One of the many highlights of the WordCamp Dallas 2009 weekend was the WordPress song.
The song was by Scott Kingsley Clark, a developer and songwriter, lead a discussion on Wordpress as a CMS as opposed to just a blog platform. He kicked it off with a song.
You can get more with his “error folk” music project titled Soft Charisma.
As you know, my head’s been wrapped up in what’s now being called the New Iranian Revolution. You can read my extended coverage of it around the blogosphere here.
On the weekends, I try to unplug, and one of the ways my wife and I pass the time is to catch up on our movies. This week, one of her picks was Persepolis, which is available, amongst other places, on AT&T UVerse’s Video on Demand service.
The movie is a French independent film that was critically acclaimed and took home several honors from the Cannes Film Festival, and follows the life of Marjane Satrapi as she comes of age during the original Iranian Revolution (see the Wikipedia plot summary here – contains spoilers, but gives a good overview of the film).
There are a lot more intellectual ways to catch up on the historical backdrop against which the current events are unfolding in Tehran right now, but this makes for a far more personal and engaging perspective. I definitely recomend it.
I wasn’t able to find it on Joost, Hulu, or any of the other usual (legal) suspects, so my best suggestion is to go the old fashioned route and rent it if you can’t find it on your DVR service.
Accompanied by Keyboard Cat.
This thing blows my mind. Completely. Watch to the end.
“I hear that if you play this album in sync with Dr. Doolittle, Greg Luganus will fall through your ceiling and tell you a bedtime story.”
- Brad Williamson via Friendfeed
A lot has been said recently about moderation with regard to how badly we knock about the Heritage Media. Many are saying that we should cut it out.
The screenshots tell a tale more nuanced than the provocative “new media beats old media” narrative. Rather, they show that while Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and other social media sites are both a source of unfiltered information and a venue for public discussion, we still look to CNN, the BBC and their ilk to add context and meaning to this flood of data. And when they fail us, we demand more of them.
So help me understand… Many of us are flat-out refusing to be consumers of the world’s news media, from newspapers like the New York Times and news channels like CNN, chewing away at their ad revenue. Some exult in the bad news as it streams forth – as newspapers close and journalists are sent packing. Others revel when old media makes stupid mistakes in the new world, like the AP demanding you not excerpt their stories, or other sites threatening to sue when linked to. But when a real newsworthy event hits, we hold them accountable for not being there, first to respond.
Journalism is not a charity event. Its reporters cost money, as do papers and stations’ branch offices, travel expenses, and equipment, yet many of us on the bleeding edge are all too excited to mention how we’re not paying them a dime.
That CNN did not lead the way in covering the Iran conflict this week, after decades of our relying on them to be there, as they were in Desert Storm, Operation: Iraqi Freedom, Somalia, Bosnia and others, is not up for debate. But the question is – did we really not want them to fail, or are you happy that they did?
Even Steven Hodson mentioned something along these lines:
Instead of spending so much time knocking old media or making fun of the new social media tools we should be working on ways to get them to work together. Each serves a purpose and in this changing world they can both help effect social and political change.
You won’t, however, hear me saying anything along these lines. If anything has been shown by the dozens of local New Media ongoing coverage efforts as well as watershed events like the Iran situation and Rathergate, the New Media is infinitely superior to Heritage Media.
Heritage Media has two choices – adapt to the new model, or die.
I refuse to and will never cut them slack for claiming to be superior to our form of emergent media and then continuing along their very long track record of business and journalistic failure.
I absolutely and abjectly refuse to cut them slack. They have the tools to change. It will be a painful change. It will mean swallowing their pride. But it’s a necessary change if they want to survive – and those that refuse to even try to work towards their own survival will never get pity me.
Protesting Iranians are in a hopeless situation. For them to voice dissention is patently illegal. For them to ask to be properly represented can result in persecution and death. Not figurative death, or the death of their business – actual gruesome and bloody death. Yet still they fight for their liberty and survival.
I think that’s the meta-lesson to be learned here. If Heritage Media can’t perform their duties any longer while New Media excels at doing all of that and more, why is there any sympathy for them at all?
A few gems came out of last week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo and I figured I would touch on a few of them and offer some thoughts.
One of the biggest announcements of E3 was Project Natal, A motion sensing camera that uses your body as a controller instead of actually providing one for you.
See this chick? She is flailing around trying to hit flying balls down a long corridor. The video of this was absolutely priceless. The only reason why you don’t see said video is I cant find one that completely omits Kudo Tsunoda. His presence onstage during this event reminded me of a wedding singer trying desperately to get the crowd in on his act. And Failing.
Project Natal looks beautiful from an interface standpoint. A small bit of pre-recorded ad-style footage showed off Natal’s ability to recognize players immediately through facial recognition technology and immediately bring their Xbox User Account up. The voice recognition tech allowed for a fairly interesting online Game Show style presentation. All in all it doesn't seem like something that would be incorporated into every title in the Xbox Library, but it does seem interesting for individual applications and interesting new tech.
Nintendo came out of the gate with a stunner. A title in their ever-popular Metroid franchise is being developed by Team Ninja, the development house responsible for Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden. Metroid: Other M looks to be something of a 2D/3D hybrid platformer-shooter with a interesting emphasis on storyline.
And Finally Sony made a push to introduce quite a few new things to the crowd at their press conference. Sony actually managed to introduce a new Final Fantasy title before the currently developed one is even on Shelves. Final Fantasy XIV Online is a follow up of sorts to Final Fantasy XI Online. The current main Final Fantasy due out next year is Final Fantasy XIII – which also has another two spinoff games. Certainly Square-Enix faces no shortage of titles to work on in this tough economic climate. There is another new Metal Gear title, because the last one is never the last one. God of War 3 looks impressive, and so does White Knight Chronicles. There is still that ever present price barrier to contend with. Most of the PS3 content looks great, but when people are looking to save money more now than ever, having a $400 Console on the market just doesn't pull consumers into the fold. I expected a price drop from Sony during this event, especially after hearing their recent finance numbers.
All in all it was a decent E3, not a blockbuster, but enough to wet the appetites of the hardcore and casual gamer alike. As i find more things to push around ill post, because trailers for the games announced are starting to find their way online.
