David Byrne: Playing the Building - Boing Boing

David Byrne turns the Battery Maritime Building in NYC into a giant musical instrument as part of an art installation called "Playing The Building"

My favourite quote from Byrne:

"It's not like a musician sits down at this and has any more skills playing this than anyone else. It kind of democratizes the whole experience, and I think people know that when they approach it. They realize right away that they're not any worse and probably not much better than anyone else playing the thing."

A lot of my own focus is on using WYGIWYS (What You Get Is What You See) tools to democratize content creation services. We're seeing it extend beyond office tools like powerpoint and into video and audio editing tools (especially mashup tools). It's classic long tail thinking: When the force of cheap (or free) production tools meets the force of cheap (or free) distribution, democracy is at its best.

Link to BBtv Video on Boing Boing

Readymade > Fontastic

From our DIY friends over at Readymade comes word of a uber nifty web 2.0 App. Made by the folks behind "Fontbook" a large online retailer of typefaces, it's an interesting business play and a natural extension of user-generated creative application:

Want to create your own logo or spice up the header for your blog? Create a personalized font that suits the project perfectly with Fonstruct. The free font-building tool lets you construct custom fonts by arranging geometric shapes inside a grid. The process is a little reminiscent of Tetris, but without the overwhelming feeling that sets in when the pieces start dropping at an impossibly rapid pace.

Once your creations are complete, they’re ready for any Mac or Windows application and can be proudly displayed via widget on your blog. Of course, if Times New Roman is about all you can handle, check out the site’s gallery, where other users’ “Fontstructions”—which carry such names as Structurosa and IronManic—will rock your pre-installed world.

To a certain extent this is classic Web2.0, democratized user-generated production tools, community-based ratings and filters, and of course, democratized distribution and sale of user-generated fonts.

I haven't tried it personally yet (hope to soon), but I tend to think of it as a Long Tail "Type" application ;)

ReadyMade || Blog Archive || Fontastic
Fonstruct