Altacircle

Some of the guys at work recently sent around this youtube video of the Google Liquid Galaxy. 

It is a 20% project by Jason Holt, a Google engineer who took 8 LCD screens, added voice recognition and created a global observatory meets planetarium thing and presented it at TED.

If you think about putting one of these in schools and adding the ability to "zoom in" on webcams running in international cities, you have a real means of making geography more than fun, provide a better approach to teaching architecture, and to really connect people.  Could really breaking down the stereotypes and prejudices that build up when people have never traveled. 
 

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
–Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (1869)

Ever the techno-optimist, this is an easy one!
 

Google Liquid Galaxy live demo at TED

This will be an interesting one to see, how Google's Wave application or platform is adopted. It is ambitious. On it's surface the screenshot makes it look like some form of new social network, and that is where it could be end up. But the intent is much more profound.  It is like these guys got started and just couldn't stop.  It is amazing it works at all! –IM / E-mail integration for people online –in line editing of documents –image management –playback of all changes and gadget events And all opensource with ability to be hosted or used as a service. Can't wait to get an account to work with.  Need to bribe a google developer.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/went-walkabout-brought-back-google-wave.html

Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009

Will it get indexed?

Yes – Google never ceases to amaze.  20 minutes after creation … 2nd after Digg in organic search.

Will it get traffic?

Yes – 19 views faster then anything else on this blog in … 20 minutes.

Will it get people engaged?

Nope – doubtfully here.  First movers win and this NYU Lawyer blogger was up first.  Put up when it showed in the US and number 2 on Google (still a day later, until I put up mine, apologies) and 22 comments and counting.  Including mine which proves I didn’t come up with the idea. And others after which proves the idea isn’t dead.  Amazing.

What am I talking about?

Jon Stewart talked about googling “Richard Jenkins + Donkey” on his show this evening.  And of course I did.  As did others.  But then again I live in the UK so I was a day late.   And I DVR’d it so I was 10 minutes behind the UK live broadcast.  But when I saw the lawyer’s blog I couldn’t resist the test.  And it is still fun.

What does it prove?

Nothing drives traffic like good tv.

And sorry I couldn’t come up with a more rewarding set of images.

Check out Six Feet Under – great show if you haven’t seen it.