Archive for July, 2007

peer-to-peer insights

Published
by
seth.keen
on July 30, 2007
in PhD, participatory, sharing, P2P and pd, publishing
. 0 Comments

I spent some time with Michel Bauwens over the weekend as he is visiting to do presentations on his research into peer-to-peer (P2P) at Melbourne University, RMIT and Monash. In our conversations I have not only learnt about his research into P2P but also the methods he uses to do his research. For example, using the social bookmarking tool del.icio.us as means to develop networks and then utilise those bookmarking networks for specific research. This is similar to using RSS to scan blogs, except in this instance the idea is to develop a focused list of bookmarkers who have connections with your research interests. Another aspect that I fund intriguing is Michel’s library training and experience as a researcher which enables him to set up comprehensive approaches towards categorising information. A good example of this is in the structure and layout of the P2P foundation wiki. This wiki is an example of huge resource of material collated and documented around a topic. A key aspect of developing an online resource like this or even as part of the broader process of tagging - folksonomy - categorising is working out relative categories that do not disappear into the information overload. Even tagging bookmarks for del.icio.us is an example of this skill.

I was inspired by the use of a wiki as a place to document and build research. Michel explained how he may start with a simple quote from a source which is collated into a category with referencing recorded back to the source. Quotes around the same subject could be built up under this topic heading which eventually may lead to a more comprehensive personal written response around that specific subject or idea. Using a wiki like this represents the traditional literature review and note-taking of research offline but also provides the ability to link to sources and at the same time shares that research pubically on an ongoing basis. The wiki as a larger resource over time provides an excellent starting point for publishing in other forms.

So, yes I have set up my own wiki ‘net-video’ and will trial this wiki as place to document and build my own research. Up to this point I have been building a significant resource around the video vortex conference using my del.icio.us address, but have felt the need to start funneling this exposure into more substantial outcomes. Of course the blog is tied in with this process where cross references flow back and forth across the two. For example with the P2P Foundation blog, which kind of acts through regular posts as morsels that lead to more substantial meals on the wiki.

videodefunct stage 2#

Published
by
seth.keen
on July 30, 2007
in videodefunct
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f1000007.jpg

In our meeting on 26/7/07 we decided to complete the bridge being built between Keith’s interfaces and wordpress. We all saw the pedestrian prototype as having a customised blog like front page that provides a place to post and tag videos. From this front page the user can chose to engage with specific pages that allow for differing ways to view the content (these are Keith’s interface playback designs: diagrams). We also revised the project summary:

Videodefunct is an experimental work that focuses on producing a hybrid form of video blog. Currently as a work-in-progress, a number of prototypes are being developed in the open source blog publishing system WordPress. A key objective of the project is to explore the way video is presented within the structure of a blog from a ‘poetic’ perspective.

The practitioners involved (including David Wolf as programmer) are all interested in locating a hybrid form that reflects our own interests in terms of how we want to begin engaging with a blog that is used primarily as a platform for publishing video content. The videodefunct blog as an artistic form aims to explore new spaces that emphasise potentialities in terms of ‘poetics’ rather than the pragmatics of interaction design. Which means in this project our key interest is to focus on aesthetic control.

The prototype Pedestrian is currently in development, merging the database back end and user interface of WordPress with customised presentation methods utilising Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX). The aim is to provide the user with a number of alternatives in terms of the playback of the video clips. These video clips will include single-channel linear clips as well as interactive clips. They may be viewed in clusters in a random fashion as well as in more structured ways that are influenced by the choices the user makes. Pedestrian follows the theme of day-to-day travel, emulating the diary like nature of blogging as a collection of fragmentary short experiences.

audio hijack

Published
by
seth.keen
on July 28, 2007
in tools
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Saw this as a useful tool to record skype interviews. From the web site:

Audio Hijack is the perfect tool to record any audio on your computer. With Audio Hijack, you can quickly and easily save audio from almost any application to an AIFF file. This file can then be burned to a CD, or played in any software audio player like iTunes or any hardware audio player like an iPod.

cyberflaming

Published
by
seth.keen
on July 23, 2007
in YouTube and video vortex
. 0 Comments

The article ‘Lost in cyber-flaming hell’ in the Age, holds a mixed perspective in terms of negative attitudes towards activism but does provide an insight into the gap between political campaign use of YouTube by governments in contrast with the way the site is engaged with by users. These differing worlds still seem a long way apart.

P2P Public Presentation - RMIT

Published
by
seth.keen
on July 20, 2007
in media education, participatory, sharing, P2P, pd, publishing and video vortex
. 0 Comments

Michel Bauwens is visiting Melbourne to lecture to students in Networked Media
as well as give a public presentation and discussion. An event organised as a
collaboration between the Media department and MCD: studio to be held in the new
research studio.

Venue: bldg 4.level 5. room 1
Date: Wednesday August 1
Time: 6pm

A summary of the public presentation provided by Michel Bauwens:

Peer to peer is much more than just the sharing of music and film by
contemporary teenagers— it is in fact a new relational dynamic,
enabled by P2P- based infrastructures and organisational techniques,
which fundamentally changes the dynamic between institutions and the
peer- enabled individuals. No longer are institutions (companies,
governments, NGOs, mass media) communicating with isolated
individuals, but it is now the individuals who, assisted by their
peers, approach the institutional world from a totally different
perspective (pull and intention economy).

Far from limited to the co- creation of value with corporations and
media (think crowd sourcing and citizen journalism), it is creating a
whole new set of social processes such as peer production (think
Linux and Wikipedia), peer governance (how are these projects managed
without pre- established hierarchy?), and peer property (a new set of
licenses that protects the common production).

In this specific talk we want to focus more specifically on the
political implications of peer governance, and how it relates to
democratic models of governance.

Bio

Michel Bauwens was one of the internet pioneers in his home country
of Belgium, where he created two startups (e- Com and KyberCo)
respectively involved in the fields of intranet/extranet and
interactive marketing. He was also the eBusiness Strategy Director
for the country’s leading telecommunications company Belgacom as well
as European Director of Thought Leadership for the worldwide
webconsultancy USWeb/CKS- MarchFIRST. Prior to his involment in the
internet he was information analyst, and knowledge manager for BP.
Along the way, he has taught post- graduate MBA courses, been editor
in chief of a magazine (Wave), co- produced a 3- hour TV documentary
(TechnoCalyps), and co- edited two French- language volumes on the
anthropology of digital society.

In 2003, he moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand, which is surrounded by 60%
of the world population in a 1,500 miles radius, and started the
Foundation for P2P Alternatives to research, document and promote
such practices as peer production and peer governance.

Testimonials

There is an extensive list of Testimonials.

– The P2P Foundation researches, documents and promotes peer to peer
alternatives.

Wiki and Encyclopedia ; Blog; Newsletter

Basic essay; interview video interview

The P2P Foundation is support

unlisted videos

Published
by
seth.keen
on July 18, 2007
in tools
. 0 Comments

In my search for the private/public view option (like on flickr) for video, I discovered that blip.Tv require a paid subscription for this service. On google video it is available Can I restrict who sees my video? with more information What are “unlisted” videos?. Samson and Goliath.

weather oddities

Published
by
seth.keen
on July 17, 2007
in art
. 0 Comments

I missed the opening for this show The Trouble with the Weather: a southern response when I was in Sydney recently but there is online version with essay and links to the artists.

art + blog

Published
by
seth.keen
on July 17, 2007
in PhD and videodefunct
. 0 Comments

A net-art proposal appeared on the fc list. An initiative run by the JavaMuseum and netEX - networked experience.

Whether blogs and/or blogging can be tools for creating a new type of net based art.The launch of this new project…The new show “a + b = ba ? [art + blog = blogart?]” will be presented in sequence on divers festivals…For a + b = ba?, JavaMuseum is inviting
artists to submit such an art project which is using the blogging technology.

Entry details are here.

P2P foundation audiovisual resource

Published
by
seth.keen
on July 17, 2007
in PhD, independent media, participatory, sharing, P2P, tools and video vortex
. 0 Comments

There is an extensive audiovisual resource on the p2p foundation wiki, which has an audiovisual category. The supporting article ‘The construction of an alternative media infrastructure’ provides the ideology behind the initiative.

blogs in education

Published
by
seth.keen
on July 12, 2007
in media education
. 0 Comments

Adrian Miles published recently an article titled ‘Blogs in Media Education’. From the opening paragraph:

In this article I would like to introduce and explore the possible use of blogs in media education. What follows applies, more or less equally, for students and teachers, so if you are wondering about how blogs may be relevant to your professional practice as a teacher, or as a classroom tool, then most of what follows will apply.