I just came across VoiceThread, a new collaborative media site which aims to facilitate "Group conversations around images, docs and videos. It allows not only text comments, but audio and video comments, and even doodling (whiteboard style) on the presentation itself.
This has all sorts of amazing applications, but I've embedded this particular VoiceThread because I found it very moving, and it really captures the storytelling element of media and its collective emotional function.
In it, a woman from New Orleans shows her son around the house they lived in before Katrina, which he was too young to remember. This would be little more than a poignant family slideshow, were it not for Les (unrelated to the author) who has logged in to thank her for sharing her memories of his hometown before the flood.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
German politician flames Wikipedia, then reverts
A little over a week ago, the SMH reprinted a Reuters report about criminal charges filed against the German version of Wikipedia by a left-wing German politician, Katina Schubert, over what she considered to be the excessive use of Nazi symbolism, especially on the site's page on the Hitler Youth.
Fortunately, by the time the Oz and Yahoo!7News picked up the story, Schubert's party - Die Linke- had made it clear that she did not have their support in bringing the charge, which she promptly dropped, although not before claiming a victory for beginning the "debate".
I'm starting to think we need some kind of award for naive attacks on Wikipedia. Any suggestions for a title?
Fortunately, by the time the Oz and Yahoo!7News picked up the story, Schubert's party - Die Linke- had made it clear that she did not have their support in bringing the charge, which she promptly dropped, although not before claiming a victory for beginning the "debate".
I'm starting to think we need some kind of award for naive attacks on Wikipedia. Any suggestions for a title?
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Liberal party ad bonanza
I thought the Liberal party's advertising onslaught last night was pretty intense in the leadup to the Wednesday night cut off for TV and radio election ads.
But today, we've gone from the annoying to the ridiculous. Liberal party ads are all over the SMH today, on the very same pages reporting the story about the Libs' Lindsay leaflet scandal.
Even Paul Keating's opinion piece had to compete with the Liberals scare campaign.
But never fear... the Tele is here!
In a shock move(!?), the Daily Telegraph has just announced it will back Kevin Rudd in the election on Saturday, citing John Howard's planned retirement in the middle of his next term as their justification.
"Our three-year terms of Federal Government are short enough without the added downside of the candidate for Prime Minister making a vague promise to walk away at half-way through.
"The 18-month to two year construction Mr Howard has put on his departure is, bluntly, an insult to the voters' collective intelligence."
...like the invasion of Iraq, climate change scepticism, detention centres, the AWB scandal, suspension of the rule of law for Dr Hanif and David Hicks, politicisation of the bureaucracy and the AFP, repeal of civil liberties, work choices (ha ha), excessive government secrecy, (it goes on and on) weren't enough!
But today, we've gone from the annoying to the ridiculous. Liberal party ads are all over the SMH today, on the very same pages reporting the story about the Libs' Lindsay leaflet scandal.
Even Paul Keating's opinion piece had to compete with the Liberals scare campaign.
But never fear... the Tele is here!
In a shock move(!?), the Daily Telegraph has just announced it will back Kevin Rudd in the election on Saturday, citing John Howard's planned retirement in the middle of his next term as their justification.
"Our three-year terms of Federal Government are short enough without the added downside of the candidate for Prime Minister making a vague promise to walk away at half-way through.
"The 18-month to two year construction Mr Howard has put on his departure is, bluntly, an insult to the voters' collective intelligence."
...like the invasion of Iraq, climate change scepticism, detention centres, the AWB scandal, suspension of the rule of law for Dr Hanif and David Hicks, politicisation of the bureaucracy and the AFP, repeal of civil liberties, work choices (ha ha), excessive government secrecy, (it goes on and on) weren't enough!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
How to talk about books you've never read
The economist this week has a review of this book by Pierre Bayard, who argues that "the truly cultivated person is not the one who has read a book, but the one who understands the book's place in our culture." Well... that's not exactly what Bayard wrote, it's just a line from the publisher's blurb, but I think I get the idea. Perhaps I'll get around to reading his book one day...
Either way, it is deeply satisfying to hear someone argue for a more subtle relationship to books than simple consumption.
I've always thought of my relationship with authors I should have read or would like to read to be a kind of flirting (which is Irigaray's term, I believe). I've been flirting with de Beauvoir and Nietzsche for a number of years now. By contrast, I feel I am in a very domesticated relationship with Merleau-Ponty. Reading Husserl, it must be said, and I speak from experience here, is like soliciting a prostitute. The encounter is always very professional, but have no doubt, he will make you pay for it.
To be honest, just thinking about reading Nietzsche is enough to make me feel emasculated; nothing but a herd-like wimp. By contrast, I regularly have enjoyable one night stands with Alphonso Lingis and Michel Foucault.
Ironically, lately it has been a political economist, Michael Albert, and a lawyer, Roberto Unger, who have got my pulse racing. I actually did read all of Albert's book, Parecon, but Unger's heady passion was a little too much, so I had to set aside The Self Awakened for fear of swooning. In the cold light of day, however, I am starting to suspect I may have succumbed to nothing more a childish crush.
This may also explain why I tend to prefer to read minor literary figures. Reading incredibly popular books by Sartre or Heidegger or Zizek, or the classics like Hegel or even Kant, feels a little like getting on the town bike. You can't help but be constantly reminded that everyone has been here before.
At the moment, Bayard is just a pretty thing on the other side of the room. But who knows, he's unlikely to be as disappointing a tumble in the hay as Michel Onfray.
Either way, it is deeply satisfying to hear someone argue for a more subtle relationship to books than simple consumption.
I've always thought of my relationship with authors I should have read or would like to read to be a kind of flirting (which is Irigaray's term, I believe). I've been flirting with de Beauvoir and Nietzsche for a number of years now. By contrast, I feel I am in a very domesticated relationship with Merleau-Ponty. Reading Husserl, it must be said, and I speak from experience here, is like soliciting a prostitute. The encounter is always very professional, but have no doubt, he will make you pay for it.
To be honest, just thinking about reading Nietzsche is enough to make me feel emasculated; nothing but a herd-like wimp. By contrast, I regularly have enjoyable one night stands with Alphonso Lingis and Michel Foucault.
Ironically, lately it has been a political economist, Michael Albert, and a lawyer, Roberto Unger, who have got my pulse racing. I actually did read all of Albert's book, Parecon, but Unger's heady passion was a little too much, so I had to set aside The Self Awakened for fear of swooning. In the cold light of day, however, I am starting to suspect I may have succumbed to nothing more a childish crush.
This may also explain why I tend to prefer to read minor literary figures. Reading incredibly popular books by Sartre or Heidegger or Zizek, or the classics like Hegel or even Kant, feels a little like getting on the town bike. You can't help but be constantly reminded that everyone has been here before.
At the moment, Bayard is just a pretty thing on the other side of the room. But who knows, he's unlikely to be as disappointing a tumble in the hay as Michel Onfray.
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