The Freakonomics blog examines how musician Jane Siberry's a voluntary payment system uses incentives to subtly influence her fans to pay more than perhaps they otherwise would. (via rw) / (0) Comments / [ 05/05/06 ]
Eaglecam Update: The note above the image says that three eaglets have hatched, but I see only one. (Requires IE and Windows Media for the live feed.) / (0) Comments / [ 05/04/06 ]
Salon has an excellent article that explains network neutrality and what is really at stake if the Telcos get their wish. For an analogy, think of the way cable companies operate. Have we seen competition emerge amongst cable companies within individual cities and neighborhoods? Do they always choose the programs you want to see for "Basic cable"? Do you have any recourse if they decide not to carry a particular station you want to watch? Now imagine that same state of affairs when you surf the Web. If this issue is new to you, it's worth your while to understand why the Telcos are lobbying Congress so hard. (via rc3oi) / (0) Comments / [ 05/03/06 ]
Flickr photos arranged by "Interestingness": A Day Without Immigrants. / (0) Comments / [ 05/02/06 ]
Whither implants? Mobile Box Office allows you to buy movie tickets with your cell phone, then use your phone as your movie ticket (via an on-screen barcode). The pilot program is being implemented in Michigan-based Emagine Theatres. (via ibt) / (0) Comments / [ 05/01/06 ]
I'm pleased to introduce the latest in my series Bloggers on Blogging: Megan Reardon, better known to most people as Not Martha. We talk about crafting, fear of writing, frustrating photography, and the many uses of blogging.
What appealed to me in general was the personal voice of blogs at that time. They were like zines, but they made sense. And they were like being allowed to read someone's diary. At that time in my life I was discovering the post-college lack of meaningful communication with others, and weblogs as they were being written filled in where intimate conversations had been diminishing.
/ (0) Comments / [ 04/28/06 ]
Have you heard of Antweb? It's a project from the California Academy of Sciences that uses Google Earth to create an interactive map of the earth's ant population. / (0) Comments / [ 04/26/06 ]
Ian's Shoelace Site will teach you 16 different knots for your shoes. (thanks, lizard!) / (0) Comments / [ 04/20/06 ]
Emily Turrettini notices the difference between the Flickr slideshow of the CPE protests I linked here last week, and other CPE photo compilations on the Web, which depict a much more peaceful event. She wonders whether the slideshow photos depicting vandalism were taken during the French riots in November, and then deliberately mis-tagged "CPE", but I don't think that's the case. The slideshow I linked was organized by "interestingness", which is likely to skew to the sensational. The "most recent" slideshow presents a much less dramatic series of images. Note that neither is a measure of "importance" or "fairness", values that will likely always require human editorial judgement.
Of course it would be easy to deliberately mis-tag photos as they were uploaded. I posted here about the inherent limitations of tagging back in January 2005. At the time, others joined me in commenting on the potential to game the system. But Flickr is still a relatively unknown phenomenon, and I would be surprised if, at this point, anyone is trying to game it for political gain. That will likely change once Flickr becomes more widely known. Perhaps the automatic inclusion of GPS and time/date information when photos are uploaded would provide enough information to allow viewers to make more accurate assessments.
Emily is correct when she says "Caution and good judgment must prevail, not only toward the traditional media, but with regard to collaborative citizen journalism as well" — but that applies equally to the other sites she links. Organizations that participate in an event will document just one version of the event: their own. This version might be carefully constructed to present a particular narrative of the event and of the organization's role (think of the narratives routinely presented by political parties). At its least contrived, organizational records will consist of of "our favorite moments" — the parts participants themselves most want to look back on. This is right and natural and how we all organize our personal memory-markers. It is one reason I've argued that narratives must be written by a third party in order to be classified as "journalism" instead of memoir.
People photograph that which they think is "interesting". Photographers then apply another filter of "worthness" before they upload their photos to the server — or show them to friends. Every photograph has a point of view. Every series of photos creates a narrative. It will never be complete, or unbiased. Even so, barring a large-scale misinformation campaign, Flickr photos of any event should, in aggregate, represent a relatively impartial account of what could be be captured on film.
That lack of editorial control provides some protection against any person or organization seeking to control the narrative of any given event. Everyone's photos are published, regardless of their political standing or intent. Given enough participants, Flickr's inclusive nature will work against anyone deliberately skewing coverage of an event.
We need to be on guard against fraud. We need to create technological systems that will support transparency and reduce distortion. But in the end, one of our best weapons against deliberate manipulation and misinformation may be the simple, non-technical principle of inclusion. In fact, the framers of our Constitution were onto this 200 years ago. It's a little thing they liked to call "a Free Press". / (7) Comments / [ 04/17/06 ]
Eye Level is a blog produced by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. "Using the museum’s collection as a touchstone, the conversation at Eye Level will be dedicated to American art and the ways in which the nation’s art reflects its history and culture." / (0) Comments / [ 04/12/06 ]
You know those sites that make you reproduce a wavy password in order to prove you're a human? Here's a better idea: The KittenAuth Test. / (2) Comments / [ 04/12/06 ]
What is collaborative journalism? I would define it as news reporting, enabled by the Internet, done by a dispersed, unorganized group of people — or a group that spontaneously (and temporarily) organizes around their interest in a particular event. It's a compelling idea, but unfortunately — and in spite of many millions of blogs and wikis and online forums — actual examples are few and far between.
I had believed that was because most people are just not that interested in reporting the news, but I was wrong. Most of us can't wait to "break" a story to our friends, whether we've just witnessed a car accident, a celebrity sighting, or discovered that friends who were dating have broken up.
I'm beginning to suspect that what citizen reporters lack is the proper tool. Because the Flickr slideshow of photos of the French employment riots [Flash required] amply demonstrates that, on Flickr at least, collaborative photojournalism is thriving. That success is at least as much a product of Flickr itself as it is a product of the contributing photographers.
For those who don't know, Flickr allows members to upload photos to a public viewing area, and then "tag" them to denote their subject matter. Flickr then rates each photo according to "interestingness", a quality that is based on the ways in which other users interact with that photo. No one (outside of the Flickr team) knows exactly what that algorithm is based on, but I would guess that it measures things like the number of times each photo is viewed, the number of times another member calls it a favorite, the number of times it's emailed to others — those sorts of things.
The above slideshow consists of all public photos with a certain tag. So the first thing Flickr is doing is aggregating them. Then they are arranged by "interestingness" which means that the best photos (as judged by the community) come first. It also means that as new photos are added to the stream, it will continue to change, and more interesting photos will percolate to the top. If you haven't looked at a Flickr stream before, you'll be astonished by the high quality of these photographs.
Now, with or without Flickr, there would be people out on the streets watching the riots. But I would judge that Flickr members are now more inclined to document what they see, knowing that they can share it with others when they get home. I don't know what tools could make it this easy for other kinds of journalists to assemble a compelling story in pieces, but clearly Flickr has made something possible for photographers that was not possible before. [Updated to more clearly distinguish between written journalism and photojournalism.] (via rw)
Update: More on Flickr-powered collaborative journalism. / (7) Comments / [ 04/11/06 ]Library Elf will send you notifications via email or rss of upcoming due dates and holds that have come available. (via sp) / (0) Comments / [ 04/10/06 ]
CanICrash? is a wiki that lets you lend your sofa to travelling bloggers. / (2) Comments / [ 04/06/06 ]
As you know, thanks to the library bookmarklet, I've fallen in love with libraries in the last year (and saved a ton of money on books!). So I was interested to find Superpatron, which calls itself "a weblog for library patrons who love their libraries, who take advantage of everything they have to offer, and are always on the lookout for great ideas from libraries around the world. It's like Friends of the Library for the net." / (0) Comments / [ 04/06/06 ]
The Lostpedia entry on The Third Policeman. I just like that there is a Lostpedia. (via rw) / (1) Comments / [ 04/03/06 ]
A great way to waste time online: the Bald Eagle Cam. Update: They moved the EagleCam. Here is the new URL. / (4) Comments / [ 03/30/06 ]
I've been getting a lot of hits lately from Beebo's Most linked blogs, September 2000. This list in itself refutes the notion that blog-popularity is just a pyramid scheme in which the longest-standing blogs win. Only 3 of these weblogs are in the Technorati Top 100 today. Likely only 3 of today's Technorati Top 100 will be there 6 years from now.
And I'll dispute Michael's assertion that there were no political blogs at the time. I was one of the first bloggers to post about politics. And I would say that Medley pioneered the long-form political commentary that is the norm for most political blogs today — though I'll wager none of them have heard of that blog. The difference then was that few, if any, of us were focused strictly on one topic: our weblogs were a reflection of all of our interests, not just one obsession. / (1) Comments / [ 03/24/06 ]
Last fall, Productive Strategies compiled a sampling of Academic Lecture Podcasts from several universities. And my pal Jeremy Cherfas is raving about the lectures available from The Teaching Company. / (0) Comments / [ 03/22/06 ]
How Pop Sounded Before It Popped describes the resurgence of interest in turn-of-the-20th-century pop music, long shunned by roots enthusiasts for its crass commercialism — and for the uncomfortable questions it raises about the artistic merit of entertainment that is based on racial stereotyping. "Acoustic-era music is the historical underdog. These are scratchy records, with 19th-century aesthetics, with racist material all over the place, with artists you've never heard of. This stuff is completely unknown, and it's a treasure trove." Richard Martin, co-owner of Archeophone Records, a label that specializes in acoustic-era pop. / (0) Comments / [ 03/22/06 ]
When I met Jeremiah Owyang last August, his company didn't have a blog, nor did they want one. Thanks to his efforts, 6 months later they did. He has put together an outstanding and very practical 10 Tips for Becoming a Corporate Blog Evangelist. If you're interested in convincing your organization to start a blog, print this out and pin it to the wall of your cubicle. And then add Jeremiah to your daily rotation. His blog is full of insight and practical advice on the emerging field of corporate blogging. / (1) Comments / [ 03/21/06 ]
Placesite is a new service that allows patrons of wifi cafes to connect with one another by reading profiles of the other (online) people there, chatting, and contributing to message forums tied to that particular place. It is an attempt to counteract the zombie effect of having so many people staring at their computers by bringing social networking to geographic places. It's interesting, but two objections spring to mind. First, a certain percentage of people have always used cafes to read and write and study. What's the difference? Second, won't this just create two classes of people, those who are able to interact with others on their computer, and those who are not? (via phblog) / (1) Comments / [ 03/21/06 ]
What the Web was Made For: Home Hygiene/Home Routines. / (0) Comments / [ 03/20/06 ]
Oil Standard is a web browser plug-in that converts all prices from U.S. Dollars into the equivalent value in barrels of crude oil. When you load a web page, the script seamlessly inserts converted prices into the page. As the cost of oil fluctuates on the commodities exchange, prices rise and fall in real-time. Here's a screenshot. (via rw) / (1) Comments / [ 03/16/06 ]
Fabulous. A group of British Jesuits is offering a popular new service: free, 12-minute worship sessions in MP3 format, with an automated "Pray as you Go" process to automate downloading to the user's iPod. (via trevor cook) / (0) Comments / [ 03/15/06 ]
After the highly anticipated Chinese film The Promise tanked, Hu Ge created a spoof for his friends — who posted it to the Web. Perhaps you can imagine how that has played out in a culture that places high value on respect for authority, correct behavior, and is new to the Web. / (0) Comments / [ 03/14/06 ]
Kelly Thul's Electronic communication commandments look like an interesting start. I'm especially enamoured with his Rule of Email. "Whereas — Freedom without accountability results in bad things... Whereas — Markets and scarcity promote thoughtful actions... Whereas — Keystroke distribution is becoming a profound element of communication... The following electronic communication commandments are proposed." / (0) Comments / [ 03/14/06 ]
I guess you've seen Google Mars. [About.] / (0) Comments / [ 03/13/06 ]
Craig Newmark says that free online mail services lose 1-2% of their email. (via rc3oi) / (0) Comments / [ 03/10/06 ]
What the Web was made for: The Advanced Rutabaga Studies Institute, featuring the live Rutacam. (thanks, Dr. Elvin!) / (2) Comments / [ 03/09/06 ]
OCLC Fiction Finder (click on Alice to enter) seems to be better for browsing than for searching. [ 03/07/06 ]
Yahoo!'s Bradley Horowitz starts blogging with a terrific post on why 100% participation in social media services is not only unnecessary, it's undesirable. [ 03/02/06 ]
Bookins is a free, automated swap-by-mail book exchange. "Q: Does Bookins profit from this service? A: The goal of our service is first to provide a worry-free way for booklovers to swap books, and second to eventually make a profit. We make money on the shipping fee ($3.99 to receive a book using prepaid postage provided as noted on the homepage). About $1 per book is profit, after we pay for the postage itself, delivery confirmation, credit card fees, and fee for printing prepaid postage." (via swiss miss) [ 02/28/06 ]
Hey, the Flu Wiki made CNN! Remember, you saw it here first. [ 02/27/06 ]
The Consumerist has posted a brief on two proposed airfare comparison services that will let you chart ticket prices to find the cheapest day to fly. [ 02/22/06 ]
Zoomba is using the Netflix model to automatically ship member boks they have requested, one a month, for $9.95 each. Thanks to the library bookmarklet, I now use the library this way, requesting any book that seems interesting to me, and then picking them up from my branch as they come available. (via elv) [ 02/21/06 ]
Have you heard the news? My husband founded that company. [ 02/15/06 ]
May I just point you to the Waterloo Waterboro Public Library booklists? Actually, it is a list of lists with wonderful descriptions of both the genres and the lists themselves. To wit:
Cozies and Domestic Mysteries
Cozies contain generally a minimum of violence and graphic unpleasantness (blunt instruments and poisons are popular weapons), and they often take place in a house, village, small town, academic setting, or other benign, familiar and conventional social setting, with characters who are usually civilised and mannerly. The mystery is usually solved by an amateur detective who understands human nature and is gifted in observation and deduction. "Cozy" is pretty much the opposite of "hard-boiled."
The Game's Afoot (Johnson County Library, KS)
Novels featuring puzzles and games. Author, title, summary, webcat link for more than 40 novels, from David Baldacci's The Winner to D.B. Weiss's Lucky Wander Boy. Some games include gambling and casinos, the lottery, video games, dominoes, bridge, charades, go, chess, mah-jongg, cribbage, word games, Scrabble.
There are lists of Financial, Business and Math Fiction, Fiction Featuring Modes of Transportation, and of course a metalist of lists of thrillers to read if you like the DaVinci Code. And they have a blog. [ 02/13/06 ]
Artistshare has developed a new music business model that allows artists to build and manage their fanbase, and to monetize their "creative process" by enlisting the help of their fans and involving them in the creative process. In 2005, ArtistShare produced the first Grammy-winning recording with internet-only distribution.
The creative process is delivered to the fans through the Participant Offers. These Participant Offers are specifically tailored to the Artist’s fan base and include unique opportunities for the fan to witness the creative process of their favorite artist. This creates a myriad of product possibilities for the Artist as well as a very personal experience for the fan.
Meta sells. (via c'ist) [ 02/10/06 ]
Best Practices News: The new Google Talk Privacy Policy includes a link to the older version, marked up to show what has changed. Quite honestly, the very best practice would be one that allowed you to opt-out of a service — meaning that they would erase your personal data — if you didn't like the changes that had been made. (via sew) [ 02/08/06 ]
DebbiesIdea.com is a collaborative website that recommends which authors' books to start with, and which to avoid.
Long before the Internet was commonly available, Debbie had the idea that it would be useful to have a reference work suggesting which book of an unfamiliar author would be best to read first. Start reading an author with a poor or atypical example of his work, she observed, and you would likely never read that writer again—perhaps losing in the process a world of pleasure and knowledge. On the other hand, since there would seldom be one right book to read first, the resource would have to be a compendium of opinions.
[ 01/31/06 ]
The Beermapping Project. Like beer? Like maps? You're home. (via KIP) [ 01/30/06 ]
The 2006 Sundance Festival Short Films are available online. (via cn) [ 01/26/06 ]
Pages and pages of favicons (that little image that you see next to the URL at the top of your browser). You can find me on this page. [ 01/25/06 ]
Want to know what actually happened? No Comment is a source for unedited news video with original sound. (via rw) [ 01/19/06 ]
The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web: A Practical Guide to Web Typography. They have an RSS feed! (via s1a) [ 01/17/06 ]
Bruce Schneier: Anonymity vs Accountablity. "The problem isn't anonymity; it's accountability. If someone isn't accountable, then knowing his name doesn't help. If you have someone who is completely anonymous, yet just as completely accountable, then — heck, just call him Fred." [ 01/16/06 ]
WEBLOG / SPEAKING / ARTICLES / PORTAL / BOOKS / FILM / DOMESTIC / GOTHIC / GAIA
This is the archive of all weblog entries since I started the site in April 1999. Site design has been retained for the time the entries were generated. Link rot is rampant! No attempt has been made to update or remove links that no longer work. Category and individual archives exist only for entries posted from January 2006 on.