NetDynam 2.0

i think this deserves to be shown to a potentially wider audience, especially since it supports my own ideas, and also has a few comments in which links to other lists also appear. the article, in Slate ‘magazine’, is called The joy of mailing lists, and well worth a read…

[a slightly rant-like post, with inspiration from some of our more outlandish and nauseating local public speakers and spruikers, e.g. alan bond, piers ackerman, miranda devine, and andrew bolt ]

recently i lamented on the list that the majority of us in the land of oz were not likely to put up much complaint other than complaint itself when government and/or big business threaten to take over our lives or encroach on civil liberties, our so-called ‘rights’ to privacy and so on. i mean in the light of “the threat of terrorism” (now that “communism” does not hold us all in its thrall of scaredydom), the previous govt here put sniffer dogs on the streets. they also prevented people from publicly expressing their disapproval of bush coming to town, spending many of our tax dollars on enormous surveillance cameras in downtown sydney – for our own protection of course. meanwhile, people line up at hospitals to be seen, and the river systems on which we all depend for something we can’t do without are being sucked dry… for me, govt promises of “we will cut taxes” has a hollow ring to it, when they spend the taxes i would willingly give, on items that do not benefit anyone except those who have enough income to avoid paying what they should in the first place… and i say the ability to control and survey the media, and other means of public and private communication does not benefit the public in any way.
to me, there will always be criminals – but it depends on who makes the laws as to who or what acts are deemed as ‘criminal’. i would rather put up with petty criminals and burglars (which btw i may not need to put up with if 1) smack was supplied by govt, 2) poor or unemployed people were given a place to live and a living income, and 3) advertisers were not paid as much by rich companies to entice us to desire and think we need more crap in order to make us feel better about ourselves) than the big corporate criminals and government criminals who sometimes indirectly are allowed to get away with murder, or at least a whole pile of booty earned off the back of their poor gullible workers who dutifully complain when their company cannot employ them anymore since they cannot make enough profit off them to enable their profligate and eminently enviable lifestyles to continue in the manner to which they’ve become accustomed.

but then those with the wherewithal – either in brains, aesthetic skills, or financial backing – are occasionally called upon to show their cards. and right on cue, after me saying we are not about to do anything down here.. well one of us has flown the coop to do his crowing, over to europe and various bunkers (such as iceland) i don’t doubt… julian assange thinks it about time to release a whole pile of documents to the media. just to see what they will make of it. naturally, he didn’t give them to the SMH (sydney morning herald), but the SMH had to get in on some of the act, and have posted a mashed-up video with some editorial comment by the ed. see this video article from today’s SMH for example for the local take on the matter.

but probably better to check out the guardian UK who have a video of assange defending his decision to release the documents.

here is thewikileaks link posted previously on netdynam – but i’m guessing maybe you won’t be able to get a service there for a while…

and now, today, dick smith, notable self-proclained capitalist, entrepreneur and start-up businessman responsible for dick smith electronics stores nationwide…. uses his spare cash for amusing (to me) advertisements in the local murdoch press…

it’s on another matter, content-wise, but it is another approach to the “what’s to be done” lament i often intone…

here’s a well-researched and lengthy article examining the issue of privacy, and the legalities surrounding the matter of ‘identity’ in the digital age – starting with instances of employers using online searches to determine whether or not employees should keep their jobs, or even be employed in the first place. alerted to this on the email list by one of our old hands, and well worth the read.

the discussion in the article is based on the fact that we have the ability now to keep permanent records of everything everyone has ever posted or written on the internet. the article also deals with the potential of web3.0 to search and find almost anything anyone might wish to track…using new technologies such as face recognition for example….

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html

this will only work on thursday afternoon i suspect, between 1.30 and 2.50pm vancouver time, but thought i’d try embedding it here anyway as a test.

the URL and blurb is pasted underneath the embed as well. the link takes you to the vid page and from there you can link back to the congress site and abstracts of the plenary speakers as well.

usually we try to go to the annual SFL gabfest and cult meeting, but pecuniary disadvantage prevented us this year.

Live streaming video by Ustream

Greetings from ISFC 37!

I’m writing to let you know that on Thursday afternoon 22nd July, 1.30 – 2.55, Vancouver time, the discussion in the interactive session at the Congress will be audiostreamed through the web. The session will involve the plenary speakers (except for Terrence Deacon, who has to return to Berkeley early after giving a brilliant plenary this morning).

The link to access the streaming is:

http://dlc5.lled.educ.ubc.ca/ISFC_interactive_session/

We have also arranged 5 digital, multilingual chat rooms, in which people at the congress will comment on the interaction for listeners in Brazil (Português), India (English), India (Hindi) and China (Chinese). People participating in the chat rooms will also be able to feed questions into the UBC-based interaction.

without sound, this slideshow seems somehow lacking in depth.. and, well, lacking in the use of the affordances of the web wrt availablity of recorded sound as well, i have to admit.

at the same time, the slides are to some degree self-explanatory and an enjoyable way to think on the notion of ‘affordances’ and what it might mean for web design.

and then this one is packed with so much information, you need to have your finger ready on the *pause* button to take it all in adequately.

another link here to the blog page of the “information warfare monitor”, coming out of canada, and using the resources of three ‘independent’ research institutions.
it publishes short reports rather than papers, and links to other reprts, news articles and so on – all related to the way cyberspace is used as an arena for espionage and counter-intelligence… authors are affiliated with the named institutions, and so far i have not read any further than a couple of the posts to find out what if any political ideology they support. so far, nothing sticks out – but then, as i am left of centre it is no doubt going to be found wanting in some way by anyone on the right. i note that what i find neutral and mealy-mouthed is damned as ‘biased’ by conservatives the world over. go figure as they say.
anyway, looks like another good resource for web-based investigations.
on content this time, not expression. i.e. not related to interface functionality.

here’s a link to a site maintained by Luke Wroblewski on web design. quite a useful resource. of course, we are encouraged to “buy the book”.

[aside] instead of adding a link to my bookmarks folder, if it is on-topic as far as blog design and interface is concerned, it seems good practice to archive it here too.