Inventing for the Internet the Early Years

Over on the Inventor Blog, I have just posted on Inventing for the Internet – the Early Years. Below is a brief synopsis but please see the post for the examples.

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Here is a look at inventing for the Internet written in 2005 looking back over the ten year period from 1995 up to 2005. In general, the focus was on making new use of the medium:

1. People can interact to make content not just view content
2. People can communicate with each other
3. A computer mediates to enforce rules of a game or environment
4. Production and distribution of virtual objects are free

Other inventive focus was the relation between story and game play. Sometimes a story would suggest game play but usually a relevant story was created for a given game play.

Here are the comments about inventing features for the Internet in the early years. Many of these ideas would have relevance being redone in today’s social media aware world – because we were socially aware in the past but perhaps did not quite have the platforms and sharing systems worked out.

Inventions for 2005 – 2010 will be the focus of the next posting.

Enjoy – Dan Zen – Full Post

Eye See You – Birch Forest Pictures

Just went down to Sulfur Creek in Dundas and walked around in a little circle about a city block. Found all sorts of fungus and birch trees, etc. Here is the Photoshoot Zen Picture Pan Zoom and a few pictures from it are posted on my FlickR site.

Spell of a Fractured Land

A photoStory has been posted on Zen Picture Pan Zoom and a few pictures from it are posted on my FlickR site.

Zen Alarm – Play Any MP3

Zen Alarm is an alarm clock that comes with two alarm sounds – a gong and a special message. But, users can type any MP3 and it will play it as the alarm – pretty cool huh?

Go to the site, read the quick instructions and bookmark your alarm – or download a desktop version…

The link to put a Zen Alarm on your Google home page is here:

http://googlemodules.com/?q=danzen&mode=showSearchResults

ZEN ALARM 2.0 just launched with an added feature to allow you to pop up a Web site after a certain amount of time. Also, the alarm does not go off until you select a type of alarm.

Experimental Pictures

Just posted a few experimental pictures I did in the workshop by hanging a camera on a string over a candle and a black light strip. You then set the shutter speed to about 8 seconds and swing or spin the camera around. Examples with moog from my old band thee Gnostics (site to come some day) are up on Zen Picture Pan Zoom and a copy are posted on my FlickR site.

Predict-A-Poll Predicting and Voting at Once

Predict-A-Poll is a poll portal and tool where you can predict polls as you vote in them. You can create your own polls that will show on the portal. If you want, you can post the polls on your Blog or Website. You can also make private polls.

The results show the predictions and the actuals so you can see if you are predictable and if you are good at predicting! Results are also graphed and analyzed.

Polls are organized by keywords and display context sensitive merchandise using a cool little mini mall from Chitika. Click the link under the mall if you are interested in putting a mini-mall on your site. Send the link to a friend if you think they would be interested.

Zen Picture Pan Zoom

Zen Picture Pan Zoom is a picture tool for you and a picture site.

Pictures will slide horizontally and vertically as you move your mouse in the direction you want to go. Click on the picture to zoom to a spot then click-drag to pan or click again to zoom again. Double click to exit zoom. POP pops up a window and FIT makes the picture fit. When all pictures are loaded, a triangle appears at bottom right. Click the triangle to show a menu. Drag the pictures in the menu to scroll them – click to choose a picture. You can also use arrows to jump to previous and next pictures and spacebar to pause.

You can see your own pictures in ZPPZ within 5 minutes by clicking Download Tool above. Send us a link and we might post them!

WannaGet – Collecting Game for Collectors

WannaGet is the collecting game for a collection of collectors ;-). And it is designed specifically for content creators – like site owners and Bloggers – to offer their viewers something fun.

You can collect items in a number of topics (like Harry Potter, Narnia, James Bond) and as more providers create sites, there will be more items to collect. You get points for collecting – click to read the rules and play!

Zen Dots – Compact Timeline Tool

Zen Dots is a time line tool that lets you efficiently view a timeline and associated data. As the viewer, you can expand or contract the scale of the timeline and drag the timeline to view various event descriptions. As the creator, you can set the dates, the colors, and the descriptions which are HTML.

Download the zip file for all you need to create your own timelines. It uses an XML configuration and data file. Alternatively, the tool, less the HTML output field, is available as a Flash component so you can use the timeline slider as an interface to control different types of descriptions.

Zen Deck – Card Viewer

Zen Deck was created when building Rich Deck as a generic card viewer. Whenever you build a feature you can often make a tool so other people can build the same type of feature. Zen Deck was modified quite heavily for Rich Deck but the core still stayed generic. Zen Deck is used for the current main interface for Dan Zen.

Other samples of the tool can be found here: Flash Deck and Flash Goddess

Zen Deck reads in an XML configuration and data file. It is fairly customizable in terms of colors and content. The layout and functionality is rigid. You can download the zip file with all you need to set up a Zen Deck feature of your own. See the “About” link in Zen Deck for the download link.

Zen Picture – Sliding Picture Presentation Tool

One of the most useful Dan Zen tools, Zen Picture shows pictures in a unique and efficient way. It slides horizontal pictures horizontally and vertical pictures vertically without a break. Zen Picture also lets you apply captions which with the continuous feel of movement, lends well to story telling. We have an upcoming version where sound can be added overall or to specific pictures.

It has been called “a very civilized way to view pictures” and said that “Zen Picture has made me interested in using pictures to tell stories and finding connections between pictures”. This, we believe, differentiates Zen Picture from tradition picture viewers.

It is our hope to have photographers use the tool and post their presentations in the public area.

You can download a Zen Picture zip file with all you need to make Zen Picture work. Currently, Dan Zen has made about fifty Zen Picture presentations and has gotten quite good at using the tools efficiently.