smalltalk
February 12, 2009Use All Five, Inc.
- http://useallfive.com/
- Location:
- Venice, CA
From the Author:
smalltalk--it's the nonsense chatter that we as humans use to fill the spaces in between our meaningful communication. We use small talk to connect with each other, even if it means relating on a one-dimensional basis. Small talk makes it ok to communicate, even when there is nothing really to say.
When lost for words, what's the first cliche topic or thought to leave your mouth in order to break the ice? --the weather.
The weather affects us every single day. It's a driving force that connects us all. Furthermore, weather makes an impact on us no matter if we're inside or out, online or in the real-world. As humans we use weather conditions as reasoning for our current emotions, change in habits, or timing. On any given day, our friends' Facebook, Twitter, and GTalk status messages consist of the normal daily minutiae of on and offline life. The status message is an opportunity to generate a potential dialogue, grounded in small talk. The broadcast potential of one-to-many allows for our message to be carried across a variety of mediums and to countless individuals.
When changes happen in the larger system, a pattern tends to emerge where individuals use the status message to broadcast their own feelings about the change for their community to see.
As the weather change registers across the social sphere, so does its visibility to people who might not have witnessed the weather itself. However, the weather has the ability to 'go viral' in a sense, and create second and third-hand musings on the weather change. Thus what might start as one person's disdain for the sprinkles on the hood of his car, becomes a torrential downpour as that singular comment ripples through the interlaced network of status messages.
If enough 'social weather' data is aggregated it can be used to form a multi-dimensional picture of the weather and the effect is has on our lives.
However, the triviality of the small talk and the topic of broadcast is what makes social weather mapping so interesting. We found this beautiful and hilarious at the same time.
Technology:
The data behind this visualization is acquired from Twitter's search API, aggregating from a pre-determined set of weather-related statements. When one of the statements is picked up, we determined its location, and mark it on the map using the geocoder functions of Google Maps, as well as Google's reverse geocoding tools to standardize addresses and locations. We built the visualization in JavaScript, using the HTML5 canvas element and the jQuery framework.
Comments
It's a little slow...
http://www.giuseppesicari.it
Reply to this commentWhat a cool idea. Interesting.
Reply to this commentThat was very cool. I'd like to see something similar where crowd intelligence is judged against weather maps. It would probably have more detail, as there are far more people than weather stations.
Reply to this commentThe time stamps on the tweets don't make sense. But it is fun.
Reply to this commenti gust want to say some thing "great job"
Update your Twitter randomly according to your intrest Or, from Rss Feed Or, from your own tweet message list Or, Any combination of the above three http://feedmytwitter.com
Reply to this commentReminds me of one of my current side-projects called SpringBoard... it's a flash-based multidimensional forum that allows conversations to split and conjoin across 2D space, delving into new layers of the z-axis for archives or private chats. It even allows people to sign up to administrate certain regions of the virtual canvas with markers that change how the whole SpringBoard interface is displayed, although individual users can customize how they display these styles.
Of course, it doesn't do any of that just yet. Work-in-progress and whatnot.
Reply to this commentWow, from the look of the you-tube video it seems that chrome runs it significantly more smoothly than FF3 on a macbook pro. Excellent demo, love the idea.
Reply to this commentVery cool! I like the ability to drill down into local areas. Graphics are professional and artistic at the same time.
Reply to this commenti like that, can we have the rest of the world tho! i was just watching it for about 10 minutes can you mak it so that once you click on one clicking off it will bring them all back up rather than having to click reset
Reply to this commentWhere's rest of the world?
Reply to this commentRest of the what? What are you talking about?
Reply to this commentI agree with BootedEagle, it'd be nice to have the other countries too, not just USA.
Reply to this commentThat was really cool. :)
Reply to this commentHmmm, US only. :(
Reply to this comment