They are playing with video streaming in HUMlab’s island in Second Life and my lecture, introducing blogs to Museology students, will be streamed in about 15 minutes to this SLURL, http://xrl.us/HUMlabSL (will activate closer to lecture time).

Yes, I am bouncing! I am so excited that the application went through! I am really looking forward to examining how youth are using YouTube and other video sharing platforms. I think that one of the first things i will look at is how their usage is being portrayed in the media. Here in Sweden, as i have mentioned previously, youth are often portrayed as bullies online. Their contributions are not seen as valuable, rather detrimental. I am not saying that these videos do not exist, nor am I downplaying their ability to victimize, what I claim is that there is a lot of wonderful and creative pieces online that are largely ignored. A case of one apple spoiling the bunch.

BUT, as excited as I am to begin, I MUST, MUST finish my thesis first. I can’t post-doc if I have not doc’d first!

Yippeeeee

Very cool to see government officials using social media in an open way. Not only that, but also encouraging others to do the same. Wonderful!

via theorycast

Elza had a wonderful quote by Lawernce Lessig on her blog today,

We can’t kill… only criminalise, we can’t stop… only drive under ground, we can’t make our kids passive again, we can only make them “pirates”. And in a democracy we ought to be able to do better.

And yes, we should do better. We must find alternative business models. But you know this.

Btw, if you are interested in youth culture online, I can highly recommend her site!!

Today I learned a new phrase. I have mentioned the portrayal of Swedish youth generated content in the media as highly negative on this blog before. I did not realize, however, that a part of this harassment (mugging someone and filming it) has a name - happy slapping.

Happy slapping is defined by wikipedia as:

Happy slapping is a fad in which someone attacks an unsuspecting victim while an accomplice records the assault (commonly with a camera phone or a smartphone). Most happy-slappers are teenagers or young adults. Several incidents have been extremely violent, and people have been killed. The name can refer to many types of violent assaults, not just slapping, but some rape and sexual assaults have been inaccurately classified as “happy slapping” by the media.^[1]

When one of our new post-docs mentioned the term to me, I did not realize that it referred to this behavior. The use of happy can only be conceived of in a very Clockwork Orange kind of way. As strongly as I believe that youth generated media should seen for its creative and positive aspects, making light of such acts by using such a joyful term is misleading and helps perpetuate the negative myths surrounding youth media.

Trying to post from my new phone. Having a little trouble getting used to the keyboard. But so worth the effort. I can see this for quick and dirty posting, but for longer more creative posts I would want my laptop

This video popped up in my feed reader this morning. Michele of the Bamboo Project posted a YouTube collaboration video where people say in a word or two what online community means to them. It repeats a lot of the romantic hype of online community, but in a creative and convincing way. The end focus on the family and friend aspects of online community. And oh, with a meme! (which I almost wrote about, but I won’t because it is worth waiting to watch!) Ending on a meme is a great example of what online community really is. Yes, there are friendships and a sense of togetherness, but removing a bit of the romanitc hype, it is also highly thematically based and fluid. People move around, visit their favorite haunts, but often remain free-movers - not tied down to one group, rather to themes and interests. At least, that is what online community is to me. And that is what keeps me coming back.

This is the camera I will order. And from these guys. These guys rock.