Politics Online

Garrett Graff’s Washington Post op-ed published last December raises some very interesting issues regarding our presidential candidates and their technological literacy.  Garrett states that, “our economic future and security require that we have a higher standard for our leaders.”  And he goes on to pose the question, “Why is it that we blithely allow our leaders to be ignorant of the force that, probably more than any other, will drive and define the nation’s economic success and reshape its society over the next 20 years?”

In addition to many other Bush-isms, President Bush has referred to google as “the google” and the internet as the “internets” and thus dubbed (among other things) “Googler-in-Chief” by The Wall Street Journal.  Did you miss it?  Don’t worry, here’s a quick CNN clip that has it all:

In his op-ed piece, Garrett also mentions Senator Ted Steven’s description of the Internet as a “series of tubes” and Mitt Romney’s inability to distinguish the capabilities of YouTube from MySpace during a campaign trail question in early 2007.  Although we all get a good laugh out of this stuff, I have to agree with Garrett when he says that “technology shouldn’t be a laughing matter.”

It is my hope, too, that the 2008 presidential elections will reshape our standards of technological literacy for our leader.  In a Republican presidential debate in 2007, John McCain admitted his need to rely on the Vice President for up to date knowledge of our new technology.  The full transcript is available here, but this is what he said:

McCain: Look, I am going to give you some straight talk. This president came to office in a time of peace, and then we found ourselves in 2001.

And he did not have as much national security experience as I do. So he had to rely more on the vice president of the United States, and that’s obvious. I wouldn’t have to do that. I might have to rely on a vice president that I select on some other issues. He may have more expertise in telecommunications, on information technology, which is the future of this nation’s economy. He may have more expertise in a lot of areas.

Obama has publically stated that he intends to make technology literacy a priority in public schools and to use the “Internet as a tool to increase government accountability” according to alternet.org.

Only time will tell…

“Corporate Blogging” – North Shore Music Theatre Blog

In our current Web 2.0 world, it is more important than ever that we embrace our new social media tools.  Blogging is one of them.  Chris Anderson says in his book, The Long Tail, “…collectively blogs are proving more than an equal to mainstream media.”  Journalism is literally changing as we know it, and we have no choice but to adapt to these changes.

I thought it would be interesting to search around and find various performing arts organization blogs.  One of the best ones that I came across was the North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) blog.  North Shore Music Theatre is one of the largest non-profits professional theaters in New England that creates “some of the most vibrant classic, contemporary and new musical theater in the country” according to its website. Through the use of photos, video, informative text, and a human voice, they truly provide a behind the scenes look into their productions.  This blog is fairly new, but if they keep it up, it will be a huge success.  Additionally, they are extremely open to audience suggestions and questions.  In their first blog posting of their newly revamped site, NSMT says:

North Shore Music Theatre is happy to announce the return of THE NSMT BLOG. Our new exciting format will be an informative and exciting editorial magazine style that will mix interviews with video and photo essays. However what we are most excited about is that we want your input on the content. Let us know what you want to read or see and we will update the blog regularly with answers to your questions as well as many other fun facts and insider information.

As a patron of the arts (and NSMT) this blog makes me very excited to see its upcoming production of Bye Bye Birdie –  which I will actually have the opportunity of seeing next weekend!  Here is the video of Bye Bye Birdie they provide on their blog that gives viewers an insider look to their rehearsal process:

Additionally, NSMT uses similar social media tools for its children’s productions.  Another video podcast was created for their recent performance of Frog and Toad.  Here is the video clip for that one:

I’ve always enjoyed productions at NSMT; I even used to be a yearly subscriber to their musical season when I lived in the Boston area.  If I could, I still would be!  Just a bit difficult being an 8 hour drive away…

I’d just like to thank NSMT for embracing these new social media tools.  It is a such a joy to read their blog and watch their videos.  See you next weekend!

A Response to Biking in the Great Outdoors…

In response to my blog post on Spinning, Michael posted an article titled Converted Cyclist in his blog, Mknac’s Weblog.  First of all, I want to thank Mike for reading and enjoying my blog post!  Secondly, I want to say that about 2 months ago, I purchased my very first “adult” bike from City Bikes in the Woodley Park area in Washington, D.C. and have been test riding it outdoors ever since, and I really like it!

The employees at City Bikes were so helpful to me.  They patiently answered all of my questions (I had SO many!) and they took the time to discover which style bike would suit my needs best, fit me to a bike, and show me the proper equipment I would need to go with the bike (lock, helmet, etc.).  They were so knowledgeable and friendly, it’s no wonder that they were named Best Bike Shop by Washington City Paper’s Best of D.C. in 2008, as well as ranking in the top ten for the 2007 Consumer’s Choice Award. 

I ended up selecting a dark blue  2008 Jamis Women’s Commuter 1 bike which is perfect for what I need.  I really wasn’t looking for an extremely high-end road bike or racing bike.  I was looking for something comfortable, affordable, convenient, and occasionally, for exercise.  To be honest, I find myself so busy with my full-time job, my part-time job, and with grad school work, that I don’t really have the time (or energy) to be biking outdoors for 25+ miles on a regular basis.  Sure, I could do it.  And, I plan to very soon — but, not on a regular basis, or else when would I get my grad school work done, keep up to date with the latest movies, have time to spend with friends, or basically, have a life? 

Staying healthy is very important to me.  Exercising on a regular basis is a must to stay healthy and strong.  That’s where indoor cycle comes in as a great and refreshing workout for busier than busy people, or even just for those who like to cycle, that fits in just one little hour.  We go fast, we go slow, we do jumps, we hover, we suffer climbs by adding resistance, and taking it off, we have recoveries, we take water breaks, we have great music, and we have moving and stationary fans, and many times, AC    Yes, it is different than being in the great outdoors — but, how “great” are those outdoors when the temperature is upwards of 90º and humid, or even when its pouring rain?

Mike, I have to disagree with you when you say:

Riding indoors is like running on a treadmill; going nowhere fast. Never to enjoy the rush of a downhill or to suffer on a climb! Don’t you yearn to ride free and feel the air as you cut a line through a turn?

You clearly have not been to an indoor cycle class before, and definitely have not been to my cycle class!

I’ve tried it.  I bought a road bike.  I even joined Washington Area Bicyclist Assocation (WABA).  I’ve been riding outside and will continue to do so.  Now, Mike, it’s your turn!  I challenge you to try indoor cycle.  Be sure to go to a class with a recommended instructor, I’d hate for you to experience indoor cycle/spinning for the first time with a beginning instructor.  Or better yet, come take my class, and see what all the hubbub is about!

 

Web 2.0 Fills the Gap Created by Mainstream Media Coverage of the War

Web 2.0 has changed reporting as we know it.  This is especially apparent with combatant-reporters from Iraq — real soldier correspondents eager to share what they have seen and experienced with the rest of the world.  For my assignment this week, I have been asked to explore various military blogs (aka miliblogs) as well as any other blogs and YouTube clips pertaining to the war.

The shear mass and detailof reports and footage coming from soldiers in Iraq and other parts of the world is simply incredible.  The Internet, with its Web 2.0 features, brings it all to us instantly, with a click of a mouse.  Gone are the days when we have to wait for the morning paper, or a magazine, to see or read about breaking news updates or graphic photos of a major event.  (FYI, Without a functional updated website, Life Magazine has still yet to fully embody Web 2.0 which is not in their best interest since the popularity of individual blogs and Flickr sites have been overwhelming) – Update: Wow, I’m a space cadet.  Thanks, Crystal, for letting me know that Life folded last year.  However, reports show that they intend to keep their website.

I believe that seeing and reading about the war is a good thing, although hard to stomachat times.  It is in America’s best interest to have this much access to the front lines and show the reality of the war to as many people as possible in order to make our country feel directly connected to it.  This new way of sharing information provides us with a broader understanding of the war leading us to make properly informed opinions of the war, and hence appropriate decisions on what should be done.  Blogs and YouTube clips from combatant-reporters also provide Americans with alternative views of the war that perhaps the mainstream media left out.  Colby Buzzell, a famous blogging soldier, agrees in his blog when he talks about military bloggers,

In the sleepy on-base hours between missions, they share their stories directly with the world, unfiltered by the biases of the “mainstream media” many of them distrust.

Also, I read about one of the biggest online controversies involving Kevin Sites’ video clip.  While being an independent journalist in Iraq, Mr. Sites videotaped a soldier shooting a wounded and unarmed Iraqi.  Mr. Sites provides an in-depth explanation about his experience, as well as the aftermath of releasing his video to the world in the following YouTube clip: 

From blogs to Flickr to Twitter to YouTube, soldier-reporters have a lot to show and tell us, and it is in our best interest to watch and listen.

Global Voices Online: Saudi Arabia

For this week’s blog posting, I was asked to explore a country beginning with the first letter of my name (first or last) via the website Global Voices Online.  I chose Saudi Arabia.

It was fascinating to get a peek into a world that I do not know much about.  I stumbled upon topics that were both controversial and mundane – yet, each and every blog played an important role in shaping the humanity of people I’ve never met, living in a far off country I’ve never traveled to, and living under rules, laws, and religious regulations I’ve never been exposed to.

Through this website, I was able to come across a personal blog by a student from Hijaz, Saudi Arabia studying in the U.S.  This blogger writes passionate articles on issues, events, and news of racism, internet censorship by Saudi officials, and even an extremist riot that bombards the opening of a theatrical performance.  This student also posts video whenever possible, although many have been taken down.  I found a clip about a Saudi Arabian female author on the subjects of Women, Sex, and Taboos particularly interesting and insightful to the mindset of a large portion of this country.  Here it is: 

Additionally, I sampled articles directly from the Global Voices Online website.  I learned that there are no movie theaters in Saudi Arabia, and one person from the country is advocating for them.  Another person from Saudi Arabia blogs about his experiences at his new job, and how he was accidentally locked in his office overnight.  Pretty amusing.  Not so amusing is that a Turkish barber is under arrest and could possibly be beheaded “for using God’s name in vain” while in Saudi Arabia.

It is a truly eye opening experience to be able to read these translated blogs, or portions of blogs, from non-professional writers that are experiencing this stuff first-hand.

Wikiscanner: Scientology

After much deliberating, I chose to look into the Church of Scientology for my Wikiscanner report.

Employees working for the Church of Scientology have made about 170 edits to various Wikipedia pages from 2004 to 2007.  For the most part, these employees, probably made up of mostly Sea Orgs, have added Scientology-related links to these articles.  Scientologists are anti-psychiatry and have edited many Wikipedia articles for psychiatric disorders commonly treated with drugs such as: bipolar disorder, depression, generalized anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD, and dyslexia to name a few.  They edit these articles to include a link to the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) website to provide alternatives to using medication and standard psychiatric procedures.  The CCHR “investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights” and was co-founded in part by the Church of Scientology itself.  Scientologists are anti-psychiatry, but those who are anti-psychiatry are not necessarily Scientologists.

The Sea Orgs also make a point to insert major Scientology-related events in Wikipedia year articles.  For example, in 1954, L. Ron Hubbard issued the Creed of the Church of Scientology.  In 1993, the IRS granted full tax exemption and religious recognition in the U.S. to all Church of Scientology Churches and affiliated organizations.  Hm. Is this wise?

The most interesting edit I found occurred in the Wikipedia article for Church of Scientology.  The edit claims to have “removed hearsay” and “added some links.”  However, I think it was more so a NPOV issue, or even, in their best interest to make themselves sound better.  Within this article, the edit was made to the Scientology Volunteer Ministers section.  Originally stating that:

Over the past several years, it has become a common practice for the organization to send ‘teams’ of ‘Volunteer Ministers’ to the scenes of major, headline-grabbing disasters in order to provide assistance with relief efforts. According to critics, most of these relief efforts consist of passing out copies of a pamphlet authored by L. Ron Hubbard entitled “The Way To Happiness,” and by engaging in a method of calming panicked or injured individuals known in Scientology as a touch assist.

The words in red were deleted and the words in green were replaced with the much kinder, “Though they provide a number of different services, critics suggest…”

Additionally, the edit goes on to a paragraph about Scientology Volunteer Minister roles in the aftermath of September 11.  The article orginially states:

An E-mail confirmed to be from a Sea Org ‘Lieutenant’ brags of a deliberate plan to prevent the grief-stricken from receiving counseling from non-Scientology sources. “Due to some brilliant maneuvering by some simply genius Sea Org Members we tied up the majority of the psychs who were attempting to get to families yesterday in Q&A, bullbait and wrangling. … The survivors don’t know it but they need the Scientologists with LRH’s tech to be here right now.” http://www.xenu.net/archive/events/20010911-tragedy/

Although this is not the most articulate article written, it provides a website and quotes.  Both of which were taken out, and re-worked by Scientology workers.  The new text they provided was, “An E-mail reportedly from a Sea Org ‘Lieutenant’ brags of a deliberate plan to prevent the grief-stricken from receiving counseling from non-Scientology sources.”  This has all since been taken down and reformatted on the page now – but, it seems to me that the writer may have an agenda of his/her own.

One final note:  The Sea Orgs also added their Volunteer Ministers program link to articles for major disasters like Hurricane Katrina, 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, Cyclone Larry, and September 11 to name a few.  Does this follow the Wikipedia guidelines of what Wikipedia is not?

UPDATE…

As I was reading individual blogs from our Social Media class on the Wikiscanner report, I noticed that Alicia also examined Scientology on her blog.  She caught something quite interesting on Wikiscanner that I had overlooked.  Alicia found that the workers at the Church of Scientology edited the Wikipedia article on Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (the Columbine High School shooters) to include a report of a “therapeutic amount” of Luvox (an anti-depressant) found in Eric Harris during an autopsy.  I agree with Alicia that “this was clearly edited to support their belief that anti-depressants cause suicidal thoughts and violence amongst its users.”

–

For the first portion of my Wikipedia report, we were asked to write a new page or substantially edit an existing page.  The majority of my work was on creating a page on Town Class (sailboat) with the username bostonsro.  Growing up near the ocean in Massachusetts, I was around boats all the time.  My dad has a Town Class sailboat and I thought it would be beneficial for his Town Class organization to have a Wikipedia page about the boat.  I did run into problems attaching an image to my article.  I would love to include this line drawing of a Town Class sailboat. Can anyone help me out?

Additionally, I made Wikipedia edits to:  One-design, and Indoor Cycling.

Second Life

In less than 20 minutes upon arrival, I found myself running around in a strange place with angel wings attached to my back and a beer bottle in hand.  No, I’m not talking about my Halloween experience last year.  I’m talking about my avatar, Rosie Osterham.

Second life is a virtual world video game on the internet in which you can choose your own character (called an avatar) as well as what it does.  The possibilities to this are endless.  Your avatar doesn’t even have to be human — some are even animals (or so I’m told…I’m still a novice so I haven’t seen one just yet).  As I started to fiddle around with my avatar’s appearance, I was given the option to have a double chin or not! (By the way, who would WANT a double chin?)

I’m still not entirely sure how I came across the wings (I think I found them in a box labeled “Free Stuff”), but I was able to use them to my advantage.  Not only did it give me the option to fly, but a very nice man named Eugene started a conversation with me which began, “Nice wings.”  Turns out he wanted a pair too.  So I just did a click-and-drag from my inventory box to him (still having no idea if that would even work), and he got them!  He was very happy about it.  In fact, he decided to give me a box of women’s clothing in return.  This was a great surprise to me because I was still in the generic dress that comes with the standard avatar.  I didn’t know how popular my avatar was until I arrived at “Orientation Island” and found about 8 other girls with brown hair and a pink dress roaming the island.  Although, I did stand out slightly since I had angel wings.

I probably spent a total of 4 hours exploring Second Life.  I barely scratched the surface.  There is so much to do, so much to see, so many people to talk to, so much to buy, SO MANY OPTIONS!  It is so open-ended, I was a bit overwhelmed with the magnitude of this game.  If Second Life has a point or message to get across to its users, I think I have a good idea of what it is:  Anything you can do in the real world, you can do here.  Anything you can’t do in the real world, you can also do here.

Second Life uses “Linden dollars” as its currency.  But make no mistake, this isn’t monopoly money.  It’s real.  That’s right, real.  People are actually paying for things that exist only in the virtual world.  Ailin Graef (avatar name: Anshe Chung) and her husband Guntram Graef created Anshe Chung Studios in Second Life.  CNET News reported that their company’s total holdings, mostly virtual land, were worth more than a million real-life dollars.  Wow.

Before you cry Emperor’s New Clothes on me, just think about this a little deeper.  REAL money is being exchanged in a FAKE world.  But is this world really fake?  I think we need to be careful with this one.  It’s virtual, not fake.  Although I can’t feel it, smell it, or taste it, I can see it and hear it.  That’s 2 out of 5 senses.  Having money factor into this virtual world makes it a virtual economy, which I think is a Pandora’s box just waiting to be opened.

Also pretty interesting is that some people participating in Second Life have gone so far as to attempt to perform Euripides’ The Bacchae.  Here is a clip of their rehearsals where they work out techinical difficulties with skin changes, etc.

Wikipedia – What did we do before it?

I love Wikipedia.  Though it is not perfect, it is a truly brilliant way of sharing, collaborating on, and discovering information.

In Here Comes the Everybody, Clay Shirky describes this “unmanaged division of labor” as “spontaneous” and continues to write that “Wikipedia is able to aggregate individual and often tiny contributions, hundreds of millions of them annually, made by millions of contributors all performing different functions.”  Despite this “spontaneous division of labor,” I believe that we can trust Wikipedia as an beginning research tool.  By no means should we end there.  The amount of information that is available to us today through search (Google, Yahoo, AOL, etc.) is so large that we are able to look even further than Wikipedia.  Additionally, when compared to Britannica, Wikipedia is truly able to measure up.  And with costs of time and money factored in, Wikipedia wins hands down.

Part of the beauty of Wikipedia is that it is open to everyone — and I believe it should stay that way.  With the exception of a few articles that could be under heated debate, articles should be open to everyone and very rarely ‘locked.’  The entries in Wikipedia follow a power log distribution curve (where few people contribute a lot, and a lot of people contribute a little) which is similar logic to Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail. I believe that if Wikipedia closed itself down to the masses and allowed only verified ‘experts’ to create/edit articles, its popularity would quickly decline leading to an inevitable destruction of the site.  Prime example is Nupedia — the original intent of Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, until they stumbled upon what we now call Wikipedia.

I’m not sure how Wikipedia could be better set-up to better provide further accuracy.  Already, if an article is vandalized Wikipedians are quick to fix it, Wikipedia staff can put the subject matter on lock down or block a particular user, for repeat offenders, for a little over 1 day, which, they say, seems to work.

Lions, and Tigers, and GOOGLE, oh my!

What comes to mind when you hear the word Google?

Search, discovery, answers, questions, or even the colorful letters that makeup “Google” above the search box (which usually change daily according to the season/holiday, how cute!) — whatever may come to mind, it seems to be positive and beneficial.

So, you think, Google is great.  It allows the world to search its database about anything their heart desires, just one click, and we get it!  And their email is cool too – wow, it’s up to 6844 megabytes already?!  Thanks, Google, you’re the best.

Not so fast.  Remember when Mom told you if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is?  Well, it is.  All of this comes with a price: privacy.

“Don’t be Evil” is the corporate motto of Google.  John Battelle sums it up nicely in his book The Search by saying, “Don’t be Evil is a wonderful sentiment for describing the ethical boundaries of internal company dealings, but when your business is understood to be a global arbiter of human knowledge and commerce, sticking to such a principled stand can become extremely…tricky.”

What does “Don’t be Evil” really mean?  Play fair? Have morals? Google fails on both accounts.

1. Play fair.

Google currently controls about 59.3% of the search market, and about half of all online advertising revenue online.  It’s biggest competitor, Yahoo, owns only a measly 16.9% of the market.  According to The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch,

Microsoft made an ultimately unsuccessful bid to acquire Yahoo earlier this year in an effort to build a formidable opponent for Google in the online search market. Yahoo opted instead to sign a search advertising partnership with Google.

If you think that this sounds fishy, you’re not alone.  Some are calling their practices anti-competitive.

The New York Times published an article called Relax, Bill Gates; It’s Google’s Turn as the Villain.  In this article, Brian Lent, the president of Medio Systems, is quoted,

Google is the new evil empire, because they’re in such a powerful position in terms of control. They have potential monopolistic control over access to information…I like and respect the Google guys, but let’s just say that their ultimate aim seems to me to be, ‘One Google under Google, for which it stands.’

Reid Hoffman, the founder of two Internet ventures, including LinkedIn, agrees,

Google is doing more damage to innovation in the Valley right now than Microsoft ever did….It’s largely that they’re hiring up so many talented people, and the fact they’re working on so many different things. It’s harder for start-ups to do interesting stuff right now.

According to Wikipeida, anti-competitive practices are practices that prevent and/or reduce competition in a market. These practices can lead to a monopoly.  Google seems pretty darn close to me.

2.  Have morals.

Think your emails are private?  What about your searches, or clickstreams?  Do you believe Google provides us with a comprehensive, unbiased, and free access search?  Think again.

Did you know that Google can review your personal information whenever it wants to?  John Battelle reiterates Google’s company policy:

We may share [private] information…[if] we conclude that we are required by law or have a good faith belief that access, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public.

REASONABLY NECESSARY?  Who determines this?  Mr. Lent had certainly had it right, “One Google under Google, for which it stands.”  How far will Google take this?  Who do they think they are?  And, why are we so trusting of them?

A portion of Google’s mission statement states:

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”  And proudly boasts that after using Google you will understand “why others say, ‘Google is the closest thing the Web has to an ultimate answer machine.’

China would not agree with this.

In fall 2002, due to strict government regulations, the Chinese government filtered out Google among other search engines.  After two weeks, Google was restored back to Chinese citizens – but, when one would click on a link that posed problems with Chinese government, they were redirected to a government approved site.  Soon after, Google announced,”…in order to create the best possible search experience for our mainland China users we will not include site whose content is not accessible.”  I agree with John Battelle when he points out that,

Clearly Google was taking out all evidence of the banned site because that’s what the Chinese government wanted it to do…by working with China to omit certain sites, Google had seemingly become an accessory to evil.

Exactly.  This was a precedent set by Google.  Who else will be given the authority to tell Google what should and should not be on their search?  Who else will be blocked?  How far will this go?

Google is [currently the major] one of many ways to search the database of intentions that John Battelle talks about in his book, The Search.  The Database of Intentions is the aggregate results of every search, and paths taken from there.  It represents “a placeholder for the intentions of humankind – a massive database of desires, needs, wants, and likes” for all to know, or discover.  Pretty intense.  This has already had a huge impact on today’s society, and there is still more to come.

Who Else Wants to Easily Find What You Want at the Price You Want?

As noted in his book The Long Tail, Chris Anderson’s three forces of the Long Tail include democratizing the tools of production, cutting costs of consumption by democratizing distribution, and connecting supply and demand — or, more simply, as the start of the chapter states, “make it, get it out there, and help me find it.” By reducing the costs of reaching niches, our culture is able to move away from the head of the demand curve (the hits) and towards the tail (the niches).  We’ve been given more options, more variety!  Anderson says, “For the first time in history, hits and niches are on equal economic footing…popularity no longer has a monopoly on profitability.”  Sounds good to me.

I really enjoyed this book, and started googling “long tail” and other combinations online just to read more about it.  I came across an article that interested me particularly because I love the performing arts world, as well as the movie-making industry.  In this article, major movie-makers from Hollywood admit that shooting digitally changes acting, directing, and the editing process drastically.  Now that we are in the digital age, it seems to me that film is being used less and less.

Digital video cameras are a Long Tail toolmaker, and aid in democratizing production (the first force of the Long Tail as I mentioned above). Now that we are in the digital age, it seems to me that film is being used less and less.  The everyday use of the digital still-camera is an example of this.  Who really carries around a non-digital camera when digital cameras provide us with so much more and at a reasonable price? The accessibility and overall costs (not only of initial purchase, but also including costs of function, maintenance, and printing) associated with the two make digital cameras a winner.  What is the repercussion of this?  I, personally, take many more photos than I ever have.  Additionally, after uploading them to my computer, I spend lots of time adjusting the saturation, sharpness, brightness, and red eye.  I’ve been given more power over my photos, and in turn, they are better for it.

I think the same is true for the movie-making industry in this case.  If not now, then over time we will see a better quality of movie surface due to this change.  Actors have less pressure on them to “get it right the first time” and are given more opportunities to repeat a scene.  Directors have more power than ever: a good and bad thing.  But, after reading the comments on this article, I think Mike Walsh is on to something when comparing the transition of silent movies to talkies with the article’s mention of a director over-working the star actor unnecessarily:

…Right now we are dealing with unintended fallout from digital “filming”, such as overly long takes or murky colors. The upside is that the cost savings, while unimportant in big budget movies, are important in smaller, character driven productions. Just as the painter’s choice of medium (ie watercolors vs. oils) change the kind of painting they create, eventually a consensus will be reached on how the new systems are used.

Well put.

PODCASTS

Additionally, I’ve been asked to blog about my experience with podcasts and I just have to say that I can’t believe I didn’t get into these sooner.  I’ve had iTunes for at least 3 or more years now, and each time I would accidentally click on the ‘podcast’ option, I would quickly exit out and not return.  I was missing out on a lot!  And it’s FREE (? which still confuses me a bit!)

I listened to a handful of podcasts, but found The Economist’s Democracy in America segment, “John McWhorter on Hip-Hop Politics” posted June 12, 2008 (can I link to podcasts?) to be particularly interesting.  McWhorter believes that hip-hop doesn’t make anyone do anything. From acting on a violent theme that it endorses to going to the polls to vote, hip-hop has proven to not be an effective medium. He goes on to praise Barack Obama’s campaign strategies of reaching out to the young vote in ways that have never been done.  Other things come into play when it comes to getting people to vote, mainly, effort (such as the Get Out the Vote campaign).