  While others also map information on familiar subway maps, this version charts the complexity of the year’s web trends in remarkable simplicity.
iA evaluated the web’s 333 most influential domains and paired them with 111 equally influential Internet personalities.  The design team visually represented each site based on stability, success and web category.  The Tokyo subway proved ideal for their layout as each line could be differentiated with data and visual representation.  Interestingly, Twitter is located in the Shibuya neighborhood as it generated [...]

Bustbright has put together an impressive collection of science and tech ads from magazines of the 50s and 60s.  Check out the full Flickr set here.