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So who the hell is Dr Horrible, and why should you care?  Well, he looks to be quite an amusing character and the centre of a story written by someone who writes quite good stories: Joss Whedon.  More to the point, for a limited time, Dr Horrible’s story will be online … for free.  Oh, and it’s a musical.  From the guy who wrote the musical episode of Buffy.  And quite a few other bits of Buffy, too.

Dr Horrible is as much an experiment in models of distribution and commerce.  From Tuesday July 15th (US time … so some time Wednesday for most in Australia) an episode of Dr Horrible will appear every two days (with three in total), until they all disappear on July 20th.  Joss Whedon (and, indeed, quite a few other Whedon’s, it seems) are hoping that they can galvanise their fanbase (as they did so impressively for Serenity) and once everyone has seen it for free, perhaps sell a few full copies later down the track.  Apparently Joss thought up the concept during the WGA writer’s strike when other distribution methods were sorely needed.  As Joss describes his thoughts in Dr Horrible’s master plan:

1) Why, Joss? Why? Why now, why free, why us?

Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kings and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system. Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few. The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first. […]

3) Joss, you are so kind, and generous, and your forehead is like, huge, like SCARY, like I think I can see Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint hanging off it… what can WE do to help this musical extravanganza?

What you always do, peeps! What you’re already doing. Spread the word. Rock some banners, widgets, diggs… let people know who wouldn’t ordinarily know. It wouldn’t hurt if this really was an event. Good for the business, good for the community – communitIES: Hollywood, internet, artists around the world, comic-book fans, musical fans (and even the rather vocal community of people who hate both but will still dig on this). Proving we can turn Dr Horrible into a viable economic proposition as well as an awesome goof will only inspire more people to lay themselves out in the same way. It’s time for the dissemination of the artistic process. Create more for less. You are the ones that can make that happen. Wow. I had no idea how important you guys were. I’m a little afraid of you.

So, once more, the success or failure of a Whedon idea is in the hands of fans. If you want to spread the Horrible word, the website has lots of spiffy banners you can use to link to Dr Horrible’s show.  It should be an interesting experiment. I’ll certainly be watching! (Early reviews seem very promising!)

Tags: dr horrible, joss whedon, webisode

Interesting links for June 30th 2008 through July 2nd 2008:

• The Internet Has the Power to Transform Your TV Show into a TV Brand [Deep Focus/Yahoo!] - New research (from a survey of 2000) which shows viewers under 35 treat the TV show as part of a franchise or brand, and that engaging with the franchise online strengthens brand ties (viewers > 35 see the TV show as the main event). [Via Nancy]
• World’s Best Presentation Contest [SlideShare] - Online slide sharing service Slideshare are running their annual competition to find the best slides (ppt, keynote, whatever else in pdf form) from around the world. We need many examples of powerpoint done better, so get sliding! (Entries close July 31st 08).
• Fast-talking Fred is the toast of YouTube [The Age] - Fourteen year old Lucas Cruikshank and his online persona, 6 year old Fred (with anger management issues and a chipmunked voice), is YouTube’s latest (and very annoying) micro-celeb. Visit Fred’s Channel.
• The romantic appeal of the “long tail hypothesis” [PopMatters | Blogs] - An interesting critique of Chris Anderson’s Long Tail theory: “With our identity riding on what we consume, we come to believe that there’s something valuable about having unique tastes, but we don’t actually pursue such a course in practice.”
• That Violet Blue thing [Boing Boing] - Boing Boing respond to accusations of censorship, stating their own position (they can retrospectively delete whatever they want) and getting quite a few comments in response!
• MySpace suicide: new law outlaws cyberbullying [The Age] - “Missouri Governor Matt Blunt signed a bill today outlawing cyberbullying, just kilometres from where a 13-year-old girl committed suicide nearly two years ago after being harassed on the Internet.”
• EA Grabs Your “Spore Creature Creator” IP [Clickable Culture] - “Talk about harshing my buzz. Electronic Arts is going to let us design creatures with its long-awaited Spore game and stand-alone Creature Creator, but in using the game and creator, we agree to hand over all rights in our creations to the megalithic publisher…”
• swedish teenager making millions off her blog? [jill/txt] - Jill Walker Rettberg looks at the fascinating case of a Swedish teenager who appears to be making a very healthy sum blogging by inserting paid ads and editorial comment without disclosure. [More links here.]

Tags: boingboinged, celebrity, censorship, cyberbullying, digitalculture, digitalhistory, economics, ethics, fred, ip, law, legal, longtail, marketing, myspace, powerpoint, presentation, slideshare, socialnetworking, socialsoftware, spore, sporn, stats, sweden, wired

Interesting links for June 17th 2008 through June 19th 2008:

• Study: 82 Percent of Consumers Accept In-Game Ads [Life from Wired.com] - “… according to a recent study crafted as a joint venture between the Nielsen company and in-game ad entrepreneurs IGA Worldwide. “82 percent felt games were just as enjoyable with ads as without,” the study reveals…”
• NSFW: A Beginners Guide To Sporn [Rock, Paper, Shotgun] - (Contains Images Only Intended for Adults!) “You give humanity a creative tool, the first thing a human will do is - well - make a tool with it. Since the Spore demo?s release, it?s become a bukkake wave sweeping the web: comedy pornographic images via Spore. Spornography - aka “Sporn”.”
• This is Sparta! ? Facebook prank or political statement?[ Examiner.com] - When 30,000 students taking a literature exam all write “This Is Sparta!” somewhere during the test and cross it out again, examiners discover there’s a Facebook meme at work, 300 style.
• Mum pleads not guity in web suicide case [PerthNow] - “A US woman who prosecutors say drove a 13-year-old girl to suicide with a cruel MySpace hoax has pleaded not guilty. Lori Drew of Missouri, who is accused of creating the fake MySpace persona of a 16-year-old boy…”
• Hollywood relying more on franchises [The Hollywood Reporter] - June 16, 2008: Hollywood is using more and more existing franchises and ’superbrands’ in an effort to capitalise on existing consumer demand rather than risking new material in an era when promotion is harder and harder.

Tags: 300, creativity, ethics, facebook, franchise, games, hollywood, legal, meme, myspace, socialnetworking, socialsoftware, spore, sporn

Interesting links for May 25th 2008 through May 27th 2008:

• Death knell for television as we know it [The Age] - “Japanese television technology that will give viewers access to high-speed broadcasts over the internet could render conventional television obsolete and transform the media landscape within years, analysts have predicted.”
• Owning the Clouds [how now, brownpau?] - A worrying look at the way Google’s copyright takedown system favours big media over amateur production by letting derivative works (initially) send takedown notices to the original authors!
• HSC students to get Wikipedia course [The Age] - In an Australian first, NSW HSC students will from next year be able to take a course in studying Wikipedia, the online collaborative encyclopedia. Wikipedia,… has been listed by the NSW Board of Studies as prescribed text for an elective course…”
• Joss Whedon Fans Jump the Gun [NewTeeVee] - “Perhaps still smarting from their precious Firefly being killed off so soon, Joss Whedon fans are already mobilizing to save his next show, Dollhouse? before the first episode airs.”

Tags: digitalculture, dollhouse, education, fandom, googlevideo, ip, josswhedon, socialnetworking, wikipedia

Interesting links for May 21st 2008:

• The Long Tail Wags the Dog [Technorati Weblog] - “Nowhere have we seen a bigger impact of blogging and social media on the American political landscape than on the 2008 presidential election. Candidate appearances formerly confined to a small town are uploaded to YouTube and seen by millions.”
• Big Brother’s vault for all net use, calls and emails [The Age] - “A digital vault containing information about every email, internet visit and phone call made in Britain is to be created in a European bid to battle terrorism. The plan, …has alarmed civil libertarians who are already anxious about a proposed ID card”
• Teenage burglar snapped on cameraphone [PerthNow] - “A teenage boy is facing burglary charges after being photographed on a mobile telephone after allegedly breaking into a Thornlie house. A woman took a snap of the 17-year-old as he rode away on a BMX bike …”
• Net starts to overtake TV [ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)] - “A new survey of internet consumer trends has revealed that people with broadband connections spend more time on the net than watching television. … Australians with broadband spend an average of 22 hours per week on the web. “

Tags: bigbrother, cameraphone, citizenjustice, digitalculture, mobilephone, privacy, surveillance, tv, UK

Interesting links for May 5th 2008 through May 6th 2008:

• Little Brother » Download for Free - Cory Doctorow’s new young adult novel “Little Brother” is out and is also available, in its entirety, as a free download. The novel explores issues of privacy and surveillance (among others) as they related to young people (with culture jamming ideas to boot).
• Apple iTunes To Sell Films On Day Of DVD Release [InformationWeek] - Apple’s iTunes store is to start selling feature film downloads on the same day that they are released on DVD.
• Internet serves up 30 years of spam [ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)] - “Today marks the 30th anniversary of the computer phenomenon - spam email. Now a nuisance for tens of millions of computer users worldwide, three decades ago someone sent what is considered to be the very first spam email.”

Tags: apple, book, digitalculture, digitaldivide, doctorow, download, email, history, itunes, privacy, spam, surveillance

Interesting links for May 1st 2008:

• Free game hopes to save gorillas [BBC NEWS | Technology] - “Campaigners hoping to preserve Rwanda’s endangered mountain gorilla are attempting to raise awareness of its plight by making a game simulating the lives of the animals free to mobile phone users.”
• Sweet Hollywood hoax with Aussie actors [TV Tonight] - All of the hype built for a supposed new TV show called Scarlet, complete with an over-the-top trailer starring Gary Sweet and Sharni Vinson, turns out to be a viral effort by LG to launch their new Scarlet line of TVs!
• Radiohead says no more music freebies [ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)] - “It was a pivotal moment for the music industry which many thought sounded the death knell for recorded music sales, but Radiohead will not be repeating its initiative to let fans pay what they want for their downloads.”

Tags: activism, digitalculture, ecology, games, hoax, lg, mp3, music, politics, viral

Interesting links for April 17th 2008:

• TV takes the online challenge [The Age] - ‘”The reason people are illegally using P2P [peer-to-peer] networks is simply because content isn’t available elsewhere,” says Ten’s general manager, Digital Media, Damian Smith.’ (So give me a legal way to download Battlestar Galactica today and I will!)
• Exploring Fantasy Life and Finding a $4 Billion Franchise [New York Times] - “… Electronic Arts, the Sims?s publisher, plans to announce that the series has sold more than 100 million copies (including expansion packs) in 22 languages and 60 countries since its introduction in 2000. All told, the franchise has generated about
• Australia’s YouTube stars to get paid [Australian IT] - The YouTube Partner Program provides money to YouTube content creators in exchange for displaying banner ads on their videos, has been launched in Australia today.
• Parents angry at violent school bully game [The Age] - From Rockstar Games, the people behind Grand Theft Auto, comes the hugely provocative Bully: Scholarship Edition in which you play a rebellious school kid, and runs the risk of (purposefully?) provoking cyberbulllying to normalising school-yard shootings.
• ABC’s digital push for channels, radio [The Age] - “The ABC wants to triple its number of television channels and radio services over the next 12 years as it seeks to increase Australian content levels and cement its place in the digital media age, its managing director, Mark Scott, has flagged”

Tags: abc, cyberbullying, digitalculture, ea, franchise, games, micropayment, moralpanic, p2p, sims, youth

Interesting links for April 6th 2008:

• Study: Violent Games Relax Players [Next Generation - Interactive Entertainment Today, Video Game and Industry News - Home of Edge Online] - “People who play violent videogames online generally feel more relaxed and less angry after they have played, according to a new study by psychologists at Middlesex University” (Lets see if this one gets mainstream news coverage!)
• Battlestar Galactica: Join the Fight | Battlestar Galactica Social Network [SCIFI.COM] - The SciFi network have launched the “Battlestar Galactica social gaming experience” … you can be either human or Cylon (oddly enough). The “game” seems a little clunky in the layout and interface, but I’ll have to give it a try…
• The art of the teleprompter [Presentation Zen] - Some interesting thinking about the art of using teleprompters (esp looking at US politicians). John McCain doesn’t fare very well!
• How does the new, free online Photoshop match up with its free competition? [OJR] - “In summary, I didn’t find any functionality in Photoshop Express that Web users didn’t already have available to them in Picasa, Picnik and Splashup.”

Tags: adobe, digitalculture, game, games, photoshop, research, speech, violence

Interesting links for April 2nd 2008:

• Bringing the cloud with you [Official Google Docs Blog] - Google edges even further in Microsoft’s heartland as Google Docs becomes available offline!
• Google April Fool’s Jokes Galore [Google Blogscoped} - A round-up of Google's extensive April Foos offerings. The best one, of course, was the Australian based: "gDay with MATE technology to ?search content on the internet before it?s created,?."
• YouTube's Video Identification in Action [Google Operating System] - What options go content owners now get if YouTube detects others using their copyrighted material? They can either “block (no exposure and no money) or track (exposure, but no money) or monetize (exposure and money).”

Tags: aprilfools, office