Jason Hong's Confabulations

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http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/collaboration/2007/fall/to-spot-a-scam.shtml Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists have developed an interactive, online game featuring a little fish named Phil who teaches players cybersecurity tips. "Anti-Phishing Phil" helps users to better recognize and avoid email "phishing" and other Internet scams.

This is a really cute game that has a nice, sketchy aesthetic.

Many of you have probably heard about this new OpenSocial platform that Google has released, which is basically an open form of FaceBook that various other social network platforms (like Orkut, Ning, LinkedIn, Hi5, Friendster, Salesforce.com, Oracle, iLike, Flixster, RockYou, and Slide) will conform to. What's interesting here is that we actually covered this topic in our Social Web course (with some help from Information Rules ), discussing why leaders tend to opt for closed platforms (primarily because they can force a lock-in and ensure customers) while a common strategy for those not in the lead to band together under an open platform to try and beat the leader. History may not repeat itself, but it does have themes. Some of the questions in class included what Google's strategy would be (keep in mind that this was before the OpenSocial announcement), whether it would fit into their long-term goals ("take over the world", as one student said), and whether they cou