posted by Adri

Erin Reilly creator of f Zoey’s Room (a website to teach middle school girls science and technology) and now the director of the New Media Literacy center at MIT (for which Henry Jenkins is the principal investigator) walked me through their work-in-progress library of interactive tutorials on digital media skills for teens. They are actually pretty good for adults too! Their modules are based on Henry Jenkin’s eleven skills that are needed in the new media world (see below). How would you rate yourself with these skills? Do you think these are the right skills?

Continue reading ‘Got new media skills?’

posted by brian

To follow up on the tapeless HD camcorder discussion, I recently set out to buy my first HD consumer camcorder. First, I created a list of features that I must have on my consumer HD camcorder such as: hard disk or flash memory recording format, both 24p and 30p frames per second capturing rates, 3ccd color, Leica or Carl Zeiss lens, image stabilization, back light, etc. What can I say I expect to get the most bang for my buck. After a week of online research, I narrowed my choices down to four cameras:
Continue reading ‘HD Crazy’

Posted by amybea

This must-see video is ‘MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU’, and is one of several videos by this artist. I encourage you to take 1 minute to check it out.

Continue reading ‘Video animation from wall graffiti’

posted by Annie

This is an interesting experiment by Abilene Christian University. This could pave the way for future integrations in colleges to connect students on campus using mobile technology and social media applications. Click Here to see the article

posted by Nancy

(Let’s see if that blogpost title moves me up in the flipthemedia popularity contest!)
Tuesday evening’s Seattle Adobe InDesign User Group meeting took an interesting turn when the subject of repurposing from print to web came up. Continue reading ‘is print dead?’

Has anyone researched the effectiveness of research? Sounds funny, but is the true medicine for innovation looking at what has been or what is? Ok, I am not completely daft. I get that the more information we know the better we are prepared for societies projects, such as the boardroom of venture capitalists. However, at what point does knowledge become an hindrance rather than a catalyst for fresh ideas? Afterall, aren’t good ideas researched, great ideas talked about and brilliant ideas just done on the spur of the moment?

Continue reading ‘Researching Research’

There are essays being published in relation to the Berkman Conference. These essays are being written by conference participants. The intent of the essays is to discuss the internet in the same spirit as the Federalist Papers were discussed at the founding of the United States. You can see these essays as they are published and participate in the conversation at http://publius.cc.

A private/niche/customized/specialized social network that I can create. Cool! Is this the next wave of “new” online?

Continue reading ‘Want to start your own social network?’

Reading Sarah Funk’s post, I delved deeper and found that the Ortingnews.com online web paper not only resurrected community news in a town where the local paper had kicked the bucket, but the people behind Ortingnews.com also created ‘Its the Paper Boy’ which allows anyone anywhere to create a fully customizable online newspaper EASILY!

Continue reading ‘It’s the Paper Boy! Pandora’s Box Opens, Newspapers BEWARE!’

The netroots often receive credit for energizing and organizing the progressive movement. Using social media tools, these activists have had a profound effect on national and local elections. Indeed, Barack Obama has largely built his campaign and its coffers by embracing the netroots.

Continue reading ‘Lessig Provides More Legitimacy to the Netroots’

*Update* Much Props to Sarah for posting this first.  The Charlie Rose link is now working also*

I found this while bopping around the net today and thought some might find it interesting. Below is a link to an interview with Jonathan Zittrain from All Things Considered. He is an Oxford Law Professor (is that good enough for you Hanson? :P ) and author of “The Future of the Internet, and How to Stop it”. I haven’t read the book yet, but the audio clip provides a nice overview of his main theme. I think he makes some interesting points but the one that really struck me was his suggestion that, although censorship may seem like a giant leap conceptually, it’s not a giant leap technologically. Zittrain isn’t a pessimist however, I really believe he is just concerned that people become more aware of the limitations of the devices we use. We’ve talked in the past about the real control of the internet belonging to those who control the bandwidth, this is just further expression of that idea. *He was also on Charlie Rose, the video runs about 30 minutes but is more in depth than his interview on ATC.*

Maury

All Things Considered-Jonathan Zittrain

File this one under the “slightly stale news” category, but the Virginia Dept of Education is focused on educating students about online safety. In a WashingtonPost.com article, the reporter writes that “[t]he state’s goal is to integrate safety skills into the curriculum, not simply teach them in one lesson.” I think this is a great idea; let’s get the next generation aware of the consequences of too freely sharing private information and help educated both kids and their parents about the risks of being online.

~Jeremy

Continue reading ‘Egypt Blocks Democracy!’

This was a funny segment on the Prairie Home Companion from Mothers Day, very timely since we just talked about this in last weeks class.  PHC is on the cutting edge of social media and technology as always.  It runs about 7 minutes so give it a listen, and be entertained.

Maury

a-mothers-day-call

Posted by Sarah F.

Orting is a small town southeast of Tacoma that I had never heard of. Its longtime weekly newspaper, The Gazette, stopped publishing at the end of March. To remedy the lack of news coverage and try a new business venture, a community member launched Orting News, which solicits articles and content created by citizens of the town.

Continue reading ‘Can UGC be journalism? The Seattle Times has some doubts.’

Game industry website next-gen.biz posted an interesting (and oh so timely & relevant) article last week examining the effect of social media on the industry. We’re seeing the beginnings of big name game developers like Bungie (Halo) or Lionhead (Fable) tap into the social networks in “an industrial application of fanboy fervor”.

Continue reading ‘Gaming goes social (media, that is)’

posted by Nancy Dick

Separate the technology used from the conceptual learning; don’t overinvest in learning technology, but concentrate on underlying principles. Example: Carl Chatfield learned Ventura Publisher & Macintosh hypercards (RIP), which provided him the conceptual foundations of desktop publishing and interactivity.

Continue reading ‘Carl Chatfield on publishing technology & collaboration’

posted by Garrett

Given what we talked about tonight about video games I thought it might be relevant to mention that video games could become far more realistic and interactive through what is called “head tracking,” without the use of holographic technology:

Posted by Garrett

From Steve Rubel’s blog “Micro Persuasion”

Three Internet Careers That Soon Won’t Exist:

Social Media Consultant, Social Media Manager, etc.
Internet Advertising Sales, Online Advertising Sales, etc.
Digital Talent Agents

Continue reading ‘Digital Media Careers: Axe and Growth Predictions’

posted by Amy

Today I was introduced to https://www.chacha.com/… this is a human-based search system where you either text or leave a voice message asking a question, and within a few minutes an answer is returned.

Continue reading ‘What happened to terminal B?’

I just read Comcast considers cap on Net usage in USAToday.  This is scary.  Our class was just discussing such a possibility a couple of weeks ago. 

Certainly no one wants to have a cap placed on their Internet usage, but we also want our connection to be quick and uninterrupted.  Can these two ideas live in harmony?  Maybe if we pay a higher premium to Internet Service Providers we can be preferred gold star customers and receive unlimited super fast connections.

We know Comcast monitors Twitter and responds to complaints.  Quick, everybody tweet about how bad bandwidth caps are and maybe Comcast will respond.

Sarah L.

I read about TweetWheel a few days ago on the download squad blog. It sounded cool, so I checked it out. You go to the Web site and enter your Twitter user name (no password needed). Then, after a minute or two, it displays a neat circle showing your friends, their friends, and how everyone is connected.

Continue reading ‘Twitter Accessories’

Posted by Tharaa

Egyptians provoke anger on Facebook towards their legitimate leader Hosni Mubarak who has been the president since October 14, 1981.

“Facebook is the stage for the latest twist in the generation gap, playing host to politically hungry young Egyptians eager to take on their aging leader”

Continue reading ‘Egyptians Protest Against Mubarak on Facebook’

posted by rebekah

LiveNewsCameras.com, a Fox news experiment in new media, hosts live news feeds from broadcast news stations around the world. Users can sign in and participate in a live chat (responding to a news event, asking questions, etc). A moderator (seen via webcam) keeps an eye on the news feeds as well as the chat room. As events happen, she mentions the event and the associated news feed verbally, on chat, and on twitter.

Continue reading ‘Chat + Moderator + Raw News Feeds = LiveNewsCameras.com’

I just read Shirky’s chapter about Flash Mob. It’s actually really impressive to see that Internet can affect enough people to do something like this in public.

Check this video, it’s amazing.

~Yu-Lan