Tama Leaver dot Net

Sony have launched a Japanese YouTube competitor, complete with Creative Commons licensing (something YouTube deparately needs. [More…] [Via Lessig]

Jean Burgess’ powerpoint slides (using Slideshare) for her ‘Vernacular Photography 2.0’ talk at MIT5, which focused on Flickr. Powerpoint never tells the whole story, but certainly tantalises enough to watch closely for the full paper!

Jill Walker’s powerpoint slides (via Slideshow) from her MIT5 talk “Repeating, Appropriating, Blogging”. Some provoactive ideas about the problematics of originality in a digital age. [More here.]

Henry Jenkins’ blog post which serves as a hub for post-MIT5 reflections and also points to the many excellent podcasts of MIT5 keynotes!

“Astronomers have found a planet on which conditions are the most conducive for extraterrestrial life of any so far discovered. Gliese 581c is the first rocky, Earth-like planet to be observed where water could exist in liquid form…”

Jessia Lynch repudiates the image of her created by the US military and media before a US Congressional committee.

“… [we’ll see] more media producers openly embrace fan practices, encouraging us to take media in our own hands, and do our part to insure the long term viability of media we like. Indeed, our new mantra is that if it doesn’t spread, it’s dead.”

“Tony Blair became the first British Prime Minister to answer questions from users of internet video sharing site YouTube, as part of his governing Labour Party’s move to attract younger voters.”

In the face of massive debt (losing c. $200-400,000 a year), Queensland University of Technology is closing their school of Humanities and will no longer off a BA program. The Creative Industries, however, flourish…

Siva Vaidhyanathan: “There is much worth celebrating in our new mashup culture. … Mashups give everyday people the power to affect public perceptions and deliberations. But they can just as easily be shallow, hateful and harmful.”

“It’s easy to satirize Twitter’s trendiness, and cranky critics have mocked the banality of most tweets and questioned whether we really need such an assault upon our powers of concentration. But right now, it’s one of the fastest-growing phenom…”

Which colours to use when creating webpages which will use the least power when being displayed on CRT, Plasma, or OLED technology. (Not a bad colour scheme, either!)

Given that Order of the Phoenix is my least favourite HP, I’m really impressed by this trailer. It’s the ripest book for jetisoning the narrative fat and focusing on the action!

Pirates of the Carribean 1 and 2 in thirty seconds … with bunnies! I love these little flash film summary thingos! 🙂

THe Original Series crew of Star Trek re-cut to the tunes of Knights of the Round Table, Monty Python style. Hilarious! 🙂

On May 5, carry a camera: “What happens around the world in one day? In a word – life. Here on Flickr, photographers are sharing what they see: snapping daily moments, recording history, telling stories, capturing beauty.”

A look at the corss-media modes of Heroes, including a details look at everyone (fan and official) producing parts of the Heroverse! [Via]

Oh dear, push ring-tones are coming (the new spam is musical): “Push Ringer” allows a caller to push an outgoing ringtone to a receiving phone allowing the caller, not the called person, to set the tone and override the phone’s pre-set ringer.

“Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately. Nothing was tampered with, run over by a car, or anything of the sort. ” (Useful juxtaposition of photography-ready Fast Food against the purchased product.)

“In case you were wondering who’s to blame for the Virginia Tech massacre, I’ve created a list this morning to keep track.” (From Video Games to Atheists to the Devil, pretty much everyone’s been blamed by someone.)

A Flash-based photographic profile of the Viriginia Tech victims.