Chance had it that I’d pick up Nassim Taleb’s book, Black Swan*, and read this paragraph regarding causality, randomness and technological discoveries (Taleb was recalling a visit he had made to a biotech company):

This was my first encounter with a firm that lived off Black Swans of the positive kind. I was told that a scientist managed the company and that he had the instinct, as a scientist, to just let scientists look wherever their instinct took them. Commercialization came later. My hosts, scientists at heart, understood that research involves a large element of serendipity†, which can pay off big as long as one knows how serendipitous the business can be and structures it around that fact. Viagra, which changed the mental outlook and social mores of retired men, was meant to be a hypertension drug. Another hypertension drug led to a hair-growth medication. My friend Bruce Goldberg, who understands randomness, calls these unintended side applications “corners”. While many worry about unintended consequences, technology adventurers thrive on them.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, in Black Swan – The Impact of the Highly Improbable

When I started working at YDreams I was excited to discover that YLabs, our Research and Development unit, also functions with a considerable degree of autonomy and our researchers are encouraged to pursue things that at first sight would not be related to the company’s portfolio. At one point, though, a flag would rise in my non-scientist mind, thinking ‘but shouldn’t they be narrowing down to the company’s commercial needs?’. I guess sometimes some of us might confuse narrowness with focus. Because when you come to realize that the Internet, the personal computer or penicillin (and many others), were all inventions that we now associate with something their original creators weren’t looking for in the first place, it becomes easy to understand why it is important that YLabs functions as it does. After all, YDreams was founded by five scientists and who knows what kind of (positive) Black Swans we will be generating next?

More on Taleb.

*”a black swan is a large-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare event beyond the realm of normal expectations. Taleb regards many scientific discoveries as black swans—”undirected” and unpredicted.” (wikipedia)

† Serendipity: “an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.” (dictionary.com) Also, a movie starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale:

In one of the movie’s most poignant moments, Jonathan tells Sara about
his inability to predict Black Swans.

We’re very thrilled to have recently signed a partnership with Tecnopop. The Brazillian agency is well-known for its work in various fields, from webdesign to marketing consultancy, among others.

What caught our eye, though, was the incredible video work they did for the Museu de Língua Portuguesa (Portuguese Language Museum) in São Paulo. So we’ll be on the look out for project that may combine our use of technology and their proficiency in videography, to create even more compelling interactive storytelling.

Microsoft Techdays, one of the biggest tech-events in Portugal, is underway at the Lisbon Congress Center from the 11th to the 14th of March. The four-day event is aimed at “IT professionals, programmers and students” in related fields and is expected to draw over 2000 visitors.

YDreams will be on hand with their ubiquitous Magic Book, a yWalk (interactive floor projection) and one of their latest developments yFaces, an augmented reality-based app that manages to positively surprise users everywhere.

YDreamer Pedro Matos will be participating in a key-note speech about Virtual Coast, a prototype developed by the creative technology provider that runs on Microsoft’s Virtual Earth platform, and will be used by IGP (the Portuguese Geographic Institute) to develop a series of next-generation geographical applications. Antão Almada, from YLabs, the company’s R&D unit, will also give a talk about “building support infra-structures and applications for events such as Techdays” tomorrow at 17:15 in Room A7.

Techdays 2008, March 11th – 14th
Venue: Lisbon Congress Center (Centro de Congressos de Lisboa) Portugal

More information: www.techdays.pt

Games Alfresco, a blogger’s opinion about the future of Augmented Reality games and how the technology will revolutionize gaming.

Click to read more: Top 10 augmented reality demos that will revolutionize video games

Trying to keep up with the geeky spirit, I’m posting directly from SXSW!!! Everyone is sporting an iPhone, a Mac computer and a t-shirt with some clever coding/tech innuendo…

The lines for getting the conference’s pass, which is no longer mailed to participants, ran close to 2 hours. I was happy to get my pass from the speakers’ booth in 2,5 mins (now that is what I call a benefit!.:)

2 sessions today:

How to rawk SXSW 2008 – The basics of the festival: how to deal with alcohol during parties, how to pick your panels, how to go with the flow of the whole thing, how to meet people and where the cool stuff is at in Austin. Panelists: Min Jung Kim (minjungkim.com), Ian Lloyd (accessify.com), Matt Mullenweg (Founding Dev, Automattic/WordPress), Jason Toney (Disney Online), Rannie Turingan (photojunkie.ca), Tim Ferriss. These guys drank a bottle of Jack Daniels during the 1,5 hour session (apparently a tradition at this specific session) . The session ended with one of the panelists dancing on the speakers’ table while the Accordion Guy (seriously) played Britney’s “Baby one more time”…

Battledecks II –Powerpoint meets Karaoke in a battle of wits – some of SXSW’s favourite speakers got on stage to deliver 5 minute presentations using crazy slides they’d never seen before. 3 judges gave them marks based on criteria such as use of jargon, gesturing and credibility. Very entertaining and educational!

Several opening parties tonight. Tomorrow we have the real deal. View the schedule here and let me know if there’s something you’d like me to check out for you (one of the correct answers is “please tell me all about that really interesting panel on Location-Based Entertainment!”)

Most of us have heard of South by Southwest but think of it exclusively as a music festival. SXSW is that and much more. It is a 2 week long event that takes Austin over and it’s starting on Friday!

The Wikipedia description:

“South by Southwest (SXSW) is a set of interactive, film, and music festivals and conferences that take place every spring in Austin, Texas. Originating as the Austin Battle of the Bands, SXSW officially began in 1987 and is centered around the downtown Austin Convention Center. Each of the three parts run relatively independently, with different start and end dates. SXSW is one of the largest music festivals in the United States, with more than 1,400 performers playing dozens of venues around Austin over four days in March. Though it is an industry-based event, SXSW Music links locally with events such as the annual Austin Music Awards show. SXSW is the highest money-making public event for the Austin economy, bringing in more revenue than the Austin City Limits Music Festival or the Texas Longhorn home games.”

Music is cool, and we all love Film but this year Interactive is the place to be at – especially because YDreams will have a special say in how it turns out. I’ll be a speaker at one of the panels on Saturday, “Location-based Entertainment, Animating Overlooked Spaces” (learn more about it here).

I expect to take advantage of my Gold Pass as much as possible over the next week and will try to report back frequently.

Wish me luck!

Often we’re asked to imagine futuristic scenarios for possible products and projects. Often the first ideas are stuck to already available technology. So I also often remember a great article on the Whole Earth Review 25th anniversary edition (1993).

The article in question was titled Unthinkable Futures. The authors, Kevin Kelly (Wired magazine editor) and Brian Eno (musician), show how to open our minds beyond what’s technologically predictable.

One of my favorite quotes:

News is understood to be a creation of our attention and interests (rather than “the truth”) and news shows are redesigned “thinktanks”, where four interesting minds from different disciplines are asked the question, “So what do YOU think happened today?”