supernova

PHILADELPHIA--There are few words in digital-media jargon that are more weighted than "transparency."

Though it was overshadowed by talk about the complexities of broadband access policy, government transparency was one of the topics highlighted in a set of "Policy Workshop" panels on Thursday at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business as part of the Supernova 2010 technology conference. But, as is one of the downsides of a 45-minute panel, the speakers were barely able to scratch the surface.

These calls to action on access and openness come at an uneasy time for Washington … Read more

Ever wonder just what happens when a star explodes? No, we don't mean Sean Penn punching the paparazzi. We're talking about what goes on when those stars you wish upon die in gigantic, eye-popping explosions called supernovae that happen once every 50 years or so in a galaxy the size of the Milky Way.

Researchers have created a 3D computer model chronicling just such a rare happening--noteworthy because the mechanics of the blasts are so complex that scientists have so far been able to simulate only parts of them, and only in one or two dimensions.

The computer … Read more

T-Mobile's Nokia Supernova 7510 doesn't offer a lot on paper, but it remains an intriguing cell phone in a couple of ways.

The chunky flip phone comes in three colors--brown, fatal red, and espresso--but you're not married to any one hue. The front covers are removable so you can change colors as often as you like. Nokia says the phone will come with one cover attached, but you should get another cover in the box.

The Supernova's skin has a smooth, soft feel and the phone feels comfortable in the hand. The exterior controls are about … Read more

When Frank Sinatra died, his fans knew he wasn't coming back. When Elvis died, his fans simply refused to believe he wasn't coming back. Mostly because they're a demented bunch. But when Nokia's Xpress-On covers seemed to have kicked the bucket, their fans simply wondered, "How am I going to express my individuality now?"

Well, we're happy to tell you that Xpress-On fascias are coming back in the form of Nokia's new Supernova range of handsets, namely the 7610, 7510, 7310 and 7210. The leader of the pack is the 7610 Supernova--a … Read more

On Monday at Supernova, Google's Joe Kraus gave a hypothetical example of how online shopping could become more social. On Wednesday, I saw the real thing: a new widget from PopularMedia that makes shopping sites a bit more personal.

The SocialNotes product is a widget reminiscent of ShareThis and AddThis; it's code that publishers can drop in to their sites that makes it easy for visitors to send pages off to friends or to embed them in social-network profile pages or blogs. The SocialNotes widget is somewhat more interesting because when the e-mail recipients of a notification go … Read more

According to JP Rangaswami, managing director of BT Design, there is a genuine war for talent.

But the way to attract talent isn't with the most money or best perks but through openness, he said, speaking at Supernova 2008. Companies need to be open to competition, such as partnering with competitors in some areas; open to innovation in terms of creating an environment that encourages new ideas; and open to changes, Rangaswami said.

The talent pool comes from both inside and outside a firm. "Open, multisided platforms are the only way to get to the talent pool," … Read more

Skydeck makes a very cool product, but it is destined for smallness.

The product: It's a service the mobile phone carriers can use to make their Web pages actually useful for their customers. Instead of just showing a bunch of marketing pitches and the minutiae of the customer's bill, a Skydeck-powered site shows phone users who they talk to, either in chronological order or by frequency, and in an extremely comprehensible format. For users whose phones have the necessary software enabled (SyncML), it will also let them manage their phone address books.

Add-ons for social-network sites let users … Read more

"We are not really wired to grok massive networks of billions of people and billions of connections." That's how Kevin Werbach of the Wharton School kicked off Supernova 2008 in San Francisco. The new study of network science hasn't evolved to a point where we understand enough about the properties of networks to apply the learnings to everyday life and social action.

Clay Shirky , adjunct professor in NYU's graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program and author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, talked about collective action as a network dynamic. It turns out … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO-- "Social is the new black," Joe Kraus, Google's director of product management, said at a talk on the company's social-computing efforts at the Supernova conference here.

Kraus' view, which can be fairly said to represent Google's, is that these are the three big trends in the social Web:

Discovery is becoming social This was the most telling tidbit from Kraus' talk. He noted that searching on Google is good, but having your friends help you find what you're looking for is better. He gave an example of how social discovery can work--putting … Read more