The Reflecteur team is often asked where it finds the items written about in the publication. The initiative is actually crowd-sourced and relies on a team of contributors that share any items they see going viral. Each of the contributors has his or her own interests and favorite sites to visit, so the items they send are as varied as they are. However, despite this range certain ones seem to pop up again and again as top sites.

Issue 93 of Reflecteur is a one-page resource that includes some of the most common source sites for digital culture items across a variety of categories. From the ad world to cooking, from gaming to geek culture, these sites are some of the best to check for what’s being shared right now.

Issue 94 returns to the usual Reflecteur format. It starts by taking us around the world with Tourist Places followed up a unique pop culture mash up with Iconatomy. Page two looks at some decidedly digital geopolitical commentary on North Korea and then crosses the globe to ask 50 people in Chicago what their favorite memory is. At least one of their responses is sure to make you smile.

Reflecteur is a VivaKi initiative designed to uncover insights about digital culture. It’s a collaborative effort spanning all the VivaKi brands, using the power of crowdsourcing to identify the salient topics in digital culture and interpret them for underlying insights. We use the phrase “digital culture explained” to describe Reflecteur. Past issues of Reflecteur can be found in Work.

Download the latest issues of the Reflecteur publication below:

Reflecteur #91- September 5, 2011
Reflecteur #92- September 19, 2011
Reflecteur #93 – October 3, 2011
Reflecteur #94- October 6, 2011
Reflecteur #95- October 17, 2011

All Reflecteur content is also available at DigitalCutlureExplained.com.

We have a new weapon in the Reflecteur arsenal: DigitalCultureExplained.com. This site will feature all of the publication articles as well as original content. You can RSS the site as well as follow us on Twitter(@DigiCultEx) or fan us on Facebook.

Issue 89 is all about absurdity, a hallmark of the digital space. In it you can learn about four amazingly ridiculous items:

• - 600 points, no deaths: This video is of one player beating the original Super Mario Bros with the (almost) lowest score possible. There was one accidental goomba squish in there. Why would anyone do that? And why is it so impressive?
• - Hipster or Jesus: This photo blog, which takes photos of hipsters that “look like” Jesus and asks if we think it’s actually him or just some weird hipster, is all about amazing, snarky copy.
• - Best Backyard Battle Ever: An over-the-top, unbelievably awesome and bizarre video of a father and son’s backyard battle with little green soldiers and various other toys. It’s completely ridiculous… and everyone of us want to join in.
• - Darth Malkoff vs The Apple Store: This is comedian Mark Malkoff’s attempt to see just what will get you kicked out of an Apple store. He couldn’t figure it out, but the video of his tests is great. It’s also a wonderful example of what happens when a brand embraces being a playground for its users.

Download Issue 89.

Continued

Issue 87

• - ‘Thumbs up for rock and roll!’: An inspiring and hilarious video of one boy’s first time riding a bike without training wheels ends with an amazing non sequitor that makes it that much more adorable.
• - Dirty Car Art: Some things just make us go “why didn’t I think of that?!” Another great example of the digital space uncovering something amazing that was in front of us all along.
• - Bangable Dudes in History and My Daguerreotype Boyfriend: Ever look at a picture of a historical figure and go “wow, that dude/lady is hot!” Turns out this is a pretty common phenomenon.
• - Japan Tsunami Clean Up Photos: We see before and after photos of natural disasters all the time. But rarely do we see the actual process of cleaning up after the storm. These photos are amazing for how they capture how much and how little has been cleaned up.

Issue 88

• - Dear Photograph: Reminiscent of Issue 79′s ‘Looking into the Past Images’ this site allows users to also include a short note addressed to the image. These one or two lines do an amazing job of expressing all of the emotions the individuals feels when he or she looks at that picture.
• - 100 Views from Planes: Like its name implies, this is a list of 100 photos taken from airplanes. And they are amazing. Few of us have the chance to see many of these locations from 30,000 feet and of the few that do, even fewer could take such great pictures of them.
• - Laser-cut zoetropes: A great example of a theme we’ve seen a lot of recently, these zoetropes take animated gifs and make them analog. Ironically, few of us will ever see these in their analog form, instead experiencing them digitally view videos and blog posts such as the one we included in the article.
• - Hardly Work.in: A pretty much useless but hilarious way to hide the fact that you aren’t working, this site turns your Facebook wall into a spreadsheet. Is there any other program that is more antithetical to Facebook?

In this issue you can learn how to make your own science fiction items with some fake Ikea Assembly Manuals from CollegeHumor. Or you can help undermine the growth of QR codes by spreading these fake ones. Or maybe it’s time to celebrate the classic 90’s video game character, Sonic the Hedgehog? Or perhaps you just want to go a bit further back and remember how awesome McGyver was?

You can do all this and more in the latest issue of Reflecteur. You can even check out Yahoo’s recent interview with VivaKi Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer Rishad Tobaccowala.

Download Issue 85.

Did you know that some people think the Onion is real? And that these people post Onion articles to their Facebooks as if they are true? Or that twice a year the sun lines up perfectly with the east-west streets in New York City causing an amazing display of light called ‘Mahattanhenge”? You will learn more about these things on Page 1 of Issue 86.

Meanwhile, on page 2 you can wonder at what comes out of one man’s mouth as he sleeps. And then you can see what the world would be like as a village of 100 people, but with the same demographic proportions. We bet it will give you some fresh perspectives on our planet.

Download Issue 86.