My younger brother showed me this video and I thought that it was a great example of how Chatroulette might be able to be used for other sorts of things. Like I said in my earlier blog posts, if there was a way to filter why people were there it would be much more useful. The fact that “Merton” used it though to create a hilarious beginning to a concert for Ben Folds blows my mind. Such a simple idea that got millions to laugh 🙂 Take a peek.
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ABC Nightly news with Brian Williams is a program that millions tune into across the country as a source for what’s going on in the nation and the world on a regular basis. I personally have replaced watching the news on TV with reading it online or watching little clips here and there on the internet. It works with my schedule, I get to watch/read whenever I want and don’t have to deal with (many) commercials.

After spending time with my grandfather during break, who tunes in on a nightly basis, I saw how little has changed about the nightly broadcast. There was one major thing that I have never seen before though that caught my eye. At the end of the broadcast while the credits rolled, they had four icons across the bottom under the words “To get this broadcast”. The Facebook “F”, the Twitter “T”, the RSS squiggles, and the Podcast “i” icon are all there popping out like candy on the screen in their colorful “shorthand” icons.

ABC has recognized that in the modern day, many people either have converted to digital/internet media for collecting their information and they really don’t want to miss out. If you had told them five years ago that to keep their following they would have to convert their broadcast into four different electronic versions, they would probably tell you you’re crazy and that everybody following them watches TV. Now, they have stayed up with the latest and turned a half hour TV show into many other forms of communication.

How you condense that into 140 characters or a wall post… I’m not sure but, they have found ways of making it work to get their program to the masses. I think that it is interesting also that you see it at the end of the broadcast. They don’t put it in the beginning saying if you don’t want to watch this whole thing or don’t want the commercials then look at our online sources for giving you the news. It is only after the broadcast is over that they advertise other possible ways. It would be interesting to see how the five different ways of collecting their news are different and what is cut out in certain ones.

Life on the run is always shifting and thankfully, industries are noticing that and tailoring their products to help go along seamlessly with the shift. I’m sure that the daily commuter appreciates being able to bring up the highlights of the newscast on their blackberry from the same firsthand source that they would have gotten the information from on TV.

All of these new things that I am being introduced to, now Second Life, I can barely handle first life!  It is so much to take in for someone that thought I knew ALOT about the internet.  From Twitter and Blogging to creating Avatars and SecondLife.  I spent a little longer then I realized this afternoon browsing around on Second Life and visiting the sites that we were assigned to, and much to my surprise found some pretty neat stuff.  The first place that I went was the Library that was recommended to us.

While walking around I didn’t really see anyone then noticed all of the computers with little titles over them.  People created a virtual library with links to just about everything.  It intrigues me in that it is a way of filtering through the internet.  As Lessig talked about, a great example of collaborative action.  Every contributes their links for the greater good of the virtual library.  This process works especially well with REAL librarians all over the world making sure that everything checks out (pun intended).  I clicked on the Cowboy Adventures computer and found myself lost, browsing through places on the web I would have never seen.  Next stop was the NMC Information Mall.

I found this to be quite helpful because of the lack of knowledge I have about how the Second Life world works or even really what it is.  I watched the “Advanced Camera Techniques” video that was literally posted on a wall in the mall(http://tinyurl.com/m8o98r) Definitely watch it.  It has proven to be very helpful for helping me take these pictures and manipulate the camera the way that I want to.  Thinking about it, this could also be a really cool way to do some “pre-visualizations” for shooting a real movie.  Other then the camera flying away, most of the moves that the camera does are completely replicable.  If someone were to build a house in Second Life that was like the movie set, they could essentially block out all of their shots before hand or have a pretty good idea of what looks good and what they like.  Just a thought.  Moving on, I went to the Space Station.

Taking a few pictures and browsing around just as if I were a real tourist, I then set up in the air and flew around to peek at the models of space ships that had been created for the island.  A nice stop on my world tour, it really went to show that people really are building ANYTHING in this world.  A few more teleports, and I found myself at the Middlebury College Terra Project.

Not only do they only speak spanish in this “building” but they say it outside on big billboards that plaster the walls.  Just like the article about “Second Life rape”, anyone could just as easily violate the rules here and run in speaking English without anything stopping them and without a voodoo doll.  It really just comes down to respecting what people ask for and ask you not to do because to the best of my knowledge there are no Second Life police yet!  I stopped in and admired the artwork on display in the gallery here and then headed out to catch sunset in Dublin.

One of the glitches about a program like this is the speed at which a “world” loads.  I had a lot of trouble here because of how long it took to load everything (buildings, posters, modeling, textures, music playing in the streets etc.)  That did not stop me from doing some wandering though.  Dublin had some cool stores and buildings.  In one, I found the “Dublin Literary Pub Crawl” which apparently was a quest I could set out on to combine finding great literary works and great Dublin bars.  I did not indulge because of all the literary works I have to deal with tonight in First Life but I am sure that it would have been an interesting journey to go on.

I ended my adventure flying around Dublin and admiring the sunset that reflected off of the endless ocean, separating this island from the next.  Though time consuming with all of the loading, I enjoyed the sharing and community that this online world has to offer.  It can be used in many ways and I’m sure that as time goes on, they will only keep expanding.

While watching March Madness on TV, there are a million commercials that say something about American culture and what we “consume” and buy into. Everything from energy drink ads to airline commercials, we are a fast and busy culture. But really… how fast and busy do we need to be? AT&T is now advertising that they are the only carrier that allows you to “talk and download from the web at the same time” on you phone. For some serious people who don’t even have a spare minute in the work day I guess it might be a nice feature but really… how many of us need to be able to stream videos and talk on the phone at the same time? Are our attention spans evens even capable of multi tasking and taking in either if we had a friend on the phone and were streaming a basketball game at the same time? The ad shows three friends on the phone, two are watching a basketball game and one is stuck in traffic in a taxi. They put him in a taxi in traffic to show his network as being slow and “stuck”. They are all talking about the game and then say “Hey ____ did you see that shot?”, he of course answers no and looks like the loser. Phone companies are really doing whatever they can to one up each other and this is a prime example. And knowing AT&T, it’s probably an extra $25.00 per month for that capability. What is the use for this and do we really need it or does everybody just want to have the phone that can do the most possible and the most simultaneously? I mean what’s next… an IMAX screen and a 3D keypad?