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Digital Culture Links: January 1st 2010

A bunch of links to see in the New Year (Happy 2010!):

• it's too late, it's too soon [the kleptones] - A new Kleptones remix album to see in 2010. Nice.
• Social media terms are Words Of The Year 2009 [Computerworld] - "Words from the world of technology and social media are among those identified as the "Words of the Year 2009" in a list commissioned by Oxford University Press. The New Oxford American Dictionary had already announced the verb 'unfriend' ("To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook") as its word of the year, confirming the social-networking term's ubiquity. [...] Also derived from Twitter is the word "Hastag" - meaning the # [hash] sign added to a word or phrase that enables Twitter users to search for tweets that contain similarly tagged items. "Tag cloud" (a visual depiction of the word content of a website, or of user-generated tags attached to online content) was also picked out as one of the words of the year."
• In 2009, Social Media Overtook Web 2.0 - GRAPHS [Mashable] - "Web 2.0. A few years ago, it was the hottest buzzword around. It refers to the second generation of web apps following the Internet bubble that devastated not only Silicon Valley, but our economy in general. Social Media. While its definition is not yet etched in stone, most believe it describes a new type of media and communication that creates a world conversation and dialogue. Instead of being fed news (a one-to-many dissemination approach), everyone is welcomed to be a content creator and to generate a debate around that content. While its focus is the web, it goes beyond it as well. Web 2.0 is a term that has been around since 2004. And as this graph of Google search volume indicates, it reached its peak in 2007 and 2008. But while the term is less frequently used and is in many ways outdated, its been a far more well-known and popular term than social media — until now."
• Location, Location, Location: 5 Big Predictions for 2010 [Mashable] - Will location be the next big thing in social media? Where did you update your Facebook status from ... and did you really want to share it? "GPS-aware mobile devices have become commonplace, which means connecting the dots between what you’re doing and where you’re doing it is easier than ever. In 2009, location-sharing applications finally emerged in user-friendly formats, altering the way we think about where we are and helping us understand more of the meaning behind the data in aggregate. Technology early adopters showed a predilection towards mobile location-based games, discovering that check-ins could mean something and that being the mayor of a venue might earn them a free drink. Now that businesses are actively exploring the opportunities that these location-aware services provide, we’ll see location matter more than ever in 2010. 1. Facebook Status Updates Will Become Location-Aware [...] 5. Location Will Be Both Media Darling and Cautionary Tale"
• [MLA 09] “Blogging, Scholarship, and the Networked Public Sphere” Draft [The Chutry Experiment ] - Chuck Tryon takes a fresh look at scholarly blogging from the 2009 MLA: "... the most notable aspect of blogging may be the temporal orientation that encourages daily or semi-daily publication. Although writing frequently may seem to discourage the deeper reflection privileged in academic essays, writing often, for a large audience, also provides the opportunity not only to benefit from the expertise of a wide range of readers–whether scholars or industry professionals–but also to build a well-developed, cross-referenced archive that can serve as a kind of history of the present. In this sense, it is worthwhile to return to Shambu’s comments about what he values about blogging: blogs allow us to educate ourselves in public, to learn collectively about pertinent issues, as we seek to make sense of our current moment of media transition."
• Race and Social Network Sites: Putting Facebook's Data in Context [apophenia] - danah boyd takes a hard look at race in relation to social networks: "A few weeks ago, Facebook's data team released a set of data addressing a simple but complex question: How Diverse is Facebook? Given my own work over the last two years concerning the intersection of race/ethnicity/class and social network sites, I feel the need to respond. And, with pleasure, I'm going to respond by sharing a draft of a new paper. [...] access is important. But I'm much more concerned about how racist and classist attitudes are shaping digital media, how technology reinforces inequality, and how our habit of assuming that everyone uses social media just like we do reinforces social divisions that we prefer to ignore."
• United State of Pop 2009: Blame It on the Pop [DJ Earworm - Music Mashups] - DJ Earworm mixes the top 25 US billboard chart singles into a single mashup. The source material isn't exactly inspiring, but there's a lot of art getting all of this into a single song. (For my money, the United States of Pop 2008 was probably better, but that might just be because I knew at least some of those songs!) The video's on YouTube, too.
  
• The Absent Presence: Today’s Faculty [Brian Croxall] - Brian Croxall's MLA paper (presented in absentia) which clearly elucidates the casualisation of US academia (like Australia and elsewhere, too): "... having a faculty majority comprised of contingent faculty means a lot more than just conferences being less and less attended. In my case, it means that my students cannot easily meet with me for office hours since contingent faculty don’t really have offices. It means that they do not get effective, personal mentoring because I have too many students. It means that I cannot give the small and frequent assignments that I believe teach them more than a “3-paper class” because I do not have time to grade 90 students’ small and frequent assignments. It means that the courses they can take from me will not be updated as frequently as I think is ideal because I will be spending all of my spare time looking for more secure employment—or working a part-time job."
• HP camera 'can't see' black faces [BBC News] - A very clear way to explain how race is still an issue in software and hardware design - it's the presumption of a 'normal user' which is so often white: "A YouTube video suggesting that face recognition cameras installed in HP laptops cannot detect black faces has had over one million views. The short movie, uploaded earlier this month, features "Black Desi" and his colleague "White Wanda". When Wanda, a white woman, is in front of the screen, the camera zooms to her face and moves as she moves. But when Desi, a black man, does the same, the camera does not respond by tracking him. The clip is light-hearted in tone but is titled "HP computers are racist"." The video:
  
• Avatar To Sink Titanic at Box Office [WA Today] - In Australian movie theatres: "Avatar has raced to almost $36 million in its first 13 days. Helped by higher ticket prices for 3-D, giant screen and premium cinema sessions, the science-fiction epic is expected to become one of the country's top 10 highest-grossing movies by today or tomorrow. The general manager of film for the Greater Union chain, Peter Cody, predicted yesterday that Avatar would top Titanic after an ''outstanding'' opening fortnight. ''There's every likelihood it will go on to gross north of $60 million,'' he said. ''Even if the film drops 50 per cent in week three - and I don't think it will - that's $50 million.' [...] Despite the financial downturn and the popularity of home cinema, the Australian box office is expected to break the $1 billion mark for the first time this year. Given it was up 15 per cent to the end of November, the annual tally is expected to easily top last year's record $945.4 million."
• UK Government Report Shows That Digital Economy Bill Will Cost More Than Highest 'Piracy' Estimates, Drive 40,000 Offline [Techdirt] - Even just on the economic side this seems rather silly: "As the UK considers Peter Mandelson's Digital Economy Bill, a UK government report that looks into the likely impact of the law is incredibly damning. It finds that the plans to send threat letters to users and eventually kick them offline based on accusations (not convictions) would cost consumers in the neighborhood of £500 million. Note, of course, that the music industry itself claims that £200 million worth of music is downloaded in the UK per year (and, of course, that's only "losses" if you use the ridiculous and obviously incorrect calculation that each download is a "lost sale")."