BenZipkin.com

Nexus is neat Facebook application that lets you visualize connections between all of your friends. It’s a fascinating way to examine how your friends fall into clusters and interrelate. My clusters clearly correlate with phases of my life stretching all the way back to elementary school. Cool stuff.

It’s also interesting to see which friends are the “focal” contacts who link across different groups and people. It’s too bad this tool isn’t available for LinkedIn or a different business site. It would be incredibly useful to see how business contacts and groups connect with each other.

Nexus is a product of Ludios Networks.

Things have been crazy at RDVO the last few months. We’ve just wrapped up our best quarter ever, and there a lot of great projects and announcements coming down the pike.

We’re also aggressively hiring. We have immediate openings for interaction designers, producers, and developers. Check out the RDVO jobs page to see the latest openings.

Last week we launched HunterPatients.com, an information resource for a rare genetic disease called Hunter Syndrome. We developed this project for Shire HGT.

There’s a nice article on the Google Blog that lists the company’s user experience design principles. The principles are broad, but do a great job summarizing how Google addresses the fundamental usability and experience inherent in their products. I love this approach!

1. Focus on people—their lives, their work, their dreams.
2. Every millisecond counts.
3. Simplicity is powerful.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
5. Dare to innovate.
6. Design for the world.
7. Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
9. Be worthy of people’s trust.
10. Add a human touch.

These principles are defined in depth here.

The word is out that the new 3G iPhone will undoubtedly be release sometime around June. I considered buying the first-gen iPhone when it hit the streets but was just not ready to abandon my trusty Treo. At the time, I thought the iPhone was all style, with little substance for a hard-core business user. ..kind of like going jogging wearing a pair of expensive Italian shoes—while you may fancy, a pair of old running shoes will get you where you need to go much faster and with a lot more comfort. Old jogging shoes are actually a great analogy for the Treo!

My tune has changed now that I’ve seen the iPhone in action and starting reading the rumors. In addition to 3G support, unconfirmed sources have noted a number of new features that could likely be added to the new iPhone.

What I’m most excited about:

• New Form Factor (From Wired): In addition to a thinner body, there are rumored to be a couple of new device options, including a clamshell that would allow for a larger screen. There may also be a new model with a hardware QWERTY keyboard.
• Faster Chipset: A new processor that will support faster multimedia playback, faster responses, and full support for all the new applications built with the SDK.
• True GPS: The new iPhone may support actual GPS. The current model uses triangulation to approximate your location. Real GPS would be a great new feature.
• Improved Camera: A lot of iPhone users complain about how much the camera sucks. Supposedly, the new model may support up to 5 megapixels (current iPhone supports two).
• Stereo Bluetooth (from Yahoo): Look ma, no chords! The new iPhone is said to support Bluetooth headsets.

Finally, estimated pricing puts the new iPhone at $399 for the 8GB version, $499 for 16GBs, and $599 for the 32GB model. Where can I pre-order?

Free ice cream at JP Licks. Red Sox opening day. Impromptu jazz ensemble in The Square… Springtime is finally here!

We just found out today that RDVO’s work for the Gillette Young Guns has been named a 2008 Webby Award Honoree in the celebrity/fan category. Details on the awards and honorees can be found here.

Winning a Webby Award is a great honor – congrats to both our internal team and fantastic and wise clients at Gillette.

Last week I was a guest-lecturer to a business marketing class at Clark University. The subject of my lecture was Next: The Past, Present, and Future of Digital Marketing. The discussion focused on the elements of digital marketing and how the medium has changed and evolved with the advent of social networks, search marketing, and the mobile web.

I also called out several “buzz-cepts” like Web 2.0, semantic web, and others and discussed the buzz and what the realities are for marketers.

The presentation and discussion was very interesting. Of course, all the students were extremely familiar with the web but very few had an understanding of how digital marketing worked or, interesting enough, that they were being marketed to. The presentation concludes with a discussion of how to get into the digital marketing field.

My presentation is below (provide via slideshare):