Musicians have been using the internet to cut out the middle man for a while through fan-funded records and suchlike - and it looks like fashion models might be starting to do the same thing.

A site called She Wears Your Tee does just that and was started by Tanaya, a fashion model who lives in New York. She says:
"Companies such as L'Oreal, Estee Lauder, and Lucky Jeans have hired me for thousands of dollars a day to help promote their brands but I am offering my services to you for a fraction of that cost."

The deal is: you book a day of the year you want Tanaya to wear your company t-shirt (or hoodie or whatever) and she'll do it and post a professional photo shoot picture of her in it on her site along with a little enthusiastic write-up of your product. The price of hiring her to wear your tee goes up by $1 a day, so Jan 1 started at $1, Jan 2 was $2, and so on.

She says: "Don't miss out on this great opportunity to gain exposure, generate brand awareness, and use a beautiful fashion model." It's a clever pricing plan I guess, encouraging people to get in and book early.

I suppose if you break the modelling industry down to its bare bones it is basically paying people to wear clothes. And whether that's a Dolce and Gabbana onesie or a Fruit of the Loom T-shirt with the icon for a Twitter app printed on it - it's same thing: paying someone to wear something and taking a picture. In traditional situations the models go through a modelling agency who take a hefty cut of the profit. As in the fan-funded music model, the internet lets you get out there and get paid without having to go through middle men.

Full marks to Tanaya for effort in the write-ups as well: she's got a few things it's tricky to get very excited about, but she sure does try.

I still can't see this working totally on a mass scale - the focus and thus the advertising value will be stronger if there are just a few people doing it rather than lots, but still, if models were able to build up enough of a character and a look to gain a fan-base then it could be profitable and people may be keen to get their company logo on someone hot.

Particularly in the tech sector. Goodness knows the tech world could do with a little glamming up from time to time.

SheWearsYourTee

Site of the week goes to Checklists.com. As a list-a-holic, a collection of lists arranged in a list format gives me great pleasure.

The site is a collection of pre-made check lists for individual situations. Obviously a lot of lists are very specific to you: for example pick up Andrew will only have significance if you know someone called Andrew likely to want picking up. But there are some situations in which having a generic list can be quite useful: being in a relationship, dealing with a stalker - these sort of universal situations where you desire a nicely ordered series of things to do.

Described as "concise advice to help you live better and longer" it has a world-improving ethos behind it which is great.

From their "about us":
"Our primary goal is to greatly improve the lives of people everywhere by providing a place where people can obtain and share useful information in a concise, easy-to-use format. Life is often hectic, confusing and overwhelming. We want Checklists.com to help you take care of things so you can relax and enjoy life."

Sweet.

Organised into Health, Home, People, Travel, Fun, Money, you can see that anything on health or home-improvement from body piercings to chain saws could benefit from a checklist.

But my utter favourite ones are ones that make lists out of social interaction. This one for example, Visiting others which suggests while visiting : "Look for indications that those you are visiting would like for you to leave"

This is the entire checklist for being an adult - not as hard as you thought right?

And here's one on relationships and one on dealing with stalkers. Excellent.

A bleak struggle with my inbox and the general abundance of articles like this about information overload, reminded me of this talk from web theorist and author of Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky. Shirky tells us it's not the amount of information that drives us crazy, it's the failure of filters to sort it properly that gives us grief. Which reminds me to sort out my gmail filters.

Over the past 15 years complaints about information overload have told the same story but Shirky believes we should stop throwing our hands up in horror at the ever increasing amount of information in the world, and start rethinking the structure of our filters.

Heck, according to Shirky, we've had information overload since the printing press, since we had more books than any one person could read in their lifetime.

He touches on privacy and facebook too arguing that in the past, privacy was always guaranteed by inconvenience rather than anything else. It's an interesting 20 minutes: watch his talk below:

Video courtesy of Web 2.0 Expo NY

[via BoingBoing]

The government is floundering around trying to help the 16-24 year-old generation, who seem to have got shafted by the recession. Job-wise anyway. For those still in college, here's a chance from Microsoft to get a few web skillz that could come in useful.
Microsoft along with 123Reg is offering discounted website hosting and access to top-notch site-making tools.

It's not exactly a job with a 3 year contract - hell it's not even a job, but it is an opportunity to play around with websites, get a little experience and get familiar with some of those little terms like MySql so you can put them on your CV.

It's part of Microsoft's DreamSparks programme and is available to anyone with a ac.uk email address. If you've got time aside from the degree course and the night shifts at co-op, then you could spend it on making a professional grade website.

The web-hosting side of the deal: 123Reg are offering web hosting for UK students at £1 a month - a saving of £1.49 a month on their cheapest deal - £2.49 p/m. Which is uh, a saving of £17.88 a year - not phenomenal but I suppose it's worth exploring. If you want to keep your site with 123Reg after the £1 deal has elapsed, you'll have to pay more: their cheaper packages are £2.49 a month or £5 a month.

The Microsoft part of the deal is a bit more impressive, giving you access to some top level Microsoft tools like... Visual Studio, SQL Server and Expression Studio on your own PC. In fact this software is available to students whether or not they sign up to the 123Reg, just check the Dreamsparks site. Though of course, you don't need to get so involved to make a simple blog.

You can start up a blog or site very simply for free: through wordpress, blogger, tumblr or posterous to name but four. Though if you want to register a vanity url: yourname.com as opposed to yourname.wordpress.com, then you need to register the domain name somewhere like 123Reg or godaddy.

To take up the deal, register on 123Reg here.

Given that BBC are coming under flak for the the license fee at the minute, with a possible cuts if the Conservatives get in at the next election, they could do with a few ways to get us to love the license fee.

How about a customisable viral video? That's the tactic that the Swedish public brodcasting body are going for, and I've got to say I like it. The video reminds people what's good about nationalised tv - that it represents the voice of the little guy. Who's the hero of Swedish TV? It's you, literally. Upload a photo of yourself and it shows up in the film.

Geddit? Public service broadcasting is 4 U! For example this is a screengrab the climatic moment when the stern Hilary Clintonish Swedish lady reveals Sweden's hero:

[that's my boss's daughter btw]

Watch here, then make your own. You too can be Sweden's national hero.

I suggest the British government stop spending all that money on the fire-and-brimstone letters they send out accusing people of not paying the license fee and start making cute viral videos. Immediately.

The backlash was inevitable. Twilight's smooth-cheeked smoochy boy-next-door vampires had held sway for too long and people want the real thing back. Real vampires who want to scare the hell out of you then bite you to death, not kiss you and then mope about it afterwards.

Well, I'm good with either sort really. I mean, let's just take this occasion to post up another picture of Robert Pattinson.. there aren't enough of him on ShinyShiny are there?

But back to the point of the article. An artist called Fernando Lucas is doing his bit to remind us of the true meaning of vampires: fear and death. Up on the top left is a poster by FernandoLucas on DeviantArt, and below is a T-shirt from this same vampire traditionalist, referring to classic vampire horror flick Nosferatu:

[via BoingBoing]

Some of the online walls around BBC content are about to be broken down though thanks to a deal between BBC Worldwide (the BBC's commercial arm) and a site called See Saw, which will provide video on demand from the BBC Worldwide.

From the end of February, shows such as 'That Mitchell & Webb Look', 'Doctor Who', 'Cranford', and 'Lark Rise to Candleford', will be available for free on demand ie. they won't expire after week like iPlayer programmes do. Though, like iPlayer, the shows will only be available in the UK. The site is financially supported by pre-roll and mid-roll advertising. See Saw has taken over the rump of a company called Kangaroo which was blocked from launching a similar project by the Competition Commission earlier this year.

Now at last, Cranford will be perpetually available on demand.

[via Brand Republic]

ARTICLE CORRECTED: 16:20 25/1/10

Launched at the beginning of 2010, site 15tofame aims to make that well-known Andy Warhol saying finally true - "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." You could say that TV programmes like Big Brother have already recreated the American pop-artist's vision, but 15tofame.com takes the prediction even more literally.

The result is a site that shows one video at a time for 15 minutes. The videos are uploaded by users who want to show the world that they are good at something. They include people singing, dancing and a sweet Norwegian boy on a unicycle. Like a lot of Youtube, yes. Viewers can clap the video, videos with the most claps end up at the top of the wall of fame. The videos aren't stored on the site, but, they do have to be on Youtube to be uploaded so, on the Wall of Fame, an image and a link to Youtube is stored in perpetuity, so the videos can still be viewed after their 15 minutes expires.

Founder Stefan Mendicino explains: "everyone will use his 15 minutes of fame to show to the world their talent or simply to tell to the world what they want. It's almost an extension of Anthony Gormley's 'One and Other' project on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London. Only this one might never end..."

Though it seems counter-intuitive to make a site which only shows one video at at time, limits can actually work well. Twitter with its 140 character limit is the most obvious example. And for a start-up to compete with the variety and number of videos Youtube would obviously be a bit foolish. So they're doing the opposite, filtering content right down to make the gems a bit easier to find.

I guess it's like a themed constantly-running playlist. Good connections to both Facebook and Youtube will only help.

Check 15tofame out, let us know what you think.

Facebook game Farmville has raised almost $1 million dollars for the relief fund in Haiti. Farmville players have been buying special White Corn through micro-payments of real money in the game, and 100% of the profits on this particular purchase go to the World Food Program.

Farmville has been supporting relief work in Haiti since 1st October 09, when makers Zynga initiated a Sweet Seeds for Haiti charity built into the game. That campaign raised $1.2million over the three months it was running.

It does throw the importance of games into the light again.

I guess the good thing about Farmville's campaign is that it makes people feel they're buying something real and tangible with their donation money and I imagine that makes them more likely to donate. Apart from that Farmville has upwards of 69 million users, so even if each is just donating a few cents then the combined total still has the potential to be huge.

I wonder if the charity sector could use games even more to get out messages they need to for less cost. Instead of say... posting out leaflets to thousands of households... they could buy space in a game like Farmville and maybe model an island, based on say Haiti, and combine real-time news and donation appeals modelled in a 3D virtual world. It would show you what's going on plus improvements that are being made and let you make donations to specific areas. Would be a way of both getting news out about what's going on where and also a way of getting donators more involved.

To Buy White Corn for Haiti on Farmville visit the app here.

The UK government has opened up a vast hoard of data to the public online, on a website called data.gov.uk.

The data, containing goverment records on everything from NHS dentists to planning applications to suicides, was all previously available under the Freedom of Information Act, but the process for getting it out was slow and complicated. Now it's all within a few clicks. Most significant of all the government is encouraging third-party developers to get in there and make apps out of it - turning the great data tidal wave into simple usable streams: for example - NHS dentists near you - an iPhone app already out. Otherwise it's possible to download full reports on particular area from the internet.

The government brought in Tim Berners-Lee, known as the father of the internet to oversee the project, which has got geeks, sociologists and anyone with an interest in modern Britain excited.

Possible results of the new open data site:
Improved services - it should be easier for members of the public to find out about the government services near them and be better informed about what's going on nearby in terms of crime, housing prices or planning permission etc.

Benefits to companies - they'll be able to find out more about their customers.

Lots of fresh material for developers - anyone with a good idea has heaps of valuable data to play with.

Reduce inequalities - data such as what pay grade disabled public sector workers are on could show up bigger trends of inequality. Having hard facts available would make this clearer to general public, in theory this could put pressure on fixing problems currently hidden.

Loss of civil service jobs - potentially some of the ways of using data on the site could render some administrative jobs unnecessary

Journalists no longer getting scoops with Freedom of Information requests - it will be developers getting scoops really, as they'll be able to put the information together in new and surprising ways, building useful services. However, maybe newspapers etc, will be able to commission gov.uk apps they way they commission infographics. More information will work in favour of journalists as well as there'll be more to write about..

Youtube gets into music recommendation with a Last.fm style project called the Youtube Music Discovery Project. They launched it quietly - it's still a Test Tube project rather than something you can access on the main site.

Go to www.youtube.com/disco to try it out. Type a band name or genre into the search box and it generates an automatic playlist

Features that make it slightly better than last.fm:
- You can see what the list is going to play in advance
- You can edit the playlist, taking out songs or adding new ones from the list of songs of the artist you search for.
- In last.fm that you only got one or two songs from the artist you requested, in this Youtube site you get more with the option to include all songs available from the artist you chose.

Downside: you have to click "next video" everytime you want to move onto the next song. That's a bit rubbish and means you can't just sit back and listen to it.
Youtube does seem to have quite a comprehensive catalogue these days, thanks to channels like Vevo and EMI so finding songs isn't a problem, but sometimes the videos have ads built into them which means your listening is disrupted by audio ads occasionally.

Oh and of course streaming videos eats more data than that just music so depends on your connection.

Worth a try? Yes: www.youtube.com/disco

Youtube is a valuable addition to the office biscuit break - 2 minute bursts of shows like Inbetweeners or Mitchell&Webb or otters holding hands do wonders for your mood and productivity, in my opinion.

I've recently diversified my biscuit-break watching habits to include Buddhist relaxation videos, well, one or two. More effective than a grimy little stress ball this stuff is actually quite good at making you relax despite the office setting.

In videos such as the one below, they play that zen-ny relaxing music, show you pictures of flowers and ask you to make circles with your thumb and each finger in turn. It goes on for five minutes: long for a youtube video, yes, but fine for a biscuit break.

The pros: - It clears your mind
- It's relaxing for eyes, shoulders and arms
- You get to listen to peacebells, the echoey ding-like sounds that make up a lot of the soundtrack to these things

The cons: - You can't eat biscuits while maintaning the correct Quidong position.
- You look a bit silly.
- Depending on the office context, your boss might object to this sort of hippyish behaviour. Not ideal in client-facing roles.

Video for Five-Finger Quidong below (not rude, I promise). Check where your boss is, then have a go.

Virgin Media is squaring up to web services like iTunes and Spotify with a music streaming and download service called MusicFish. Due to launch this summer, the service will work along the lines of premium Spotify deals.

It is suggested that Virgin will charge a certain amount a month for access to the service which would include unlimited ad-free online streaming and mp3 downloads of songs (not sure what the limit on downloads is). The monthly price will be released closer to the launch but we imagine it will be somewhere near the Spotify Premium fee of £9.99.

They have already signed a deal with Universal, and hope to close talks with EMI, Sony and Warner to get as full a catalogue of songs as possible.

With sales of CDs falling and music shops closing down, it makes sense for Virgin to move into digital streaming and sales.

My only question: where does the Fish come from? I know Spotify is a slightly silly name when you think about it... but "Musicfish"? It sounds like a children's TV character. I suppose the "user-fish" swimns around in the music stream, but I reserve the right to find it all slightly comical.

[via BrandRepublic]

Any Pet Society and Celebrity Big Brother fans out there? Combine your interests with a.... Lady Sovereign Pet Society character, the sort of weird beast that the create-a-virtual-pet game lets you make.

The British rapper and grime MC got kicked out of the celebrity Big Brother house last night for eating other people's food, a corned beef sandwich among other things..

In Pet Society you can create your own pets and with a snappy response to current events, Facebook game Pet Society employees have created a Sov character that comes with its own corned beef sandwiches, raps and dances and kicks footballs around inside.

The likeness isn't exactly striking.. here's the original Sov:

And the Pet Society version:

But I will say that the Pet Society version is IMHO cuter.

It's the most popular game in the world, but even its biggest fans won't claim that it's an adrenalin-packed rollercoaster. Facebook game Farmville is a quiet affair that involves growing virtual rice paddies and decorating your virtual garden. Some folks like it, some don't, this young man in video below doesn't. See his pretty funny "ad parody" for Farmville below:

[via PaidContent]

Lastminute.com have created a Twitter mood map for the UK. Like the snow map, which superimposed mentions of the word "snow" on a map of Britain, this links up mentions of the words "good mood" and "bad mood" with the location of the tweeter - either their town or their postcode. Good mood is pink, bad mood is black. You can see from the screengrab below that the result is smudges of pink and black according to which places people are happy in. Hover over the smudge and the orginal tweet comes up.

Lastminute suggests you make sure your tweet goes straight to the mood map by adding the tag #goodmood or #badmood and locating it by including the first half of your postcode as well.

But the widget behind the map seems to pick up tweets mentioning good/bad moods regardless of whether you officially tag them or not. Got to say that when you zoom into street level the location is a little inaccurate... so a tweet about Bethnal Green in East London is tagged at somewhere near Croydon in the south, and even when the postcode is included things still go off by a few miles. Still, we're splitting hairs, this is pretty fun.

A stream along the bottom of the page shows the tweets as they come in and there's a banner ad at the top for lastminute.com's deals - and the suggestion that you would probably be in a better mood if you had just booked a city break to Amsterdam.
Results so far: in London people really do seem to be pretty happy. Other cites in a good mood are Liverpool and Leicester. Manchester and Birmingham are mixed while Darlington and Middlesbrough seem to be a bad mood.

A tweet from Middlesbrough: from @Langwitch "grr!Bad day, bad classes, bad lessons... bad mood."

Anyone from up there? How are you feeling?

see the Mood Map here

The New York Times has created one of the coolest infographics ever. Take a look at this.. it shows New York and other American cities coloured by their film taste. The graph-maps were compiled by data from dvd rental service Netflix (US equivalent of LoveFilm) which recorded the most popular DVDs by ZIP code area. It's interesting to see what's popular and where. Red is most popular, white is least. Check out the pattern for New York rentals of Slumdog millionaire for example:

And the pattern for slightly less in demand Bride Wars:

Some interesting patterns pop up: DVDs of Mad Men are popular in central New York, but not the suburbs. Other cities covered by the infographic include Boston, Miami, Seattle, Chicago and Minneapolis.

Full marks for some beautiful visual rendering of data.

While I'm passing on inspirational videos, like the Hello Kitty trailer and pop song, here's another pretty impressive one. This man has taken the art of free running to new heights (lol) i.e. not can he run up walls and do a little backward somersault he can also jump off a wall and into his shorts and do some amazing juggling tricks with coloured blocks, showing a sense of balance greater than the accelerometer on an iPhone. Uploaded by user pAiNfUl666d3ath on the 1st Jan, it's had 250,000 views. And it deserves them.

Somebody give this man a TV show.

You remember the Dramatic Chipmunk? The little rodent whose dramatic head-turn and wild-eyed stare paired up with a dramatic chord to make possibly the best 5 seconds of animal video ever? Of course you do. Here he is:

Anyway, LG, the makers of phones like the Cookie and the Chocolate have released a viral video campaign which frees the chipmunk from his banal glass cage and sets him off to the Carribean and err, Bristol. There will be five videos in total which drive traffic through to a site www.liveborderless.net where LG fans can sign up for a competition which will send the winner on a trip around the world in 80 days with $100,000 in their pocket. Nice huh?

Here's the chipmunk's break-out scene.

See the rest on the Live Borderless youtube channel or find out about the competition on the Live Borderless website.

Those students know how to be funny. Apparently this young man was fed up with the clacking sound of other students' laptop keyboards in lectures and decided to protest by bringing in the ultimate clacking machine. A typewriter. Sadly the sound isn't great on this, but I think he was asked to leave for disturbing fellow students. The Irony.

EMBED-Student Brings Typewriter To Class - Watch more free videos

[via thedailywhat]