Our conversation stems from a post John had written on Thinkubator this summer, The Message-Oriented Life. In it, John discusses a dream he once had where he thought he was a highly-evolved version of GMail that automatically filtered and sorted electronic communication based on the implied desires of the user at any certain time. John sees such a unified messaging platform as a potential solution to the problems of email deluge and information overload. Being a dream, however, such a vision is wide open for interpretation and we try and flesh out some of these ideas through an understanding of user behaviour, Twitter, pre-blog online culture, and these things called “books”.

Later in the podcast we cite the controversy created by an interview between Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson and the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, where Anderson suggests that the future of “media” will be done by hobbyists moreso than professionals. To quote the (rather hostile) interview, “In the past, the media was a full-time job. But maybe the media is going to be a part time job. Maybe media won’t be a job at all, but will instead be a hobby.” Besides the controversial statement, it’s a good interview that hints on many of the same ideas that we discuss here: how professional publishing works in an era where amateur publishers have more clout than ever; and how making a business-case for a professional publishing operation is becoming harder and harder, among other things.

Rather fittingly, the conversation ends on the subject of infrastructure and the political importance of users having a controlling interest in our day-to-day communications infrastructure.

We look forward to having John in the studio again for another talk, and maybe by then Canadians will have wrestled our digital communications away from the giant telecomms and we can talk about John’s new cell phone. You can follow the activities of CCSP and the SFU Master of Publishing program on Thinkubator (a project in which Lift was happy to assist in), or get to know JMax on Twitter.

Originally thought of an exercise in talking about productivity, we eventually decided that we’d talk about all aspects on living and working on the web (and some other stuff, too). Go figure. Anyway, you get a ton of links for free.

We mention a lot of places online in this podcast, so without further adieu here’s a run down of all our favourite things organized by person:

Andrea

One site I visit every day without fail: IXDA discussion list, Delicious and The New York Times

One site I think needs a serious re-design: Vancouver Public Library

One site I think is very well designed is: Word of Warcraft Armory

My online guilty pleasure is: Perez Hilton

One site that has improved my productivity or workflow is: Basecamp, ProjectPier and Fireburg

One site that has destroyed my productivity or workflow is: Facebook and YouTube

One person I recommend to follow on Twitter is: Gong Szeto

One site I used to follow is: k10k (and by the way, it’s .net, not .org)

My favourite blog is: Design With Intent

My favourite internet personality is: Ze Frank

One thing that has gone viral that I still think is absolutely hilarious: LOL cats

My favourite social networks are: Twitter and Delicious

My favourite social networking tool is: Tweetie, TweetDeck and Spaz

My favourite design-related sites are: Core77 and Johnny Holland

My favourite web development-related site is: Stack Overflow, or Drupal and WordPress Codex

My favourite piece of software is: Linux

My favourite piece of hardware is: my laptop

My favourite web app or web technology is: Apache

One technology that I’d love to sink my teeh into but haven’t yet is: mobile apps (especially for location-based and alternate-relaity gaming)

The one site I’d like to give some props is: Development Seed

My favourite font is: Verlag

My favourite colour is: orange

The year I first went online is: 1984 or 1985

The first thing I did online was: something with Gopher, reading news or something

The one essential non-techy item that helps my productivity is: coffee

Cam

One site I visit every day without fail: The New York Times

One site I think needs a serious re-design: TransLink

One site I think is very well designed is: Tilt Design Studio

My online guilty pleasure is: Perez Hilton

One site that has improved my productivity or workflow is: Lift Studios Wiki (Sorry, we can’t share everything.)

One site that has destroyed my productivity or workflow is: Vice and VBS.tv

One person I recommend to follow on Twitter is: Questlove

One site I kind of miss is: Yahoo! Homepages circa a bunch of years ago

My favourite blog is: NotCot

My favourite internet personality is: Perez Hilton

One thing that’s gone viral that I still think is absolutely hilarious is: Demetri Martin

My favourite social network is: Twitter

My favourite social networking tool is: Twitterific

My favourite design-related site is: NotCot

My favourite web development-related sites are: Drupal and WordPress

My favourite piece of software is: Flash

My favourite piece of hardware is: my laptop

My favourite web app or web technology is: Flash

One technology that I’d love to sink my teeh into but haven’t yet is: Flex

The one site I’d like to give some props is: Craigslist

My favourite font is: Univers (sans-serif) and Lubalin Graph (serif)

My favourite colour is: black

The year I first went online is: 1995 or 1996

The first thing I did online was: linked two computers together to play Duke Nukem with friends

The one essential non-techy item that helps my productivity is: a sketchbook and a pen

Frederick

One site I visit every day without fail: GMail

One site I think needs a serious re-design: TransLink

One site I think is very well designed is: It’s Nice That

My online guilty pleasure is: Very censored.

One site that has improved my productivity or workflow is: W3C Validator

One site that has destroyed my productivity or workflow is: YouTube

One person I recommend to follow on Twitter is: Nice Web Type

Frederick doesn’t miss about the web back in tha day.

My favourite blog is: Mind Hacks

Frederick can’t even think of an internet personality.

One thing that has gone viral that I still think is absolutely hilarious: Halt! Hammerzeit.

My favourite social network is: MySpace

My favourite design-related site is: Google images

My favourite web development-related site is: Google, again

My favourite piece of software is: Reason

My favourite piece of hardware is: my filter bank

My favourite web app or web technology is: email

One technology that I’d love to sink my teeh into but haven’t yet is: iPhone and mobile apps

The one site I’d like to give some props is: Ted

Frederick doesn’t have a favourtite and is really boring when it comes to favourite questions. And his favourite colour is grey.

The year I first went online is: 1988

The first thing I did online was: hooked into his school’s bulletin board and played video games with friends

The one essential non-techy item that helps my productivity is: paper and some pens

Haig

One thing I do online every day: watch a Ted Talk

One site I think needs a serious re-design: Drupal

One site I think is very well designed is: Yugop’s Nagaoka Institute of Design Gallery Collection

My online guilty pleasure is: VBS.tv

One site that has improved my productivity or workflow is: Things

One site that has destroyed my productivity or workflow is: VBS.tv

One person I recommend to follow on Twitter is: L316H

One site I miss is: CBC Radio3 online magazine

My favourite blog is: Guerrilla Innovation

Haig doesn’t have a favourite internet personality.

One thing that’s gone viral that I still think is absolutely hilarious is: Dan Deacon and Liam Lynch’s Drinking Out of Cups.

My favourite social network is: Delicous

My favourite social networking tool is: Twitterific

My favourite design-related site is: Smashing Magazine

My favourite web development-related site is: Peep Code

My favourite piece of software is: TextMate

My favourite piece of hardware is: my Stratocaster

My favourite web app or web technology is: Ruby on Rails

One technology that I’d love to sink my teeh into but haven’t yet is: Django (Sorry, we got the URL wrong on the video.)

The one site I’d like to give some props is: Pixton

My favourite font is: Aksidenz Grotesk

My favourite colour is: sky blue

The year I first went online is: 1993

The first thing I did online was: talked to a concert promoter in Montreal using IRC

The one essential non-techy item that helps my productivity is: walking

Travis

One site I visit every day without fail is: Quipsologies

One site I think needs a serious re-design is: Brock University

One site I think is very well designed is: Interpol (not Interpol)

My online guilty pleasure is: Facebook

One site that has improved my productivity or workflow is: Google

One site that has destroyed my productivity or workflow is: Wikipedia

One person I recommend to follow on Twitter is: Fireland

One site I used to visit a lot back in tha day is: Exploding Dog

My favourite blog is: 1001 Rules for my Unborn Son

My favourite internet personality is: Merlin Mann

One thing that has gone viral that I still think is absolutely hilarious: Hey Ya! Charlie Brown

My favourite social network is: flickr

My favourite social networking tool is: TweetDeck (or booze)

My favourite design-related site is: Quipsologies

My favourite web development-related site is: WordPress

My favourite piece of software is: InDesign or PhotoShop

My favourite piece of hardware is: my old iBook G4

My favourite web apps or web technologies are: BitTorrent and Google Maps

One technology that I’d love to sink my teeh into but haven’t yet is: Air, or lasers

The one site I’d like to give some props is: Print Liberation

My favourite font is: German Blackletter, circa 1600

My favourite colour is: bright orange

The year I first went online was: 1999

The first thing I did online was: go to the Seattle SuperSonics website

The one essential non-techy item that helps my productivity is: coffee

5 Common Myths About Open Source

Myth #1: Open Source is always free

Many people equate open source technologies to simply being free, but we delve into why this isn’t exactly true and clear up some of the confusion surrounding it.

Myth #2: Open Source is not high quality

The myth addressed here is that open source technologies aren’t very good — a myth which is entirely incorrect. Through our own experiences the Lift team reveals how they’ve come to the opposite conclusion: that open source technologies are very often of higher-quality than their propietary counterparts. Look all across the Web, examples of top notch quality are everywhere.

Myth #3: Support for Open Source software doesn’t exist

The helpfulness, accuracy and availability of support is always a major issue with any software — and to say open source software lacks in terms of good, accurate support is simply false. The open source community supports itself through forums and active communities. In that vein there is often much left to be desired when a select group of gatekeepers not only holds all the answers, but also controls the only means of finding them, as is the case with support for many non-OS products. A transparent development atmosphere with answers coming from other users of the software (as well as the traditional gatekeepers) is far more helpful and speedy. How helpful was it the last time you called a 1-800 number?

Myth #4: There is no security in Open Source

Security is a major concern when it comes to all web technologies, but then again, some of the most secure web technologies are Open Source (or OS in origin). Using WordPress as an example, the team looks into how security factors in to any open source project and why Open Source efforts are often just as or more secure than other propietary counterparts.

Myth #5: Making money in Open Source is impossible

Making money with open source products is very possible — however, the ways to do that simply aren’t as obvious. The Lift team discusses some successful examples in dispelling this myth, but admittedly comes to realize that monetizing open source efforts is tricky territory.

Open Source Resources

The Open Source Wikipedia entry is an obvious and apt place to start. The entries on the Open Source Initiative, Open Source definition, a history of Open Source, and business models for Open Source software are also great in-points to Open Source.

Regarding Open Source licenses, Jeff Atwood remarks on why all and any code should be released with some kind of license (he champions the WTFPL) and Grant Skinner echoes a similar sentiment, using Flash and Flex technologies as an example. Skinner’s article digs a little deeper into specifics about the various kinds of Open Source (and non-OS) licenses are available, classifying each of the most popular licenses in terms of what specifications each has in terms of commercial use, derivative works, and attribution.

Somewhat similarly, William Hurley explains why Open Source works especially well in adverse economic times. There’s also an excellent essay from Eben Moglen, a law prof at Columbia University Law School, on destroying corporate software monopolies and software as a public utility, among other things: “Freeing the Mind: Free Software and the Death of Propietary Culture”.

In terms of WordPress and licensing, Daniel Jalkut voices his displeasure, accusing WordPress of violating the Gnu Public License (GPL) — and Matt Mullenweg, one of WordPress’ founding devs, volleys with a response in defense of WordPress’ use of the GPL.

The Free Software Foundation is another good resource, especially this video in celebration of GNU’s birthday by Stephen Fry, as well as the Open Source Initiative. Creative Commons (which, we should mention, is not meant to be a license used for software) is also a great place to look. That may very well lead you to Flickr’s Creative Commons resource, the Flickr Commons, or the NFB-produced doc Rip: A Remix Manifesto, the latter of which sheds some important light on everything from mashups to medical patents with an Open Source flavour. Rip‘s accompanying site, Open Source Cinema, is a great model of an Open Source mentality applied to something other than software — in this case, film production and distribution.

In a similar movement to introduce Open Source-inspired principles into disciplines beyond the software world, Cameron Sinclair’s TED Talk on Open Source Architecture is a quick, but very inspiring, glimpse into the Open Architecture Network‘s effort to improve living conditions for the hundreds of millions of humans living in sub-human living conditions. The OAN is achieving this through Open Source principles, community, and innovative and sustainable design. (Haig actually speaks at some more length about Sinclair’s work and the OAN, praising them for great, innovative and purposeful work, but sadly that was left on the cutting room floor.) Not to be overlooked, some props should also go to Open Source Ecology, which is an initiative to create “tools to build replicable, open source, modern off-grid resilient communities using open source permaculture and technology to work together for providing basic needs and self replicating the entire operation at the cost of scrap metal.” Big words and huge ideas in that statement for sure, but in application the OSE details everything from Open Source Chicken, to Open Source Biofuels, to Open Source Soil Pulverizers.

The examples of Open Source initiatives in all fields of work and play are astounding. Open Source isn’t only changing the way we make and use software, but it’s improving how we eat, how we live, how we dance, and how we have fun. And overwhelmingly, it seems to be doing all that for the better.

As mentioned in the LSB, the internet is really just one humongous read/write machine built on Open Source technologies, and great resources about, for and against Open Source abound all throughout its vast networks of people, servers and signals. This is only a tiny amount of useful links and by no means a complete resource, so please share some more in the comments below. C’mon, open up.

In the tenth episode of LiFT Studios Broadcasts, Haig Armen interviews Kirsten Hall on user-centered information architecture. Haig and Kirsten initally discuss her early forays into interaction design and information architecture, later touching on how IA has evolved over her career and why you don’t need to be able to draw (well) to be a designer.

The interview focuses early on imagining “the user,” specifically on how linking user experience to information experience involves imagining real people in real scenarios. Tried and true methods of creative problem solving, such as walls covered in sticky notes, are covered too. Kirsten also suggests strategies for smaller businesses that don’t have the budget for extensive user-testing.

For more about Kirsten and her work, follow her on Twitter or check out her site.

A recently established and accredited non-profit, Save Your Logo is hoping to team up with brands who use plants and animals in their logos to raise funds to support those very same animals that adorn our polos, book spines and hockey teams. Corporate contributions will be held in trust in an endowment fund managed by reputable organizations such as the Global Environmental Facility, the World Bank, and the International Union for Nature Conservation and the Endowment Fund for Biodiversity. And better yet, the organization “will create the first global observatory for biodiversity using a multimedia platform to communicate about it programs, creating a community of people interested in plant and animal biodiversity and the health of the planet”. The goal here is to create community and promote biodiversity, which in the end is for everyone’s sake. A better planet for plants and animals means a better planet for people.

Of course, the design community knows full well that these corporate logos are not mere decoration, and that these icons and representations stand for a lot more than the simple images they appear to be. Case in point, the penguin. In everywhere from books, to software, to clothing and (once again) hockey, this awkward, docile and OMG cute! bird has represented a certain flightless tenacity, calmness and cool. Meanwhile in the deep deep south, these birds toil and struggle for survival in the harsh Antarctic cold as numbers dwindle and the polar ice melts beneath their feet. Of the 17-20 species of penguin still alive today, three are considered engandered (including colonies of the much-beloved Emperor Penguin). As recently as this year, scientists estimate that, “By the end of the century there could be just 400 breeding pairs of Emperor penguins left standing, a dramatic decline from the population of about 6,000 breeding pairs that existed in the 1960s”.

Yes, I’m being dramatic, but do these companies not have an obligation to support the animals that have supported them and been their very identity for so many profitable years? (And at the same time, is it not in their best interests to not have to rebrand because the face of their corporate image just became extinct?)

In many other cases the predominant images we have of many successful companies and organizations rest on the shoulders of animals: what is Disney without the mouse, what is John Deere without that yellow deer leaping swiftly across a green field, or Energizer without a bunny rabbit? And how many times have professional sports teams plastered the images of just about every living animal on the planet on T-shirts, jerseys and countless other pieces of merchandise? These companies, organizations and teams owe much of their success to these animals, and it’s about time to give back.

This of course speaks to ethical concerns within large corporate structures that commission these designs and promote these brands, but does it also speak to designers who use images of animals seemingly ad nauseum for these corporations? As corporations rampantly try to prove their responsibility to the planet and all living things on it, they should realize that it’s not just us people it’s affecting, but our animals (and graphic design!) too. In the end, it is designers who create the shapes and images, and for that we are responsible as well. The Save Your Logo campaign gives these companies a shot to give back to the animals that have given so much to various brands all over the globe.

Two brands (Lacoste and MAAF Assurances) have already joined in, but below in the comments I bet we can generate a list of a lot more that should.

If you’d like to get to know Todd better, you can find him at Corvus Consulting or on Twitter. For more information on Ma.gnolia, read Todd’s synopsis, Chris Messina’s blog, or follow along on Twitter.