Grand Central Station Flash Mob

February 18th, 2008

Thanks to Brian Moore for this link. Not sure if dynamic media played a role in this particular flash mob. Interesting example of harmless collusion.

Taking Play Seriously

February 17th, 2008

A fascinating look at the educational, social, and cultural aspects of “play”. Essential reading for anyone interested in physical interfaces, social interaction, and learning systems. Read it here.

Blogs

February 16th, 2008

Sarah Boxer of the New York Review of Books looks at ten blog-related books. Great overview of the social and cultural influence of blogs. Find it here.

One of the books included in the article, AGAINST THE MACHINE:
Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob
by Lee Siegel, is examined in an interesting review by John Lanchester here in NYT.

“The fact that a man as smart as Siegel came to put Lonelygirl15 and Iraq into the same train of argument is a sign of the Internet’s power to make people lose all sense of perspective. The ramped-up affect of “Against the Machine,” its air of haste and its ad hominem quality are uncomfortably reminiscent of the blogs Siegel so dislikes.”

An Inferface of One’s Own

February 10th, 2008

Interesting NYT article on an innovate word processing program:

“… our redeemer is Scrivener, the independently produced word-processing program of the aspiring novelist Keith Blount, a Londoner who taught himself code and graphic design and marketing, just to create a software that jibes with the way writers think.”

Here’s the article.

Web Playgrounds for the Very Young

February 10th, 2008

Yikes. As if analog childhood weren’t tricky enough. Here’s a NYT article on the rush to develop online worlds for kids.

first post

February 10th, 2008

5 minutes installing WordPress
23 minutes making header images
15 minutes futzing with the wrong CSS file
130 minutes futzing with the right CSS file
20 minutes writing and rewriting this post
… and absolutely nothing to say