The photo sharing/social network app Color launched last week, and much fuss was made for a variety of reasons: massive media hype, massive funding, and a complete lack of documentation about how people should actually use the app. Mike 3K found this brilliant iPhone app store review of Color, which makes the whole affair worthwhile. Read the whole thing here.
An information artist crafts structure from existing cultural narratives, exposing the power of storytelling as a method of classification.
By blending expected and unexpected uses of information, the above describes Color as a Myst-like fantasy experience, adding notes like "casting the Google spell" and drawing on the growing collective awareness (fear?) of devices that listen softly to our every action.
It's important to note that the fundamental elements of what makes the review worth posting on Boinb Boing are not drawn from what Color actually is. Instead it draws from the expectations of what people wanted it to be.
An important distinction - because Color's entry into the photosharing scene came with a lot of hype about the future of social networking, I'm reminded of the idea that the most valuable thing about predictions is not in how accurate they are about the future; they do the more important job of expressing what people hope for in the present.
