Masters of Media

The local Web, continued

Placeblogger brings together blogs based on their location. Personally, I really am looking forward to aggregators like this one taking off. Maybe they will change how we perceive the blogosphere (i.e. beyond terms of A-list bloggers and the Long...

By Michael Stevenson on 01/02/07 Comments Off

Damn Small Linux – Linux on a USB stick

This article (that is in Dutch) explains how you can turn your own USB stick into a linux mini desktop. It has a step by step plan to place a small programme, called DSL on your USB stick, so...

By Heleen on 01/02/07 1

Smart Clothes: the hug shirt

The Hug Shirt has been nominated as one of the best Inventions of 2006 by Time Magazine! How does it work? The Hug Shirt is a Bluetooth accessory for Java enabled mobile phones. Hug shirts don’t have any assigned...

By Heleen on 12/30/06 Comments Off

Podcast: Discussing Henry Jenkins’ “Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers”

In this Podcast I will be giving a last minute Christmas gift recommendation. TUNE IN HERE

By Roman Tol on 12/24/06 6

Guide de la Netpolitique (Libération, 12-20-2005)

In 2007 the French will elect a new president. The French newspaper Libération offers a practical guide to net politics.

By Jan Simons on 12/22/06 Comments Off

Artists Give Community Something To Talk About

Rhizome | Rhizome News Email Rhizome News December 22, 2006 Artists Give Community Something To Talk About The People Speak is a London-based collection utilizing and ‘updating’ various communication techniques to facilitate exchange among residents of the city. They...

By Jan Simons on 12/22/06 Comments Off

Cyberkoelies

Cyberkoelies Floris-Jan van Luyn en Edwin Verstegen, VPRO A documentary about the contradictions and tensions of modernisation and globalisation in China. Young people leave the country side and wind up as low wage substitute World of Warcraft players for...

By Jan Simons on 12/22/06 4

Message from Teheran

A happy Psiphon user from Teheran, Iran wrote the following: Wow cool! Dank je wel, ik ga het direct proberen. Dit kan me echt helpen. Oh ja mijn stiefbroer heeft een server in NL, die staat altijd aan. Zou...

By Tom Roes on 12/20/06 1

New Radio Course at Mediastudies

The Mediastudies Department of the University of Amsterdam will be starting a new master studying the age old medium of radio. Campus TV interviewed the initiator, Frank van Vree. http://www.campus.tv/index.php?action=showmovie&movieid=331

By Tom Roes on 12/19/06 Comments Off

Person of the Year 2006: You!

Person of the Year: You Yes, you. You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world. By Lev Grossman The “Great Man” theory of history is usually attributed to the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who wrote that “the history...

By Jan Simons on 12/18/06 1

Crash Course On Computer Design

En 1998, l’iMac d’Apple met de la couleur dans le monde gris de l’informatique. ARTE F (10) L’iMac En 1998, l’iMac d’Apple met de la couleur dans le monde gris de l’informatique. Ovoïde, translucide et coloré : à sa...

By Jan Simons on 12/17/06 Comments Off

Flash Mobs in the age of mobile connectivity

Since we didn’t have enough time yesterday to do all the presentations, I will give you a summary of the article on flash mobs by Judith Nicholson (2005). What is a flash mob? According to a definition by the...

By Eva Kol on 12/15/06 Comments Off

Security and Privacy in 2030; two scenarios for the future

In this interesting research the university of Tilburg describes two scenarios of security and privacy for the future in the Netherlands. The research has been done in request of the Department of Domestic Affairs and it shows two extreme,...

By Heleen on 12/15/06 Comments Off

Leading Surveillance societies

And here’s yet another reason why we should all move to Belgium…. or consider moving to Germany! I wanted to show this chart yesterday in class, during our discussion of Philip Agre’s article “Surveillance and capture: Two models of...

By Heleen on 12/15/06 1

Bio Mapping

Bio Mapping is a research project which explores new ways that we as individuals can make use of the information we can gather about our own bodies. Instead of security technologies that are designed to control our behaviour, this...

By Heleen on 12/15/06 Comments Off

Personalized advertizing on mobile TV

Last Wednesday December 13th BBC’s Newnight had an item about personalized advertizing on mobile tv. You can find it here

By Jan Simons on 12/15/06 Comments Off

The networked book: GAM3R 7H30RY & Code Version 2.0

Writing a book online and facilitating a discussion around it seems to be very popular these days. McKenzie Wark is working on GAM3R 7H30RY which will be published by Harvard University Press in April 2007, and it will contain...

By Anne Helmond on 12/11/06 4

Where The Hell Is Matt?

I don’t know about you, but this makes me quite jealous… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNF_P281Uu4 Matt is a 29-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames. He achieved...

By Tom Roes on 12/09/06 2

BBC article on remote access

You don’t need your computer to, y’know, use your computer. Surely there are some nice hacks for this that allow people to get around firewalls and censorware.. Link By the way, if you look at the article, take note...

By Michael Stevenson on 12/09/06 Comments Off

Off-Screen presents: A day out of the life of a Game Researcher (dec 13)

Off-Screen presents: A day out of the life of a Game Researcher, an analysis of the moral panic surrounding games. This wednesday Off-Screen, the student board (?) of Mediastudies at the UvA organizes a David Nieborg lecture for people...

By Tom Roes on 12/08/06 Comments Off

Public Authoring – from the margins to the centre – Virtueel Platform Workshop with Giles Lane

A N N O U N C E M E N T Public Authoring – from the margins to the centre Virtueel Platform Workshop with Giles Lane, 13th December 2006 at the Digital Heritage Conference 2006 – Interactive Heritage...

By Heleen on 12/07/06 Comments Off

The Simpsons understand

“If only we’d known that iPods would unite and overthrow the very humans they entertained…” From The Plastic Bag

By Michael Stevenson on 12/07/06 6

Peeping with Google

In addition to Heleen’s list of interesting locative media websites: you might have come across the article in De Volkskrant of December 7th that reported how easy it is to search for webcams through Google. Many webcams are, of...

By Jan Simons on 12/07/06 3

Homeless in Second Life

A while back I promised to become the first bum on second life, but it seems someone has beat me to it. The NGO Mensajeros de la Paz has created a homeless, teenage avatar to raise awareness (and money?)...

By Michael Stevenson on 12/05/06 5