I found this video on Twisted Sifter and while it may not be the most exciting eleven minutes you ever spend it’s a pretty cool example of the synergy that can happen when you think outside of the box. The basic story is how the time spent typing a captcha (the distorted type used as an online security device) has been turned to a productive purpose and will in less than twelve months completely digitize the analog archives (all isses between 1851 and the mid 1980’s) of the New York Times one word at a time. That’s 130 years worth of newspapers. Facebook, Ticketmaster, Craigslist, and Twitter are among the sites using the new re-captcha technology so you and 400 million other people have already helped.

Update: Thanks to Bill Skellenger I can share with you that if 11 minutes of insight into human computing was not enough Luis von Ahn is featured in a full 50 minute Google TechTalk that is full of all kinds of interesting stuff. Put on your thinking cap before pressing play.

The navigation design for the new BrainstormOverload portfolio site has been accepted into the jurried collection at Pattern Tap. There are many sites that agrigate beautiful designs but Pattern Tap takes a more utilitarian approach that is actually quite useful. Well designed user experience components (headers, forms, login functionality, etc.) can be browsed as collections and serve as inspiration to help overcome your own design challenges. It has proven to be a valuable resource so I’m excited to have contributed something in return. Thanks again for Jeff Zerger and Colin Petit for the development on the bsol site.

There’s something special about having a name that clings to the very last letter of the alphabet. Something daring about the idea that every other letter was somehow not quite a bold enough choice and that you caught hold of the “Z” just in the nick of time before you were forced to start your name with a number or a favorite piece of punctuation. Last in line. Always having to say “…as in Zebra” to the unimaginative drone working behind the counter with a name tag that reads “Anderson” as if proclaiming his compulsive surrender of vision at having jumped at the first letter available. Those of us who share the letter Z also share a sense of solidarity born of these experiences.

So it is with great pleasure that I introduce you to Zara Gonzalez. Three Z’s bolder than most, and fully aware that there is no “Z” in surrender. She has recently launched a bevy of websites in service of her varied creative exploits including interactive projects, illustrations, posters and and unending stream of mindless monsters on post-it notes. One of my favorite things is her recent post on her blog seven color days about how her efforts to share her work led her to greater insight about herself (something that is much harder than it sounds). Give it a read, check out all the fantastic work and links to inspirations and enjoy all the interesting stuff that happens at the end of the line.

At last there is a tool that enables cyclists to map their route from point A to point B while preferentially factoring in bike paths and bike lanes – Cyclopath. Now I’ve been to point B quite a few times and know the way but I’ve never gotten there from point C. Cyclopath allows me to map the route, adjust it, get a sense of what I’ll be in for and print directions. You can use any address in the Twin Cities and surrounding region the map covers and even map to points of interest like parks.

Maps can be viewed as street layer or aerial photos and the system indicates distance, allows you to make and save changes to maps, share them and even lets you interpret your route using several filters of special interest to cyclists like “byway type”, rating and even by slope so you can embark on the pleasantly futile task of trying to plan a route that’s down hill both ways.

There are many more features and it seems like a pretty powerful new tool but one with a little bit of a learning curve. Fortunately the folks at Cyclopath have taken this into account as well and are offering a lecture about how to use the system. Not only are the tool and the lecture free they’ll feed you breakfast so stop by as you ride your bike in to work tomorrow (weather should be pretty nice). The lecture is Thursday, November 12 from 8:30 – 9:30 at the UofM. More info available here. Can’t make it to the breakfast? View it live online at 8:40 am.

Who would take on this heroic and altruistic effort you ask? Well that is the beauty of having a large land-grant, research oriented, university in your town. The University of Minnesota’s Institute for New Media Studies did all the heavy lifting. Now all you have to do is enjoy the ride.

Look out – BrainstormOverload just invaded the airspace over at Twitter. Not sure what to do with it yet but watch for the bsoverload handle (no the irony is not lost on me) and the bsol seal of approval (pictured above). I’ll be working on my brevity for starters. I wonder if I can say anything intelligent in 140 characters (some days I wonder if I can say anything intelligent regardless of character count) but then my (imaginary) good friend and flash fiction master Ernest Hemingway told this famous and provocative story in 33: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” I recently saw Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Ernest” on stage at the Guthrie Theater which as Dirk Gently would assert was no mere coincidence. I’d be surprised if he felt it was actually a call to be more ernest but surely a sign to be more amusing and more intriguing in less space.

The web is now so full of astonishing content the challenge has become locating the most amazing bits that are most relevant bits to you. Several angles are available here. Subject oriented aggregators like NotCot.org, Core77.com, and Materialicious.com for instance can each get you started on fascinating creative explorations. Despite the proclamations by many that the new paradigm will revolve around these “communities of interest” there are those seeking to bring the good ol’ fashion community defined by location into the information age. So to take a different kind of slice through the interwebs check out websota.com and minnesota.com where you’ll find this blog along with many others on a wide range to topics with relevance to you as a Minnesotan. Communities of interest but at times it’s just nice to take a stroll through the neighborhood and see a few familiar faces. Enjoy.

The new BrainstormOverload website is live at long last. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of developer Colin Petit for coding it up and figuring out all the java script madness and to my brother Jeff for early experiments with the navigation. It is amazing how complicated it is to make the interface so simple. There are one or two wrinkles to work out like integration with IE 6.0 and 7.0. But seriously you should not be using those crummy browsers anyway. Upgrade to Firefox or Chrome so you can start experiencing the internet the way we’ve actually designed it.

St. David’s Center in Minnesota has provided a supporting environment for children of all capabilities since 1965. It has been a great pleasure to design a new website to support their efforts. Along with my partners Jonathan Anderstrom and developer Colin Petit at Creed Interactive and photographer Josh Hackney we’re celebrating today’s launch.

The Twin Cites of Minneapolis and Saint Paul have a wealth of great interactive talent and a great number of terrific agencies working in the interactive space. 117 in fact. According to a new list entitled Best Web Design Minneapolis established by Grandpa-George (which is… you guessed it. An interactive agency). It really is a great resource for keeping your finger on the pulse of the community and will hopefully inspire other cities to follow suit.

The team at Creed Interactive (Jonathan, Andy and Myself) under cover of darkness released another web site into the Wild. Building on the foundation established with the Sponsorship site we added full screen video and a few other tricks to get the attention of all the Wild fans out there looking for season tickets and suites. The Wild have sold out every season in franchise history so we’re not quite sure how we’ll measure success. How fast they sell out? Riots at the box office? Total colapse of the server? Check it out at http://tickets.wild.com and see for yourself. If you are interested there is also a press release.