Vivid Lamp - It's all about Ideas that spread

Silence is Golden

Marie — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:19:44 +1000

Recently, I came across an interesting article written by Ann-Maree Moodie in an innovative Australian magazine called FastThinking. The article had a title called Leave me Alone so it sure got my attention! The author talks about how ironic our state of lives have become. On the one hand, we strive to create new technological gadgets and electronic products, which is supposed to help make our daily lives easier.

image:Golden Wood Studios
Unfortunately, items such as mobile/cell phones, e-mail, electronic organizers and the like also serves to create distractions and intrusions on any quiet time that we may obtain on a given day. She also made a good point, that even when you are on a plane and flying at high altitude, it is now possible to reach you via e-mail or phone, so you don't even get any quiet time while flying anymore! The article also goes deeper to examine studies that have been done by cognitive theorists on idea creation.

However, the issue that the author had raised about the importance of silence and the influence it has on the formation of ideas helped me to look at my own environment and the distractions that I face on a daily basis.

Take for example at work, I'm expected to find new solutions and ideas that can be incorporated to our existing software system. But, during the course of the day I will receive a huge amount of e-mails (sometimes it feels like an insurmountable amount of e-mails; currently, I'm still trying to clear my inbox as I have a lot of follow-up items that have yet to be actioned!), then there's the phone calls, skype messages/calls, meetings (and more meetings) and generally people just coming up to me to discuss things. With all these distractions, I do wonder how I find the time to come up with practical solutions, let alone coming up with innovative ideas? To be honest, it is very hard with all these constant distractions (and I know these are just part of life at work). I'm just wondering how I can be more constructive and innovative in the face of these daily happenings? And that's just at work. When I am at home, the television is blaring in the background, the microwave or jug/kettle is boiling, dinner to cook and if I'm surfing the net - then there goes most of the evening!

Take a look at your day and list the items that take up your time and prevents you from focusing on forming solutions or coming up with new ideas for a project - you might be suprised as to what you will find out.

Based on this article and after an assessment of my own daily rituals, I do agree that it certainly doesn't hurt to have some quiet time out. Lately I've been trying really hard to have a few quiet moments, so that I can think clearer and find some focus so that I can come up with more innovative ideas whether it is for work, our websites or projects we have in mind. I have been trying to implement the following:

1. Reading books - I do a lot of reading on the net each day, but I do remember how much I used to enjoy reading a novel. I find reading to be very relaxing. It provides me with much needed quiet time, helps me to unwind and think clearer so I can reflect on life and things in general. It also stimulates my imagination, which in turn helps me to think outside of the square. I have just finished a Jane Austen book and I am currently reading Charles Dickens's masterpiece "A Tale of Two Cities" (ok, this is a rather hard book to read, though once you get passed the first few chapters, it is pretty good and you learn a lot about how people used to live from 1775, especially in France and England).

Basically, find a hobby that you enjoy that helps you to achieve your own quiet tranquility and fosters your mind to be creative and active.

2. Turn off the television - For me anyway, television is a huge distraction, so I am trying hard to make sure that I do not watch too much of it. Lately, because I have been reading my novels, I've spent less time watching TV. Turning it off or just putting it on mute, provides the silence I need to think clearer.

3. Allocate time on the net - I know this is hard for a lot of us, but I think putting aside time one spends on-line is important. If we consciously do not do this, then like anything it becomes an addiction and we start to lose touch with the real world. I personally think the internet provides us with a lot of helpful and good resources. Information is at our finger tips. All I'm saying is that it's also important to find a balance.

4. Reduce mobile/cell phone usage - In the age of the mobile/cell phone technology, I know a lot of us spend time on the phone either talking, texting and now the ability to also surf the net. Again with this technology, balance is the key.

5. Emails - I enjoy reading personal e-mails, but these too are a real distraction. At the same time, work related e-mails can consume one's day especially when we all rely on it so much. I tend to create folders, so I separate work and personal e-mails from each other. When I need a sanity break I will open my personal e-mails. However, finding your own method to get on top of your e-mails is crucial, so that you do not spend the whole day sifting through them. I tend to assign a few hours in the morning to sort through them, that way I can focus on other things during the rest of the day. Like I said, I'm still working on it as my inbox is still very full!

6. Find quiet time - Honestly, just set aside some quiet time for yourself. It can be as little as 30 minutes each day. Try it out and see if it helps you relax and think clearer so that you can come up with more innovative and creative ideas.

Here's hoping that you may find silence to be golden for your life aswell...

Email: Inbox Upgrade Tools

Louie — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:36:23 +1000

The email service has been around even before the internet was born. It has been said that email was a crucial tool in the creation of the internet. People use it to pass messages from one computer to another. It is also known as our online identity. All internet users have their own emails. It’s the one thing that identifies us in the online world. The most widely used service in the internet.

Today, email is used not only for sending text based messages. As you may all know, it’s been used for sending images and videos across the internet. It can also be used as an online storage for backing up files. With the functionality of email continually evolving, it is good to know that third party developers are now creating email upgrades to make our inboxes better.

Here is a list of some of the most recent and useful email add-ons that you can use to create a more efficient inbox.

Xobni
Xobni is an email client plugin currently available to Outlook which features quick e-mail searches, quick attachment discovery, automatic extraction of phone numbers, automatic schedule creator and email conversation threading. It basically turns your Outlook into an email based social network.

The Xobni team recently announced that they are integrating their Outlook plugin with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals. Xobni will automatically display a contact’s Linked in profile along with job title, employer and photo. This is a great addition to Xobni’s usefulness when it comes to easily profiling email addresses and quickly displaying professional backgrounds and photos of the owner of the email address in your inbox.

Better Gmail 2 Firefox Plugin
Better Gmail 2 is the latest version of Better Gmail Firefox plugin which compiles the best Greasemonkey user scripts for Gmail into a single package. They upgraded the plugin since Gmail’s interface overhaul. What it does is add a menu of optional extra features to the new version of Gmail.

Xoopit
Xoopit is another Firefox plugin which turns your Gmail into a multimedia management tool. It indexes attachments in your inbox including the link to photos and videos. It will display media from Flickr, Picasa Shutterfly, Kodak and YouTube. This will allow easier searching of images and video links buried in your inbox. You can also filter by sender, or search by keywords associated with videos even if the content sent to you was just the link to the video. The service also allows you to post directly from your inbox to your blogs and Facebook account.

This is a great application and a great upgrade for Gmail. However, the only thing that concerns me is that in order to use Xoopit, you must provide it with your Gmail username and password. I did try it in the Gmail account that I use to subscribe to email RSS. It does the job that it was made to do and it’s a really cool app. If you are not too concerned with handing out your username and password to a third party application then you will find this particular tool of great use.

Gmail Labs
The Gmail team recently released Gmail Labs. They are a set of experimental scripts and add-ons for Gmail which you can enable and disable in your Gmail Settings. You can also send a feedback regarding the usefulness of the add-on. This will enable the team to collaborate with real users for the development of better features for the email service.

You may have noticed that most of the tools listed above are for Gmail. They are chosen because Gmail is the most popular free email service out there. If you have other email upgrades that you want to share with us, please let us know in your comments.

Comments, Comments and more Comments!

Marie — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:06:08 +1000

It's something that has been talked about many times and something that the majority of bloggers appreciate receiving against a post they have written about. Comments provide blog owners feedback of what their visitors think in relation to a particular topic or subject and at the same time, both the blog owner and their visitors may learn a thing or two from the comments left behind.

image:bizmac
This post intends to convey to our readers my experiences of commenting on other people's sites and receiving comments back in return.

Personally, I believe you need to network with other bloggers and market your blog/website so that other people know about it. If people do not know about your blog, they will not be able to find it and hence, cannot leave you a comment against any of your posts.

As you may all know already, there are many social media or networking sites out there that can help you do this. This post will not address how you can network and market your blog, I will try and cover this in another post. Rather, the assumption is that you have done this already and are getting people visiting your site each day.

How do you get people to provide you with feedback about your content or posts?

Below is a list I came up with, based on my own experiences:

1. Give your thoughts and ideas freely - When you comment on someone else's site, acknowledge what the author has already written and if you have an expertise, experience or can relate to the area or topic being discussed offer your ideas. These ideas are not only helpful, but it will also add to the content and strengthen the discussion. For example, we had a post about innovation and idea discovery and one of our readers added a comment about the story on how Walt Disney approached his business and implemented his ideas which lead to his success. Not only did this add to the content of the blog, but we all learned a lot more from this story.

2. Provide constructive comments on other people's blogs - Read the article carefully and if you have something genuine to say, leave constructive comments. When I say 'constructive' I mean comments that:

Will help the blog owner or other readers in some way or another. It will also allow them to understand your point of view and where you are coming from.
Are thought provoking, so other people can atleast reflect on your comments or allows for further discussion to take place. Therefore, you do not need to agree with what the author is saying, just as long as you express your views clearly and with conviction.
Make sense and address the issue/topic discussed. The blog owner will generally know when someone has not read the post properly, when the comments left behind does not make sense or has been answered in the post already. This can be a bit embarrassing, especially if a lot of other people have responded to the article and your comments are out of place! This will also influence your credibility and whether the blog owner or other readers would want to reciprocate and comment on your site.

I have found many times that when I leave constructive comments on other people's sites, other readers also notice and they actually come to our site to visit. I know this after we have analyzed our google analytics and we can see a few people coming to our site from the blog I recently left a comment on. An example of this, was when a particular site had a meme and I basically responded to one of their question/answer about an age old question on "What is love?" Now, I am a romantic at heart, so how could I resist? :)

3. Don't be desperate for a link back - This point ties in with point 1. If you are genuinely interested in a post you have just read, offer your comments freely. Do not expect a link back. Recently, I went to a site to thank the blog owner for their support and feedback for our other site. He/she thought I was after a link back because I left a comment against their latest post about getting a backlink, but I had not followed the instructions properly. I commented on the latest post as it was the newest and I wanted them to receive as many comments to help conversation moving. A day later I visited the site again and informed the blog owner that I was only stopping by to show my appreciation and was not after a backlink. To my suprise, the blog owner was very generous and kind enough to actually do a review of our free125cards.com site on their blog. I was really touched by the gesture as I was not expecting it.

4. Go back and visit the site you left a comment on - I understand it might be difficult to remember the websites where you had left your comment. But if you left a comment that had a question or you wanted a response from the blog owner, it's good etiquette if you were to go back and visit their site again. This is important, particularly if the blog owner has taken the time to answer your question. By doing this, you also get an answer to your question. I will generally acknowledge the blog owner's response by leaving another comment so that they are aware that I appreciate their help and response.

If you apply this to a real life conversation such as an e-mail, isn't it nice when someone responds back to your question? Likewise, isn't it nice when you also receive feedback from the other person thanking you for taking the time to answer?

5. Leave a valid e-mail address - Ensure that you leave a valid e-mail address as some blog owners have setup notifications to thank you for stopping by and commenting on their site or they may have a question about the comments you had left behind. If you do not leave a valid e-mail address you will not receive these responses and you will not be able to respond back if a question was thrown your way.

6. Leave a valid & appropriate URL - Like I have said in point 2, if you leave a comment and it is constructive and creates interest, other readers will certainly want to visit your site, so make sure you leave an appropriate URL. This means that, if you are reading about blogging tips and advice, you may want to link to an article about blogging related topics on your site, so that there is a shared interest and this may help enable conversation on your site. Otherwise, just make sure you link back to your own blog so other people can visit you and in turn helps to provide exposure for your own blog.

7. Controversial topics - If you need to address controversial topics or issues, make sure you present it in a professional way.

State your point of view clearly and back it up with your reasons. Be prepared for any feedback that may conflict with your own. If you can accept this, you will be professional and mature enough to accept other people's perspectives and respond to them appropriately.

8. Respond to comments - I recently have decided to respond back to comments left on our site, when I think the conversation needs to continue or to thank someone for something they have done. Generally, I will also allow the conversation to flow between our readers and this will not require my input. It is good to acknowledge your visitors, but it is also good to let the conversation take their natural path. It is up to you how you want to manage your site and find this balance.

9. Content - I am not going to harp about this one, but basically your blog needs to have relevant, interesting and appropriate content for your target audience that will get people talking and encourage them to make a comment.

10. Catchy title or image - Lastly, make sure you put a catchy title or image on your post so that it grabs your readers' attention as soon as your site loads. Once you get their attention, it's a vital start to get them to start reading your post or article. As you know, people are in a hurry so try and get their attention so they stop and read what you have to say.

How does any of this help you?

It is really up to you to find what works for you and your blog. These are my own experiences and what has worked for me and our sites. If you can take anything from this post, I hope you can appreciate that leaving constructive comments helps to promote your own credibility and your blog. This in turn, can bring people to your site and may bring you constructive comments in return.

Have you used some of these methods I've described above? Or do you have your own methods for bringing readers to your site and leaving a comment?

DabbleBoard : Think and Communicate Visually

Louie — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:30:45 +1000

Sharing and discussing ideas online can be tough sometimes. Emails and chat clients are limited to text which consumes a lot of time. Some chat clients have audio and video features which make it easier for us to communicate and share our thoughts faster. They even have file sharing features which lets us share images, documents and videos with the person on the other line. Given all the tools available to us online and offline, sometimes a nice old whiteboard beats them all in expressing our thoughts and ideas.

Our featured online tool is called DabbleBoard. It’s a digital online whiteboard where anyone can make a drawing and save it as an image file. There are many online whiteboards available on the internet but DabbleBoard is by far the best that I have seen. The nice clean interface gives you the feeling of using a real whiteboard and the features are easy to understand and apply.

The web app is packed with powerful features that are easily accessible. You can draw freehand or add basic shapes in a snap. A four color palette is also available for color coding the lines and shapes. Multiple undo and redo features for mistakes adds to the usability of the web app. You can also resize and delete a drawings and shapes easily by pressing the x button (for delete) and the <->button (for resize) which appears whenever a drawing is highlighted. And of course, you can also easily insert text along with your shapes and lines.

My favorite feature is the automatic shape recognition of the application. You don’t need to select a shape you want to draw from a menu in order to produce one. Just draw away as if like you’re drawing on a whiteboard and the let DabbleBoard do the rest. It will produce a shape depending on how it recognized your drawing. You can easily produce a square or a rectangle by simply drawing a letter L or a distorted four sided figure. Drawing an arc will produce a circle or ellipse depending on the width of the arc.

The real time collaboration and quick email sharing are also key features in the usefulness of Dabbleboard. The user can choose to immediately send the image by email, download the image in the form of a PNG file or create a public link for quick viewing. Creating a public link will allow other people to copy your image and reuse it again in DabbleBoard. This will allow them to edit your drawing for faster collaboration.

DabbleBoard is still in its beta stage but the webapp is working quite well. The service could also use a social networking feature which will allow users to share drawings with selected members privately and perhaps make live collaborations. Aside from having a few minor bugs, Dabbleboard is a powerful and easy to use tool for sharing our ideas visually. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

More Oil

admin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:36:46 +1000

Choice: Your Most Valuable Asset

SimonB — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:31:55 +1000

If You Want to Find Your Niche, Look For the Gap

“Give people a choice and the tail always gets longer.
”

Seth Godin

In Purple Cow, Seth Godin showed why it’s important to be remarkable. In Meatball Sundae, he shows why “New Marketing” and “Old Marketing” don’t mix.

Old Marketing, explains Godin, was about organizations—corporate giants like General Motors and IBM. The New Marketing is about starting a movement. Google, eBay, and YouTube aren’t organizations in the twentieth-century sense. They’re movements: Their growth is driven by users that are passionate about the choices that these Web sites add to their lives.

Although the Web makes it faster and cheaper than ever to spread an idea, the idea that choice matters is as old as the Old Marketing itself. Henry Ford amassed a fortune by making a car that ordinary people could buy. His Model T was affordable because it was a “one-size-fits-all” solution. In Ford’s words, it came in any color, “as long as it was black.”

By the mid-1920s Americans were more prosperous. They wanted better cars and more choices. Under Alfred Sloan Jr., General Motors offered people “a car for every purse and purpose.” Sloan’s company moved to the forefront of the automobile industry because Henry Ford, one of the greatest innovators of his day, stopped innovating.

The lack of foresight that almost destroyed the Ford Motor Company in the 1920s and 30s would undermine Sloan’s own company several decades later, after GM executives decided not to develop smaller, more energy-efficient cars. By failing to provide more choices, American companies lost customers and revenue to more innovative Japanese manufacturers, just as Henry Ford once lost markets to General Motors.

What Alfred Sloan did at GM is no different from what Daniel Neal is doing today at kajeet. Neal used gap analysis to create a pay-as-you-go mobile phone service for kids. How did he do it? It was all a matter of “homework”: He thought about the kind of cell phone he wanted his own children to have.

“Our story,” says Neal, “began with three dads (Neal and his two co-founders) figuring out how technology, kids and parents work best.” Their success reminds us that the best way to be remarkable is to give people more choices.

Over 80 years ago, Alfred Sloan discovered a gap between what Henry Ford was selling and what buyers wanted. That’s the same way to find a gap today: Analyze what the leaders are doing. Then ask yourself what they’re failing to do.

If the answer is something that people want—and something you’re passionate about—you’ve found your niche.

2008 Most Remarkable Websites - Suggestion box

Marie — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:40:19 +1000

While I surf through the net each day, I have come across some really remarkable websites/blogs. By remarkable, I mean worth making a comment about. It could be because the site offers very useful information, adds value to what I'm doing, or contains interesting or humorous content - but content that stands out from the rest of the pack.

image:StaR_DusT
As you know, our site promotes ideas that spread therefore, I thought it would be an interesting concept to find out from our readers (yes that's right, I'm looking at YOU), if you could tell me some of the most remarkable websites you have found out there on the world wide web. I am certain there are sooooo many out there that I haven't even heard of, that's why I'm asking for your help :)

As for myself, one website I found absolutely remarkable, is a site called We Feel Fine. It has a really unique and interesting concept. It searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling" and then collates the data and displays it in an innovative way. It's almost like looking into the soul of all the people around the world as it captures how people are feeling when they use these phrases...it is really remarkable. If you're interested in checking out this site just click here.

By sharing with the rest of our readers, the sites you think are worth making a remark about, we can all spread the word and ideas together.

So post a comment with:

Website name/url
And why you think it's worth talking about

I look forward to your suggestions. Thank you in advance for taking the time to share with us :)

ZACBrowser: A Browser for Autistic Children

Louie — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:32:38 +1000

Autism is a brain development disorder that impairs social interaction and communication, and causes restricted and repetitive behavior, all starting before a child is three years old. -Wikipedia

Autism affects about 1 in every 150 children, it causes kids to experience the world differently from the way most other kids do. They also may react to what's going on around them in unusual ways. Some are sensitive to sound, and some with what they see and touch. There is no known cure for autism. The only thing that the doctors, therapists, parents, and special teachers can do is to help them overcome autism and adjust to the difficulties of life.

There are special computer applications that are designed specifically to help children with autism to learn to talk and communicate. Some of these applications are also available online. However, using the internet and regular browsers for learning can be tough for these kids and for their parents mainly because of the distractions that the online environment gives them. The internet is full of media that can potentially harm an autistic child which makes it even more challenging for parents and teachers to do their jobs.

There exists a one of a kind application, called ZacBrowser, which is designed specifically for autistic children. ZacBrowser was inspired by Zachary, grandson of software designer John LeSieur, who began displaying classic signs of a pervasive development disorder (PDD) and was diagnosed as severely autistic in 2005.The browser basically simplifies the web for the benefit of children with autism, and autism spectrum disorders such as Asperger syndrome, pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), and ODD-NOS. It was developed by PeopleCD specifically for the children’s enjoyment, enrichment, and freedom.

ZacBrowser produces results minus the adult content and only displays handpicked free sites which will provide the proper tools for fun and learning. It contains games and activities that are effective learning tools for kids with low, medium and high functioning autism. The interface is fun and very kid friendly. It features large icons which will help kids to focus more on a particular item and has very few control buttons to avoid confusion. They can choose to play games, watch videos, watch /read storybooks and listen to music from popular children websites like Sesame Street, Nickelodeon, Disney and many other kid friendly sites specially selected by the creators of the browser.

It is good to know that there are applications in the web that focuses in the learning of children with disorders like autism. It is even more wonderful to know is that there is an application such as ZacBrowser which collects those kid friendly webapps and puts them together in an environment safe for kids. This is truly a valuable piece of software to both kids with autism and their parents.

Download the ZacBrowser. It’s Free.
Works on Windows Vista, XP, 2000, ME, 98

Additional Information: Also check out zacsearch the autism search engine.

Shut up coz I'm right!

Marie — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:48:16 +1000

Today I spent some time on the Entrecard forums. For those of you that have not heard or have used Entrecard, it is a social networking site that helps you to promote your blog/website and generate traffic. It also contains a forum for members to visit (which are divided into different sections) where members can discuss a related issue within a particular forum.

In the past week, a lot of tension has been brewing within it's members and it has now erupted to the point that the administrators of Entrecard have had to open a new forum section called 'Firestorm' where "hostile, aggressive and uncivil posts only" can be posted. This is so that the most popular section, the 'Community' forum section of Entrecard can be contained and be a friendly environment for people to go to and express their opinions without too much threat from others (well, this is the impression I got after reading through the responses from members, moderators and administrators anyway).

I have also gone through the week's posts on the community forum and have also found threads removed and edited. This is the part I really have an issue with. Before I continue, I just want to make it clear that I also strongly believe that people have a right to express their opinion in a respectful way (ie: without putting another person down). The problem I have is when people's point of views are distorted, so that it will look nicer and friendlier when other people read a particular thread. I have an issue with this because:

It is misleading and dishonest. People have expressed their views and it is not being heard as it has been deleted/erased from the thread.
When the initiator of a post has edited their first initial entry (several days after) there is no history of the original entry (unless you have read it); therefore, the reason for the original arguement as to why certain members were unhappy cannot be traced back to the original thread. If this was applied to the legal system where evidence has been clearly tampered with, the evidence would certainly only benefit those that altered it.
By editing and altering the conversations between members, you are devaluing everyone's opinion. Therefore, why bother asking people's feedback if the answers you have received is not what you want to hear?
For the administrators to clearly take sides and punish those that did not instigate the original post makes me question their judgement. What punishment did the original perpetrator receive? I doubt they even got reprimanded for such behaviour, because today this person appalling tried to stir up more trouble, only to have the post mysteriously vanish again! I am really disappointed by this, plus the fact that there are no clear guidelines on why threads are edited, deleted or why they vanish into thin air! I am not sure if it is because of the new partnership that Entrecard is about to announce, that the administrators feel they have to present a happy, friendly and glowing group of members that participate in the community forums that they have acted in this way...it remains to be seen.

I am aware that there are constraints in our democratic world where we should be able to openly express our opinions as we can sometimes be bound by our society's expectations and having to be politically correct in certain situations. But visiting a social networking site in my own time, providing my feedback and opinions for free so that we can help build a strong community together, all I really expect back in return is that my opinion and other members' point of views are shown as they have expressed them within a post thread and that they should not be deleted just because it is not what certain people want to hear. If you can do this, you are showing respect for your members and valuing each of their perspective.

So what do you think?

3DVIA.com: Share Your Ideas in 3D

Louie — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:31:50 +1000

There is a web service that I want to share with you that will probably change the way you look at social networking. It does not include games or flat walls where you can stick virtual things on. This particular site will give you a chance to share your ideas while enhancing your creativity.

3DVIA.com offers a social networking service motivated with an objective of giving us the power of 3D. The company made it clear that their mission is to democratize the use of 3D technology and establish it as the new media for consumer and professional users. 3dvia.com is social networking on a different dimension. We are now looking at consumers sharing 3D models of their creation to the world. Members can also use 3DVIA.com as their public or private hosting for their 3D images. The service supports over 30 different 3D formats.

“3DVIA.com will be the meeting point for all the communities wishing to improve everyday life with 3D. It will provide both 3D content and 3D services, either very generic or more dedicated to specific goals. It relies on dedicated infrastructure, leverages real-time display and behavioral 3D technologies, and provides services for everyone to imagine, create, share, experience or play in 3D.
”

When 3DVIA decided to democratize 3D use, they also unleashed their professional-grade 3D modeling software into the hands of consumers. The service generates three-dimensional simulations of everyday objects which could probably and eventually allow Web 2.0 users to construct their own virtual worlds and share them with their friends.

The Software:

3DVIA Shape is the free online 3D modeling application that allows any user to create 3D models and publish them directly to 3DVIA.com. The software is quite powerful and very easy to use. They included an easy to understand first time tutorial on how to build a house using the tools available at 3DVIA Shape. Once you get the hang of the application and the tools, you can let your imagination run loose and start producing 3D models of your choice. You can download the free software and watch the demo video in their download page.

You can see the software in action here:

Explore your creativity.