Posted via web from Barb’s posterous

awesome, pizza, Video, wait what

BANSHEE BEAT from chinorockwell on Vimeo.

This is sweet, very creative. Reminds me a little bit of Michel Gondry’s video for Chemical Brothers’ Star Guitar.[via Mashable]

google, google maps, google street view

“Because small payment systems are always discussed in conversations by and for publishers, readers are assigned no independent role. In every micropayments fantasy, there is a sentence or section asserting that what the publishers want will be just fine with us, and, critically, that we will be possessed of no desires of our own that would interfere with that fantasy.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the media business is being turned upside down by our new freedoms and our new roles. We’re not just readers anymore, or listeners or viewers. We’re not customers and we’re certainly not consumers. We’re users. We don’t consume content, we use it, and mostly what we use it for is to support our conversations with one another, because we’re media outlets now too. When I am talking about some event that just happened, whether it’s an earthquake or a basketball game, whether the conversation is in email or Facebook or Twitter, I want to link to what I’m talking about, and I want my friends to be able to read it easily, and to share it with their friends.”

Why Small Payments Won’t Save Publishers « Clay Shirky.

business models, converstion, micropayments, MSM, publishing, web publishing

[Thanks, Brian!]

world of warcraft, wotlk, WoW, wrath

So much to be awed by from last night’s election and I’m still unpacking it all. Some notables:

• The first African-American President of the Unites States of America. I hope this goes a long way toward starting to heal the rift still left behind by the history of slavery in this country and white society’s lack of reparations.
• John McCain’s extremely classy concession speech (and some dunderhead Republican booers)
• Obama won an unprecedented number of battleground and traditionally Republican states including Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania and Indiana.
• A record number of young voters turned out to vote in this election, many for the first time. Up 6% in participation from 2004 for 18 to 29-year-olds.

For me the evening was emotional and awe-inspiring. Between Twitter, Facebook, SMS, voice and a constant stream of news from various sources I felt both plugged in and informed as well as surrounded by friends and other exuberant Obama supporters experiencing a profound moment in history together. That point is made even more poignant by the fact that the Obama campaign itself made brilliant strategic use of the internet and social media to reach out to a more diverse audience of new voters, youth voters, voters of color, and apathetic voters who were finally moved by a candidate who listens carefully, responds mindfully, and speaks authentically a message of re-unification for a country ideologically divided and facing great challenges.

Last night many Americans felt the power of the democratic process in a way we have not felt passionately about in some time. For me it feels like a re-awakening, an indication of the hunger for growth and self-actualization in America’s citizenry, and a powerful groundswell of hope for things to come.

On a much lighter note… after the break I’ve collected some “Obamagery” — user-created or mashed up visual expression of our new President.

(more…)

election08, Obama, politics

Brilliant 8-years later political comedy and reenactment of a popular Budwieser commercial that ran in 2000. Here’s the story of how the show was produced in 9 days for about $6500 and became a viral hit.

Here’s the original:

citizen media, Obama, politics, viral video

As the MC indicates, this clearly represents the decline of Western civilization as we know it. Which means it’s totally awesome on a stick.

[Via BoingBoing, thx Galen!]

lolcats, Video

All of which makes total sense. I like to file this general trend under the heading “people like to do stuff.” Broadcast media had its day because it was technologically easier than providing a platform for interactivity — not because passive reception is something inherent in human nature. Human nature is inherently interactive, not passive. Thus as we give people more tools to collect, create and share things they care about online — they’re naturally going to use them.

I am looking forward to seeing the “creators” group continue to grow especially. I am totally with Will Wright on the idea that people like to make stuff. I take inspiration from the experience recounted with the launch of the Spore Creature Creator, where Maxis and EA expected to reach 100,000 creatures created in total between the time the Creature Creator launched in June and the full Spore game was released September 7 — instead they hit that figure within a couple of hours and within 18 days had reached 1,589,000 user-created species prompting Wright’s memorable quip that Spore users are 38% God. Humans are creative by nature. After years of media largely tightly controlled by a small number of vested interests, it’s totally amazing to be living in this time of tools and tinkering.

creativity

yes, you can has.

And lo unto them a meme was born: CyLOLns. All credit goes to Akela on this one.

BSG, cylons, lolcats, Teh funny