September 29, 2006, 3:23 pm
We Feel Fine
by Chris Jackson
Filed under: Visual Explanation
There’s a bunch of ways to talk about We Feel Fine: It’s Web 2.0, social networking, Flash UI, and several other buzzwords. But the most interesting aspect to me is the synthesis of data from across the Web that makes a diary of Us.
The magic behind We Feel Fine involves a data collection engine, statistical analysis based on information in the blog (feeling expressed, age, gender, date, location, and weather), and a cool interface that presents the results in “movements.” In the first movement, blog entries are represented by dots and squares that swarm. When you click a dot, the other dots move away from it (to represent looking at someone apart from the group) and the “feeling” snippet from that blog appears. The other movements let you look at the data in different ways, each provoking a different way to respond. And you can filter the data: How were other males your age feeling on a rainy day in your hometown?
created the site/application as part of their “exploration of humans through the artifacts they leave behind on the Web.” Put together, these blog artifacts give a composite of our collective emotional state, while respecting our individualities (you can click through to the original blogs, and only publicly published data is displayed).
So what can we make of this, other than to admire the concept or spend some (or a lot) of time playing voyeur? What happens when we map the data against specific events such as the 2004 Red Sox Championship or the 2000 Election Complications? How can marketing people use this? What other information can be gleaned from the mountains of data we publish every second? What are we going to do with it?
Today, as a 39-year-old male in Boston on a sunny afternoon, I feel inspired. And a little nervous.
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