Posts Tagged "technology"
Amazing stop motion video mashup – thanks to the BBC
The BBC has just done something revolutionary… they’ve released all the source footage for an as yet unscreened documentary about the way technology is changing our lives, and are inviting the public to compete and edit/mashup the footage into something unique. Above is an inspiring example of what’s possible, by Barry Pilling. Here’s another by Cassetteboy.
The idea of allowing your work to be edited and improved by others was first encouraged by the Creative Commons. If you don’t already, make sure any photos you share on Flickr are released under Creative Commons, so others can do great things with them (without profiting or taking credit).
Another film in this vein that’s well worth a look is RIP: A Remix Manifesto, the story of Girl Talk’s rise to fame as a musician who plays no instrument but uses samples of others’ music. It too is freely editable and mash-up-able. There’s also a growing craze for “fake trailers”, the most famous being Shining. It’s so much easier these days now that people have a publishing house, editing studio and photo lab on their desktops.
Exciting times!
Technology isn’t the answer to every problem
I think the strongest message of last night’s Challenge Your World event was this excellent short video by Sebastian Baptista from Uruguay. A simple idea, powerfully conveyed. Technology is not the answer to every problem.
Google Maps is losing its marbles
I am not sure what is up with Google Maps this week. Usually its public transport directions are very accurate and incredibly useful. But both Mrs Alex and I have experienced some really weird directions from the site this week.
The first image is one Mrs Alex found, suggesting she walk a massive loop to almost back where she started, to catch a bus to a metro station she would have walked past, which is in the wrong direction anyway! The second image is one I got when I asked for directions to a location near McGill University. Apparently I should hop on the metro to McGill, then walk all the way back home, and walk back to McGill again. Crazy! I suspect heads will roll at Google when they notice this regression bug :-)
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Read MoreFascinating vision of the Internet age from 1990
This is Hyperland, a BBC2 documentary with Douglas Adams, Tom Baker, Ted Nelson and others, broadcast in 1990 – that’s before the World Wide Web, before DVDs, before digital TV, before the Internet as we know it.
What’s quite remarkable is the amount that it gets right:
- When we browse the Internet, we don’t follow a prescribed narrative path, instead we jump around and switch focus regularly to find out a random fact or branch off into a different topic.
- When watching video footage or listening to an MP3, we can skip to different sections (think DVD chapter menus or podcast position markers). We can click out to related content (think YouTube timelined clickable comments or BBC’s interactive TV “red button”)
- We can create representations of ourselves in the virtual world as we explore and communicate with others, from social website profiles through to Second Life avatars
- We are just beginning to be able to use technology such as Layar or Pocket Universe to augment reality with additional useful information
- The nature of the documentary itself, skipping as it does between items of interest, is an interesting portent of today’s short-attention-span, focus-shifting approach to consuming information.
- It correctly predicts that one of the biggest challenges is the need for a language for “hypertext” (remember this is before HTML was invented).
It even predicts some things we are only just beginning to see, such as interactive storytelling and intelligent software agents.
All in all, well worth 50 minutes of your time if you are interested in changes in technology and media and their effect on society.
I found this today on Russell Davies‘ blog.