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Re-evaluating the cultural industries

With the rise of the Internet, ‘creative content’ has become an increasingly debated concept with regard to its nature, availability and legality. Within each of these respects severe changes have been seen which altogether have dealt a significant blow...
By Philip Breek on 09/12/11 1

Live Transmission of Labour Day in Bogota

I attended the processions of 1 May (Labour day) in Colombia. The idea was as follows: At 8 AM, we would all gather on the square to set up the installation, DJ turntables, waterproof tent (it rains a lot),...
By Fei An Tjan on 05/04/11 Comments Off on Live Transmission of Labour Day in Bogota

Nicholas Carr in Amsterdam: “The Net Bombards Us With Distractions”

Last Wednesday, author and journalist Nicholas Carr presented his new book "The Shallows: How the Internet is changing the way we think, read and remember" at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. After his famous 2008 essay "Is Google Making Us...
By Caroline Goralczyk on 03/06/11 3

The BeBook Blues

Last years have been devout to digital publishing and the e-readers. The media made it seem that it was the new big thing and even my mother was considering an iPad. Because I was always annoyed by the enormous...
By Fei An Tjan on 10/18/10 Comments Off on The BeBook Blues

The Ultimate Boycott of Brains?

About the other, less seen, side of Israel: Technology and digital innovation “People of good conscience have chosen to boycott israeli products and companies supporting the zionist entity.” is stated on the Anti-Israël website inminds.com. Such political statements are...
By Elias van Hees on 10/01/10 Comments Off on The Ultimate Boycott of Brains?
Not to get too emotional… but what happened to emotion?

Not to get too emotional… but what happened to emotion?

She' ll smile to you if you move to the left. No, try a different angle. I don't know... Is she smiling at all? For over 500 years, viewers and researchers have been trying to interpret Mona Lisa's...
By Ilektra Pavlaki on 09/28/10 Comments Off on Not to get too emotional… but what happened to emotion?

Internet, Policy and Politics Conference in Oxford

Last week I attended a conference on Internet, Policy and Politics at the OII in Oxford. I was invited to present my paper based on my MA research conducted in Brazil, which I finished a couple of weeks ago.
By ellen sluis on 09/22/10 Comments Off on Internet, Policy and Politics Conference in Oxford
Book review: John Freeman, “The tyranny of e-mail” – The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to your Inbox

Book review: John Freeman, “The tyranny of e-mail” – The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to your Inbox

I ‘ve read once a story about a Japanese man who got married to the virtual girlfriend he dated in a Nintendo DS video game called Love Plus– a wedding blessed by a priest and not a virtual one....
By Ilektra Pavlaki on 09/20/10 Comments Off on Book review: John Freeman, “The tyranny of e-mail” – The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to your Inbox
Book Review: “Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World”

Book Review: “Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World”

Imagine a place where there are no differences among people, everyone is living in a common space where the same language is spoken, borderless communication and free trade is frictionless and the freedom of speech is fully guaranteed. Yes,...
By Caroline Goralczyk on 09/19/10 2

Who do you think you are?

Review: Karin Spaink, Wie is U? Ever had a Déjà vu, the feeling that you have experienced something before? It’s a strange feeling. You can’t exactly explain what it is and where it comes from, but it’s there. You...
By Chris Hoogeveen on 09/15/10 Comments Off on Who do you think you are?
Did Internet Make Me Stupid?

Did Internet Make Me Stupid?

Working in a coffee bar gives me the advantage of having access to many different newspapers. In quiet hours I try to read several articles from at least three newspapers in order to get a more balanced view of...
By Fei An Tjan on 09/13/10 1

Bye Bye, Islam! How the Virtual Space Enhances Anti-Muslim Campaigning

Shoot a mosque and you will earn 2000 points, shoot a Muslim calling for prayer and you are another 1000 points ahead! What sounds like a mere disaster in terms of religious intolerance can now be seen online with...
By Caroline Goralczyk on 09/10/10 2

The Digital Revolution vs. the Cuban Revolution?

‘ since information wants to be free, then so do the people who have it - setting the stage for a titanic political struggle between the last Soviet-style dictatorship in the world and the first Internet insurgency. Call it...
By ellen sluis on 11/11/09 Comments Off on The Digital Revolution vs. the Cuban Revolution?

South Park and the Demise of the Big Other

Unsurprisingly, yet another South Park episode has made the news recently. And as usual, the comments have ranged from praise and approval to shock (and even subtly worded death wishes?). In pure South Park fashion, “Dead Celebrities” is a...
By Nicola Bozzi on 10/12/09 Comments Off on South Park and the Demise of the Big Other

Commercial twitter: or how to get a lot from a little

Almost every new media form undergoes different levels of different uses. Some new media is invented with a certain goal, take for instance a heavily used tool for communication as internet. This medium was invented in order to establish...
By Thomas Fonville on 10/11/09 Comments Off on Commercial twitter: or how to get a lot from a little

We don’t need to read your blog to review it. And you don’t need to write it.

It all started by doing what every active internet user does once in a while: egosurfing (or something like that, I wasn’t looking for my own blog – this one here – but for the one I work for)....
By Nicola Bozzi on 10/04/09 1

From Metaphysics to Metadata
Jorge Luis Borges, tagging, and social networks

In his short story Tlön, Uqbar, Orbius Tertius the argentinian writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges imagined a place with a completely different perception of reality than ours. In Tlön "the prime unit is not the verb, but the monosyllabic...
By Nicola Bozzi on 09/28/09 Comments Off on From Metaphysics to Metadata
Jorge Luis Borges, tagging, and social networks

No.1 Social Networking Site: The Web

When discussing social networking sites and social networking as a phenomenon, why do we only mention websites like Facebook, MySpace, Hyves, etc? The web itself is a social networking tool down to its core. When the internet was created,...
By Niels de Hoog on 09/26/09 Comments Off on No.1 Social Networking Site: The Web

Speaking Hedberg to Italians

“I saw a commercial on late night TV, it said, ‘Forget everything you know about slipcovers!’ So I did. It was a load off my mind! Then the commercial tried to sell me slipcovers, but I didn’t know what...
By Nicola Bozzi on 09/21/09 Comments Off on Speaking Hedberg to Italians

Book review of “Against The Machine – Being Human In The Age Of The Electronic Mob” by Lee Siegel

Lee Siegel was born in New York in 1957 and has Bachelor, Master and Master of Philosophy degrees from Columbia University. While working as a staff writer at The New Republic, an American magazine on politics and the arts,...
By Maarten Hoogvliet on 09/17/09 Comments Off on Book review of “Against The Machine – Being Human In The Age Of The Electronic Mob” by Lee Siegel

Review of Re-Inventing Radio – Aspects of Radio as Art

The conference '100 years of radio' in 2006 which was an collaboration between the Ludwig Botzmann Institute Media.Art.Research, Linz, Austria and Kunstradio became a key point of departure for the realization of the book where media theory, art history...
By Charlotte van Brakel on 09/15/09 Comments Off on Review of Re-Inventing Radio – Aspects of Radio as Art

Book Review of Cyber Racism – Jessie Daniels, 2009

I realize the commonly held view that abortion is murder and that white women should be having children instead of aborting them. However, black women are much more likely to have abortions than white women. (...) Those fetuses that...
By ellen sluis on 09/12/09 Comments Off on Book Review of Cyber Racism – Jessie Daniels, 2009

New Vision’s Vision Revealed

For the first time since travelled to Uganda for my research, I woke up with a purpose. I was invited to attend the editorial meeting at the New Vision Newspaper to meet all journalists. Editorial meetings take place every...
By Ali Balunywa on 04/27/09 1
First impressions on ICT in Kampala

First impressions on ICT in Kampala

On the plane from Cairo to Kampala I met a young Ugandan guy of 19 years old who just flew back from a tennis match in Egypt. He was a real cosmopolitan; he had traveled already all over the...
By Guido van Diepen on 04/15/09 7