narrative now

Infographic Of The Day: Could Twitter Help Us Create Smarter Transit Routes? | Co.Design: business + innovation + design

2012-01-28T12:48:00.001-08:00

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World’s first transmedia sculpture walk makes its home in UC Davis | Davis Enterprise

2012-01-28T10:57:00.001-08:00

January 27, 2012 | Posted by Tom Sakash

Our Sunday best: World’s first transmedia sculpture walk makes its home in Davis

Finley Fryer’s “Stan, the Submerging Man ” will be a “portal to another world” during the first-ever transmedia sculpture walk on Friday, Feb. 17. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo

Sorry, Mayor Bloomberg, but New York City won’t be the first city in the world to feature a transmedia walking tour through its busy streets. In a few short weeks, that honor will belong to Davis.

On Friday, Feb. 17, John Natsoulas, in collaboration with Monto H. Kumagai, a software developer, and Finley Fryer, a UC Davis graduate and local artist, will unveil the beginnings of a transmedia sculpture walk highlighting various pieces of artwork in key locations throughout downtown Davis.

The inaugural walk will take place at 4:30 p.m. that day, beginning at the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 First St.

Natsoulas said that besides “Stan, the Submerging Man,” which already is in place in front of the gallery, artwork is scheduled to be installed next week in front of the Davis Commons shopping center at First and E streets; at Dowling Properties at Third and D streets; at Davis Ace Housewares at Third and G streets; and in front of Ace Hardware in the 300 block of G Street.

“These are the first five that will be placed. We will place five more in the month of March,” Natsoulas said. “Our goal is to have at least 15 to 20 new sculptures up by the end of the year.”

via davisenterprise.com

read the full article here!:

http://www.davisenterprise.com/features/sunday-best/our-sunday-best-worlds-fi...

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Hurray! After 17 Years, Scott Snibbe Resurrects Animated Art Project As iPad App | Co.Design

2012-01-28T06:39:00.001-08:00

Like his previous app Oscilloscoop, MotionPhone’s UI and controls don’t offer

via fastcodesign.com

John Pavlus' original post has more details here:

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1668901/after-17-years-scott-snibbe-resurrects-an...

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'Camera Solo': Singer Patti Smith's photographs on display - Interview on BBC News

2012-01-28T06:22:00.001-08:00

'Camera Solo': Singer Patti Smith's photographs on display

Advertisement

18 January 2012 Last updated at 19:13 ET Help

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Patti Smith, who became a significant influence on the punk rock scene with the release of her debut album Horses in 1975, is far more than a singer-songwriter.

She is also a poet, an artist, a mother and an author. Her recent memoir "Just Kids" won the National Book Award.

via bbc.co.uk

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STORYCODE AND “GAME OF THRONES”- Steve Coulson Gives Deets on the Campfire Campaign| The Filmmaker Magazine Blog

2012-01-28T06:09:00.001-08:00

via filmmakermagazine.com

By Randy Astle in News
on Friday, January 27th, 2012

Excerpt:

"...All of this greatly expanded HBO’s audience for the new season, which reached 8.7 million viewers, and along the way hardcore fans were also offered a series of puzzles, embedded in each phase, that allowed them to advance along the “Maester’s Path” and unlock footage from the shows. The site is still live at http://themaesterspath.com and is well worth exploring. Social media was included throughout the campaign, and one important component of mastering the Maester’s Path was recruiting five other users.

Along the way Coulson learned several lessons he shared with us. Some include:

* In an increasingly digital world, physical objects can surprise and delight.

* Nothing creates story more evocatively than great actors.

* When world-building, define the experience as a story and you will find the story in the experience.

* Use live events to congregate communities.

* Use the community you’ve created to reach out and expand the community; deputize them by allowing them a creative role.

* Be like “old Lego,” which let users determine what to create out of their blocks, rather than “new Lego,” which predetermines what each set is designed to build. Create the materials and give users free range.

And finally:

* Everything you need to know about marketing you can learn from magicians, the technique they use to tell a story/perform a trick...."

Read the full post here for more details:

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/news/2012/01/storycode-and-game-of-thrones/

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Very Cool. Bookmarking...35 Best iPad Apps Creative and Useful - tripwire magazine

2012-01-28T05:55:00.001-08:00

via tripwiremagazine.com

very cool looking apps:

1. Adobe Ideas 1.0
2. Draft
3. Freeform
4. OmniGraffle
5. TypeDrawing....

Read the full article Here

http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2010/11/creative-and-useful-ipad-apps-for-web...

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Bookmarking....22 Filmmaking Apps for the iPad & iPhone

2012-01-28T05:51:00.001-08:00

via filmmakeriq.com

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Facebook and Transmediale - your face is ours - Art Projects Critique Social Networks | 2010LAB

2012-01-28T05:48:00.001-08:00

via 2010lab.tv

Excerpt from:

http://www.2010lab.tv/en/video/facebook-and-transmediale-your-face-ours

"...Online identities and social structures

But Facebook has also considerable downsides: the danger of abuse of power, be it in the area of data protection or be it regarding manipulation attempts, is immanent – there is a lot of discussion about it.

At the Transmediale, the artists Heath Bunting, Tobias Leingruber, Ursula Endlicher, and Christin Lahr have a critical look on Facebook, raising questions regarding our online identity, our motivation, and a changing social structure. Allen Gunn deliberately doesn’t provide real data to social networks. Kristoffer Gansing, the future artistic director of the Transmediale, deliberately has no Facebook profile at all.

Media critic Alessandro Ludovico has approximately 800 friends on Facebook. For him, it is crucial how much you can control your data in the future – his art project Face to Facebook is based on 1 million stolen Facebook profiles… Let's have a party!..."

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The Top 10 Smart Cities On The Planet: Toronto is #2! | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

2012-01-28T05:20:00.001-08:00

via fastcoexist.com

Read the full top 10 list here:

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679127/the-top-10-smart-cities-on-the-planet

"2.) Toronto. The highest rated smart city in North America, Toronto also scores pretty well across the board. Recognizing its importance in the movement, IBM recently opened a Business Analytics Solutions Center in Toronto. Toronto is also an active member of the Clinton 40 (C40) megacities, which seek to transition to the low-carbon economy. The private sector in Toronto is collaborating too, creating a Smart Commute Toronto initiative in the hopes of increasing transit efficiency in the metro area. Toronto also recently began using natural gas from landfills to power the city’s garbage trucks. That’s smart closed-loop thinking..."

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Love it! MakerBot Replicator!: The Pirate Bay file-sharing site offers 3D printing with Physibles!

2012-01-27T18:56:00.001-08:00

via newscientist.com

Excerpt:

post by: Jacob Aron, technology reporter

"The MakerBot Replicator is the kind of personal 3D printer that could help with the Pirate Bay's plans (Image: MakerBot Industries)

The Pirate Bay, one of the internet's most well-known sites for downloading copyrighted material such as music, films and ebooks, has launched a new category of digital downloads: physical objects.

"Writing on the site's blog, a Pirate Bayer calling himself WinstonQ2038 explained the thinking behind the new category: "We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical."

"...Objects currently listed in the Physibles category include a 3D version of the Pirate Bay logo, a toy race car and a model robot. The latter two are potentially infringing versions of existing designs, but WinstonQ2038 claims the site has more egalitarian aims: "The benefit to society is huge. No more shipping huge amount of products around the world. No more shipping the broken products back. No more child labour. We'll be able to print food for hungry people...."

Read the full post from the newscientist.com here:

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/01/filesharing-site-serves-...

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All About The 2012 Facebook IPO | Co.Design: business + innovation + design

2012-01-27T18:44:00.001-08:00

via fastcodesign.com

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Get set for shakeup in big TV packages, Cogeco says | FP Tech Desk | Excerpt via Financial Post

2012-01-27T04:57:00.001-08:00

By Jamie Sturgeon Jan 26, 2012 – 6:47 PM ET

"...The challenge the $8.1-billion industry must master is in creating the right mix of product and price to protect the comfortable margins the old model has produced.

“What’s going to happen is that everyone, every distributor, will gradually move to smaller-sized packages,” Louis Audet, chief executive of Cogeco Cable Inc., said Thursday on a first-quarter earnings call. “The art will be in pricing and offering these packages in such a way that we maintain or enhance our revenue.”

Erosion in the existing model doesn’t appear imminent. Montreal-based Cogeco, the fourth-largest cable provider in the country, reported better-than-expected subscriber additions to its premium digital television service while also posting gains in basic cable. Indeed, asked by one analyst whether the company saw any downsizing of packages by customers who may be augmenting television viewing by going online — called “cord-shaving” as opposed to “cord-cutting” — Mr. Audet said no. “We don’t see that right now.”
But trends are undoubtedly changing. Rate increases have hummed along for the past decade, up another 6% to an average $59.73/month in 2010, according to the latest data from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Consumers have begun seeking refuge, some through regulatory complaints others via new Web alternatives...."

via business.financialpost.com

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This is a very Trippy Site. What IS This???: virtual destination - Web of Fate | Prediction

2012-01-26T06:02:00.001-08:00

Prediction

Share your perspectives of the future

virtual destination

Will take place on January 01, 2095

Predicted on March 31, 2008

Countdown 83 Years Left

Votes 2

Chance 50.0 %

Influence 47

Agree

Disagree

Challenge

Witness

Dreamt of flying to Switzerland, but cannot afford the trip? You can take in the sights, smell and feel of Switzerland, by just sitting right in your bedroom! Towards the end of the 21st century, virtual travel will be set up on your home theatre. When you switch on the home theatre, you get a battery of destinations to choose from. From the Alps to the Andes, from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean, from Japan to Canada, you can choose to be anywhere.
Suppose you choose to visit Amsterdam in spring, and you press the button, your walls will be filled with bright red and yellow tulips, with windmills and you will get to feel the breeze too. And if you want to go swimming or sun-bathe in the beaches of Florida, all you got to do is press the button and yes, your room will have a roaring ocean plus the sun and sand! After your tan, just switch it off and opt for another destination.
If India is where you want to go, you can feel the walls of the ancient Khajuraho temples or take in the beauty of the Taj on a moon-lit night.

Where
home LAT: 9.50 LONG: 2.25 RADIUS: 248

Tags
travel teleportation technology easy

Semantic Analysis
home theatre, india

via weboffate.com

What is this? I'm on the site poking around....

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Fab New Post on Henry Jenkins Blog: On Transmedia and Education: A Conversation With Robot Heart Stories' Jen Begeal and Inanimate Alice's Laura Fleming (Part One)

2012-01-26T05:04:00.001-08:00

January 27, 2012

On Transmedia and Education: A Conversation With Robot Heart Stories' Jen Begeal and Inanimate Alice's Laura Fleming (Part One)

This week, I want to showcase two innovative projects which seek to explore the intersections between transmedia storytelling, participatory culture, and education -- Robot Heart Stories and Inanimate Alice. Here's some background on the two projects, taken from their respective home pages:

Robot Hearts Stories is an experiential learning project that uses collaboration and creative problem solving to put education directly in the hands of students. This fall, two classrooms, a continent apart, will work together to get a lost robot home, and they will need your help... The experience begins when a robot crash lands in Montreal and must make her way to LA in order to find her space craft and return home. Two class rooms in underprivileged neighborhoods, one in Montreal (French speaking) and the other in LA (English speaking), will use math, science, history, geography and creative writing to help the robot make her way across North America. At the same time, Robot Hearts Stories extends beyond the classroom, as the project welcomes involvement from a global audience. We need participants of all ages to share their own passions in the form of a creative act involving a robot they can print, customize and document. For each photo or piece of art featuring the robot that is submitted, the "signal strength" of the robot grows stronger and helps her to get back home. Robot Heart Stories is the first in a trilogy of experiential learning projects from award winning storytelling pioneer Lance Weiler and creative producer Janine Saunders.

Robot Heart Stories from WorkBook Project on Vimeo.

via henryjenkins.org

Read the full interview here & watch for Part 2!:

http://henryjenkins.org/2012/01/on_transmedia_and_education.html

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Bear 71: Loc Dao on: Interactive Documentary Lets Users Experience The Forest Through Augmented Reality @PSFK

2012-01-26T04:58:00.001-08:00

via psfk.com

Excerpt:

"Online users will be able to use access an augmented reality app that depicts an interactive forest environment rich with bears, cougars, sheep, and deer. They can also use their webcam and social media channels to get involved with the documentary through various gamification elements. According to NFB Executive Producer, Loc Dao:

The augmented reality app is a feature unique to the installation–that runs for 10 days at New Frontier and for four months at UMOCA (Utah Museum of Contemporary Art ). Online the user faces the disconnect from nature by the very form they are using — sitting in front of their computer. Similarly, at the installation the viewer is out of their element, being in a public space, and like many of us who live our lives through iPhones and digital cameras, the user at the installation experiences the grandiose 24-foot wide digital grid world of Bear 71 through a tablet app, limiting their view of the bigger picture and giving them safe distance from what’s happening in front of them."

The installation premiered at Sundance Film Festival and has been installed in The Yard in Park City and UMOCA until April 19.

Bear 71 here: http://bear71.nfb.ca/#/bear71

via PSFK: http://www.psfk.com/2012/01/interactive-ar-documentary-nfb.html#ixzz1kZ4ZLjiu

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Mapping Indie Filmmaking via Filmsourcing

2012-01-26T04:55:00.001-08:00

via filmsourcing.com

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Today's MOST AWESOME Story: 2 Toronto Teens Launch Lego Man 24K into Space & Capture Video!

2012-01-25T13:11:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

2 Teens, a Weather Balloon, a Camera, & a LEGO Man. So unbelievably cool.

More details on the story here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/01/25/lego-balloon-space.html

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Is there a generational distinction? My thoughts: The Future of Robotics is… Cute? | What Would The Internet Do?

2012-01-25T07:43:00.001-08:00

The Future of Robotics is… Cute?

Posted on January 23, 2012 by LenKendall • 1 Comment

This week, Siobhan is driving the conversation with her questions on robot-human relationships, with responses from Gunther, Sasha, and Len.

Have you seen those crazy videos of Japanese humanoid robots that can mimic human expressions taking us closer to the seamless humanoid robots of AI, Bladerunner and Alien? Creepy huh? That’s why the future of human/robot interaction and the integration of robots in everyday life may be driven by the ‘cute’ factor as much as labour needs or sex. Think Wall-E, R2D2, those cute robots that are a marketer’s dream. Alexander Reben at the MIT Media Lab amped up adorable helplessness in Boxie and found that, yup, people respond to a big-eyed, plaintive cardboard box on caterpillar tracks, crying ‘I need help!‘ ‘Pick me up so I can see you!’

via wwtid.com

My thoughts below on original post!

http://www.wwtid.com/2012/01/23/the-future-of-robotics-is-cute/#

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Future of Storytelling Expert Series: Author Xavier Waterkeyn on Communicating Transmedia Value | Latitude Research°

2012-01-25T06:45:00.001-08:00

via latd.com

From the late.com site - a short excerpt from a longer post:

"Recently, Latitude (in collaboration with Itizen) launched an innovation study on The Future of Storytelling. Why? So we can uncover the questions, challenges, and aspirations of tomorrow’s storytellers and identify how they can better align with audience’s changing expectations. Every week for the next several weeks, Latitude will share its conversation with a different influential individual. We’ll follow the series with a summary of best practices and insights for content creators and businesses from Latitude’s SVP, Neela Sakaria.

This week’s spotlight on Xavier Waterkeyn:

Xavier Waterkeyn is a literary agent and best-selling author. In just five years, his books have sold over 1.5 million copies. He has worked, in no particular order, as a director, interviewer, adult educator, tour guide, actor, manager of a psychic centre, graphic designer, photographer, marketer, bookseller and editor. Despite his many careers, Xavier likes to think of himself simply as a storyteller. And perhaps a bit of a know-it-all.

It’s great to speak with you, Xavier. We know you’ve been quite busy working with your partner, author Nathan Farrugia, on The Chimera Vector—a transmedia project that involves a lot of different components: an eBook, an audiobook, a graphic novel, and an app down the line. Can you tell us a little about your experience creating and overseeing the production of all these different pieces?

The Chimera Vector is primarily a technothriller novel. It takes you into a world of conspiracy where various people in various organizations are striving to accumulate power—creating chaos and mayhem—and it’s all about secret operatives and what they’re trying to do to stop all of that. So, we’ve got a core text that appeals to people ages 18-30 generally, and we’re looking at the kind of media this target market engages with: social media as well as the traditional media of book, film, and so on. The Chimera Vector novel is being simultaneously adapted as an eBook, as well as being sold print-on-demand..."

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CraigsList talk: Leveraging Digital Storytelling and Social Media to Build Your Organization & Network

2012-01-25T05:21:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

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Infographic Of The Day: The Magic And Madness Of The Creative Process | Fast Company

2012-01-25T05:02:00.001-08:00

via fastcompany.com

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Great Feature on #18DaysInEgypt; Collaborative Documentary Weaves Stories of Egyptian Revolution

2012-01-25T04:43:00.001-08:00

Image courtesy of Flickr, Maggie Osama

via mashable.com

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David Bowie's "Space Oddity" Inspires Gorgeous Animation & A Legal Saga | The Creators Project

2012-01-24T13:37:00.001-08:00

David Bowie's "Space Oddity" Inspires An Animation And A Legal Saga

Kevin Holmes October 18, 2011

Next

Previous

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Everybody likes a bit of David Bowie in their lives, it’d be rude not to. And to help people cultivate an appreciation of Bowie from a young age, back in August illustrator Andrew Kolb created a children’s picture book with cutesie drawings based around the song “Space Oddity” and released it online as a free PDF.

via thecreatorsproject.com

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W.W.T.I.D? delves into "The Future of Robotics is... Cute?" | New Blog Post on What Would The Internet Do?

2012-01-24T13:24:00.001-08:00

The Future of Robotics is… Cute?

Posted on January 23, 2012 by LenKendall • 0 Comments

This week, Siobhan is driving the conversation with her questions on robot-human relationships, with responses from Gunther, Sasha, and Len.

Have you seen those crazy videos of Japanese humanoid robots that can mimic human expressions taking us closer to the seamless humanoid robots of AI, Bladerunner and Alien? Creepy huh? That’s why the future of human/robot interaction and the integration of robots in everyday life may be driven by the ‘cute’ factor as much as labour needs or sex. Think Wall-E, R2D2, those cute robots that are a marketer’s dream. Alexander Reben at the MIT Media Lab amped up adorable helplessness in Boxie and found that, yup, people respond to a big-eyed, plaintive cardboard box on caterpillar tracks, crying ‘I need help!‘ ‘Pick me up so I can see you!’

With Siri in your pocket, what kinds of interactions will we be having with robotics in the near future? What interactions are already seamlessly integrated? Do we need to have an animated animatronic presence to really engage? Or will we be having meaningful relationships with the ubiquitous computing in our refrigerators and our cars? Will there be any difference?

Latitude Research’s Robots School study found that kids today “think of technology as fundamentally human: as a social companion that can entertain, motivate, and empower them in various contexts.” Is the perceived difference in value of a human relationship vs. a relationship with a robot going to be a generational distinction?

via wwtid.com

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Beautiful StopMotion Video: A Place to Bury Strangers "So Far Away"

2012-01-24T06:32:00.001-08:00

via vimeo.com

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Love Love Love: Gorgeous stop-motion video snapped with Hipstamatic

2012-01-24T06:14:00.001-08:00

via vimeo.com

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Cool: 'It’s You' & 'All the Universe is Full of the Lives of Perfect Creatures':2 installations by @ksobecka | CreativeApplications.Net

2012-01-24T06:08:00.001-08:00

Project Page

–

It’s You is an interactive storefront-window projection that explores the mechanisms of public behaviors and the line between the real and constructed social actions. The installation is a rear projection on large storefront window. Human figures crowd around something that they obscure from the pedestrian’s view. When the pedestrian stands behind them, as if to look over their shoulders, they step aside to allow him a view onto what they’re looking at. The installation was made using a number of different tools. Blender3d was used for building the models, Unity3d for the animation and interaction and openFrameworks and openTSPS for camera capture and animation trigger.

via creativeapplications.net

Crowdsourcing, Open Innovation, and the Future of Sustainable Cities | Excerpt via GreenBiz.com

2012-01-24T06:03:00.001-08:00

Crowdsourcing, Open Innovation, and the Future of Sustainable Cities

By Joel Makower

Architecture & Design, Partnerships

The idea of fixing Detroit—or any other city in desperate need of revitalization—is overwhelming, to say the least. And legions have tried, with various levels of success.

What if you could harness the best and brightest ideas from around the world?

That was the mission of a recent crowdsourcing exercise put forth by IDEO, the iconic design firm, and Steelcase, the Michigan-based producer of workplace furnishings and solutions. By itself, it is simply one inspiring story, but it's also a prototype for all that’s possible in creating a more sustainable world.

In 2010, IDEO created an online platform called OpenIDEO to help solve pressing societal challenges by engaging the masses. It’s certainly not the first effort in crowdsourcing, but it is one of the more ambitious and open platforms aimed at fostering sustainability solutions. Over the past year or so, the company has partnered with a number of nonprofits and for-profits, including Amnesty International (human rights), Oxfam (maternal health), and celebrity chef and food activist Jamie Oliver (childhood nutrition).

More recently, Steelcase, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., sponsored a challenge near and dear to the heart of its President and CEO, James P. Hackett: to help cities like Detroit find their way back from the brink. Hackett is part of a group of Michigan CEOs seeking to revitalize the state, which has been hammered by the loss of manufacturing jobs, automotive and others.

The challenge asked, “How might we restore vibrancy in cities and regions facing economic decline?” The response to the challenge was overwhelming.

via greenbiz.com

read the full post here:

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/01/23/crowdsourcing-open-innovation-and-fut...

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Cars connect with apps, the cloud at CES (Wired UK)

2012-01-23T08:42:00.001-08:00

via wired.co.uk

Excerpt from original post by:

By Chuck Squatriglia, WiredUK 17 January 12

"Car makers are racing the put the mobile in automobile as they connect our vehicles to the cloud and increasingly blur the line between cars and consumer electronics.

These systems let you do everything from update your Facebook status to make flight reservations to access voice-activated navigation. The goal of all this tech is to make sure we're connected, even after buckling up.

The pace of development has been blinding and is perhaps best measured by the role automakers have played at CES. When Ford's pioneering Sync system was unveiled here five years ago, it was widely considered a novelty and the show was an afterthought for automakers. This year, six of the 10 major automakers are at the show, with booths just as elaborate as you'd see at the Detroit or Frankfurt motor shows.

Their presence underscores the importance connectivity plays in the car business, and the role it has in the industry's future.

"Connectivity has gone from being a unique feature that makes some brands stand out for having it to being a must-have feature that make some brands stand out for not having it," said Aaron Bragman, an US car industry analyst with IHS Automotive. "Sync has turned out to be one of the major selling points of Ford vehicles. Other car makers want a piece of that action."..."

Read the full article here:

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-01/17/connected-cars-ces

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Interactive Transmedia Art: Participatory Sculptures in Northern California (of course!)

2012-01-22T15:40:00.001-08:00

via xtremesignpost.com

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Exploring the Future Normal at New Frontier 2012 | Sundance Film Festival

2012-01-22T08:30:00.001-08:00

via sundance.org

The new future/new frontier of tech & entertainment - very cool projects detailed - love it:

Excerpt:

"When Sundance introduced the first New Frontier program at the Festival in 2007, in a cramped basement space on Main Street in Park City, it felt like a heady first glimpse into a future in which cinema was migrating beyond the theatre—even beyond movies. Just six years later, we’re living in that future. This year’s survey of multimedia, multi-platform projects, experiments, performances, and installations still leans forward and anticipates new developments in cinematic culture, but it’s also about how we live now. We carry movies around on our phones and in our pockets, we remix visual culture on our laptops, and our virtual relationships are as relevant to us as our physical ones. The future, in many respects, has arrived; the question remains, what are we going to do with it.

Aptly entitling this year’s program “The Future Normal,” Senior Programmer and New Frontier Curator Shari Frilot identified the efforts of artists to redefine and reimagine how emerging technologies and industry trends could be employed in our lives. It’s a simple but crucial matter of direction: Do we aspire to get beyond ourselves, or work to know ourselves better? “Consumer culture positions technology to expand and transcend human limitations,” Frilot says. “But the works here have another vision, where media technology integration really sustains our humanity, fortifies the cornerstones of what makes us human—our social nature and creativity.” ...'

read the full post here:

https://www.sundance.org/festival/article/exploring-the-future-normal-at-new-...

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Must Read: The death of Megaupload must spark the birth of a 'Spotify for movies' (Wired UK) #infdist

2012-01-22T06:35:00.001-08:00

via wired.co.uk

Cutting to the chase - be sure to read Nate Lanxon's full article on Wired.co.uk though:

"...To avoid an expensive stalemate situation, it's time to drop the hammer in this enormous game of international copyright Whack-a-Mole. As long as there are users who want easy access to downloadable media, there will be sites like Megaupload. They're easy to set up but costly and difficult to shut down. By just forcing them offline without replacing them with viable alternatives, the movie industry is essentially just screening reruns of its ignorance in the face of consumer evolution. An ignorance that, as was for so long the case for the music industry, costs dearly in the long run. There needs to be a "Spotify for movies", but broader and bigger than LoveFilm or Netflix are today. Their back-catalogues are nowhere near as comprehensive for movies and TV shows as Spotify's is for music...."

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-01/20/megaupload-and-spotify-for-movies

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Love this: Here Comes The Neighbourhood: Creative Placemaking in Miami

2012-01-22T06:04:00.001-08:00

via vimeo.com

Description on site:

"HERE COMES THE NEIGHBORHOOD is a Short-Form Docuseries exploring the power of Public Art and innovation to uplift and revitalize urban communities. The Pilot Season revolves around the Arts District of Wynwood Miami, featuring an array of internationally acclaimed and locally respected Street Artists, Graffiti Writers and Muralists.

In 2009, Urban Visionary and Placemaker Tony Goldman partnered with Jeffrey Deitch (Deitch Projects Soho and now director of MoCa Los Angeles) to create the Wynwood Walls.What began with a series of parking lots, loading docks, and drab rundown factory buildings, became a curation of high caliber murals from Futura, Shepard Fairey, OS Gemeos, Kenny Scharf and others. The Walls opened for Art Basel 2009, and now two years later the collection has expanded to include over thirty artists from around the world, becoming a "Town Center" in a district that has grown into one of the largest concentrations of commissioned murals in the World...."

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CES 2012: Parrot Reveals The Next Generation Of Their Augmented Reality Quadricopter -- AppAdvice

2012-01-22T05:59:00.001-08:00

Just some of the super cool deetts from a longer article

by CASEY TSCHIDA on Wed January 11th, 2012:

"...In regard to the UI, the upcoming version will include a media manager and a more professional looking head-up display and main menu, which includes access to the many augmented reality games being released for Parrot’s quadricopter. In addition, v2.0 offers two very cool new piloting modes:

• Director mode – The AR.Drone can perform a 360º panorama spin, a slow ascent, or a sideways video capture to create some very dramatic video clips.

• Absolute mode – Designed to help beginners, this mode always moves the AR.Drone in the direction you tilt your iDevice, no matter which way the quadricopter is facing.
- The traditional control scheme, now referred to as “relative” mode, is still available for pilots who prefer more realistic handling

That’s the lowdown! Unfortunately, once again, Parrot makes only a vague statement that the AR.Drone 2.0 and Free Flight v2.0 will be available in 2012. To anyone who may be wondering about a price drop, the $299.99 price tag is said to be moving forward. In the meantime, enjoy the short flight video below and check out the other CES announcements.

via appadvice.com

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Like: ‘Alcatraz’ ARG: Unlocking the secrets of J.J. Abrams’ show | Hero Complex– latimes.com

2012-01-21T06:24:00.001-08:00

via herocomplex.latimes.com

Jay West was lucky enough to get a teaser box from J.J. Abrams' Alcatraz. Here's a teaser of what he found:

" There was a letter inside with this message:

Dear Jay West,

We invite you to inspect these artifacts from Alcatraz. Over the next few months, we will be looking to you, and your audience, to help us uncover the mysteries of the island. Should your careful examination of the contents of this box lead you to any new discoveries, we urge you to share with your community. More of the story and further instructions are forthcoming. We hope you choose to participate!..."

read the full post here:

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2012/01/17/alcatraz-arg-j-j-abrams/#/4

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Kids Think Technology is Fundamentally Human - Great Article by Harrison Weber

2012-01-20T21:04:00.001-08:00

via thenextweb.com

Excerpt from a longer post well worth reading:

"..What can we learn from the digital natives?

We asked this question back in September, and it’s one that research firm Latitude sought to answer with its KIDS – Kids Innovation Discovery Series initiative. Now, Latitude is back to find out how technology, specifically robotics, can be used to inspire new opportunities for learning and creativity.

Latitude’s Robots @ School study, which was conducted this month, asked kids across the world to illustrate and write a story that answers this question: “What would happen if robots were a part of your everyday life — at school and beyond?”

The results provide a compelling look on how youngsters feel about modern technology, and most importantly, reveals that tech has a huge potential for blurring the lines between learning and play...."

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Was Megaupload bad for the creative industries? | Loz Kaye and Frances Moore Comment | guardian.co.uk

2012-01-20T10:57:00.001-08:00

via guardian.co.uk

Short Excerpt from full post here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/20/was-megaupload-bad-for-th...

Loz Kaye "We all – pirates and artists – have an interest in a properly functioning and free internet. Last year 70% of the total volume of British music sales were digital. The BPI would do well to remember that its future income is dependant on the very people it is currently antagonising.

It's time for a real debate to open, and name calling to stop. It's time for policy and law based on evidence, not lobbying. Over this week many found that "piracy" is not just a cultural, but also a political issue. Megaupload claimed 150 million users. 150 million pirates? Maybe. But remember, it could well be 150 million voters too."

• Loz Kaye is leader of the Pirate party UK

Read Frances Moore's response here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/20/was-megaupload-bad-for-th...

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help us revolutionize film distribution! cinovu.com joins the VOD platform revolution

2012-01-20T05:21:00.001-08:00

via vimeo.com

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Wow. Big. Megaupload op: Anonymous downs FBI, DoJ, music sites in biggest attack ever - YouTube

2012-01-19T21:02:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

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MediaShift . Why Publishers Are About to Go Data Crazy | Excerpt from PBS.org article

2012-01-19T19:18:00.001-08:00

Original post by Sachin Kamdar, January 17, 2012

Trending Data Overtakes Snapshot or Historic Data
Imagine the data that Apple has on its iPad sales.

The company certainly has some research on customer satisfaction, device glitches, and sales by region, etc. -- but that's standard stuff. It also has data that analyzes sales and satisfaction over time. In the case of a business that sells a physical product like an iPad, the trending data over time is more valuable -- with it, Apple can adapt its sales and marketing strategy.

Note the weakness of the analogy, however -- an iPad has a shelf life of several years. Content is an entirely different game.

Stories, in some cases, can have evergreen value, but the best-performing content on the web typically has a 24-hour window before traffic to the article or post falls significantly. It is for this reason that publishers have struggled to access trending data to inform their decisions. It's incredibly difficult to collect, crunch and deliver data and insights in that period of time. You have to be really fast. Our systems and tools are only now starting to catch up.

SiteSimon is one of the startups popping up to help publishers understand content.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and in 2012 publishers will finally get their hands on trending data that matters. Global trending hashtags are only the very tip of the iceberg.

This year the market is going to be flooded with real-time data analysis tools for content. Not real-time analysis for web pages -- and that's an important difference. We've had real-time web analytics, but those analytics are designed for the concept of a webpage, not the nuances and heartbeat of content.

SiteSimon and Trap.it are two companies that have built technology to analyze and understand content. These companies apply this understanding to their users' behavior to accurately identify interests and provide personalized recommendations. Percolate, another startup, parses social streams to aid brands and businesses with topic-oriented content curation -- and there's no reason why publishers can't leverage similar technologies to optimize their content, too.

via pbs.org

Read the full post for other key trends:

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2012/01/why-publishers-are-about-to-go-data-cra...

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Genius - Must Watch: The Bark Side: 2012 Volkswagen Game Day Commercial Teaser - YouTube

2012-01-19T19:14:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

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College students raise awareness about wetlands restoration with Facebook game | VentureBeat

2012-01-19T19:09:00.001-08:00

via venturebeat.com

Excerpt:

"Undergraduate students at the University of Washington Bothell’s Center for Serious Play created and released today a Wetlands restoration video game for Facebook entitled UWB Wetlands Restoration.

UWB Wetlands Restoration’s Jordan Weisman, interim director at the CSP and a veteran game developer, helped design and create the game with the focus of helping players to understand how important it is maintain and help restore the Wetlands ecosystem. Not only does the project educate students about an environmental issue, it also trains them how to make games. As such, it’s not a bad way to create the next generation of game developers.

Weisman had this to say about choosing the Wetlands as the basis for the game, “We were looking for a subject that captured some of the unique aspects of the UW Bothell campus, had a strong educational aspect to the play pattern, and a well understood game dynamic that the students could adapt to the subject matter.”

The game was created from concept to “ship” by undergraduate students from the university. It will be playable for free on Facebook, and allows players to build their Wetlands from the beginning of their existence to full fledged Wetlands churning with all kinds of plants, animals and even threats to the player’s beloved ecosystem..."

Read the full post here:

http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/19/college-students-raise-awareness-about-wetl...

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Disruptive Trends from the Floor of CES 2012, by UPSTREAM - Core77

2012-01-19T06:35:00.001-08:00

via core77.com

ORIGINAL Post by core jr. 18 Jan 2012: on core77.com

"The International CES 2012, as it does every year, presented an enormous array of gadgets, technology innovations and a feeding frenzy of consumer electronics commerce.

But looking above the fray of the convention floors, we see several disruptors to shape the macro trends of the coming years. Major technology and consumer behavior shifts are emerging that are changing the business of consumer electronics, media and entertainment and digital-online media. As social and mobile adoption mainstreams for consumers and marketers, new platforms, technology and media will emerge shaped by these fundamental disruptors:

APPIFICATION: The term "product" is evolving as mobile, online and tablet applications open up a new market for entrepreneurs, brands and businesses to create new services, utility and enhancements to existing products.

POST-SOCIAL WORLD: Social media and social networks, having reached mainstream, become less of a point of focus and integrate into consumer and marketer toolbox. New space races will emerge from combined social, mobile, local and digital enabled products that are accessed in new ways via tablets, ubiquitous smartphones and portable ultrabooks.

UBIQUITOUS CONTENT & DATA: Data is everywhere and content can be accessed in multiple forms. This overwhelming choice and abundance of invisible data collection is presenting opportunities and obstacles for people and brands to filter through clutter to get better information, more product and service relevance, and new social connections while retaining trust in providers and a promise of privacy...."

Read the full article to catch what's trending

http://www.core77.com/blog/consumer_product/disruptive_trends_from_the_floor_...

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Exactly: Jesse Cleverly: What if YouTube was the future for TV producers? | MIPBlog

2012-01-19T05:00:00.001-08:00

via blog.mipworld.com

Excerpt from: http://blog.mipworld.com/2012/01/jesse-cleverly-what-if-youtube-was-the-future-for-tv-producers/

Jesse Cleverly is CEO & creative director of London’s Connective Media, a consultancy helping TV companies with the challenges of multiplatform content.

"As another year begins and media workers look out at not just the year ahead, but the future in a more general sense, we cannot but help ask ourselves – where does my future lie? In many ways we have always had versions of these questions – “will my show get picked up?”, “will I rise up the corporate ladder?”, “will I get enough freelance work?”…

Now however, with the imminent ubiquity of internet enabled televisions and the announcement by YouTube that it is funding 100 channels as an advance against future advertising revenues (the mere mention of investment recouping ad revenue and YouTube in the same sentence should alert us to seismic changes ahead), it seems that the question of where one’s future lies is much more fundamental.
A broadcast channel we all understand. It is a largely one-way communication channel, with general appeal within a wide demographic group, for which content is commissioned in order to make as many advertising messages as possible palatable to a largely anonymous, territory specific, mass audience. This is a reasonably straightforward (and, until recently, stable) world with clearly defined areas of operation and expertise which divide roughly between creative/production, sales, broadcast and the financial engine which drives them all: advertising.

A digital channel (and for the sake of argument let’s use a YouTube channel as our template) may look superficially the same – i.e. it delivers video content to audiences -but any deeper and the similarities are soon dwarfed by the differences:

1. A YouTube channel is not a one way piece of communication – it is the crucible for a conversation between creators and the individual members of the communities they curate. YouTube, like Facebook, is an epicentre for social media and some of those who were recently granted YouTube channel funding told me that it was their commitment to the social side of their proposed channels, as much as their ability to produce good content, which won the day.

2. A YouTube channel is likely to be talking to a global niche of some sort, and as such will be more much narrower in its focus and appeal, but much broader in its potential global reach. A YouTube channel is often what people in television would call a show, and it is the way that these mono-brand channels are networked together via partnerships which creates the tipping point, rather than the sheer size of the media monolith standing proudly alone..."

Read the full post on:

http://blog.mipworld.com

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POV Interviews Transmedia Expert Anita Ondine | DOCspace :: The Home of Canadian Documentary

2012-01-18T06:08:00.001-08:00

via docspace.ca

Read the full interview on docspace.ca

http://docspace.ca/news/pov-interviews-transmedia-expert-anita-ondine

Here's an excerpt to get you started:

"Posted by Robin on January 16, 2012 - 5:37pm

Point of View magazine recently spoke with the internationally renowned transmedia expert Anita Ondine about the challenges and opportunities of transmedia. Ondine is in Toronto this week to headline Merging Media TO on January 19 to 20 at TIFF Bell Lightbox.

POV: Transmedia requires content creators to completely rethink how they engage their audiences and to rethink the concept of ‘media consumption.’ It’s a big task to grapple with...

Ondine: Yes, transmedia is a different paradigm altogether. I hesitate to use the word ‘consumption’ or I use it broadly. The word I like to use most is participation. Not every member of the audience will become a participant but it’s my sincere hope that we get a large number of audiences to move from the lean- back mode of consumption and go even beyond the interactive stage. I like to make this distinction, that what we’re moving through right now is something of a continuum, which started a century ago with the lean-back consumption of [visually created] stories. When the first silent films came out, people would sit there and watch them. And as that moved through TV and broad scale film distribution, we still were in that lean-back mode of accepting content in a very uni-directional manner. Then, depending on where in the world you’ve been, in the last five to ten years there have been increasing efforts to make stories interactive. There have been some really good examples out of the UK because Britain in my opinion has been one of the leaders in the world [in this activity] and the BBC has been behind a lot of these projects. But there has been more and more emphasis on interactivity.

Interactivity is a state where the audience chooses to interact with the story but the interaction has always been contained in a specially predefined set of potential outcomes. What I mean by that is the storyteller--the documentarian, the director, the producer or whoever is defining it---knows what the potential set of outcomes can be. That’s interactive. Now transmedia, I believe, takes that a step further and we move from interactive to truly participatory storytelling. What that means is we enable the audience to step into the shoes of a protagonist and actually become storytellers themselves.

To me that is one of the very, very exciting elements that makes transmedia so powerful. It really flips the whole concept of what distribution means altogether. It’s a different paradigm. It allows for engagement. I can see looking at Point of View magazine, for example, that you’re very socially aware, so there are often stories about socially conscious storytelling. Transmedia is fundamentally such a powerful tool for those kinds of topics to be aired and to be discussed and to gain support and to get people actually active in taking the change forward. Not only do we tell people about what’s going on, but we give them tools to participate. Whether this means participation in a purely entertainment mode, or it goes further than that and it has an activist element which is also entirely possible. One of my major projects has an activist orientation to it. So what we do instead of giving people purely entertainment based participatory experience is we say: ‘so you have heard about this, now this is how you can participate in the change.’..."

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Lights: an HTML5 Interactive Video by Ellie Goulding & HelloEnjoy.com

2012-01-18T06:04:00.001-08:00

via lights.elliegoulding.com

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Print Your Own Tie & Who Knows What Else? The Wonderful World of Thingiverse & 3D Printing - Rebecca J. Rosen - Technology - The Atlantic

2012-01-17T12:57:00.001-08:00

via theatlantic.com

Rebecca J. Rosen, original post in The Atlantic
JAN 10 2012, 2:15 PM ET

"Do you have some tape but no tape dispenser? Or perhaps you need a doohickey for storing your earbuds? Well, if you've got a 3D printer and an Internet connection, the newly updated website Thingiverse can supply you with the necessary designs.

Thingiverse, founded in 2008, is a design library from the folks at MakerBot Industries, the Brooklyn-based company that is designing and building open-source 3D printers. On Thingiverse, people can download the plans for obsjects, tweak them, and share their improved versions. As CEO Bre Pettis explained, "You just download this digital design or you create one yourself, and the thing is made right there for you. ... Up until now, you've been able to download books, you've been able to download movies, you can download music. Well, now you can download things. And, once you download the digital design, you can just crank up your MakerBot, fire it up, and print it out."..."

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The Future is SO NOW: Urbee: The world's first 'printed' car rolling off the 3D printing presses... | Mail Online

2012-01-17T12:49:00.001-08:00

via dailymail.co.uk

Read the full article for all of the mind-blowing details:

"The world’s first 'printed' car has finally rolled off the printing press.
The 'Urbee' was made using a special printer which built up layer upon layer of bodywork - almost as if the car was 'painted' into existence, except using layers of ultra-thin composite that are slowly 'fused' into a solid.
But unlike most 'innovations' in cars, this one won't break down after 5 years - Urbee is built to last 30. Project leader Jim Kor, told MailOnline today: 'For us, this unveiling was quite a milestone..."

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Anthony Atala: Printing A Human Kidney - Another Jaw-Dropping TED Talk

2012-01-17T11:14:00.001-08:00

via huffingtonpost.com

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3D Printing: What does the power to make ANYTHING mean to the world? W.W.T.I.D? New Post is Up!

2012-01-17T11:09:00.001-08:00

via wwtid.com

What Would The Internet Do? Jan. 17, 2012

Sasha Gujicic, Len Kendall, Siobhan O'Flynn, and Gunther Sonnenfeld

Imagine a world where 3-D printers are as common as dishwashers.

The technology has been around for about a decade on an industrial level, but 3D printers are beginning to be marketed as home devices with prices getting lower, and lower. It’s predicted that in the next 3-5 years anyone will be able to afford to print/build anything in their own homes. 3D printers will likely be mass marketed to developed countries and developing nations will see quick adoption based on availability of necessary ‘ingredients.’ As simple as the device may be, its proliferation may send massive ripples through industries, legal systems, and obviously the D-I-Y movement.

What industries/products will be disrupted most of 3D printing becomes mainstream?

[Len]: To quote The Graduate, “Plastics.” The substance is everywhere, easily reusable, moldable, and cheap. The substance also comprises so many of the small items we buy at department and hardware stores. While plastic suppliers may still be generating revenue by selling material to 3D printer users directly, the middle-men who sell objects are going to see aisles of products drop in demand....

Read the full post on wwtid.com

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VidMap Syncs Travel Videos & Dynamic Maps: Interesting Possibilities

2012-01-17T04:34:00.001-08:00

via vidmap.de

Here: Video from San Francisco to Sausalito (USA)

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Press releases/English Wikipedia to go dark - Wikimedia Foundation

2012-01-16T19:41:00.001-08:00

English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA

San Francisco -- January 16, 2012 -- On January 18, 2012, in an unprecedented decision, the Wikipedia community has chosen to blackout the English version of Wikipedia for 24 hours, in protest against proposed legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States.
Wikipedia administrators confirmed this decision Monday afternoon (PST) in a public statement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Action#Summary_and_conclusion):
Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a "blackout" of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.
“Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition to this destructive legislation," said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. "This is an extraordinary action for our community to take - and while we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world."
We urge Wikipedia readers to make your voices heard. If you live in the United States, find your elected representative in Washington (https://www.eff.org/sopacall). If you live outside the United States, contact your State Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs or similar branch of government. Tell them you oppose SOPA and PIPA, and want the internet to remain open and free.
About the Wikimedia Foundation
http://wikimediafoundation.org
http://blog.wikimedia.org

The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix, Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive more than 474 million unique visitors per month, making them the fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, November 2011). Available in 282 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 20 million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than 100,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants.
Media Contact:

For the Wikimedia Foundation
Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
Tel. +1 415 839 6885 x 6609
jwalsh@wikimedia.org

via wikimediafoundation.org

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Lovely Use of LEGO: A Proposal in Stop Motion on Vimeo

2012-01-16T19:25:00.001-08:00

via vimeo.com

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Best Of TED 2011 : Some of my Faves & Some I haven't seen - LOVE

2012-01-16T19:19:00.001-08:00

via huffingtonpost.com

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Oh Clever Clever: Mitt the Ripper - Stephen Colbert's Super PAC Attacks Mitt Romney (Serial Killer) - YouTube

2012-01-16T15:41:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

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Useful Post from Martin Percy: Internet Native Film – An Annotated List -

2012-01-16T05:31:00.001-08:00

Perrier by Dita
www.perrierbydita.com
Youtube preview:
Director: Anders Hallberg - Production Company Creative Director:Ben Tricklebank - Production Company: B-Reel
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Paris – Executive Creative Directors: Chris Garbutt/Fabio Costa - Creative Team: Baptiste Cliner/Nicolas Lautir

via internetnativefilm.com

Useful post form Martin Percy & I like his categories - workable:

[Martin] "Hello, this is a list of a few great Internet Native Films in the following categories:

1) Interactive film:
You interact with it DURING the experience
2) Personalised film:
You personalise it BEFORE the experience
3) Enhanced film:
Traditional linear films, but with enhancements

Wondering what an Internet Native Film is?
Please click here to read The Internet Native Filmmaker's Manifesto.

Something great left out? (Of course!) Credits wrong? Comments?
Please comment below or email me at martin[at]martinpercy[dot]com

For the less committed visitor, I've tried to find Youtube previews for all of these sites. Some of them suck. None of the previews are anywhere near as good as the real thing...."

See the full post for specific examples - some I don't know - thanks Martin!

http://internetnativefilm.com/#

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The Present as a Future Past & How the Facebook Eye is Changing Our Lives - Nathan Jurgenson - Technology - The Atlantic

2012-01-16T05:21:00.001-08:00

via theatlantic.com

Excerpt from a very interesting article by Nathan Jurgenson in The Atlantic. I'll admit this phenomenon happened to me after becoming active on Twitter. I was thinking in tweets. I stopped that for the most part!:

"...The photographer knows well that after taking many pictures one develops "the camera eye": vision becomes like the viewfinder, always perceiving the world through the logic of the camera mechanism via framing, lighting, depth of field, focus, movement and so on. Even without the camera in hand the world becomes transformed into the status of the potential-photograph.

Today, we are in danger of developing a "Facebook Eye": our brains always looking for moments where the ephemeral blur of lived experience might best be translated into a Facebook post; one that will draw the most comments and "likes."

Facebook fixates the present as always a future past. By this I mean that social media users have become always aware of the present as something we can post online that will be consumed by others. Are we becoming so concerned about posting our lives on Facebook that we forget to live our lives in the here-and-now? Think of a time when you took a trip holding a camera in your hand and then think of when you did the same without the camera. The experience is slightly different. We have a different attachment to our present when we are not concerned with documenting.

Today, social media means we are always traveling with the camera in our hands (metaphorically and often literally); we always can document. When going to see live music I notice more and more people distracted from the performance in order to take photos and videos to post to Facebook and YouTube. When the breakfast I made the other week looked especially delicious, I posted a photo of it before even taking a bite. The Facebook Eye in action...."

Read the full article here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/the-facebook-eye/251377/

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Good Post from Christine Weitbrecht: Are Participation and Corporate Interests Compatible? « Thoughts on the T

2012-01-16T05:11:00.001-08:00

Are Participation and Corporate Interests Compatible?

Written By: Christine Weitbrecht

- Jan• 15•12

"I have to admit that I’ve been avoiding the topic of participation in transmedia (or any media, really). The reason for this is simple; because I’m approaching transmedia from a business perspective in this blog, I mostly see problems of participation at the moment, and very few solutions. Even after thinking about the compatibility of participation and corporate interests for a long while now, I haven’t reached a conclusion on what the best way forward is. Consequently, I’d like to put this question out there to all of you, in the hopes that some of you might offer me perspectives or experiences that I haven’t thought of before. To start off, then, here’s what I’ve been mulling over:

The Concept of Participation

First of all, I’d like to go into more detail what I mean by “participation.” As I’ve mentioned before in this blog, I really like Henry Jenkins’ distinction between “interactivity” and “participation,” where “interactivity” refers to “preprogramed entertainment experiences” and “participation” to “tak[ing] the resources offered by a text and push[ing] it in a range of directions which are neither preprogrammed nor authorized by the producers.” So, to put it simple, interactivity gives the users a pre-set choice (ending a, b, or c; should the character do this or that next) while participation has users ‘do their own thing’ with the existing content – expanding it, altering it, continuing it, etc. In this blog post, I am solely talking about participation in this sense then – cases where users are having an actual, not-pre-programmed impact on how the story or the story universe develops.

Because interactivity is pre-programmed, it is usually the safer option to engage users – from a corporate perspective. The content creators retain absolute control over how the story develops, and they can divide all revenues from the users’ interaction amongst those involved in the production (the biggest share remaining with the content owners). Interactivity also offers great instant feedback for content creators, and can prove invaluable for causing audiences to emotionally invest in a story. So right now, we already see many different forms of interactivity, and they become increasingly sophisticated.

The real crux of the matter remains participation, however, where things are a bit different...."

via christineweitbrecht.com

Read the full post here:

http://christineweitbrecht.com/?p=318

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Very Cool Detailed Post on Tech behind Digital storytelling: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | fxguide

2012-01-16T05:09:00.001-08:00

00:00
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Watch a breakdown of Method’s train shot.

via fxguide.com

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Very Cool Detailed Post on Tech behind Digital storytelling: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | fxguide

2012-01-16T05:04:00.003-08:00

00:00
00:00 | 00:00
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Watch a breakdown of Method’s train shot.

via fxguide.com

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Very Cool Detailed Post on Tech behind Digital storytelling: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | fxguide

2012-01-16T05:04:00.001-08:00

00:00
00:00 | 00:00
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Watch a breakdown of Method’s train shot.

via fxguide.com

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Qualcomm launches medical tricorder competition at CES. Prize? $10 million - Computeractive - News

2012-01-16T05:03:00.005-08:00

via computeractive.co.uk

Original post on computer active.co.uk

"No technology show would be complete without some reference to Star Trek and this year at CES there is a competition to develop a medical ‘tricorder'.

Launched by Qualcomm, the top prize is $10m it will tax the greatest minds. Announcing the competition Dr Peter H. Diamandis, chief executive of the X PRIZE Foundation, said there is a "dire need for improvements in health and healthcare .... But a viable solution has yet evaded one of the most technologically advanced, educated and prosperous nations on the globe.

"Integrated diagnostic technology, once available on a consumer mobile device that is easy to use, will allow individuals to incorporate health knowledge and decision-making into their daily lives."...

Read more: http://www.computeractive.co.uk/ca/news/2137264/qualcomm-launches-tricorder-c...
Software, gadgets, magazines and more in our webstore. Click here to see our latest offers.

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Qualcomm launches medical tricorder competition at CES. Prize? $10 million - Computeractive - News

2012-01-16T05:03:00.003-08:00

via computeractive.co.uk

Original post on computer active.co.uk

"No technology show would be complete without some reference to Star Trek and this year at CES there is a competition to develop a medical ‘tricorder'.

Read more: http://www.computeractive.co.uk/ca/news/2137264/qualcomm-launches-tricorder-c...
Software, gadgets, magazines and more in our webstore. Click here to see our latest offers.

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Vuzix augmented reality HD Smart Glasses prototype hands-on - YouTube

2012-01-16T05:03:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

Description:

"Hiding out at Vuzix's CES booth we found a functional prototype for its Smart Glasses industrial class monocular display -- a special lens attached to a proprietary display driver that produces a bright, 1.4mm holographic picture for one of your peepers. Vuzix told us the lenses were the fruit of a DARPA project, and could allow soldiers involved in air-to-surface operations to track jets, check their ordinance and mark targets for destruction. The military / industrial monocle will go on sale in Q3 of 2012 for somewhere between $2500-3000."

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Love Love Love: Moonbot's 'The Numberlys' app for the iPad: Storytelling of the future - latimes.com

2012-01-15T06:29:00.001-08:00

IPad owners, get psyched: The creative people over at Moonbot Studios have just released "The Numberlys," a new iPad and iPhone app that is not quite a movie, not quite a book and not quite a game -- although it includes elements of all three.

One might describe it as one of the few storytelling apps that takes into account the iPad's unique functionality.

"The Numberlys " is set in a black-and-white world inspired in part by Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," where only numbers exist until five little guys decide to create the alphabet by transforming numbers into letters. To do this they jump on them, spin them, smash them and pull them apart using various tools.

via latimesblogs.latimes.com

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MUST Read: Jim Harris on The Death of TV & YouTube's VP Robert Kyncl's Forecast for the Future

2012-01-14T19:34:00.001-08:00

via huffingtonpost.ca

Excerpt from Jim Harris's Article in The Huffington Post, 13 Jan. 2012:

"On Thursday, Robert Kyncl, YouTube's Vice President of Global Content Partnerships keynoted at the at 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

He argued that the world of TV is changing profoundly: "If YouTube's top five channels were stacked against cable channels, they would be in the top 20 in terms of viewership."...

"...Kyncl pointed out that in 1980 there were only four TV channels and they had 100 per cent of the audience. But the emergence of cable TV in the 1980s dramatically changed the economics of distribution and resulted in hundreds of new channels. By 2010, 75 per cent of Americans viewing was spent watching cable channels, but only 25 per cent with the original four broadcast networks.

We are going through this same revolution again, with the Internet and streaming media once again dramatically reducing the cost of distribution. It eliminates barriers to entry, enabling content developers to narrow cast highly target audiences.

For instance, Kyncl cited the fact that today there are 17 million American yoga enthusiasts (and probably double that worldwide), yet there's not a single dedicated yoga channel on traditional TV. Kyncl predicted that within 12 month there will be a very successful YouTube Yoga channel.

And the fact speak for themselves: 350 million videos are shared on Twitter every year; and more than 100,000 person years worth of YouTube videos are watched on Facebook annually.

On hundred million iPads and tablets will be sold in 2012 according to the Consumer Electronics Association and analysts from GfK. Add that to the existing installed base of 70 million (15M in 2010 and 55M in 2011) -- all of them able to stream content; add to that the 600 million video enable smartphones that will sold in 2012 (add this to the 700 million smartphones sold in the last two years: 262M in 2010 & 435M in 2011); and finally add the 1.25 billion PCs worldwide. Presto, you're looking at more than 2 billion devices that can stream content.

By comparison there are only 115.9 million TVs in the U.S. and 1.6 billion TVs worldwide..."

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Graeme Devine designs “Spider Swiper” an iOS game for Mentos | Remember Ensemble Studios

2012-01-14T15:31:00.001-08:00

via remember-ensemblestudios.com

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Nice! Woot! Ramona Pringle - Real Wisdom from Virtual Worlds - TEDxRyersonU

2012-01-13T10:07:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

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I Love Their Work! Hide & Seek - Inventing new kinds of play

2012-01-11T07:27:00.001-08:00

via hideandseek.net

Have a good look at their site - great fun work!

Description from the site!

"Hide&Seek make social games and playful experiences.

We expand the boundaries of play, reaching out into public space, new technologies, culture and media."

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Transmedia set to get more credit - Entertainment News, Consumer Electronics Show, Media - Variety

2012-01-10T20:02:00.001-08:00

via variety.com

Excerpt from Dave McNary's original post in Variety.com

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118048415.html?cmpid=RSS|News|FilmNews

"...Since the PGA started recognizing the role in April 2010, the first credits have already started to appear, with George Stayton getting a transmedia producer title on Paramount and Hasbro's "Transformers" franchise. The credit's also appeared on THQ's "Red Faction" videogame.

But 2012 should prove a watershed year, according to veteran transmedia producer Jeff Gomez, who's been championing the concept for more than a decade. The Canadian Media Fund will add the credit to its projects. And "there will be (another) major studio getting on board very soon," Gomez said.

Although the PGA doesn't have collective bargaining agreements, Gomez hopes transmedia work will eventually become part of the master contracts handled by the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, with those groups already starting discussions to consider the credit, which would net their members more money for their multiplatform work.

Expanding jurisdiction is tricky turf for the guilds -- SAG was unable to persuade the companies to include language addressing performance-capture by actors in the last negotiation -- but it's a potentially huge area for Hollywood's creatives.

Christopher Pfaff, a transmedia consultant who's vice chairman of the PGA's New Media Council, believes the PGA's support of the credit has already had a profound impact. "It took us about two years to get the credit enacted but doing that woke a lot of people up," he added.

Pfaff, noting that the guild counts over 600 members on the new media council, believes that the turning point in recognizing transmedia has been the cratering of the DVD market...."

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Who Wants to be ARG Manager for a David Croneberg Project?? Job Posting - TIFF.net

2012-01-10T19:38:00.001-08:00

Reporting to the Artistic Director, TIFF Bell Lightbox, the Project Manager will be responsible for the development and production of a sophisticated augmented reality game (ARG), Body/Mind/Change. For a period of up to 24 months (from January 2012 through until December 2013 – with some flexibility), the Manager will lead final creative development, agency selection, workplans, budgeting, development, and implementation.

Responsibilities

• Leading brainstorming sessions, discussions, and consultations with the TIFF Gaming & New Media Think Tank and key project staff, the consultant will facilitate final creative development of Body/Mind/Change.
• Developing a critical path, workplan, and initial budget to move the project forward.
• Assisting in the selection of qualified creative professionals (e.g. agency) who can lead production. The Project and Production Manager will also be tasked with securing discounted services and in-kind contributions.
• Working with TIFF staff and the selected agency, the Manager will serve as production manager to keep the project moving ahead.
• Maintaining a detailed critical path and up to date budget, maintaining close contact with TIFF’s fundraising departments.
• Leading user and technical testing, with input from various stakeholders at TIFF.
• Leading a phased launch, with the initial content ready for users to explore by September 2012. The rest of the game will launch in phases across 2013, with full launch in September 2013.
• Performing ongoing maintenance and improvements post-launch through December 2013.
• Completing detailed final reports to government agencies, with exact performance measures and qualitative evaluations.
Contract Dates: January 2012 – December 2013

via tiff.net

more details on the site! very cool

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Transmedia L.A. » Profiling our new Wiki – A collaborative toolkit for Transmedia Storytellers!

2012-01-10T06:02:00.001-08:00

Profiling our new Wiki – A collaborative toolkit for Transmedia Storytellers!

Hello everyone,

I’m so excited to officially announce that Transmedia LA has created a Wiki. This Wiki aims to be an open toolkit for everyone in the Transmedia community looking into tools, services, and other innovative resources to facilitate the creation of Transmedia projects.

The Transmedia LA Wiki: http://transmediala.pbworks.com

We encourage everyone in the community to not only check the Wiki periodically for updates, but also add to the Wiki when you find a service or tool that has come useful in your work. To add to the Wiki just request to be added to the workspace at the upper right corner of the pbworks page.

via transmediala.net

Kudos for Transmedia LA for getting this wiki up! Thank you!

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Digital entertainment is changing the living room for good (infographic) | VentureBeat

2012-01-10T05:14:00.001-08:00

via venturebeat.com

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Cool: Apps Are Media: Chasing Salander Expands The Dragon Tattoo Story | TechCrunch

2012-01-09T18:56:00.001-08:00

via techcrunch.com

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Fantastically Awesome. BIG Love: Oh, the Places You'll Go at Burning Man! - (You'll Have to Sign In)

2012-01-07T16:36:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

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Fascinating. Game Developers Take Note: Test. Test. Test: How wooga turned the games business into a science (Wired UK)

2012-01-07T07:05:00.001-08:00

via wired.co.uk

This is really fascinating - must play one on wooga's games. Read the full wired.co.uk article here:

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/01/features/test-test-test

Excerpt:

"...Wooga is a new type of game developer, one that emphasises metrics over creativity. Its core discipline is A/B or split testing, in which new features are introduced to a selection of users, and their reactions measured. Features remain only if users engage with them. If they don't respond, wooga tries new features until they do. Each wooga title is updated weekly; the initial release is just another stage in development. "After launch we become very metrics-driven," says Begemann. "During the first two weeks of Brain Buddies [wooga's first game], we did four or five A/B tests. It was very fast -- almost daily iterations."

The result is a rigorous process that practically automates the creation of a social game, and maximises each title's chance of success. "We A/B test everything, we optimise everything," says Stephanie Kaiser, a lead game designer. "In the product department, it's very simple," says Thorbjörn Warin, a former employee. "They have all of their KPIs [key performance indicators] and metrics. It's really, 'This week, we focus on nothing but retention, let's identify ten activities that can increase that.' In the first 60 seconds of Monster World, there are 13 to 15 tracking points. For a new user, when they start playing, every three or four seconds, Stephanie and Jens can see what is happening. Usually something has to be improved, and that's when creativity comes in." Wooga's users don't just play a game; they design it...."

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MUST Read! SOPA Is a Symbol of the Movie Industry's Failure to Innovate - Steve Blank - The Atlantic

2012-01-07T05:52:00.001-08:00

via theatlantic.com

Original article in The Atlantic by STEVE BLANK - Steve Blank is a retired Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur-turned-educator and the author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany. He blogs at www.steveblank.com.

This is an excerpt of Blank's thought's on piracy - read the original article for the full argument:

"THE BIG LIE OF PIRACY

One of the claims that studios make is that they need legislation to stop piracy. The fact is piracy is rampant in all forms of commerce. Video games and software have been targets since their inception. Grocery and retail stores euphemistically call it shrinkage. Credit card companies call it fraud. But none use regulation as often as the movie studios to solve a business problem. And none are so willing to do collateral damage to other innovative industries (VCRs, DVRs, cloud storage and now the Internet itself.)

The studios don't even pretend that this legislation benefits consumers. It's all about protecting short-term profit.

When lawyers, MBAs and financial managers run your industry and your lobbyists are ex-Senators, understanding technology and innovation is not one of your core capabilities.

The SOPA bill (and DNS blocking) is what happens when someone with the title of anti-piracy or copyright lawyer has greater clout than your head of new technology. SOPA gives corporations unprecedented power to censor almost any site on the Internet. It's as if someone shoplifts in your store, SOPA allows the government to shut down your store.

History has shown that time and market forces provide equilibrium in balancing interests, whether the new technology is a video recorder, a personal computer, an MP3 player or now the Net. It's prudent for courts and congress to exercise caution before restructuring liability theories for the purpose of addressing specific market abuses, despite their apparent present magnitude.

What the music and movie industry should be doing in Washington is promoting legislation to adapt copyright law to new technology -- and then leading the transition to the new platforms...."

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A Sneak Peek At The TVs Of The Future | via Fast Company

2012-01-06T19:22:00.001-08:00

via fastcompany.com

One of Steven Rosenbaum's Five Predictions:

"Here are FIVE CES PREDICTIONS you can expect to see come true in Las Vegas this year.

TVs get sexy. Expect Samsung, Vizio, Panasonic, Sony, and more to come out with sleeker, brighter, more awesome screens. A related new technology called 4K is expected to greatly improve image resolutions. While it's still early on, there will be some new voice control gizmos trying to get a jump on the Siri TV product that Apple is rumored to have on its way to market. However, as always, no Apple at CES. Last year the big buzz was 3-D on the heels of Avatar. But the glasses were expensive and proprietary to the set manufacturer, which kept customers away. Expect a new batch of passive 3-D glasses that are cheap (like the ones in the movie theaters) and interchangeable from set to set. LG is planning to offer 4K HDTVs that include passive 3-D technology. TVs with 4K resolution will be able to deliver full HD resolution with the passive 3-D. Maybe 3-D will break out this year? Could be..."

Read the full FastCompany article here:

http://www.fastcompany.com/1805914/5-big-tv-trends-at-ces-2012

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Creative Review - Nike says Make It Count in New Campaign

2012-01-06T12:59:00.001-08:00

via creativereview.co.uk

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Emma O'Sullivan's List: 5 or 6 Indie Games to Look Forward to in 2012

2012-01-06T12:31:00.001-08:00

1 – Journey

thatgamecompany

Los Angeles-based thatgamecompany will be releasing their successor to Flow and Flower in Spring 2012. As possibly the most well-known developers on this list, TGC will be following up the massive success of their two previous releases on the PlayStation Network with Journey, a game that looks set to continue in the abstract vein of gameplay that the company have become known for, while adding a key new ingredient: online co-operative gameplay.

Your avatar, a mysterious robed figure, travels across a gorgeously stylised windswept desert towards a distant mountain, either with or without the help of other online players you meet along the way. Details as to the game’s narrative and backstory remain hazy, though imagery in the official trailer and promotional material suggest that the game will have a firmer narrative structure than either Flow or Flower.

The core of TGC’s releases has always been a focus on how games can elicit an emotive reaction from players, and the unusual application of co-op gameplay in Journey builds on these foundations. In the game, players cannot speak to each other and are visually defined only by a uniquely assigned symbol that appears on their robes. Robin Hunicke, Journey’s producer, has explained that as an experiment they were aiming to take away the pressure associated with performing socially in online gaming to give players the opportunity to form deeper, lasting connections with each other:

“One of the things we talked about early in the project was this idea of creating a connection between players in an environment where you feel small and less empowered than you might in a traditional video game setting. We thought this would be conducive to a feeling of wanting to spend time together. And we wanted to create this connection without forcing it – we don’t make you play with someone else, but we chose the desert setting because we thought a desolate and unfriendly place might actually encourage a connection between players.”

Trailer

Platform: PlayStation 3 (PSN download)
Release date: Spring 2012

via whatculture.com

I love Flow & Flower & can't wait for this one!

read the full post here:

http://whatculture.com/gaming/5-or-6-indie-games-to-look-forward-to-in-2012.php

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Cool Idea. 2008 Though - What Happened to It? Mobile Search Device From The Future – GEARFUSE

2012-01-06T10:54:00.001-08:00

via gearfuse.com

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I Like this Distinction: Why Bounded Crowdsourcing is Important for Crisis Mapping and Beyond | iRevolution

2012-01-06T10:52:00.001-08:00

via irevolution.net

Just stumbled on this blog & I like Patrick Meier's distinction:

"Open crowdsourcing or “unbounded crowdsourcing” refers to the collection of information with no intentional constraints. Anyone who hears about an effort to crowdsource information can participate. This definition is inline with the original description put forward by Jeff Howe: outsourcing a task to a generally large group of people in the form of an open call.

In contrast, the point of “bounded crowdsourcing” is to start with a small number of trusted individuals and to have these individuals invite say 3 additional individuals to join the project–individuals who they fully trust and can vouch for. After joining and working on the project, these individuals in turn invite 3 additional people they fully trust. And so on and so forth at an exponential rate if desired. Just like crowdsourcing is nothing new in the field of statistics, neither is “bounded crowdsourcing”; it’s analog being snowball sampling..."

I'm bookmarking this blog - thank you, Patrick!

Read the full post & others here:

http://irevolution.net/2011/12/07/why-bounded-crowdsourcing/

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Once the dust of Social TV hype settles, content recommendation will be changed forever (2/2) | Rapid innovation in digital time

2012-01-06T08:38:00.001-08:00

via nbry.wordpress.com

Get ready for 'blended TV' - here's a short excerpt from this original post:

"Cory Bergman founder of Lostremote, a web site dedicated to social TV, speaks of “a smart social guide” displaying 4 kinds of recommendations :

1. new episodes of shows you customarily watch;
2. current shows your friends enjoy;
3. trending shows across the larger population, and
4. what your friends are watching now.”

Maybe like the four sides of a cube?..."

Original post here:

http://nbry.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/once-the-dust-of-social-tv-hype-settles-...

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2011 By The Numbers: The Year In Box-Office Flops | Filmmakers, Film Industry, Film Festivals, Awards & Movie Reviews | indieWIRE

2012-01-06T07:06:00.001-08:00

via blogs.indiewire.com

It's hard to pull a good stand-alone paragraph here as 2011 seems to be a cascade of flops & fails. Here are some headers & topic sentences:

"Zemeckis Hurts

There are the big, loud, splashy flops that get a lot of media attention, and then there are those that fly under the radar, but whose failure has wide ranging repercussions other than the box office report on Monday morning..."

"Summer Genre Flops: “Green Lantern” & “Cowboys & Aliens”

Summer 2011 wasn’t quite the bloodbath that Jon Favreau predicted, but two films that took blows straight in the teeth include Favreau’s own genre mish-mash “Cowboys & Aliens.”..."

"Snyder’s Feminist Fantasy Has No ‘Punch’

Another WB bust was Zack Snyder’s feminist/misogynist fantasy “Sucker Punch,” which was made for $82 million and tanked with only $89 million worldwide. Domestically, audiences barely cared, with a platry $36 million in ticket sales..."

The full post is here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/2011-by-the-numbers-the-year-in-box-of...

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Once the dust of Social TV hype settles, content recommendation will be changed forever (Part 1/2) | Rapid innovation in digital time

2012-01-06T06:36:00.001-08:00

via nbry.wordpress.com

Read the full original post here:

http://nbry.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/once-the-dust-of-social-tv-hype-settles-...

A short excerpt:

"...How can recommendation engines best fulfill these needs?

Content recommendation solutions are usually classified with technical criteria depending on how they work under the hood. Without going into the details these include approaches like Semantic Analysis, where the recommendation engine uses the information contained in the content metadata to create clusters of similar or related programs.

Collaborative Filtering is the technique Amazon has made commonplace with the “people who like what you like also like this” feature. Other distinguishing features include a declarative approach where the recommendation system uses information that the viewer gave willingly, i.e. “I like action thrillers & sport but I don’t like romantic comedy”.

One of the trickiest techniques to implement in an IPTV setup is Behavior Analysis, where the system learns what you like more from what you actually watch than from what you say you like..."

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Genius. Israel's Anti-Drugs Authority & agency McCann Israel use Facebook Timeline for Campaign

2012-01-06T06:06:00.001-08:00

via facebook.com

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2011: The Year The Big Projects Died & Studios Discovered (A Little) Fiscal Responsibility | Filmmakers, Film Industry, Film Festivals, Awards & Movie Reviews | indieWIRE

2012-01-06T06:00:00.001-08:00

via blogs.indiewire.com

Read the full breakdown on indiewire.com - Here's Oliver Lyttleton's conclusion

BY OLIVER LYTTELTON | DECEMBER 28, 2011

"...The fact is, $200 million tentpoles aren't going anywhere. But everyone in town has been burnt by something recently, and 2011 was the year when the credit crunch finally seemed to catch up to studio executives. Does this mean that the era of risk-taking in mainstream cinema is over? Well, perhaps not. Annapurna Pictures, headed up by Megan Ellison, have made a habit of stepping in to finance films once thought left for dead like John Hillcoat's "The Wettest County" and Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master," when others have dropped out, and it's become a home for people like Kathryn Bigelow, Wong Kar-Wai, Andrew Dominik, Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman and Bennett Miller. These films are likely not PG-13 tentpoles, but Ellison clearly thinks there's money to be made in backing her favorite filmmakers. With any luck, there'll be more like her, and fewer mid-budgeted versions of "Akira," on the way in 2012."

Read here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/2011-the-year-the-studios-discovered-a...

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This Just In: Americans Love DVRs and Streaming Movies Online - via The Hollywood Reporter #infdist

2012-01-06T05:11:00.001-08:00

via hollywoodreporter.com

Very very interesting data in Paul Bond's post:

"...According to the survey, 42 percent of Americans ages 14-75 have streamed a movie online, up from 28 percent in 2009.

Streaming a movie on a tablet also showed up for the first time (it’s the sixth year Deloitte has conducted the survey). One percent of consumers called streaming to a tablet their favorite way to view a movie (not counting at a movie theater), and 13 percent of Americans owned a tablet in 2011 (mostly iPads), up from 5 percent in 2010.

Watching a movie on a TV screen via DVD or Blu-ray disc is still one of the preferred methods, though it’s down two percentage points to 35 percent..."

"Deloitte says that 9 percent of Americans have already cut their pay-TV cords (metaphorically speaking) while 11 percent “are considering doing so because they can watch almost all of their favorite shows online,” according to a synopsis of the 25-page report..."

read the full post here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/just-americans-love-dvrs-streaming-277695

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2011 Yearly Box Office Results - Worldwide Grosses for 365 Movies from Box Office Mojo

2012-01-06T04:58:00.001-08:00

2011 WORLDWIDE GROSSES

Pink highlight = official revisions of older movies
Gold highlight = now playing or recent movies

Rank Title (click to view) Studio*

WorldwideDomestic / %Overseas / %1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 WB $1,328.1 $381.0 28.7% $947.1 71.3% 2 Transformers: Dark of the Moon P/DW $1,123.7 $352.4 31.4% $771.4 68.6% 3 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides BV $1,043.9 $241.1 23.1% $802.8 76.9% 4 Kung Fu Panda 2 P/DW $665.7 $165.2 24.8% $500.4 75.2% 5 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 Sum. $657.7 $276.7 42.1% $381.0 57.9% 6 Fast Five Uni. $626.1 $209.8 33.5% $416.3 66.5% 7 The Hangover Part II WB $581.5 $254.5 43.8% $327.0 56.2% 8 The Smurfs Sony $562.5 $142.6 25.4% $419.9 74.6% 9 Cars 2 BV $559.9 $191.5 34.2% $368.4 65.8% 10 Rio Fox $484.6 $143.6 29.6% $341.0 70.4%

via boxofficemojo.com

Deets here!

http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?view2=worldwide&yr=2011&p=.htm

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Dennis Toth on Film Fund-amentals: The Box Office Report for 2011 | R&R Consulting

2012-01-06T04:55:00.001-08:00

Excerpt from Dennis Toth's full article on creditspectrum.com.

"...So the box office figures for 2011 were still being sorted out, along with the various excuses, mutual blaming, general rounds of finger-pointing and bogus claims of victory. For example, Paramount Pictures is already claiming to be the number one film company in gross for the year with $5.17 billion in US distribution ($17 billion global). Of course, they spent something in the neighborhood of $1.4 to $2 billion in production and, most likely, several more billions in promotion and distribution, which means that the US box office roughly paid their costs and the rest became profit thanks to the current generosity of the global market. But it is still a profit (though made the hard way).

This is something you’ll want to keep in mind while looking at the current report from Box Office Mojo of the top ten major box office hits of 2011. Especially the fact that the vast majority of box office is now being generated overseas, often by a margin of 2 to 1 or even 3 to 1. Likewise, the actual rate of return is pretty thin due to the cost of production (a more detailed critique on this and other issues can be found in Mike Fleming’s excellent piece at Deadline.com)..."

via creditspectrum.com

Read the full post with links to other worth reading posts here:

http://www.creditspectrum.com/2012/01/film-fund-amentals-the-box-office-repor...

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Ah the Bleakness: PhD Job Crisis | Data Viz via Online PhD

2012-01-06T04:51:00.001-08:00

via onlinephd.org

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OMG. THE BABY SLOTHS ARE COMING -thanks! @socksinc

2012-01-05T14:24:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

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So Unbelievably Cool: UI Magic: This Tiny Mic Turns Any Surface Into A Touch Interface | Co.Design

2012-01-05T08:47:00.001-08:00

via fastcodesign.com

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Very Useful Post: Georgy Cohen on Social Media Guides for Content Creation | Meet Content

2012-01-05T07:21:00.001-08:00

via meetcontent.com

Read Georgy Cohen's full post for some excellent tips & links to pdfs & guides. Here's a short excerpt:

"This 14-page best practice guide for “Marketing on Facebook” [PDF] provides a high-level overview to the value of marketing via Facebook, complete with mini case studies and five-step strategies for implementing core marketing objectives. The last page of the guide is a master directory of resources about all things Facebook.
Tucked within their vast repository of developer resources is a section exploring one of Facebook’s core concepts, social design, which they define as “a way of thinking about product design that puts social experiences at the core.” Through three in-depth sections—utilizing community, building conversations and curating identity—you can learn how to leverage the Facebook platform (whether through creating an app or integrating Facebook functionality onto your website) to make your content more social...."

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This is a Gamechanger: Sundance Offer New Video Streaming for Films #infdist

2012-01-05T06:17:00.001-08:00

via nytimes.com

Excerpt from NYTimes article. This is the gold:

"Thanks to a recent arrangement between the Sundance Institute, which operates the festival, and the Manhattan distributor New Video, six Web homes — Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, iTunes, YouTube and SundanceNOW — are making Mr. Noonan’s movie, and any other eligible Sundance film, available for streaming online. The option is open to every film ever shown at the festival, or brought to a Sundance lab, or given a Sundance grant. Filmmakers don’t surrender their rights. They (17 so far, with thousands of potential participants) can opt to go with any or all of the half-dozen sites. They have, in essence, a guaranteed means of distribution...."

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Still makes me happy! THE HOBBIT, Production Video #5 [HD]

2012-01-05T05:56:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

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Sheri Candler's Top 10 Posts of 2011 - Excellent Reading if You Missed Any

2012-01-05T05:21:00.001-08:00

via shericandler.com

10) The importance of a good trailer-This is part one of my interview with trailer editor Bill Woolery on...

9)Crowdsourcing as exploitation-This one got a few responses from other sites such as DocumentaryTech and The Chutry Experiment....

8) The ugly truth about social media- A post about feeling overwhelmed with all of the startups devoted to “social media” ...

7)Readying a crowdfunding campaign-This year saw the donation numbers for independent film projects on crowdfunding site really soar....

6)The internet expanded consumption but destroyed the industry- A Seth Godin inspired post (of course!)....

5)Marketing a documentary with a limited budget-The title pretty much says it all really...

Read the full list and descriptions on Sheri's site:

http://www.shericandler.com/2011/12/31/top-10-posts-of-2011/

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I want a Popcorn Hackathon - Documentary Filmmakers Look To Make Videos More Interactive

2012-01-05T05:12:00.001-08:00

Here is the video of the "Living Docs Hack Day":

While the meeting, called the "Popcorn Hackathon," used documentary films, probably because there are so many directions and content to use for such a medium, the goal is to try to make any video interactive in the future.

via reelseo.com

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Popcorn Framework Usage Surprises Even Its Creators

2012-01-05T05:10:00.001-08:00

via reelseo.com

Highrise, Shakespeare and this....excerpt from Chris Atkinson's post. Read his full post for more details:

"Another use surprised even the people who created Popcorn. In the accompanying video for Firefox 9's Add-Ons, they were surprised that the framework was being used to show synchronized interactive content. When the video talks about a particular add-on, the add-on shows up in a column next to the video, which can then be clicked for information and download. When discussing wallpaper content, Personas, through my Firefox browser, the top and bottom of the page changed to that wallpaper to give a mini-preview of what it would look like...."

Source: Popcorn Framework Usage Surprises Even Its Creators http://www.reelseo.com/popcorn-framework-surprises-creators/#ixzz1iaZi1qbV
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Netflix Finally Unveils Details on Airing its First Series, Lilyhammer | TechnoBuffalo

2012-01-04T14:48:00.001-08:00

via technobuffalo.com

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