An anthropological introduction to YouTube

Future of Convention Newspapers

Using #neara09 as the tag, we are hoping to digitally follow the conversations on the floor, in the hallways, over lunch and on the buses. We are really interested in contributed content more than the feed. Our feed originates with a blog. Content will include YouTube videos, Flickr photos and messages. The RSS will feed into Twitter and a mailing list. And then there is Facebook. There will also be a convention newspaper website. Both the hard copy and the website will cover the official business of the convention. Along with Robert's Rules and caucuses the newspaper makes possible the large democratic process. I believe that is the primary role of the newspaper, both hardcopy and web. And this is because of the essential need for hardcopy. Maybe in the future the Kindle or iReader will replace hardcopy, but not tjhis year. This is not to say a newspaper is limited to that role. The hardcopy can report on conversations but it is not real time and this not in the conversations. So we hope people will follow #neara09 but more importantly we hope they will use the tag on their tweets, in their blogs, with their videos and for their photos. Maybe #140tc will provide some ideas.

User Experience Design and McLuhan

In looking to explain User Experience Design I started thinking about McLuhan's statement that "The Medium is the Message." He was explaining, for example, that the car was not just about the car but the entire "environment" that it took to support the car: gas stations, oil companies, rubber plantations, auto unions, etc. In looking at a picture of a car you don't see the entire environment. The message is bigger than the product itself; it is the environment the product requires. User Experience Design is about looking at this entire environment when creating a new artifact. In fact creating a new product may including creating a substantial part of the supporting environment. The user does not use the new product or technology in a vacuum but within a larger context. For example, a picture of an iPod does not show you iTunes, the iTunes store or the Apple Store with the Genius Bar. Good design looks at the entire environment. Because McLuhan's Laws of Media apply within this environment, a good designer would benefit from studying them. Simply, User Experience Design has made a discipline out of the "The Message" of a new product.

Passive House Design

This New York Times article describes the passive house industry in Germany. I was just reading an editorial in an older issue of Fine Homebuilding (May 2008) on the same subject, but stating that it is a life survival issue. I think it is a planet survival issue and this design will become the standard within 10 years in the U.S. This is important and I'll keep posting on it.

Election Newspapers

With the Washington Post and other newspapers continuing to sell Election Newspapers I am again reminded of JFK and RFK. Just as people are buying these images of Obama, so people acquired photos of these two heroes and displayed them in their homes. Our new President Elect restores that hope for not only recent generations but for those hopeful for a RFK Presidency.

The Whole World Is Watching - Obama Victory Means To Me

"The Whole World Is Watching, The Whole World Is Watching"

Our country has moved forward, has taken a huge step forward.

Forty years ago in Grant Park a generation chanted "The Whole World Is Watching". This was after the assassination of President John Kennedy. After the assassination of Martin Luther King. And the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the likely Democratic candidate. Forty years ago the hope of a new generation was put down in Grant Park under the stick of the Chicago Police and Mayor Daley.

It has taken a generation to move beyond the losses of those assassinations. It took Barack Obama to bring back that hope that millions saw with RFK. It has taken a person from a new generation to move us politically beyond those scars.

This is not an us versus them or any other competition. Not good versus evil. This is beyond a zero sum game that we've seen in past elections. We will be asked to sacrifice, to accept the compromise of politics, and to change our behavior.

Last night the whole world watched Grant Park in Chicago and saw some of the best of America. I'm a proud American today.

Replay

I heard this review and I'm now reading Replay. It is as good as the review suggests. Maybe better. ... but what if an author wrote it today so 1988 is 2008?

Sproutcore

Sproutcore may be just the framework I've been waiting for. It was always pretty clear that the application should be written in JavaScript and the server should serve data. With recent progress with REST, JSON and now Sproutcore, it looks like we are there. It might take the Sproutcore community a year or so to push get some "maturity" on this. But given the activity on the mailing list and wiki, it may take considerably less. And remember, this is not something brand new; it has take a couple of years to get to this point. Have a look yourself.

Mark Warner site

This is a good example of how not all the content is within a web site: Mark Warner for Senate.

Age gets to abcedmindedness, sorta

New York Times article about boomers wanting mind exercises. Anyone ever thing that reading (ABCED) has anything to do with it?