environmental working group

This is a website that lists where all the money from farm subsidies go. It breaks down which commodities get the most money (corn and soy) and which farms get the most money (the wealthiest).

In light of the passing of new Farm Bill, this website is extremely important because it is a watchdog for farm policy and, for the first time ever, makes farm subsidy information available to the public.

We all know that big farms receive the majority of farm subsidies, but I think you will be surprised to find out just how skewed are our annual farm contributions.

-Marisa

http://farm.ewg.org/farm/dp_analysis.php

New Moon Magazine

we’ve talked a bit about children’s media, so i thought id post about this cute magazine i just came across for preteen girls. it’s called New Moon (and though i don’t for a second buy into the whole “women-lunar-goddess” junk, apart from the name, the contents of the magazine are pretty fantastic.) you can check out a virtual issue or the contents of this month’s issue which is focused on music and includes an article about a female dj and one about hip-hop music – which is prefaced with a warning about how “Some rap songs contain lyrics that are harmful and degrading to women,” but shifts to emphasize artists who “bring positive messages to the airwaves.” sweet.

almost every article in the publication is written by the “girls editorial board” so most of the articles are accessible and diverse and very cute. that said, i did come across one about Saudi Arabia which had a little side box noting that “Unfortunately, in Saudi Arabia women have no voice.” Argh!

other interesting thing: they encouraged girls to analyze media, asking: whether there should be an age limit for social networking sites.

all in all, the magazine seemed to be all about providing a space for young girls that doesn’t focus on fashion, boys, fitting in or other early intellect-shaming topics.

abra

what is the history of your body?

hi all,

please consider attending the workshops my friend rachel and i are leading to finish off our independent study. no theater experience is necessary or expected. the workshops are going to be a fun, relaxed exploration of the history of our bodies. feel free to email me with any questions.

thanks,
~julia

ps - what do you think of the flier?

EDIT: i just noticed that you can't really read it on here. i will bring some fliers into class, and here is the text:

We will be holding three workshops to explore issues associated with bodies. We will use techniques based on those of Augusto Boal.

Using storytelling, image-making, and movement we will explore the question:
what is the history of your body? We will think about our relationship to our own body, as well as our relationship with others’ bodies. This is a topic that comes up a lot in intellectual conversations, but we hope to deepen our understanding through creative interaction.

The workshops are open to all Vassar students.

Monday, May 5th
5:30-7:30pm
VCDF 309

Thursday, May 8th
5:30-7:30pm
VCDF 309

Wednesday, May 14th
1-3pm
Residential Quad


Each workshop will build on the previous one so attendance at all three is expected, but if you have a specific conflict please let us know. In the final workshop we hope to invite others to participate and engage with us on the topics we have explored in a public setting.

If you’re interested in participating, or just want more information, email
Rachel at ralee@vassar.edu or Julia at jukann@vassar.edu

Thanks – we hope to hear from you soon!

Rachel & Julia

Oh yeah, and there will be FREEEEEEE COOOOOKIES!

Shameless Self-Promotion

So as one of my last posts on this blog, I'm doing a shameless plug for my thesis. It's about visual identity and how we use our bodies as social media. I took photographs of myself in different clothing, with different hair, posturing, and facial expressions. I then sent these pictures out in a survey and had people write me a narrative about each photo. What did they think they knew about this person based on their appearance? What was their identity? What did the external communicate about the internal? After getting the responses I wrote about my findings, specifically engaging how much we rely on media and pre-ordained visual cues to form and perform our sense of self. Anyways, I created a website to display the finished product, which I guess is a form of alternative media. It won't be officially finished until next Tuesday, but the major stuff is all there. Take a look if you like:

http://students.vassar.edu/likozlowski

-Lindsay

URL for Doctor Office Installation

http://www.openofficepok.com

Games in Education

So what do you think of this video?
http://www.seriousgames.org/index2.html
Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.
and
this one:

| View | Upload your own

DeeDee

Games for Change

http://www.gamesforchange.org/conference/2008/program.php
I hope they have some good games. Their web site isn't too exciting.
DeeDee

Bush TV

So Tony Snow, who I must confess I enjoy watching on his many many many talk-show appearances, just accepted a job as a CNN correspondent, and it makes me wonder where journalists have gone. With Carl Rove on TV every day and now this, I am curious about the state of television news. It's interesting that we seem to trust the opinions of Washington insiders because they are thought to have more insight into the political world. But holy shit does that discount political journalism as it's own entity. I'm a little nervous about the amount of white housers relocating to cable news, and I think this really says something about the relationship between politics, media and probably rich people.

evz

1 in 4

As I expect most of you noticed, for sexual assault awareness week people all over campus wore bright yellow shirts that said "1 in 4." This is a reference to the statistic, that 1 in every 4 women will be victims of rape or attempted rape by the time they graduate college. I found the presence of the shirts on campus really effective. The shirts' presence created dialogues about this issue that would otherwise not have happen, and they constantly forced me to reflect on the pertinence of the statistic. This act reiterated my feelings that there is something irreplaceable about human beings participating in media in a physical (as opposed to television or comuter-oriented) way. Had I seen pictures of people online wearing these shirts, or even had 1/4 of my facebook friends put something like this statistic on their profiles, it could not have held the power the physical presence of people in shirts offered.

~julia

Rewriting Palestinian wikis

A pro-Israel pressure group is orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged.

A series of emails by members and associates of the pro-Israel group CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), provided to The Electronic Intifada (EI), indicate the group is engaged in what one activist termed a "war" on Wikipedia.

A day after this story went online, according to excellent Palestinian news site the Electronic Intifada, the blowhard freak-tank CAMERA curbed its wiki-terrorism. Read all about it here.

- freddy

Run-of-the-Mill Poughkeepsie vs. Poughkeepsie Portrayed by the Media

This is a mash-up of youtube clips about Poughkeepsie that I made. Question to you: Why would the media discuss Poughkeepsie in such a violent way? I have a feeling that it has something to do with the city having such a peculiar name.
What do you think about Poughkeepsie? Do you believe the media's portrayal of Poughkeepsie is accurate? Or did you have the impression that Poughkeepsie was a pretty normal place with shopping malls and football teams?

-Jason

Michel Gondry - Be Kind Rewind Exhibit

I have included a link above to the website that features an exhibit of Michel Gondry's film Be Kind Rewind. I know that we have talked a little bit about the film and I just did a project on it and "sweding" for another class and came across this really cool website. The exhibit is an installation of the video store from the film and people can come in and see scenes from the film as well as take part in the sweding experience themselves. People are able to swede their own films which forces them to use their creativity and work within the limitations of the resources they are afforded.

A quote from Gondry about what he hopes people will take away from this exhibit and the experience he is presenting: "I intend to prove that people can enjoy their time without being part of the commercial system and serving it. Ultimately, I am hoping to create a network of creativity and communication that is guaranteed to be free and independent from any commercial institution.”

~Liz

Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign

Yesterday in a conversation at the Family Partnership Center about initiating reentry programs within communities of faith, Polina and I had the opportunity to talk to many people who are highly involved in community reentry, issues of social justice, as well as reforms in the criminal justice system. During these conversations, we announced some of the Vassar student’s interest in beginning film/documentary showings in the Poughkeepsie area to engage people in issues of criminal justice. One of the suggestions of places from where we could get such material to show in Poughkeepsie was the Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign (http://www.reentrymediaoutreach.org/).

The Media Outreach Campaign looks really interesting. They have an array of material concerning issues of criminal justice and how faith communities can get involved. Anyone can request their material, as long they are going to use the videos for the purpose of raising community awareness about incarcerated people. Oh, they also request that you send back an evaluation of the material they have produced. I thought this was an amazing idea: to provide material to people who want to begin conversations in the community for free! As of now, I don’t know much about the type of material they are producing, or how strict they are about your programs, however, this is definitely a good resource to know of…

Juliana

He(R)evolution

I wanted to post some information on the performance artist I mentioned in class last week.

Julia Ahumada Grob is coming to campus this Friday to perform her piece He(R)evolution and to do a workshop.

The performance is "a one woman biographical show that examines the struggles of a young woman as she works to understand her identity, both personal and political." It's at 8pm in the Shiva. The show is sponsored by Unbound, Philaletheis, Fem Alliance, MEChA, and the Class Issues Alliance.

The workshop is titled "Performing Arts as a Tool for Social Change." It's open to anyone, not just actors or other theatrical types. "Students will use the skills of persuasion, propaganda, character development, and storytelling to use performance as a tool for social change in fun and exciting ways." It's at 4:30pm in the Faculty Parlor.

Check out a clip from the show:


Allison

"The Trustworthy Encyclopedia"

I can't remember if Conservapedia.com has come up in class. If not, well, then allow me introduce you to it.

Conservapedia.com is the response to the "liberal" Wikipedia (wtf?). Ironically, the site takes extremely biased views of topics - the abortion article is case in point.

The icon is also the American Flag - what are they trying to imply?

Of course my view might be skewed as a "liberal", but it seems the greatness Wikipedia's nature is its neutrality.


Conservapedia.com - check out the 7 Conservapedia Commandments.

"If you understand that America is endangered by the Left, and you do not have a naturalistic worldview, then you must oppose Darwinism. Darwinism leads naturally to atheism."
-Conservapedia, the trustworthy encyclopedia.

Ugh,
Eric

informative blogging

I'm not a huge blogger, nor do I always read tons of blogs. However, I'm convinced that blogs are becoming a major source of information and direction. Recently I've been trying to research the neighborhood I'm moving to after I graduate and blogs have been the most comprehensive and definitive source of information I've found. Ok, maybe there's just lots of people who want to go to bars and restaurants and write about it, but there's also a lot of people like me who want to read about it. So if somebody who reads as few blogs as I do is turning to them for info and resources, I'm guessing this is a big trend. I guess Wikipedia is almost like one giant blog, so why shouldn't individual blogs serve the same purpose. Like this blog. I bet there's somebody out there that finds this an incredible source of information and thought about media. You never know...

-Lindsay

Critical Perspectives on Web 2.0

This is an introduction to an issue of
First Mondayaddressing new media. By Michael Zimmer
Web 2.0 represents a blurring of the boundaries between Web users and producers, consumption and participation, authority and amateurism, play and work, data and the network, reality and virtuality. The rhetoric surrounding Web 2.0 infrastructures presents certain cultural claims about media, identity, and technology. It suggests that everyone can and should use new Internet technologies to organize and share information, to interact within communities, and to express oneself. It promises to empower creativity, to democratize media production, and to celebrate the individual while also relishing the power of collaboration and social networks.

But Web 2.0 also embodies a set of unintended consequences, including the increased flow of personal information across networks, the diffusion of one’s identity across fractured spaces, the emergence of powerful tools for peer surveillance, the exploitation of free labor for commercial gain, and the fear of increased corporatization of online social and collaborative spaces and outputs.

In Technopoly, Neil Postman warned that we tend to be “surrounded by the wondrous effects of machines and are encouraged to ignore the ideas embedded in them. Which means we become blind to the ideological meaning of our technologies” [1]. As the power and ubiquity of Web 2.0 rises, it becomes increasingly difficult for users to recognize its externalities, and easier to take the design of such tools simply “at interface value” [2]. Heeding Postman and Turkle’s warnings, this collection of articles will work to remove the blinders of the unintended consequences of Web 2.0’s blurring of boundaries and critically explore the social, political, and ethical dimensions of Web 2.0.

We start with “Market Ideology and the Myths of Web 2.0,” a provocative probe by Trebor Scholz arguing that Web 2.0 represents not a socio–technological advance in the World Wide Web, but rather a powerful “framing device of professional elites that define what enters the public discourse about the impact of the Web on society.” Scholz deflates the claims of revolutionary technical innovation and social empowerment held dear by many Web 2.0 evangelists, revealing instead that the technologies and communities underlying Web 2.0 have existed, in one form or another, long before Tim O’Reilly first uttered the phrase. By embracing Web 2.0, Scholz concludes, we are acquiescing to a market ideology of crowdsourcing, the exploitation of immaterial free labor, and the “harvesting of the fruits of networked social production.”

Matthew Allen agrees with Scholz’s general classification of Web 2.0, also seeing it more as a “conceptual frame by which to promote and make sense of the Web as Internet–delivered data service” rather than an arrangement of particular online technologies and communities. Allen’s contribution, “Web 2.0: An Argument Against Convergence,” outlines four key components that makeup the conceptual frame of Web 2.0 – technology, economic, users and philosophy – and argues (perhaps providing some relief to Scholz’s concerns) that the unique relationship between the four elements of Web 2.0 provides resistance to attempts at convergence and domination of the Internet by media and telecommunications providers.

Kylie Jarrett focuses on a particular aspect of Web 2.0 in her critical essay “Interactivity is Evil! A critical investigation of Web 2.0.” Disputing the claim that Web 2.0 provides novel opportunities for the articulation of individual and collective social power by enhancing participation in media production and cultural expression, Jarrett argues that the interactivity celebrated in Web 2.0 is disciplinary in nature, offering merely a “contingent freedom” that is, echoing Scholz, “organised by the dictates of a neoliberal socio–political hegemony.” Rather than truly considering it “evil,” however, Jarrett relies on her hyperbolic title to draw attention to the need to “continually interrogate the fabric of digital media.”

Such an interrogation of Web 2.0 similarly motivates Søren Mørk Petersen’s essay, “Loser Generated Content: From Participation to Exploitation.” While recognizing how Web 2.0 infrastructures might foster democracy, participation, creativity, and joy, Petersen reveals how they also enable the exploitation of user–generated content by major corporations. Whether in the form of a distributed architecture of participation (such as blogging), or platforms specifically designed for user–generated content (such as YouTube or Flickr), Web 2.0 represents, according to Petersen, an “architecture of exploitation that capitalism can benefit from.”

A key component of the Web 2.0 that Petersen describes is the free flow of data from site to site, from user to user. Much of the free flow of data among Web 2.0 sites and services contain personal information, which, when captured by Web search engines, poses a threat to informational privacy online. This is the central concern outlined in Michael Zimmer’s contribution, “The Externalities of Search 2.0: The Emerging Privacy Threats when the Drive for the Perfect Search Engine meets Web 2.0.” Zimmer argues that the efforts by Web search engines to build profiles, predict intentions, and deliver personalized products and services by capturing the personal data flows inherent in Web 2.0 creates a Faustian bargain, where the claimed benefits are countered by the “emergence of a robust infrastructure of dataveillance that can quickly be internalized and become the basis of disciplinary social control.”

The role of Web 2.0 in fostering increased forms of surveillance is further explored by Anders Albrechtslund’s article, “Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance.” Complementing Zimmer’s analysis of how Web service providers engage in surveillance of Web 2.0 users, Albrechtslund focuses on users surveilling one another. Contrasting Zimmer’s concern with the privacy and disciplinary threats of Web 2.0-based surveillance, Albrechtslund sees participatory surveillance as empowering, subjectivity building and playful. In sum, he argues that the participatory surveillance inherent in Web 2.0 provides us an opportunity to rethink our traditional notions of hierarchical and threatening forms of surveillance.

This special issue concludes with an epilogue from David Silver, who synthesizes these critical perspectives on Web 2.0 around three themes: history, hype, and hope. Silver remarks that “in our age of everything new and everything now we could use a little history” and that to best understand the implications of Web 2.0, we must explore “its historical contexts, and its revolutionary potential.” Further, Silver warns of acquiescing to the “corporate hype” surrounding Web 2.0, reminding us that when corporations say “community” they mean “commerce,” and when they say “aggregation” they mean “advertising.” Perhaps, Silver argues, we’re witnessing the emergence of California Ideology 2.0. Finally, Silver does leave room for hope, recognizing that we are witnessing the birth of a new “writeable generation, a generation of young people who think of media as something they read and something they write – often simultaneously.”

From Scholz to Silver, the goal of this special issue on Critical Perspectives on Web 2.0 is to remove the blinders that Neil Postman warns us of, and in reading the essays that follow, we hope to help and expose, explore and explain the ideological meanings and the social, political, and ethical implications of Web 2.0. End of article


About the author

Michael Zimmer, PhD, is the Microsoft Resident Fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. He received his PhD in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University under the guidance of Profs. Helen Nissenbaum, Alex Galloway, and Siva Vaidhyanathan. He frequently writes about the social, political, and ethical dimensions of information and communication technologies at http://michaelzimmer.org.

Space for Final Projects

David Knowles sent me some pictures and a floor plan of the space in the Doctor's office.  Come to class on Wednesday prepared to talk about your final project!

DeeDee

Project Idea: Vassar's YouTube Contest

As many of you probably know, Vassar has a YouTube Channel. There are a lot of videos posted that show different aspects of Vassar life, mostly including student life. You may have seen posters around campus about the Vassar YouTube Contest. Students are supposed to create a "2-5 minute YouTube video about life at Vassar that best exemplifies the spirit and quality of life on the Vassar campus."

This got me thinking about our final project and about how many communities there are at Vassar in addition to the students. I think it would be cool to do a video for this contest (or not only for the contest) that shows/interviews some of the other people who are integral to the Vassar community but never mentioned in videos about Vassar, such as ACDC staff members, cleaning staff, B&G, the preschool, house fellows, etc. I know we don't have much time, but if anyone wants to join me in making a short documentary, or has ideas, let me know!

-Brittany

Beyond Product Placement

Microsoft is quietly offering ad-funded Works Posted by Ina Fried | 2 comments
Updated 4:15 p.m. with details on the countries in which Works SE is being offered.

After years of exploring the matter, Microsoft has finally started offering an ad-funded version of Microsoft Works in some countries. Users who run the software see a small ad as they are writing their document or editing their spreadsheet. Although the program has the ability to update its set of ads online, today it runs mostly ads for Microsoft and a few partners, all of which ship with the product itself.


Works SE (which stands for Sponsored Edition) is free to PC makers, though they don't get a cut of the ad revenue. Large computer makers typically only pay a buck or two for the low-end version of Works, though. The ad-funded Works falls into a category of several products the company is exploring, rather than a significant new source of revenue, said Microsoft Vice President Chris Capossela.

"This is a trial," he said. "This is a pilot. This is a 'Can we build software that will do this?' " Microsoft has been considering such a product for some time, with many inside the company arguing that Microsoft could make significantly more money for Works by selling advertising than it gets in revenue from computer makers for the product.

Capossela said the early response to the free product has been positive. "People have liked the price," he said with a laugh, adding that it has also not been perceived as that intrusive, something Microsoft had worried about. Last August, Microsoft said that it would start piloting Works SE, but the company gave few details on where or how the product would be offered.

Microsoft remains cagey on the details of where you can find Works SE. The company has been testing Works SE in 5 countries: The United States, France, Canada, Poland and the United Kingdom. It is available only through select computer makers and Microsoft won't say which computer makers those are. According to its Web site, Packard Bell offers the software on some of its models in the United Kingdom. Using the same sleuthing technique (a search engine), it appears Sony is one of those offering it in the U.S.

Capossela put Works SE in the same category as several other new approaches, including the Albany subscription service that Microsoft detailed this week. Also in that camp would be the prepaid Office cards that Microsoft has been selling in some countries for more than a year now. Response to that last product, which sells Office in six-month increments for around $20, has been mixed. The cards were a hit in South Africa, but bombed in Mexico.

None of these areas are significant new channels as yet. "There's no business here yet," he said. "These are all experiments."

The one area where Capossela said Microsoft has seen significant sales is the download and purchase of Office over the Web. Customers either download a trial version of Office directly from Microsoft or get it with a new PC. After 60 days of use, they are prompted to buy a full version from Microsoft or a partner (partners typically sell the product cheaper than Microsoft).
Microsoft was not quick to seize on selling directly over the Web, Capossela said. "We're late," he said. "If you look at Symantec and Intuit, they have huge businesses here."

Capossela also stressed that Microsoft is focusing its efforts on new ways of selling Office and creating online products that complement Office, not replicating the suite on the Web. He said that Microsoft still doesn't see much competition from Google Apps. "We haven't seen them yet," he said. "We've seen a love affair in the press. We haven't seen customers embracing Google Apps."

**********************************************
This is really creepy. Actually the next plan is to embed the ads in your brains!
DeeDee

the bar has been set

Guys,

I think a standard for class projects has just been set.

Though, some people have mixed feelings...

I know how "aj" from the P****H**** message board feels:

makes sense, she looks like one of those fucking islamic terrorists. probably just getting off on killing babies from american fathers. oh well, she'll fry in hell beside Saddam.


But what do you guys think?

-Asher

Art and Technology: from Library Liberation to Garlic

http://www.adrienejenik.net/desktoptheater.html

http://www.mobiopera.mobi

http://radicalreference.info

http://garlic02.worldofprojects.info/

Shu Lea Cheang’s Garlic=Rich Air was an interactive online project that anticipated the year 2030 as a postcapitalist society where the global economy and currencies have collapsed and network media has nearly crashed. In this future world, organic garlic is the new social currency–bought, sold, and traded to establish a new, free media trading system. Garlic=Rich Air set forth a monetary relationship between URL information and virtual garlic. Visitors were invited to participate online by submitting various URL addresses in return for virtual garlic, or “G,” as Cheang put it. At the close of the G-Mart, virtual “G” was cashed in for real garlic; a commodity that is desired and wholly revered in the year 2030.

In order to implement this exchange of virtual and real commodities ten thousand garlic plants grown in upstate New York (cultivated by organic farmer Tovey Halleck in the span of ten years and harvested by generations of old and new media makers, according to the project’s narrative) were gathered in the summer of 2002. The garlic harvest was then trucked to New York City where participants could exchange virtual garlic credits (i.e. digital bytes, bandwidth, domains, URLs, networks, systems, and software) for real farm-grown organic garlic.

Garlic=Rich Air was the second and third phase of St(r)eaming the Fields, a field harvesting and public network project conceived by Shu Lea Cheang with funding provided by the Challenge to the Field Award from the Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Fund for Independent Media.

The year is 2030. gm-free garlic is the golden bulb, the stinking rose, much sought after. You and everyone else dream of owning a garlic bulb or two. Catch Garlic Mania in the air. GARLIC=RICH AIR. Garlic is officially ordained as the new social currency. Trade virtual garlic for farm grown organic garlic. There are 5000 PRIZED GARLIC BULBS, available at Palazzo delle Prigioni in Venice for exchange. Join the G-mart (Garlic Mart) online where the commodity is shared network media and the currency is G. G for garlic, G is the year 2030 credito. AFTER THE CRASH FINAL LIQUIDITATION SALE. Sell your website for virtual G - sell your dot.com, dot.net, dot.org, dot.us, dot.info, dot.tv….
If it is still worth anything, G is it. Set the value, shares and price per share for your URL(s). Trade them on the G-mart. Up to date clickstream data sets the G-mart in constant fluctuation. SELL, BUY, OWN and RESELL. You own the power to shape and direct the G-mart. The online G-mart opens on June 12 and closes on October 30, 2030. At the time of the market closure the exchange rate between earned virtual G and REAL GARLIC is calculated and converted. Your accumulated virtual G may be redeemed for organically farm grown GARLIC BULBS.

RICHAIR2030 imagines an AFTER THE CRASH scenario set in year 2030. By year 2030, the great wireless hope that promises mobility and connectivity has bubbled. The GPS satellite signals have lost track of its urbanites when cutting through the Ozone layers. The ocean-apart digital divide has eventually sabotaged the Net we surf in. What remains of the feeble bandwidth is held out and safeguarded by the wireless freenetworkers, a striving public wireless DIY network movement sprouted worldwidein the early 21st century.

RICHAIR2030 mobilizes renegade roller girls to jumpstart Riga’s first wifinet TAZ (Temporary Access Zone) along the city’s Caka Iela main street. Carrying the lunchboxes that read, code and transmit accessible public wifi signals, the roaming performance is visualized in pumping RGB codes on the web,while the signal noise and its sonicscope amplified.

BEAT UP THE SIGNALS

PUMP UP THE VOLUME

RESTART THE SYSTEM

SHARE AND CONSUME

RICHAIR2030 V.8.0, Riga, Latvia @ * - { µ - o ” u l ?}.

06-11-2004 richair.waag.org

Projecting Tigers

I thought this was interesting given our conversation today about projecting art.

-Asher

A Close Call

An example of why alternative media is important: Last week I was contacted about a job interview with a company in NYC. Good little interviewee that I am, I researched the company a little. What I found was a consumer advocacy site with correspondences from former employees attesting to how awful the company was and how they manipulated and screwed over their employees. Thanks to that alternative site I knew I wanted nothing to do with that company and I was on guard at the interview. Another reason why it's important for people to be able to have the voice to critique the world around us, especially the media and corporations!

-Lindsay

Soldier Blog

http://calmbeforethesand.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html

This is a blog by a U.S. soldier. He has a very nuanced perspective about the war and about his part in it. He's also a hardcore feminist/progressive and so it's interesting to read his takes on the military. He is very aware of the social military dynamics.
Read from the beginning to get an idea of where he's coming from.
-Marisa

Online Family Trees

I recently did an online search of my name and discovered that I was listed in an online family tree on my father’s side. Leo Bensman is my great-grandmother’s twin brother (I never knew we had twins in the family) and the tree does not extend past my father and uncle (they also have me incorrectly listed as my father’s sister). The website also links to various family pages with old pictures of relatives in the US that I never knew I had.

I’m really quite inspired by the concept of online family trees. We talk about the Internet as a tool of building communities but for some reason I never considered that it could also be a useful tool for connecting a single family as well. Almost my entire extended family is made up of immigrants from Belarus to either the US or Israel and the older generation is mainly responsible for keeping everyone in touch overseas. They trade printed photographs and letters with various important and mundane updates. But with the possibility of online family trees, even my family’s younger generation who hardly know one another could participate in maintaining a living database through which to mark significant life events, deaths, memorials, post photographs, tell stories, share recipes, and effectively build a family archive forever preserved in cyberspace. Maybe a project for after graduation?

The site for the Bensman line doesn’t seem to use a program of any sort, but these websites and software can help you find ancestors and build family trees as well:

http://www.familytree.com
http://www.ancestry.com
http://www.onegreatfamily.com
http://tribalpages.com
http://www.livingmemory.com
http://www.familytreesearcher.com
http://genealogy.com

Polina

National Conference for Media Reform

http://www.freepress.net/conference

This is a big, big, big deal. Lots of people, lots of talking, lots of media reform. You know you wanna be there - too bad I'm working reunion.

-jon

Video Games and Censorship

Youth Radio

Inspired by last class, I was looking at youth-based radios and media projects in the U.S. I came upon “Youth Radio” (very original name). I haven’t really gotten a chance to listed to their radio, however their site (www.youthradio.org) is amazing. They have an entire section on poetry, with some really interesting and well-made material. Also on the site is a link to Radio Juventud, which I really need to look at in more detail. To end this short post, here is the link to one of their articles on “Changing the Course of Sex Education” (http://www.youthradio.org/health/050518_realsexed.shtml).
Juliana

"Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?"

I came across this NY Times Magazine article yesterday about cell phones and the world. The writer explains in the beginning that, "Several companies, including Intel, Motorola and Microsoft, employ trained anthropologists to study potential customers, while Nokia’s researchers, more often have degrees in design." (By the way, I didn't put the links to those companies in, it just copied that way.) So anthropology has become commercial. According to this article, there are more than 3.3 billion mobile-phone subscriptions worldwide, which means that there are at least three billion people who don’t own cellphones, the bulk of them to be found in Africa and Asia. In addition, Eighty percent of the world’s population now lives within range of a cellular network, which is double the level in 2000. About those brain tumors...

One of the main points of the article is that when people gain access to a cellphone, their income boosts because of their ability to contact many people. The article claims that increases in cellphone use also increases a nation's GDP. The writer explains this phenomenon as, "bottom-up economic development, a way of empowering individuals by encouraging entrepreneurship as opposed to more traditional top-down approaches in which aid money must filter through a bureaucratic chain before reaching its beneficiaries, who by virtue of the process are rendered passive recipients." But is imposing a piece of technology, that is only useful because a chunk of the world has them, an effective economic uplift? I'm actually not sure where I stand on this because the world economy is incredibly complicated.

A point that interested me more was how text messaging can contribute to more effective healthcare. For example, the author of the article discusses how people in Kenya can ask anonymous questions about culturally taboo subjects like AIDS, breast cancer and sexually transmitted diseases, and receive prompt answers from health experts for no charge. Who are these health experts and where are they? I guess this is a helpful tool.

My question, after reading this article is: are cellphones a democratizing tool or a tool for huge cell companies to control the world? Another question I have is: do cheap and available phones mean cheap labor in poor areas, and if so, isn't this contradictory?

I'm curious about what you all think of this article. Here's the link again. Let me know!

-Brittany

Community Media in the Prosumer Era

Ellie Rennie in Korea
http://www.cbonline.org.au/3cmedia/3c_issue3/BarryERennie.pdf
This is by Ellie Rennie, an Australian researcher, who was one of the people who spoke at the Community Media Summit which I attended in Seoul Korea last fall.
DeeDee

The Ever-present Ghosts of the Past

After way too many trials and tribulations, here is my video, "The Ever-present Ghosts of the Past". It takes into consideration the idea that recorded media like film or audio recordings capture moments and people in time, and suspend them forever even while these moments and people pass. In this way, I see YouTube as a type of graveyard, where people, and even cultural ideals that have long passed now reside. In some of these videos, you might even see how past-versions of people may now haunt their present selves.

Enjoy -

Eric

INTERNSHIP IN LOS ANGELES

Freewaves Multicultural Undergrad Summer Internships: Web & Admin/Marketing

FREEWAVES is offering two paid internships for undergraduates this summer through a generous grant from The Getty Grant Program.

FREEWAVES Multicultural Undergraduate Summer Internships 2008 are for 2 positions, Webmaster and Administrative/ Marketing Intern, both for 10-weeks, full-time, $3,500 gross salary. Internships will run from mid-June to mid-August.

Both internships entail a high degree of computer literacy. Tasks will be part of Freewaves long time initiative to disseminate
the new media arts.

In accordance with The Getty Grant Program, candidates must be:
* members of underrepresented groups, particularly individuals of African American, Asian, Latino/Hispanic, Native American, and Pacific Islander descent;

* currently enrolled as undergraduates, who will have completed at least one semester of college by June 2008, and will not graduate before December 2008;

* residents of or attending college in Los Angeles County. Students who have previously served as interns for this program more than twice are not eligible.
-------
The Administrative/Marketing Intern will:
1) administer artists' video entries and handle correspondence;
2) develop online marketing and optimization of Freewaves' web page;
3) develop, edit and prepare artist bios and other information for
http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=203164914&u=2077686 ;
4) maintain administrative and public relations databases.

Requirements for Administrative/Marketing Intern:
1) Have good writing skills.
2) Be detail oriented, accurate and thorough.
3) Have some knowledge of media arts.
4) Possess good computer skills (will need to use/learn Word, FileMaker,
Photoshop and the internet).
5) Be able to work in a small, busy office with concentration.
6) Be able to work independently.

The WEB Intern will:
1) assist building the new festival web site;
2) work with staff, technical advisors, programmer and designer to
develop enhanced site pages and perform technical troubleshooting;
3) assist with site documentation;
4) compress artist videos;
5) prepare images;
6) produce written and visual materials for web site and related
marketing effort.

Requirements for WEB Intern:

1) Knowledge of html, Dreamweaver and Flash preferred.
2) Ability to code highly desirable though not required.
(Java, Javascript, My SQL and/or PHP).
3) Good writing and communication skills.
4) Ability to work diplomatically in a team environment
(in meetings, via email and on the phone).
5) Detail oriented, accurate, and thorough including ability to
troubleshoot own work for errors and functionality.
6) Knowledge of media arts preferable.
7) Knowledge of both Mac and PC environments required.
8) Ability to work independently.
-----------
Location: Both internships located at Freewaves' office
at LACE (6522 Hollywood Blvd in Hollywood CA). Interns will
work under the supervision of Freewaves Director Anne Bray and
Assistant Director Charlene Boehne.
Additionally both internships allow candidates to participate
actively in staff and project meetings.
-----------
How to Apply:
First familiarize yourself with areas within Freewaves' web site at
http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=203164914&u=2077687 If the site and Freewaves interests you, forward
a resume and cover letter explaining reasons for interest and addressing
how you meet the eligibility guidelines for the internship set by the Getty.

If you are applying for the web/archive internship, please send us
url's of your work (sites designed or worked on). We will start
interviewing in late April, and will contact you for an appointment
if we are interested.

Email your application materials to:
Charlene Boehne at charlene@freewaves.org by May 1, 2008.

Our postal address is
2151 Lake Shore Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90039
United States

Oops

Again I forget my name on these things......
The last post was created by Ben D

~umm....Ben D

Independent Games

As much as we've talked about the consolidation of mass media and its negative effects on community development, we haven't really covered another medium that is being consolidated at an alarming rate, that being the realm of videogames.

Ever since the videogame boom began in the mid-80's, there have been major players and minor players, development giants that dominate the market as well as smaller independent houses that quietly produce terrific games. Consolidation is often inevitable as smaller firms struggle to keep up with rising production costs, constantly evolving hardware, and a financial playing field where the market share does not gradually change but rather swings wildly, by as much as 30% between rival companies with the introduction of each new generation of gaming machine.

However, much of the time the larger production houses are focused on their bottom line rather than pushing the boundaries and imagination of gameplay, shelling out mediocre sequels to best-selling franchises, crappy movie tie-ins, and flashy shoot-em-ups rather than taking a chance on more innovative, less predictable game concepts.

Electronic Arts, for example, uses the same formula over and over again to great effect. Its Madden NFL franchises are best sellers every year, and its constant reinvention of its Need for Speed, Sim City/The Sims, and Command and Conquer franchises bring in a large portion of their revenue. However, many of these, particularly the sports properties, are based upon a model of yearly updates, wherein only rosters or small details are changed and the "new" game is sold at full price despite lack of innovation.

Big videogame corps have also been widely criticized for pushing out mediocre games based upon formerly sterling intellectual properties by buying smaller reputable development houses. Electronic Arts has claimed talent-rich development houses Bioware and Pandemic Studios, and recently tried for a buyout of Take Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar. Rockstar has singlehandedly produced some of the most controversial and groundbreaking games in the past decade, including the Grand Theft Auto series, Bully, and Manhunt, not to mention the recent masterpiece BioShock. Vivendi Universal recently acquired immensely successful Activision, which in turn had absorbed various smaller studios in its time.

Is this all bad news for videogames? I would say yes. The only benefit is that sometimes consolidation means saving talented yet faltering studios from blinking out of existence. But the greatest problem lies with the watering down of overall game quality. With only 2 or 3 parent companies overseeing all game development, a very homogenous production quality would soon emerge, as has already happened in the radio, music, and television industry.

But hope springs eternal on the internet, which serves as a new, worldwie testing ground and marketplace for many game studios still on training wheels. Development houses like The Behemoth for example. This small studio began as a few guys making flash games for the portal Newgrounds, which quickly gained popularity at very little cost to the developers, and soon they had a deal to produce their popular flash side scroller Alien Hominid for all major game platforms in 2004. The game is colorful, inventive a throwback to old-school shooters and beat-em-ups of the 80's and 90's. They got their start on the internet along with many other game studios, avoiding much of the costly publicity and production costs that often handicap small mainstream studios. The Behemoth is a sort of indie game icon, flying in the face of the flashy visuals, media hype, and repetitive publishing strategy of giants like EA.

Lots of other small development studios use the internet as a public forum to test and hype their games. They can blog about the development of the game and get direct feedback in a way that avoids and often surpasses costly focus testing conducted by larger studios.

Some will decide to release them for mainstream consoles, and some will choose to remain direct-downloads. Indie success stories like Crayon Physics and World of Goo, recent winners and finalists at the Independent Games Festival, are flourishing as direct downloads rather than going the console route (although they will eventually enter the console marketplace after establishing a strong digital fan base.)

It goes to show that while the console industry is still king (actually eclipsing the movie industry in revenue last year) the internet provides hope for independent developers who strive to create original, envelope-pushing properties without fear of being forced to accept a giant takeover.

The Behemoth
http://www.thebehemoth.com/

World of Goo
http://2dboy.com/games.php

Independent Gaming Source
http://www.tigsource.com/

Independent Games Festival
http://www.igf.com/

http://www.indiegames.com/

http://kloonigames.com/crayon/

Omnisio, Editing YouTube Videos

So I just found out about omnisio.com, which would have been perfect for this youtube project. you can search and arrange and cut videos from youtube and googlevideo. I just did a quick meaningless example about dogs in motion to show sort of what you can do. I don't think you can add titles or music, but it's still cool and fun!

-Brittany

global warming theorem on youtube

sorry to post so close to class...

a while ago i was sent a video about global warming. here it is:



there are a few things i think are particularly interesting about this. first, the speaker starts by asking people to respond to his video and tell him their thoughts. he asks for critical responses in the same way a scientist with a theorem would send it to fellow scientists for criticism and responses. by doing this on youtube, however, he is opening this dialogue up to a greater community of internet users, all of whom can comment with the same power to their responses.

second, at the end of the video, the speaker aknowledges the power of his medium. he speaks to the ultimate global warming questions of "what can i do" as he explains that the key is having a spreading knowledge. he states that, in a society such as ours, with so much information technology, there are tremendous opportunities for people to "speak" (or post) and be heard by many others.

third, i noticed that in the description section, the movie's creator wrote a long message about how you should not watch this video. he explains that, based on the comments he recieved, there are holes in his argument. becuase of this, he has made a much longer video series, addressing all of the comments brought up by people who watched the video. he explains that he is leaving up the video anyways, because it preserves a record of this dialogue: an example of an effective use of youtube for socio-political discourse.

finally, i looked at the comments on the video. i found that many of the first bunch were elementary school students of the man who made the film. as they all left rave reviews, it became clear to me that the video was powerful in multiple ways. he has a well-articulated argument in favor of taking action against global warming, but he has also showed many students how easy it is to share thoughts and beliefs using public media like youtube - a lesson these students will hopefully take advantage of as they learn and grow.

~julia

Democracy Now

So this is sort of silly, but I think it's a worthwhile point. It's amazing to me that- one the one hand, at Vassar only one of the four classes is able to order cable television service, and network TV is pretty shitty here anyway. And yet on the other hand, we dont see a lot of people here getting their news from alternative news sources. A few months ago I reread one of Amy Goodman's books, and decided to try to watch Democracy Now as much as I can. At this point, it's a daily ritual. If I wake up early, I watch yesterday's, and if I get up late I watch today's.

I know a lot of Vassar students read the Times - that seems to be the prominent news source discussed in my classes, but I wonder why given the ease you can access alternative news sources online. If your primary medium for news is the internet, why not read something independent? Even "easier" - by 9am every day there is a streaming real player file that is of remarkable quality that loads the entire hour immediately.

I'm curious about what it means that I wake up to Amy in the morning instead of - Matt Lauer or Diane Soyuer. I wonder if I'm out of the loop in that I don't read the Times so comprehensively, or if I have simply a different take on the world's events. Might be an interesting sidebyside project.... them vs. NBC or something.

For today's broadcast, click here.

evz

Egypt Intifada

Since early Sunday morning, the day that a planned general strike across the country was suppressed by the state, things have been hot in Egypt. I've been trying to keep up with a major factory strike, clashes with police, arrests of hundreds of protesters, including children and bloggers. Much of the protests across Egypt have to do with very low wages for factory workers, the less than $2 a day that almost half the country lives off of, and looming food crises. At the center is Mahalla al-Kobra, a factory town north of Cairo whose 20,000 workers have striked before. Protests turned violent on Sunday and have persisted. Observers drew immediate connections to Palestine, with citizens throwing stones and soldiers firing bullets and tear gas.

Hossam el Hamalawy, whose blogging is tireless, chronicles the Mahalla Intifada.

I wrote a quick piece for The Huffington Post about the "failed" strike. While the myriad opposition movements -- Muslim Brothers, factory workers, urban professionals, intellectuals -- seem disorganized, to say a planned nationwide general strike failed seems unfair. How would we protest in a country where police raid your home and arrest you for blogging and sending text messages about attending public demonstrations?

Photo is from Reuters photographer Nasser Nouri.

- freddy

Feedback Trip...me too

I also went to the Feedback exhibition in the city this weekend. I think the most interesting aspect was how interactive all of the different smaller pieces of the exhibit were. There was always some sort of large visual piece of information and additionally most pieces had a smaller interactive component for the viewer. highwaterline.org had a computer set up where you could check out their website and there were also postcards prepared that you could take and send to Mayor Bloomberg. Behind the computer, on the wall, were maps of all of the different locations and places that this organization has tracked. There was also TheRealCosts.com which had a computer set up, in front of a wall projection of information, that allowed you to explore their firefox plug-in which inserts emissions data into travel related e-commerce websites. In addition to these examples, there was also a wall set up that you could write on and respond to the question "If buildings could talk to one another, what would they say?"

During my time exploring the Feedback exhibit I was thinking about our final class project and how no matter what we all decide to do I think it would be really interesting if we were able to have interactive components for our viewers. Being able to be a part of the exhibit and the information that was being sent out was fun and engaging while being informational.

~Liz

The Rotunda (Poughkeepsie Public Library District)

This week I have been to the Arlington Library more than usual. During one of my visits, I discovered “The Rotunda”, a newspaper for the Poughkeepsie Public Library District. This small newspaper is really interesting. On the cover, there are pictures of the Adriance Memorial Library and its renovations. The librarian was actually really excited to tell me all about how the construction has been going. Other things in the newspaper include events, activities, workshops, and classes in the area. There are also suggested readings, information on programs offered by the libraries in the district, and reading/writing contests taking place this spring. I thought the newspaper was really cool and could serve as a very good resource for parents and teachers of the region.

The PDF version can be found here: http://www.poklib.org/documents/Rotundaspring08.pdf

Juliana

Digital Connectors Video Project

My project is a compilation of videos produced by youth participating in a program called “Digital Connectors” in various cities across the country. The program was started by a global non-profit, One Economy Corporation, whose goal is to “[use] innovative approaches to deliver the power of technology and information to low-income people, giving them valuable tools for building better lives.” The various Digital Connectors programs aim to give youth the technological competency they need to both be successful in their own lives and to help their communities to use technology effectively to reach both individual and collective goals.

The YouTube videos I found are of interviews the students conducted within their own groups and of video projects the Digital Connectors created exploring their sense of identity. Each video stands well on its own, but I discovered so many common themes that rearranging the videos by topic made more sense. My video is intended to illustrate the achievements of the program as told by its participants, a sort of promotional snippet showing the collective impact of the program. Enjoy!

Polina

Also, a note of correction: “Alouddin Moussa” should be spelled “Alauddin Mussa.”

if anyone's interested, you all can check out indecent exposure's (vc's only all-female comedy group) take on ali g. feminism, the election, and the king and queen of vassar castle are discussed. enjoy.

(i posted this because i thought it fit a few different understandings of "alternative"--you know, it coming from an all-female group, etc.)

Feedback Exhibit

So I went to the Feedback exhibit at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center this weekend. The exhibit was pretty interesting. It was basically a bunch of different exhibits that were meant to deal with sustainability and bettering the environment. It was a bit like a cross between an art gallery and a science fair. But I would definitely recommend going if you can because it's free, interesting, and there are some cool galleries on the same street that you can hit up as well. It wasn't as cool as the Exploratorium, but then again what is? :)

-Lindsay

NYT Net Neutrality Op-Ed

An op-ed by Damian Kulash, Jr., of the band OK Go, appeared in The New York Times today. Just thought I'd pass it along.

- Allison

vassar's alternative activism

when DeeDee passed around the UCSD student-made book on suppressed campus activism, it made me remember the rumors and stories i’ve heard about Vassar’s history of activism, especially during the suffrage movement. the coolest story i’ve heard about the suffragettes on campus is that in 1908 they met in the cemetery off campus because the president, James Taylor (a conservative Baptist) refused to let them organize on campus. however, if you go to the encyclopedia, it just says that the students organized there as a demonstration against Taylor’s politics but not that they were barred from campus. i guess the encyclopedia is pretty reliable, but either way, i love the story as a testament to the commotion they managed to rouse (and still do)...according to the article their meeting even made New York newspapers.


that’s Vassar alum Inez Milholland (class of 1909), the often-photographed woman on the horse who lead the famous suffrage march outside the white house in 1913 the day before Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated.

- abra

Spot the Advertising...

This is a 2 part video from the show Human Giant, which you can watch online. It's hilarious. Anyways, this 2 part video made me think of our discussion about unconventional advertising. I'm sure it's not intended as advertising, but it has the same effect. There's even some "homemade" advertising in the second video. Watch it and you'll see what I mean. But you have to watch both!

http://mtv.thehumangiant.com/category/1580647

http://mtv.thehumangiant.com/videos/1580647/144275

-Lindsay

We All Have Bad Days

Here is the link to my video project. It is called "We All Have Bad Days." I was really stuck by the comments about the powers the FCC has in fining or even shutting down public access radio stations or television stations. I was interested in the contrast between this power and the lack of consequences that major national stations and corporations have if they "mess up" or feature inappropriate content. "We All Have Bad Days" is a curation of news and television mess ups to emphasize that everyone makes mistakes and that...we all have bad days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfenWnqmOvo

I hope you enjoy it. I know that I had a lot of fun making it and sharing it with my friends.

~Liz

Dollywood

So this project is ridiculous looking, but is it more ridiculous-looking than any other Hollywood movie trailer? Abra and I were curious about the role that Hollywood plays in disseminating information, and the way that movies exploit the news and pervert actual events to make them sexy enough for mass media. We used standard trailer tropes to illustrate how Hollywood would overdramatize a relatively unsexy, nonviolent event - the cloning of Dolly the sheep a few years ago. The real irony in this assignment is that we are coming with the understanding that the news is less corrupt than the movie industry when we Know how network news functions. Still, I think you'll find the absurdity in this video all too familiar, and I want us to interrogate the idea of 'based on a true story' in our mass media more and more.

-evan

My video doesn't want to upload, so here's a link to my YouTube project.

One my favorite things about YouTube is all the clips/episodes people put up from my favorite childhood TV shows. This collection of videos features clips from some of those shows, starting with (to the best of my memory) the earliest shows I watched and ending with shows I liked in late elementary school. In case you're interested, the shows are (in order): Sesame Street ("Healthy Food," "The Word is 'No'," and "Yip Yip Monsters and a Telephone"), Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, Popples, TailSpin, Duck Tales, Tiny Toons, Animaniacs (and Pinky and the Brain), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Where on Earth Is Carmen San Diego?, and Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?

Sorry about the weird opening, iMovie keeps doing that to me.

Allison

Oh that Vudu you do do.

So, while this is less "alternative",it certainly has quite a bearing on the future of media. As some of you may know, the recent war for the next video technology has been settled, with Sony's "Blu-ray" disc beating out the "HDDVD". However, this may not be as dominating a technology as past reigning champions (DVD and VHS). Enter VUDU, an interface that goes with your entertainment combo that has access to a digital library of thousands of movies. This system, like iTunes but more catered for the family room, is completely digital - no physical medium. For the past year or so, people have been predicting that "EVERYTHING will be digital". Well, here we are, one step closer to a completely digital world: http://www.vudu.com/

Eric

P.S. My video is completely bugging out, probably due to the bugged out status of my computer. Hopefully things will be debugged by tomorrow. I'll see if I can post it before then.

no, this isn't another april fool's joke

our very own freddy deknatel has an article featured on the huffington post! click HERE to read about egyptian bread, hard times anddddddddd sarcasm!