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).
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.”
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…”
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”.”
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.
US ‘cyber-bully’ mother indicted [BBC NEWS] – “A Missouri woman who allegedly used a fake MySpace profile to bully a girl who later committed suicide has been indicted by a federal Grand Jury. Lori Drew, 49, allegedly posed as a boy on the website to befriend Megan Meier, 13…”
Google fuzzes out faces in privacy push [SMH] – “Google has rolled out a new technology which automatically blurs any human face appearing in street-level photographs taken for use in its mapping services by its fleet of camera-mounted vehicles.”
Dr Who fan in knitted puppet row [BBC NEWS | Entertainment] – “A Doctor Who fan is embroiled in a row with the BBC after she published knitting patterns for the sci-fi drama’s monsters on the internet.” (Sicking the lawyers on fans? Never a popular plan. Dare I make the pun: it’s Ooderous!)
