unmediated

Here's a new open access journal to keep track of. The inaugural issue includes articles about the UK freedom of information act (which amazingly didn't come into force until January, 2005!), and a conference report on the 3rd intl conference of information commissioners. One of the exciting things to come out of that conference was the "Declaration of Cancún
Transparency and Accountability: A Commitment to Democracy" signed by a long list of NGOs. The PDF of the declaration is linked from another organization to track called Statewatch.

Via Library Autonomous Zone

Kleinhenz, a German electronics company, is shipping their new network-enabled Linux system in a unit just about the size of a standard RJ-45 Ethernet jack. The "Picotux,"barely big enough to print its MAC address on, is based on the NetSilicon DigiConnect ME, a fully functional Linux-based OS, with up to 8 MB of Flash memory and blinking LEDs to tell you what's going on in there. It requires 3.3V of DC power but also includes a serial port and a processor up to 55MHz. It's available in Wireless flavor as well, with the wired version costing about $130. A similar, Ethernet-sized web server has existed for some time, but this is likely the first running a Linux kernel on it. It's available today, if you speak German. (Their product page doesn't have any ordering information.)

Linux on an Ethernet Connector [LinuxDevices]
Product Page [Kleinhenz]

Via Gizmodo

Engineers at Scottish electronics firm MicroEmissive Displays have developed a television screen less than half the size of a postage stamp that can be fitted inside a pair of sunglasses — or regular glasses for that matter. We’re not sure if they actually have a prototype of the TV shades or not, but the actual display looks something like this one at the right (one thing we know: those definitely ain’t Carreras). And, before you ask, they don’t expect you to plug a cable into them.They’re hoping the wearable displays will be a better solution for watching streaming TV broadcasts on your cellphone.

[Via textually.org]

Via Engadget

Gamespot has more noise on the expanding role the Playstation Portable may have in the future. According to the article, when the PSP is released in South Korea in May, it will include a new piece of bundled software called the Network Utility UMD. With that running, users of the PSP will be able to:

Other networked services scheduled for PSP consumers in Korea include on-demand streaming music, on-demand streaming videos (including TV shows), e-learning options, and electronic books. SCEK and KT expect that they will be the first companies to provide a full online experience for the PSP user in any market.

It's unclear from the article whether this service just streams content wirelessly for real-time viewing or if you'll be able to save the result on a Memory Stick Duo card for later viewing. Assuming that you can save the results to the Duo card, this could be a great way to grab a few videos before hopping on a plane.

From my point of view, this seems like a better approach for video distribution than buying UMD discs of movies. I can't really see the financial justification of buying a PSP UMD movie for the same price as a DVD, but only be able to watch it on a small PSP screen. On the other hand, having the ability to download a video for a reasonable fee of $5 to watch while travelling makes a great deal of sense.

Since VOD service provider MovieLink already has licensed content from Sony Pictures, it's not a stretch to think that a service like Movielink would extend their service into the PSP. It's even less of a stretch to think that since Sony is already dipping its corporate toe into downloadable movies, it might try the same approach for the PSP.

.

Via TVHarmony

Drew Clark (National Journal): Spectrum Wars. Generations ago, broadcasters got the right to use the airwaves -- now worth billions of dollars -- for free. Ever since, they have used heavy lobbying and political friendships to stave off rivals. But as the digital age unfolds, change is in the air.

Via Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc.

: Orb Networks, a digital media service which runs on portable devices, has gone the ad-supported route, doing away with its premium susbcription service. Orb's service promises access to media files on your home PC from any Internet-enabled device with broadband access.

The service was costing $9.99 per month..But now, Orb said it will turn to strategic partnerships with content providers and consumer electronic companies to make its money.

Executives said the revenue will come through co-marketing relationships and transactions for music, video, audio and other services. The company said it is close to bringing about 18 different service and content providers under its wing with some 45 active conversations going on with some of the largest national ISPs, movie and recording studios and international media corporations. Some more details in the release

MSNBC.com has launched a special earthquake eyewitness weblog written by readers that bolsters its coverage of the massive quake that struck Indonesia today with on-the-ground reports. They also have an entire section of their site for citizen journalism.

The Podcast Hotel, explains Corante's Alex Williams, will turn a hotel in Portland, Oregon, into a podcast and videoblog studio. It's a place where people come to learn and share how these content creation tools can be used in any way they want, be it for their personal use, their business or their community.

Guests at the Podcast Hotel will create podcasts and videoblogs.

They'll spread out into the city of Portland. I look forward to riding bikes with video cameras attached to our helmets. We're planning a podcast music jam. We're thinking about a fashion show for independent designers where the models are the podcasters and videobloggers.



Experts will be there to share and show how the tools can be used. Newbies will be coached and get the chance to learn how to produce sharp, authentic works. There will be "how to," discussions, "think tank," talks and demonstrations.

cast Hotel will actively involve the city of Portland and will seek people from other cities to participate, too. It happens July 15-17, 2005, in Portland, Oregon. Alex Williams should have more, shortly.

Via Daily Wireless

Wired's Chris Anderson explains why TV is the first place to look for "Long Tail" opportunities (if you need a refresher on the Long Tail, read this.) "The ratio of produced content to available content is the highest of any industry I've looked at," Anderson says. "Only television treats its premium content as disposable." So true. Anderson concludes, "TV is begging to be reinvented."

Via Lost Remote

Alain Bublex' Awareness Box is a camera that does not record images, focussing exclusively on the act of taking pictures. It is an object made to heighten one awareness and attention, a new type of electronic product -developed in collaboration with Siemens- that helps one observe better. ... The Awareness Box allows you to capture an image once in presence of the subject, but without recording it, as each image taken erases the precedent one.

Via Pasta & Vinegar.

Via Eyebeam reBlog

At Ubuweb you can find audio and video archives of radio, films, sounds, visual and concrete poetry, literature and other, related subjects. One of the new features, Film, has some surrealistic silent movies from Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Luis Buñuel and the photographer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and 37 Short Fluxus Films. Many more good things: read from Eugène Ionesco works, listen to Antonin Artaud declaiming poetry, interviews with Jean-Luc Godard, Marshall McLuhan, and Alberto Giacometti. [Bibi's box]

Via Cinema Minima

From the folks who brought you that adorable mmog Puzzle Pirates, Three Rings have created Game Gardens: a place of 'experimental online game development.' So if you know how to program in Java, you can use their tool kit to create you own games and upload them to the site for others to play. They also provide a forum in which to ask questions and share ideas. So if you've ever been curious about what it's like to make a multiplayer game, here's your chance.

Via Clippings.reblog

McDonald's has come up with an interesting alternative music compensation scheme, apparently. According to the New York Daily News, McDonald's will be offering rappers $1-$5 every time a song praising Big Macs is played on the radio (McHip-hop name-drop).

Via Copyfight

According to this refreshingly forthright Seattle Times article, it's because Microsoft knows that the FCC is going to start regulating everything its mission touches, so it had better start playing nice:

Fights over copyrights provide an interesting example of Microsoft's current DC presence and how it switches priorities and sides. ...Only a few years ago, Microsoft opposed the flag, because such an approach attempts to tell software designers what to include and sets limits on the Internet.

t cannot afford to tick off its fledgling friends from Hollywood, the movie moguls it will need to provide content as it ventures into new video technology.

And of course there are similar reasons why it's Mark Cuban and not Bill Gates who can "afford" to fight for innovation in Grokster -- despite the fact that not so long ago, Gates was the young entrepreneur on the outside looking in.

Update: Ernie Miller weighs in with Microsoft Cozying Up to Washington Regulators.

Via Copyfight

Toshiba Corporation today announced a breakthrough in lithium-ion batteries that makes long recharge times a thing of the past. The company's new battery can recharge 80% of a battery's energy capacity in only one minute, approximately 60 times faster than the typical lithium-ion batteries in wide use today, and combines this fast recharge time with performance-boosting improvements in energy density.

An early draft of an RDF ontology for tagging systems.

"This perspective on things made me realise that what is coming up here is the potential development of new user behaviour where ad-hoc peer to peer connections or even mesh networks are estalished beyond the edge of the traditional network for sharing specific information or content and then are dissolved as quickly as they were formed."

"Skype was created as a no-cost long-distance phone service. It does that very well. What it also allows you to do, if you're just a little technically-minded and have a homebrew gene or two, is to record your Skype phone conversation, with the other person's permission, to an audio file on a second computer. Once you've recorded the audio, you can edit out the uhms, ahs and pauses, compress the audio and then place it on the web for public consumption."

Kenyatta just got his hands on a Sanyo Xacti C5 and I've been non-stop bugging him for feedback. The Xacti is a hard-drive based camcorder that's being used by some in the videoblogging community. I was literally about to order one on eBay, but Kenyatta told me to hold off- giving the camcorder a 3/5 (5/5 = best). So here's our conversation and Kenyatta's review of the C5.


Transcript of AIM IM with Kenyatta (KC) and Eli (EC)
9:55 PM 03/28/05

KC: here's the skinny on the xacti: good size, nice lcd... mpeg4 compression was adequate in fast moving shots with lots of color... the different quality levels were nice... extremely poor low light performance...

EC: hmm

KC: poor ergonomics... too top heavy and one thumb operation was actually a hinderance with such a small camera...

EC: yeah. little camera syndrome.

KC: anytime you went to zoom it shook the shot...

EC: built in mic audio decent?

KC: no manual controls whatsoever. NO gain control (!)... zoom slow but adequate.

EC: no shutter speed?

KC: mic was actually decent... shutter speed control but buried behind at least five menu movements clicks to change it. (Too many to be handy.)

EC: yikes. so it's great for daylight, hanging with friends in bright areas.... bad for concerts, bars, and all the fun stuff...

KC: yep... i tried the mic out at the corner of atlantic and 4th ave in bklyn at rush hour... did a decent job of picking me up.

EC: nice! pointing camera at yourself? or from behind

KC: at self and away.

EC: great

KC: mic is on backside of lcd

EC: yikes

KC: yeah, so if you're shooting yourself.... well, it does pick you up well under low pressure (sound) conditions, but a little harder when having a conversation with someone walking down bway in soho

EC: hmm

KC: mpeg4s were easy to transfer. quicktime player had a problem with the mp3 mp4 audio if you tried cutting copying and pasting. (It likes cut and paste.)

EC: huh... how's file size?

KC: you had to save it as a mov file to work... file size is decent. the image quality makes sense for the file sizes.

EC: that's good... you try editing? splice splice splice

KC: about 5MB per min. spliced the vid. didn't try it with imovie or fcp yet.

EC: cool

KC: i have lots of sample video to post as well... hang on. let me check notes for other stuff...

EC: to be honest, it should be great for peru... it's a travel camera.. outdoors, pretty pix..

KC: agreed. and with an hour of 640x480 on a 1GB SD card, it'll be a welcome relief from a PDX10 and pounds of DV tape... did i mention the weird weight balance?

EC: yes... but give me an example... like when you're adjusting zoom, tpaping through menus...

KC: it's too top heavy, causing my wrist to wobble a lot more (when zooming) than if it were evenly weighted (or bottom biased)

EC: try shooting upside down

KC: i did!

EC: ha!

KC: and it was a steadier shot

EC: can the people who design cameras please come see us- paging sanyo product marketing and development!

KC: and it was probably just for the reason you mentioned - when your thumb is applying so much pressure to the top half of the camera, you have to overcompensate by pulling back with your index finger, more or less.

EC: is there a tripod screw?

KC: there is.

EC: you could add weight

KC: sure. good idea. first thing i'm buying, though, is a mini tripod... that's the other criticism of the industrial design... because they made it so thin, you can't sit it on a table on it's own.

EC: lame!

KC: i mean, none of it's competitors do it either (the sony M1, Panasonic AV100, etc) but if it included a small "travel base" besides or instead of the large round platter that ships with it, it would come in very handy.

EC: bubble gum works

KC: so many videobloggers use still cameras for shooting video...

EC: yeah, good form factor... people are comfortable with them as 'still' cameras.. more social devices than futuristic super 8 cameras.

KC: sure. problem is they do video poorly or don't handle well when shooting video (high compression AVI, can't zoom in while capturing video)... what bothers me about a lot of these small video-first solid state cameras is that they still seem like interesting gadgets first and video cameras second... it's like they're being marketed to the Sharper Image crowd (who look for cool toys) and not the user-generated content folks.

EC: yeah, at least cameraphones are often good phones... and their cameras are getting better all the time...

KC: you know, the ones apple, microsoft, and the like already have in their sights?

EC: right.

KC: speaking of which - have you looked at any of the reviews for these small solid state video cameras?
they're almost exclusively by still digicam sites.

EC: interesting

KC: and they spend paragraphs talking about the still image performance, and then leave, like, maybe a graph or two to the video performance.

EC: nice. gimme a link

KC: i'm looking through steve's digicams and dcresource right now.

EC: does the xacti remote do zoom? could be a workaround

KC: yes it does... which is why i was going for the mini tripod first.

EC: ahh... i'm looking through dpreview

KC: http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/sony/dsc_m1-review/ review of the sony M1... maybe i shouldn't expect digital still camera reviewers to scrutinize the video on these things, but the manufacturers have to start sending the video-first cams out to videobloggers to test.

EC: we can be the source! let's do it.... hey, check http://www.dpreview.com/news/0501/05013101casioexp505.asp sounds hot

KC: a resource is born.

EC: casio. mpeg4. still

KC: reading it now. interesting... oh yeah, about the build quality of the C5... looks and feels solid with a hard plastic shell and a nice metal band around the edge of the thing. good construction. but i fear for the life of the LCD screen. I've only had it four days and it already feels a little loose... and (here's the part that kills me) all menu navigation and option selection happens with two buttons: a menu button, and a five way "Set" joystick (five-way meaning: up, down, left, right, and push)

EC: sheesh

KC: i can tell you now that the set joystick is gonna take a beating. besides being near to impossible to find the sweet spot when pushing in the set button, after a weekend of use, it's already got a bit too much play in it.

EC: wow... you're moving me from 3 out of 5 to 2/5

KC: which means that it's already feeling unresponsive at times and frustrating to use... well, what keeps it at 3 is that there are a lot of things it gets right for videobloggers... the daylight performance is excellent, the built in mic is better than i expected, and the size is incredible.

EC: and battery?

KC: battery wasn't bad. i was able to fill the card shooting about 1hr of video over a 12 hour period, keeping it in standby mode in between takes.

EC: nice

KC: (card was a 1GB SD)

EC: nice. ebay? cost?

KC: (card didn't come standard.) bought the card at j&r. (gotta fill out that rebate form)... i paid $650 for it but i overpaid. you can get it from one of the HK ebayers for about $550+shipping... sanyo is selling a special edition blue one through the sharper image here in the US for $800.

EC: ooooohhh.... ((((suckaBlue I think it's called))))

KC: i wanted one that wouldn't look like a video camera, so i figured blue would work. and it did.

EC: nice

KC: everyone i showed it to didn't realize it was a camera until i told them. (after I shot a good amount of video first, of course)

EC: heh

EC: i think this is good.. i'll edit and post

KC: cool. we should do all of our reviews this way.

EC: i was thinking a conversation between us is more valuable than a straight write up, and easier

KC: cool

Here are some examples Kenyatta shot:
xactiC5_lowlight.mov 10.3M
xactiC5_mic_flatbush.mov 2.5M
xactiC5_movement640.mov 5.7M
xactiC5_mpg_flowers.mov 2.6M
xactiC5_night.mov 4.9M

This class aims to give students an understanding of the various ways wireless can be used for inter-personal communication. Students will be asked to look at real world contexts in which wireless technology can allow a group (be they a couple, a sports team, a group of friends) to communicate more seamlessly, safely, subtly, or elegantly.

(Taught by MagicBike creator Yury Gitman and Rocketboom's Andrew Baron. Cool. -kc.)

Podcast metadata is a standard for using XHTML tags to define machine-readable metadata about podcast shows for use by applications for searching and organizing podcasts.

Mark Cuban explains why he will underwrite the defense of file-sharing in the upcoming showdown at the U. S. Supreme Court: … It doesn't matter that the RIAA has been wrong about innovations and the perceived threat to their industry, every single time. It just matters that they can spend more then everyone else on lawyers. Thats not the way it should be. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and others came to me and asked if I would finance the legal effort against MGM. I said yes. I would provide them the money they need. This isn't the big content companies against the technology companies. This is the big content companies, against me, Mark Cuban, and my little content company. It's about our ability to use future innovations to compete, versus their ability to use the courts to shut down our ability to compete. It's that simple. [p2pnet.net]

• Supreme Showdown for P2P's Future. The entertainment industry goes head-to-head against file-sharing services at the Supreme Court this week. Some fear the Grokster case could have a devastating effect on development of new technologies. By Katie Dean. [Wired News]

Via Cinema Minima

From the Code Blog, tracking the wikification of Lessig’s Code: 2005-3-20-A Note From Reed Hundt

I was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (1993-97) when the Internet was, in a mass user sense, invented (1993-95, in my view). This is to report that a tiny group of bureaucrats did indeed sit in a room, or actually more than one room on more than one occasion, and decide that it was our great opportunity and duty to make sure that the Internet would be as nearly free as we could make it, that the telephone lines would be used by Internet service provider for as close to no cost as we could manage, that as many service providers would be able to start providing Net access as we could conceivably foster, and that we would encourage this new medium, as McLuhan predicted, to swallow all previous media and use them as content. And from 1994 to 2000 that is pretty much what happened. There are myriad specific rules that assisted in these ends coming about, which is not to say that technology and history were irrelevant. Indeed they may have been more significant causes of the various resulting effects. But it would be wrong to impute to government a lack of thought or even, in this case, foresight.

[…] Even the most extreme libertarians ought to acknowledge the historical significance of the G.I. Bill, the Marshall Plan, social security, and the atomic bomb – all world-changing events stemming from decisions by small groups in government made under conditions of limited knowledge and necessary compulsion to act. Similarly the Internet’s shape in its first decade stemmed in large part from an architecture of law designed to foster its disruptive impact and its rapid growth and its usage in particular by the young. It all could have been decided differently, as it was in most other countries and as it may well be decided differently in the broadband era. Because, you see, many of these rules have been changed in recent years, and whether all are reversed remains to be seen.

Via Furdlog

Interesting experiment in collective knowledge:

The Neighborhood Project is creating a map of city neighborhoods based on the collective opinions of internet users. Addresses and neighborhood data are translated into latitude and longitude values, and then drawn on the map. The address and neighborhood data are collected from housing posts on craigslist, and from people filling out the form below. The coordinates are generated using the free geocoder.us. The map is from the TIGER/Line US Census data. Our first city is San Francisco, but we will add more soon....

The more people who add their opinion to the database, the more accurate the neighborhood boundaries become.

Via CyberJournalist.net

"This is just a simple python script that looks in a directory, and will upload what ever is there to your flickr account. It keeps track of what it has uploaded, and that is about it for features. The code is available to do whatever you wish with it." Link (Thanks, CJM!)

Update: Antrix sez, "Michele Campeotto has written the nice FlickrClient interface for those with more ambitious visions of mating Python and Flickr."

Via Boing Boing

(through not sure who): A 15-page PDF (from UK's Laser Foundation) on the future of physical libraries and they should be adapting to the digital age.
And the development of premium services will be a key to survival, as this paper enumerates. Among the questions to ask themselves: "How will public libraries meet the needs of the information ecologies of the future? Will we be working in a completely changed environment filled with blogs, wikis, amazoogles, podcasts, wifis, blackberries and mp3s? Will these technologies have become archaic hangovers supplanted by a novel fauna? Will the disruptions caused by chasing the next big technology paradigm cause the extinction of skills and values we wish to conserve?"

Via PaidContent.org

"Vist the site that is going to make Exeem great,its like a new suprova for Exeem, Theres new links added all day,just click the link and it will automacticly start downloading"

(Why is the domain exeems and not exeem? Who are these folks? -kc.)

Gamespy reports that Warner Brothers has employed a full-time troupe of 20 actors who will interact live with players of Matrix Online. "These people will assume the roles of popular characters, interact with players, and generally move the stories in ways that only live "actors" can."

Via Grand Text Auto

Great article on Gamasutra about the prospects of unionizing game developers. Very interesting.

Via game girl advance

Antonio in Ion's Blog points to an impressive picture in El Mundo that demonstrates better than any discourse the growing trend to snap pictures with a camera phone instead of a traditional camera at major events. Here during a procession in Sevilla (Spain)

During the Expo 2005, spectator queueing to see a movie at Toshiba’s digital cinema are submitted to a futurecast, they place their faces into a hole in the wall for a few seconds. High-resolution digital cameras perform a quick scan from several angles, and everyone takes their seats.

The animated film, Grand Odyssey, begins as normal but the entire cast is made up of walking, talking digital replicas of people in the audience.



Each speactator gets a role — there are soldiers, doctors, scientists and politicians involved in the story — as a Toshiba supercomputer is processing the one-time-only film.

Elsewhere, Hitachi is inviting visitors to a virtual reality safari where they get handsets that contain a prototype of the mu-chip, a processor which, when brought close to particular transmitters, downloads any information on offer in that area and displays it on a small screen.

The safari ride employs a 3D projection system designed to work with a set of sensors strapped to the hands. In the virtual reality world, solid-seeming objects can be plucked from mid-air and examined more closely in the hands.

Elsewhere, NTT DoCoMo shows its object-recognition binoculars which recognise certain objects and displays details about them in the eyepiece.

Fix on a passing plane and the device will tell you the flight number and destination. Turn your attention to a flower, and it will tell you what variety it is.

DoCoMo hopes to use the technology in camera-equipped handsets. With particular databases of information installed, the phones could be pointed at objects of interest and used to collect information. Waved past an item in a shop, for example, it might inform users where the same thing could be bought more cheaply.

Via The Times.

Via we make money not art

SourceForge.net: Project Info - getTunes
This is great.. It is a pain to get music off of my media machine on to my laptop this should help. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to recognize my wireless connection.
From the site:
getTunes is a Mac version of myTunes, a small application that allows users to download music from local Rendezvous-shared iTunes music libraries (instead of streaming the songs). Don't steal music.

Via sLop

It's VideoBlogWeek 2005!!!
This week we are all posting a video a day.
This is post #1.
Thanks to Adam for the call to arms.

It's an attempt to create a conversation and get the juices flowing.
A loose collaborative process.
We can make videos often if you just make the process a part of your life.
And make videos for each other.
No need to impress invisible TV executives.
You can see the first VideoBlogWeek2004.

Anyone can join in.
Just post a video...and tag it HERE.

Via Momentshowing

The NY Times has a great overview of many of the new approaches to make TV advertising more relevant and less susceptible to commercial skipping.

Via Lost Remote

The three main features of AmigoTV are presence, voice communications, and rich multimedia messaging on TV.

"Seeing that this is an early, early test of the videoblog world map, I ask that you please fill out the form below carefully. This is imperative as the xml file has to be edited by hand while I make edit/delete functionality."

We provide free bandwidth for your video, podcast, software download, or any other file you want to post--no Creative Commons license required.

Just a quick word about browsing the web on your PSP. While I think a web browser is an inevitablity for the platform (wasn't that included in that leaked firmware along with the word processor?), I think a few of you might be overreacting a bit when it comes to presuming Sony's response. In short, I don't see why they'd give a flip. Anything that makes the PSP just that much more useful is a good thing. Now one of you needs to figure out how to load a web browser onto a MemoryStick and load it from there.

PSP Web Browser experience [PSP411]
Web Browsing on your Sony PSP [DavesIpaq]
Wipeout Pure: The Hidden Web Browser [FuManchu]
PSP Web Portal [AbsurdGenius] This is the easiest one for people who just want to try it out. Well done. (Thanks, Justin!)

Via Gizmodo

A mall developer sicced his lawyers on a man who started a website to praise a new mall. He says: "Since I possess very limited resources with which to defend myself from this legal onslaught, I decided that my best option was to make use of that great equalizer, the World Wide Web."

Did he ever.

(Via BoingBoing)

Via Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc.

Can you get rich recording mp3s in your mom's basement?

"the handful of bloggers out there with genuine TV appeal -- former AV geeks, mostly, with some public speaking classes or stage experience under their belts -- are discovering there may be some actual star potential in moving to the tiny QuickTime screen."

"There is much talk today about how advertising is changing and how the industry must change in order to stay relevant. However, I have seen little evidence of the depth of thinking one might expect from the people this will most directly impact - the people who create advertising."

The report examines the collision between broadcast TV and broadband video, and makes sense of: layers of convergence and fragmentation; disruptive innovations for scheduling and distributing video; de-centralised content and P2P networks; value chain structural changes, effects on incumbents, accelerating competition; trends in shifting of time, place and media, etc.

"Owners of the PlayStation Portable will soon be able to make their own adventure games for the handheld. According to the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, From Software will release a utility game, called Adventure Player, that will let gamers create an adventure game on PCs and then play it on the road with the mobile PSP."

I think the people of the US owe Mark Cuban a big thank-you for putting himself in the line of fire like this, for such a good cause.

…the EFF and others came to me and asked if I would finance the legal effort against MGM. I said yes. I would provide them the money they need. So now the truth has been told. This isnt the big content companies against the technology companies. This is the big content companies, against me. Mark Cuban and my little content company. Its about our ability to use future innovations to compete vs their ability to use the courts to shut down our ability to compete. its that simple.

Via [bionic] dan's journal

Cyrus writes "The BBC reports on an Austrian village that is testing technology which could represent the future of television. The pilot has been so successful that Telekom Austria is now considering setting up other projects elsewhere." From the article: "The hardware and software to turn video footage into edited programmes has been provided by Telekom Austria but this equipment, following training, has been turned over to the villagers. Any video programme created by the villagers is uploaded to a Buntes Fernsehen portal that lets people browse and download what they want to watch. "

NEXT FFF SCREENING! Friday March 25 at 8pm Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. --MM

allows you to listen a live stream over Internet by using smartly resources. You can listen a webradio or share an event by allowing other listeners to make the same thing in the best conditions.

Reuters: "Clear Channel plans to make some of its live morning shows available for downloading, commonly known as podcasting."

Via Scripting News

The news industry has mixed opinions about the advantages and disadvantages of aggregators according to the Wall Street Journal Online through Excite. Some editors enjoy the traffic that their site receives when their stories show up high on the list of headlines. Others are perturbed by their lower positions. And in a practice that some in the industry believe will be common place, a few newspapers simply pay for aggregators to give their articles priority, such as the New York Times did with Topix.net. This past week's two aggregator related events, the Topix.net deal and AFP's legal action against Google, whose consequences won't be know for some time highlight the dilemma that editors are facing. AFP demanded that Google remove its content from its GoogleNews site on charges of copyright infringement. Some in the industry scoffed, dismissing AFP to the nut house for canceling the free press and traffic its brand name gets through Google. But this is nothing new as others, notably Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest paper, have also refused Google permission to reprint its material. On the other hand, the Topix.net deal, in which three major newspaper companies - Gannett Co., Knight-Ridder Inc., and Tribune Co., each bought a 25% stake in the high-traffic news consolidator, hints that publishers see aggregators as boosting hits on their own site and spreading their brand recognition. What will be the final verdict?

We can't be sure yet. But we may be able to make a pretty good prediction simply from this posting. My source for this posting is the Wall Street Journal, one of the very few pay-for newspaper websites in the world, a publication which has been documented as being ignored as an online reference strictly because of its pay-model, yet a news site to which I am not a subscriber. So how did I read the article? I'm only assuming I've been able to access sacred WSJ content because the Dow Jones Co., publisher of the WSJ, has a deal with Excite which allows it to let a free article slip out from time to time. Considering this, my guess is that most newspapers will keep themselves open to aggregators, or else risk suffocation at the digital hands of those who do.

Source: The Wall Street Journal Online through Excite.

One of DailyWireless' favorite haunts is Wireless Watch Japan, reporting from the heart of Japan's mobile revolution.

The top rated website features the latest news, articles and Video Programs. It's always interesting, beautifully shot and well edited. A model of professionalism.

In today's Video Tour of KDDI Designing Studio, WWJ's Gail Nakada speaks with the Studio's general manager and tours all five floors of the public facility, packed with interactive games, live handsets and mobile demos. Japan is years ahead of the United States, as this tour demonstrates.

Program Run-time 8:50 -- Coded for broadband connections only

Via Daily Wireless

TV explodes on Amazon

: From PaidContent's digital jobs list, Amazon is doing more in video:

: Amazon.com is looking for a Content Acquisition Manager (CAM) for our forthcoming Digital Video Store. The CAM's job will be to find and license content from content owners near and far.

Via BuzzMachine

Once every 6-12 months, someone, somewhere, writes an article about how PC gaming is dying. So quite why the author of this piece seems to think he’s so special with this proclaimation I’ve no idea. He also believes that enjoying a game console means you have the IQ of a glass of water… Let me repeat: To all you console owners, which includes a good chunk of us here at Joystiq, including myself, Mr. Anthony R. Brock believes we all have the IQ of a glass of water because we enjoy consoles. Ironically, he condemns Electronic Arts (and, somewhat bafflingly, Eidos), a company who, if I stuck with the PC, I’d HAVE to buy baseball games from, whereas, as a PS2 owner, I have a choice.

I remember reading much the same arguments in PC magazines before the turn of the millenium, about how PC gaming was on it’s last legs, consoles would own all… And yet, here we still are. The author also leaves one huge, gaping hole in his argument. The fact that when designing a PC game, developers have to contend with a million different hardware and software configurations. Whereas with designing for the console, they can design a game, boot it, and if it works on their test machine, they know that it will work on every machine out there.

So, is it a scathing critique of the PC gaming industry? Or elitist, arrogant posturing from someone who thinks that, just because they game on a PC, they’re better than you? You decide.

Via Joystiq

Mefeedia has inconspicuously turned into Flickr for video, at least in terms of tag usage. Several of us that use Mefeedia are putting out a call for people to add videos with the tag "gates", in honor of Christo and Jean Claude's Central Park exhibit.

You can see the start of the compilation here. More and more videos will be added over the next two weeks and we are encouraging anyone who has video of The Gates posted on their site to submit it to Mefeedia.

If you use an RSS reader, you can add this feed to keep up with any new videos that show up with the same tag.

Via Julia Set

Yahoo's purchase of Flickr is so interesting because Flickr is a pioneer in tagging, which is not just the latest fad online, but has the potential to revolutionize the way information is found and distributed online.

"The democratization of information is the real interesting thing about this," said Bob Rosenschein, CEO of GuruNet, an answer search engine. "They're messy and noisy and they're not always accurate, but they're people talking about real subjects; and in that manner they have tremendous statistical interest when they get to scale. There's a wisdom of the crowd. The most interesting applications are before us."

It's a deceptively simple premise that holds enormous consequences for information management...

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Via CyberJournalist.net

I really like the idea of OurMedia.org. After all, I want to have a service that makes it easy for me to share my entire life with you. Text. Photos. Video. Audio.

But my experience in the past 24 hours tells me we are a LONG way from a service that anyone can use. Particularly when it comes to video.

First of all, the uploading experience, in particular, sucked. I tried more than half a dozen times to upload a video. In both IE and Firefox. It barfed everytime and gave very vague error messages.

This is one place where AJAX just isn't the right methodology. The browser wasn't designed to upload things. I switched over to http://www.archive.org and there they force you to use an FTP client or an app that you download. This was a far superior experience, albeit I had to be a geek because using FTP isn't something that most people are familiar with.

With my FTP app I could see how progress was going. With the browser I saw no progress. It either works or it fails.

And that's on top of being forced to be a media file expert to begin with. My new hard-drive based camcorder makes MPG2 format videos. But they can't be uploaded cause they take 4GB per hour. Whew.

So, you need to pick between Microsoft's format, Apple's format, Macromedia's format, Real's format, or the more generic MPG4 format. Problem is there's no ubiquity in playback (except for maybe Macromedia's format which I don't like as much as the others). I can just imagine a normal person giving up.

Don't think Microsoft is blameless here. Our encoding tools are WAY too complex. Windows Media Encoder is free, yes, but you almost need a computer science degree to use it. I wish we had a really great compression component and a really great uploading component that we could use in our Web-based apps. You should just be able to drag an MPG2 file onto a target and have the system do everything else for you.

Well, that's my video rant for the day.

You've got your shiny black beast home and charged and you've already watched Spider-Man 2 twice—what video is next for your PSP? You can convert some of your own content using the software tools we listed in our PSP Omegapost (yes, I regret that name now, too), but if you just want some short free clips, we're starting a list of places to get free content that's already formated for your baby. As always, if you have a suggestion, send it in and we'll be happy to add it.

29 Guide's Daily PSP Downloads [29HDNetwork]
• Sony Connect Official Page [Connect]
• Move TiVo To Go to Your PSP [ZatzNotFunny]

Via Gizmodo

New digital delivery services are not likely to supplant the DVD business, but rather bring digital entertainment to people by adding either convenience or accessibility that complements what the 'Packaged Goods' can provide, according to a report from market research group In-Stat.

More consumers want instant access to video on their TV sets, portable devices and mobiles, but DVDs will continue to be a popular medium and will continue to experience substantial growth. The worldwide value of all published DVD products is expected to grow with a compound annual growth rate of 18.2 per cent, from about €25bn in 2004 to €60bn by 2009.

RedNova reports on an article from the Business Communications Review that takes a good hard look at how telcos, and in particular the Big Four RBOCs (Verizon, SBC, Qwest, and Bell South) intend to deliver the magic triple play service of voice, broadband internet, and TV to the masses. According to the article, they will use three significantly different architectures to accomplish this.

For the moment, however, the cable TV companies are in the lead for delivering Triple Play, both in terms of technology and market positioning. Cable broadband has outsold DSL 2-1, and coupled with a two-year head start in marketing Triple Play service, you get an idea of how much ground the telcos will have to make up..

Bruce Sterling's Dead Media Manifesto: It's a rather rare phenomenon for an established medium to die. If media make it past their Golden Vaporware stage, they usually expand wildly in their early days and then shrink back to some protective niche as they are challenged by later and more highly evolved competitors. Radio didn't kill newspapers, TV didn't kill radio or movies, video and cable didn't kill broadcast network TV; they just all jostled around seeking a more perfect app.

But some media do, in fact, perish. Such as: the phenakistoscope. The teleharmonium. The Edison wax cylinder. The stereopticon. The Panorama. Early 20th century electric searchlight spectacles. Morton Heilig's early virtual reality. Telefon Hirmondo. The various species of magic lantern. The pneumatic transfer tubes that once riddled the underground of Chicago. Was the Antikythera Device a medium? How about the Big Character Poster Democracy Wall in Peking in the early 80s?

The collection of dead media working notes is an ad hoc database of the deceased, the slowly-rotting, the undead, and the never-lived media.

Via Cinema Minima

I just saw a post on Gizmodo yesterday suggesting the new Edirol R-1 as a most excellent high-end pocketable podcast field recorder. A lot of people seem to be interested in this one, and for good reason: the R-1 has some nice specs for such a small frame. But there's one thing that really bugs me about dropping 4-large on a good field recorder: the lack of XLR inputs.

To me, a 1/4" to mini-plug adapter for mic input sometimes equals noise and I've been told that in audio recording, unintended noise is bad. If you're a podcaster who's going to spend that much on a pocketable field recorder, may I suggest the Marantz PMD660 instead?

(By the way, I use the term 'pocketable' as distinct from 'portable'. The way most manufacturers figure it, anything under 15lbs can have a cheap strap attached to it. And anything with a strap must be 'portable.' Add a strap to a pallet of bricks and it's portable.)

The PMD660 is about the same size as the R-1 and they share a lot of the same features. And while the Edirol does have a ton of cool effects built in to the box (which makes it quite appropriate for the home recording crowd), it's the extra IN/OUTs that make the PMD660 a more impressive pocket recorder to me. Having used the PMD660 for a community radio project, I can say that it just works. And next time I'm at my local pro shop, I'll take a look at the R-1. Looking at it on spec, it seems impressive.



But the XLR inputs (two of them on the PMD660) gives you a ton more options on what mic, mixing, and capture gear you can go in to and out of. What neither unit has is a digital optical input which keeps me from being able to replace the Marantz PMD660 I use for live event recording.

If you're a beginning podcaster with a need for field gear, start off with an inexpensive (sub-$150) flash recorder that'll take an external mic via it's line in jack. The iriver 700-series is perfect for this. (Also check out PWOP's recommendations for a home podcasting kit.) If you're an intermediate podcaster looking to spend a little more for a good solid state field recorder, check out the R-1, but make sure that you check out the PMD660 as well.

A Creative Commons search engine has been released by Yahoo!.

Via Cinema Minima

Doug Kaye interviews Marc Canter and JD Lasica on the launch of Ourmedia.org.

Via Andrew Grumet's Weblog

Mike from GarageSpin points us to a big story from Microsoft: they've launched a new community site "for the global electronic artist" called Crossfader. It's in beta form, so there's not much there yet, though the focus is clearly on DJs and electronica. There's a section called "The Knowledge" that will eventually have information on production, performance, and business. The descriptions get a little glib ("tips on workin it"? "tweakin it"?), but there are some interesting features, like built-in community blog features and in-line music player. I just hope this developer is being ironic when he says "Cool. They made the UI look like Office 2003!"

While this site is a long way from replacing EM411 for me, they do have two cool stories up that you should check out:

Our friend Dave Hill from Ableton (the Berlin developer's man about Brooklyn) has an overview of Live 4.0. DJ Spooky is up for a video interview talking about his collaboration with Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and Public Enemy's Chuck D, and of course Cakewalk SONAR

I just interviewed Spooky myself, though (as usual) we talked more music than tools. I'll have that interview up soon; editing it now for my upcoming book Real World Digital Audio.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today delivered an extremely optimistic outlook on the market migration to mobile technology before 700 IT technology enablers at the second annual Samsung Mobile Solution Forum in the Westin Taipei Hotel in downtown Taipei. Samsung, which plans to steadily increase its business and investments in the mobile marketplace, said it foresees dynamic growth in corporate and consumer mobile usage over the next decade. The company predicted that, as the movement toward ‘mobile convergence' accelerates, key functions will merge introducing more user-optimized mobile applications, calling for more innovative advances in semiconductor technology.

So many citizen journalism initiatives are cropping up now it's hard to keep track, so CyberJournalist.net has begun keeping a list.

Here are some of the more ambitious citizen's media efforts that have launched or are in the works. Click on the links for more information and to post your comments about each one.

Brightcove will launch a service later this year that will let filmmakers who are not part of the studio system sell their movies directly to consumers. Most won't be two-hour epics. Instead, the site will largely cater to budding cartoonists, independent directors, and the people who happen to have good video of sports moments, natural disasters, or current events. The firm was founded in 2004 by former Macromedia Chief Technology Officer Jeremy Allaire. • Brightcove [CNET News]

RSS Feed for Cinema Minima

Via Cinema Minima

Sharp unveiled today the world's first 1/2.5 6Mpix CCD which will be also able to take video at 30fps in VGA mode.

Earlier this month, we had the story of some students who were suspended for videotaping their teacher lose his temper. The punishment seemed somehow backwards (even if all the attention later resulted in videos of those same students destroying property coming to light as well). Here's another case that sounds quite similar. A high school student photographed the school's principal smoking on school grounds, in violation of state law and posted it to the web. He also passed out fliers around the school pointing to the website -- which seems to be the argument the school is using to suspend him. The principal is claiming that the suspension was for "harassing and slandering her and being a disruptive influence." Of course, since it appears she actually was breaking the law, then it seems the slander part is tough to show. Of course, part of this points out a cultural change that people need to get used to: the fact that you can be watched and recorded almost anywhere at any time.

Via Techdirt

European and US culture differ in many things, including in the way they use telephones.

Choices made by governments and companies can mean teens in Athens, Georgia, talk on their fixed-line phones for four hours a day while those in Athens, Greece, send four text messages on their mobile phones.

While the European Commission helps promote a uniform phone standard across the Union. The Federal Communications Commission in Washington lets the market decide.

Details in ChinaDaily.

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Just look at all these crazy people standing in line to buy a PSP at midnight. Best quote from the launch event: "If someone told you that the PSP is a portable gaming device, shoot these people. The PSP is not a portable gaming device, it's really a convergent portable entertainment device."

Via Lost Remote

PC Magazine takes a look at an emerging product and technology that they think could compete with traditional cable, DSL, and satellite broadband... cellular based WAN and Wi-Fi connections:
"Sony Ericsson will be rolling out a four-mode PC card for notebook PCs that will allow connectivity over an EDGE/GPRS/GSM or Wi-Fi network. EDGE isn't the fastest of the broadband cellular technologies, up to 236 Kbps, but it is the most widely available nationwide. Kyocera showed off an engineering sample of its KR1 EV-DO router at CTIA. EV-DO can, on average, provide 300 to 500 Kbps (carriers and technology providers are quick to point out the potential of getting up to 2.4 Mbps from it). The router, manufactured by D-Link, has a 1x EV-DO WAN interface (requiring either a 1x EV-DO PC card or 1x EV-DO USB phone), plus four 10/100-Mbps Ethernet ports and 802.11b/g support for LAN.

According to a sign at the Wireless Dream Home at the CTIA show, Motorola's Cellular Residential Gateway is available now... though PCMag didn't find out what network it's available for. The Gateway appears to be similar to the Kyocera KR1.

"Now all that remains is for cellular service carriers to support these new products and technologies," states PCMag.

Via Broadbandreports

You just knew this kind of potato salad would happen. BusinessWeek reports on a PARC project, promising the social aspects of the Super Bowl experience without the dropped popcorn and the spilled beer:

The Social TV project is in research stages right now. But the idea is that, with the help of a bit of software, perhaps a keyboard or two and several strategically-placed microphones, people can remotely discuss a TV program while they are watching it. You’ll be able to see which of your buddies is watching which program in his or her house, and join into the viewing. Or, you might start a program-watching session of your own and invite friends.

Indeed, in many ways, Social TV will be similar to the Instant Messenger you already use on your computer. Only it will be more dynamic: Social TV software, located on a device like TiVo or even your TV set, might notice that your and your buddy’s yacking has gone well past the commercial break. The software would conclude that you are no longer watching the show and, perhaps, pause the program until you are ready to resume, says Nic Ducheneau, member of PARC research staff.

The follow-on invention, of course, is a social spam filter that mutes your friends when you are trying to watch TV.

Via Many-to-Many

Decentralized del.icio.us. Interesting.

"Online social bookmarks manager. Allows multiple users to add, edit, tag and share their bookmarks through any browser connected to the Internet."

There's a new animal in online newsrooms -- the editor in charge of citizen journalism and blogs. These pioneers share best practices and tips.

"But who do you put on the front line? Who can oversee these efforts with a light but discerning touch, allowing free speech without inviting lawsuits? That's the role of the new citizen media editor, a role that's only now coming into focus at various sites such as MSNBC.com, VenturaCountyStar.com, NorthwestVoice.com and News-Record.com."

('Citizen Media Editors'? 'Blogwranglers' is more like it. ;) -kc.)

"While blogging is wielding some influence in media and political circles, traditional news outlets are still the dominant sources of information for the American public." This quote from a CNN/USA/Gallup Poll released on March 22 may hold water today, but what future effects does the media industry expect from these digital diaries? The answers are diverse.

1. The age gap: The Gallup Poll demonstrates figures of blog readership (correlating to internet use) that are the opposite of figures of newspaper readership. Whereas 61% of the 65 and older age group read a daily paper, only 32% of 18 to 29 year-olds do the same. On the other hand, a mere 33% of the older demographic consult the internet, 28% of which read blogs, whereas 91% of the younger age group use the internet with 44% browsing the blogosphere.

2. The changing newsroom: As online citizens' media websites such as OhMyNews are turning profitable, Mark Glaser has written an article at the Online Journalism Review that describes the evolution of a new type of editor: the citizen media editor (CME). Although there is no paper yet with this official title, Glaser predicts that more will surface such as they already have at MSNBC.com or NorthwestVoice.com. He defines the CME as "Part chat moderator, part copy editor and part ombudsman."

3. The media's PR role: an article in Toronto's The Globe and Mail shows that blogs are diminishing the media's role as a public relations tool. Blogs, theoretically written by "normal people," empower companies to have direct contact with their consumers, thus bypassing the media who traditionally has played a major role in PR firms' message. A prediction that blogs will become more influential in swaying public opinion comes from two "trust" polls, one in Canada and one in the United States. The first showed that 55% of Canadians trust a "person like yourself," falling only behind academics and doctors, and that 56% of Americans do the same, up from a mere 22% of peer trust only two years ago.

4. The business opportunities: "The value of blogs to businesses is their ability to enable and facilitate communication," says Frank Barnako at Market Watch. He goes on to say that blogs are both good and bad for publishers; good because their content is being read, attracting people to their website, but bad because it becomes impossible to charge for their content. Chuck Richard, vice-president of Outsell Inc., a technology market research firm that has recently released a report on blogs concurs that "they are going to be big." A similar article at The Deal provides a summary of the venture capital that is being presently put into blogs and citizens' media. Although it notes that it's still early in the blogging game, the article predicts that "social media" investments will not experience the same crash landing that technology companies went through in 2001: Citizens' media is "Not the next bubble."

Source: CNN/USA Today/Gallup, Online Journalism Review, The Globe and Mail, MarketWatch (registration required), and The Deal

Use the Shinkuro software to share files across enterprise boundaries - securely. Just install the software on each machine, create a group and designate a folder you would like to share with the group. Any files you put in that folder will be shared with the other members automatically.

No wonder that the intervals between screen release dates and DVD release dates are getting shorter. Although box-office revenue has remained steady at about US$9.2 billion a year in recent years, since the mid-1990s, home video sales have surpassed the domestic box office. Last year, DVD sales alone — not counting the VHS format — skyrocketed to US$15.5 billion. [Hacking NetFlix]

Via Cinema Minima

"the Decemberists opted to release its new music video, Sixteen Military Wives, for free using BitTorrent"

dr. G. Lovink (IAM) The principle of notworking - Concepts in Critical Internet Culture. (PDF; 2196 KB)(English)

Media theorist, net critic and activist dr. Geert Lovink focusses in this public lecture on three conceptual fields: the relation between multitude, network and culture,the art of collaboration and ‘free cooperation ’, and finally he presents elements of a theory of ‘organized networks ’.

Lovink critically observes the network dilemmas in the age of smartmobs and describes the impact of smartmobs, social software and social networking.

(..) "A key question of my recent work has been how networks deal with the ‘frus-trated ’,those who breach the consensus culture.After 9/11 and the following instalment of a global security regime,this is no longer such an odd question. The age of the ‘true believer ’ is over,,as amateur mass psychologist Eric Hoffer (1951) described this twentieth century figure in his study on mass move-ments. Networks are ultimately an obstacle for those who want to sacrifice their lives for a holy cause. To use networks for propaganda purposes is pos-sible but not as effective as old school broadcast media.".

The videostream of this public lecture delivered in Amsterdam on February 24 2005

transcript of the public lecture (in dutch)

earlier on Smartmobs 'Uncanny networks'

Geert Lovink is Lector Interactive Media on the Hogeschool of Amsterdam

Via Smart Mobs

"The company will sponsor podcasts of the Eric Rice Show and provide exclusive audio content from one of its bands." (Go Eric! -kc.)