Darth History
Did you know Darth Vader attended the Yalta conference at the end of World War Two?
History makes such good raw material for the Photoshop-inclined. See the full set of wonderfully mashed up Superheroes in History from agan harahap. [Via io9]
Annotated Digital Culture Links: January 18th 2009
Links for January 16th 2009 through January 18th 2009:
- At First, Funny Videos. Now, a Reference Tool [NYTimes.com] - YouTube as #2 search engine? Googlopoly clearly progressing according to plan: "The explosion of all types of video content on YouTube and other sites is quickly transforming online video from a medium strictly for entertainment and news into one that is also a reference tool. As a result, video search, on YouTube and across other sites, is rapidly morphing into a new entry point into the Web, one that could rival mainstream search for many types of queries. ... And now YouTube, conceived as a video hosting and sharing site, has become a bona fide search tool. Searches on it in the United States recently edged out those on Yahoo, which had long been the No. 2 search engine, behind Google. (Google, incidentally, owns YouTube.) In November, Americans conducted nearly 2.8 billion searches on YouTube, about 200 million more than on Yahoo, according to comScore."
- Hudson River plane crash [Kottke] - Detailed wrapu-up of the citizen journalist (and some mainstream media) responses to teh Hudson River plan crash. Twitter and Flickr excel. [Via BBoing]
- U.S. Airways Crash Rescue Picture: Citizen Journalism, Twitter At Work [Slicon Valley Insider] - Twitter as a citizen journalism platform: "Janis Krums from Sarasota, Florida posts the first photo of U.S. Airways flight 1549 on Twitter from his iPhone. Thirty-four minutes after Janis posted his photo, MSNBC interviewed him live on TV as a witness ..."
Tilt-Shift Photography
I’ve always found the idea of tilt-shift photography appealing, but I’ll never be able to justify the lens required. A combination of photoshop filters can have a similar effect, but I’ve never found the time, but I am enjoying playing with the simple but efficient Tilt Shift Maker, an online tool which does the processing work for you. For those who don’t know tilt-shift photography (or, more specifically, tilt-shift miniature simulation) can make a photograph look like the contents are miniature-sized rather than realistic thanks to different depths of field. Here are two examples of tilt-shifting my own photos:
[1] Luxury Boats docked along Venice:
[2] Pier 17 in New York:
I’ve got a little way to go until I’m happy with these – I should really be using photoshop to refine them – but if you’re interested check out the example gallery at Tilt Shift Maker (all photos under a Creative Commons license) or the rapidly-growing Tilt Shift Maker Flickr group.
The Day the Cupcake Stood Still

[Look Behind You! Run, Run for your Life! Nom, Nom, Nom all CC BY]
I turned 32 on the weekend, but with a 9-week old in the house we’re much more in tune with our inner children, too, so I was just blown away when Em made me these amazing Alien Invader cupcakes! There were lots of other highlights – a great lunch with family, some brilliant presents, watching my son giggle away, and an early Christmas party dinner with good friends – but I just had to share the cupcake pictures!
Annotated Digital Culture Links: December 13th 2008
Links for December 9th 2008 through December 13th 2008:
- The Rumor Bomb: On Convergence Culture and Politics by Jayson Harsin [Flow TV, 9.04, December 2008] - Jayson Harsin looks at everything from Obama's "terrorist connections" to Steve Jobs' "heart attack" to understand how rumours work in the age of convergence culture (and what a huge impact they can have in an instantaneous, online, connective culture).
- Library Releases Report on Flickr Pilot (Library of Congress) [Library of Congress Blog] - "Only nine months into the Library of Congress’ pilot project placing Library photos on the Web site Flickr, the photos have drawn more than 10 million views, 7,166 comments and more than 67,000 tags, according to a new report from the project team overseeing the lively project. “The popularity and impact of the pilot have been remarkable,” said Michelle Springer, project manager for digital initiatives in the Office of Strategic Initiatives, who said total views reached 10 million in October. The site is averaging 500,000 views a month, she said, adding that Flickr members have marked 79 percent of the photos as “favorites.” The report recommends that the Library of Congress continue to participate in The Commons and explore other Web 2.0 communities." [Full Report PDF] (Short version: sharing public cultural goods via participatory culture platforms is a win for everyone!)
- Microsoft Office to debut online [BBC NEWS | Technology] - "Microsoft is preparing web versions of some of its most popular programs. In 2009 web versions of Word, Excel and other programs in the Microsoft Office suite plus Exchange and Sharepoint will go online. Users will be able to get at the programs via a web browser rather than install them on a PC. Some versions of the programs are expected to be free to use provided users are happy to view adverts alongside the software." (So, Microsoft are racing to reclaim some of the cloud computing presence which has become Google's spare backbone ... given how slowly Google Docs have evolved as a service, and how crude their slide presentation software is, if their offering is good enough there could be real Microsoft Vs Google competition in the clouds!)
Annotated Digital Culture Links: December 2nd 2008
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)"
Annotated Links of Interest: November 9th 2008
Links of interest for November 7th 2008 through November 9th 2008:
- Huffington: 'Obama Not Elected Without Internet' [InternetNews Realtime IT News] - "Obama campaign-related videos garnered 14.5 million hours of viewing on YouTube, according to Democratic political consultant Joe Trippi. He estimates that amount of time would have cost $47 million to buy on TV ... "And to buy that time, you're interrupting people watching football games and soap operas," said Trippi. On the Web, "this is stuff people wanted to watch." Just as the power of television, via televised debates, was credited with helping John Kennedy win the presidency over Richard Nixon in 1960, the panelists agreed with moderator John Heilemann that in 2008 the Web had at least as significant a role."
- PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication - "Welcome to PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication, a biannual open-access online postgraduate publication. Founded by the Media and Communications Program, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, PLATFORM has just been launched in November 2008. This new postgraduate journal, PLATFORM, is refereed by an international board of established and emerging scholars working across diverse paradigms in Media and Communication. It is planned to develop it as an international journal."
- Gwen and baby Zuma [Gwen Stefani : News] - I really hadn't imagined Gwen Stefani to be a champion of copyright reform and the Creative Commons, but the termsunder which she released the first picture of herself and her baby are positively forward-thinking: "[(c) Mrs. Me, Inc., 2008.] This photo is licensed under aCreative Commons BY-NC-ND license. In addition to the permissions granted to the public under this license, this photograph may also be used in its original and unaltered form for commercial purposes by publishers in connection with the distribution of news or human interest stories, such as magazines, blogs, and newspapers. All other rights, including without limitation use of this photo in whole or in part or in connection with commercial posters, calendars, and other commercial products and services, are reserved exclusively by the copyright holder." (The Obama campaign have been posting CC licensed photos since 2007, too!)
- Google Street View turned into artwork [The Age] - "Two American artists have made swooning for Google's all-seeing eye an art form, creating what they term the first artistic intervention in Google Street View. After witnessing the immense online interest in quirky sightings on Google Maps, Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley approached Google with the idea of creating a series of staged tableaux along a street in Pittsburgh. The scenes, which were shot on May 3 this year and feature Pittsburgh's Northside residents hamming it up along a nondescript lane called Sampsonia Way, went live on Google Maps this week." Check out the result: http://www.streetwithaview.com/





