Quick Post

Hi all, I just wanted to give you a link to the website of our Professor Adrienne Russell, in case you haven't found it yet and would like to read the additional informative postings and information available.

Also, I wanted to let you know that I finally got my DJ Spooky post published on the site if anyone is interested (it's down the list in May, when I had started it). It gives some highlights of his presentation, during which he discussed many things similar to what we've been doing in class, and it was really a nice supplement to our materials. I've got a link to a video of another one of his presentations, and though I don't have audio to check it, hopefully it is similar to the one he gave here. I had also forgotten to post that he did work with Lawrence Lessig, and discussed the idea of creative commons, saying "The laws and the way we live have parted ways."

Not-so Lonely Planet

I have spent the last few days really working hard to plan my summer trip to Europe before my study abroad in Scotland starts and let me tell you it has been an adventure in itself. There are some really unhelpful sites that are a waste of time and cyberspace! However, there are some really great ones too. My new favorite is from the makers of the Lonely Planet guidebooks. The site features an incredible forum called the Thorn Tree that has tons of useful/interesting information from where to buy clothes to the best bars for bachelorette parties. This really exemplifies everything that we have talked about concerning collective intelligence in terms of travel. This site really seems to be a hybrid of other sites we've discussed in class combining elements of MeetUp.com through the Thorn Tree section, Expedia.com in the booking section, Amazon.com in the store section, Blogger.com in the travel blog section, and even YouTube in the video blogging section called Lonely Planet TV.  The Bluelist feature is especially one to take a look at as it is completely self-catering to your personal tastes, another example of sites catering to niche markets. All I can say is that this site is awesome to view through the lens of everything we've learned about in class and even cooler to use. Don't miss this site if you are planning a trip or even just interested in travel! 

Interesting article comparing gaming to the long tail in the internet

I thought this article on wired.com was really interesting because it compares the gaming and arcade world to the long tail that is described in the internet in this class. The article basically says that the games that aren't mega-hits in stores, are just as, if not more important than the super popular games.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/05/microsoft-dont.html

Electronic Paper here to save trees

Epson has revealed its 13.4in electronic paper at SID 2008 in Los Angeles. Epson's largest electronic paper before was a 7.1in and now with a larger screen, it might actually bring use for some people to read newspapers on it. This is just a prototype, but hopefully they would bring this technology to consumers soon.

Source

Ideas and topics to review for the final exam

Kids and SNS
Meet up
Joe Trippi
New media and political campaigns
Counter power (from Manuel Castell’s article)
Convergence Culture (the book)
Networked Public Culture and how it is manifest in different culture industries
The Long Tail
Participatory journalism
Journalism and blogging
Indymedia
OhMyNews
Wikipedia
Participatory panopticon
Sousveillance
“Free” by Chris Anderson

Homework 5/21

The "Free" reading by Chris Anderson link doesn't work. So here it is for all of you that actually do the reading. Anyways thought you guys might want the link. ~~Andrew

Thamus/Theuth

From our reading for tomorrow. "There will be few statements or scenes that will go unnoticed, or unremembered. Our day to day lives will be archived and saved. What’s more, these archives will be available over the net for recollection, analysis, even sharing." (Jamais Cascio)

Cascio was onto something, and that something has since manifested itself into what is known as lifelogging. Rachel Leow, a historian at Cambridge wrote an interesting blog on the subject. I'll share some snippets, but you can read the full thing (it's not long at all) right here.


"...People have been experimenting with lifelogging, going around with audiovisual cameras slung around their necks like slack nooses, recording every minute of their lives. ...Total documentation of a life; total recollection. ...Privacy and legal issues aside (a whole other can of worms)...on one hand it's a perfectly logical progression from flickr, blogging, vblogging, del.icio.us-ing, the endless meta-documentation that is happening in furious magnitude around us every day. On the other hand...what if the meta-documentation burgeons to the size of the documentation itself? What if e.g. my RSS feedreader aggregates the feeds from every single webpage on the internet and thus becomes the size of the internet itself -- what would be the point?

"...When the map is exactly the same size as the mapped -- when it will take us exactly as much time to 'recall' our lives as it does to live them -- when the sculpture is indistinguishable from the woman -- which is real, which is valuable, which is true? ...If we are precisely what we represent, is there anything left of ourselves; is there a self at all?

"...Faced with an infinite archive, how does one organize the search and selection of documents? Indeed, as with the internet and an internet-sized RSS, what would be the point? Lifelogging would turn history's heartbeat into a flatline -- every moment democratically equal to the next; white noise as valuable as Beethoven, and the damnable problem of historical selection amplified thousandfold...."


In Phaedrus, Plato told a story about the introduction of literacy in Egypt. Theuth, an old God, takes his new invention, literacy, to the King, Thamus. Theuth explains that his characters -- writing -- will make people wiser and give them more memory. Thamus argues that it will have the opposite effect. That it won't enable greater memory, but give the semblance of memory; literacy will only enable reminiscence, not memory.

A lot of people see a parallel between the development of literacy and the development of information technology. I think most of us would agree that writing and widespread literacy brought us out of the dark ages (of orality). But I'm not certain that technology, and with it, the capability of total recollection, will have the same effect. Which is to say that I'm simultaneously terrified and in awe of technology for the reasons explained by Rachel above, in probably the same way that people initially felt about writing. In other words, I'm more of a Thamus than a Theuth. How about you?

"Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow

During one of my wide, meandering swaths through the Internet, I came across a recent novel called Little Brother written by Cory Doctorow. Before I go on to explain the general premise of this book, I would like to first say that I read it in a day. This was not because it is a short book (somewhere in the ballpark of 160 pages?) but because it was so...riveting (I tend to avoid that word because it sounds too superficial).

Nevertheless, onward.

Little Brother is targeted at the techno-geek that unavoidably resides in us all. The basic plot line is that a high school kid, Marcus (also w1n5t0n and m1k3y) finds himself at odds with the Department of Homeland Security following a brutal terrorist attack on his home town of San Francisco. Marcus eventually declares "war" on the DHS, and the rest of the book is devoted to detailing his attempts at debasing the efforts of the DHS through the use of the Internet.

The book is just one of those that you simply cannot put down. I had a paper due today, but I postponed starting that until I had finished the novel because every time I would go to write, I would think constantly of the book.

Perhaps the most appealing part of this book is the price; free. Cory Doctorow's plot line is so riddled with ideals of freedom and access to information, that it would seem hypocritical of him to try and sell the book. Thus, the book is licensed under the Creative Commons license. You are free to download, remix, and share, as long as you give credit to Doctorow.

Oh yeah, you can find it here.

discussion questions for Wednesday

Rise of the participatory panopticon

What is the participatory panopticon?

Why are we monitoring ourselves?

What are the benefits?

What are the drawbacks?

Free

According to Anderson, why are some many things becoming free?

How do businesses make money off of giving away their stuff for free?

Uncyclopedia

I find great amusement in this site: Uncyclopedia. It is basically an encyclopedia of humorous articles. The self-acclaimed "content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit" has over 23,352 articles in English.

One of the greater features that this site offers is a little box in article pages that provides a link to the wikipedia article of the same/similar topic. ("For the religious among us who choose to believe lies, the so-called experts at Wikipedia have an article about Free content.")

More than that, I also see it as a site where the potential vandals can be allowed to make their spoof articles and entries. It allows for people to utilize articles to sound legitimate, yet throw inside jokes and sarcasm in.

Of course, there will be people who want to work on the main wikipedia site to spread their own propagands, but this site is basically a "grafitti" site that allows for humor and personal biases, and in fact encourages them.

Code Monkeys - 8 Bit Graphic show

While watching Ninja Warrior I came across this show, "Code Monkeys," which utilized the 8-bit style graphics for its show, a visual quality that hearkens back to the artistic style of older video games. The show itself is a visual remix of the gaming community through which their jokes are made and stories told.

This comes from the creators of Crank Yankers and Minoriteam, two shows which I have not seen.
I can't say that I really like the show (or what I've seen of it), and while it may not be quite as fascinating as Red vs Blue, which actually used the Halo game to make its episodes, it is still an interesting choice in animation; the site also has pages for comments, downloadable content, live chat, and more for fans, bringing new levels of depth to the show's community

10 Interesting Things I Learned About Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams has always been my favorite photographer. His amazing knack for finding the most fascinating aspects of nature and capturing them at the perfect moment, has always been fascinating to me. I also love the way he can make photos that are black and white, appear more detailed then those that most photographers can do with color. I just thought this page was an interesting insight into the mindset, tendencies, and work ethic of someone who has found ultimate success in his line of work. It is interesting to note that although didn't have the opportunity to experience the world of Digital photography, his son seems to believe that he would have been highly appreciative and involved in the whole idea. He embraced fully the small technological advances that were being made even when he was alive. He was a forward thinker, and it showed through his work and results.

Thank you spoiler groups!

Tonight I watched the season finale of Desperate Housewives. I won't ruin anything, but I am suddenly VERY grateful there's a discussion forum for the show hosted on the ABC.com site. It answered several questions and revealed the identity of a new character... good stuff. Prior to this class, I had never really thought to go looking for such things and now that I know the answers are "out there" I will not ruin my summer wondering. Hehehe...

Conservapedia

While looking up more information about Wikipedia, I found something really interesting called Conservapedia. This may not be new to some of you, but I personally had no idea this was out there. As defined by Wikipedia, Conserapedia is "a wiki-based web encyclopedia project written from a socially conservative, Conservative Christian, and American viewpoint." It was started in November 2006, by a lawyer and history teacher. They felt that "the open-source web encyclopedia Wikipedia had a liberal, anti-Christian, and anti-American bias," and thus they needed to provide a conservative perspective. On the site, they include daily news stories, and Bible verses. It is actually quite interesting to see how it differs form Wikipedia. I even found a Comedy Central Youtube video about Conservapedia, which is pretty funny.

The Palestra.com

ThePalestra.com is a website whose slogan is "where the world goes to college." College students from all over the U.S. report to the website with videos of themselves broadcasting news that pertains to their campus.

You can watch the videos online at the website. Catagories include those similar to traditional media, sports, news, features, election 2008. There are also categories such as music, movie, fashion, food, travel, greek and BLOG!

It intrigues me that it's college students reporting the news on video rather than in words! Check it out!

TED talk: Jimmy Wales

Heres a TED talk with Jimmy Wales where the creator himself speaks on Wikipedia.

Jimmy Wales

There is a section on "Governance" where he talks about admins and editing and such. You can scroll to that section and just watch that one since it goes along with the reading so well. 

Etsy.com a Pseudo Treasure Hunt!

I know I had mentioned the website Etsy earlier in class this quarter, but I was browsing through some of the listings today looking for a gift for a friend and remembered how much I love just perusing the site. It is an online store where you can buy everything from clothing and jewelry to music and fine art. 

 One of the best features is that you can search listings by city to give you an insight into all of the creative goodness going on in your area. There are a bunch of other ways to search through pieces and vendors too like the Time Machine option which is a spiraling image of new pieces as they are uploaded to the site which is really really awesome. Just have a sit and see what passes by, there are some really interesting things! If you are a sucker for the StumbleUpon-esque browsing, try their Pounce option which is similar. 

Keep your eyes peeled for the odd-ball "art" like this  but don't be discouraged there are some amazing works like this!  There is something for every taste, it just takes a little digging to find stuff you like. 

Blu's MUTO

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

There is a recent wall-painted animation "MUTO" by contemporary artist, Blu, which has been spreading all over the internet. It's the same idea as a stop-motion, where each little step is a new frame, and those frames all create a continuation... but it's pretty cool to see street art done in this fashion. A good example of an artist who is using convergence through a website, blog, video, visual art, etc to get his work out in the public eye.

$1,000,000 Modding Contest

Since there was a presentation on modding last Wednesday I thought I’ll share this link about a video game modding contest. Epic Games is giving away $1,000,000 in cash along with other prizes for the best mods for their Unreal Tournament 3 game. They clam the contest is to help mod makers gain professional status, which makes sense as almost half the people who work for Epic were former mod-makers. It’s also a great way to add content for their game as $1,000,000 is a small amount compared to current development costs.

Wikipedia discussion questions

1. What are the strengths and weakness of open systems according to Wales?

2. Hoiberg applies this quote by Mumford to Wikipedia:
“[An explosion of information could] bring about a state of intellectual enervation and deletion hardly to be distinguished from massive ignorance.” He goes on to say what is needed is “selectivity and moral-self discipline.” What does he mean by this? And what do these comments reveal about Britannica?

3. What are the biggest challenges faced by Wikipedia?

4. Is Wikipedia democratic in process (is it run democratically?), as a product (does it give people info they need to participate in democracy?), in its effects (does it mobilize people?)?

Israel vs. Palestine on Wikipedia

This article discusses biases on wikipedia, particularly an anti-Israeli bias. The article goes on to discuss the issues of Wikipedia as a democracy, and the idea of Wikipedia's neutral point of view. Two organizations, a Palestinian organization called EI and an Israeli one called CAMERA, essentially took their battle of idealogical differences to the internet and used Wikipedia ans their front. A different perspective on the incident can be found here.

The "Uberman" Sleep Cycle

I was working my way through the Wired.com website this weekend and came across this article regarding something called a polyphasic sleep cycle. The polyphasic sleep cycle, sometimes referred to as the Uberman sleep cycle (one denomination that originated in Germany), is a sleep cycle that attempts to replace normal sleeping patterns (8 hours at a stretch at night) with short, intermittent gaps. The goal is to reduce the time sleeping by taking short 20 min+ naps in intervals ranging from 4 to 6 hours. Optimal napping should result in adequate sleep time while increasing the amount of awake time by a great amount, thereby increasing productivity.

Several bloggers have recounted their experiences with the Uberman sleep cycle. The one that I find the most interesting is the blog of Steve Pavlina. He gives pretty much a day by day of how he is being affected by the polyphasic sleep cycle. Though, the interesting thing that happens to most of these people is that they almost always return to monophasic, or normal, sleep cycles. Some do it for health reasons, others for their family, but many of them agree that the world is a monophasic place, and taking time out of your day to catch a cat nap isn't always the most normal thing to people.

I'm actually kind of interested in trying this sleep cycle out, since I have trouble sleeping normally anyways. I definitely would wait till the summer, though, as trying to Uberman my way through finals might be considered an exercise in futility.

A Glimpse of How Movies Were Once Rented

Pangea Day

This is an amazing event held within the past week. Think of it as an international film fest held throughout the world, here is their description.

"Starting at 18:00 GMT on May 10, 2008, locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program will be broadcast – in seven languages – to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.

The 24 short films to be featured have been selected from an international competition that generated more than 2,500 submissions from over one hundred countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person's eyes. Details on the Pangea Day films can be viewed here.

The program will also include a number of exceptional speakers and musical performers. Queen Noor of Jordan, CNN's Christiane Amanpour, musician/activist Bob Geldof, and Iranian rock phenom Hypernova are among those taking part."

I'm going to post a few today, and a couple more over the weekend. These are films worth watching.

Paraguay,
The film below is called Papiroflexia, and was one of the films that stood out from the rest and won an award. Papiroflexia (Spanish for “origami”) is the animated tale of Fred, a skillful paper folder who could shape the world with his hands. Originally created as a poem by the director, it was turned into a short animated film in the UCLA Animation Workshop

Framing the Iraq War

After searching ... and searching for the image I mentioned today in class I came upon this article that talks about news framing and how it affects public opinion, especially in times of war. It takes a step by step guide through the different media approaches and angles that were taken while covering the start of the Iraq war. It's pretty interesting, and even talks about different types/styles of framing and why they are used. Check it out - it's kinda scary!

Wikipedia Discussion Questions

1. What are the strengths and weakness of open systems according to Wales?

2. Hoiberg applies this quote by Mumford to Wikipedia:
“[An explosion of information could] bring about a state of intellectual enervation and deletion hardly to be distinguished from massive ignorance.” He goes on to say what is needed is “selectivity and moral-self discipline.” What does he mean by this? And what do these comments reveal about Britannica?

3. What are the biggest challenges faced by Wikipedia?

4. Is Wikipedia democratic in process (is it run democratically?), as a product (does it give people info they need to participate in democracy?), in its effects (does it mobilize people?)?

Finally coming around..

Not hugely interesting, but notable. Myspace has been molding together music and social networking for a while now, but facebook is finally catching on. While there have been apps, such as iLike and the various jukebox apps, that have been assessing users to post music files and share with others, this is really the first attempt to work directly with record labels to release their artists. This app does a ton of other stuff too and really combines all kinds of media into one device. The music portion, however is the only one that seems to be someone new...

How to Properly Discipline a Child...

Just a daily dose of humor, again expanding on my belief that the Internet is mainly a source of entertainment for the masses. And if you don't find this entertaining, you're either A.) Not human or B.) lacking a sense of humor, therefore not human.

Note: (I am in no way condoning beating children, but you have to say the little monster deserved it.)

More Top Chef

My dad and I share the bond of one reality TV show... Top Chef.  He's in Minnesota and while we both try to watch the show when we can, one of us usually ends up missing it.  The next day, one of us will call to chat up the latest show and latest chef cut, but the conversation stops short, when the other reveals the haven't seen it.  So, while we either wait for the other to catch the re-run or wait until next week's show.  After another week of missing the show, I found the Top Chef home page online an started browsing.  On it you can recap past episodes, read judges and chefs blog, view recipes, and rate plates.  Neither my father nor I are especially gifted in the kitchen, but we do enjoy rating and commenting on the food selections of Top Chef judges.  The handy-schmandy "Rate the Plate" section gave us both the opportunity to not only critique the show over the phone, but online as well.  You can also play games, and get mobile feeds.  Not only has it given us more to discuss, but neither of us have to watch the show to know whats going on.  We can learn about the chefs, see pictures and read the judges feedback all form our computers.  Its just another example of the long-tailed system working for consumers.

Best of the Best

Google has put out another program that could potentially revolutionize mapping, virtual reality, and how that is all put together on the internet. Its called Google SketchUp, here is how they describe their product,

"Google SketchUp is software that you can use to create, export and present 3D models. Whether you want to design a new deck for your house, build models for Google Earth, or teach geometry to your fifth-graders, you can use SketchUp to see your ideas in 3D. And when you're done, you can export an image, make a movie or print out a view of what you made."

They teach you how with video tutorials, a help center, and they have live classes(not always though). Taking this to the next step is how to get people and more specifically students(highschool and college) to start using it now. Thus was born the, "Are you a Supermodel(er)? Contest". The contest is to model your own campus using SketchUp and then texturized using digital photos. The deadline is June 1, 2008 so you still have time if you want to join in.

Here is what you win, "Apple iPod Touch, a Nintendo Wii Console, and a Google t-shirt and hat. In addition, winners will be featured on the Official Google SketchUp Blog, and enjoy lasting online glory (not to mention making your mom darn proud)."

It may not be a lot, but it could very well be the jump-start to a modeling career/job. The winning team gets official recognition from Google, which is a great start.

Survivor (Micronesia) Fans vs. Favorites Finale

Since it was the topic of one of the chapters in our book, I figured it should at least be mentioned that the finale of Survivor aired tonight. I won't spoil it for anyone who may watch, but if you'd like to get caught up, all episodes are online on the Survivor page of the CBS website, there are lots of clips and summaries, as well as a very popular message board, a fantasy game, and web-exclusive content about where contestants go after they're voted off... it's worth checking out. They also revealed the next location for the upcoming season: Gabon, Africa.

Harnessing the Power of Gamers

Scientists are finally coming up with ways to tap into the largely unused mental power of the gamer population and have developed a game where the player can cure cancer by scoring a high score. The game is called foldit. It challenges the players to assemble proteins and are given points based on how stable the proteins are. The winning proteins are then assembled in a real-world laboratory and tested for their medical and industrial uses.


They found a way to take a task that no machine could ever complete due to the vast assortments of possibilities, and challenge humans, who can better learn the rules and from their mistakes, to the task. This is worth checking out if you ever feel guilty about the amount of time you waste online or playing games(like me).

DJ Spooky

I was able to attend the presentation by DJ Spooky (a.k.a. Paul Miller; a.k.a. "Subliminal Kid"), and wanted to post some information about the presenter and the topics discussed. Professor Fajardo began the evening, followed by an introduction by Catherine Archuleta, the Senior Advisor on Policy and Initiatives for Denver, who spoke about DJ Spooky and his inclusion in the efforts of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Paul got his DJ name from the , and has also chosen the moniker "Subliminal Kid" in reference to William Burrough's novel Nova Express. He has authored two books: Rhythm Science and Sound Unbound, dealing with remix culture and music; the writing aside, he also wants to get people to think about DJ-ing as a form of storytelling as well, just as important to culture an society. He spoke about the concept that there is no longer a passive consumer, and that "social cohesion comes from both sound and found sound." He started as a writer, but while in college he would host "art parties" from encouragement of friends, as he had a decent music collection, and that was the start of his DJ career. His favorite innovator is Garrett A. Morgan, whose street lights "cue systems of movement" and employ choreography to city movement.

Recently, he has traveled to Antarctica to gather audio samples of the ice for his "Terra Nova" Project, in which he intends to study media and sound integration with the environment. The work produced from these efforts will be presented at the DNC here in the fall

- "Gift Economy" - he likes to start presentations by distributing CDs of his to get people thinking about sharing and collaborative efforts in an application of the "currency of memory," placing great value on a collective experience. Different CDs are distributed in the hopes that you and those next to you will get different ones so that you can swap out and get different tracks; in this it is hoped that this will then present an opportunity to network through the swapping of discs, or by passing the idea along.
- Spooky also showed examples of remix culture through the Bush Remix videos, the Gray Album, and much more.
- He also stated that most of the videos he was showing are illegal.
-"The future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed" - William Gibson
-"Birth of a Nation" - a film by D.W. Griffith that was the 1st blockbuster to make over 1 mil, as well as the 1st to be shown at the White House. This was created in 1915, an adaptation of a propaganda piece about the Ku Klux Klan, "The Clansman", written by Thomas Dixon.

You can also check wikipedia's article for more information about Paul (it's beneficial for saving space and time in this post). Also, here is a link to a YouTube video with one of his presentations on Remix Culture. (believe it or not everything except this last paragraph came from notes, and there is still more that he discussed)

Miniature Earth

Before I go onto show you all a video - I'd like to first point out this article that is related the the Mocaca incident we discussed in class. The article goes on to talk about the You Tube-ification of politics, and I found it interesting basically because this is the new political arena!

This next video (go to this SITE and click on English, the video will play shortly). Though it is somewhat out of context of what we are talking about in class, I found it to be intriguing especially at the part that talks about computers and internet access. We are taking a class that is organized around new media platforms and how access to the internet and new technologies has drastically changed our political, social, economic and personal worlds. There's even a blog and a community committed to its cause - it's pretty cool and shocking so check it out!

Senator Gravel Pokes fun at Obama Girl

This is a video of former Senator of Alaska- Senator Gravel, (who is currently running for president under the Libertarian party) trying to get some political 'coverage' from Obama girl. Check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI6PA4v6dZg


Sorry guys- I need help putting the link into a word, because for some reason it isn't working...

George Bush Remix

There are tons of vids about Bush online and a lot are remixes, culture jamming, satires.

Here are two that I founf most interesting!

George W Bush And The Have Mores
Under the information column about the video, the author talks about how the video which uses a clip from George Bush and a movie, is protected under FAIR USE. He also explains fair use!

Reasons To Love George W Bush
This one is my favorite because it is a commercial about what Bush has done in office. It talks about the horrible things that he did, but says that they are a good thing - sarcasm! At the end it says, "paid for by the friends of George Bush." Hilarious!

The Internet is a Series of Tubes

In June of 2006 U.S. Senator from Alaska Ted Stevens described the internet as a "series of tubes" during a debate over net neutrality. In addition to this he used other unusual terminology such as describing an e-mail as "an internet". It's kind of unnerving looking at how little the people making the legislation know about the internet in net neutrality, though his unusual comments sparked a number of funny remix videos.

for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_of_tubes



Remix!

I Hate Your Blog

MC Frontalot – I Hate Your Blog

Just thought I'd share this track by MC Frontalot, godfather of nerdcore hip-hop, about terrible blogs that we somehow keep reading. (For those more liberally inclined, he's also got a couple of funny tracks about Iraq, homosexuals, and how much indier he is than you.)

I'd also like to pose a question to you all. (But first, the all-important background information!) I tend to read quite a few personal blogs. I've done so for quite awhile. Some blogs I've been reading for more than six years. Consequently, I've gotten to know some of these bloggers pretty well. However! Eventually, I interact with these people in, you know, real life, and it's really weird. Alex, who's led an eclectic set of jobs (including a mall security guard, keytar player for a new wave band, and graduate student at Berkley) I eventually spoke to over the phone when she was a radio personality at Brown University's student radio station. Matt, an Australian living in Japan, I eventually met in Tokyo over coffee. Leah, minor internet celebrity because her blog was picked up by news outlets as an example when blogging was just becoming popular, I now know because I do web development for her husband's band. In every case, I was probably most surprised by their voices. Even though I know Matt's Australian, or that Leah lives in Texas, I don't read their blogs with their voices in mind. Stranger still was the fact that I knew quite a bit about their personal lives, but they knew nothing of mine.

I'm wondering if this is just me, or if any of you have experienced similar awkward situations, for example, when first meeting a blogger.

reading for Monday

The link to one of the articles to read from monday seems to be broken so here's the revised reading

The Long Tail
Quarterlife
I like to watch

Also please watch an episode here.

Girl Talk-ing About Getting Sued!

As per our class discussion today about sampling and Fair Use Laws, someone brought up Girl Talk, one of the foremost mash-up artists. Here is an long, but really interesting interview with the artist on Pitchfork Media . He gets into the legal aspects of his music towards the end of the article. I also find it very interesting  that you can't buy Girl Talk albums on iTunes for these reasons too yet, Girl Talk's popularity hasn't seemed to suffer greatly from this.

Also, here some Girl Talk links:

Myspace page

And here is a kickass video of the Girl Talk performance at Bonnaroo last year that was amazing! He literally kept it going until the wee hours of the morning and people went crazy! I highly recommend going to Bonnaroo Music Fest if you can because it is a mind blowing amount of great music. 

No more wasting paper?

Xerox apparently created an "erasable paper" which might be available for people soon. The technology uses photosensitive chemical that turns white when hit by ultraviolet light. This is good news for corporates who uses thousands of paper everyday and good news for college students to save up some money on paper. Xerox has not given us a price on these papers, but hopefully it would be worth paying for the price they charge us.


image courtesy of Greig Reekie

Political Cartoons

The political media stuff was really interesting, so I decided to take more of a look around online to find some new stuff. I found a great weblog site, which had some great animated cartoons and sketches about the 2008 campaign, and past campaigns. It was pretty funny, and I thought it would be interesting to share with yall.

President Bush Voice Over

So, I found this. It's like the examples shown in class.

It's President Bush talking about how we (him) are evil and creating fear - I thought you guys might like it!

Shakira! Hips Don't Lie

I am a huge fan of Shakira! I have not made a youtube video (although, I am that crazy), but others have!

My favorite one is this one! These guys put tons of people dancing to Shakira together into a video!

Here is a kid playing Hips Don't Lie on his piano!!!

Here is a Sims version of Whenever, Wherever!!! It looks as close as it could to the music video!

And here is a band tribute to Hips Don't Lie by The Fray! I never listened to their stuff before I saw it and it makes me want too! I love how they did it, especially how they say Shakira and gracias - and the dude's voice: I dig!

I hope you guys love the vids!!!! Maybe one day you'll see me on there dancing to Shakira - hehe! -Maybe some extra credit????

Politics 101

In talking about politics and how much new media has changed the campaigning process as well as exactly what it means to be a good politician - I was reminded of a video that I watched in my Cable Center class last quarter right before the first Iowa Caucuses. 

This video was posted by YouTube username johnedwards and explains the process of voting in a caucus. It is actually pretty funny - it even reminds people to record the Orange Bowl game (to remind people that instead of just not voting and watching the game, they can vote and still watch the game when they get home). I thought this to be a good example of the changing face of campaigning - this particular part of internet politics has a positive outcome because it enhances the political awareness of those who might not otherwise attempt to understand these processes. 

I wanted to then see if I could find other videos that explain the nomination process. After all - I think that the main reason that people may not vote or may not be interested in politics at all is that they do not understand and therefor feel overwhelmed by the entire topic. The video that is posted below is actually pretty boring - but it is still informative. It is actually filmed at DU too! The video is a good example of how people can use the internet in order to find information about particular topics (internet politics and collective intelligence).

Flash Game

In class we talked briefly about the idea of socially-conscious games that carry a message. Here is one I found where you play the role of the Guantanamo bay torturer teaching you the correct techniques of interrogation. Lighthearted and disturbing at the same time, it shows the futility of torture.

Superstar

From the reading regarding fan culture, and fans creating low budget renditions or continuations of their favorite interests, I was reminded of an experimental film I saw in another class MCOM class. Though not necessarily a fan based production, the means of production are very similar to some of the examples used in the book. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story was a film written and directed by Todd Haynes (more recently notable for his musically related films I'm Not There and Velvet Goldmine.

Superstar is a short biographical film about Karen Carpenter, lead singer and drummer of 1970's sweet-as-candy group The Carpenters. What makes this film so interesting is that the entire production uses Barbie dolls as the actors. The rest of the sets are all completely scaled down to fit with the dolls to create a realistic (though, completely fabricated) environment. This film must have taken so much time to actually put together, that we can see how dedicated Todd Haynes was to this story and means of creation. After the film's release, Karen's brother and band mate, Richard filed a lawsuit in terms of the copyright infringement of the songs used, and so now it can only be viewed through bootlegged copies (can't help but love my teacher for having one of his own).

An interesting film, very sympathetic to the truly tragic hero, Karen Carpenter. No surprise that copyright was used to bring it down either...I would imagine protecting the family's image is more important than the use of songs.

Political Remix Video

Watching those political remix videos reminded me of one of my favorites which I hadn't watched in awhile, Enjoy!

Grand Theft Auto Controversies... Of Course?

In this first article, Glenn Beck from CNN claims that GTA 4 is training people to kill. He uses the phrase, "this is entertainment?" I agree with him. The game consists of mindless murder for pleasure. The funnier the way you kill people, the more entertaining the game is. I was watching my buddy play and I kid you not: he picked up a hooker, had sex with her, and then killed her and took her money. Wow... HOWEVER, the ironic part is, I own the game. Just bought it this weekend and literally have not stopped playing. Isn't that strange? I think the game is terrible for our society and its destroying young kids' minds, yet I bought the game and gave my money straight to Rockstar. Its totally addicting. I will say though, along with the millions of others who have already purchased the game, I feel NO desire to kill anyone in real life.. I don't feel like I am "trained to kill" and I know that I will never want to kill anyone. In this next article, the Vice-president of Rockstar Games (maker of the GTA series) makes an excellent point. He says, "But if we don't like these games because they've got content that we're happy to see in movies and TV shows, then what you're saying is you don't like the medium because we don't have a George Clooney type sticking his face in front of the camera." He says that we get all the same content in these games that we get in movies. He thinks that there is really no difference.

Shameless Self-Promotion

On Thursday, my band released its first record entitled The Blackwell Gate. It's chock-full of Web 2.0 goodness, so I'll skim through the details. Feel free to download/purchase/listen to it right here.

1. Stream the whole album via muxtape or last.fm. Muxtape, is actually a service that allows users to create virtual "mixtapes," which they can share with friends, but the layout is so clean that I decided to use it to my advantage. Last.fm is a general social music website, but my favorite feature is the "scrobbling" (which keeps track of everything I listen to).

2. Going the Radiohead route, the album is available in two flavors. A digital download, made available on a name-your-own-price basis (anywhere between free and a lot of dollars), which is a little more limited (5 songs). Or on vinyl, with four bonus tracks (and for those slow to adopt record players, the record comes with free digital downloads of all 9 songs).

3. The code for the store is all based on an open source project developed by another musician: The Brad Sucks Digital Download Store. He wrote some code that handled everything above, and released the source via Google Code. I built a few things on top of his code, and what you get is www.theblackwellgate.com.

4. The album was produced entirely in my basement on my own equipment, and I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. And if that isn't enough for your prosuming needs, our friend Kevin Bell produced a mockumentary of equal quality (in HD, no less) about the album and band.

Also up on iTunes, or on Ruckus, through the University. Available through more traditional means at Twist and Shout. < / shameless promotion >

Best Thinking. Both Sides.

I was stumbling and found this site. Its called Red Blue America, and its a site that takes on political topics and answers them two ways, conservative and liberal. I thought it was pretty interesting because its like reading a debate from two viewpoints addressing the same issue at the same place. 

Then when you are done reading both sides you can rank yourself on the blue to purple to red graph according to which way you feel on the topic. 

I don't really enjoy looking at politics stuff all the time because its hard to get a site that isn't biased on one side specifically. I like this site because there are two clearly different viewpoints at one spot, I'm not a fan of digging. Anyways enjoy...

This American Life - Live!

I have been a lifelong listener of National Public Radio, it's part of my daily ritual that has truly shaped much of who I am. Within the last year or two, I discovered my new favorite show, This American Life, a program produced in Chicago for Public Radio International. It's been aired in Chicago since 1995, but has relatively recently been picked up by our local Public Radio station here in Denver and even more recently popularized by it's availability on iTunes - each week's episode is available for free download to any number of devices. It's been at or near the top of the "Top Podcasts" list for months. The show has become so popular, that they decided to spin off a television show, also titled This American Life, which airs on the Showtime network. Many loyal radio listeners also became TV show watchers and the show has grown and is now beginning their second season, which debuts on Sunday night (May 2nd).

I think this is an awesome example of convergence - a little radio show, dreamed up by a few producers and a host in Chicago has become a national phenomenon and cultural influence, with a presence on the radio, TV, web, books, newspapers and web articles, a blog, even Facebook and MySpace pages. If you've never heard of TAL it's absolutely worth your time to check it out.

Anyway, last night (May 1st) they hosted an event where they broadcast a combination radio/TV show live from New York City via satellite feed to a handful of movie theaters across the country. This American Life - Live! was way cool. A few friends and attended in a nearly full movie theater to watch this program. As we were leaving, we were struck by how awesome it was - a high tech cultural event that attracted a very diverse cross-section of the population to one place, at one time, for a unique event. We all had a feeling of "it's a small world," mingling with people of similar interests, etc. During the show, the host, Ira Glass, fielded questions listeners/viewers had emailed in, he took questions from their live audience, and showed segments of their upcoming season of TV shows. The show and the whole experience raised a lot of interesting issues and questions that my friends and I discussed at length for several hours afterward.

I'm really sorry, I probably should have posted something about this earlier so others would have had an opportunity to attend... but I'm sure you'll be able to catch a repeat webcast or read about it in lots of other places. :-)

Interesting Article Related to Discussion

I Found this article on CNN.com today that is directly related to the conversation we were having in class yesterday about network TV and the airing of their shows online. Short little post here - but you should check it out it's helpful.

questions for Monday

On MIT Forum Video:

According to Garrett LoPorto of True Majority, what is the core of viral marketing?

Why was the apprentice/fire Bush video so popular?

Why was he hoping the NBC would sue?

Jenkins and Trippi differ, how?

On Future Active:

Why doesn’t it make sense to treat the Web as a separate realm?

What does the book include as examples of political activism?

On Why 2008 won’t be like 2004:

Why does Peter Leyden say the Vote Different video is about the end of broadcast? Do you agree?

Does Obama represent a new type of politics?

Funny Blog

My friend's brother writes this blog for fun and it's really funny. There is an entire section on the best comedy skits of all time which is hilarious. Enjoy!

http://allmydealsarelive.com/

Quick Political Humor Video

Seeing as we'll be discussing politics and the utilization of media for influence, I think this Viral Video Politician video would be appropriate.

Also, CollegeHumor is a good resource for comedic videos and pics... as the name suggests, much of the content will probably be beyond the grasp of a younger audience.

Barack v.s. Hillary

I just found this video on another blog and thought it would be cool to share. I've seen a lot of video game characters created into another game, but this might be my first time seeing a real character created into a game.

Another Insight into facebook

As is tradition this week, I have a few thoughts about Facebook. First, the chat program now available is strange. The people Ive talked to seem to have mixed feelings about it. Some jumped right on, but others, like myself, were more standoffish. I terminated my AOL chat account in 7th grade, so the idea to start back up was strange. The next day a friend from Minnesota initiated a chat, and although I responded, I quickly signed off a few minutes later. Its like sticking your toe in a pool to test the waters, and then pulling out quickly. Anyways, it got me thinking about the others programs on Facebok, that had originally seemed so foreign. The first time I got a bumper sticker request, I was thoroughly confused. The next time, and the following I accepted with some anticipation. Soon I was browsing the stickers and sending them to others. This in itself seemed like a good example of how convergence occurs in individuals, and in culture. It also depicts the idea of participatory culture. We can interact with the applications on facebook as consumers and producers. Considering how quickly facebook has transformed in such a short amount of time, I anticipate many more changes in the future. This Youtube video exemplifies some peoples' frustration with all the facebook applications.

She Has A Boyfriend

Honesetly, I think my grade in this class should just be forwarded to the staff at StumbleUpon.

I was exploring the wonderful feature that is Stumble Through, in which, as you know, you can stumble through a particular website and its content. There are several sites available at this time, but I must say the most enjoyable site, for me at least, to stumble through is Break.com.

Break.com is a website to be filed in the same category as YouTube, except devoted exclusively to humorous videos. In my perception, the Internet is mainly a tool designed to provide entertainment to the users. Sure, there are other neat things about the Internet and how it kind of connects to world and all, but I mainly utilize it to get a nice chuckle in every once in a while.

I thought I'd share a view videos with all of you that I thought were particularly fufilling:

She Has A Boyfriend, I think our brethren's humor from across the pond is vastly under appreciated; no one understand comedic timing like a Brit.

Achmed the Dead Terrorist, Who doesn't love puppets? Who doesn't like making fun of terrorists? Show me that person and I will call you a liar.

Social Security Nut Shot, and what would a reference to humor be without the obligatory shot to the unmentionables? The fact that it's an old man makes it that much better.

Where do we go from here?

I haven't found one website that I can say that really relates to the reading. But I'm more than happy to share a few that I have found interesting.

Use your mouse to see the changes throughout the day.
It reminded me of the conglomeration of images to create Notre Dame. Imagine if you could take photos of a scene

Here is another that is discussing the simplicity of Google's pageranking system (the simplicity of its coding)

However, here the best is saved for last. The MIT lab for Branding Cultures. Pay no attention to the news that it has a new website. It doesn't. Anyways it discusses different brands and marketing strategies in the world today. Its a blog that you should check out for yourself. The top blog about Neopets world is really crazyLook carefully. Disney theatre... McDonald's shop... Cereal Adventure....
This is a direct quote from the blog, quoted from Wired

"Neopets has a staggering 25 million members worldwide. It has been translated into 10 languages and gets more than 2.2 billion pageviews per month. These dedicated Neopians spend an average of 6 hours and 15 minutes per month on the site. What's more, its demographics are the stuff of marketers' dreams: Four out of five Neopians are under age 18, and two out of five are under 13."

They just start earlier and earlier don't they?

Robotic Toy Galley

Here is an interesting galley I found while looking up art. Someone set up a galley of robotic stuffed animals with their “skin” off. I would imagine this would be traumatizing for kids to see their favorite plaything turn into a hideous robot, which I’m sure is what the creator had in mind.

Creative Commons Applied!

Since we recently talked about Creative Commons in class and on the blog, I thought I would give it a try for myself. From what we learned in class, I knew that the creators wanted it to be easy to use, but I had no idea it would be SO easy, even for someone as technologically-challenged as myself. I copy-lefted a photo I took that is displayed on my Myspace page in a matter of minutes. From start to finish I was able to choose the license I wanted and apply in 7 minutes. Now my photo has this fun little gizmo under it and boy do I feel cool now! From now, on I am going to do this to all of the material I put out there for the world and I suggest you all do this same. While you're on the site, check out some of their projects, there are seemingly limitless bounds to what the site can do. Check it out and apply it to your work!

revised reading

Here is the a revised reading assignment for 4/30 and 5/5.

Reading for next Wednesday
Castells, Manuel. “Communication, Power and Counter-power in the Network Society.”International Journal of Communication. v.1 2007.

Jenkins 6

Check out political videos on youtube, websites of candidates, moveon etc.

Reading/Viewing for Monday
1. “New Media, Old Politics?” MIT Communication Forum.
2. Future Active handout in class
3. Tryon, Chuck. “‘Why 2008 Won’t Be Like 1984’: Viral Videos and Presidential Politics.”Flow.
Recommended
1. Heffner, Alexander. “YouTube Debates." CJR.

2. Jenkins 4
Sites to check out:
http://www.moveon.org/
http://www.campaignads.org/
http://www.meetup.com/
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php
http://www.mittromney.com/
http://www.mccainblogette.com/
http://politicalremix.wordpress.com/
http://www.theyesmen.org/

Efaceharmony.com

While doing the reading for tomorrow's class - and also procrastinating on facebook of course - I thought that there HAD to be some funny videos about this whole facebook/myspace/social networking identity concept. Check out the first video below, it's a parody of an eharmony.com commercial but with facebook and its 'relationship status', 'looking for' and poking features. It's funny, because it's true.  

On a more serious note (though this one is still pretty funny) the next video below is interesting in the fact that it touches upon the whole concept of young people today losing face to face interaction with their technological connections with people - phone, text, email, blog, facebook, etc. It says how facebook gave these guys the ability to be social - in today's world I guess it is true!

Whether you want to think of your facebook page as a serious way to express your personal identity or solely to fulfill your voyeuristic tendencies and spy on everyone you know, you should enjoy these videos because they bring a lot of humor to the fact that most of us probably spend a large amount of time on these websites - and actually think like this sometimes!

Facebook Stalking

With all of the new features on facebook, including the buddy chat, I couldn't help but wonder what exactly these features do for us. Yes, facebook is a cool program that allows people to connect with others and see what they are up to but the more I thought about, the more I realized that it really has no point. It just promotes stalking and people being judgemental of others. Case in point: this article from last month. What do you guys think: Do you like facebook? What does it provide for you?

Facebook Chat

Looks like DU and its surrounding networks finally got the chat feature rolled out today on Facebook. I'm not sure how I feel about it, personally.

One girl made this discovery before my Human Rights class started. "Oh my God! Facebook has chat now! There's a buddy list and everything! Everybody get on. This is going to change everything." (In reference to chatting throughout class. This didn't end up happening, though, since the professor let us have a bit of class outside, instead.)

The guy sitting next to her just scoffed and made a pretentious remark about Facebook becoming MySpace all over again--ever since Apps, and now chat.

Three people have initiated chat sessions with me as if the feature had been there since the beginning. It's convenient, and drop-dead simple, so it'll probably be a success. Unfortunately, like the rest of Facebook, it's still a completely closed system, so no integration with desktop applications like Adium (Mac) or Pidgin (PC), which is a deal breaker for me.

Cat 5 Compliant Wedding Set

I just love how some people come up with these kind of things. The Cat 5 wedding ring apparently is sold now and it worries me if that many people bought the ring or the place only had a few to sell in the first place. This might be an option for some people as a wedding ring.

DIY Media Discussion

I wanted to post some information related to the event last Thursday that many were unable to attend.


The conference, held at the Cable Center, was titled "Untold Stories: Truth and Consequences." The presentation, "YouTube & Do it Yourself Media: Challenges to Traditional Media from Outside the Maistream Fewturing Stories from Diverse Communities" was led by our very own Dr. Adrienne Russell, along with a number of staff/contributors to Denver Open Media: Tony Shawcross (read his advice for an 18 year old letter), Deborah Lastowka (Outreach Coordinator, crator of "The Key of D"), Ann Theis (creator of "VLogTV"), Paula Rhoads (producer of talk show "Brainiacs"), and Emmanuel Eliason (pastor for World Gospel TV).

The discussion centered around the idea of public representation, and the ideas of the do-it-yourself forms of media. The concept of public access television is dualy shown through what is broadcast by DOM. Each submission is guranteed to air once, and may be shown again based off of the votes it receives from viewers, who are prompted to vote via a scrolling marquee on the screen giving the instructions. Here at DU, channels 56 and 57 are the DOM broadcasts, with 56 being the "fresh" shows, and 57 giving viewiers those

Also, through Deproduction/DOM, video services and media education programs/workshops are offered, allowing for the public to pay to learn various media skills related to video/film, such as field production, Final Cut, and web video workshops. It is this effort that enables the public to contribute to the DOM television to take their first steps into the public realm via filming.

Also discussed were issues of television censoring/censorship and the application of a 3-strike policy by DOM, as well as a brief bit about the Digital Divide and access to the means for production, as well as viewing of the shows provided. They also discussed Drupal, a free and open source modular framework and content management system (CMS), which is used to manage the television shows and viewer voting interaction. They also spoke to community interaction and the Creative Commons, with the use of ccMixter, and also the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

There was much discussed between the six presenters, and the Clarion has a piece covering some of the event as well, for those of you interested.

Taking away the internet's Viriginity

With a title like that I better back it up. It hasn't been very big in the media in the US mainly because it is affecting the internet in Europe. Specifically its Virgin Media's stance on Net Neutrality in Europe. Virgin Media is one of the larger internet providers in Europe and Virign as a international conglomerate has huge amounts of funding to back up any issues it chooses to take a stance on. When you look at the website all of the small squares on the right are links to other people's responses to the Virgin media net neutrality issue. My personal problem with net neutrality lies in how it would really upset the internet's economy. The internet's economy is only just now settling down and it is hard enough supporting personal or commercial websites that don't sell material goods. Advertising fluctuates and something that fluctuates month to month isn't great to depend on for all of your income

Beyond that there are some companies that are battling Net Neutrality in their own way
Comcast was having a hearing on Net Neutrality at Harvard. Specifically FCC was having the hearing to investigate Comcast's practices. So what does Comcast do? They hire people off of the street to "hold" places in line so that their "employees" can attend the hearing. They admit to doing this. Many of Comcast's critics and the general public weren't let in to the hearing because of this practice. Think about the Obama speech, granted this didn't draw as big of a crowd, however it wasn't in as big of an area either. Companies will go to huge lengths to save face as well as get their way. This can blow up in their face, but there will always be loopholes that will be exploited. It all just sickens me. ~~Andrew

Scoopt

While studying for the test this week I kept thinking about how the Scoopt website can relate to a lot of the things we have been talking about.  It is a user generated website that not only provides pictures, but also provides news headlines.  When someone uploads a picture, the picture is licensed exclusively to Scoopt for 12 months, while they try to sell it.  Depending on their opinion of the quality of the photo, the picture is placed in Getty Images gallery or Scoopt's gallery if the photo is not very "hot."  Ok, so the program is run by Getty Images corporation, not by governments, or just being consumer run.  The site is a great example of collective intelligence, but the corporations decide what is "hot" and what is "not."  The copyright laws play out uniquely on the site, such that Scoopt claims exclusive rights for 12 months and then the producer is free to do what they will with it.  It is also a major example of convergence, participatory culture and produsage, because not only are producers putting up images, they are also being confronted by other content.  Thus, Scoopt is a greta site to visit to see how Web 2.0 is working. 

Musicovery

Well since signing up for StumbleUpon last week I am officially addicted and am finding some really fun and interesting stuff on the internet. I was getting really bored with the usual sites I was visiting so the Stumble button is creating more interest in my daily internet time. 

Using Stumble I found this site called Musicovery. Its a site that can lead the user to new music, but does it in an interesting and highly visual manner. You can choose a spot on a perceptual map of Calm to Energetic and Dark to Positive. You can also pick and choose which genres you would like to explore. The web like music map on the side changes with each new song you play connecting similar songs. Since I am always searching for some new great music this has become my new favorite tool. 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Check Check it out.

The Next Wii

At long last the device everyone (or maybe just me)has been waiting for has arrived, the power to play video games with your mind.

Emotiv has invented a new device that detects patterns produced by the brain's electrical activity with 14 strategically placed head sensors. From the sensors the device will be able to react to the player mood and change the music of the game to match the user's tension or make the game harder if the player is board. While the first generation hitting store shelf’s soon ($299 retail)isn’t meant to replace the controller as much as complement it, a few generations down the line this could replace everything we use for human-to-machine interaction.

NOROVIRUS of DEATH

The Norovirus, also known as "halls virus" or "that crazy shit that is killing people in halls", tried to claim my life on tuesday night. I spent all of Wednesday in the hospital. 9 IV bags later 
I am alive and thought I would post an ode to the horrible virus. WASH YOUR HANDS! Even if you dont live in halls, this terrorist virus can still attack you when you weak. Beware and careful.
The above link will direct you to a site that talks a litle bit more about the plague.

One Nation Under Banksy

We've been looking at issues of privacy a lot lately, mostly related to the internet. I have been following one of my favorite graffiti artists, Banksy, through the British blog Londonist. Last week, he tagged what might be his biggest piece to date, One Nation Under CCTV that obviously addresses issues of privacy and surveillance. CCTV is the the varying systems of surveillance cameras that we see (or don't see) in shops, work places, outside stores, etc. Banksy plays off this by having a child painting the message, with a security guard watching him. Surveillance is a huge privacy issue, and something that societies everywhere are dealing with more and more. It is also important to Banksy personally, as he is extremely private and keeps himself from being 'discovered.'

I thought it was interesting that Banksy is addressing the issues at the same time our class is. Not to mention, I love the excuse to show his work.

Danny and Nina

"A very good friend of mine once told me, "Denver's the smallest big city in the country." At that point I was still fairly new to living in the city, having clawed my way out of the suburbs' stultifying grasp less than a year prior, and I didn't understand what she meant--everything seemed so new, there were so many places to explore, so many people to meet. ...Now it's been a few years, and she's gone, and as I walk and ride my bike around I feel exactly like she must have. I know what she meant. Denver is a small town masquerading as a major U.S. city. I see people I know everywhere."

These were the words of my friend and bandmate, Patrick Kelly. He left today, a permanent move to Boston. At his moving away party, I solidified some friendships with his friends, and I'm beginning to think this my first steps in what may end up being a similar path as him.

In particular, I had a nice conversation with Nina Barry, who is a local artist, and teaches at Metro. I hadn't realized it before now, but she and her fiancée, Danny, have actually learned to embrace the social web quite a bit.

They moved here from Brooklyn, about a year ago. They didn't choose Denver, it was chosen for them. They set up a website, Danny and Nina - Our Lives in your Hands, where visitors would vote on the city from a long list. The first city to 1,000,000 votes would be their new home (Denver narrowly beat out Waco, TX). And they love it here. They'll be officially tying the knot this year, and are looking at purchasing a home.

Now they run a Design Consultancy, in addition to Nina's artwork. On the side, Danny and Nina work on a project called Haiku for You, where visitors send stories to them, and they select stories to convert into a haiku, set to a artwork. Some time ago, I sent in a story, and they converted it to this haiku entitled "Time Slips Through Fingers."


They work on other projects, including The Donnybrook Writing Academy, and Minty Forest. But I highly recommend everyone check out the aforementioned Haiku For You and send in a story.