Monthly Archives: December 2008 - Page 2

Annotated Digital Culture Links: December 9th 2008

Posted by on December 9, 2008 1 comment

Links for December 9th 2008:

  • Australia’s census going CC BY [Creative Commons] – “In a small, easy to miss post, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has made a very exciting announcement. They’re going CC – and under an Attribution-only license, no less. From the ABS website…
  • Texting Turnbull catches the Twitter bug [The Age] – “As the Opposition’s popularity slips back to where it was under Brendan Nelson’s leadership, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull is bringing digital intervention to the fore. The digits in question are his thumbs. Having witnessed the power of the web in the US presidential election campaign, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Mr Turnbull are engaged in a high-tech arms race to win the hearts and minds of switched-on Australians. While some politicians including US President-elect Barack Obama are content with older model BlackBerry handsets, Mr Turnbull owns one of the latest releases, the BlackBerry Bold. And he showed off the speed of his thumbs as he settled once and for all the question of whether he writes his own Twitter updates. “I love technology,” he told online journalists in Sydney as he added another “tweet” via Twitter as they watched.” To his credit, more personal than a lot of Kevin07 stuff: http://twitter.com/turnbullmalcolm
  • Virtual world for Muslims debuts [BBC NEWS | Technology] – “A trial version of the first virtual world aimed at the Muslim community has been launched. Called Muxlim Pal, it allows Muslims to look after a cartoon avatar that inhabits the virtual world. Based loosely on other virtual worlds such as The Sims, Muxlim Pal lets members customise the look of their avatar and its private room. Aimed at Muslims in Western nations, Muxlim Pal’s creators hope it will also foster understanding among non-Muslims. “We are not a religious site, we are a site that is focused on the lifestyle,” said Mohamed El-Fatatry, founder of Muxlim.com – the parent site of Muxlim Pal.”
  • Facebook scandal shames students [The Age] – “A Facebook network of senior students from two of Sydney’s most elite private schools have offended the Jewish community with anti-Semitic slurs. Students from The Scots College in Bellevue Hill created a Facebook site called Jew Parking Appreciation Group which describes “Jew parking” as an art which often occurs at “Bellevue (Jew) Hill”. The site, which has 51 members, contains a link to The Scots Year 12 Boys, 2008, and The Scots College networks, and is administered by Scots students. It is connected to another network created and officiated by Scots College students with postings that include “support Holocaust denial” and a link to another internet address called “F— Israel and Their Holocaust Bullshit”.” (Racist rubbish, but also another example of supposedly ‘digital natives’ misunderstanding how much of their juvenile digital behaviour will be visible and recorded forever online.)
  • Jean Burgess, Joshua Green – YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture [Polity Press] – “YouTube is one of the most well-known and widely discussed sites of participatory media in the contemporary online environment, and it is the first genuinely mass-popular platform for user-created video. In this timely and comprehensive introduction to how YouTube is being used and why it matters, Burgess and Green discuss the ways that it relates to wider transformations in culture, society and the economy.” (Potential textbook material for the Digital Media unit.)
  • Learn at Any Time – The Open University [Podcasts] – The Open University podcasts website is a very well made example of university-based podcasts that DO NOT rely on hosting via Apple’s iTunes platform.

Annotated Digital Culture Links: December 8th 2008

Posted by on December 8, 2008 No comments

Links for December 4th 2008 through December 8th 2008:

  • Top 10 Most Pirated Games of 2008 [TorrentFreak] – “As expected, Spore is by far the most downloaded game on BitTorrent, in part thanks to the DRM that came with the game. Traditionally, games can’t compete with the most pirated movies and TV-shows in actual download numbers, but Spore came very close this year. Only 10 days after the game’s launch date, already half a million people had downloaded the game. During the months after that, another million people obtained a copy of the game via BitTorrent. According to our estimates, Spore was downloaded 1.7 million times since early September, a record breaking figure for a game.”
  • Sony Killing Questionable LittleBigPlanet Levels, Without Warning [Game | Life from Wired.com] – Sony have been deleting the shared levels of LittleBigPlanet which users have made featuring, what Sony feel, are copyrighted or trademarked materials. Creators are given no warning, no opportunity to alter their levels to remove supposedly offending material, and simply find their levels gone. Sony have created an incredible toybox of creativity with LittleBigWorld but seem determined to upset so many people who actually create anything with it. This is how to kill a user community and guarentee the game never reaches it potential. Silly Sony, the lessons of web 2.0 clearly haven’t been learnt.
  • iBreath to tackle drink driving [WA Today] – “The latest weapon in the war against drink driving is a breathalyser linked to an iPod or iPhone. The iBreath allows users to check their blood alcohol content to see if they are fit to drive.” (I’m sure after a few drinks connecting this little accessory will be entirely straightforward! LOL)

Annotated Digital Culture Links: December 2nd 2008

Posted by on December 3, 2008 No comments

Links for December 2nd 2008:

  • Why defend freedom of icky speech? [Neil Gaiman's Journal] – Neil Gaiman on defending freedom of speech: “If you accept — and I do — that freedom of speech is important, then you are going to have to defend the indefensible. That means you are going to be defending the right of people to read, or to write, or to say, what you don’t say or like or want said. The Law is a huge blunt weapon that does not and will not make distinctions between what you find acceptable and what you don’t. This is how the Law is made.”
  • Iron Man and me [Adactio] – The story of how a CC BY Flickr photo ended up in the Iron Man film!
  • ABC views year from on high [TV Tonight] – “The [Australian Broadcasting Corporation]ABC is hailing 2008 as its best ever result, improving 2% on its 2007 performance. With 7 of its top 10 shows being local productions, ABC is also buoyed by several brands hitting all time highs … The broadcaster also notes the popularity of its iView platform and the success of the relaunched ABC2 channel …
    iView – Since iView’s launch on Wednesday 23rd July: ABC iView has recorded a total of 2.3 million page views. The most popular iView channel is Catch Up. (This data is up to midnight on Sunday 30th November 2008) (Source: WebTrends OnDemand)
    VODCASTS (1 January – 16 November 2008)
    • The total number of vodcast downloads this year to date is 14 million.
    • Most downloaded vodcasts in 2008 to date include At The Movies, triple j tv (including jtv), Catalyst, ENOUGH ROPE segments, Bed of Roses, Not Quite Art, The Cook And The Chef, Gardening Australia, Lateline Business segments, Lateline segments. (Source: WebTrends, Akamai Mpeg Stats)”

Obama’s Change includes embracing the Creative Commons

Posted by on December 2, 2008 No comments

While Obama’s policies were very much pro-Net Neutrality and open access during the campaign, it has taken a little while to see these policies in action (although, to be fair, he’s not actually President yet).  Today, though, an important step: Obama’s transition website, change.gov is now licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license, meaning the information can be shared, reused and repurposed by pretty much anyone, as long as they note where the information came from.  Here’s a capture of the website’s copyright notice: 

changegov_cc

 

Admittedly there was some confusion because all official federal government websites in the US are supposedly in the public domain, but is a president-elect bound by these rules?  The answer seems ambiguous, but the CC BY license, apart from requiring attribution, is pretty much as good as the public domain anyway.  Creative Commons heavyweights Lawrence Lessig, Joi Ito and Cory Doctorow have all expressed their delight at seeing Obama’s transition online presence sporting a CC license.  I’m delighted, too, and can’t help but think that it would be marvellous to see more of Australia’s government websites and documents under Creative Commons licenses, too! And since Kevin Rudd has styled his own online presence on Obama’s, perhaps his information sharing policies could follow suit rather than being misdirected by this ridiculous internet filtering regime.

Annotated Digital Culture Links: December 1st 2008

Posted by on December 1, 2008 No comments

Links for November 28th 2008 through December 1st 2008:

  • Survey: We luv Australian telly [TV Tonight] – The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has released the results of a Newspoll survey in its campaign for increased funding from the federal government. The survey conducted nationally for the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, found:
    - 64% of Australians think the government should regulate the minimum amount of Australian programmes shown on Free to Air.
    - 69% believe the government should regulate a minimum amount of Australian programming on the ABC.
    - 64% believe it is important Australian programs can be accessed through new media platforms.
    - 65% want increased funding for Australian children’s shows on the ABC.
    - 64% favour increased funding for more Australian drama programs on ABC.
    - 79% wanted more funds for Australian documentaries on ABC.
  • Children’s welfare groups slam net filters [The Age] – “Support for the Government’s plan to censor the internet has hit rock bottom, with even some children’s welfare groups now saying that that the mandatory filters, aimed squarely at protecting kids, are ineffective and a waste of money. Live trials of the filters, which will block “illegal” content for all Australian internet users and “inappropriate” adult content on an opt-in basis, are slated to begin by Christmas, despite harsh opposition from the Greens, Opposition, the internet industry, consumers and online rights groups. Holly Doel-Mackaway, adviser with Save the Children, the largest independent children’s rights agency in the world, said educating kids and parents was the way to empower young people to be safe internet users. She said the filter scheme was “fundamentally flawed” because it failed to tackle the problem at the source and would inadvertently block legitimate resources.” (So, is anyone, apart from the government, actually in favour, then??)
  • Seven forces Rafters fansite to shut [TV Tonight] – “The Seven Network has muscled in on a fan website packedtotherafters.com.au run by an 18 year old fan, after it deemed his site would cause confusion with the show’s official website. Seven’s own website is at the clunky address http://au.tv.yahoo.com/b/packed-to-the-rafters/ But now the network wants the webmaster, Michael, who started the site based on his love of the new Seven drama, to close down the site and hand over the domain. Michael says he was shocked when he read the email from Seven lawyers. “I couldn’t believe they required me to hand over the domain which mean shutting down the entire site,” he told TV Tonight. … But a disappointed Michael is complying with the request, saying he can’t afford to take Seven on legally.” (Ah, Channel 7, prosecuting your most ardent fans … how NOT to build a fan base for your shows.)
  • Google’s Gatekeepers [NYTimes.com] – A fascinating look inside Google’s legal operations, and how they strike the balance between respecting freedom of speech while responding to different political and legal systems around the world. (And how sometimes “don’t be evil” means you don’t exist – at least, that’s why there’s no YouTube in Turkey.)
  • Tweeting the terror: How social media reacted to Mumbai [CNN.com] – “The minute news broke of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai, India, social media sites like Twitter were inundated with a huge volume of messages. With more than 6 million members worldwide, an estimated 80 messages, or “tweets,” were being sent to Twitter.com via SMS every five seconds, providing eyewitness accounts and updates. Many Twitter users also sent pleas for blood donors to make their way to specific hospitals in Mumbai where doctors were faced with low stocks and rising casualties. Others sent information about helplines and contact numbers for those who had friends and relatives caught up in the attacks. Tweeters were also mobilized to help with transcribing a list of the dead and injured from hospitals, which were quickly posted online. As Twitter user “naomieve” wrote: “Mumbai is not a city under attack as much as it is a social media experiment in action.”"
  • Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Gets Rickrolled [NewTeeVee] – Is this the [US] first nation-wide Rickroll? Never let it be said again that the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is out of touch — this morning the Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends float surprised, well, the entire nation with Never Gonna Give You Up and the ACTUAL Rick Astley, for the first time (as far as I know) complicit in a live Rickroll.