JD gets jiggy with Faces.

A mugshot-laden blogroll. I've added some photos in the right-hand nav to add a little personality to the boring text-only blogrolls we see everywhere. Took most of the photos myself, though relied on Google Images for a couple. (They look better when not reduced to 45 pixels and optimized for quick downloads at 3K.) If you're listed there and want to send along a mugshot, fire away![JD's New Media Musings]

JD has used faces to add visualization to his blogroll.  Right on!

I really think is important.  Words along cannot possibly express the wide range of emotion, meaning or symbolism that a human face does.  Names alone seem cold and inhuman - as they lack a visual clue to back up who a person "is".

So having your face associated with your name - to me - seems essential.

Groups of faces (in JD's blogroll situation) are great for defining a category or 'unique collection' (the thinkers at the top, the media links to the left.)  Those faces to me - represent their category.  Their grouping.

Other usage of faces (beyond ID systems), as as a player in a videogame, a member of a meeting or collaborative group, a place in a queue or a calendar event on someone's busy schedule - all seem logical and reaonsable.

At first glance - an entire wall of faces would communicate more in :05-:10 - than a few minutes of reading words.  A wall of motion video gets too busy and complicated to watch, but a wall of faces - ah, it's almost sublime!

:-)

[Marc's Voice]
2:56:34 PM  #  

Jake posted the docs on how to turn on a new feature in Manila:  A News Aggregator.  Now, any Manila site can have a news aggregator.  This essentially allows you to turn your weblog into a personal news portal (like Radio), except one that runs on the Web rather than your desktop.  Companies and educational institutions that want to offer personal news portals can now do so inexpensively.  Very cool.  I remember that only a couple of years ago, portal software that did this cost tens of thousands of $$.  A couple years before that, Vignette payed over a $$b for a company that had a very expensive product that did what RSS in combo with UserLand's Manila (or Radio with eVectors RSS Distiller) does today for low $$.  Revolutionary.

One additional point: since the news is aggregated centrally by Manila, it is very bandwidth friendly to the sources.  It is also easily administered by the server admin. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

2:24:59 PM  #