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June 22, 2006
Monkey business
So far, various versions of clips like this are the only ones I can find. I found a good one with the news introduction at http://gprime.net/video.php/monkeyteasingatiger. Professor John Yin from UVM provides some additional information about this video clip:
城事特搜 is a TV program broadcast by TVS (Southern Television Guangdong), which is a TV station in Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Provice, China. The video clip was edited by Zhong Ling (钟玲）as shown towards the end of the clip. For more information about the TVS, visit www.tvscn.com/media/main.asp?PID=56&ID=74
Posted by sjc at 1:23 PM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2006
The revolution will not be televised ...
Ashley Highfield, Director of BBC New Media & Technology, addressed the Royal Television Society on Oct 6 2003 with the title "TV's Tipping Point: Why The Digital Revolution Is Only Just Beginning." He address the issues of the digitization of television ... and began with a great story ...
I was reading an article the other day called "The Dangers of Wired Love", about a teenage girl called Maggie, who helped her dad run a newspaper-stand in Brooklyn. Business was booming, so Maggie's Dad, George McCutcheon decided to get wired up, to help him process electronic orders. Being a total techno-phobe, Mr. McCutcheon got Maggie to operate the thing, but soon found out she was using it to flirt with a number of men, particularly one married man she had met online, called Frank. Breaking all the known rules of cyber dating, she invited Frank to visit her in the real world, and of course he accepted. McCutcheon found out, went mad and forbade his daughter to meet up with Frank. But Maggie nevertheless continued to meet him in secret. Her furious father found out and one day followed her to one of the couple's rendezvous. He threatened to blow her brains out. She later had him arrested and charged with threatening behaviour.
An every-day story of modern times--maybe? McCutcheon's fathering skills perhaps a bit severe, and Maggie perhaps a little naïve? The striking thing about this story is that is was published in a magazine called Electrical World in 1886. The Victorian network that McCutcheon got wired to, and Maggie got hooked on, was of course the Telegraph.
The body of Highfields talk then ranges from concepts such as Moby's "infinite music", ubiquitous television, electronic community, ... Definitely something to spin heads after a nice banguet.
Ashley Highfield, TV's Tipping Point: Why The Digital Revolution Is Only Just Beginning, Netdistribution.co.uk, Tuesday, 13 June 2006. http://www.netribution.co.uk/2/content/view/657/2/
Posted by sjc at 8:58 AM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2006
The age of participation
In looking for a site containing Marshall McLuhan's First Law of Media ("The first content of new media is old media"), I bumped into the Economist's series on New Media
In a section called "The age of participation", the article observes:
Last November, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 57% of American teenagers create content for the internet—from text to pictures, music and video. In this new-media culture, says Paul Saffo, a director at the Institute for the Future in California, people no longer passively “consume” media (and thus advertising, its main revenue source) but actively participate in them, which usually means creating content, in whatever form and on whatever scale. This does not have to mean that “people write their own newspaper”, says Jeremy Zawodny, a prominent blogger and software engineer at Yahoo!, an internet portal. “It could be as simple as rating the restaurants they went to or the movie they saw,” or as sophisticated as shooting a home video.
This has profound implications for traditional business models in the media industry, which are based on aggregating large passive audiences and holding them captive during advertising interruptions. [...] This points to the very heart of the coming era of participatory media. It must be understood, says Mr Weinberger, “not as a publishing phenomenon but a social phenomenon”.
No matter how one appreciates the shifts and contours of a consumer society, the implications of changing communication patterns affect us all - producers of goods, producers of knowledge, producers of culture.
Notes:
Marshall McLuhan, 1964. Understanding Media. The Extentions of Man. [My attribution of the "first law" to Understanding Media is mistaken. The link to the whole book is via the Google Book Program, and a search for various combinations of "new media" and "old media" (e.g. "content of new media") fail to locate the phrase. Google does, however, find an earlier citation - also by me :( -. I guess this must be a part of The Medium is the Massage, Making new media by massaging the old stuff sounds appropriate.]
Image: iThe Economist, Apr 20th 2006. http://www.economist.com/images/20060422/D1606SU2.jpg
Survey : New Media. Among the audience, The Economist, Apr 20th 2006. http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794156
Survey : New Media. It's the links, stupid, Blogging is just another word for having conversations. The Economist, Apr 20th 2006. http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794172
Survey : New Media. Compose yourself. Journalism too is becoming interactive, and maybe better. The Economist. Apr 20th 2006. http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794240
Survey : New Media. The wiki principle. Are many minds better than a few? The Economist, Apr 20th 2006. http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794228
Survey : New Media. Heard on the street. Podcasting will change radio, not kill it. The Economist, Apr 20th 2006. http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794210
Survey : New Media. The gazillion-dollar question, So what is a media company? The Economist, Apr 20th 2006. http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794282
Survey : New Media. What sort of revolution? Both good and bad—but it's too early to say in what proportions. The Economist, Apr 20th 2006. http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794256
http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794256
Survey : New Media. Sources and acknowledgements, The Economist, Apr 20th 2006. http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794184
Posted by sjc at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)
June 9, 2006
Wearable Computing
Although not as wearable and/or computational as the iPod Shuffle (though nearly as expensive), the digital clock t-shirt, available from LatestBuy.com.au is a bit more striking. Especially if you follow their suggestion for lifestyle hacking :
Up for a bit of mischief? Set the clock an hour ahead (or behind) and jump on a bus or train – then watch your fellow commuters work themselves into a lather as they try to figure out whether daylight savings has started. It also makes a great gift for those among us who suffer from terminal lateness.
Handwash only
Black only
4 AAA batteries
($59.95 plus shipping)
The only size listed, though, is Small. :(
Posted by sjc at 9:22 AM
June 5, 2006
Pitagora suicchi
"Pitagora suicchi" ("Pythagorean Switch") is an NHK Television children's show produced since 2002. Each episode begins and ends with a Rube Goldberg device acting to announce the shows title.
#1
For more, see the Yomimono blog for today.
Posted by sjc at 5:48 PM | Comments (0)