New Media M.A. Research Blog | Media Studies, University of Amsterdam

An Analysis of Web 2.0: ‘YouTube’

Introduction Web 2.0 is a term describing changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. In short, Web 2.0 emphasizes the...

By Ali Balunywa on 09/21/08 1

‘Wiktionary’ and the Limitations of Collaborative Sites

Wiktionary is probably one of the oddest projects currently run by the Wikimedia Foundation. Started in 2002, it is a free and open dictionary working on the collaborative content creation model of Wikipedia. It currently boasts more than 900,000 lemmata for both English and French,...

By on 09/20/08 3

Surf Around the World! An Analysis of ‘couchsurfing.com’

Couchsurfing is a non profit organisation based primarely on volunteers and donations. It is a site for people who want to meet new people and travel cheap. The site only works because there are mostly non opportunistic people on there,...

By Dorris de Heij on 09/20/08 Comments Off

Review: Technology and the Rural Youth – A Surprising Journey with a Sociologist Through Morocco

Author: Fatima Mernissi Original Text: 2004 Pages 240 Published in Italian and Dutch Stereotype 1: Changes are most seen in the central part of Morrocco than in the more rural regions....

By Ben White on 09/15/08 4

Book Review: “Software Studies: a Lexicon”

In June this year MIT Press released ‘Software Studies: a lexicon’, edited by Matthew Fuller and consisting of 38 contributors (couting by texts) ranging from ‘computer scientists, artists, designers, cultural theorists, programmers, and others from a range of disciplines...

By Marijn de Vries Hoogerwerff on 09/15/08 1

Digital Media and Democracy. “Bush Bashing in Academia”

Digital Media and Democracy

By Wouter Dijkstra on 09/15/08 Comments Off on Digital Media and Democracy. “Bush Bashing in Academia”

Book review: “The Rise of the Blogosphere”, by Aaron Barlow

Ali Balunywa 13 september 2008 “The rise of the Blogosphere”, a book by Aaron Barlow was published in 2007 by Praeger publishers. It is a hard cover book in which Aaron in very interesting prose takes the...

By Ali Balunywa on 09/15/08 1

13 Positions (Book review)

Also see the complete 13 Positions’ review here “Hi! This is the autonomous Opera Telephone of the City of Zurich. For your pleasure and entertainment, we have placed a bug in the Zurich Opera House. In a few seconds you...

By Alejandro Ortega Lozano on 09/14/08 Comments Off on 13 Positions (Book review)

…Imagine This is a Review. Thoughts on: ‘Style First’ by Mieke Gerritzen

In her paperback Style First, graphic artist Mieke Gerritzen directly addresses and confuses the reader by stating that ‘...this book provides no final definition of what style is about.' Containing articles written by media theorists as well as...

By Heleen Kerkman on 09/14/08 Comments Off on …Imagine This is a Review. Thoughts on: ‘Style First’ by Mieke Gerritzen

GOTO80, STU en Computadora on tour in Netherlands

\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ The famous label Bleepstreet is back on its feet, which means there will be 5 very interesting concerts this week. Bleepstreet Records...

By Rosa Menkman on 09/13/08 Comments Off on GOTO80, STU en Computadora on tour in Netherlands

Book Review Volume: Destination Library

Book review Volume: Destination Library This edition of Volume is all about the future of libraries. Guided by editors Rem Koolhaas, Mark Wigley and Arjen Oosterman the nice thing about this book-magazine is that the subject is adressed from so many different fields...

By Dorris de Heij on 09/13/08 2

25 New Media Researchers Invited to Attend PICNIC’08

Would you like to attend the PICNIC conference, but your university refuses to finance your ticket unless you are the keynote speaker? If you are an academic researcher, scientist, or all-round investigator we have exactly 25 passe partout tickets...

By Anne Helmond on 09/12/08 Comments Off on 25 New Media Researchers Invited to Attend PICNIC’08

Augmenting Your View on Reality with an Internet Phone

See the vid from tonchidot.com:

By Erik Borra on 09/11/08 Comments Off on Augmenting Your View on Reality with an Internet Phone

The state of the Internet: For all you stat-lovers out there!

Background statistics for the internet are kind of hard to come by, mostly, they are kept in the iron vaults of the upperclass Internet companies, but Akamai (responsible for 20 procent of internet traffic) put out a very worthwhile...

By Twan Eikelenboom on 07/01/08 4

Vriendjespolitiek.net: research into post-demographics

Since 1998, and on paper since 1989 (Stemwijzer 2008), general elections in the Netherlands have spawned a variety of so called voting recommendation machines. These systems typically ask the user to answer some questions after which they offer the...

By Erik Borra on 06/11/08 1

*Updated* Hyves Pulls Plug on Student Projects After Waag Society Event

((Looks like a possible false alarm, please see update below)) Online social network Hyves has blocked access to the profiles pages for unregistered users. Now one has to be registered and logged in to view a Hyver's full profile,...

By Michael Stevenson on 05/22/08 3

Social Network Saturation Indeed

A colleague of mine sent me this funny and very true vid. It’s funny how the positioning and target groups of the different SN’s is translated into characters. Check it out!

By Pieter-Paul Walraven on 05/20/08 Comments Off on Social Network Saturation Indeed

Mark Deuze on Media Work

Mark Deuze, professor of Journalism and New Media at Leiden University and assistant professor at Indiana University, was the latest speaker in the ongoing New Media Research Lecture Series...

By Michael Stevenson on 05/17/08 Comments Off on Mark Deuze on Media Work

POLITICS: WEB 2.0 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Written for the Institute of Network Cultures Crossposted at Institute of Network Cultures Weblog Download PDF (full text including pictures) On April 17th and 18th 2008 the department of Politics and International Relations at the Royal Holloway University of...

By Roman Tol on 05/13/08 1

Uncontemporary Media Theory: a Course Outline Manifesto

Amsterdam, May 2008 By Michael Stevenson, Rosa Menkman, Jasper Moes, Erinc Salor and Esther Weltevrede (MA mediastudies, University of Amsterdam) with Geert Lovink Bruce Sterling's Dead Media Project, now expired, was on to something. In the rush to discover and...

By Michael Stevenson on 05/05/08 Comments Off on Uncontemporary Media Theory: a Course Outline Manifesto

e-fashion salon @ Mediamatic

efashion-day @ mediamatic. 17th of april, 2008. After an introduction on Elfriendo, Leah Buechley gave a presentation on computational textiles or e-textiles. Buechley defines these as handcrafted, personal computers. She starts with showing the work of Nikki S Lee...

By Laura van der Vlies on 04/18/08 Comments Off on e-fashion salon @ Mediamatic

“De onwankelbare”, a report from an opera

Today I went and saw a new opera from the hands of Lars Boom (who also writes for Endemol), Marcel Sijm and Caroline Ansink, conducted by Jussi Jaatinen. Now, I don’t consider myself an opera person, but I was...

By Tijmen Schep on 04/12/08 Comments Off on “De onwankelbare”, a report from an opera

Barack Obama: social media vs. institutional endorsement

A youtube clip:

By Roman Tol on 04/10/08 Comments Off on Barack Obama: social media vs. institutional endorsement

On Spheres and Media Theory

In a tutorial by Geert Lovink on German Media Theory we read German uncontemporary media theorists. Klaus Theweleit’s Male Fantasies Volume I and Male Fantasies Volume II, Elias Canetti’s Crowds and Power and Friedrich Kittler’s Gramophone, Film, Typewriter was...

By Esther Weltevrede on 04/06/08 2