Technology and celebrities - Part 1 (the trivia quiz)

I recently heard that technology and celebrities are two of the top subjects for popular blogs. This made me curious to see what technology a celebrity likes and how the rich and/or famous use these tools.

Photo of Ashton and Demi by TechCrunch50-2008

I've already heard too much about Twitter, (e.g. Miley's last tweet and Ashton's millionth follower) so I excluded it but there were still a few surprises that I'd like to share. Just for fun see if you can match the following statements with the correct celebrity. (Match-ups and full details will be provided in tomorrow's post).

Here are the statements:

1. developed an iPhone app to sell for $1.99
2. gained control of 800 Internet domain names
3. using Skype is one of the greatest things this year
4. says Blackberry is a marriage-saver
5. the Amazon Kindle ... an environmentally friendly investment
6. staged a creative collaboration using Cisco Unified Meeting Place
7. co-founder of a web design and technology consultancy

Here are the celebrities:

a) Dilbert creator & food company honcho, Scott Adams

b) Comedic Magician-Illusionists, Penn & Teller

c) Singer-songwriter, Rob Thomas

d) Media maven and TV host, Oprah Winfrey

e) National Basketball Association forward, Chris Bosh

If you enjoy trivia games, give this a try and post a comment with your guesses. Hint: More than one celebrity can match some statements (you're smart people so I don't want it to be too easy). If you don't like quizzes, don't worry, you can read the full stories in tomorrow's post.

Old Media, New Media - Why Not Both?

Photo by Striatic

Opinions vary on whether new media is responsible for the challenges being faced by newspapers, television networks and other traditional media. These contrasting points of view show the extremes in the debate:

According to R. Scott Hill in his book, The Blog Ahead, blogging is "enabling a radical new form of egalitarian discourse" by allowing anyone to bypass the hierarchies of command and control. It sounds like a good thing for those of us who feel gatekeepers have too much power, right?

Andrew Keen doesn't agree as you can tell from the title of his book, The Cult of the Amateur, where he expands on "How blogs, My Space, You Tube and the rest of today's user-generated media are destroying our economy, our culture and our values".

We hear of newspapers seeking creditor protection, reducing staff and trying to survive falling revenues, but new media has similar challenges. It's not easy to turn online readership into revenue either. Perhaps the path to success depend on both worlds working together.

There are already a number of traditional and new media fusion examples:

• Some of today's best-selling books started their life as blogs. Once the blogger developed enough content and buzz for their subject a traditional book becomes a natural next step. If the blogging is about Julia and by Julie, it also becomes a movie.
• On the ellen daytime talk show they use Twitter to create a rewarding game that links a college campus with the live show. A recent one involved students receiving a Tweet to be one of the first group to bring a bar of soap to a central point to receive a prize. Then those winners were asked to do a specific stunt (dress up and act out a song title from a musical group) in order to win the super prize. This provided TV content, built the show's brand by increasing "followers" and advertised the prize sponsors.
• Newspapers have to go to print while some stories are still evolving. The National Post has a service that enables readers to get breaking news on their mobile devices using Scanlife software and 2D bar codes located near specific articles. This prompts their smartphone to display updated content related to the story which readers use to follow the latest developments.
• Of course the most obvious example of the successful fusion of traditional and digital media is Indigo-Chapters and Amazon. In addition to using the Internet for their catalogue and their sales channel, you can now even browse the contents of many books with their "look inside the book" feature (this is available for both the books mentioned above.

These examples show that both sides of this debate will win when good content and ease of access are wrapped in the most appropriate media. As always, the successful business models need to show creative use of the best options.

Cliches: Yesterday's News?

photo by: mpclemens

"I was so hungry I could eat a horse."

"He is fit as a fiddle."

"They are a few bad apples."

Did that hurt? Sorry.

Most people don't like cliches. They are the written equivalent of liver and onions. The Boston Globe's James Parker tries to argue that they aren't all bad. In his article "Let us now praise... the cliche", James fights for the cliche. He says that the cliche is "one neat little payload of meaning." Why take the time to go into detail and explain something when a cliche will send the message quickly and clearly?

A cliche is not such a horrible thing. Sure overuse can be quite painful, as 58-dan demonstrates in the comments, but they have their purpose. Using them allows you to connect with a wide audience.

Cliches are part of social culture and they seem to be a favourite tool of politicians. Democracy, as James points out, runs on cliche. They let politicians connect with the largest possible audience to get their message across.

It's a bit of a stretch to say that cliches make for great writing. But if the goal is to communicate a message then you shouldn't shy away from them. A good cliche will keep the writer and audience on the same page.

Info-junkies

How many times have you accessed the web in search of something in particular, and after 3 hours left your computer with a bunch of new interesting facts, but not what you actually were supposed to search for?

As human beings and web surfers we tend to let our curiosity guide us in the quest of gaining information, but this quest is frequently frustrated by the amount of knowledge that surrounds us.

Peggy Orenstein in Stop your search engines describes this kind of experience, and gives an extreme solution to the problem by inviting us to try Freedom, which disables networking on macs for up to eight hours at a time. After you've made up your mind to install it on your computer, it works like a A.A detox program making it almost impossible for you to go back online for the time you requested.

The program is having 4,000 downloads a month, which shows that many of us are becoming internet junkies, and need help to let go of the temptation to get back online. The days of constant visits to the library to investigate throughly the most mundane of subjects are long gone, and so is deep knowledge:

"Centuries after his death, brain studies show that true learning is largely an unconscious process. If we’re inundated with data, our brains’ synthesizing functions are overwhelmed by the effort to keep up. And the original purpose — deeper knowledge of a subject — is lost, as surely as the corpses surrounding Sirenum scopuli."

The thought that all the bits of information of multiple ideas we read every day, are preventing us from acquiring deep knowledge from specific ideas is alarming, and yet a fact for the generations that never knew a world without Internet.

NBC's World Blog

Some people may not think of NBC as a place to search for interesting, off-beat travel stories, but have you ever been to their World Blog?

In their own words…

NBC News World Blog aims to provide a dynamic look at world events and trends -- both big and small -- from NBC News correspondents, producers, and bureaus around the world. Online entries -- from text to video -- will explore news events and how they are shaping our world.

Regular contributors include NBC News correspondents, producers and staff based in bureaus across the world and on assignment.

It is – in a nutshell – human interest and travel writing by staff based abroad – in the places you might least expect to find these types of stories.

Like Adrienne Mong, an NBC News Producer currently based in Kabul, sharing stories about the local culture of kite flying and the little known grave in Kabul of famous British archeologist and Silk Route explorer Sir Marc Aurel Stein.

Warangkana Chomchuen is another NBC staffer based in Bangkok. One of his recent entries tells the tale of a boy born to migrant workers from Myanmar who travels to Japan to represent Thailand in the paper plane championships. He eventually wins and returns to Thailand and to a life in limbo – having no permanent status in Thailand and no other country to call home. Before that entry, Chomchuen talks of the fat traffic cops on the streets of Bangkok, being told – get in shape, or else!

The stories are wide-ranging, and unique. From the people reporting the big stories in far off places, the World Blog is perhaps more of a reflection of some of their personal interests – not something ready for the six o’clock NBC TV broadcast.

Technorati's State of the Blogosphere

This is something we'll take a bit of a look at either next class or the one after it, but it'll be of interest especially for those of you looking for a broad, statistics-heavy view of the internet: Technorati's State of the Blogosphere. It looks like this year's edition is happening right now, but past reports—like this one from 2006 and this one from 2007—provide a great overview of the web.

Some Banksy Street Art

This is a stencil done by British street artist Banksy, in L.A.

Photo by Lord Jim.

Banksy said:

I always wanted to save the world. Now I'm not sure I like it enough.

The Age of Hybrids

On Thursday night’s edition of The Colbert Report, Stephen’s guest was Jerry Mitchell, a renowned investigative reporter whose diligent digging has led to the convictions to date of four KKK members for the murders of civil rights activists. The host greeted his guest with, “From my research, I see that you are a newspaper reporter. What is that?”

The question seemed especially well timed as a follow-up to Michael Massing’s New York Review of Books article about news on the Internet.

I freely admit to a profound ignorance concerning anything to do with politics, but the subject of politics is not alone in moving to the Web, and the latest stage in the evolution of human communication applies equally to any topic. Newspapers in their traditional form are clearly not long for this world, but hasn’t the digitization of information been the sword held over the heads of many forms of media, especially books, for years?

Still, the shift is undeniable. As a hanger-on of the publishing industry, working mainly on textbooks, I can attest to its effects. On the first page of a memo accompanying a recent proofreading project, where the publication details would normally be it said instead, “No print copies; content to be posted online only.”

Like the antediluvian auto industry, it seems newspapers and printers, along with the rest of us clinging to the coat-tails of published forms of communication, will have to suss out a new paradigm or get cozy in history’s seconds bin along with beta tapes and laserdiscs.

Where are we going from here? In his article, Massing writes of “reporter-blogger” Paul Kiel, “Kiel is an example of an emerging new breed of ‘hybrids,’ schooled in both the practices of print journalism and the uses of cyberspace.” It seems hybridization is everywhere; technologies are converging and becoming interactive at a dizzying rate: cars, phones, Internet, TVs, music, maps—so isn’t this just news becoming interactive as well? Does the delivery method matter as long as it’s still news?

We all get that the hybrid car is a stop-gap; something must eventually replace the internal combustion engine to wean us off our fixes of fossil fuel. So if our traditional-news drugs of choice must be replaced, is there value in the hybrids that now give us our fix, and what “active ingredients” in those drugs should be carried forward?

Massing’s article suggests that one of the key differences between traditional news-gathering and news blogging is that in many news blogs, the discussion is no longer balanced. He points out that this may be a good thing, as newspaper coverage can carry its own biases. But isn't the down side a deafness to other voices?

How do we avoid a blogosphere that “supplies the reader with ‘prefiltered information’ supporting his or her own views,” as Massing, quoting Bill Wasik, puts it? Anyone who has watched the terrifying documentary The Corporation is aware of the dangers of corporately funded and sanctioned media product. The democratization that the Internet has permitted seems twinned with a dilution of quality, as our class has discussed. As Massing says, “a premium is put on the sexy and sensational.”

The big questions for me, therefore, are not which delivery method will eventually win out in the transitional sweepstakes, but how the “product” will be paid for, and how its quality will be controlled. If there is no neutrality, how do we make sure people hear all sides of a discussion? Who will sort the wheat from all that chaff?

As Deadwood’s Al Swearengen knows, no matter how heady, a no-holds-barred environment eventually degrades into chaos without controls of some kind, whether benevolent or not. The hybrids of this age will be replaced by new, probably interactive technologies, but the old debate surrounding what constitutes news, and who gets to call it that, will rage on.

Show Me The Money!

Last week the FTC in the U.S. released new guidelines requiring bloggers to clearly state their connection to advertisers. Most bloggers claim to be “authentic”, but many don’t let their audience in on the fact that marketers are often approaching them to promote products or services.

Erica Ehm sates in the Globe and Mail, “There’s nothing wrong with bloggers getting a lot of free stuff … I also think we should be paid for our reviews,” but how authentic is this? If bloggers like Ehm endorse a product and don’t inform their audience it was either given to them for free and/or they are being compensated for their (positive) opinion, authenticity is seriously undermined. Traditional media outlets have strong rules for journalists against accepting gifts or incentives. Is the blogosphere any different? Should it be?

According to journalist/blogger Mark Evans, making money via a blog is a tough sell. Rather, the blog is a vehicle to attract attention to other commercial activities. It seems every successful blogger who has a decent following is leveraging their online presence into consulting and speaking engagements, and the much-sought-after book deal.

Regardless of the money (or lack thereof) in blogging, certain standards should apply. With so much drivel and vitriolic spew compacting the internet, journalistic standards are a good thing to aspire to.

The discovery of France

Some days ago I read a book called “The Discovery of France” by Graham Rob. It was a big surprise to learn that at the beginning of the 18^th century, the habitants of France were fully separated from town to town. Even the languages were different. It was very easy to cover large areas completely undetected.

One of the stories that demonstrate this isolation is the one about Victor de L'Aveyron who lived on the wild since he was 2 years old, and until he turned around 12. When found he was put on display as a freak of nature.The same occurred to the wild girl of the Issaux forest who got lost from her family, and was found 8 years after.

Some funny facts of the beginning of their grandness are:

-Only Parisians were called French. The people from the north were called frenchiman or franciot.

-Inter-regional football games aroused more passion than the victories and defeats of Napoleon.

-Each pays had it's own legal system although there was almost no crime because of the small sizes of the cities.

-Many of their laws were about keeping the people inside the pays.

-In most cities people hibernated, so there were not producing money at all during the winter

-People who didn't own land didn't pay taxes, and most things could be exchanged instead of bought.

Graham Rob also mentions interesting town names that like:

• Loin du bruit
• Pain perdu
• Perte de temps
• Gatebourse

And the scary ones:

• Prends toi garde
• Parapluie
• Mauvais vent

The stereotypical idea of French monarchy, is usually full of glamour and splendor, but the trivial life was quite different. Learning about the humble origins of great countries, and the way their rulers managed to make them what they’ve become is an interesting subject when understanding the position each country plays now a days, and in predicting the future changes in the geography of power.

Should We Write for an audience?

How many people still use MSN or something similar? Has facebook essentially monopolized online communication outside of email?

That's what is seems like to me and my social circle. Any major event seems to be organized through facebook. You can check who is and isn't going, leave ideas and talk with people about the event.

But why has facebook taken over?

The main difference I see between facebook and instant messaging is the type of communication. Facebook is asynchronous (like email or texting) people don't expect an answer right away. Instant messaging, phone calls, etc are synchronous. When people send a message it's expected that you will reply fairly shortly.

From what I've seen of the direct that social and professional communication is going in, it seems that asynchronous communication is the way of the future. Twitter is another example of asynchronous communication. People "tweet" their ideas and others may or may not respond, there is no expectation of any response at all.

Finally there is the ultimate form of asynchronous communication: blogging. Thousands of people write blogs and articles. Many don't receive any comments or even get read at all. So is there a point to it at all?

I think so.

Communication isn't just about reaching an audience, it's about forming your own thoughts and opinions. When people blog they write assuming there is an audience, even if there isn't one. That has a significant impact on how they write. And that, I think, is worth something. It helps us develop ourselves, even if it's on our own.

Why I Copywrite for my Resume

I've been thinking a lot about resumes lately. Mostly because I'm looking for a job and spent the better part of last month fine tuning mine.

I think I have a bit of a leg up on writing resumes than most people. That's because I used to work in human resources. Day after day I would be reading resumes. I must have gone through thousands over the course of my 8 month contract. I saw some really awful resumes.

Most resumes appeared to be an after-thought. People just threw something together without really thinking what it's supposed to achieve. Just going through the motions. After thinking about it for a bit I think I have a good way to describe it: your resume is the headline, you are the content.

The whole point of the resume is to catch the interest of a person in charge of hiring. It's cliche but true, most people spend 30 seconds or less reading your resume. In that time you need to show that you are worth contacting to learn more. So putting huge walls of text on your resume isn't doing you any favours.

A resume needs to catch the attention of the reader in a short period of time. Just enough information about yourself to show that you have the skills they need. If someone is hiring an accountant they know the duties, there's no need to spend 5 bullet points explaining the basic functions of the job. Be remarkable and show that you have done something interesting related to the position or have something special to contribute.

The best resources I've found for effective resume writing is copywriting blogs. Especially ones that focus on writing for the web. They encourage short, direct sentences that work toward an actionable event (sale, subscription, or in my case an interview). I recommend Copyblogger's copywriting 101 series of articles.

Not everything will be applicable, but it's a great place to start. After jealous friends asking me how I got an interview for this job or that without relevant experience, I would say my strategy is working pretty well.

E.A.T... Everyone's All Together!

Thanksgiving. We all love it, because it’s truly the one secular holiday unique to North America. This translates into another distinctively North American pastime: over-eating. And not just gorging, but ritualistic gluttony. Tradition is also a loaded term, and every family has their own special way of celebrating.

When talking with people this last week, there was a common theme to most everyone's long-weekend. A giant bird with all the trimmings followed by pumpkin pie. In our house, the cook diligently creates a menu circa-1940. So in addition to the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes (obvious), there is the added delight of boiled turnip, stewed squash, grated paprika cabbage salad with raisins, and the piece de resistance…. jellied carrot salad. Really. There are always significant leftovers. You can probably see why. But, as offensive as I find carrot salad, it’s a labour of love for my 95-year old Grandmother and is her signature contribution to the meal. So looking across the Thanksgiving table, I block out the food and look at the four generations of family who have happily converged to feast and laugh together. Because not every family gathering is joyous, so it’s important to stop, put the fork down and appreciate the great moments.

And hey, not everyone has a tradition. A friend of mine was invited to Thanksgiving dinner last minute at a colleague’s house and she said, “Sure, thanks, what can I bring?” and the host replied, “The turkey!”. And they were not joking. She wins the prize for the most outrageous Thanksgiving. As for the rest of us, see you at the gym – Christmas is around the corner.

Why Blog Now: Here's three good reasons

Anyone who is already a blogger has specific motivations that are unique to their context and personal goals. If you’ve wondered about this trend and are considering investing time in building and maintaining a blog, here’s a few potential advantages you might not have considered.

1) Becoming a competent blogger increases your literacy skills.

It’s no surprise that adult literacy includes more than simply the ability to read and write. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines five literacy levels with Level 3 shown as “Adequate to cope with the demands of everyday life and work in an advanced society.” In today’s information-intensive society it is becoming more the norm that everyone self-publishes in at least a small way. Blogging is an easy and affordable medium for anyone with something to say.

2) Becoming a regular blogger allows you to find (or re-find) your voice.

If you are new to the role of ‘writer’ or if you have always met guidelines established by others when you write, you may not have confidence in your writer’s voice. Since there are very few rules for how you write blogs you won’t be limited by word count, tone, or subject. The style of blogs is often more conversational and frequent postings are encouraged so you will gradually quiet the “red-light” tendency to critique your wording and constantly tweak before you publish. Of course you still need to write clearly so that it is easy to read, but you have much more freedom. The scope or theme of your blog is limited only by your imagination and passions.

3) Building a blog that invites input from readers will add information diversity to enrich your thinking.

As you build readership, the comments feature of blogs allows you to develop a dialogue with your audience and they can create a conversation with other readers. This needs to be managed to ensure civility but the result is much richer than the world of print where the author simply puts their email address at the end of an article. When a broad range of people react immediately and specifically to either support your comments or disagree, you will find yourself in a rich opportunity to learn by listening. Keep an open mind (while still verifying the facts presented by others) and your brain will be well-exercised.

So if you are thinking about starting a blog, it’s a great way to learn by doing.

Say Something

The Stage by Simon Scott

In what is probably a good example of biting off more than I can chew, I’m going to try to blog about beginning to blog.

Thinking about this course, it occurred to me recently that I really don’t know anything about anything. That’s not strictly true, of course; I know enough about enough to navigate through most days. But I started to think: what do I know enough about to tell someone else? Would anyone hire me as an instructor of anything? Highly unlikely.

I feel I have only a few true skills, some acquired, some inborn: I am an absolute expert at avoiding (particularly at “laying down and avoiding” as the Pythons might say). Some might call this laziness, but there’s too much anxiety involved for that. I am pretty good at cat care, but for our instructor’s sake, I’ll forswear that discussion for now. In the inborn category, I have a spookily accurate, almost photographic, short-term memory, useful for proofreading. However, when I say “short-term” I mean exactly that. I can’t remember my last birthday, whom I saw that movie with or how it ended, where I spent last Christmas or New Year’s, my childhood, or other such details.

This skill shortage does not prevent me from concocting theories on a near-constant basis and trying to link world and cultural events that "prove" them. I cherish my favourite theories like beloved pets; they’ve evolved and matured along with me. But they are shared with only a few confidants—mostly those who I am fairly sure will agree with me. The choir, in other words.

So now we get to the crux of it: if I am unqualified to pass along most forms of knowledge, what qualifies me to comment on anyone else’s knowledge or experience? I realize this is mainly an issue of insecurity—who grants any of us the authority to make our opinions known? But even if I can convince myself I have something to say, actually saying it is an entirely different matter.

Luckily, there’s only one thing worse than the paralyzing anxiety of sticking my two cents out there for all to see, and that’s keeping them to myself. The urge to create is elemental; if it’s suppressed, I believe it worms its way out in the form of unhealthy behaviours. So expressing ourselves is essential to our mental (some would say spiritual) health.

But there’s another reason to share, and that is, it contributes to personal growth. Experiencing art teaches us who we are. We are constantly searching for ourselves in various artistic products. We ask ourselves, “Do I like this?” “Is this something I can relate to?” “Do I understand the behaviour of this character?” “Am I like him (or her)?”

By adding my voice to the discussion, I can discover the views of others and adapt my own. I also get out of the echo chamber of my own head and step into the real world of others’ perspectives. Relationships are potential sites of growth; avoidance results only in stasis. As an entropy-denier, this is a difficult hurdle for me. But I try to remember E.M. Forster’s exhortation, “Only connect.” If our connections are all that matter, all that live on, shouldn’t expanding the boundaries of our conversations be our primary goal?

Like most of my theories, this all sounds great in my head, but of course is terrifying to put into practice. Can my need to express myself, to grow or die, to indulge my curiosity, to persuade others, overcome the performance anxiety? But maybe these are the wrong questions. Maybe it’s about having the courage to do it anyway, to admit my limitations, to see that they are universally shared, to abandon perfection, and to step off the next cliff and speak up. Leap and the net will appear, as they say.

Here’s another good quote I saw recently, from Theodore Roethke: “Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries.”

With a mix of trepidation, faith, and anticipation, I’m stepping off.

How Cyclists can make the Streets more Car-Friendly*

Photo by ArtBrom

Since all cyclists are such forward-thinking, progressive, equal rights types, it’s time to develop a good list of ways to make the streets more car-friendly. This may make many cyclists gasp, but consider it for a moment.

Until Toronto becomes as advanced as Copenhagen and their bicycle superhighways cyclists will inevitably on their daily commute have to share the road with motorists. So how can you make the streets more pleasant for the motorists?

1. Alternate Route – You probably have a set route that you use to commute to work that could be done with your eyes closed (if it weren’t littered with potholes and fast moving traffic). But do you know another way? Possibly one that is longer, maybe less interesting, but noticeably safer and equipped with better cycling lanes? By getting up earlier and taking the alternate route a few times a week, you could reduce the congestion on your regular route and get a change of scenery on your way to work.
2. Wave and smile – By law motorists in Toronto are supposed to pass cyclists allowing at least a one meter buffer between them. When making a right hand turn near a cyclist, a motorist must yield to the cyclist who is continuing straight. It is often a gamble whether these laws will be respected, so when they are, give the car a “thanks for not killing me” wave and smile.
3. Bad cyclist! Bad! – There are bad cyclists just as there are bad drivers. If you see a cyclist doing something obviously dangerous or illegal – point it out to them. Having informed and skilled cyclists on the road is only going to make life easier for drivers and cyclists alike.
   

These are a few initial ideas, but there are certainly more. Leave your comments and share how you could make the streets more car-friendly.

*As a final note, it is always vitally important that in all automobile, bicycle interactions – the onus should always remain on the driver to practice extra caution at all times. Any collision between a car and a bike will result in more serious injury to the cyclist. A car has more power and weight, and therefore, more responsibility to be aware and alert around all other traffic and pedestrians on the streets.

Place of Smelly Waters

It was mid-August, and I arrived in Chicago as temperatures were skyrocketing. The shores of Lake Michigan were crowded with people soaking in the sun, watching the air show and taking a stroll along the waterfront path.

I had come to Chicago to see Where Are You Go – a documentary about our company’s epic cycling event in Africa. The film has been traveling throughout the world as part of the Bicycle Film Fest, and so far has been received well by large crowds wherever it goes.

But coming for the film was also a chance to explore a city I had only been to once before. My partner and I rented bikes and made use of Chicago’s extensive lakefront paths to see more of the city. The network of cycling and pedestrian paths reminded me a lot of what we have in Toronto; just better.

We had a map and plotted out a route down the lake, and then circling back through the city to the near north side where our hotel was. Our route took us past Prez Obama’s house and into Washington Park to the DuSable Museum of African American History; which is where I got the inspiration for the title of this post.

The museum had come recommended by several sources and seemed like a good southernmost destination for our day out in the city.

It is named for Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, a Haitian American Pioneer of French and African descent. In the early 1770s he became the first known settler to the region. He built a house and opened a trading post in what was known then as Eschikagou by the native people.

In the native language, Eschikagou means place of smelly waters. Jean-Baptiste no doubt would have noticed the strong smell of wild garlic growing along its banks of Lake Michigan, and could appreciate why it was given such a name.

Interestingly, I read this fact on a plaque in the foyer of the museum, but if you search Eschikagau online, you would be hard pressed to find information anywhere that connects it to the smelly meaning.

Besides learning about the origins of the city, the museum is an excellent place for anyone to get a glimpse into the fascinating history of African Americans, like DuSable, who played such a large part in shaping the city that you find today.

The e-site of the future

How exciting can the experience of searching the web be? I found a website that has changed my expectations of the way that information should be presented on the web.

It’s not a blog, it’s not a newspaper, it’s not a tv show, a podcast or an online cartoon. It’s Indigo Brain Media.

It is the Sesame Street way of reading consisting of a flash powered web site with video interaction and lots of graphics. Among other things it allows you to push different buttons to get more detail on the information; you have a nice track playing which is in a way related to the genre of information you are looking at, and there are lots of colors and animations.

The experience is amazing because it requires your full attention, and the experience is different according to your interests. It is a Mexican website, so it also has a lot of folklore in the words used and in some of the “column speakers”.

I leave it to you to think of how useful can this way of delivering information become in the future, where differentiation and online experience will be key aspects for the popularity and survival of web sites.

Thanksgiving weekend: maybe the best holiday

Autumn Colours by Per Ola Wiberg

Although we all enjoy a long weekend, Thanksgiving should get recognition as one of the best throughout the year. The biggest advantage is the opportunity to celebrate with friends or family without any pressure of gift-buying such as we fact in December or Valentines Day. Also we can confidently wish our co-workers a happy Thanksgiving' as there has never been any controversy over what to call the holiday.

The timing is perfect because it happens in the shoulder season of the year falling between summer and the frosty days of autumn. Many folks with cottages designate this as the final overnight visit to the cottage and organize friendly work parties to close the cottage and eat great food in a rustic setting. For the rest of us, the timing is great for sports fans with baseball wrapping up while hockey and football are just beginning. If you stay in the city you can prepare fabulous local food from the bounty available from farm markets.

The ways to celebrate can be elaborate or simple. All you really need is to take a few moments to reflect on the people and abundance in your life and act generously to help others feel the same warmth. Happy holiday!

"The News About the Internet"

If anyone's looking for something interesting to read before next class (and to get a first glance at some of the issues that we'll be specifically talking about in next class), I highly recommend "The News About the Internet," an article in the New York Review of Books. There's an awful lot there to think about and look at.

Blogs of Interest

Here are a few sites worth either reading or, in the case of sites like Perez Hilton or the Drudge Report and I Can Has Cheezeburger knowing about and then never ever ever looking at again.

Aggregators:

Huffington Post
Drudge Report
Kottke.org
Waxy.org
Arts and Letters Daily
BoingBoing
Everyone's Twitter accounts (sort of)

One big (or little) idea:

Gawker Media blogs, especially Gawker, Lifehacker, Jezebel, and Gizmodo
Local news sites, like (obviously!) Torontoist, the Gothamist network, the growing Spacing network, Metroblogging; local photographers like Miles Storey's *MUTE
Drawn!
Five Thirty Eight
Stuff White People Like
Entertainment sites, from Perez Hilton to Best Week Ever to Stereogum and Videogum to The Catbirdseat
PostSecret
Tricks of the Trade
Awkward Family Photos
Bloggasm
The Sartorialist
Toronto Sun Sucks
Photoshop Disasters
Avondale and Logan Square Crime Blotter (more about its creator here)
This is Why You're Fat
Tiny Art Director
Dinosaur Comics
I Can Has Cheezeburger
Wooster Collective
Garfield Minus Garfield Tumblr
Genny Spencer's Twitter
Shit My Dad Says

Media

The Times' Freakonomics Blog
NY Mag
NOW Daily
The Star's Map of the Week Blog
The Star's Antonia Zerbisias's Broadsides
Ryerson Review of Journalism

Personal Blogs

Dooce
Defective Yeti
Anonymous Lawyer

SCS2114 Course Syllabus

The course syllabus, which spells out course details and responsibilities, is available as a PDF here.