The real golden rule: He who has the gold makes the rules.
I’m always disappointed to see how copyright handcuffs what an artist can create. For example:
This message is from RealViz’s Stitcher program, a photographic virtual reality rendering program. “Due to legal issues” you cannot look at an image if the camera focal length is really wide.
What could a visual artist create without this man made limitation?
Technorati Tags: copyright, photography, virtual reality, artist, creative
A chance to remix history? Confused by the current developments inside the Beltway regarding the firing of attorneys in the Justice Department? Millions of emails regarding this process are “missing” resulting in another Bush Administration scandal. Now the Democratic congress is seeking communication as to understand the process that lead to the firings. As the NYTimes reported:
“Taken together, Democrats asserted, the e-mail supported their contention that the ousted prosecutors were dismissed to make room for favored candidates who were chosen on the basis of their political qualifications as much as prosecutorial experience.”
Today the Times revealed Rachel L. Brand being considered the top political appointment for Federal Prosecutor in the Western District of Michigan admitted she “never prosecuted so much as a traffic case.” Brilliant.
The Saturday Night Massacre October 20, 1973: Special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox subpoenaed tapes of key White House conversations regarding the growing Watergate scandal.
President Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson resigned in protest.
Nixon then instructed Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. Ruckelshaus also refused and was fired by Nixon.
Facing a crisis, Nixon turned to Solicitor General Robert Bork (third in line to the Attorney General) who fired Cox. The event was hyper escalated when the FBI sealed the offices of Richardson, Ruckelshaus and Coxs.
I read about Chris Anderson’s Long Tail in Wired Magazine back in the day (2004 – wow how time really flies) and immediately recognized the Amazon story. Chris turned that article into a book: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More. Pretty compelling for the opening chapters…but then it just rehashes itself over the last four or five chapters. His website provides the surface overview that fits the needs of the book. NYTimes book review
How many books can you tap into at a local reseller? Two or three thousand? Try competing against Amazon’s millions of titles. Overwhelming only to their competition. Anyone in Toledo remember Thackery’s bookstore? I do — and still miss that store every time I visit. It was a hangout when I was off campus.
Once able to purchase your own unique tastes in music, movies, television shows and books (for example) the idea of a retail store just turns into a sink hole.
Retail locations justify selling only the top 100 popular titles in music, movies, TV and books to pay for electricity, staff and rental space. Clearly this model is broken. Your given few selections, and the limited selection is forced to mass audiences — but not your own niche interests.
Today on in the internet you can find any niche, regardless of age and download it to your computer. Sadly the only thing standing in the way of a massive long tail is copyright.
While Walmart can outsell at fixed locations based upon pricing for the top 100 DVDs, Netflix will fill your niche filled with thousands of opportunities that Walmart cannot cost justify.
Google continues to revolutionize the way social networks can thrive in a web2.0 world. The only problem with this is the amount of time it will take to render VR imaging for My Maps.
Now the challenge for Google Earth will be to permit users to embed rich media (Flash, QuickTime VR) into these elements…then the interactive element would really fly if they can sync rotation of the VR object and Google Earth. I’m ready for the next release of Google Earth to support that feature!
A beautiful view of Kaneohe Bay on the island of Oahu. Click here to enjoy this in real-time.
Technorati Tags: Google, My maps, photography, Nuuau Pali, trends
The University of Michigan has a Master of Science in Information degree in Social Computing which brings online communities, social networking and user content into a formal degree program. Very interesting. I actually like the competency requirement.
12 credits from:
SI 508: Networks: Theory and Application (3 credits)
SI 532 Digital Government I: Information Tech and Democratic Politics(1.5 credits)
SI 583: Recommender Systems(1.5 credits)
SI 631: Content Management Systems(3 credits)
SI 679: Aggregation and Prediction Markets(1.5 credits)
SI 683: Reputation Systems(1.5 credits)
SI 684: eCommunities: Analysis and Design of Online Interaction Environments(3cr)
SI 689: Computer-Supported Cooperative Work(3 credits)
And pass a competency requirement in
SI 539: Design of Complex Web Sites (3 credits)
SI 543: Programming I (Java) (3 credits)