Consumer Algorithmic Trading

Wouldn’t it be great if you’re driving by the local gas station and your in-car computer tells you that if you were to stop RIGHT NOW and fill up your tank you could fill the whole thing for $1 a gallon? If cars could talk to gas stations and tell them exactly how much gas you need and gas stations could talk to suppliers and find out how much they have sold this week and then add in other variables like nearby competitors, latest trends in the area, days of the week, and how low the station is willing to go on price etc. You could essentially apply the idea of Algorithmic Trading on a consumer scale.

Let’s say I walk into an electronics store and my phone registers me with the store’s computer. They would know I’m looking for a new TV. Well, they haven’t sold enough TVs this week, so I get a text message giving me a $100 off the model I’ve looked at online.

Doesn’t this sound good? Sign me up.

Mark Bell @BGSU

From BGSU Zoom News

Second Life expert to discuss research in virtual worlds

Second Life expert Mark Bell will discuss “The Future of Research in Virtual Worlds: Developing Virtual Data Collection Interfaces” at 6 p.m. March 16 in 308 Bowen-Thompson Student Union. His talk is part of the Tech Trends Series.

Bell’s research interests are in trust in mediated environments including virtual worlds, mobile networks and augmented reality. He is highly involved in the Second Life research community, managing the SL Researchers mailing list and presenting at several conferences, including NCA and AoIR. He has published on trust, web 2.0, Second Life, graphic novels and technical books. Bell has also developed an innovative virtual data collection interface for use in the virtual world of Second Life.

His talk is sponsored by the BGSU Virtual Campus in Second Life and Tech Trends.

FATE: Blowed Up

FATE Session Proposal 2011:
Blowed Up, or Reverse Engineering A Foundations Program

Imagine a Foundations Program where students must burn every project, superhero powers are assigned to each student, or classes are held in tents on the campus football field. This panel will examine 3 of the most creatively imagined Foundations Programs that will NEVER exist in order to discover the principles, objects or systems missing from the conventional Foundations Program. Presentations will feature video and/or illustrations in a mockumentary style format that aim deconstruct the inner workings of Foundations Programs to order reverse engineer a program that HAS thrown the baby out with the bath water. A discussion on the relevance of these ideas and their innovative underpinnings will follow.

Submissions should be thorough, witty, sarcastic, comical, intelligent AND utterly ridiculous. Panelists are barred from using more than 140 characters of text in any slides or speaking in a monotone. Performative, poetic, or other compelling presentation ideas are welcome! Conventional ideas or papers will NOT be accepted.

Going site-less?

There’s been a bunch of chatter over the last week about the so-called “site-less” web. See here, here, and Steve Rubel’s change of strategy here. I’m reconsidering the need for an “old fashioned” website anymore. Should I be pushing all of my content, be it blog, micro-blog, status update, photo upload, video artwork, etc to multiple feeds and sites collectively? Are making blog posts the same as making Facebook Notes?

For me, I have tried to maintain a sense of separate identity between my artistic endeavors and my educational technology work. I’m not so sure that makes sense anymore. Maybe I should be pushing my content to my Anthony Fontana fan page…

Big funny iPad

Apple’s iTablet finally leaked

Bound to happen before tomorrow’s announcement:

From Gizmodo

Totally Cool Dogs Pin-Up!

I think one of the best gifts I received this holiday season was a piece of art from artist Jory Griffis. It’s a pin-up from my graphic novel THE DOGS (click here to read it FREE online). I will add this pic to my Dogs site as soon as I can. Thanks Jory!!

Immersive Education: How Virtual Objects Have Meaning (UOIED)

A presentation I did at the University of Oregon’s Immersive Education Days conference on Immersive Education with virtual worlds and technology.

This presentation talks about how art can be used to understand the way virtual objects exist and thereby create “Immersion” in virtual worlds.

This slideshow has been modified from its original presentation for online viewing

What Google Wave Could/Should Be…

(Disclaimer: I’m not an expert or a programmer. I just see a need for better designed communication system.)

I think many people were disappointed last week when the 100k invites for Google Wave went out and everyone realized… Google Wave isn’t what they think it is. The consensus: Wave is a glorified (or confusing) email/chat system that has its own protocol for creating collaborative documents. Woo hoo.

What were we expecting Google Wave to be? I think most people expected a system that would merge email, chat (IM & SMS), with the communication of Facebook and Twitter streams (links, video, pics, and more). An all-in-one protocol for messaging perhaps?

Why it’s needed:
A number of APIs allow us to send SMS Tweets that update our Facebook feed. We can send an IM to update Twitter. We can email a picture to Flickr which updates our FriendFeed and perhaps that posts back to Twitter or Facebook. Right now these services and connections are spread out over a number of sites (and frankly, it’s very hard to keep track of what is updating where and when I do what?).

What Wave and its ‘bots’ (or programmable plug-ins that deal with Waves) could/should be is… an organizational tool for all the many forms of communication we use to interact with other people on a daily basis. Google seems to be the business ready for this, with products like Gmail, Gtalk, Google Voice, and the power of Google search. Facebook, according to CEO Zuckerberg, would love to be the number one form of communication on the planet. The first to sort out the mess that is 101 million ways of interacting and communicating, will win. It’s that simple.

How it should work:
An interactive all-in-one communication tool should:

• Be open and extensible
  • Any communication format can be sent to/from email, to IM or SMS, into World of Warcraft or Second Life (any game or site w/ chat), or translated into Japenese and sent as Voicemail, etc.
  • With my permission, any bot should be able to access certain Waves and make this happen. Right now, we grant these permissions through APIs for various sites/tools we use.
• Have algorithmic privacy controls
  • A public Wave about my recent surgery is automatically sent to only my family, close friends, and doctors. However, a Wave to my doctor is private. A link to melanoma goes to anyone interested in health (or at risk!).
• Be interoperable
  • A friend’s Wave about an NFL player comes to me because I am have that player on my Yahoo! Fantasy Football team. Another friend’s Wave about a player I am not interested in, does not come to me.
• Be verifiable
  • I should know who is communicating with me. A system that verifies identity on (at least) 3 platforms is needed to reduce spam and allow for more productive communication.

What it could do:
Besides allowing for Google, Facebook, and Twitter to use this new messaging protocol and still compete for your eyeballs on their brand/version of this one-stop-shop for communication, a system like this could be used for bigger and better things. First, I would assume that whatever system was created for this would have a mobile app on many phones, or at the very least be able to convert anything to SMS. Second, I would assume that this would be the protocol adopted and used for all communications systems: phone calls, emails, IM, chat, status updates (even collaborative docs). Again, this would allow all platforms to fight competitively about branding and front end design while still allowing users to ‘do more’ with their communications.

Now let’s say I am playing World of Warcraft and my wife is at the store. With the touch of a button I can send a /tell that will arrive as a text message on her phone. “Buy some milk”.

Someone could write a bot that would poll (Wave already has a polling bot) all Ohioans about the upcoming Issue to legalize gambling or even Obama’s healthchare plan. All verified user data could then be sent to my local representative or Senator. Talk about a powerful lobby for the people.

Add geographical locations in the mix and a 911 call about a man choking might send an SMS to a nearby doctor/paramedic and save someone’s life. “You are a registered paramedic. A man in a brown coat is choking at the restaurant next door. Can you assist?”

#sculpturefail

The newest piece in the #artfail series I’ve been working on:

An artwork titled “#sculpturefail” by Anthony Fontana. October, 2009. 700 pencils in a pile. Each pencil says “#artfail”.