Masters of Media

Nietzsches aphorism as a new web tool

Nietzsche was known for his fondness of aforisme. Using the fewest words for the finest thoughts. This distinctive style of using aphorisms intrigued me. Nietzsche uses rhetorical violence to overthrow and seduce the readers of his work. Within Web...

By Rikus Wegman on 10/15/07 3

The art of abusing the possibilities of collaboration

A few days ago I read a remarkable story in the paper about the readers of an infamous and rebelious website/blog called Geenstijl that was able to mess with the election of the best Dutch slogan ever that was...

By Pieter-Paul Walraven on 10/15/07 1

Accountability Online

Is decision-making on the internet more democratic, less hierarchical than in the ‘real world’? Is structure needed in collaboration? In the ‘real world’ there is a general consensus about this: In any kind of management, be it the board...

By Felicia Plijter on 10/15/07 Comments Off

Second life: a utopian project gone bad

Of course, we all know Second life, any many writings already exist. Mostly on how incredible and promising this open-source-collaborative online community-building actually is. To see in what ways these terms hold any value nowadays, I logged into Second...

By Tjerk Timan on 10/14/07 2

XS4ALL, internet access towards disabled people

Currently, I am nosing around in the subject of “Internet Accessibility” (IA in short) in preparation to my master thesis. By IA, I am thinking in two categories: (1) accessibility for people who are experiencing visual- /motorial- or geographical...

By Bas Bisseling on 10/14/07 Comments Off

Evil Google: A slave’s accusation?

Calling Google "evil" might just be the fashion of the day. We could also argue it to be a perfect example of Nietzsche's slave morality.

By Raoul Siepers on 10/14/07 Comments Off

Skype alternatives

One of the great things about web 2.0 is making free phone calls to friends all over the world. Just turn on one of the programs that offer this service, make sure your friend is online too, and make...

By Laura van der Vlies on 10/13/07 14

A dent in the stock market of technology?

Google, Apple, Yahoo others of the technological part of the economy, suffered big losses on the stock market yesterday (de Volkskrant, 12/10/07). Whereas in the begining of the week their stock value went up they were now influenced by...

By Felicia Plijter on 10/12/07 Comments Off

Announcement: new Masters of Media blog!

The masters of media blog is redesigned and updated! Since the beginning of this semester the masters of media v 2.0 have been posting on this blog. A new group of masters also needs a fresh new look. In...

By Esther Weltevrede on 10/12/07 10

Nietzsche on …

Nietzsche on Wikipedia: Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind. It is not when truth is dirty, but when...

By Erik Borra on 10/11/07 1

(Un)common Ground Video Presentations: For everyone who is into New Media, Culture and Design

For everyone who is into New Media, Culture and Design (or just one or two of these…) there are videos online of Virtueel Platform and HKU’s previous (Un)common Ground expert meeting which was held during Picnic ’07. Topics range...

By Twan Eikelenboom on 10/11/07 Comments Off

New Media Nietzsche

In an attempt to grasp and theorize all that is happening in the new media landscape, one method can be to project a philosophers’ philosophy onto a new media phenomenon and see what happens. Amongst the many theories and...

By Tjerk Timan on 10/11/07 Comments Off

Everyone’s Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship

The Citizen Lab has just released “Everyone’s Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship for Citizens Worldwide” (pdf). This guide is intended for the non-technical user, providing tips and strategies on how to by-pass content filters worldwide. It is now in...

By Erik Borra on 10/11/07 1

Ignis Solus

In this little machinima movie, Valve shows of their new rendering style in the upcoming game Team Fortress 2. The cool thing about it is that it almost looks like a genuine Pixar short. But everything you see is...

By Maarten van Sprang on 10/10/07 3

Mobile phone makes the sovereign man? Analyzing citizen journalism with Nietzsche in mind

Nietzsche’s criticism of the mass culture emerged along with the rise of popular literature, journalism, and the modern press. With the explosive rise of weblogs, mobile devices, and online video, traditional journalism has been contested and challenged by a...

By Qilan Zhao on 10/10/07 Comments Off

Making the Spinplant Relevant: more from Friedrich Nietzsche

<update> See bottom of the post and the comments </ update> About a week ago there was a small-scale furor on this blog and a Nettime-NL thread surrounding the spinplant. Laura (one of the very creative members of this...

By Michael Stevenson on 10/09/07 24

Pingback Spam, Popularity and Protecting Investments

This blog is a real magnet for pingback spam lately. While I’d like to take it as a sign of our growing popularity, that would be like being flattered by calls from telemarketers. Also, it probably says more about...

By Michael Stevenson on 10/09/07 9

YOU have become Nietzsche’s Madman

Is Nietzsche’s Madman not a parable that is still appliable to the world of today? Let’s have a look and see for ourselves; —-Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours,...

By Minke Kampman on 10/09/07 Comments Off

Cold war in RIA-land

Web 2.0 gave the old web a brand new face, and with that, it added cultural and technological changes. Cultural change in the form of weblogging and social networking/bookmarking, technological in the form of User Generated Content and Rich...

By Maarten van Sprang on 10/09/07 Comments Off

Nietzsche’s Blog

“A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends” This quote applied to current weblogs/ blogculture what would be Nietzsche’s philosophical view on this web2.0 experience? Assuming this statement, would he approve...

By Felicia Plijter on 10/09/07 1