http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10456382-261.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1
The Google plan to scan books gets a Federal hearing and a lot of "low level static". Note they have a monetization plan. Note the fierce resistance.
The scare to society is or should be that the edge cases pushing back are no where near as far from the center as they once were. The kid who capped a bully at school here, followed by Amy Bishop and now a software exec with an airplane should be a warning to bullies everywhere, real or culturally perceived. The people stepping up are no longer the kid looking to steal CDs to buy crack. These are well-educated, well-trained, well-equipped and even well thought of people who like the guy in the basement finally has his red slimline stapler taken from him and says, “that’s the last straw”. When we were analyzing 9-11, the remark was made this could be controlled until it began to recruit so-called lumpen terrorists, those who emerge from the elites of a society itself as it did with Bader-Meinhoff.
So far, at least with the copyright bs, no one is taking down major labels the way Charlie decided to go after Terry Melcher. The goodness of the conversations we are having at Jon Taplin's blog is if we keep after this problem, no one ever will. At a certain point it becomes evident to the artists and their fans that a plan is starting to take shape by which they all benefit. The importance of the win-win to the overall health of the social networks that are emerging to reorganize media businesses cannot be overstated.
In most cases, class war is not an organizational event. It is more like a contagion in bad weather. It can be stopped and it can even immunize. It is important to make the right gestures up front and back them up with visible acts before it does become to the advantage of organizations to keep the conflict alive much the same as it is for RushBozo and dimBeck to keep their listeners perpetually stirred.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
What if Google Managed Copyrights and Paid the Registration Fees?
What if Google Managed Copyrights and Paid the Registration Fees?
At Jon Taplin's blog is yet in another long series of debates on the woes of the publishing industries for copyright.
Most geeks know that all you have to do to fix the registration problem is enable the Save boxes to require it the first time it is saved. And that probably solves 80% of the problem of universal registration.
The licensing agencies and usual suspects want to recreate the old world in the new one of digital publishing. I'm not a player so who knows how this comes out. But the fact of derivative works and the need for multiple registration agencies to share information if that is a competitive system complicates tracking.
The question of how to assess the relative value of URI-identified resources is built into the licensing. I wonder what it is worth to and of the service systems providing very large distributed services right now to pay the licensing fees for the artists for works contributed. It protects YouTube.
At Jon Taplin's blog is yet in another long series of debates on the woes of the publishing industries for copyright.
Most geeks know that all you have to do to fix the registration problem is enable the Save boxes to require it the first time it is saved. And that probably solves 80% of the problem of universal registration.
The licensing agencies and usual suspects want to recreate the old world in the new one of digital publishing. I'm not a player so who knows how this comes out. But the fact of derivative works and the need for multiple registration agencies to share information if that is a competitive system complicates tracking.
The question of how to assess the relative value of URI-identified resources is built into the licensing. I wonder what it is worth to and of the service systems providing very large distributed services right now to pay the licensing fees for the artists for works contributed. It protects YouTube.
Austin: Another Edge Case
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” – Leonard Bernstein
Another edge case goes over the edge in Austin today, burning his bridges, his home and taking a blow against the man. I expect more. We have enough laws, we have guns,we have sufficient police and God knows, we will soon have far too much surveillance. We should pay attention to wise Leonard Bernstein who understood that the change we needed then and now is a change of heart.
Props to Daniel Bullard (The Buddha) who sent that quote my way.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
A Class War: It's Not That Simple. The Case of Amy Bishop.
The disturbing signs of the class war continue to emerge.
Some are familiar with the terrible event that happened a block from where I sit writing this article. It is cliched to say driving past the campus from my office to my son's home to talk to him and his friends was surreal. To see my alma mater awash in a sea of blinking blue and red gumball machines was stupefying, maddening and grotesque. To see the students finally out of lockdown almost zombie like as they got into their cars was heartbreaking.
Yet one has to stay a little disattached. Eventually, Amy Bishop will come to trial and having that in this city will be almost impossible, but we may have to get a local jury pool and try.
There is an unsettling and as yet unanswered question in the article linked above: was this the act of an elite, a Harvard graduate who although evidently disturbed, an edge case as I call them, saw herself victimized by the small town university politics in a city rich with intellectual property holders based on genetic and Federally funded research? Did she believe that not only her teaching career was being destroyed by failure to be granted tenure, but her life's work would be appropriated by senior members of the faculty, licensed for their profit while she was being dismissed to the woodpile?
In articles at Jon Taplin's blog much is made of the problems of copyright for artists and old school fee collections agencies such as BMI and ASCAP. The problems of digital rights management are well known. In that, some ask how we came to the place where the fans would turn on artists and try to deny them a living based on collecting fees for use of their work?
What if this isn't that simple? In the writings from the copyleft and creative commons community, there are often the complaints about the ripoff of the artists by their labels, their collection agencies and so on. The notion that stealing music is a blow against The Man is pervasively held in many parts of society.
What if this is just one part of a bigger notion that class and elitism have become too entrenched? Given the economic events of the past two years, it's no use quibbling that the very wealthy are using any means at hand to maintain that wealth. That feeling of being had is very pervasive. In the case at UAH, it may be someone who believed as the article author asserts, her lessers were getting the better of her and she reacted violently. It isn't justification, but it may be a sign of a wide spread and intensifying belief powering not just this horrific event, but the last election, the tea partiers that have followed, and who knows what else yet?
Wars of class, the struggle to unseat the elite and the struggles to maintain them have been among the bloodiest in history. Like religious wars, they have a similar basis in the notion of the natural right to power or class of some select annointed. But whether it is the struggle of the annointed to reclaim rights, or of the unannointed to strip them, in a religious war the leaders are plainly recognized. In a class war, it's not that simple.
Some are familiar with the terrible event that happened a block from where I sit writing this article. It is cliched to say driving past the campus from my office to my son's home to talk to him and his friends was surreal. To see my alma mater awash in a sea of blinking blue and red gumball machines was stupefying, maddening and grotesque. To see the students finally out of lockdown almost zombie like as they got into their cars was heartbreaking.
Yet one has to stay a little disattached. Eventually, Amy Bishop will come to trial and having that in this city will be almost impossible, but we may have to get a local jury pool and try.
There is an unsettling and as yet unanswered question in the article linked above: was this the act of an elite, a Harvard graduate who although evidently disturbed, an edge case as I call them, saw herself victimized by the small town university politics in a city rich with intellectual property holders based on genetic and Federally funded research? Did she believe that not only her teaching career was being destroyed by failure to be granted tenure, but her life's work would be appropriated by senior members of the faculty, licensed for their profit while she was being dismissed to the woodpile?
In articles at Jon Taplin's blog much is made of the problems of copyright for artists and old school fee collections agencies such as BMI and ASCAP. The problems of digital rights management are well known. In that, some ask how we came to the place where the fans would turn on artists and try to deny them a living based on collecting fees for use of their work?
What if this isn't that simple? In the writings from the copyleft and creative commons community, there are often the complaints about the ripoff of the artists by their labels, their collection agencies and so on. The notion that stealing music is a blow against The Man is pervasively held in many parts of society.
What if this is just one part of a bigger notion that class and elitism have become too entrenched? Given the economic events of the past two years, it's no use quibbling that the very wealthy are using any means at hand to maintain that wealth. That feeling of being had is very pervasive. In the case at UAH, it may be someone who believed as the article author asserts, her lessers were getting the better of her and she reacted violently. It isn't justification, but it may be a sign of a wide spread and intensifying belief powering not just this horrific event, but the last election, the tea partiers that have followed, and who knows what else yet?
Wars of class, the struggle to unseat the elite and the struggles to maintain them have been among the bloodiest in history. Like religious wars, they have a similar basis in the notion of the natural right to power or class of some select annointed. But whether it is the struggle of the annointed to reclaim rights, or of the unannointed to strip them, in a religious war the leaders are plainly recognized. In a class war, it's not that simple.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Scenes
Scenes last. Shared memories are powerful enticements to keep on keeping on. I’d say Dylan was co-opted long before Carter got to him. It’s not that important. Singer/songwriters are journalists and if they report honestly, if they are fair witnesses, they’ve done their job. They don’t need to be on the front lines and they surely don’t want to be bait to increase the crowd of innocents at a riot.
If they get wealthy and famous, they get to play that same dangerous game of survival all such must. I’ve seen the A-listers who have to watch every conversation, investigate every contact, go insular because the edge of the crowd always has a lot of desperate well intentioned but it ain’t happening wannabes and at least one or two lost whackos who might just hurt somebody.
It’s a fragile life and not just a little risky.
I looked at my neighborhood riding in from church with my daughter and wife, looked at the nice middle class houses new and brick, the beautiful country scenery, the neighbors waving and I breathed a deep satisfaction knowing I have achieved the real merit badge of the family man: I’ve provided a good life for them and to this point, they have not disappointed me.
It’s rare. It’s good. It’s real. Praise be.
If they get wealthy and famous, they get to play that same dangerous game of survival all such must. I’ve seen the A-listers who have to watch every conversation, investigate every contact, go insular because the edge of the crowd always has a lot of desperate well intentioned but it ain’t happening wannabes and at least one or two lost whackos who might just hurt somebody.
It’s a fragile life and not just a little risky.
I looked at my neighborhood riding in from church with my daughter and wife, looked at the nice middle class houses new and brick, the beautiful country scenery, the neighbors waving and I breathed a deep satisfaction knowing I have achieved the real merit badge of the family man: I’ve provided a good life for them and to this point, they have not disappointed me.
It’s rare. It’s good. It’s real. Praise be.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine
Props to Simon St Laurent for passing this along. I recommend this site for anyone who needs a shot of fake schadenfreude.
Though I've never been hip or a hipster, lately I've begun to reflect on the fact I've spent most of my life naively and blissfully unaware of the extraordinarily large percentage of things I've admired, believed or followed that turned out to be fake. It seems to me that a creeping awareness of this was part of the early Sixties kick to the collective head that was quickly put to sleep by the market's astute filling of the void with new fakesters saying all the sayings that made us feel collective about our insights, thus faking us out once again.
I wonder how long any culture can tolerate being awake and aware of it's own state of fraudulent flatulence. We learned lucid dreaming only to realize that lucid wakefulness is really very painful. We self-medicate with purchasing power and will break any moral code, any promise made, any self-assurance of our own coherent being to increase our power to purchase another dose of cultural homeopathy, quack grunt control.
As Paul Simon sang, "a big bright green pleasure machine".
Though I've never been hip or a hipster, lately I've begun to reflect on the fact I've spent most of my life naively and blissfully unaware of the extraordinarily large percentage of things I've admired, believed or followed that turned out to be fake. It seems to me that a creeping awareness of this was part of the early Sixties kick to the collective head that was quickly put to sleep by the market's astute filling of the void with new fakesters saying all the sayings that made us feel collective about our insights, thus faking us out once again.
I wonder how long any culture can tolerate being awake and aware of it's own state of fraudulent flatulence. We learned lucid dreaming only to realize that lucid wakefulness is really very painful. We self-medicate with purchasing power and will break any moral code, any promise made, any self-assurance of our own coherent being to increase our power to purchase another dose of cultural homeopathy, quack grunt control.
As Paul Simon sang, "a big bright green pleasure machine".
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Agism Is the New Racism
Agism is the new racism.
The one lesson learned from the browser wars was how profitable it is to win one. That this generation is so easily led is no big surprise. Bright and shiny with a hook works on most fish most of the time. As i said, the iPad launch is the Titanic to Avatar's iceberg. Cynicism is hard, cold and following the currents of a political zeitgeist where we know what we want to believe but no longer who. The cracking noise you hear is millions of gestalts snapping and falling into the frigid waters.
Revolution? Devolution for the usual reason: new trumps established in the pop market. Not a very difficult lesson.
The one lesson learned from the browser wars was how profitable it is to win one. That this generation is so easily led is no big surprise. Bright and shiny with a hook works on most fish most of the time. As i said, the iPad launch is the Titanic to Avatar's iceberg. Cynicism is hard, cold and following the currents of a political zeitgeist where we know what we want to believe but no longer who. The cracking noise you hear is millions of gestalts snapping and falling into the frigid waters.
Revolution? Devolution for the usual reason: new trumps established in the pop market. Not a very difficult lesson.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Avatar vs iPad: Why No One Cares
Despite all appearances, the Republicans have Obama on the run and they know it. Meanwhile, the spirit of the country continues to dissolve in the face of the reimagining campaigns of both sides. One hopes they collide in the middle like the old commercial about peanut butter and chocolate. Maybe they'll accidentally do something right but when the public has no stomach for reality and are too burned to buy the dream, we're left betting on accidents. Calling oneself "progressive" to get around being called "liberal" or "socialist" is pretty thin.
As surmised, Constellation is dead. This is how it must have felt to be the janitor at Camelot after Arthur and Mordred duked it out and the body of the king was ferried away to Avalon. Something splendid happened in these dark halls full of leaves, dust and cold winds through banging shutters.
Elsewhere some wonder why the iPad has received such a drubbing in the technical press. I have a theory: with the buying public, having been fed unreal notions and increasing levels of Spy vs Spy, all it took was the dream world of Avatar to push them into a complete and fixed state of cynicism. The Apple campaign tricks that worked wonders with the iPod and the Mac are being met with skepticism and yawns. No one cares that Steve Jobs Loves Bob Dylan. Too many know that Thomas Edison was the orignal white pig putting his name on the ideas and hard work of his employees. Too many know that the Apple technologies serve the marketing goals of content capture first and the creative freedom of the users and developers only once that capture is ensured.
Perhaps it isn't that we don't want reality; we no longer can tell what is real. As Richard Reeves points out, we thought we were the people that made the impossible happen in the Berlin Airlift only to discover we are the people who made Abu Gharib possible. It is the feeling of sleeping in slime.
People know the emperor is butt naked except they aren't laughing. When hope fails and misery seems to be at hand, despair follows, and after that, cold hard disbelief no matter the facts at hand. When John Kennedy faced this, he used the space program, which he himself did not care for or believe in as a way to reignite the imagination of a generation. It will be interesting with the cancellation of Constellation effectively killing the future of American manned space flight what kind of futuristic vision we'll be offered this time.
As surmised, Constellation is dead. This is how it must have felt to be the janitor at Camelot after Arthur and Mordred duked it out and the body of the king was ferried away to Avalon. Something splendid happened in these dark halls full of leaves, dust and cold winds through banging shutters.
Elsewhere some wonder why the iPad has received such a drubbing in the technical press. I have a theory: with the buying public, having been fed unreal notions and increasing levels of Spy vs Spy, all it took was the dream world of Avatar to push them into a complete and fixed state of cynicism. The Apple campaign tricks that worked wonders with the iPod and the Mac are being met with skepticism and yawns. No one cares that Steve Jobs Loves Bob Dylan. Too many know that Thomas Edison was the orignal white pig putting his name on the ideas and hard work of his employees. Too many know that the Apple technologies serve the marketing goals of content capture first and the creative freedom of the users and developers only once that capture is ensured.
Perhaps it isn't that we don't want reality; we no longer can tell what is real. As Richard Reeves points out, we thought we were the people that made the impossible happen in the Berlin Airlift only to discover we are the people who made Abu Gharib possible. It is the feeling of sleeping in slime.
People know the emperor is butt naked except they aren't laughing. When hope fails and misery seems to be at hand, despair follows, and after that, cold hard disbelief no matter the facts at hand. When John Kennedy faced this, he used the space program, which he himself did not care for or believe in as a way to reignite the imagination of a generation. It will be interesting with the cancellation of Constellation effectively killing the future of American manned space flight what kind of futuristic vision we'll be offered this time.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Social Media: The Attentivore Venn
As I was reading a comment by Stefanie Michaels that said,
"Had you only taken the time to check out our feeds, you may have been able to have a more in depth understanding of who we are... after all- that's social media."I thought about this picture; so here is it is at the speed of tweet.
The amazing thing is she didn't know we did read them and even made a video to support them in a good natured way. Maybe these gals don't get it unless it comes from their own inner circle. It is interesting that a report from the UK asserts that 90% of the tweets come from 10% of the twitterers.
Friday, January 29, 2010
The Not So Secret Secret
The harshness of the coming year will be the far left true believers in Obama who finally realize that the cuts in Federal spending will be in their favorite programs while the ones they do not support or actively despise will receive greater funding. They will blame the usual suspects and they will be right but they will also be part of the problem.
It is rare to find those who can simultaneously be sanguine as they stare into the horror of the scene unfolding. Even the investments in innovation will be made in the companies where Wall Street investors get the upper hand fast as stock becomes available. For all the change promised, the same people will take the lion's share even as a few jobs are created here and there by boutique projects.
Change we can believe in is not always change we like.
I believe in Ford: the one company that turned down the bailout money and on that day made their employees proud to be employed.
It is rare to find those who can simultaneously be sanguine as they stare into the horror of the scene unfolding. Even the investments in innovation will be made in the companies where Wall Street investors get the upper hand fast as stock becomes available. For all the change promised, the same people will take the lion's share even as a few jobs are created here and there by boutique projects.
Change we can believe in is not always change we like.
I believe in Ford: the one company that turned down the bailout money and on that day made their employees proud to be employed.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Republican Response
The Republican response to President Obama's speech last night follows:
and pretty much everything else that would be good for anyone not rich enough to matter.
and pretty much everything else that would be good for anyone not rich enough to matter.
iPad
Beyond the incalculable blunder of the name (yes, our office jokes about this are the same as yours):
UPDATE: Thanks to Rob Koberg who sent this link, that point has been illustrated humorously by someone. Gotta love the web when it reacts fast and with the right spirit.
I've heard the cooing about consumers of books. I don't need it. I don't read that often.
I've heard the speculation about audio/midi. Thanks, I've got lots of those.
I've heard the games-du-jour rants. Thanks, I don't play games.
It's very cool. No thanks. I hate my cell phone.
You can watch hi-rez movies. No thanks. I have a Very Large Flatpanel for that and I can't drive and watch dinky 4:3 TV.
You're not our target demographic. Oh thank God for that.
$499 is CHEAP. Maybe, but only $999 is functional and I don't need a cute paperweight with hi-rez sparkles even if it sparkles for ten hours.
Arlo and Felicia are getting one. Good. She can ride on the back of his Indian and read to him. He'll like that.
YAG (yet another gadget). As the fellow said at CNet, iPass.
UPDATE: Thanks to Rob Koberg who sent this link, that point has been illustrated humorously by someone. Gotta love the web when it reacts fast and with the right spirit.
YAG (yet another gadget). As the fellow said at CNet, iPass.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Twitlebrity and the Suck of Locale
Scanning topics of interest, I see Dave Winer is complaining about agism, Jon Taplin is extolling the virtues of the grassroots bottom up governance style, and some bloggers are still trying to figure out how to get the most out of the Vanity Fair 6 kerfluffle.
The bottom up decentralized means devolves quickly into the attention seeking means that shuts down criticism to enhance page views against other sources that make snark a policy as a means to enhance page views. It becomes an age of celebrity, of image over substance, but worse, lots of little mobs claiming hegemony: in short, high school.
Information (data in play) has an aspect similar to gravity: all locations pull against all other locations for attention. Some call it ego. When you consider that blogs, feeds, Twitter etc. are giving rise to the dominance of the attentivores (thanks to John Cowan for that term), maybe this is just devolution doing what it does best when provided a means and opportunity.
The problem of the network community is the Panglossian notion that given means and opportunity, people tend to do the right thing. People tend to do the selfish thing if that is what the market is buying. Consider that in 1988, use of the Internet email for private messages and jokes was harshly frowned upon and even a firing offense in some companies. In 1995, we worked a discipline of parsimonious texting such that one scoured each email for excess verbiage.
Then came RSS, feeds and broadband and the war for attention was on. RSS, BTW, is Winer's creation.
In 2010, it is about the Twitlebrity, the attentivore, the world where cred is obtained by having the most followers despite adding no contribution intellectually or otherwise. It is the age of the hot chick geek and the guy who made millions spamming the system. Sure everything else is out there, but it is undifferentiated.
All networks start as flat democratized systems. Over time the importance assigned locales and topics result in attention flowing into these sinks and as a result, controls and filters emerge to direct traffic, say attention. Right now the system is in a stage of puberty where trivia reigns supreme and efforts to change that will be dismissed as unhip, old media against new, old people against the young and so on. IOW, we’re having fun so don’t be a party pooper. And by the way, if you disagree, we'll make sure nothing you post gets a single view from "our crowdsource".
That is the brave new and different, the sagacity of the 30 something leading the 15 something, to a world of, aging twitlebrities trying desperately to keep the crowd alive and at a virtual distance because, hey, we're important and we need our vacations and rest.
And that is the ground against which Jon proposes to empower yet more grassroots. I don’t disbelieve; I think the timing given the zeitgeist and general immaturity of the players may be hopelessly optimistic.
There is a rough or at least ironic justice in the Vanity Fair 6 affair. The very technologies they extol created the era of snark as journalistic policy to which they fell prey. It is the old saying about laying down with dogs and getting up with fleas. Trying to dismiss claims that they should have known better is like claiming a fake tan is noteworthy: self-seeking. That Dave claims agism is a problem a short decade and a half after a generation of young hypermedia enthusiasts ran shivs through their aging bosses is simply karma.
It's a bitch but own it.
We built the most powerful communication system in history so we could rant about age, government and who is the current most hot hottie who we are assured we must take very seriously while they tweet about their lunch. Life among the mammals, for sure.
Meanwhile, the web brought me this wonderful toy box for making videos, publishing songs and generally having fun making stuff. I got mine. May you also. ;)
The bottom up decentralized means devolves quickly into the attention seeking means that shuts down criticism to enhance page views against other sources that make snark a policy as a means to enhance page views. It becomes an age of celebrity, of image over substance, but worse, lots of little mobs claiming hegemony: in short, high school.
Information (data in play) has an aspect similar to gravity: all locations pull against all other locations for attention. Some call it ego. When you consider that blogs, feeds, Twitter etc. are giving rise to the dominance of the attentivores (thanks to John Cowan for that term), maybe this is just devolution doing what it does best when provided a means and opportunity.
The problem of the network community is the Panglossian notion that given means and opportunity, people tend to do the right thing. People tend to do the selfish thing if that is what the market is buying. Consider that in 1988, use of the Internet email for private messages and jokes was harshly frowned upon and even a firing offense in some companies. In 1995, we worked a discipline of parsimonious texting such that one scoured each email for excess verbiage.
Then came RSS, feeds and broadband and the war for attention was on. RSS, BTW, is Winer's creation.
In 2010, it is about the Twitlebrity, the attentivore, the world where cred is obtained by having the most followers despite adding no contribution intellectually or otherwise. It is the age of the hot chick geek and the guy who made millions spamming the system. Sure everything else is out there, but it is undifferentiated.
All networks start as flat democratized systems. Over time the importance assigned locales and topics result in attention flowing into these sinks and as a result, controls and filters emerge to direct traffic, say attention. Right now the system is in a stage of puberty where trivia reigns supreme and efforts to change that will be dismissed as unhip, old media against new, old people against the young and so on. IOW, we’re having fun so don’t be a party pooper. And by the way, if you disagree, we'll make sure nothing you post gets a single view from "our crowdsource".
That is the brave new and different, the sagacity of the 30 something leading the 15 something, to a world of, aging twitlebrities trying desperately to keep the crowd alive and at a virtual distance because, hey, we're important and we need our vacations and rest.
And that is the ground against which Jon proposes to empower yet more grassroots. I don’t disbelieve; I think the timing given the zeitgeist and general immaturity of the players may be hopelessly optimistic.
There is a rough or at least ironic justice in the Vanity Fair 6 affair. The very technologies they extol created the era of snark as journalistic policy to which they fell prey. It is the old saying about laying down with dogs and getting up with fleas. Trying to dismiss claims that they should have known better is like claiming a fake tan is noteworthy: self-seeking. That Dave claims agism is a problem a short decade and a half after a generation of young hypermedia enthusiasts ran shivs through their aging bosses is simply karma.
It's a bitch but own it.
We built the most powerful communication system in history so we could rant about age, government and who is the current most hot hottie who we are assured we must take very seriously while they tweet about their lunch. Life among the mammals, for sure.
Meanwhile, the web brought me this wonderful toy box for making videos, publishing songs and generally having fun making stuff. I got mine. May you also. ;)
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Shraddha (X3D Movie)
Here is my new video. Like the other 3D derived videos, this uses X3D/VRML samples. The theme is "Shraddha", Sanskrit for "Marvelous Faith". I hope you enjoy it.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Social Media and Being Almost Famous
A career can cross a lot of paths. The two gentlemen in the photo are standing about twenty feet from my office door. One is an exec at our company and the other is one of our business partners. I'll let you figure out who they are. Hint: the short one worked for a much more famous executive and the tall one is, tall, even in sneakers.
In all the fun of the Tweety Bird posts, I've been thinking about the social media aspects of our careers. I am pointedly not a social media expert. I've been around about twice as long as the folks sporting that badge have. As a musician, one time actor, still writing and recording because it's like the breathing habit, hard to shake, I do know a little bit about media.
Take a look at this graph. It's from my YouTube insight page.
The left and right sides are different to say the least, and the number of countries where I can't imagine having fans, I do. I learn a lot from the Insight stats. A picture is worth whatever it's worth but the dramatic increase in views of my videos can't be argued with and there are only two causes: 1) posting more frequently and 2) Facebook. Of the two, the second is the engine: Facebook.
So even for the hobbyist, if you want to put work in front of people, you have to find them and Facebook is rather good for that. I've a MySpace music page as well and there is nothing like these results to be had there. Twitter? If I want a bigger first day release bounce, Twitter would be a way to get that but frankly, Twitter wastes too much time on trivia and not being a fully-developed attentivore, I don't have it to waste. Yet I know some fairly famous people (actually, some very famous people) and those relationships don't get me those kinds of results in page views. That takes real fans, friends and the mildly curious.
Social media is here to stay and for those careers that do rely on being famous or almost famous (mine doesn't), careful use of social media such as Facebook is a skill you need these days as other aspects of the media industry are collapsing. Would I go hire a social media expert for that? Possibly but probably not. It isn't that hard to figure out unless of course, Vanity Fair calls, but until then, use it while it's still free.
And have fun!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Tweety Birds: Free the VF6!!
They walked into the punch, but then as I dig around more, I realize the question is why the punch at all? It is time to call BS on the snark industry of blog journalism. They is geeks and us is geeks and they may be divas but they's our divas.
Read Everybody Sucks by the same author, Vanessa Grigoriadis. The snark chic is the culprit.
Geeks Unite! Free the VF6! ;)
Read Everybody Sucks by the same author, Vanessa Grigoriadis. The snark chic is the culprit.
Geeks Unite! Free the VF6! ;)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tweety Birds: It's The Web, Stupid!
While working on a creative response to this flap (dieing down but still fun), I ran across this article from the author of the Vanity Fair article that started the mole rolling, Vanessa Grigoriadis. A couple of points:
1. She isn't a hack. Vanessa can write and she is a decent journalist.
2. In the article, the environment she describes is deeply flawed, seamy, and rage addicted.
3. She admits to tweaking noses as part of the job.
Past the screeching from the Twitter crowd and their fans, it's worth reading the article to understand how the web may indeed be transforming the publishing industry and journalism, but it may be devolution at light speed.
1. She isn't a hack. Vanessa can write and she is a decent journalist.
2. In the article, the environment she describes is deeply flawed, seamy, and rage addicted.
3. She admits to tweaking noses as part of the job.
Past the screeching from the Twitter crowd and their fans, it's worth reading the article to understand how the web may indeed be transforming the publishing industry and journalism, but it may be devolution at light speed.
Monday, January 11, 2010
A War On GeekSheik
Ursula leGuin resigned from the Author's Guild over their acceptance of the Google settlement regarding copyrights of published works.
A war with the self-proclaimed digital royalty of GeekSheik is coming. They are destroying the creative ecosystem and real artists are shooting back.
This is bad.
A war with the self-proclaimed digital royalty of GeekSheik is coming. They are destroying the creative ecosystem and real artists are shooting back.
This is bad.
Tweety Birds: The Second Wave Off
It seems that digging the hole and standing in it is how tweety birds rest for the winter.
Digital Royalty?
It's hard to expand on that. In her opinion and that of her mates, the missed opportunity was to tell the story of their success, or as Felicia Day put it, "new, different and powerful". I sense Day is moving on from the story possibly because as an entertainer, once the story quits being funny and she attempts seriousness it begins to turn into a story about young women who need to get over themselves as correspondents have been suggesting, and that's not a good image for an entertainer.
The trap is that now of those who are climbing aboard the Geek Train are using this tempest in a teapot to push their own wares as social media mavens (Digital Royalty? Really?) it spins ever more toward the silly pole and as the avatar of the story (the irony is thick here), Day gets pulled into the spotlight of this farce. Que lastima!
If they claim it is all about them, they are the attentivores as named, insipid, vapid and with none of the media savvy required by their portfolio customers. If they claim it is about Vanity Fair, they are fighting human nature's need for a good gigglefest and once again accentuating that in the media where they portray themselves as experts, they are wanting and customers beware. If they recognize they are simply the latest women to get kicked in the ass by the Lolita Effect which they are themselves exploiting, there might be a story with legs and not just the ones in the photo. It might be a broader issue about the sexualization of women getting younger every year and creating problems for all women as Amber Fenner Gray points out.
So far, they aren't that smart and perhaps their clients will take note. Day will move on because she does have serious work to do on the next season of The Guild and other projects. If she is the artist she desires to be, she'll find a way to salvage this in comedy with a point.
UPDATE: The new meme to keep it going is the article is somehow 'sexist'. They need to let this drop. a) The digital royalty appear to be begging their own status b) It's too obvious the attentivores want more of the same for their own brands c) The one of them who gets hurt is Felicia Day who will look sillier the longer this goes on for participating.
The problem of trusting the herd to keep one up on their shoulders is they are distractable and not that adverse to sacrificing one of their clients to better their own nests. It's hard to feel sympathetic. If they intend a movement to change things for women because as one commenter at Day's blog said, "The major figures aren't going to put up with this", then why bother with Vanity Fair to begin with. These ladies were already changing things before they gave into the attentivore reason for existing: to get just a bit more attention as glamour babes.
They may find out they aren't that major after this. I think they fear that and keep trying to spin this into a story where they are victims. There is some more attention to be had in that frame but frankly, I look at their photo and I look at the photos of Neda Soltan and have a hard time giving a damm.
Digital Royalty?
I have to admit, when I heard the news I immediately called a family member and dropped a Ron Burgundy, “I don’t know how to put this, but I’m kind of a big deal.”
It's hard to expand on that. In her opinion and that of her mates, the missed opportunity was to tell the story of their success, or as Felicia Day put it, "new, different and powerful". I sense Day is moving on from the story possibly because as an entertainer, once the story quits being funny and she attempts seriousness it begins to turn into a story about young women who need to get over themselves as correspondents have been suggesting, and that's not a good image for an entertainer.
The trap is that now of those who are climbing aboard the Geek Train are using this tempest in a teapot to push their own wares as social media mavens (Digital Royalty? Really?) it spins ever more toward the silly pole and as the avatar of the story (the irony is thick here), Day gets pulled into the spotlight of this farce. Que lastima!
If they claim it is all about them, they are the attentivores as named, insipid, vapid and with none of the media savvy required by their portfolio customers. If they claim it is about Vanity Fair, they are fighting human nature's need for a good gigglefest and once again accentuating that in the media where they portray themselves as experts, they are wanting and customers beware. If they recognize they are simply the latest women to get kicked in the ass by the Lolita Effect which they are themselves exploiting, there might be a story with legs and not just the ones in the photo. It might be a broader issue about the sexualization of women getting younger every year and creating problems for all women as Amber Fenner Gray points out.
So far, they aren't that smart and perhaps their clients will take note. Day will move on because she does have serious work to do on the next season of The Guild and other projects. If she is the artist she desires to be, she'll find a way to salvage this in comedy with a point.
UPDATE: The new meme to keep it going is the article is somehow 'sexist'. They need to let this drop. a) The digital royalty appear to be begging their own status b) It's too obvious the attentivores want more of the same for their own brands c) The one of them who gets hurt is Felicia Day who will look sillier the longer this goes on for participating.
The problem of trusting the herd to keep one up on their shoulders is they are distractable and not that adverse to sacrificing one of their clients to better their own nests. It's hard to feel sympathetic. If they intend a movement to change things for women because as one commenter at Day's blog said, "The major figures aren't going to put up with this", then why bother with Vanity Fair to begin with. These ladies were already changing things before they gave into the attentivore reason for existing: to get just a bit more attention as glamour babes.
They may find out they aren't that major after this. I think they fear that and keep trying to spin this into a story where they are victims. There is some more attention to be had in that frame but frankly, I look at their photo and I look at the photos of Neda Soltan and have a hard time giving a damm.
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