Category Archives: Arts & culture

New media links

I like keeping an eye on new media around the Web. While I’m out in Chicago leading a workshop (with no time to produce a video), I’ll share some links to sites that have got me thinking about new ways to use new media. Check these out, and see what you think….

Just reading the titles of the sessions for Podcamp Boston 2 is already making me think. How about “Podcasting on the Cellphone [and] Building a (near) Realtime Audience”? And then there’s “Podcasting as a Tool for Non-Profits: What does it take to do a high-quality podcast for your organization?” Or how about the session titled “What is the sound of your brand?” Link.

I’ve been following an online animated video called Unleashed. The animation is minimal, but effective. The sound quality is exceptionally good. The whole online show is low-budget but very effective — and the basic structure should be relatively easy to replicate. Link.

Speaking of low-budget, “xkcd” is a very low-budget online comic strip. The drawings are crude, but the strip is funny and has developed a huge online following. Once again, this structure would not be hard to replicate. Link.

All these sites represent new ways of delivering new media content online. The real problem, as always, is coming up with content that people will want to have delivered to them….

The Harvard Coop is evil

In a Harvard Crimson article from 19 September 2007 titled “Coop discourages note-taking in bookstore”, reporter Gabriel Daly writes that students are getting thrown out of the Coop for noting down prices and ISBN numbers of books in the store:

Coop President Jerry P. Murphy ’73 said that while there is no Coop policy against individual students copying down book information, “we discourage people who are taking down a lot of notes.”

The apparent new policy could be a response to efforts by Crimsonreading.org—an online database that allows students to find the books they need for each course at discounted prices from several online booksellers—from writing down the ISBN identification numbers for books at the Coop and then using that information for their Web site.

Murphy said the Coop considers that information the Coop’s intellectual property.

Umm, no an ISBN number is not the Coop’s intellectual property. What a flagrant example of misusing intellectual property law to intimidate people.

But wait, the Harvard Crimson reports that the Coop has gotten even more hostile.

The Coop has not been the same since they asked the Borg, er, Barnes and Noble to manage the store. I spend hundreds of dollars a year on books, but you can be sure I’ll pass by the Coop and walk a few blocks down the street to Harvard Bookstore, the last remaining independent leftist bookstore in Harvard Square.

via

One Web Day 2007

How would you like to change the world in the future? — that’s one of the questions asked by the organizers of One Web Day. I changed this question a little bit, and asked how the Web should change in the future. Short answer: we need better Web navigation, and better online content.

Watch the video, and see what you think — and if you think you could have done better than I did, you’re right, so get out there and make your own online video! New media can change the world — but only if you help create it. (3:03)

Note: video host blip.tv is defunct, so this video no longer exists.

Talk like a pirate

Fortunately, Ms. M sent email reminding me that today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

In our church office, Linda, our secretary, and I are both big fans of talking like pirates, and we have been taking full advantage of this annual celebration. Claudette, our administrator, just looks at us and shakes her head.

A couple of minutes ago, Claudette said, without turning around from her computer, “OK, it’s time for me to go. Anything else you want before I take off?”

Linda said no, but I said, “Just one thing. We want to hear you talk like a pirate just once today….”

This strange, gruff voice came from Claudette’s desk. “Arrr, why would I want to do that foolishness?”

After a moment of shocked silence, Linda and I laughed. “Hey,” I said, “You’ve got the best pirate voice of any of us!”

“Of course I do,” said Claudette, grinning. “I’m older and wiser than both of you.”

“‘Pegleg Claudette,’ that’s what we’re going to call you,” said Linda.

One Web Day 2007

I’ll be participating in the 2007 edition of One Web Day, this Saturday, September 22. The organizers of One Web Day are encouraging us all to make short videos and “post them on blip.tv or youtube or dotsub.com tagged onewebday2007 .” If you don’t make online videos, they’re suggesting you write something on your blog or Web site. And if you don’t have a blog, write a nice juicy comment on someone else’s One Web Day post. Their suggested topics include how the Web has changed your life, how you hope the Web will change the world for the better in the future, or even something you’ve done online with people in other countries.

Here’s a short version of their manifesto:

The internet is made of people, not just machines. It’s up to us to protect it. We can use OneWebDay around the world to raise awareness of the threats to the internet — including censorship, inadequate access, control of various kinds — and to celebrate the positive impact of the internet on human lives.

Since I’m a Unitarian Universalist minister, my One Web Day post will probably bring up Tim Berners-Lee’s essay WWW, UU, and I. But I’m thinking that I might want to explore the links between visual art (especially performance art, conceptual art, and video art) and the Web. Check in on Saturday, and see what I come up with.

Update, September 18:

Tim Berners-Lee has posted his One Web Day video, and he uses his video to talk a little bit about the future of the Web. Of course he talks about net neutrality, and says that a key aspect of the Web is the fact that anybody can connect to anybody; that’s something we must keep in the future.

He also warns against “web rot,” which occurs when people design Web sites carelessly: “they don’t make good HTML, they don’t close their tags.” He encourages all those of us who make Web sites to validate our HTML. (Admission: my Web site does not validate because somewhere, somehow, I used two invalid div id values. Rats. At least I closed all my tags. And I’ll correct the div id value problems RSN.)

Email [curse | blessing], part four

The fourth installment in an occasional series where I think out loud about using email effectively. First installment.

Anarticle in today’s New York Times unequivocally answers the question that is the title of this post:– email is a curse. A front-page article by Brad Stone titled “Tell-All PCs and Phones Transforming Divorce: In the Digital Age, It’s Growing Hard to Hide Dirty Secrets” tells all about how email is changing divorce proceedings.

One man, suspecting his wife of cheating, installed a piece of software on her computer that took a screenshot of whatever was on her monitor every 15 seconds, and sent it back to him via email. She thought no one was watching; he discovered that she was having an affair, and that she and her lover were seeking sex from strangers via the Internet. Another woman checked her doctor husband’s email account — he had shared his password with her — and discovered that he was having an affair with a much younger medical resident, and that he bought a three million dollar condo so he could tryst in style. By the way, it turns out both these strategies for gaining access to email are perfectly legal.

The Times reporter quotes divorce lawyer David Levy as saying, “I do not like to put things on e-mail…. There’s no way it’s private. Nothing is fully protected once you hit the send button.” Actually, nothing is private once you type it into your computer. The Times reporter also quotes a private investigator, James Mulvaney, as saying, “Every keystroke on your computer is there, forever and ever.” Mulvaney claims that the only way you can erase data from your hard drive is to “throw your computer into the air and play skeet with it.” [Commercially available neodymium-boron-iron magnet can erase floppy disks and the magnetic stripes from credit cards; one would imagine that a strong neodymium magnet could erase the contents of a hard drive if placed directly against the disk; but I digress.]

This brings us back to the single most important rule for email: Do not write anything in an email message unless you would feel comfortable seeing it on the front page of the local newspaper. Or in court, for that matter.

Exhibit

Years ago, I read this huge book by Allan Kaprow about happenings. So here’s a recreation of a happening by George Brecht, as best I can remember it from that long-ago book. (2:49)

More Brecht scores/scripts: Link. A “performance” of one of Brecht’s works on the Web: Link.

Note: video host blip.tv is defunct, so this video no longer exists.

“Project Footstool”

A peek at some of the 146 works of fabric art hidden away in the sanctuary of First Unitarian in New Bedford. I particularly like the diversity of styles — some of the works are reflective of fabric art from that era (rough textures, subdued colors), others reflect a more traditional sensibility, and some are just outrageously bright. 3:24

(This video was scheduled to be posted last Friday, but I ran into technical glitches and had to re-shoot parts of it — now you know why the opening title says “Friday Video,” even though today is Wednesday.)

Note: video host blip.tv is defunct, so this video no longer exists.

PodCamp Boston 2

Coming up soon: PodCamp Boston 2, from 7 p.m. on Friday, October 28, through 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 28. According to their Web site, “PodCamp Boston 2 is the new media community UnConference that helps connect people interested in blogging, podcasting, social networks, video on the net, and new media together for three days to learn, share, and grow their new media skills.” Link to PodCamp Boston 2.

Although I’ll be tied up Saturday during the day, looks like I’ll be able to attend the rest of PodCamp. I’m going for three reasons:– (1) I love new media; (2) I’m fascinated by the UnConference phenomenon; and (3) I’m still trying to get organized to do a weekly video on this blog and maybe PodCamp will provide enough info and inspiration for me to make it happen.

If you’re planning on going, post something in the comments to this post, and maybe we can get together.