Let's Get Crazy?

More on the case from Lessig's book:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/03/dancing-tot-prevails-over-umg-in-youtube-fair-use-case.ars

Chat roulette

This is an interesting video about chat roulette, a new from of online communication that pairs random people together in a video chat forum

http://vimeo.com/9669721

Even in Internet Era, Artists Benefit From Record Label Support, Study Contends

NYT Media Decoder

By JOSEPH PLAMBECK

All you pop-star wannabes, take note: making it big isn’t cheap.

In order to break a new act in a major market, music companies must invest about $1 million and provide a host of services that haven’t yet been matched by new technologies, according to an industry report released Tuesday.

“One of the biggest myths about the digital age is that artists no longer need record labels,” says the report, released by the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which is funded by music companies. “The truth is that artists are generally much better served by a record deal. They want the funding and the specialist support that indie and major record labels provide.”

A typical new act in a major market receives a $200,000 advance from a music company, according to the report. The company spends an additional $400,000 for recording and video costs, $300,000 for promotion and $100,000 for tour support. Established artists cost even more, $4.6 million, largely because of bigger advance and marketing costs.

Over all, the report says music companies spend more than $5 billion each year on developing and marketing artists, about 30 percent of their sales revenue.

“In an age where there are more than 2.5 million hip hop artists and 1.8 million rock acts registered on MySpace, discovery, development, collaboration, marketing and promotion from music companies are more crucial than they ever were,” the report says.

Internet Addicition

It may be interesting to some people to take this test prior to my presentation tomorrow.

http://www.netaddiction.com/index.php?option=com_bfquiz&view=onepage&catid=46&Itemid=106

Pilfered Magazine Removes Infringements, “Re-Imagining Perspective”

The editors at Pilfered, the online magazine which invited readers to share “images pilfered from the web,” has announced they are “re-imagining our perspective” and will now accept only images submitted with the permission of the copyright holders.

More...

Cell phones show human movement predictable 93% of the time

We'd like to think of ourselves as dynamic, unpredictable individuals, but according to new research, that's not the case at all. In a study published in last week's Science, researchers looked at customer location data culled from cellular service providers. By looking at how customers moved around, the authors of the study found that it may be possible to predict human movement patterns and location up to 93 percent of the time. These findings may be useful in multiple fields, including city planning, mobile communication resource management, and anticipating the spread of viruses.

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China’s Cyberposse

Human-flesh search engines — renrou sousuo yinqing — have become a Chinese phenomenon: they are a form of online vigilante justice in which Internet users hunt down and punish people who have attracted their wrath. The goal is to get the targets of a search fired from their jobs, shamed in front of their neighbors, run out of town. It’s crowd-sourced detective work, pursued online — with offline results.

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Viacom Will Take ‘Daily Show,’ ‘Colbert’ Off Hulu

Here.

Mashing Up the Navi

As the Carpetbagger notes, we are deep into the silly season, with Oscar campaigning now veering into a debate over the military efficacy of “Hurt Locker.” The scurrilous tactics rarely change the outcome, so we prefer to walk on the sunny side of the awards season. To wit, when we first saw “Avatar,” it put us in the mind of “Dances with Wolves,” but the Internet has spoken and the designated analogue is actually “Pocahontas,” with a series of the inevitable mash-ups quickly following. But none, as Awards Daily points out, match this one for sheer brilliance of juxtaposition:

Here.

links...case in point

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ536kdCuno

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgcb3psHHfk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdzdUw2dW4A

Digital Youth Response

I find the designations for these forms of new media interactions interesting. Hanging out, messing around and geeking out all have very casual implications and connote an overall feel of apathy among the youth, which is not a new thing - "kids these days" . . . The adult culture never ceases to believe that the youth of our times are doomed; primarily, I think, because they do not entirely understand these new methods of communication. But I think it's a legitimate concern in present times. Youth are spending so much time immersed in these digital technologies - the concept of "always on" presents an entirely new realm for social interactions. Kids and teens are constantly afloat in a social stream; twitter, facebook, online games, texting, surfing, blogging. In their complete immersion, are they losing out on other experiences? Are they becoming blind to the real concerns of our times (whatever they are) and will they be better or ill prepared for life and careers as adults?

Grown-Up Digital: youth culture on the internet

The question I struggle with is whether or not this apathy in our youth culture is legitimate; they seem uninterested in more traditional modes of communication and learning (after school activities, sports, school, etc.) and you can't help but wonder if this constant connection to technology has a negative effect. Are they becoming more detached from the "real world" or are these alternative forms providing the same interactions and learning experiences? I like to be optimistic and lean towards the latter. I see the same trends of a search for self through these modes of "hanging out" "messing around" and "geeking out". Youth culture are using online surfing, remixing, downloading music and playing games to dabble in a variety of different hobbies or interests. Adolescence and young-adulthood are primarily times to seek out one's own unique identity. By engaging in these new media forms, I believe the same result is achieved; they are able to find their own individuality and voice by messing around and trying a bit of this and a bit of that. You could even argue that they are able to participate in deeper niche cultures because they are able to connect to so many, and they are not limited by their proximity to one another. Individuals are able to reach out to communities and other individuals that share their own interests and thus create meaningful relationships and social learning experiences. Able to participate in "peer-based reciprocity" within these cultures, our youth are learning more from peers than adults, which is causing concern. But if teens/kids find more validation and validity in learning from their peers, is there really a need for concern?

Youth culture: anxiety and hope in the digital age

**i wanted to get this up as soon as possible, the external links are coming soon**

The white paper article examined a variety of qualitative studies to pinpoint the usage of new media in the lives of children, teens, and young adults. The underlying principle of this article was to examine youth in of themselves, and not as products of the future like most academia and society seems to. The vast majority of this summary defining parameters for studying youth by creating a taxonomy of classifications. This provides two overarching areas of peer-focused activities, and interest-focused activities. The first of which include activities that are driven by IRL social interactions, and the latter includes activities that focus on a niche hobby or interest.

When defining how to categorize the youth in the media interactions researches formed 3 classifications: hanging out, messing around, and geeking-out. Hanging out is falls in the realm of peer-focused activities, because the new media engagement at this level serves the purpose of maintaining and creating relationships that they want/have in real life. Messing around is taking the new media and starting to engage and interact with it. The main characteristics of this level of engagement are exploring and discovering. geeking-out is a very high level engagement with new media and takes high skill level or expertise to excel within any given domain.

Both messing around and geeking out are interest-focused activities, but geeking-out is the only one that has any significant contribution to its experience by adults.

When speaking to the anxieties and hopes, the anxieties lie within parents, educators, and a vast majority of society. “They” feel as though investing too much time or effort in the online world is diminishing the skills for real life. Contrary to this belief, this article suggests that not only would parents be hindering a child’s learning ability, but they also determined youth are not engaging in any activities that they would not be engaging in online.

The questions i have are as follows:

1. The authors suggest that the parents do not understand why their children “hang-out” online, yet the children are doing nothing they wouldn’t be doing in real life. With that being said, do you think that if parents or educators involved themselves in the same new-medias, in the same space, it would impact the youth’s experience in a positive or negative way?
2. The researchers say online social experiences emulate real life for youth. Do you feel this is true for adults, if not, what is the difference?
3. There was an underlying theme that building and maintaining relationships has become a norm via social networking sites for youth. In terms of the youth, how do you feel this will impact offline families, communities, and society?