Author: fms

BBC NEWS | Technology | The rise of clip culture online: “The popularity of the websites that allow people to share short video snippets is leading to the rise of a clip culture, writes internet law professor Michael Geist.

The telecommunications and broadcast industries’ vision of the future of the internet invariably involves its convergence with television.
Large telecommunications companies are busy gearing up for this future by investing heavily in new high-speed networks whose focus is not faster internet connectivity, but rather entry into the high-definition television broadcast market.”

Children benefit from exposure to digital culture, Jenkins says – MIT News Office: “Children need to participate fully in digital culture in order to develop the ‘skills, knowledge, ethical frameworks and self-confidence needed to be full participants in the world around them,’ MIT Professor Henry Jenkins told members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) recently.Jenkins, director of the Comparative Media Studies Program, presented a paper at the AAAS annual meeting, which had the overall title ‘Grand Challenges, Great Opportunities.’ Held Feb. 16-20 in St. Louis, the meeting was attended by more than 6,000 people, including 900 scholars and scientists. Jenkins spoke at a symposium titled ‘It’s 10 p.m.: Do You Know Where Your Children Are %u2026 Online’ in the AAAS series, ‘Kids Online — A New Community.'”

Children benefit from exposure to digital culture, Jenkins says – MIT News Office: “Children need to participate fully in digital culture in order to develop the ‘skills, knowledge, ethical frameworks and self-confidence needed to be full participants in the world around them,’ MIT Professor Henry Jenkins told members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) recently.Jenkins, director of the Comparative Media Studies Program, presented a paper at the AAAS annual meeting, which had the overall title ‘Grand Challenges, Great Opportunities.’ Held Feb. 16-20 in St. Louis, the meeting was attended by more than 6,000 people, including 900 scholars and scientists. Jenkins spoke at a symposium titled ‘It’s 10 p.m.: Do You Know Where Your Children Are %u2026 Online’ in the AAAS series, ‘Kids Online — A New Community.'”

Infothought: Gatekeeper argument, part N 1: “Having had the gatekeeper argument many times, I know it follows certain patterns. Sometimes evangelist types make a kind of ‘best of all possible worlds’ assertion. Regrettably, I’ve yet to be able to figure out what evidence they’d accept to the contrary – it’s on par with: If There Is A God, Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People? To me, the ‘power law’ structure objectively refutes any such Panglossian view.

Once more, the flip side of that, is the argument ‘I Am Not Worthy’. To be immodest for a moment, I am worthy. Note I’m not out to become an A-lister myself. Rather, I’d like to be able to get heard, which is different (though related) and I want a means of *effective* defense against attacks. Both of which are a struggle with gatekeepers and hierarchy, and do not afford me the luxury of confusing pleasant sentiments with unpleasant realities.”

Infothought: New Gatekeepers Are Still GATEKEEPERS: ” A soft answer turneth away wrath. — Proverbs

Doc Searls, one of the nicest A-listers, writes a reply to one of my comments, in part:

… it pains me to think I’m being cruel without knowing it to a blogger who’s trying just as hard as I am – or maybe harder – to make sense of things. So, if that’s what I did with that post, my apologies to Tristan, Scott, Seth and anybody else who took offense.

Thank you. That’s very generous.

Here’s the problem:

I have this idea that the blogosphere is the one place in the world – or perhaps an entirely new world, or a part of a new world, created on the Net – where there is no need for class, for caste, for gates or keepers of anything.

Regrets. It’s not. Let’s stop right there. This is an idea that goes way back in a certain type of mythologizing – whether it’s called the Classless Society, The New Socialist Man, The Wild West, The Wide-Open Frontier, etc. – of a New Era where rank and privilege have been abolished, and all is based on individual merit. I wish it were true too. But sadly, wishing won’t make it so (and mistakenly believing it can get people deeply hurt in various ways).”

Infothought: FON-ey business, or The A-list profit algorithm?: “Wall Street Journal: Blog Buzz on High-Tech Start-Ups Causes Some Static (via Infectious Greed):

But the tiny company [FON] also got publicity from another source: influential commentators on the Internet who write blogs — including some who may be compensated in the future for advising FON about its business.

…

The avalanche of blogging about FON, much of it from people now tied to the four-month-old company, highlights the rising influence of blogs in shaping opinions about tech start-ups, particularly in Silicon Valley. It also reveals the possible conflicts of interest such complicated relationships can dredge up.

Earlier, I had posted a comment about this on one A-lister’s blog (slightly expanded):

Regarding: ‘I joined the advisory board without asking whether there would be any financial reward. (The answer, it later turned out, was that there might be, depending on how the company did in the marketplace.)'”

Infothought: More stats-blogging and proof of gatekeeping: “hate to bore away what few readers I have, but, sadly, mathematics keeps showing I’m not going to ever get that many in the first place (which again, is the major discouragement to me from launching into a lot of unpaid Google research). Let’s do the numbers …

There was an amusing reference to me in a comment at The Blogging of the President:

Stirling, you are beginning to sound like Seth Finkelstein, also smart and usually ignored.

I like that. So true :-(. Anyway, it was worth 15 referers for readers.”

Smart Mobs: Daily Show video on social networking

Community Blogs and Power Research: An Interview with Lisa Williams | NetSquared: “Lisa Williams is a prolific multi-media content creator, a key player in the emerging OPML community and the founder of H2otown, a thriving community blog covering news and events in Watertown, Massachusetts.

In the following interview Lisa and I talked about how she set up a successful community blog, her cutting edge research methods and her hope to make the H2otown site even more inclusive of area residents.

I interviewed Lisa by Instant Messenger, and have kept the interview in that basic format. You can skip to any of the particular sections of the interview by clicking the links in the Table of Contents below. Your browser’s back arrow will return you to the beginning of the interview.”

Neighborhood Story Project: “The Neighborhood Story Project works with high school students and their families to write about their lives and neighborhoods. Students learn to write creative non-fiction and vignettes, conduct in-depth interviews of family members and neighbors, and take photographs. Community writing projects allow us to be the authors of our own stories, and infuse our community with real and important literature.

The Neighborhood Story Project is a collaborative partnership between John McDonogh Senior High, the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans, and the University of New Orleans. New Orleans Saints’ player Steve Gleason’s One Sweet World Foundation has also been a big part of making this project possible.”