With the iPhone buzz, rippling into business as usual mode, what I am stoked about is the idea of rich mobile connection. It just makes sense to have in-flight access to the world. Why be chained to a clunky monitor, flat or otherwise.

With the convergence of social (web 2.0) media and Apple’s lead on accessible mobile devices, we can live life, and stay connected with old and new important things in our lives. Maybe the MIT $100 laptop for every child, should actually be in the form of a mobile device. As speech recognition and touch screen technology evolves, we can finally get ride of the keyboard + mouse hardware band aids and stop hurting our posture unnecessarily.

What I am equally excited about is how mobile devices will continue to shape the design of content. With the optimization of sound, movement, size, color and emphasis, as always old ideas will be taking shape in new form. What we can expect is stunning and concise visual information.

This Global Warming Effects interaction is a an effective use of information design and interactivity. - someone dugg this AM.

National Geographic continuously delivers effective informal learning content by incorporating effective design elements.

They utilize grid, color and emphasis, which engages the user and raises their information to the top.

They also deliver amazing podcasts, videos and games to target different learning styles. They even incorporate personalization in some of their games to help with engagement. The graphics, animation and video editing are quite spectacular. Check them out.

Have you seen the Gnarls Barkley (stellar) performance of “Crazy” on Mtv awards, with the band decked out in Star Wars gear, which included Chewbacca on the drums. It made me reflect on Henry Jenkins‘ book, Convergence Culture, which included the phenomena of George Lucas and the fandome embrace of the Star Wars mythology.

“The widespread circulation of Star Wars-related commodities has placed resources into the hands of a generation of emerging filmmakers in their teens…and now they are determined to remake it on their own terms.

The mass marketing of Star Wars inadvertently provided many of the resources needed to support these productions. Star Wars is, in many ways, the prime example of media convergence at work. Lucas’s decision to defer salary for the first Star Wars film in favor of maintaining a share of ancillary profits has been widely cited as a turning point in the emergence of this new strategy of media production and distribution.” - Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: New York University, 2006.

The video (see below) also inspired me to create my own version (see below), which includes a sock puppet, Star Wars figures and Sesame Street characters. I am not sure why I chose Sesame Street…probably because my son is currently really into Elmo. I used my wife’s sock and it only took me one take to capture the lead character…very professional I thought. Also, please look out for the cameo appearance of the Yoda Pez dispenser. See both below and enjoy!

Gnarls Barkley - Crazy (Star Wars style)

Mark Chrisman channeling Socco the Sock Puppet

/// I want to give a shout out to a musical inspiration.

Why should we care about The Flaming Lips?

Weird and Hardworking

They are one of the hardest (weirdest) working bands in show business. These boys have been at this biz since the early eighties and have come along way from their working class upbringing in Oklahoma City to continuously deliver psychedelic rock music, which has been known to be quite groovy at times.

High Concept w/Lo-fi Spirit and Multimedia

They combine high concept with low-fi spirit and put on killer multimedia shows, which have been know to include puppets, fake big hands, balloons, video projections, and audience participation. They are a cultural extension of what the Beach Boys, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd and others have initiated. Roger (Syd) Barrett would have been proud. If you don’t believe me check out the Fearless Freaks documentary.

Their musical adventures have included releasing a four-part disc album that required listening to each disc at the same time in four different CD players - Zaireeka, the album check it out. I saw them pull this gig off at the Black Cat in DC and it was spectacular.

Not ashamed of success

After making sounds since the early eighties and being introduced to MTV in the early nineties, they appeared on the hit TV series Beverly Hills 90210, as well as a recent on the TV series Charmed. Being familiar with Wayne C’s humor, I think it is just all part of the act. Either way, they continue to be as weird and accessible as they want all the way the bank.

Good show Wayne!!! Keep the strange sounds with profound lyrics coming.