Whoa! How Shit Infographics Explain the World (the wrong Way).

November 2nd, 2011 • 3 comments Blogs, Location, Reports
Tags: Apps, Burglars, crime, Foursquare, Location, People, PR, Report, Shit, Study, visual, World, Zeitgeist

So Mashable again explains us the world through an info graphic wallpaper. And every self-proclaimed social media expert retweets it. Usually this is just boring. Sometimes dangerously misleading and pretty embarassing. Such as this time.

Latest example of such pure and utter shit: A ‘study’ (actually a joke) that was published as an infographic on mashable, retweeted today by thousands of Lemmings who only seem to be interested to share the next bullshit-infographic as quickly as possible.

The claim sounds credible: “78% of burglars use Facebook, twitter, or Foursquare to target potential properties.”

Whoa! That’s a lot, isn’t it? And it sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? After all the gods punish those freaks who keep on checking in to any location they enter. If only it would not be all so wrong and only if this handy info graphic wouldn’t be a big PR stunt that everyone keeps on retweeting.

• The mashable article features the notorious info graphic by Credit Sesame, “a personal finance tool” claiming that 78% of all burglars use social media to gather intelligence about their next victim
• If you browse the article on Credit Sesame you will find out that the “study” was not at all conducted by Credit Sesame: they apparently just built an easy-to-consume info graphic. The actual “study” was conducted by UK’s security company Friedland: yes, a company that earns money with your fear of burglars.
• If you read the original “study” you stumble upon the following text: “An overwhelming 78% of ex-burglars interviewed said that they strongly believed social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Four Square are being used by current thieves when targeting properties.”

Playful Cities. How Smart Tech Alters Urban Living.

Mai 3rd, 2010 • 1 comment Location
Tags: Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Ideas, Lifestyle, Location, People, Presentation, RP10, Trends, Underway, Urban, World

Two weeks ago I returned from one of Germany’s best digital conferences – re:publica 2010 in Berlin. One of the sessions I liked most dealt with Playful Cities. And it was hosted by two friends of mine. Johannes and Igor gave a great overview about some exciting location-based tools beyond Gowalla and Foursquare. Tools that make our cities more worth living. Check out the nice projects they listed here and follow their talk. And maybe they might even prepare a Playful Cities Conference later that year.