FT Magazine - War on the net For a long time after its birth, just over two decades ago, Planet Cyber was dominated by the ideology of Kumbaya – everything about it spread joy. The web reunited long-lost school friends and lovers; it made us all smarter, shifted more product and even allowed us to revisit our childhood by watching TV shows on YouTube, such as Fireball XL5 or Champion the Wonder Horse. It also appeared to confirm the west’s technological superiority, and for advocates of democracy, Kumbaya promised a new era of political change: dictators would surely cower in the face of citizens now able to chat freely about their ghastly governments and the need to overthrow them. It was indeed the perfect technology to accompany the end of history, offering peace and harmony to all mankind. But in 2010, Kumbaya suffered a string of debilitating blows that is forcing us to reappraise its pre-eminence. Take the Stuxnet virus. The implications of this are both profound and impenetrable.
International Journal of Multimedia & Its Applications (IJMA) Scope & Topics The International journal of Multimedia & Its Applications (IJMA) is a bi monthly open access peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles which contribute new results in all areas of the Multimedia & its applications. The journal focuses on all technical and practical aspects of Multimedia and its applications. The goal of this journal is to bring together researchers and practitioners from academia and industry to focus on understanding recent developments this arena, and establishing new collaborations in these areas. Authors are solicited to contribute to the journal by submitting articles that illustrate research results, projects, surveying works and industrial experiences that describe significant advances in the areas of Multimedia & its applications Topics of interest include but are not limited to, the following Important Dates Call for Papers
Are you a content consumer or creator? « Brian Solis Brian Solis inShare835 You’ll soon learn why I’m posting shorter, but more frequent posts…In the mean time, I wanted to share with you something I’ve been thinking quite a bit about these days. Think about the generation or two before us. A significant portion of free time was spent consuming media. You control the Information Age. There was and is something missing however. And while it’s not the same as generations before us, I wonder if we’re moving towards an era of consumption again, just under a new facade. In all honesty, the long form of content creation is under constant scrutiny and its value is continually questioned. You might disagree with me, but shortly after the iPad was released, I sold it. Who are you? What about you that some adore that we all need to experience? What can you teach us? I believe in order for the social economy to thrive, it must balance creation and consumption. What do you think? This is your time… Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook Tags:
Journal of Interactive Media in Education The Journal of Interactive Media in Education (JIME) invites contributions for a Special Issue that expands on the trends explored in the successful 'Bristol Ideas in Mobile Learning Symposium' (see which took place March 6-7, 2014. The Special Issue is due to be published in Spring 2015 and is open to Symposium participants and any interested researchers. Papers will be reviewed following the usual JIME pattern of a double blind review by two reviewers. Requested contributions should offer any combination of conceptual, critical, design, empirical, theoretical or experimental work that addresses at least one of the following three trends of mobile learning state-of-the-art research: New patterns of connected social learning and work-based practices Learning Design for 'mobile learning' at scale Exploring the new thresholds of learning enabled by mobile technologies. Deadline for the submission of papers: September 22nd 2014.
Flickr Accidentally Wipes Out Account: Five Years And 4,000 Photos Down The Drain Yahoo’s Flickr may have another PR nightmare on their hands. IT architect and Flickr user Mirco Wilhelm couldn’t log on to his 5-year old account yesterday, and when he asked the Flickr team about this issue they flat out told him they had accidentally flushed his entire account, and the 4,000 photos that were in it, straight down the drain. Apparently Wilhelm reported a Flickr user with an account that held ‘obviously stolen material’ to the company last weekend, but a staff member erroneously incinerated his account instead of the culprit’s. Hello,Unfortunately, I have mixed up the accounts and accidentally deleted yours. I am terribly sorry for this grave error and hope that this mistake can be reconciled. Ouch. What amazes me most about this story is how calmly Wilhelm reacts to the termination of his account: I’ve never been a big Flickr user, but I had always assumed a simple click of the button couldn’t delete an account and its content altogether, rather than simply deactivate it.
Merchants of Culture: A Meditation on the Future of Publishing by Maria Popova What Gogol, Seth Godin and TED have to do with the fate of the written word. The year has barely begun and already it’s been a tremendously disruptive month for the publishing industry, with a number of noteworthy developments that bespeak a collective blend of optimism, fear and utter confusion about what the future holds for the written word as its purveyors try to make sense — and use — of digital platforms. Here are just a handful of important, potentially game-changing, events in the publishing world that took place in the past month alone: So what is all of this momentum building up to? That’s exactly what John B. Hovering between a serious academic text and an Entourage for the publishing business, full of high-rolling agents and drama-ridden deals, Merchants of Culture is as much a how-to for the everyman author as it is a what-now for the digitally paralyzed publisher, as well as an all-around treat for anyone interested in the future of the written word.
The Chaos of Constant Connection? A while back I read this article in Newsweek by George Will. In it, Will warns us against the "chaos of constant connection." The ubiquitous barrage of battery-powered stimuli delivered by phones, computers, and games makes “the chaos of constant connection” an addictive electronic narcotic. As continuous stimulation becomes the new normal, “gaps between moments of heightened stimulation” are disappearing; amusement “has squeezed the boredom out of life.” For the hyperstimulated, “the synaptic mindscape of daily life” becomes all peaks and no valleys. He's quoting the work of clinical psychologist Adam J. “Unlike reading and listening to stories,” Cox warns, “the blitz of electronica doesn’t build deeper listening skills or a greater range of emotional expression.” Then I read this post from Andrew McAfee about how the connected habits of Millennials are benefting organizations. Older generations, McAfee says, don't share this intuition. So here are two views of the same phenomenon.