Looking to create better communications channels for families who live far from each other, Mimi Son, a designer from the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design has created the “Here and There” diary object.

Futurist Mark Pesce gave a fascinating speech at the Personal Democracy Forum last month. He explained how two different kinds of power structures (autopoietic, or self-generating, and hierarchical) will increasingly come into conflict because of their radically contrasting operating procedures. Using the recent battle between the church of Scientology and Wikipedia as an example, Pesce describes how hyperconnected, power-sharing, hyperintelligent (where shared knowledge increases the intelligence of all participants) groups chip away at the classic, top-down hierarchies of the state and other such power structures.
He explains:
In order to avoid catastrophe, the state – and any institution which attempts to [...]

In the true spirit of DIY culture, skillshares operate under the notion that access to education is a right rather than a commodity and that everyone has knowledge to share, making every individual both a student and a teacher. Their mission is to bring people together and create a reciprocal community based on learning, sharing and doing. A quick internet search reveals groups already formed in both Boston and Austin, but nothing in the NYC environs, until now.
Brooklyn Skillshare’s inaugural event will take place October 10th at the Gowanus Studio Space, offering classes on topics that range from kombucha brewing and [...]

Hugh MacLeod has an interesting thought piece on his site Gaping Void about why some blogs get more popular than others. He argues that blogs like BoingBoing are popular not just because of great content but also because of having “sociality” baked in. He says that BoingBoing’s content is fun to share – that the posts are social objects. MacLeod says:

In an effort to build on the micro-finance model of giving popularized by Kiva, new non-profit organization Jolkona – a Bengali word meaning “drop of water” – has incorporated elements of social media – community, connectivity and sharing – into their design, a move it hopes will appeal to a younger generation of philanthropists. On the surface, the system is far from new – pick a project and give money (as little as $5) – but where most donations end, with you feeling a temporary wave of good will, Jolkona wants to continue the story and make the process more [...]

Robin Chase , founder of Zipcar and the community carpooling website GoLoco, spoke to GOOD Magazine recently about several ideas that have been really getting us excited recently: the “product as service” model, opensource innovation and multipurpose design. In discussing her thoughts on the power of sharing, Chase refers to the idea of  ”excess capacity,” an object’s potential when not in use. As is the case with most of the physical items that we own, this additional capacity goes untapped, while we continue to assume all of the associated costs. 
With both our economy and environment suffering the effects of dwindling [...]

Like a Netflix for toys, Baby Plays is a subscription service that will send you a set number of toys on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. The basic plan sends out 5 different toys for babies and children to play with every 60 days for $26.99. And at the top end, you can get  10 toys every 30 days for $64.99.
The service carries a variety of toys, including more educational fare for children up to age 5. Similar to Netflix, you can hold on to any of the toys for as long as you want, which just reduces the number [...]

Technology is generally meant to make life easier, but often users are bogged down in complicated process with programing, uploading and sharing their many different gadgets.  Eye-Fi, the maker of location-aware memory cards that can wirelessly upload data, has continued to expand their capabilities.  Just this week, they added a new card that can wirelessly upload video and another that can automatically geotag your video.
The system automatically uploads your data onto sites you deem appropriate, such as Flickr, YouTube or Facebook. The newest geotagging-enabled card automatically labels your photos by location and lets you upload from more than 10,000 WiFi [...]

The world of storing and sharing digital information has vastly expanded and improved in recent years.  Now a new device, dubbed the Leyio, hopes to push the rarely used ultra-wide band technology into a new direction for communication with digital data.  The premise of the device is to allow, “for the first time, the digital generation…to take their online experience offline.”  It’s essentially a tiny storage product that can be paired with other Leyios to share information.
The 16 GB memory can be connected to a regular USB stick, a computer with the included dongle or with other users through a [...]

Enabled by the connectivity and community sourcing abilities of the web, we’re now more than ever able to share what we know. In both real world meet-ups and online forums, people are coming together to teach and learn from each other.