GHC2013... Here we go!

Greetings,
This is my first time serving as a community volunteer online as part of the GHC. I had an incredible day yesterday flying into the conference.. meeting so many great students and hearing their stories of starting out in CS, staying in CS, and trying to attract and encourage more young women and girls to pursue computing! I was also lucky in having Dr. Holly Rushmeier as a seat mate on the flight over.  By the way, she is an incredible woman and technologist combining many fields in her research as well as having a diverse career background (industry/academe/gov).. stop by her booth in the sponsors area and meet her! She's also doing a talk on publishing research, aimed at graduate students today. I will be blogging about it later in the day as par of the #ghc2013 online community volunteership.

Excited to get started today and hope to see you in the sessions!

Please feel free to leave comments/notes/etc and ping me Twitter.

Here's a link to  my twitter feed:www.twiter.com/nycfreshman

Free Movie Screening -- "The Fantastic Mr. Fox"

Just got an email today that there will be a free movie screening of a new movie called "The Fantastic Mr. Fox". The invitation states the following:

"

YOU AND A GUEST ARE INVITED TO A PRIVATE SCREENING OF THE NEW MOVIE

THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX

The Fantastic Mr. Fox, a stop-motion film, is based on the acclaimed best selling children's book by author Ronald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

THIS SCREENING IS FOR PARENTS WITH CHILDREN AGES 7 TO 14 YEARS OLD. YOUNG TEENS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED WITHOUT A PARENT OR GUARDIAN.

MPAA Rating Status: The movie has not yet been rated but is believed to be PG. The studio cannot, of course, guarantee the rating that the film will ultimately receive.

----------------------------WHO, WHERE & WHEN----------------------------

Wednesday, August 5th
at
AMC Loews Lincoln Square1998 Broadway (@67th Street)New York, NY, 10023
Showtimes:
6:30pm - For Parents with Children Ages 7-14
(Arrive early!)

-------------------TO CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDANCE-------------------

YOU MUST CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDANCE ONLINE TO BE ADMITTED. YOUR CONFIRMATION WILL NOT BE COMPLETE UNTIL YOU RECIEVE THE CONFIRMATION EMAIL AND CLICK ON THE LINK TO CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
CLICK HERE TO CONFIRM ONLINE
or visit: http://www.usaaudiences.com/mrfoxsignup.php

"

So basically from my experience here is how movie screening work in general:

1. Sign up with ticket distributor/promoter, in this case USA Audiences (registration is free).
2. Then you will need to RSVP to confirm that you are interested in attending the screening.
3. If you receive an email saying that you are confirmed, you will print out the ticket that was sent to you and head over to the movie theater on the ticket.
4. Given that these movies are free, and yet to be released (meaning they are new), they are very popular. This means that you must arrive at least 1 hour ahead of the time that is stated on the ticket because seating is on a first come firs served basis. Be prepared for long lines in the summer because almost everyone and their neighbor wants to go to a free movie. Be prepared for extra long lines because it is free.
5. Enjoy the movie!!!

Oh and come back and post a comment on this blog to let us know how it went. Thanks!

New Application for Nintendo DS allows for "DJ Style scratching"

I stumbled upon this story today and immediately thought of Ty's presentation on developing new media technologies in the music/entertainment space. Who knew? A Nintendo Ds can sub for a dj-turntable. And apparently it was developed by a prosumer (a person who is both a producer/consumer via Anthony's presentation)
More info plus video here:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/23/proteinds-app-enables-dj-style-scratching-on-nintendos-ds/

Final Presentation: New Media & Crisis Management

On Tuesday -- May 6, 2008 -- I presented my research on the opportunities of using new media technology during/after a crisis. I hope the class enjoyed the presentation and I look forward to your comments. The slides are going to be up shortly.

Assignment: Paper Review

As per our assignment, here is a critique of Professor’s article entitled: " The New Media Technologies: Overview and Research Framework".

The article does a good job in presenting New Media from different perspective, i.e. technology, content, social effect, and business and industry applications. It is approachable and could be understood by both a novice and an "expert"/user. Here are some specific comments that came to mind that may be useful:

• pg 6: "The Old vs. The New" table, specifically "Film-> Amateur videos on the web": true there are amateur videos on the web but there are also professional videos on the web, for example KPMG published its recruiting videos on their site as well as Youtube.
• Would it be helpful to define modding and mashup? (depends on the target audience of the paper I guess)
• Table III pg8-9, Timeline of New Media- Related Technologies, it may be good to include mobile technologies as well
• pg 12"Technology has become the great equalizer" .. True but only if you have access to it.
• Also on pg 12, the notion of creativity and user generated content, though this is not explicitly mentioned in the paper we discussed in class about the "80/20" rule where only a small percentage of the population actually produces the content and the rest consume it... one could counter-argue the "80/20" rule by pointing to platforms like Facebook and Myspace where an overwhelming amount of users are generating content every day.
• pg 16 NASA is not only using SecondLife to collaborate with their employees but also with their project partners.
• Questions (things I didn't understand):
  pg 14 "divergence of technology" - does this mean accessing Facebook, etc in different locations i.e home, work, train, etc ?

Overall, I thought this was a great paper that really conveyed the essence of New Media and accomplished its purpose of establishing a "framework for scholars and educators who wish to learn from and contribute to this field of study."

Thank you for sharing the paper with us Professor.

"The Age of Google" Seminar

I just learned about this and thought others in the class may be interested:

Center for Communication presents:

The Age of Google
Thursday, April 17, 2008
6:30 to 8:00 pm
Baruch College -Newman Conference Center


Michael Steib, the executive who will speak, is the Director of TV Ads for Google. According to Steib's bio, the TV Ads platform is similar to Google's auction based Internet advertising platform where advertisers bid on the price to advertise. TV Ads is supposed to make the TV process more efficient and incorporate feedback from viewers. Steib is quoted as saying, “There has been this trend to more online spending, and what we are doing is taking the things that make online spending great, like granular data, and bringing them back to TV. The pendulum is swinging back in a positive direction for TV.” Looks like a great event. For more info, check out : http://www.cencom.org/programDetail.aspx?id=2484

Class Prep: Creative Commons

We're going to discuss Creative Commons and the work of Lawrence Lessig in class today. The article I'm discussing is: "Cyberlawyer 2.0" The Economist. London: Dec 8, 2007. Vol. 385, Iss. 8558; pg. 27

The article covers Creative Commons, a non-for-profit organization founded by Lessig as an alternative to traditional copy right standards. Artists/Creators can choose the degree to which they want to copyright/protect their work, the idea being that many artist actually want to share their work for free but at the same time have some sort of acknowledgment, not necessarily in the form of royalties.

According to the author, some were surprised when Lessig announced he's "switching" his focus from copyright issues and CC to fighting corruption. I guess on the surface this may appear to be a complete turnaround but really it's essentially a shift in strategy.

On Thursday, March 20, at 1:30 pm EST Lessig will present his "Change Congress [beta]" campaign at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Since most of us will be in class and unable to attend, here's a link to the webcast : http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=46510

I'm guessing it's going to run simultaneously.


I'll be putting up more info regarding our discussion after class.