November 30, 2006

Retired

sLop (the blog you are reading) is retiring..

The archives should stay up indefinitely though so feel free to continue linking in if you like..

In the coming weeks, I should have something new up. Please stay tuned.


Posted by vanevery at 11:49 AM | TrackBack

August 14, 2006

ITJ Project Beta Released

Interactive Tele-Journalism
So.. I have finally released ITJ on SourceForge.net.

With support from Konscious and Manhattan Neighborhood Network we have packaged and uploaded the latest version and it can be downloaded at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/itv-ism/.

Posted by vanevery at 04:26 PM | TrackBack

July 27, 2006

Dear telephone, meet the internet

Pheeder


"Pheeder is a whole new way of using your cellphone: it lets you communicate with all of your friends simultaneously, with a single phone call. To use it, you just call Pheeder, leave a message and hang up. Seconds later all of your friends, or anyone you want, receives the message at the very same instant. And if they want, they can send a reply to your message."

Posted by vanevery at 11:21 AM | TrackBack

July 14, 2006

Increasing cooperation in the IM space..

Yahoo, Microsoft IM Beta Joined at The Hip
Definitely a good thing. Perhaps a standard will emerge.. Nah.. That is just hopeful thinking. Besides, I would rather Jabber was the standard.

Posted by vanevery at 05:05 PM | TrackBack

July 03, 2006

New Video Comments WordPress Plugin

ITP Research >> Video Comments WordPress Plugin Version 1.2 Released

Here are some new features you can expect:

1: A GUI interface inside the WP administrative screens for posting.

2: Revised comment display on the main post page. Now the timecode is hyperlinked and will bring up the plugin and seek the appropriate place in the video.

3: The ability to put a thumbnail or your own text in the post for launching the player.

4: A couple of random bug fixes.. GREAT!

Posted by vanevery at 10:54 PM | TrackBack

June 30, 2006

Updated QuickTime Embedding Plugin

QuickTime Embedding Plugin

Due to overwhelming demand (1 person), I updated my QuickTime Embedding Plugin for WordPress to support Auto Play and Hiding the movie controller.

Just thought you might like to know.. ;-)

Oh yeah, John has been very hard at work on the next version of our Video Commenting Plugin. Prepare to be impressed (I am). It should be released over the weekend.

Posted by vanevery at 05:15 PM | TrackBack

June 22, 2006

What is Participatory Media?

Clay asked me, what my working definition of Participatory Media is. Since I didn't think he would like my riff on his jello and nails comment, I came up with this:

Broad definition:
A participatory medium is one which encourages audience participation in the creation, distribution and consumption of itself.

My specific spin:
A medium with similar properties to mass media (audio and video) with the addition of social interaction interwoven into the creation, distribution and consumption of it.

Even better might be how Wikipedia defines it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_Media

I suppose that after having taught a course called "Producing Participatory Media" a couple of times, a definition should just roll off of my tongue. Fortunately, the concept itself has changed and grown quite a bit since then (ahh, the sweet pace of change in this interwebbed world).

Perhaps one of my former students would be better at answering this question?

Posted by vanevery at 07:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 14, 2006

Click.TV video comments

TechCrunch >> Blog Archive >> Click.tv Moves Video Ideas Forward
Had an interesting experience at Vloggercon this past weekend. Although Josh pointed this out to me in the past, I was surprised to find a company pitching similar video commenting concepts that we have been working on.

So.. Perhaps my focus should now shift to getting start-up funding ;-) Any takers?

Posted by vanevery at 08:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 11, 2006

Video Comments, WordPress Plugin

ITP Research >> Video Comments, a WordPress Plugin

Keeping the conversation alive in media blogs

Video Blogging, Vlogging or what ever you want to call it was born into a tradition of self publishing on the internet and benefits greatly from the infrastructure developed for blogging. The tools to create media and now to distribute media online are accessible and affordable. Furthermore, video blogging is often considered participatory and socially interactive. Much of this is due to what blogs have done, enabled true two-way conversation through comments and loose networking through trackbacks.

Unfortunately, while video blogging benefits from these, it doesn't really do much to improve or enhance this capability with video.

At ITP Research, myself and a couple of others have been working to change this or at least push commenting and trackbacks a bit further. We have created a Video Commenting plugin for WordPress that allows people to leave comments in-time with a video. This, we believe is one of the first steps to allowing conversation to happen around video and furthermore enable richer conversation with video.

Check it out, download it, modify it, use it... Video Comments, WordPress Plugin

From the site:
It’s really exciting to see the number of blogs that exist today, thousands of voices are talking about every possible topic. Blog syndication and commenting allows readers to subscribe, discuss and carry the conversation further, however, with the different forms of media becoming a normal part of many blogs there’s a need to keep this open communication open. Audio and video blogs are forming communities and to encourage conversation the viewers must be able to respond, so we developed a plug-in for WordPress called Video Comments.

Posted by vanevery at 01:48 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

May 27, 2006

Community Funding of Video Blogging

Have Money Will Vlog About

I like the concept.. A bit like turning video blogging into a sustainable "public medium". Maybe.

Would like it even better if the creative output of this was Creative Commons licensed, perhaps Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License would be appropriate.

From the site:
Have Money Will Vlog? What’s the deal?
Many good projects need only action to be successful. With the distribution of the internet, a person with a good video project can be seen by thousands of people. But some ideas need money.
Money for equipment.
Money for travel.
Money for time.
Traditional artists can apply for grants to make their work. Have Money Will Vlog supports videobloggers trying to do the amazing. The power of the community can fund projects on a regular basis. You easily spend $10 or more everytime you go out to see a movie…so consider donating $10 a month to a videoblog project. If we have 100 people that give $10 a month, that’s $1000. Let’s energize creators.

Posted by vanevery at 11:59 AM | TrackBack

May 21, 2006

ion - and iondb - v. nice!

People With Ideas ion 1.0 RC3 and iondb.com
Just had a short opportunity to try out the new ion and iondb. Haven't had a chance to get some heavy usage but right off the bat the webstart is great! The db is fantastic as well, sharing what you are watching with others is one of the first steps to making video on the internet more social and community orientated. Keep going!

One of these days I will contribute a bit back to this project.

Posted by vanevery at 12:59 PM | TrackBack

May 19, 2006

Cool Hunting at the ITP Show

Cool Hunting Video: ITP Spring Show 2006
For those of you wondering what I do all day every day, check out this video of the ITP Spring Show from Cool Hunting. Very nicely produced!

Posted by vanevery at 11:16 AM | TrackBack

April 19, 2006

ITP End of Year Events - Thesis Presentations and End of Semester Show

ITP Spring Show 2006
A two day exhibition of interactive sight, sound and physical objects from the student artists of ITP.

This event is free and open to the public. No need to RSVP.

ITP Thesis Presentations 2006
ITP's graduating students will be presenting a wide variety of highly creative and interactive projects that they have constructed over the course of their final project seminars.

Students have been encouraged to undertake projects that bring together the conceptual and design issues that they have engaged in during their two years of study at ITP.

Projects will include installation based work, digital video and audio pieces, interactive 3D, games and educational applications, to name only a few.

ITP will be providing a live webcast of all the thesis presentations.

Posted by vanevery at 02:41 AM | TrackBack

March 23, 2006

'The Fourth Screen' Mobile Media Festival

The4thScreen.com :: global mobile media festival
This festival looks very interesting. They are pushing people to think about the phone in a different way, not just as a television that is carried in your pocket as it seems the providers are pushing for:
'The Fourth Screen' Global Mobile Media Festival will focus on the mobile phone as an emerging social, cultural and technological phenomenon.
We invite artists, technologists, and other creative thinkers to submit creations, inventions and concepts in two categories:
1/ moving images: videos made with mobile phone, movies, animation and games intended for mobile delivery
2/ wise technologies: software art, software and hardware that proposes new uses for mobile multimedia communication, applications that have positive cultural, social and economic impact in diverse cultures

Posted by vanevery at 01:17 PM | TrackBack

March 18, 2006

Multiuser WordPress

WordPress Multiuser
From the site:
WordPress MU is multi-user version of the famous WordPress blogging application. It is ideal for people wanting to offer a hosted version of WordPress.

This is what I should get up and running for MobVCasting.

Posted by vanevery at 03:40 PM | TrackBack

March 11, 2006

New WordPress Plugin for Embedding QuickTime movies

QuickTime Embedding WordPress Plugin
I got tired of my XML-RPC posts with QuickTime movies messing up the design of my blog. WordPress automatically would add end param tags and paragraph breaks and all of that inside my Embed and Object tags.
Check it out

Posted by vanevery at 11:27 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 23, 2006

Television goes Social (on the internet)

eVoke TV - eVoke TV Corp.
Very nice.. Enter into chat rooms, see what others are talking about, clap and so on.. Very interesting..

From the site:
eVoke TV helps connect you to your preferred TV programming by providing Web-based “TV listings” with a better user experience.
We are using Web 2.0 techniques to transform the static nature of TV Listings into a dynamic forum connecting TV watchers to the wealth of content available on the internet. We intend to serve the growing population of broadband internet users who are connected to the Web while watching television programming.

Their blog: http://evoketv.blogspot.com/

Posted by vanevery at 04:49 PM | TrackBack

February 21, 2006

FlashMeeting

FlashMeeting - The One Click Videoconference
Despite my early resistance to all things Flash, this application is very nice. I had a chance to participate in a Flash Meeting today and actually enjoyed it. Definitely a far cry from the days of CuSeeMe ;-)

The one strange thing is the cue to talk. I would prefer that it was a bit more conversational and therefore I felt more natural in the chat room than talking into my mic.

Posted by vanevery at 12:41 AM | TrackBack

February 08, 2006

Web 2.0 Video APIs and Mash-ups

ProgrammableWeb: Tag Search

The future..?

Posted by vanevery at 03:54 PM | TrackBack

yubnub - a social command line for the web

YubNub - YubNub.org
Pretty interesting. Brings Web 2.0 into the realm of the *nix geek. I would love to see some shell scripts that utilize this. (Never mind, it is browser plugins, guess shell scripts are out. Perhaps someone will take this concept and build it around wget or something)

Posted by vanevery at 10:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 07, 2006

Our Media's List of Open Media Projects

Open media projects | Ourmedia
From the site:
Ourmedia.org, a nonprofit open media project, supports the following kindred efforts that are helping to enable the grassroots media revolution (also called citizens media, participatory media, personal media, We Media and open-source media). We hope to work with many of them in the months ahead on a planned network of open media sites as a way to cultivate an independent commons of information and creativity.

Posted by vanevery at 06:39 PM | TrackBack

January 28, 2006

NYTimes wraps up current Mobile Social Software services

Making Connections, Here and Now - New York Times
Included are two that I have had a small hand in: Socialight and Dodgeball.

Posted by vanevery at 06:18 PM | TrackBack

VSee get's some attention

P2P Videoconferencing Gets Better - Robin Good's Latest News
I had a chance to try out VSee a couple of years ago and was thoroughly impressed. Milton and crew have done very nice work on this product.

From the article:
If you are looking to try out one of the latest and best performing video conferencing technologies available out there, you have come to the right place.

Posted by vanevery at 04:40 PM | TrackBack

January 25, 2006

FireAnt :: Directory

Get FireAnt: Better than Television | Directory
The nice folks behind the FireAnt (video blogging aggregation software) have launched a new directory. It is complete with tags, ratings, browsing, searching and all the goodies.

Posted by vanevery at 03:36 PM | TrackBack

January 24, 2006

YackPack - Simple Voice Messaging for Groups

Yack Pack Corporate
From the site:
YackPack is a new way to stay connected with a group of friends, family or work colleagues. YackPack conveys the nuances of spoken language, leading to better communication, stronger friendships, and more group unity. In a nutshell, YackPack is simple voice messaging for groups.

Posted by vanevery at 08:05 PM | TrackBack

January 21, 2006

Nice Socialight infomercial..

socialight | friends | mobile phones | fun
Nice mobile social software. Check it out..!

Posted by vanevery at 01:32 PM | TrackBack

January 17, 2006

The Future of Independent Media

GBN: The Future of Independent Media
I thought I linked to this a while ago but I couldn't find it recently when recommending it to a student.

Andrew Blau writes a great essay contemplating Independent Media in the face of the quickly changing technological landscape. A very good read:

From the text:
The technologies that enable us to make and consume motion media are becoming better, cheaper, and more widely available—and with blistering speed. As a consequence, patterns of media production and consumption are changing just as rapidly. The Internet continues to create new opportunities to connect with audiences. Video games are becoming a platform for critique and education. A new generation of media makers and viewers is emerging, which only increases the likelihood of profound change. Images, ideas, news, and points of view are traveling along countless new routes to an ever-growing number of places where they can be seen and absorbed. It is no understatement to say that the way we make and experience motion media will be transformed as thoroughly in the next decade as the world of print was reshaped in the last.

Posted by vanevery at 02:44 AM | TrackBack

January 16, 2006

Jabber, Jingle, Google and Asterisk

Google Jabbers And Jingles
What a funny bunch of words..

In any case, a quicky on Google's use of Jabber and their extensions (Jingle). A little tidbit about Asterisk support forthcoming near the end.

Posted by vanevery at 08:52 PM | TrackBack

Massive Media, distilled

Future Of Television Is Self-Service, P2P Distributed Media Consumption - Robin Good's Latest News
Robin Good edits and re-presents Dan Melinger's Massive Media thesis.

Posted by vanevery at 11:48 AM | TrackBack

December 14, 2005

Social Networking Site for Visual Programmers

CodeTree: Watch Your Code Branch Out and Grow.
From the site:
Welcome to CodeTree, a social networking community created to bring new media artists, programmers, and students using Macromedia Flash and Proce55ing together. Learn more about this site, start browsing the code, or join the community and start sharing your code today!

Posted by vanevery at 01:57 AM | TrackBack

Content for P2P about P2P (almost)

THE.SCENE
From the FAQ:
Q: What is "The Scene" in real life?

A: The Scene is the piracy underground where 99% of pirated movies, songs, video games, etc start out. There, thousands of pirates upload, download, and trade files (often illegally) using FTP sites. From there, the files make their way onto the peer-to-peer networks, that so many know and love.

Posted by vanevery at 12:16 AM | TrackBack

December 09, 2005

Future of Television Conference

Beyond TV: TVSpy.com Next Generation TV
So, I went to the Future of Television conference a couple of weeks ago and was somewhat suprised. Last year, I poked my head in to see what was being discussed and it was a big snooze. After checking out the website, I figured it was worth my time this year so I went.

Wow.. I was surprised. You wouldn't know it but there are people in TV who really "get it"... Larry Kramer from CBS most notably get's it.

Here is what I had to say on the day of:
I am writing from Future of Television Conference at NYU's Stern School of Business today. I am here for several reasons, first of all I would like to know what the networks and traditional media concerns think of the scrappy interactive folks. Second, I am here doing recon. Specifically, I would like to know how long video bloggers and other decentralized media creators have before traditional media begins to offer enough of what they are doing to satiate "consumers". (Perhaps that is not exactly my fear but close enough for now.)

First of all, I have to say that Larry Kramer gets it. He really does. He is open to experimentation. At CBS he has launched many interactive initiatives from a broadband news channel to podcasts of daytime soaps to fantasy sports sites to deep entertainment content add-ons to viewer/user photo posting to writer and producer blogs to actual audience participation through SMS. Phew..

CBS isn't the only media company doing this type of experimentation. The other networks, cable and broadcast are doing the same or similar. Notable is ABC News Now, ESPN, Playboy and the like.

The question is, whether or not this is enough. Will this engage and empower viewers enough to keep them despite the ever growing number of alternative content channels. The networks certainly know how to deliver programming to a passive audience. They are just beginning to support a more engaged and digitally connected viewer.

A later speaker in the day, IBM's Saul Berman described the audience by categorizing them in 3 camps. "Massive passives", the folks that CBS has always served, lean back, over 35, want to be entertained but don't feel compelled to buy the latest gadget or create their own media.

The next camp, arguably the focus of most of these efforts he described as "Gadgetiers". He describes this group as heavily involved in content, they are fans, will seek out other individuals who are interested in the same content they are. They will purchase the latest devices, use time shifting (TiVo) and will space shift (TiVo To Go). They are also the heavy buyers, the early adopters, in short, the people that the advertizers (and therefore the networks) covet.

It remains to be seen whether what the networks are starting to do will appeal to this group in the long run. In the short term, it is clear, if you put it out there they will come. How long they stay is another matter.

The last camp, the "Kool kids", the ones really getting all of the attention, are the hardest to understand. He suggests that this is the group that rejects DRM and "walled gardens", in short, the group that wants media on their own terms. This is the group that uses P2P software and is heavily social. They have dream devices that aren't out in the market as of yet.

I know that the kks (short for "Kool kids") are what have network executives up at night. They are the hackers and inventors who are really driving the internet. TV and media in general will fit into their game or be disregarded.

Ok.. So the big question at the end of the day? Will the cable and TV networks run scared and do everything possible to protect their business models or will they embrace the new like they must. My feeling after this conference is that they have learned something from the music industry and will try to embrace but there will still be a major shakeup and Yahoo! and Google just might become the "new" networks. Good or bad.

Posted by vanevery at 09:31 PM | TrackBack

December 08, 2005

EPIC is about to arrive, powered by Googlezon

EPIC 2014

Posted by vanevery at 02:28 PM | TrackBack

November 14, 2005

Socialight hits the Times

Post-Its for Passers-By - New York Times
From the article:
Socialight leaves virtual Post-it notes, called sticky shadows, in specific sites around the city. A text message pops up when a cellphone is carried into the designated space, which is generally smaller than a city block but larger than an intersection. Started last month in a Chelsea loft by two 2004 graduates of New York University, Socialight now has dotted the metropolitan region with more than 500 stickies.

Posted by vanevery at 04:22 PM | TrackBack

November 06, 2005

Ninjamonkey on Instant Mobile Social Networks

Ninja Monkey Party 411 : Instant Mobile Social Network Or; Listserv + Email-to-SMS Gateway = LOVE
Ninjamonkey describes a service he setup for his birthday party a couple of weeks ago using off the shelf components. Of course the magic sauce was that his crowd includes some tech savvy and highly motivated social drinkers.
From the page:
Social networks and mobile applications are obvious bedfellows, but aside from a few noteables like dodgeball almost nothing has been done to exploit them. The thing that many people may be missing is that SMS is pretty much like email, except with extreme size restrictions (160 characters/message) and controlled solely by the telcos (which is sort of like having a draconian ISP with terrible, terrible service). This means that as long as you can find a way to translate between email and sms (with, say, a publicly available email-to-sms gateway) you can pass messages between them.

Posted by vanevery at 11:05 AM | TrackBack

The Participatory Generation

The Lives of Teenagers Now: Open Blogs, Not Locked Diaries - New York Times
NY Times is running an article about a recent Pew survey that is demonstrating that teenagers have embraced publishing media online. From myspace and the like to creating their own websites featuring music remixes, videos and so forth.

They have become the participatory generation.

From the article:
According to the Pew survey, 57 percent of all teenagers between 12 and 17 who are active online - about 12 million - create digital content, from building Web pages to sharing original artwork, photos and stories to remixing content found elsewhere on the Web. Some 20 percent publish their own Web logs.

That reality is now inextricable from the broader social, cultural and sometimes, as in Melissa's case, deeply personal experience of being a teenager. And it is one that will undoubtedly have profound implications for the traditional managers of content, from big media companies and libraries to record labels, publishers and Hollywood.

[Later in the article]

The Pew survey shows "the mounting evidence that teens are not passive consumers of media content," said Paulette M. Rothbauer, an assistant professor of information sciences at the University of Toronto. "They take content from media providers and transform it, reinterpret it, republish it, take ownership of it in ways that at least hold the potential for subverting it."

Posted by vanevery at 10:37 AM | TrackBack

MobVCasting on the Vlog Map

vlogmap.org | Vlog Map | Video Blog Map
Map of Vloggers around the world

Posted by vanevery at 10:24 AM | TrackBack

November 04, 2005

OMDS Article

TECTONIC: How will you consume your open media?
Michael Sharon has written a nice article summarizing the Open Media Developers Summit.
From the article:
Two weeks ago, on a rainy Friday and Saturday in October, 65 programmers and developers debated these and many other questions at the first Open Media Developer's Summit held at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) in down-town Manhattan.

Posted by vanevery at 12:41 PM | TrackBack

October 10, 2005

Group as User

Shirky: Group as User: Flaming and the Design of Social Software

Clay makes a great case against developing user centric software.

A random paragraph:
And yet, when we poll users about what they actually do with their
computers, some form of social interaction always tops the list --
conversation, collaboration, playing games, and so on. The practice of
software design is shot through with computer-as-box assumptions,
while our actual behavior is closer to computer-as-door, treating the
device as an entrance to a social space.

Posted by vanevery at 12:00 AM | TrackBack

October 02, 2005

Wikipedia Vlog Article

Vlog - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Posted by vanevery at 01:52 PM | TrackBack

Open Source Textbooks

Main Page - Wikibooks
a collection of open-content textbooks that anyone can edit.

Posted by vanevery at 01:51 PM | TrackBack

September 26, 2005

Participatory Media and Collective Action

Berkeley China Internet Project
Howard Reingold (of Smart Mobs fame) and Xiao Qiang are teaching this class at UC Berkeley. The class description is interesting.. Love to see what comes of the course.

Posted by vanevery at 06:21 PM | TrackBack

July 08, 2005

Clay Compares Categories, Hierarchies, Links and Tags

Shirky: Ontology is Overrated -- Categories, Links, and Tags

Posted by vanevery at 02:40 PM | TrackBack

April 05, 2005

Annotating The Times

The Annotated New York Times
Interesting site that tracks blog entries that cite the NY Times.

Posted by vanevery at 01:24 AM | TrackBack

March 20, 2005

Wiki wiki wiki's everywhere

MediaWiki development
This is the open source Wiki group and software powering Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks and Wikiquote.

Posted by vanevery at 11:49 PM | TrackBack

When everyone is media, no one is

Scripting News: 2/2/2005
Dave writes:
When everyone is media, no one is
1. Everything these days is media.
2. All media is technology and vice versa. The convergence everyone was buzzing about in the early 90s has happened. It's behind us. There is no separation between media and technology.
...

I disagree:
The telephone company isn't media now and people who call each other aren't producing media (although an argument can be made). Perhaps he is just arguing an extreme.

Posted by vanevery at 02:01 PM | TrackBack

Cameraphones as personal storytelling media

TheFeature :: Cameraphones as Personal Storytelling Media
Nice article from Howard Rheingold:
The cameraphone exists at this moment in that ephemeral, potent and confusing phase of its adoption cycle where people are still deciding what kind of social medium it is.

Posted by vanevery at 11:58 AM | TrackBack

March 08, 2005

MoSoSos

Wired News: MoSoSos Not So So-So
Nice Wired News story about MoSoSos: "MoSoSos are the mobile equivalents of online social networks like Friendster and LinkedIn. They help users find old friends, or potential new ones, on the go."
Also:
"Currently rolled out in 22 U.S. cities, and with about 15,000 users, dodgeball is the American MoSoSo standard-bearer."
Way to go Alex and Dens..

Posted by vanevery at 03:32 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 06, 2005

Forget about Free Speech

Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc.: The Gathering Storms Over Speech
Dan gives an overview of how Apple, recent legislation and politicians under corporate influence are doing everything and anything to take away our Freedom of Speech rights.
From the article:
We're moving toward a system under which only the folks who are deemed to be professionals will be granted the status of journalists, and thereby more rights than the rest of us. This is pernicious in every way.

Posted by vanevery at 02:34 PM | TrackBack

March 01, 2005

ZeD - Open Source Television


ZeD - Open Source Television

A very interesting television project being done by the CBC. Damn, I wish television in the US was as risk taking as it is in Canada and the UK.
From the site:
CBC Television's late-night TV project, ZeD. ZeD is a launch pad for ideas, individuals and creative expression. It's a blend of short films, micro-cinema, experimental works, performances by bands, poets, comics and choreographers, and - always - contributions from the audience.

Posted by vanevery at 11:43 PM | TrackBack

February 16, 2005

Stay Free! now has a blog

Stay Free! Daily
The tag line:
Periodic ramblings from Stay Free!, a Brooklyn magazine focused on American media and culture

Posted by vanevery at 11:51 PM | TrackBack

February 12, 2005

Nice Flickr interface - Flash, Springs and Social Connections

flickrGraph search: willrich

Posted by vanevery at 01:57 PM | TrackBack

February 03, 2005

NYTimes rounds up the WiFi phone scene

The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > What's Next: Phones to Use Wi-Fi Instead of Cellular Systems, or Both

Posted by vanevery at 03:55 PM | TrackBack

January 12, 2005

reBlogging

So, I just upgraded to the latest version of MT and installed Eyebeam's reBlog plugin. Look forward to more content from more sources. (I will tag reBlogged items as such).

Posted by vanevery at 02:33 PM | TrackBack

January 10, 2005

Dan G.'s New Blog

Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc.
Since Dan has left the San Jose Mercury News, he has created a new blog. Can't wait to hear more about his new venture.

Posted by vanevery at 07:52 PM | TrackBack

December 21, 2004

Interesting way to checkout Pop-Culture

Google Press Center: Zeitgeist
Search patterns, trends, and surprises according to Google

Posted by vanevery at 04:54 PM | TrackBack

December 19, 2004

Jay has it going on...!

Momentshowing: VIDEO: Videobloggers invade the TV box
Video bloggers from around the country live on TV using iChat AV.. Nice job Jay. Really illustrates the possibilities.

Posted by vanevery at 05:02 PM | TrackBack

December 10, 2004

Ooooh, What's he going to do?!?!

Silicon Valley - Dan Gillmor's eJournal - A Transition
Dan Gillmor is leaving his job as a writer for the San Jose Mercury News to "work on a citizen-journalism project". Others have said it is a venture with seed money. Interesting.. Can't wait for the details!

Posted by vanevery at 02:11 PM | TrackBack

December 08, 2004

ANTs Not Television

ANT | ANTs Not Television
Go Jay and Josh GO!

ANT helps you download and watch video published on the Internet.

ANT allows you to organize and manage video playlists

ANT is a video aggregator that allows you to subscribe to RSS 2.0 feeds with video enclosures

ANT seeks to build opensource software tools to enable an emergent, grassroots, bottom-up, video distribution network based on exisiting technology such as weblogs and RSS.

ANT is about FREE VIDEO -- not free as in price, but free as in freedom.

Posted by vanevery at 03:38 AM | TrackBack

Art Mobs

Art Mobs
Opens tonight.. Cool, I thought I missed it already. They are pulling together some fun social and emerging technologies, Text Messaging, PodCasting and more.

From the site:
Guests are invited to share their experience of student artworks by text messaging on their mobile phones. View the work while reading the most recent 4 text messages left by othersthen leave your own message for the next guests. Guests may also download podcasts of interviews with several of the artists about their works. View the work while listening to the podcast on your iPod or other mp3 player

Posted by vanevery at 03:24 AM | TrackBack

December 06, 2004

ITP Winter Show 2004

ITP Winter Show 2004
Sunday, December 19 from 2 to 6pm
Monday, December 20 from 5 to 9pm

A two-day explosion of interactive sight, sound and technology from the student artists and innovators at ITP.

An oversized Greenwich Village loft houses the computer labs, rotating exhibitions, and production workshops that are ITP -- the Interactive Telecommunications Program. Founded in 1979 as the first graduate education program in alternative media, ITP has grown into a living community of technologists, theorists, engineers, designers, and artists uniquely dedicated to pushing the boundaries of interactivity in the real and digital worlds. A hands-on approach to experimentation, production and risk-taking make this hi-tech fun house a creative home not only to its 230 students, but also to an extended network of the technology industry's most daring and prolific practitioners.

Interactive Telecommunications Program
Tisch School of the Arts
New York University
721 Broadway, 4th Floor South
New York NY 10003

Take the left elevators to the 4th Floor
This event is free and open to the public

No need to RSVP

For questions: 212-998-1880
email: itp.inquiries@nyu.edu
http://itp.nyu.edu/show

Posted by vanevery at 06:29 PM | TrackBack

audioblog.com releases a videoblogging tool

Audioblog.com - News
From the site:

November 14, 2004

Introducing our Videoblog tool

Audioblog.com subscribers now have access to the beta version of our streaming videoblog recording/publishing tool, which works with the same ease-of-use as our Flash-based BlogRecorder. Record. Save. Publish. It's that easy.

Initially, it will be available to all of our customers during our beta period (approximately a month). After that time, it will be available as a feature upgrade for all new subscribers.

What a deal! By acting now, you can have audioblogging and videoblogging for just $4.95 per month (includes 1GB of bandwidth, and each additional GB billed at $1.95 each).

Audioblog.com works with most major blogging software and hosting providers such as Blogware, TypePad, Blogger, Movable Type, Wordpress and more. Broadband connections strongly recommended to record video.

Posted by vanevery at 02:31 PM | TrackBack

November 22, 2004

Nice looking RSS reader for the Mac

NewsFire. Mac RSS with Style.
Trying it out now..

Posted by vanevery at 02:54 PM | TrackBack

October 31, 2004

The Wiki that I use

UseMod: UseModWiki

Posted by vanevery at 12:05 PM | TrackBack

October 15, 2004

A nice suite of open source java blogging tools

Pebble - blogging tools written in Java
A server side blogging app, a desktop app (unfortunately without hooks to most server side blogging apps at the moment), a mobile blogging (moblog) app and an Ant blogging tool. Very nice.

Posted by vanevery at 12:11 AM | TrackBack

October 10, 2004

Here is another site that everybody loves but I haven't tried

del.icio.us
As the tag line says: "Social Bookmarking"

Posted by vanevery at 10:11 AM | TrackBack

October 07, 2004

iPodder 1.0 released

iPodder, the cross-platform Podcast receiver.
So the question is, what is a Podcast?. The answer: An audio bloggers wet dream.

Someone needs to make something like this for the video blogging community. I know, i know, people are working on it but we don't have a dominant video device with the market share of the iPod yet (and that is a requirement).

Posted by vanevery at 10:29 AM | TrackBack

October 02, 2004

Spectropolis, Happening NOW

( (( ((( Spectropolis 2004 ))) )) )

Posted by vanevery at 09:31 PM | TrackBack

September 30, 2004

Howard writes about how text messaging is changing the face of world politics

TheFeature :: Political Texting: SMS and Elections
From the article:
Texting and electoral politics are the strange bedfellows of the 21st century. The use of SMS for political action is only in its infancy, but has already enabled citizens to topple governments and tip elections from Manila to Madrid. The electoral power of texting could be an early indicator of future social upheaval: whenever people gain the power to organize collective action on new scales, in new places, at new tempos, with groups they had not been able to organize before, societies and civilizations change.

Posted by vanevery at 12:22 PM | TrackBack

August 23, 2004

The CoDeck is featured on Rhizome!

Rhizome.org: Net Art News: Here's Lookin' at you, George!
Great news.. Good Job Ahmi and Ophra!

For readers that don't know, the CoDeck is a collaborative project between myself, Ahmi Wolf, Dan Melinger and Mark Argo that allows a community of users to upload and share videos that they have created. It has a web interface for information about the works and for commenting on them. The most interesting part of it (IMHO) is that it takes the form of a vintage Betamax with a single board computer running linux and all the fixins. We utilized the controls on the deck to implement skipping to the next video (Fast Forward), watching the previous one (Rewind) and so on. You can also create a video response to any video that is currently playing by changing the channel and using the built in camera and microphone to create a response video right then and there.

Posted by vanevery at 06:58 PM | TrackBack

June 01, 2004

Airtexting..!

Joi Ito's Web: Will airtexting BlackBerry become the mobile hecklebot?
From the site:
By waving the Nokia 3220 camera phone from side to side, the LED lights of the Nokia Xpress-on FunShell light up to "write" a message that appears to float in mid-air.

Posted by vanevery at 06:56 PM | TrackBack

May 31, 2004

Clay's talk about games, rules, code and the real world

Shirky: Nomic World: By the players, for the players
In this talk (edited version online), Clay Shirky discusses code as the rules and structure of virtual worlds (online multiplayer games). Much is stated about the structure that these worlds might assume if control was given to the players and what the out-comes might be. In the end he states: "We should experiment with game-world models that dump a large and maybe even unpleasant amount of control into the hands of the players because it's the best lab we have for experiments with real governance in the 21st century agora, the place where people gather when they want to be out in public. "

Posted by vanevery at 10:59 AM | TrackBack

May 19, 2004

Frontier "kernel" open sourced

Scripting News: 5/17/2004
Very nice.. Frontier is the kernel for other UserLand products such as Radio and Manilla. It will be interesting to see what comes of this.

Posted by vanevery at 01:02 AM | TrackBack

May 15, 2004

The empty black cube

On Tele-absence
Elliott has a nice write up on the concept and ideas behind Tele-absence (the opposite of Tele-Presence, something I have been spending the majority of my time on).
From the site:
I recently, along with Anees Assali, created a large black cube that sits motionless and visually impenetrable in a gallery space. Beyond its simple physical structure, the cube is also a web server with a fixed address. When viewers choose to visit the web site broadcast from the cube, they see a live video stream of its interior, which is empty. The cube does nothing other than serve up an empty space

Posted by vanevery at 08:44 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 28, 2004

The internet will kill television news?

Internet will kill of Television News - an essay
Very interesting essay. For my views on this topic checkout Interactive Tele-Journalism.

Posted by vanevery at 01:20 AM | TrackBack

April 25, 2004

A snippet of what is to come for Forbes readers..


Yahoo! News - Is TV Next?

They say that the internet is a "problem" for TV.. Hmmn, I would welcome a bit of a shake up, perhaps only those companies willing to embrace the technology and social power of the internet will survive. Wouldn't that be nice..
From the article:
The problem is, the Internet is one big dumb pipe. It doesn't know or care whether it is carrying a Web page, a phone call or a sitcom. It's a pipe, in other words, perfectly designed for whacking established industries over the head.

Posted by vanevery at 06:16 PM | TrackBack

YASNS Meta List

YASNS Meta List - The Social Software Weblog - socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com
The Yet Another Social Networking Service list.

Posted by vanevery at 06:06 PM | TrackBack

April 24, 2004

Mobile phone app for urban community connections

Jabberwocky
Liz Goodman, an ITP alum worked on this project while working at the Intel Research Berkeley lab.
From the description:
Jabberwocky is a freely available mobile phone application designed to promote urban community connections and a sense of familiarity, anxiety, and play in public urban places.

Posted by vanevery at 03:08 PM | TrackBack

April 02, 2004

Transmission arts organization

free103point9: transmission arts
From the site:
free103point9 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media arts organization focused on establishing and cultivating the genre Transmission Arts by promoting artists who explore ideas around transmission as a medium for creative expression including investigations in AM and FM radio, Citizen's Band, walkie-talkie, generative sound, and other broad and microcasting technologies. free103point9 serves diverse public audiences through programs including an online radio station, a distribution label, a performance/exhibition/transmission series, an education initiative, and a preservation program.

Posted by vanevery at 08:19 PM | TrackBack

Early Bicycle Transmitter

Here is what might have been the first bicycle transmitter
From the site:
Here is what might have been the first bicycle transmitter, a "breadboard" model I built in 1938. I am shown "tuning up"the rig, with twograde school friends looking on. I used a type 30 oscillator, another 30 for the modulator, and two 45 volt "B" batteries in series. The antenna was my fishing rod.

Posted by vanevery at 08:02 PM | TrackBack

March 31, 2004

P2P, 802.11b, handhelds and radio, a combination made in my heaven

tunA
From MIT via Gizmodo:
tunA is a mobile wireless application that allows users to share their music locally through handheld devices. Users can "tune in" to other nearby tunA music players and listen to what someone else is listening to. Developed on iPaqs and connected via 802.11b in ad-hoc mode, the application displays a list of people using tunA that are in range, gives access to their profile and playlist information, and enables synchronized peer-to-peer audio streaming.

Thanks to Dan for the link.

Posted by vanevery at 05:55 PM | TrackBack

Clay writes about "Situated Software"

Shirky: Situated Software

From the article:
Part of the future I believe I'm seeing is a change in the software ecosystem which, for the moment, I'm calling situated software. This is software designed in and for a particular social situation or context. This way of making software is in contrast with what I'll call the Web School (the paradigm I learned to program in), where scalability, generality, and completeness were the key virtues.

Posted by vanevery at 02:17 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

March 22, 2004

A blog for moblogs

Moblogging.org
As they say:
Software, Hardware and regularly updated news regarding moblogging.

News, Mobloggers, Software and more..

Posted by vanevery at 03:18 AM | TrackBack

March 17, 2004

How News Travels on the Internet (really the blogosphere)

Stephen VanDyke How News Travels on the Internet
Stephen visualizes how news and information travel the Internet. Interesting that he is really really referring to the blogosphere not the internet proper. If it was the internet proper he would be paying much more attention to the "Dark Matter".
From Stephen's page:
Here's how I see news travel, I think it's a pretty self-explanatory graphic, plus I'm too lazy to do a proper write up. Infer as you wish, maybe I will become the "source" one of these days.

Posted by vanevery at 12:19 PM | TrackBack

Shooting People

Shooting People / Bulletins
From the site:
Shooting People is a very simple idea - that independent filmmaking is about passion, ideas, innovation and finding creative partnerships. By providing a web and email service that allows all groups of the filmmaking community to hook up with each other instantly, swap core advice, debate latest techs and develop creative partnerships

Posted by vanevery at 02:37 AM | TrackBack

March 15, 2004

Multi-network Instant Messaging

Cerulean Studios: The Creators of Trillian and Trillian Pro IM Clients
From the site:
The award-winning*, multi-network Trillian IM client allows you to seamlessly integrate all of your communications traffic in a single, sleek package. Stay in touch with contacts spanning multiple networks and grab the latest news, stocks, and other information with our versatile array of plugins.

Posted by vanevery at 12:51 PM | TrackBack

March 14, 2004

"Where are you!?!"

Simeda :: SounderCover
Crazy:
SounderCover gives you the ability to add a background sound to any incoming or outgoing call, giving the impression that you really are in the environment where the background sound is normally heard.

Posted by vanevery at 04:16 PM | TrackBack

Radio of the masses

radio vox populi: live from the commons
From the site:
We are entering an age where every citizen will have the means to speak her mind in a public venue. Weblogs are the voice of the people, connecting millions of individuals to their own audience on a daily basis. But what does this communication sound like?
Radio Vox Populi is a realization of the people's voice, taking the content of the weblogs and broadcasting it back to the world. As weblog authors update their sites their writing is collected, synthesized into speech, and streamed to listeners as an Internet radio station. Live from the commons 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

Posted by vanevery at 04:08 PM | TrackBack

March 11, 2004

Friendster, Open Source Style

SourceForge.net: Project Info - Slashster
From the sf description:
Slashster: An Open Source PHP / Mysql Friend of a Friend implementation (e.g: Orkut, Friendster)

This should be interesting, one to keep an eye on.

Posted by vanevery at 02:53 AM | TrackBack

Ah ha, that is what this site is, a reBlog!!!

reBlog.org
From reBlog.org:
What is a reBlog?
A reBlog facilitates the process of filtering and republishing relevant content from many RSS feeds. reBloggers subscribe to their favorite feeds, preview the content, and select their favorite posts. These posts are automatically published to a Moveable Type weblog.

Only I am not using RSS.. I will have to check into this.. (when I have time that is)

Here is Eyebeam's reBlog, they are the group that developed the software in the first place.

Posted by vanevery at 02:49 AM | TrackBack

March 05, 2004

First reaction, Duh... Second, "maybe but not so fast"..

Study: Broadband 'killer app' found - 2004-02-03 - Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal
From the article:
The so-called killer application for broadband Internet access between now and 2006 will not be distribution of professionally produced content, such as today's TV and movies, but rather the addition of video to existing applications such as conferencing, messaging and gaming and the development of applications that rely on user- and community-provided video content, according to a new study by the San Jose-based unit of the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Posted by vanevery at 04:23 PM | TrackBack

Some interesting developments from Microsoft Research

Wired News: Does SenseCam Make Any Sense?
From the article:
The prototype responds to changes such as bright lights and sudden movements and might one day even respond to other stimuli such as heart rate or skin temperature -- to track medical problems as easily as to record a Hawaiian vacation. And it could eventually link with other technology, such as face recognition to remind wearers when they've seen someone before.

Posted by vanevery at 12:15 PM | TrackBack

Popular blogs as meta-filters

Wired News: Warning: Blogs Can Be Infectious

The most-read webloggers aren't necessarily the ones with the most original ideas

Posted by vanevery at 12:10 PM | TrackBack

March 04, 2004

Sony's interaction research lab

Interaction Lab
From the site:
The Interaction Laboratory was established in 1999 to investigate the future of human computer interactions and digital lifestyles. Expanding the previous real-world user interface research within the Sony Computer Science Laboratories, we are currently working on fundamental technologies, including software architectures, hardware architectures, and sensor architectures, that will be needed to realize natural and intuitive interactions between the human, as a physical entity, and the information environment, as a digital entity. In addition to technology-oriented activities, we are also seeking a deeper understanding of human life itself, through cognitive research, and design and lifestyle studies. The Interaction Laboratorys fundamental goal is to establish symbiotic relationships between humans and technology.

Posted by vanevery at 10:48 PM | TrackBack

March 03, 2004

Make your voice heard.

EFF: Homepage
"Defending Freedom in the Digital World"
Where would we be without them?

Posted by vanevery at 10:44 AM | TrackBack