OpenSocial

Jason mentioned this a little earlier, but I’m going to expand on it a little. OpenSocial is a huge innovation to the world of social networking. It provides a whole new capability that is going to be universal across most social networks. Here is the video of its introduction on YouTube:

OpenSocial provides a common set of API’s, so that once an application is developed, it can simply be placed on all the social networks. In this way, a company can develop a complex application just one time instead of developing a different version for thirty different networks. It also makes development really simple—applications can be developed solely using html and JavaScript. This opens up the playing field of who can make an application.

There are a lot of possibilities for this technology. Like I said, these apps can be applied to any social network (if the network wants), so some of these applications will connect the people across the networks. Instead of having millions of people connected in a network, now there can be billions across all the networks. An example of this power is the possibility for the spread of information. Say a controversial, but not very noticed blog post comes up that reveals some crime/injustice/scandal that may have gone under the radar. It could be posted on a gadget (application) like Didja Hear and people can share it instantly with the rest of the networking world.

There are a lot of downsides and controversial sides, though. A big trend these days is to be in your own network community, even if it means it’s the community of college students across the world—Facebook users had a fit when it was opened up to high school students and then later the world. But they still have their own smaller networks of people that they can see. There is even a platform now called Ning where you can create your own little social network of friends with similar professions, hobbies or weird interests. But with OpenSocial, most of the social networks are going to have the same applications and capabilities. Where's the variety in that? How are networks going to be "special" anymore?

But probably the biggest question of all is, “how this is going to help Google?” Surely they have some little scheme behind this. Google can’t just be innocently throwing out this new technology to help the world be more social. There is something else. Right now, applications can only be developed by going through the Orkut(Google’s social network) Sandbox and registering yourself, your business and your purpose. Whatever it is, it’s a little scary thinking that they might have a little control in all of the social networking sites.

The Daily Show writers on the writer's strike

The Daily Show writers look at the writer's strike from an interesting perspective, showing yet again how a failure to acknowledge new media and digital content as an important part of the future of media corporations is going to continue to hurt the media conglomerates. Support the writer's strike!

Mike Wesch is at it Again

Here is another thoughtful, well composed video from Mike Wesch. This bit focuses on how humans store and recall information, particularly on the Net.

I have to agree, everything really is miscellaneous.

Google is Open for Business

Interesting little article about Google (in the wake of googlezon) and an apparent attempt to bring forward open source social networking. Myspace and Facebook clearly are seeking a proprietary approach to social networking. Could it be that the mother of all corporate owners (to a point) are TRULY pushing for open source?

Probably not.

Drop In Hockey Online

*Guide to the Swedish Drag*

Video games have evolved to great lengths over the past decade. They use to be a 2D side scroller where you'd just follow a story. If you had a friend over you might be able to play up to 2 people at once. Things have changed though and as video games changed and sports gaming entered the market... video games in whole was pushed to the next level. For my presentation I used NHL 08 published by EA Sports for my example to show how gaming has become a convergent in digital media.

For starters I talked bout the basics for the game. Modes, features, etc... but the important factors came in the online gaming. Just like a Tuesday night at the rink you can join in a open hockey game where up to 12 players could go in, take any of the 6 positions on a team and play a game of hockey. If you have a microphone you can literally talk with you own team, directing them where you will be and where to go or what to do. There are leagues within the online play where a group a up to 28 teams could play a season then play for a championship in a playoff series. The manager would make a post on a forum, spread the word around the net, and develop a schedule. When the league is set to start he or she will pass out the e-mails to those who would be playing one another for that week and the two players would then talk by e-mail or messenger to set up a time and maybe talk with one another. The game goes beyond online gaming as well. The example above featuring the Swedish Drag is just one of many moves many players try to imitate in the game itself. Usually when a player makes a crazy goal or wants to teach others how to do these moves they will record their performance somehow and upload the movie on YouTube. The creator will put emphasis on the controller to show how to perform the move then the watcher will try to copy or improve on the move itself.


Basically with the game, internet, online videos, and personal communication the game turns into a convergence of collective intelligence.

Anime Fan Culture and Anime Music Videos

The rise of anime fandom in the United States was a movement fueled by the arrival of large file sharing and peer-to-peer networks over the Internet. It allowed fans of anime in the US to connect with Japanese fans, receive the raw episodes of popular anime, and use the power of collective intelligence online to subtitle the raw anime and re-release it over the peer-to-peer networks for other fans to download and watch. When the anime creators found out about this, instead of suing the fans and stopping the distribution of anime online, they realized the potential that this new market had opened up and began working to license the shows that were popular with fans for DVD distribution in the US. As a sign of their dedication to anime, and not just to the ability to download shows for free, the fans made it an unwritten rule that the fan-subbed versions would stop circulating as soon as the licensed versions were distributed, and this is a rule of anime fan culture that persists to this day.

However, as anime fandom has grown larger and as more companies are realizing the potential of this market, the fans have been losing control over which titles get licensed and distributed and which do not. The anime market, which used to be full of new and original shows that the fans enjoyed, has become a mass market where each licensed title is decided upon by the distributors and the companies who own them. A niche market that used to rely on the desires of its fans has been swallowed up by the corporate ideology that says that businesses should decide what their consumers want, and not the other way around. As a result, anime fans are finding it harder to support the industry that they once helped create, and are beginning to return to the P2P networks for the latest and rarest fan-subbed anime.

One element of anime fan culture that bridges the gap between the online fan communities and the corporate DVD market is that of anime music videos. As the technology for video editing gets better, fans who create their own music videos always want the highest quality video sources possible, which can only come from DVDs. So fans who want to make unique and high-quality music videos will buy the DVDs to rip and use that footage to create unique expressions of their love of anime to be shared with the online community. From political statements, to personal character portraits, to re-imaginings of characters and stories, to comedy and action and tragedy and drama, anime music video creators represent a wide spectrum of talent that works as a wonderful expression of both the humble beginnings of anime fandom in the US, and the corporate culture that empowers them to make wonderful works of digital art.

Webkinz!

Webkinz is a new designer fad for the kids. It cleverly combines children's love of stuffed animals with the idea of Pokemon's "Gotta catch 'em all!" and the online social component of MySpace. In retail stores all across the United States, Webkinz are small stuffed animals of various species, such as the dog pictured above. Much like Beanie Babies before them, they are cute and collectable. However, the Webkinz experience only starts with the purchase of an actual Webkin. Once bought, the animal comes to life online at Webkinz.com. Here, Webkinz owners must take care of their virtual pets while completing online activities to earn "KinzCash" which they can then spend on decorations for their pets' online rooms. The site also provides opportunities for users to interact with other users in chat rooms.

Webkinz is a sort of convergence of media and non-media - with a more traditional offering of stuffed animals leading to a 'net-based social network of sorts. Webkinz attracts kids in several different ways - especially its interactivity (the pets come alive online), opportunity for self-expression (users create their own rooms for their pets), and social experience (chat rooms). This attraction, much like that of online gaming and the internet in general, has been met with resistance from parents. Parents have criticized Webkinz based mainly on three concerns: Addiction, Online safety, and "Wasting Time." The Webkinz creators have done an excellent job of anticipating these concerns and have attempted to alleviate them through educational activities, parental restrictions on chatting, and an entire section of the website for parents.

Webkinz is a fascinating new media product and one which is particularly interesting to me as a future game developer. The Webkinz team has created a very popular phenomenon and managed to capture the fickle child consumer market - the question is: how long will this newest fad last?

WikipediaVision

Given our discussion about Wikipedia, I thought I'd share this link to WikipediaVision. This website uses Google Maps to show in (almost) real time a significant number of the anonymous edits to English Wikipedia articles, showing what was edited and where the editor is located based on their IP address. It is fascinating to see what articles are edited, where the editors are located, and how many edits happen every minute.

Comparative Journalism Report: How I Came to Care about the Writer's Strike

So, since one of the A-List blogs that I read is Cinematical, a movie blog, I decided to do my mainstream vs. blog vs. independent reporting study on the Writer's Guild of America strike. The three sources of information I used were The New York Times, Cinematical, and indymedia.us, and I found some interesting comparisons and contrasts. For one thing, indymedia.us did not cover the writer's strike at all. That could be because it is already getting a lot of mainstream coverage, and they seem like the type of organization that covers stuff that no one else covers, but it seems odd simply because all of their other articles are all about standing up for individuals and pointing out protests of injustice around the country, so it seems like any strike would fall right in line with the type of information they cover. But, since they don't cover it, I can't very well comment on how they would have covered it, so my comparison is between the major newspaper and the topical blog.

Both the New York Times and Cinematical offer unique perspectives on the strike. The New York Times' set of articles on it is broad and deep, discussing both the meaningful and the trivial repercussions of the strike, talking to people within the industry about their opinions on the strike and their predictions for its outcome and ultimate effect on the industry, and printing opinion pieces from a variety of angles. However, in the end, it is just a series of well-written articles that inform, but don't really connect the reader to the strikers or their detractors. That is where a blog like Cinematical really shines. Not only do they have daily updates on the strike, but they are also not afraid to tell their readers how the strike affects them, as movie bloggers, or how the strike is affecting those involved - a fact that seems to be glossed over completely in the mainstream articles. Rather than talking about how the strike affects the movie companies, or the heads of the studios, they talk about how it is affecting the writers who are on strike - how they are turning to Craigslist for jobs or taking on freelance work to support themselves during the strike. The other thing that a blog lie Cinematical does that the New York Times doesn't is link to other blogs and sources of information about the strike, including the personal statements of writers, directors, and actors who are being affected by the strike. Through a blog, you can hear personal accounts of an emotionally-charged issue in the words of the people who are most affected by that issue, rather than through the objective third-party filter of the mainstream news.

However, I believe that in order for the full story to come out, we need both sides to make a whole. Through the mainstream news, we get the objective story and the broad coverage of every aspect of life that this strike affects. Then, from the blog, we receive the personal stories, the ways that this strike is affecting real people in their own words, which gives us a more emotionally charged and personal look at the issues, allowing us to feel a connection to a news story that may affect us only peripherally, but makes us care by showing us the human side of the story as well as the objective side.

Just take those old records off the shelf...

Apologies for missing class

2 things I wanted to bring up.

First, since I missed discussion about the NYT article we read, I just wanted to offer a little of my two cents. I do expect change back.

To me the two most striking things from the article were first the introductory disclaimer about the article containing possibly offensive material. This coupled with the second striking thing, a tenor throughout the entire article of insisting that people can't handle themselves maturely in an online commentary forum, just goes to show that the NYT falls into the category of what Jay Rosen describes in his article of media conglomerate managers who see us as little more than eyeballs. We are clearly, in their view, a non-thinking, non-producing, unintelligent glob of consumer mass.

It's very interesting that the NYT lauds itself as one of the greatest publications in the history of language and purports to have the smartest readers in all the land but doesn't trust them one single bit. It not only warns them (treating readers as childish) but then says flat out that its readers are the smartest but it doesn't trust them to comment on its stories.

Sure, I understand their argument that people might use profanity or suggest incredibly untrue things in their comments, or make wild and outrageous claims. But the fact of the matter is the NYT does the exact same thing, except without profanity. Their articles suggest wild claims, have offered false research, and are often incredibly offensive to the mature, logical, intelligent mind. In fact, the more I think about it, it makes perfect sense. The New York Times wants to prevent us from becoming The New York Times. It has nothing to do with protecting their (mythical) journalistic standard and everything to do with protecting their exclusive club as the originator of public opinion.


The other thing I wanted to mention in this behemoth of a post, is in the wake of our finishing up of talk about convergence culture, I came upon another interesting example of the convergence of tv and the web. One of the shows I like to catch from time to time is NCIS on CBS, it's about a Naval Criminal Investigation Service. In tonight's episode, the man character's daughter (who was killed when she was little) buried a time capsule in her back yard with her friend when they were young. The father found out about it from a young friend of his daughter's, and dug it up. The episode continued, but he never opened it and at the end of the episode went back to bury it. So after the closing credits CBS announced that if you wanted to see what was in Kelly's time capsule you could go to CBS.com/NCIS to see what was inside. I did, (and so did my dad, that dork, he's a huge fan of the show!) and it had several items created for the show, complete with small backstories. Given the fact that the target demo for the show is...well..old people, I was quite surprised that they had something like that. I mean, it's the same target demo that JAG had, old people who keep the TV on just for company.

Anyway, there you go. Feast, comment, etc.

~J

NYT: Please Read for Tues.

We'll talk about this article from the NYT ombudsman on Tuesday. While you're reading please think about WHAT'S WRONG with what he is saying.