Michigan has some very odd weather - snow one day, a balmy 70 deg F the next, then more snow. This is in April too, mind you. However, what I didn’t expect, was next Monday’s weather report, a rather frigid -9998 deg F. Also note, that’s the High temperature. When that is the high, I definitely imagine the low is Not Applicable, because at that point you probably don’t care.

But this illuminates the point that you can’t trust data, especially free data. There are some great Web API’s (see Programmable Web for a pretty comprehensive listing), which allow for mashup’s, data sharing, and the ability to pull together great sets of data for all kinds of application. There have been a variety of recent discussion on who is responsible and holds the ultimate key to all this data and what this means to services that prop their business up on the availability, and most importantly, the accuracy of this data.

Imagine I have my house automation system to control the heating system based on the upcoming weather, or send warnings or other responses based on predicted weather patterns. A decent system may catch a complete outlier which is off any known physical chart. However, what if the weather was just off by 10 degrees, or given in the wrong units. When a human is in the loop, they may or may not catch this. But we also don’t base large system responses on just one person saying “oh yeah, it’ll be cold”. However, when automated systems are fed data, we only have our foresight in designing the system to account for data integrity and accuracy and how best to evaluate these.

Perhaps one answer is providing multiple data sources, all of which help correlate, or catch errors in, other data sets. However, we can’t be sure these data sets are truly independent of one another, and aren’t just all mashups of the same data. This has been made very apparent in the rise of navigation systems and incorrect location data of business, streets, exits, etc. There are really only 2 major players in the world for navigational data: NavTeq and TeleAtlas. Therefore, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, MapQuest, Toyota/Lexus Nav systems, et al. are all just variable mashups on these same, limited, data sets (look closely at those credits on the bottom of the maps). Yet users will still “double-check” against various providers to “verify” an answer, even though the answers all came from the sam source. (which ultimately was a couple of workers riding around in cars talking into microphones and laptops, talking about what they see from their car)

So if you hear Michigan actually freezes over next week - then you can feel confident about your data. And just think, the UV index isn’t that bad.

UPS is well known for their excellent package tracking system. Packages are scanned when they move ten feet (or so), so that customers can always track the exact position of their new shiny. You can even map your package travels.

However, like many systems, they aren’t quite as effective as they can be. Recently I ordered a package which was being shipped to an old address. Upon calling UPS to reroute the package I was informed that I must call between 6AM-9AM the morning the package is due to be delivered (four days hence from the placed call) to alert the driver not to deliver the package. I questioned why the operator could not go ahead and note on the package tracking that the address was incorrect and to go ahead and reroute the package now, saving UPS from 4 unnecessary days of travel and shipping.

The operator responsed that “the system does not work that way.” Being a caring customer, I wanted to give my feedback to UPS that this was perhaps not a good solution, and they could be more effective, and have happier customers, by using their tracking system to make notes on packages in transit.

The response: “I will let them know that the system is not compatible with you.”

Modern pessimists will say we’ve become a society of consumerism . Rising middle-class, dropping prices on basic goods, Wal-mart, large houses, suburbia.

The internet put inexpensive (relatively) publishing tools in the hands of the average public. However, the average public published a

My Homepage!!!!

Under Construction.

and then went about their business stealing from babies, collecting and collating their audio collections, downloading video.

Now, however, we are truly moving into an era of producerism. Take exhibit A, the current products of the recent, much lauded “Evening at the Adler”. Count them, 1 podcast several dozen pictures, and no less than 6 blogs by the panel let alone any number of the participants.

• MacZealots Podcast
• Flickr eveningatadler
• JCBurns Flickr photos
• Paul Kafasis, Rogue Amoeba
• Brent Simmons
• Gus Mueller
• Ars
• Wil Shipley
• Jonathan ‘Wolf’ Rentzsch

Each trip I take finds me swarmed by people snapping their pictures, taking video shots, and writing their self-published weblogs. People are infatuated with creating and capturing media and sharing it via Flickr, SmugMug, Snapfish, GoogleVideo, iTMS, Podcasts, VidCasts, mash-ups, RSS.

This all makes me very excited. People are sharing ideas, information, their lives and experiences. I can share, ‘mix’, consume, redistribute, and learn.

But what does concern me is people enjoying where they are, and what they have. Don’t live life through your video camera/blog, use it as a medium to share and reflect.

We’re way excited to be getting an IKEA store in the Detroit area (say what you will about IKEA, but it’s inexpensive, functional, and appealing in a modern/Scandinavian fashion sense). And of course, being the Detroit area, they give the following important stats on the Coming Soon! page for the Canton Store:

• Acres: 20 (primary parcel)
• Square Feet: 311,000
• Parking Spaces: 1300

What was also suprising is that in Sweden (where they apparently call it ik-ee-ah), where cars are not that common, the IKEA store looks the exact same. Big Box with a huge parking lot and lots of cars. Of course, I would think carrying your new desk and bedroom set on the train would be somewhat… troublesome.