http://www.influxinsights.com/blog/ 2010-03-22T03:25:22Z http://www.influxinsights.com/blog/article/2051/video-games-are-now-serious-play.html For years video games and their makers have been dismissed by many as irrelevant, child's play. <br><br>The industry has carved out an impressive place in the entertainment space, but never seems to get the love or respect it feels it deserves. <br><br>With computing power advancing at a rapid rate and consoles being at the forefront of this, we are now starting to see games and the gaming industry being taken seriously. <br><br>One of the first examples was <a target="_blank" href="http://folding.typepad.com/">Folding@Home</a> on the PS3, which allows console owners to band together to help medical science. <br><br>The latest manifestation is the amazing collaboration between Citroen and Polyphony Digital, the makers of the hit driving simulation game, Gran Turismo. <br><a target="_blank" href="http://www.carbodydesign.com/archive/2008/10/04-citroen-gt-concept/"><br>The Citroen GT</a> unveiled at last week's Paris Auto Show was created in Polyphony's computers and then rendered into a live concept at Citroen. <br><br><a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/edcotton/2920831450/" title="Citroen GT by ed100, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3290/2920831450_b5346f6c3d.jpg" alt="Citroen GT" height="229" width="500"></a><br><br>The car therefore has been designed to perfection for both the real and virtual/digital worlds. <br><br><br><br><br>Posted by Ed Cotton Influx Insights 2008-10-06T23:21:11Z http://www.influxinsights.com/blog/article/1829/from-user-generated-to-mass-generated.html Is the &#8220;swarm&#8221; a way of improving the quality of user-generated content?<br><br>There are signs that the next wave of interesting stuff on the web will be all about collaboration. <br><br>Some examples;<br><br><a target="_blank" href="http://beta.kluster.com/">Kluster: </a>A collaborative networking site that allows people to come together around ideas. They recently completed an interesting capabilities demonstration at TED.<br><a target="_blank" href="http://www.kaltura.com/"><br>Kaltura: </a>Lets users develop a collaborative video project by uploading video clips, photos, or audio tracks to a wiki. Users edit collaboratively using Kaltura&#8217;s browser-based video editor. They then import their video creations into Kaltura&#8217;s library of legally remixable content.<br><br><a target="_blank" href="http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/03/listening-post.html">Collaborative Playlists:</a> Edit and share playlists with others- <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.spotify.com/archives/2008/01/30/collaborative-playlists">like with Spotify. <br></a><br>This new collaboration movement will allow things to happen faster, allow the end results to be better and make the process more engaging and fun for all involved. <br>&nbsp;<br><br>Posted by Ed Cotton Influx Insights 2008-03-21T21:06:03Z