Where's the Best Chow Mein in Cleveland? P.2

In 1985, "The 50,000 watt blowtorch of the great southwest," WBAP, blasted through a clear summer night filling radios from Ft. Worth to Fargo. And even in a moderately sized metroplex like Ft. Worth, several newspapers kept their enormous presses constantly humming, printing multiple editions of daily papers in the hopes of vying for the generous deep pockets of advertisers and their desire to satiate the avid subscribers who eagerly awaited the latest news on the current happenings on main street and the unsightly political wranglings up on capital hill.

Today, a high schooler in sunny Flowermound, TX can compile a musical playlist on a hand held device then instantaneously send it to a fellow Kraftwerk fan living on the icy crags of Kaffeklubben Island with a press of a screen app at zero cost. If you picked up the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram paper today, you’d be lucky if your two-bits bought you enough ink to modicumly adorn the floor of a moderately-sized birdcage. “Times there are a-changin’”

And Clay Shirky clearly describes these tectonic shifts in media in his book “Here Comes Everybody.” He describes three kinds of loss: one, complex media delivery systems will falter; two, censorship will fade; and finally, personal freedoms are up for grabs.

One aspect Mr. Shirky spends a great deal of time discerning is self-help in today’s global world. One one hand, today's media offers an effectual way of gathering like-minded people together to form a mediating place of refugee, but there also resides a dark side. “Khaaaaaahn!”

If I was a person who nipped too heavily at his cocktails, I am a person who relishes an umbrellaed concoctions or two, then there will be a smorgasbord of self-help groups available to me. But, if I hate and wish to exterminate every breathing elephant-bird of Madagascar unluckily enough to be caught nesting in plain sight then I can probably find a like-minded hate group that shares my distrust of such felonious, feathery, flightless abominations.

The phenomenon of Wikipedia represents all that I have regurgitated in this post after reading Mr. Shirky’s book. It is an accessible media whose accuracy can be honed by billions of honestly invested users, but if unchecked, it also can be manipulated by the anti-Madagascarian-flightless-bird ilk.

Where's the Best Chow Mein in Cleveland? P.1

When new students, starry-eyed and dumbstruck, walk onto a new campus grounds, he or she gets the grand tour because they represent America’s most prudent investment; these will be her future leaders and her budding cash cows. Already attending students (wishing to mitigate the expenses of last semester’s used books and shrink the expense of next semester’s preordained stack of used books) chaperon gaggles of youthful, doe-eyed recruits by the towering sports facilities, across the well-kept grounds, and strategically skirt the cobbled buildings of historical import in the Sisyphean hopes of aspiring the newest wave of the would be learned. When the electronic chime rings out from the campus belfry, another queue of new students hurriedly assemble outside the auditorium and anxiously await their personalized guided tour.

Mother’s sign up their children to these institutions in hopes that their child will benefit from an encompassing education. At a state sponsored college, parents drop an average of $7,000 a semester in hopes of seeing their progeny gain the best education that their state taxes have to offer -- even if a large portion of this seemingly sound investment will be erroneously squandered on honing the subtle artistry of beer pong. Nevertheless, certain standards have to be adhered to. Every incoming student will be required to take a mandatory amount of math, writing, geography, physical health, computing, and a touch of a science. On top of receiving the aforementioned scholarly and honorable pursuits, each new student should also have a copy of "Here Comes Everyone" by Chris Shirky shoved into their hipsters backpack.

That Rug Really Tied the Room Together

"Donny, you're out of your element!" Sometimes I can't help but feel like "Donny" Kerabatsos from the Big Lebowski.

May be because I am missing a second X chromosome, may be I am a fusty old fossil, but I could not fathom the allure of this latest internet phenomenon dubbed "Haul Video." That last part, I may have written too hastily because I can actually see how America's mass-consumer society could easily become enthralled by pretty porcelain girls showing off their latest shopping mall hauls.

I will define the fad simply: Young girls go shopping and then post their "hauls" on YouTube.

Admittedly, my immediate reaction was a guttural reflux that threatened to hurl up my lunch's club sandwich and wilted dill pickle. But before I impetuously careened off the rails into an ill informed rant, I steeled myself and watched a few more videos to get a better feel of where this trend might be heading; after all, these gals must be doing something right. Some video posters earn six digit salaries! Yep, six digits to shop.

After my first few viewings, I couldn't help but imagine the nightmare of these videos eternally looping as I helplessly bobbed in a lapping lake of fire, but after the thrid or forth video, something magical occured. The thoughts of eternal damnation faded, the sulphuric dream clouds cleared, and I actually began to get a kick out of these YouTube clips. I could not help but chuckle at the hostess’s bubbly exuberance and gleaned a certain glee from their boundless esprit.

It does takes a certain personality, a unique charisma, and an innate savvy to be good at this type of brazen hucksterism. It’s not my language, it’s not my generation's scene, but even I began to distinguish between the good, the bad, and the poseur.

I can’t see this being confiscated by main stream media. This is unique to this forum of home-made media and informal directness.

It’s not the end of mankind. Honest.

Mad Ad Men

For around a thousand dollars you can buy tv ad space and reach over a million viewers. That is just what the folks at Slate.com did. The video below shows how, with help from Google's Ads, a macbook pro, some stock footage, and a little video know-how you too can see your ad run on late night television.

The Flash Mobs are at the Gates

Years ago, I remember watching on YouTube with piqued interest as large groups of young folks participated in impromptu performances in and around New York City. My three favorites were: "Best Gig Ever," "Frozen Grand Central," and "The Moebius." But like most things on the internet, there is always a group of malcontents determined to f’ it up for everyone else.

That was years ago, and today’s version of the text message troupe is a mass of delinquent minute men bent on dominating and intimidating. Hundreds of kids, via text messaging, are organizing and diving down like biblical locust on city blocks and halting all business and threatening innocent pedestrians unlucky enough to be caught in their path. In my day we may have had the “drag” - young folks slowly driving up and down a prescribed route - but it was relatively benign and localized. Each school had their own preferred path (my drag's waypoints, circa ’85, was the Armory and the Sonic). This phenomenon, on the other hand, is performed at a scary scale with hundreds of bored kids forming en masse at a moment's notice.

Now of course businesses won’t kowtow to these kinds of shenanigans. City leaders are quick to doll out counteractive measures like harsher curfews, parental penalties, and the FBI (yep, the FBI). These are all easy attempts to appease the business sect, but will these near-sighted actions deter the hordes? Never mind that this may be a nuanced racial and class issue that can not be properly addressed with these impetuously implement ham-fisted policies.

But no matter, I would like to thank the flash mobs. Not only have you taken away a unique performance art, now you have given the federal government license to monitor my Tweets.

If there ever was a web site divinely created by the big IT guy in the sky that successfully sowed the seeds of world peace and managed to deliver fresh tulips to every home on odd Tuesdays, inevitably, someone would come along to f’ it up.

Click here to read the NY Times article.

Mind Your Ps and Qs Around this B

The "B" is for beauty of course.

Ms. Cohen is one tall, cool drink of Canadian Club, and according to a once anonymous blogger, she is also the biggest "skank" in a city of 19 million. Past accomplishments aside, this 40-year-old model is now in the news by taking the behemoth Google to task and successfully wrangling the identification of one of its blogger's, that according to Ms. Cohen, was attempting to defame her snow white character.

You owe it to yourself to watch this "interview" on CBS's morning show. At the 6:05 mark, I had to stop and spank the pause button while I attempted to stem the gastric juices from bubbling up my windpipe. One moment she says she just wants an heart-felt apology from her libeler, only to later claim, with a flippant remark and a flick of her locks, that she may or may not pursue charges after all. Can something really be historic when its latent landmark status depends on the precarious whims of an ex-super-model?

Here is the skinny, and you read it here. The entire rabble rousing affair smells to high heaven like a publicity stunt that also doubles as a convenient volley in an ongoing spat between two bored beauties. First off, the blog in question had previously hid dormant in an obscure nook of the vast web for months never collecting more than a spattering of innocuous responses. But our litigious blonde bombshell, after getting wind of the offensive site via a mutual friend, decided it holy necessary to speed-dial her legal team.

Here is a copy of the offical complaint.

A pretty face and an augment frame gets all the ink and a prominent spot on all the morning shows, while the hard questions of anonymity and the internet are being played out all over the web with real consequences -- like the British constable telling all the dirty secrets of the beat, or the young student journalist threatened with physical and fiscal harm because of an article she penned disclosing the identity of a blogger.

Napoleon and the Horse He Rode In On

The above video is my stab at filming, editing, and questioning a subject for my new media class. The subject is none other by my dear mother. I needed to find someone over 50 that was willing to sit in front of a computer for and hour while being subjected to questions aimed at highlighting her generation's deficiency with today's technology. After I assured her my assignment was not agist, she allowed herself to have fun. It turned out to be a very amusing undertaking -- a fact that you can clearly see in the video.

Digital Nation

When the journalistic team behind Frontline puts out a program, everyone expect greatness, and you won't be disappointed by this episode investigating the invasive digital world surrounding us.



You will witness colorful brain scans that prove today’s multitaskers do not possess such ominous skills as they proudly profess, businesses that have closed down their offices and opened a Second Life account, and today’s kids that never knew a world unconnected. A great deal of this hour long program focusses on students and teachers. Some teachers embrace their tech savvy students and their digital devices, while some sill maintain that a successful student should stay focused on the written page.

They interview eccentric entrepreneurs pushing the boundaries of technology by introducing immersive 3-D worlds -- worlds that lead some to the marriage altar and some to rehab. One moving scene shows kids playing 3-D war games at a suspect Army recruiting center in Philadelphia then there is a qucik cut away to a computer screen of a Predator (an unmanned fighter plane) pilot honing his crosshairs on a very real caravan of Afghani Taliban.

I never miss a Frontline, thanks to my digital recorder, and once again I am rewarded by their mastery of television reporting.

Here is a link to a ton of extra video inspired by the show: (Click Here)

Has Any One Seen A Wandering Sheep?

"I need some nails for my gate!!!!!"

"Jimmy's horse has jumped the fence!"

I periodically receive similar posts on my Facebook account by some of my friends who work on virtual farms. Scrounging up nails and corralling rogue horses never seemed like much fun to me. I am more of the slay the dragon, wipe out the invading aliens, score the winning basket, or re-kill an army of zombies kind of video game player. I never saw the appeal of running a 2-D farm on Farmville, but maybe I am the one missing out. Maybe, just maybe, I'm missing out on the meta-appeal of this simple social game.

More and more people and more and more money are pouring into this phenomenon. So as an experiment, I am going to attempt to run my own farm starting today. It is time for me to roll up my sleeves and get some virtual grit under my nails. Film at 11.

My Top 10 (Visual & Content Imperatives)

I like my blogs crisp, clean, easy to navigate, and to the point. What I do not like is what I call the "MySpace mire." I have lost my password to MySpace, but I am not saddled with guilt because of it. People's MySpace sites got way out of hand with flash popping up everywhere, streaming music blaring, and background artwork that made reading their posts difficult and often hard to even find. I hated waiting, twiddling my thumbs, and rolling my eyes for all the flimflam to finally finish loading, just so I could share a photo or a quick quip.

When I started this blog, I got out a clean piece of paper and wrote down my ten commandments on blogging.

1) Thou shall be wary of long loadtimes by abstaining from an abundance of flash graphics.

2) Thou shall have a predominant theme.

3) Remember to break up large text blocks, be brief.

4) Honor the gods of grammar and spelling.

5) Thou shalt not steal, always accredit.

6) Thou shall use two columns making it easy to navigate thy blog.

7) Thou shalt not use music.

8) Write in thine own style but do not be shy about learning from others.

9) Err on the side of simplicity.

10) Covet content over put on pizzazz.

Here is a link to "25 Beautiful Minimalistic Website Designs."

Diablo III in 3-D

Kyle Barron, a lead software analyst with over two decades of programing experience agreed to answer some questions about new media and its perceivable future.

Eddie Voyles: Thanks, Kyle for taking the time to answer a few questions about the direction of new media.

Kyle Barron: Sure.

Voyles: I don’t want to get too technical, especially right of the bat -- Ginger or Mary Ann?

Barron: Mary Ann. Hehe.

Voyles: How many hours of the day do you spend on a computer?

Barron: Counting work? 14 hours.

Voyles: Wow. What was your first computer, when did you buy it, and what were some of its specs?

Barron: In 1982, I bought a Commodore Vic-20 with 4k of memory, and you stored your data on a cassette deck.

Voyles: How much storage did a cassette hold?

Barron: 300 kilobytes. Today you can buy 1.5 terabytes.

Voyles: What was the first computer language, other than Basic, that you learned?

Barron: Apple 2-C.

Voyles: How many social networks do you belong to?

Barron: One, Facebook. But Netflix is pretty darn close. It has its own community, friends, rating movies; put me down for Netflix too.

Voyles: I would not have thought of Netflix, but I guess you're right. You don't seem to use a bunch of social networks? Do you use Twitter?

Barron: I don't tweet. At home I usually use the internet for news, alotta RSS feeds and also to keep up with my love of Japanese Anime.

Voyles: Are you big into Anime?

Barron: I've probably got over 140 hours of DVDs that I'v bought but still haven’t seen.

Voyles: That's alot!

Barron: Yes it is. I think I'm done buying for awhile. They take up a lot of shelf space.

Voyles: Why has it been so difficult for even hugely popular sites like Facebook, that have over 350,000,000 users, to earn money?

Barron: People expect it all to be free, and people ignore banner adds. Monetization is pretty tough. There’s only a few papers that successfully charge, and those are usually stock market, fantasy sports, or Nielson's rating pages.

Voyles: What do you foresee as the main medium for media distribution in the future - home computer/laptop, cellphone, iPad, or a game console?

Barron: The home computer is still the main workhorse, and I don’t see that changing tomorrow, but the Iphone revolution has just started. I can imagine the cellphone giving the computer a run for its money. Who knows about the iPad. I use my PS3 to watch blue-ray movies, download movies, and store music. I don’t surf the web with it, but you can.

Voyles: Do you play computer games?

Barron: Oh yeah. Just finished Dragon Age -- again.

Voyles: Name your top 3 computer games.

Barron: Whoa, that’s tough. Now you’re making me think -- Spellbreaker.

Voyles: The old infocom game?

Barron: Yep, wait. I’ll say Planetfall.

Voyles: Why Planetfall and not Spellbreaker?

Barron: It was much easier, and it had a great story. Spellbreaker could get insanely difficult.

Voyles: Ok, now there’s two more.

Barron: Baldur’s Gate II, that game had it all: a great story, romance, guilds, so much to do in that game and Diablo II.

Voyles: Did you play Diablo II solo or over Blizzard’s online service.

Barron: Strickly solo. The game really didn’t get going until you finished it two times, but when you reached Hell level then it was game on.

Voyles: Do you play MMORPGs?

Barron: I did but never again.

Voyles: Why never again?

Barron: Those games are time sinkholes. They’re designed to get you to stay on a long, long time. The time spent to advance in those games is too high for me.

Voyles: Not long ago you could go into Best Buy and there would be four rows of PC games, now it’s dwindled down to a single row.

Barron: One row and a section of $5 games like Cabela’s Deer Hunter 2004 and casino games.

Voyles: What do you see on the horizon for new media?

Barron: 3-D. I believe that is gonna be the future. For television there could be some growing pains, but it’s coming. And everything will be streaming. Itunes killed the CD. The DVD is next.

Voyles: Thanks, Kyle for sharing your time.

Barron: No problem. Bye.

This Bespells Doom

I am interested in seeing what new media will become ubiquitous, which will remain only a niche, and which ones will eventually die on the digital vine. How does Myspace, once the crowned king of all social networking, that allows its users to incorporate customizable home pages filled with MP3, photos, videos, flash, a banquet of gadgetry; get dethroned by a tiny blue birdie with its 140 character limit and mini-urls?

And is time-honored print media really gasping on life support? Here is a site that believes just that; it is devoted to reporting on every major daily's demise. Most printed papers are struggling to find a healthy financial formula in our irrevocably digital age. Will the New York Times start charging for content or will its articles remain free? Here is a unique idea: A one shot Sunday paper put out by Dave Eggers of San Fransico.

I hope there is new successful hybrid around the corner -- a little bit old-timey and a little bit cutting edge.

I Sold Some Plasma to Get More Books

I placed a nice, fat book order with the folks at Amazon today. I should receive the following four New Media books by this time next week (2/19/10): Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing WIthout Organizations - Clay Shirky; The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom - Yochai Benkler; YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture - Jean Burgess; and finally Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage (Digital Formations) - Axel Bruns.

At the beginning of the semester, the class received a large selection of books to choose from. I chose the above titles over the rest because of personal-interests, one book's lack of availability, and a perceived redundancy between the YouTube titles. I hope to be able to split up the next purchase with a fellow student (hint, hint.)

I would like to put a wrap on this auspicious and seminal post with a big fat bow tied with candy canes, laurel, and a video. The clip below is taken from an interview with the two authors of “YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture.” (Here is a book review.)

Relax, enjoy a sip of coffee or drink of choice, and watch how the authors explain their spiffy approach to surveying content posted on YouTube. One twist that they brought up really has me chomping to get my copy of said book -- YouTube as a true social network. Might seem obvious to some or most, but up until now, I had thought of the Tube as merely a storage site for music videos, television clips, piano playing kitties, pratfalls, and crotch dings; and judged most of its commenters as a pack of insulated jerks with a vexing attraction to over CAPITALIZATION and runaway ......ellipses..... . But Jean and Joshua say au contrare.

They claim that it is its own cultural space formed by a unique community of content (both user created and traditional) providers and responders. For the cursory user (me), it may seem like a video clip dump site, but not so for its devoted social community. YouTube can be viewed more like a gathering of video-bloggers and not solely as a convenient way to catch clips of last night’s “American Idol.”

But enough of my yakking, welcome aboard.