Lily Allen is my new hero

I was working on a thesis chapter and listening to Allen’s Fuck You when a tweet for this video popped up. 

Best collab ever.

Under major construction

I am doing a redesign of the site and the ways in which content is stored (youtube channel, wiki, etc). But first I need to take a walk in the sun!

Beautiful use of flickr

Norby’s photostream via @brainopera

When a screen is not big enough

When a screen is just not big enough I resort to pulling out a roll of butcher paper, tape, and markers. It helps me to see patterns differently. I am a visual learner, and even though I have access to a great screen scape in the lab, sometime paper and a box of markers is really all you need.

The YAPA project

Earlier I mentioned that we received funding for a project called YouTube as a performative arena. Here is a short intro video in English about the project, as well as a website you can go to for more information.

Shock/Fear Rhetoric

I opened this video thinking I was going to watch a creative mash-up debate between the wiki and the blog - and while that is SORT OF what I saw, I was simultaneously shocked rhetoric used in this short film.

The debate is between Kennedy and Nixon, with Kennedy defending the wiki and Nixon the blog. The language, however, is all about control and ‘freedom of speech’. And even a little ‘protect your kids from lurking pedophiles thrown in’ for good measure.

Some excerpts:

Blogs allow you to control content and ‘keep away internet predators‘, something that wikis do not do… you can tell who said what without compromising the integrity of the content. Comments can be screened by the blog facilitator- comment by Mashup Nixon

…editing the text that is viewed by the children of this generation… -comment by Mashup Nixon

Blogs are ‘unconstitutional‘ - the true freedom of speech can be found in a wiki. The voice of the people should not be suppressed… ‘Not only are blogs unconstitutional, but they do not allow for the freedom of speech. -comment by Mashup Kennedy

Do you want what is posted on your wiki to be representative of your thoughts and beliefs. Do you want your content to be at the mercy of the (slight echo effect) critical masses? -comment by Mashup Nixon

Mashup Kennedy rebuttal, ‘Now we know what you think of the American people, Mr. Nixon’… ‘I want the people of this nation to know that with a wiki your voice will be heard…’

As someone who researches blogging culture - or even just as someone who has used both tools, I find this argument unfounded (both tools allow for a measure of ‘freedom’ or control’ and it is really the user who determines how it is used) and slightly incendiary. I hope those who watch it enjoy it for it’s comedic value (it is a cute mashup idea, after all), but not as having any authority on the culture of blogging and wikis.

cross posted from here

Not avaliable

Um, What?!? What has happened YouTube?

I am an avid YouTube user, and often use videos in my teaching. Not so recently there was a Pork and Beans Dance contest that I was using in a class as an example of remediation, but when I tried to show the video in class - whoops, gone.

And while some are trying to help by filming their screen and putting back online, the crack down at YouTube is causing more and more of these accounts to be suspended.

Are we in the middle of a war between old-fashioned copyright and the remix generation. But what seems to be escaping many of these old-copyright carpetbaggers is that remixing often spreads their artists’ music better than all their expensive publicity. Users have experienced the creativity of the remix and don’t want to go back to passive reception of media.

Example of entry in pork and beans contest:

And another arrangement by Walt Ribeiro:

Some people are getting it…

And some people got it *because* of YouTube and participatory media (Remember Soulja Boy?)

YouTube as a performative arena

Last night my colleagues and I found out that our research project called YouTube as a performative arena was accepted by the Stiftelsen för Kunskaps- och Kompetensutveckling (The Knowledge Foundation). This is a three year project in three parts: an ethnographic study of three Swedish youth groups using YouTube to perform in various ways (for which I will be responsible); an analysis of the discourse of YouTube as youth culture (for which Simon Lindgren will be responsible); and a collaboration between HUMlab and Kulturverket to create a piece which “extends the concepts of text” (for which Patrik Svensson is responsible). Needless to say, I am thrilled to be a part of this collaboration and can’t wait to get in the field! Now just to finish this pesky dissertation

So cool! So cool! So cool!

If you know a musician, pass this along. I would love to do this!

Links for Citizen Journalism course

Tomorrow I am teaching a class of budding journalists about new media (one of two teachers) in a one time class. Considering the scope of such a task, and a three hour time limit, I am going to lecture about the culture of citizen journalism, given them examples of the potential effects (both helpful and harmful), then introduce them to some potential tools - rounding up with a discussion about the potential effects different tools can have. I will post a few links below which I will use in the class. If you have interesting/good examples, please comment!