Understanding information through the use of visualisation techniques is an area we're passionate about at Sumerian. This new video on TED from JoAnn Kuchera-Morin (director of the Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology at UC Santa Barbara) demos the AlloSphere - a new way to see and interpret scientific data, in full colour and surround sound inside a massive metal sphere. It reminds me of the movie Fantastic Voyage but with simulated data.. enjoy!

Posted by Fran Bolton, Sumerian Web Channel Manager

Humour can be one of the trickiest ways of getting a serious marketing message like IT recycling across. But when it's done right, it can be brilliantly effective. This new little movie from the Recyclenow campaign hits the nail right on the head...

Printer Vs Bin from RecycleNow on Vimeo.

At Sumerian, we model and analyse data (that's often overlooked) into insight that can radically transform an organisation's IT environment and ultimately their business. In this new offering just launched by Google, they're transforming GPS and mapping data into their latest offering: Sky Map. Calling it a "planetarium in your pocket" it's an interactive astronomy app that's just been launched for Android-powered mobile phones. Truly clever stuff what you can do with data :-)

Posted by Fran Bolton, Sumerian Web Channel Manager

For most of us, just driving 55 miles is quite a tiring thing to do. So it's with much admiration that we tip our hats to staff from Sumerian and our sister company Aridhia, who took part in the arduous, but ultimately life-affirming Martin Currie Rob Roy Challenge.

Covering some of the most spectacular countryside in Scotland, the challenge - which involves a 16 mile run followed by 39 miles of cycing - would put even the great man himself to the test.

The teams, which included Neil Ross, Mike Allan, Hew Bruce-Gardyne, Roly Angus, Ewan McDonald, David Sibbald, Scott Sinclair, Louisa and Peter Sturrock, and Russell Sommerfield, raised over £3000 for good causes along the way.

As with all great achievements, there's always someone working hard in the background to help out. In this case, fellow Sumerian Tracy Collins was on hand to get everyone there and set up with their kit. In her own words, Tracy recalls the day's events...

After the military planning of the logistics, we set off at 4:15am on Saturday morning to arrive in a midge-ridden Callendar about 6am, where the bikes were assembled tout suite, and we met up with the rest of the team.

We finished off with a drink, well deserved dinner of hog roast and a Ceilidh, where Ewan and Neil even managed a dashing white sergent! The finale was fireworks then everyone was off to sleep it off, and a week of post race analysis now awaits us...

Thanks to everyone who took part! Who's for next year?

Here's more photos and the finishing times.

A lot of us at Sumerian are infatuated with Apple... iPhones are proliferating around our offices quicker than a bunch of rampant bunnies. So, for a change, let's give a hurrah to Microsoft and its new Project Tuva.

The story of Project Tuva goes like this...Bill Gates has a passion for physics and mathematics and one of his favourite lectures was a series done in the early 60s by the late eminent physicist Richard Feynman (famed also for working on the Manhattan Project.) Bill made it his goal to hunt down these lectures, acquire the rights and make them free and digitally available for all of us to watch - on a very cool, new interface.

Even if you aren't especially interested in physics, the lectures are very entertaining with Richard Feynman's witty delivery and love for his subject making them accessible to all.
Hope you enjoy them too.

Posted by Fran Bolton, Sumerian Web Channel Manager

Following on from Hew's last blog on Apollo 11 about how fast technology has progessed since the moon landings - if you haven't seen this already - this latest update to the original "Shift Happens" video is fascinating viewing. It includes facts and figures on the fast-changing media landscape, looking at the decline of print and TV and the boom in digital media and convergence technologies. A very cool little movie.

Posted by Fran Bolton, Sumerian Web Channel Manager

If you haven't come across SixthSense technology before, then take a look at this new TED talk from its inventor Pranav Mistry. SixthSense is a wearable camera and projection device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data. Pranav's talk covers the journey he's made throughout its development - from early concept, to prototypes, to full real working use. Amazing, inspirational viewing.

Posted by Fran Bolton, Sumerian Web Channel Manager

Love them or hate them, social networking sites are everywhere. With the announcement today that Google has joined the party with their new "Buzz" service - it seems that all the major players now have some sort of offering. But just how successful will each one be? And what do they hope to achieve from the landgrab of available customers?

Taking a look at the social networking scene, although there are highly popular sites that feed off social networks like YouTube for video sharing, Flickr for photos, Reddit and Digg for news content, and MySpace, now largely used for new music - there really are 3 standout players that have made most of a mark:

King of them all is Facebook - Mark Zuckerberg's student network idea that turned into the world's largest social network - now with over 400 million users.

Next, filling the slot for career networking comes Linked In or what's termed as "Facebook for adults" - with 55 million users.

And last but not least comes new kid on the block Twitter - popular for its mini 140 character updates on what's happening in your life, your friends, and favourite celebs - growing quickly with 20 million users.

Looking at this list, what's interesting is that although they all offer something different, they all share something in common - and that's their origins. All were born from new start up ideas.

So what do the other IT giants hope to achieve with their versions? Above all, it rests on the ability to keep their current customer base. Many of us have e-mail accounts that hark back to the golden age of e-mail: Hotmail and MSN, Yahoo mail, AOL, and relative newcomer, Gmail. Indeed, after yesterday's announcement about Buzz, both Yahoo and Microsoft were quick to respond that they had social networking functionality way earlier than Google's offering.

But at the end of the day, will any of these new services lure us away from the 3 top social networking players? Probably not. If you're using social networking already, you'll of invested a fair chunk of time building up your profile, loading up your pics and getting your friends and contacts built up.

The big players know this, but it won't stop them having a damn good go at luring away your loyalty. In the race to get customers, grab advertising revenue, and get hold of that all important "data" on you and your life - everyone wants a slice of the pie.

Posted by Fran Bolton, Sumerian Web Channel Manager