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Category Archives: web2.0
Links for June 11th 2008
Interesting links for June 8th 2008 through June 11th 2008:
- Change Congress – NCMR keynote [Lessig Blog] – Lawrence Lessig’s keynote at the National Conference for Media Reform arguing for a mobilisation of talent to try and end (or, at least, decrease) the corruption in the US Congress.
- J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement [Harvard Magazine] – Rowling gives a really delightful and heartfelt commencement talk at Harvard, rather frankly talking about the importance and benefits of failure, hitting rock bottom, and working out what’s really important in life.
- 280 Slides – Create & Share Presentations Online – Nifty online version of powerpoint/keynote software. A lot more elaborate than Google Docs, but still a long way from Keynote or Powerpoint. A very good, simple and accessible way to do the basics. (I wonder when Google will try and buy this little startup?)
- Sex and the City: A Product-Placement Roundup [vanityfair.com] – The product placement in the Sex and the City movie makes the producers of the James Bond films look like amateurs!
Annotating YouTube
Even thought Viddler already does it, and does it better, I’m still quite excited by YouTube’s addition of annotation tools. I’ve got 28 groups of students creating Digital Media Projects at the moment and one of the stipulations was that they have to examine the videosharing websites out there and select one to host their work: 27 of 28 groups selected YouTube (most of them rely on the simple point that YouTube gets the eyeballs … and, for now, they’re right). From an educational perspective, critically engaging with digital video becomes a lot more fun when annotations, references and links can be added to existing video! Even though they’re pretty crude at this point, the annotation tools for YouTube also mark a shift from treating YouTube as slices of TV (in video terms) toward an environment where the hypertextuality of digital video comes to the in to play. A bit like what Quicktime already facilitates so brilliantly.
Of course, YouTube’s annotations are all in beta at this point (and proper, not perpetual, beta … you can’t embed annotations in external sites yet, and I’m presuming that eventually YouTube will allow optional viewer annotations, too), so the toolkit may very well evolve. Until then, I can’t wait until I’ve got a cohort of students annotating away to critique and comment on digital video … what fun could be had with speak bubbles, I wonder?
Bored of Facebook?
You should probably listen to The Facebook Anthem:
This one has to be for Jean! [Via Alex]
Update: And what would Facebook be like in the “real world”?
Links for April 28th 2008
Interesting links for April 28th 2008:
- Viralcom [Joey and David] – Wonderful satirical series of high-end videos which look at user-generated content, looking at the imagined high-end producers behind each viral hit! (Boy puts mentos in sister’s coke doesn’t just come from nowhere!) 🙂
- Mobile phones outnumber Australians [ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)] – “For the first time the number of mobile phones in Australia exceeds the population, with recent growth being driven by a dramatic increase in 3-G phones…. there are now 21.26 million active phone services in the country.”
- Uni chief lifted text from Wikipedia [Australian IT] – “Griffith University vice-chancellor Ian O’Connor has admitted lifting information straight from online encyclopedia Wikipedia and confusing strands of Islam as he struggled to defend his institution’s decision to ask the repressive Saudi Arabian Governme
Links for April 27th 2008
Interesting links for April 27th 2008 through April 28th 2008:
- Nielsen Online: Produsage Trends in Australia and New Zealand [Produsage.org] – Using details from Nielsen Online, Axel gives an outline of how many Australians and Kiwis are using Web 2.0 tools, and how many are “produsing” (lowdown: a lot use, less make).
- Being a Researcher at a Liberal Arts College [Just TV] – Fascinating reflections from media scholar Jason Mittell and the pros and cons (mainly pros) of teaching in a US liberal arts college rather than one of the the larger, more prestigious, universities. (Esp useful for those of us outside looking in!)
- Israeli jailed for Facebook photo [BBC NEWS | Middle East] – “Israel has sentenced a soldier to 19 days in jail for uploading a photograph taken on his military base to the social networking website, Facebook. … The case follows widespread reports about the potential security risk of soldiers posting photos …”
Mayer and Bettle are back!
Anyone who has ever tried to explain the importance of Creative Commons licenses to a new audience has probably played them the wonderful CC Mayer and Bettle Animation which was created back in 2005 by Pete Foley and others gathered together by CC Australia. The video features two animated characters whose adventures in downloading, copyright and content creation lead them to explore the utility of CC licenses for creators and for audiences. It’s also quite funny (featuring “the best song in the world!!”).
The great news is that the two central characters, Mayer and Bettle are back, joined this time by a new player in the game – Flick – in a new animated tale. This one looks at CC licenses in more depth, with a focus on making money off content creation while still using CC licensing. You really need to watch the original animation first for this sequel to make sense, but it’s another fine effort from CCau, making CC licenses understandable and accessible to a general (non-lawyerish) audience!
Update: For more info and a higher quality download, check out the official CCau blog. [Via Elliot’s CC Blog]
Tama Leaver dot Net by Tama Leaver is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.