Digital Media // Current

Koen Hauser | Beautiful digital manipulations | Plastic inside

Beautiful digital manipulations of photographs. http://www.sweet-station.com/blog/?p=9062

ochreRobot
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6 days ago
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My husband has a virtual girlfriend!

Meet Koh and Yurie. They're a happily married young Japanese couple who moved from... more

hpseaton
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29 days ago
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6 comments

Disney Close To Unveiling New "DVD Killer"

The Wall Street Journal reports that Disney is close to releasing a new system that... more

Tyrannous
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1 month ago
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ESPN Dips its toe into the world of consumer generated content.

To help promote its new show SportsNation, ESPN is encouraging fans to prove they can... more

krag2112
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3 months ago
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Second Thursdays - The Downtown L.A. Art Walk

This video takes an authentic and exciting look at the monthly Downtown L.A. Art Walk.... more

DTLA
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7 months ago
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4 comments

J.Crew: The Wish List (Garden Party Chic Edition)-Look "Hot" With J.Crew This Summer (Seriously!!)

Shopping is really fun when you don’t have to actually spend any money, right? This... more

jrn
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4 months ago
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Is YouTube The New MTV?

The video-sharing Web site YouTube is probably best known as the place to find silly... more

atomiclegion
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6 months ago
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A Dark Future For Conventional Methods of Art?

"I was appalled when I read that school inspectors say boys are turned off art when... more

eriatarka23
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6 months ago
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1 comment

This is hip hop 2.0 rapper

The hip hop industry is adopting to the new technology and the digital media. Soulja... more

DeNice
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7 months ago
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Virtual sets move Hollywood closer to holodeck

"High-end filmmakers aren't just making movies these days. They're building virtual... more

St_Alia_10191
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8 months ago
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Bringing Net access to the poorest areas in the world?

This week, I've given a lot of thought to how poor communities on the other side of the digital divide are able to connect. The Internet is now only accessible for a tiny portion of humanity. Probably less than 20% of humanity has regular internet access, and in rural India, where 700 million people live, it must be a far, far smaller number. When all of us English-speaking urbanites have forums to share and learn and grow, but vast numbers of people don't, it only increases the inequality of the poor. In addition to their financial poverty, they are becoming increasingly information poor. Tons of great people are putting their minds to this challenge, and some possible solutions in the country I know best (India) are the "one laptop per child" initiative and village Internet kiosks run by groups such as Drishtee.com in Delhi.

Here's what the digital divide means concretely in Video Volunteers' work. We have trained 75 Community Video Producers from slums and villages of India along with our NGO partners. Every two months they make a film on a different critical issue like health, education, water and corruption and screen them on widescreen projectors in 25 villages.
These folks live in twelve different geographies in India, ranging from the slums of Mumbai to lush isolated rural areas 1000 kilometers away, to villages in the foothills of the Himalayas. They have so much to share and learn about. Every year, we bring them together in two week long group trainings. The ideas fly, and it is an incredible experience to watch them comment on and give feedback on each others' 'video news magazines.'

But here's the challenge. We can only bring the Producers together physically once a year or at most twice. Money, distance, time and their regular work grind makes it impossible to do it more frequently. They do stay connected. Producers with access to cell phones will text each other or talk on the phone. Two producers -- one from a rural Community Video Unit ('CVU') and one from an urban CVU -- got married a few weeks ago, so the connections are obviously pretty intense when they do meet at these group training. But it is only the leaders of the group who speak on the phone regularly, and I bet most of what they do is gossip, not talking about what they can learn from each other.
We want to build a "network" of community video producers, but a network that is for collaboration and sharing, not gossip. We think this Network can be strong, because of the unique perspective they have of the issues as people who have 'lived' the issue as opposed to just observed it. Professional journalists have wire services, web sites, and other things to stay in touch. But community journalists in the developing world don't have any of that.

At Video Volunteers, we've increasingly come to realize the only solution to 'networking our network' of Producers is the Internet. The Internet is the only way for community journalists in the developing world to stay connected and be in touch, and it could be a very powerful tool for sharing and learning. In my 'dream' platform, our Producers are posting the rough cuts of their video news magazines to a website for peer review. They are uploading directly from the field, from their cell phones, videos of closed schools or doctors offices, and getting feedback from their peers via SMS on what to say to the officials when they go to confront them. They are requesting music suggestions for their films or other visuals that their fellow Producers email them directly from their own CVUs.
They are talking about solutions to challenges -- how do you get more people to a community screening on a widescreen projector in the center of the village? How can you use local advertising to earn revenue? How do you motivate community volunteers to help in finding stories?This week, I've given a lot of thought to how poor communities on the other side of... more

videovolunteers
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1 year ago
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Kit Laybourne's new book MEDIAPEDIA publishes November 18!

Kit Laybourne's new book MEDIAPEDIA (Knack) which is being published this Tuesday... more

gbondupson
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1 year ago
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DC Magazine Got 15Min.? ...You Do Now Get 15Min.! e-TV! Social Network

DC Magazine Online HOT NEW DC MAGAZINE! "The Short & Skinny On Anything!" URL:... more

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1 year ago
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DC Magazine, DC Bloggers, DC Blog

DC Magazine Online HOT NEW DC MAGAZINE! "The Short & Skinny On Anything!" URL:... more

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1 year ago
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DC Magazine Real Estate & Homeowner Online Advertising

DC Magazine "Looks & Reads" as print publications---ergo, get "REAL AD SENSE". We... more

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1 year ago
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Get Your 15Min.! Make Capitol Hill News

Straight from The Hill...your videos... Tell the powers that be and "the... more

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1 year ago
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The Newspaper No One Has The Balls to Create

This is an idea for a newspaper created using 100% variable data printing custom made... more

metaprinter
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1 year ago
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MySpace Tries to Strike New Chord in Digital Music

As the dust settles from Thursday's launch of MySpace's highly anticipated and somewhat controversial new music service, the broader implications of the initiative are becoming clearer.

A joint venture of the News Corp. subsidiary and Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, EMI Music and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, MySpace Music Service represents a turning point for the recording industry and MySpace itself.

For the major labels, MySpace Music is the cumulation of more than 18 months of experimentation in new business models and a launching pad for their digital music strategies for the future. While detractors continue to level criticisms against them for their alleged role in hindering the digital music market with complicated licensing demands and other limitations, the majors have largely reassessed their approach to the Internet, spurred by the continued slide in physical music sales.

During the year and a half leading up to the launch, the majors have signed unprecedented deals opening the door to ad-supported free streaming, digital rights management-free music sales and reduced licensing costs in return for revenue share and/or company equity.

All these elements are present in the MySpace Music deal. As such, the service represents less of an experiment and more of a template for future agreements.

"It highlights the shift in our business to bring business models to the market that meet where the demand is for our music," UMG's eLabs division executive vp Rio Caraeff said. "It's the single largest thing we've done to change the way we do business around the way the customer wants to experience music."

Caraeff says to expect further flexibility in digital music deals in the near future. Among other things, this means including access to the Universal catalog in software development kits that give developers the ability to create new applications with built-in music licensing.

The social networking giant has long served two masters -- the artists with profiles on the service and the music fans with the same. There are more than 5 million bands with MySpace profiles, and while MySpace doesn't provide a specific breakdown, the vast majority are independent or unsigned artists.

But in launching a music service meant in part to take on Apple's iTunes store, particularly one aspiring to generate advertising revenue based on free music streams and traffic to artist pages, MySpace has opted to focus on the content its members use most.

That means major labels. And while major-label acts represent the minority of artists on MySpace, they account for the majority of content the company's broader membership seeks out, in terms of music streamed and artist profiles visited, although MySpace doesn't provide specific figures.

Not surprisingly, independent labels and the digital aggregators that represent them are somewhat miffed that they weren't invited to take part in the joint venture alongside their major-label competitors. However, that didn't stop the Orchard and major-owned indie distributors (Warner's Alternative Distribution Alliance, Sony's RED, Universal's Fontana and EMI's Caroline) from licensing the catalog of their label clients to the service at launch. Negotiations between MySpace and other indie labels remain ongoing. While an equity stake in the joint venture is completely off the table, the terms under discussion focus on the indies' share of ad revenue from streaming and purchased music and videos.

The majors in the joint venture, meanwhile, will profit not only from a cut of the same ad and sales revenue, but also in the underlying revenue the venture receives, even from content contributed by other labels.
As the dust settles from Thursday's launch of MySpace's highly anticipated and... more