Accept no substitutes

Category: Virtual Communities (Page 14 of 20)

Links and notes from JOMC 191.8 Virtual Communities

International Talk-like-a-pirate Day! Monday

International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Avast, mateys! International Talk Like a Pirate Day sits on the horizon like a drunken parrot. Awk! Arrg! Thar she be lessen a fortnight away! Monday September 19!

Prepare with these great ibiblio resources these songs, this book, this book, and The Queen of Pirate Island and this ship.

And check out this great Blackbeard site.

Bones in the Paris Catacomb Photo from the Catacombs of Paris (WebMuseum) by Craig A. Merriman.

And use this non-ibiblio resource for your typing (thanks to Greg Cox).

Will elections bring community Wifi to Chapel Hill

I wrote about seeing international teleconferencing at Carrboro’s Weaver Street Market last Saturday. This was made possible by Carrboro’s commuity wireless program.
Although UNC spreads wireless across parts of downtown Chapel Hill, that mesh is restricted to UNC id holders. If a business wanted to contribute as Weaver Street does in Carrboro they can’t even help out.
But Orange Politics is having a lively discussion on bringing community wifi to Chapel Hill. Jim Protzman’s initial post which sees community wifi as a way to get at the digital divide has caught up current candidates for office in the discussion. One interesting thing to note is the wide range in the political spectrum of the candidates supporting community wifi represent.
There is some opposition but the way the discussion is going gives me hope.

Katrina events locally

After my own very busy day that included phone conferences, dean conferences, IBM grant presentations, I’m taking time to think about how this community has tried to reach out to the Katrina victims.
Maple View Ice Cream had to quit serving ice cream (all sales go to benefit…) because the demand for ice cream and the urge to help was so great that their scooping employees were completely worn out.
Kids were selling cookies at Weaver Street on the Lawn.
Three kids from Duke took a road trip. Faked some press ids and snuck into N’wleans where they used a boat to rescue at least seven people who had been stranded.
Several hundred people flew into town in the last 48 hours and people here are doing their best to make them feel at ease (if not at home).
Then there are the many UNC campus responses to Katrina.
And that’s only a small sample of how people are trying to connect and to help out.

International and Local

Whilst sitting at Weaver Street Market this morning, I noticed — couldn’t help but notice really — a young woman with a wireless laptop which had a small video conferencing camera attached. She was talking to her computer loudly as anyone who is indiscreet on a cell phone might talk in public or maybe louder. I think that she thought that language was providing some sort of privacy for her. She was speaking Chinese. Suddenly she stood up and holding the computer, she spun slowly around describing the scene revealed behind her. After that area around her table, including my table, had been aired, she turned the camera away from herself and began to walk into the store chatting away as she walked. I could see her passing the various vegetables and fruit inside pausing at various bins. Then I lost sight. But soon she was back at the table talking away. I don’t know which video conferencing program she was using. I didn’t ask. I do know that she was on the Carrboro Town Wireless Network and that she seemed very happy to be sharing her experiences with someone somewhere else who also spoke Chinese.
In so many ways this was the perfect Carrboro moment. Local, international, public, private, relaxed and intense.

Green Dazed

Green Day’s show was not only about professionalism (despite being a punk band, well sorta in the beginning) and spectacle (flames, lights, confetti, water, etc) but also about audience involvement. From posting SMS messages to projected screens (yes ours got posted) to pulling audience members on stage to form an impromptu band with chants, waves, call response and rushes toward the crowd inbetween.
preshow – phone pix and sms messages from the crowd posted on screens
jimmy eat world – okay and energetic
giant pink rabbit – okay, not giant just some one is a rabbit suit teasing the crowd with small pink rabbit toys and dancing to the Village People’s YMCA then disolving into the Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop That Ho-Hi-Let’s Go would recur throughout the night.
American Idiot – many better set lists on the net which i will find in a bit
Jesus of Suburbia
Holiday
Saint Jimmy

Shout in the best James Brown style disolving into Stand By Me then back to Shout
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Minority

Maria
Blvd of Broken Dreams
Cover of Queen’s We are the Champions
Time of Your Life

[more to be said later — off to meeting]

Google Talk Lives

Google Talk Logo
Just what I needed another messenger service, but here I am as smalljones (same as my Gmail address). I need buddies to test it out, so drop me a note there — not Gmail but Google Talk. It supports numerous clients including GAIM, iChat, and Psi. See the Google Talk pages for set up info. There is also a custom Google Talk client for Windows.
Note: The audio portion of GTalk only works with the official Google Talk client for Windows.
Rumor: Is Google Talk a prelude to Google buying Skype?
Note: iChat to iChat using the Google Talk server (not the client) supports audio chat.

ibiblio-mania various

Besides the SlashDot article posted below, ibiblio has received some other very good and varied attention in the past few hours.

Rain and Netscape IPO

August in Chapel Hill is usually dry. I recall several summers in the past decades when we were under water restrictions. Today we are simply under water. When I walked in this morning, water wasn’t rushing out of the grates; it was shooting up out of the grates! I had on a poncho and was carrying an umbrella but from the knees down I was soaked. Megan reports that Franklin Street was/is flooded down toward Panzanella (and the Wicked Burrito).

This week is the 10th anniversary of the Netscape IPO. Some people are claiming that should be the anniversary of the Internet or the Web, but of course things were longer in the making than that. Kevin Kelly has a good essay in Wired this month on the subject with an amusing projection into the next decade.

Orange County Elections Resourses

Ruby Sinreich and the folks at Orange Politics has created not only the best discussion forum about local politics at the main OP.org site, but also other very useful resources on their special elections page. Besides the candidate lists (with links to websites/blogs), there is information about filings and about registering to vote.

My favorite is Corey Reece’s Dynamic Election Map of Orange County, North Cackalacky made using the Google Maps API which pinpoints the registered residencies of all of the candidates. Corey has added RSS-fed recent articles from each candidate’s site (that make use of RSS).

Blog Teach-in – Saturday July 30 noon – 2

MisterSugar alerts us to A significant community event:

  • What: Chapel Hill BlogTogether Teach-in
  • When: Saturday, July 23, 2005, 12 noon to 2 p.m.
  • Where: UNC-CH Health Sciences Library Biogen Idec Classroom.
    Park in the UNC Hospitals parking deck, or find free street parking in the area. The Health Sciences Library is on Columbia St. near the intersection with Manning. Directions.
  • For anyone who wants one-on-one help becoming a blogger
  • For new bloggers who want one-on-one help improving their blog or making the most of their blogware

Download this poster [pdf] for more information.
RSVP to anton@blogtogether.org or 919.225.0969.

Folkstreams documentary site – survey

Our IMLS funded initiative to build up the collection of films streaming from the Folkstreams.net site is going full steam ahead.

We’re up to 36 films online now including a great one on herbalist and healer Tommy Bass

At the time of his death in 1996, “Tommie” Bass, was probably the most well-known herbalist in the United States. The subject of scholarly and popular books, television features, a front-page essay in the Wall Street Journal, and numerous articles in newspapers and magazines, Tommie Bass lived his entire life in the Ridge and Valley region of Alabama where he devoted himself to “trying to give ease” to the many people who sought his advice.. “Tommie Bass” is a biographical portrait of Mr. Bass, told almost entirely in his own words.

Painted Bride

This 1990 video features the exquisite mehndi body painting tradition as it is practiced among Pakistani immigrants living in Queens, New York City. The film follows a mehndi artist, Shenaz Hooda, as she prepares a henna paste and paints intricate designs on the hands and feet of a bride-to-be, while the bride’s friends sing humorous songs mocking the groom and the future in-laws.

Sadobabies: Runaways in San Francisco

A 1988 8mm video documentary about the street children of San Francisco. The video documents the expressive traditions of a group of young runaways who formed an alternative family in an abandoned high school building near Golden Gate Park. Shot in an urban setting with a “one-person crew,” Sadobabies demonstrates small-format, low-budget production.

And many others.

When you visit the site, be sure to fill out our simple and fast survey.

Occupation: Dreamland (Sept 17)

Going to coffee can result in getting a lot of work done quickly. Not just because I become caffine-charged. Because I meet folks that I need to talk with. Today as I was wondering how to get the mini-conference and discussions about the documentary Occupation: Dreamland going I ran into two of the people that are essential to making that a success.

Briefly about Occupation: Dreamland. It’s a soldier-focused documentary about men in the 82nd Airborne in Iraq.

The official word says:

Occupation: Dreamland is an unflinchingly candid portrait of a squad of American soldiers deployed in the doomed Iraqi city of Falluja during the winter of 2004. A tense and grimly humorous study of the soldiers unfolds as they patrol an environment of low-intensity conflict creeping steadily towards catastrophe. Through the squad’s activities Occupation: Dreamland provides a vital glimpse into the last days of Falluja. The film documents the city’s waning stability before a final series of military assaults began in the spring of 2004 that effectively destroyed it.

Occupation: Dreamland chronicles the escalating tension between its two main characters: the squad and the city. Beholden as they are to differing languages and worldviews the two antagonists collide repeatedly. A distinct sense of unease grows as the chain of misunderstanding and distrust tightens. Daylight patrols on bustling downtown streets turn from casual conversation to brief, confusing firefights while nighttime raids reveal a local populace caught in the middle. The narrative follows a downward spiral of civil destabilization and personal frustration, borne by individuals trapped on both sides.

Filmmakers Garrett Scott and Ian Olds were given access to all operations of the Army’s 82nd Airborne. They lived with the unit 24/7, giving voice to soldiers held under a strict code of authority as they cope with an ambiguous, often lethal environment. The result is a revealing, sometimes surprising look at Army life, operations and the complexity of American war in the 21st century.

First, I ran into Bill Balthrop who is just done being Chairman of Communication Studies and is a specialist in rhetoric and cultural practice. Bill and I will be co-sponsors of the mini-conference. He knows more about all the issues than I ever will and others in his department like Cori Dauber (especially) will make a big difference in the quality of what we can set up. Full steam ahead here!

Next, I ran into Tom Rankin who is director of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke. We have a couple of Tom’s films online as part of the Folkstreams.net project. Tom’s Center was just involved in an NPR production called “Married to the Military.” Obviously we want to work together on the mini-conference.

Net.independence (NYTimes bidnez)

Today’s NYTimes Business Section is full of stories, seemingly unrelated in some cases, about how the net is opening up new opportunities for involvement in news, entertainment and other areas of communication. Among the articles is the center cover about citizen journalism featuring the Greensboro News and Record (with great image of their front page), an article on podcasting (there have been several over the past few days), an article about legal movie downloads, an article on AOL and Live 8 and the remaking of AOL to be less of a gated community, an opinion piece that says that whatever the Supreme Court decided about file sharing it will not change behaviors — this is supported by quotes from Hilary Rosen, and that’s just what I remember just now.
The common link between the articles is not just the net, but the social use of the net and the demands placed on our commercial structures by the people using the net. Will they get on the cluetrain or has it already left their station?

BitTorrent @ ibiblio (Osprey)

John Reuning and TJ have been working hard at getting torrent.ibiblio.org set up. This is the central site for getting bittorrent downloads of material from ibiblio. What Osprey, the software that drives torrent.ibiblio.org, adds to BitTorrent is a perma-seed so that there is always a seeded torrent available of the listed material from our tracker and structured and managed metadata to allow you to understand what is in each torrent.

The site will allow ibiblio contributors to create, describe and manage their own torrents and will allow folks who want to get material from ibiblio an easy way to find the material and a reliable way to get a torrent going in case the material is suddenly highly in demand.

The goal is to make ibiblio torrents easy to install, easy to discover, reliable, authoratative and accountable — and of course legal.
Among the existing torrents are videos of talks given by Larry Lessig (1998), Eben Moglen (2001), Roblimo (aka Robin Miller), Cory Doctorow (2004), Doc Searls (2004), Dan Gillmor (2005) and others, DVD images of all of Project Gutenberg, Eclipse tools, rpath Linux, Fedora Linux,

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