fernandorizo.typepad.com

extrinsic reward systems are the new black

Huffington Post launched "badges" today, which means that soon your Facebook friends will all know that you've looked at 20 "cutest baby bump!" slideshows. Niche early adopter/Web nerd favorites like TheSixtyOne and Foursquare have been doing this for a while, but you heard it here first: extrinsic reward systems are mainstream.

I'll put money on the New York Times launching a classed-up badge system by the time their paywall goes up, if anyone wants to take that bet.

links for 2010-04-29

• Gordon-Brown-on-the-Jerem-006.jpg (JPEG Image, 460x276 pixels)
  Remarkable picture of Gordon Brown being interviewed after the story of his calling a Labour voter a "bigoted woman" conquered the afternoon news cycle in the UK today. 28 April 2010.
  (tags: politics gordon_brown uk photos facepalm)

links for 2010-04-28

• The Web - Comixed - 4 panel comic strip (yonkoma or 4koma)
  "I'll just browse the web for a few minutes".

  The story of my life.

  
  
  (tags: via_Brendon_Troy comic humor indianajones)
  
  
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  Information is beautiful: war games | News | guardian.co.uk
  
  
  National military budgets re-examined. The US's military budget famously dwarfs any other nation's, but as a proportion of GDP it's smaller than many other defence budgets.
  
  
  (tags: politics military us spending economy guardian)
  
  
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  I'm not the messiah, says food activist – but his many worshippers do not believe him | World news | The Guardian
  
  
  Followers of the Scottish mystic Benjamin Creme think that writer and economic activist Raj Patel is the messiah, but he doesn't agree.
  
  
  (tags: messiahs fringe_religions religion Share_International guardian)
  
  

links for 2010-04-15

• The Dawn of Facebook’s People-organized Web
  Liz Gannes writing in January 2010 on how Facebook is planning to expand Facebook Connect to create a "people-organized Web" - a great insight.

  If the rise of the Weblog and Web 2.0 were about filtering information for other people, then a people-organized Web is an evolution of that: a people-centric Web, one where a user profile and friends activity stream is at the heart of the entire Web experience.

  
  
  (tags: socialnetworks socialmedia webculture internet facebook)
  
  
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  The words David Foster Wallace circled in his dictionary. - - Slate Magazine
  
  
  DFW's complete collection of books and all of their marginalia was included when the University of Texas' Ransom Center acquired his estate. These are words he had circled in his American Heritage Dictionary for some reason.
  
  
  (tags: david_foster_wallace Writing language literature posthumous via_MetaFilter)