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Annotated Digital Culture Links: February 24th 2009

Links for February 24th 2009:

  • Twittering celebs tell all from Oscars parties [The Age] – Forget the gossip mags – celebrities attending the Oscars and associated after-parties gave fans backstage passes by publishing messages, videos and pictures on their Twitter accounts throughout the evening. After years of dealing with the media mangling their words, stars are now creating a direct dialogue with fans. The combination of Twitter, which allows people to post short messages directly from their mobile phones, and alcohol, led to surprisingly candid postings from the Oscar festivities. Ashton Kutcher and wife Demi Moore were by far the most prolific Oscar Twitterers. They didn’t attend the awards ceremony but hosted an Oscars after-party attended by some of the biggest stars. Kutcher posted an image of rapper Sean “P Diddy” Combs clutching an Oscar alongside the message “Diddy throws up Oscars”. He also published an image of himself with Penelope Cruz’s Oscar. (Whatever will the paparazzi do when the celebrities are all happily photo-stalking each other?)
  • Twitter and Futurism Week5 Participation Literacy [Slideshare] – Slides from a great lecture by Trebor Scholz in his Participation Literacy course, looking at twitter and microblogging, giving a solid explanation for it, a rationale, and a pretty good origin story! (And for a less kind reminder about how people, not advertisers, use Twitter, read Richard Giles’ grumpy post Basic Twitter Etiquette.)
  • Rick astley ==[FRENCH]==interview about Rickroll internet phenomenon [YouTube ] – “Rick astley (french) interview about Rickroll’D internet phenomenon ,barack roll.,Himself For Governor Of Illinois and MTV Award Hacked.” (The talkshow is in French, but Astley replies in English … it’s worth watching just to see how the subject of a meme can enjoy it so much!)

Annotated Digital Culture Links: December 16th 2008

Links for December 16th 2008:

  • The writer’s guide to making a digital living [Australia Council for the Arts] – “The writer’s guide was developed through the Australia Council’s Story of the Future project to explore the craft and business of writing in the digital era. It includes case studies from Australia’s rising generation of poets, novelists, screenwriters, games writers and producers who are embracing new media and contains audio and video content from seminars and workshops, as well as extensive references to resouces in Australia and beyond.” (The online presentation is great, but you can also download the full guide as a PDF and watch the hilarious introductory video.)
  • YouTube Videos Pull In Real Money [NYTimes.com] – Making videos for YouTube — for three years a pastime for millions of Web surfers — is now a way to make a living. Michael Buckley quit his day job in September. He says his online show is “silly,” but it helped pay off credit-card debt. One year after YouTube, the online video powerhouse, invited members to become “partners” and added advertising to their videos, the most successful users are earning six-figure incomes from the Web site. For some, like Michael Buckley, the self-taught host of a celebrity chatter show, filming funny videos is now a full-time job.”
  • A “Run” of William Gibson’s “Agrippa” Poem from a Copy of Original 1992 Agrippa Diskette [The Agrippa Files] – A video capture of William Gibson’s infamous self-destroying poem Agrippa – to read it, you had to erase it! Amazing stuff.
  • Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of 2008 [TorrentFreak] – Surprising no one, The Dark Knight is the most pirated movie of 2008, but how did The Bank Job end up at #3 given it took less than $US 65 million at the box office? The match between downloads and box office figures seems vague, at best!
  • News About the News Business, in 140 Characters [NYTimes.com] – “With staff changes and reductions across the media industry, even a blog post can be too time-consuming a way to announce who is in and out of a job. That is why a public relations employee turned to the instant-blogging platform Twitter to create The Media Is Dying, a Twitter feed that documents media hirings and firings in one-sentence bursts of text. “These sorts of layoffs are unheard-of,” said the stream’s founder, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve his sources in the industry. “It’s gotten insane to keep up with who was moving around and changing beats.” Initially, The Media Is Dying was accessible only to select Twitter members, as the feed was intended to help those in the P.R. industry stay on top of the revolving entries in their address books. But requests to be included flooded the founder, who decided to go public three weeks ago.”
  • Iran’s bloggers thrive despite blocks [BBC NEWS | World | Middle East] – “With much of the official media controlled by the government or hardline conservatives, the internet has become the favoured way of communicating for Iran’s well-educated and inquisitive younger generation. Go online in Iran and you will find blogs or websites covering every topic under the sun. Politics, of course, but also the arts, Hollywood cinema, women’s issues, women’s sport, pop music. Whisper it quietly, there is even an online dating scene in the Islamic Republic. Day-by-day there is an intriguing cyber-war, as the government wrestles for control of the internet, and Iran’s bloggers wrestle it back. Iran hosts around 65,000 bloggers, and has around 22 million internet users. Not bad for a country in which some remote areas do not yet have mains electricity.”

Annotated Links of Interest: October 12th 2008

Links of interest for October 9th 2008 through October 12th 2008:

  • VloggerHeads – An 18+ onlys videoblogging site where comments are – in theory – taken seriously and meaningful conversations are encouraged between videobloggers. Yes, they’ve left YouTube for good reason. There’s a good rundown on the rationale behind the site in this Wired article: “Sick of Griefers, YouTube Vloggers Start Members-Only Site“.
  • A Decade of Internet Superstars: Where Are They Now? [PC World] – A puff piece looking at the trajectories of internet meme folk after their meme’s energy has run out. Would you believe Chris “leave Britney alone!” Crocker has released his own single? Jennifer “Jennicam” Ringley has completely dropped off the web after being the most visible person on it for a while. And the Ask a Ninja guys are still answering questions … like ninjas.
  • Tweethearts: blogger proposes to nerd girlfriend over Twitter, she tweets back acceptance. – Boing Boing – “seanbonner: @tarabrown so, um, you wanna get hitched?” Proposal by Twitter! (She says yes!)
  • Video Vortex Reader: Responses to YouTube [Institute of Network Cultures] – A fantastic collection of scholarly essays looking at YouTube as a cultural phenomenon. The entire collection is released under a Creative Commons (CC BY NC SA) license and features work by: Tilman Baumgärtel, Jean Burgess, Dominick Chen, Sarah Cook, Sean Cubitt, Stefaan Decostere, Thomas Elsaesser, David Garcia, Alexandra Juhasz, Nelli Kambouri and Pavlos Hatzopoulos, Minke Kampman, Seth Keen, Sarah Késenne, Marsha Kinder, Patricia Lange, Elizabeth Losh, Geert Lovink, Andrew Lowenthal, Lev Manovich, Adrian Miles, Matthew Mitchem, Sabine Niederer, Ana Peraica, Birgit Richard, Keith Sanborn, Florian Schneider, Tom Sherman, Jan Simons, Thomas Thiel, Vera Tollmann, Andreas Treske, Peter Westenberg.
  • YouTube Links to Online Music Stores [Google OS] – “YouTube started to add links to iTunes and Amazon MP3 for music videos from EMI Music and Universal Music. “Click-to-buy links are non-obtrusive retail links, placed on the watch page beneath the video with the other community features. Just as YouTube users can share, favorite, comment on, and respond to videos quickly and easily, now users can click-to-buy products — like songs and video games — related to the content they’re watching on the site,” announces Google Blog. … For now, the links are only available in the US, but they will be added internationally if this experiment turns out to be a success.”

Links for August 31st 2008

Interesting links for August 28th 2008 through August 31st 2008:

  • Wikipedia Edits Forecast Vice Presidential Picks [Washingtonpost.com] – “In the days leading up to Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate announcement, political junkies glued to broadcasts and blogs for clues of McCain’s veep choice might have done better to keep a sharp eye on each candidate’s Wikipedia entry. Just hours before McCain declared his veep choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, her Wiki page saw a flurry of activity, with editors adding details about her approval rating and husband’s employment. Perhaps more tellingly, some of the same users editing her page were almost simultaneously updating McCain’s Wiki entry, adding information dealing with accuracy, sources and footnotes to each.” [Via]
  • Lewd Hudson makes waves on Facebook [Nine MSN] – “Hockeyroos captain Nikki Hudson has apologised for a sexually explicit joke she made about herself on Facebook after it made its way into the public domain. Hudson, 32, wrote she would like to be “impaled” by the Spanish men’s hockey team in a message posted on August 22, the Sunday Mail reported. “Nikki thinks the running of the bulls should be changed & we should be chased by the spainish [sic] mens hockey team,” she wrote, according to the Mail. “I would definately [sic] make sure I got caught and impaled!” The veteran Hockeyroo, whose fancied team had just been eliminated from the Olympics, regularly posted candid messages throughout her time in Beijing on topics ranging from the food to her thoughts on men.” [Via Alex @ iGeneration]
  • Macquarie University opens up access to its academics’ research papers [The Australian] – “Macquarie University has joined the small club of Australian institutions that require academics to make their research papers freely available over the Internet. “We think it’s a blow for academic freedom and for universal access to scholarly work,” said Steven Schwartz, Macquarie’s vice chancellor. Under a new policy, academics must send a copy of journal articles to Macquarie’s open access repository. The open access movement seeks to maximise the public benefit from research by disseminating it beyond subscription-based journals, which are costly. The movement gained pace this year with institutions such as Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the British funding agency the Welcome Trust adopting policies that require, rather than simply encourage, researchers to use online repositories.”
  • SMH columnist Carlton sacked over Fairfax strike [ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)] – “Columnist Mike Carlton has been sacked from The Sydney Morning Herald. Sources have told the ABC that Mr Carlton refused to write his regular column for the paper’s Saturday edition because of the current strike by journalists and editorial staff. He was told that he would no longer be writing for the newspaper as a result.”
  • YouTube Adds Captions [NewTeeVee] – YouTube has launched a captions feature to its videos. With captions, video uploaders can add a translation into a foreign language, provide clarification for garbled dialog or make the video more accessible to the hard of hearing. In order to add captions, you’ll need to have files with captions or subtitles in them, created using software or a service. Once added, the captions can be accessed by clicking on the arrow in the lower right hand corner of the video. Like video annotations, captions don’t seem to work with embeds.

Links for August 26th 2008

Interesting links for August 26th 2008:

  • Fairfax Media to cut 550 jobs in Australia and New Zealand [SMH] – “Fairfax Media will axe 550 staff in Australia and New Zealand, or about 5% of the company’s full-time workforce, as part of a plan to bolster profitability. The overhaul will include the integration of staffing for The Sydney Morning Herald and its Sunday sister paper, The Sun-Herald. Editorial positions will account for about one-third of the overall job cuts, Fairfax chief executive David Kirk and deputy CEO Brian McCarthy said in a statement emailed to staff. “This is a far-reaching program, designed to comprehensively restructure and reposition the business for years to come,” the statement said. “We wanted to make a major change today across the company in order to accelerate our building of a strong and dynamic integrated media business.” Fairfax’s announcement comes as media companies worldwide attempt to adjust to a shift in advertising revenue and readership from traditional media, including newspapers, to online and other emerging platforms.”
  • Fairfax staff demand explanation for planned job cuts [ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)] – “Angry staff and union officials have given Fairfax 48 hours to explain why they are planning to cut 550 jobs. Fairfax staff met in Sydney, Melbourne, Wollongong, Newcastle and Canberra this afternoon to discuss the job cuts. They have agreed to reject the redundancy plan and have demanded that Fairfax executives meet with them in the next 48 hours to explain their strategy. They say their newspapers are already under resourced. Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance federal secretary Chris Warren says no decision has been taken about industrial action, but a strike has not been ruled out if Fairfax does not reconsider its position.”
  • Michael Phelps Officially Most Popular Person on Facebook [All Facebook] – “…Michael Phelps’ fan page has become the most popular page on Facebook, overtaking Obama now attracting over 1.425 million fans versus Barack who has over 1.389 million fans.”

Links for July 2nd 2008

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

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