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CC Potential

I was thinking recently about the incredible potential behind the Creative Commons, and how it is nowhere near being realized. Some people get it – ccMixter for instance. But for some reason the same doesn’t happen with video or text. People are publishing both under CC licenses, but nothing is really being remixed yet. I’m waiting for people to realize the potential behind such services as blip.tv which has loads of videos licensed under CC, and allows downloads of the source file. From that, incredible things can be made.

One thing I would love to see, but for a number of reasons do not expect to, is CC licensed concert footage. There are already a very large number of artists who allow recordings of live shows to be freely traded on the internet (note, not under CC licenses in most cases). The logic behind moves like this is pretty simple: bands make more money touring than they do on CDs. If they allow recordings to be freely tradeable online, they can reach people they never would have otherwise, build a bigger fan base, and get more gigs. If people in the audience were allowed to film shows, with the condition that they had to share them online, videos could be made of every show, from several angles, using a high quality audio recording (like those already available) for the soundtrack. Just think of what we could be doing.

Pet Peeves

I don’t have many, but here are some:
“Which begs the question…”
ferret_yawn
Begging the question is a logical fallacy, not an obvious question. Read wikipedia.

Toothpaste. Not toothpaste in general, but the way people tend to use it. Toothpaste tubes are meant to be squeezed from then end, not the middle. It makes them work better, and makes everyone happier. I’m stunned by the number of people who do this.

Class

Last semester, I really liked my classes because there wasn’t any bullshit in the way of learning. We could just show up, listen, and learn. It was wonderful. And after my second class of this semester, I realized what makes the difference. In my first class, most people were taking it as a Gen. Ed. (it’s actually in my major), so they didn’t care about the subject. The class was structured with this in mind, with lots of busy work and other needless projects that will not foster any learning. In my next class, the professor sat down in front of the class, and talked with us, encouraging us to contribute our ideas to the class. There is one test in the entire class, one large paper, and two small papers. That is the extent of the work we need to submit in the class. The rest will be reading and discussion in class.

The difference is between making students learn, and assuming they want to. In the latter, there is no work challenging students to prove that they’re actually trying, it is assumed. This makes class much more enjoyable, and makes a lot of sense.

The Subjective Web

I’ve been reading a lot of gloom and doom posts regarding the internet. I’m not sure what internet these people are on, but it’s not mine. The internet is redefining its purpose in our lives, and this is scaring some people. I think some of these people may be from the old internet – before and during the bubble. That is a little before my time, but during my time on the net, it has still changed a good deal. We have to change with it.

In a post about the results of releasing a book in print and online (for free) at the same time, Chris Kelty writes, “The Internet is dead.” Ok, that’s a bit out of context, but what he does mean is that anything on the internet is not instantly special anymore. Yes, there was a time when something gained a certain amount of prestige and attention for being on the web, but that time has long past. But that doesn’t mean the internet has nothing to offer books. I only read Kelty’s post because it was quoted on a blog about an upcoming book. That gift of exposure is something huge that the internet has to offer us. Things posted online do not automatically garner attention, but they have the potential to. I certainly would have never heard about either book (Siva’s or Kelty’s) without their respective websites. This post (or any blog post for that matter) is a perfect example of that potential: I don’t expect many people to read it, but they could…which actually brings me to my next point.

Read Write Web posted about how the social web is changing things. Except that isn’t how they’re phrasing it – the title of the article is “The Unforeseen Consequences of the Social Web.” They share Kelty’s sentiments that the internet is getting crowded, pointing to the popularity of some social sites. They also talk about privacy issues with the social web. I remember hearing a lot of this when facebook created their news feed. No new information was shared – people had access to exactly the same information as they had before, but it became more visible. The same problem is true of the social web: tweets are inherently public, but the social web makes it so they could gain attention quickly, and often create mirrors of that information elsewhere (that you cannot control).

All of these problems seem to stem from the same thing: what people expect from the web, and what they actually get. In the first case, Kelty was surprised to find that popularity of a work on the internet takes as much effort as popularity in the ‘real world.’ This does not mean the internet has failed him. In the second, people are upset about their lack of privacy on the web. This does not mean the internet is too intrusive. What this does mean is that people need to reevaluate their relationship with the web, and better understand what it is, and what it is not. The web can be a lot of things, but treating it like something it is not will always let you down.

Runs With Powdered Milk

I’d been meaning for a while now to actually try powdered milk. It isn’t something I’ve ever had before, but it seemed to be a good option for the Tour. And it turns out, it’s pretty good. Taste wise. And it can travel really well, and has all the vitamins and stuff that regular milk has. So that is good news: we’ll have milk on the bus.

Adventures in Breadland

Nice, I made cornbread and a loaf of wheat bread today. It’s good. My first time baking wheat bread – just as easy as other bread. First time with cornbread too, now that I think of it. It is way tasty, though my lack of an appropriate pan made it bake a little weird. Also, cornbread is even easier than other breads. Seriously, in the time it took the loaf of wheat to rise, I mixed, cooked, and let cool the cornbread.
Cornbread
Cornbread recipe on the side of the cornmeal box. Still tasty.
Wheat Bread recipe via smitten kitchen.

Mmmm…much better

All better. At least with this site. I could give a shit about the rest of them. As long as my home online is a-ok, I’m happy. Was gettin stressed out last night over this stuff, but now that I’ve got one place to keep myself grounded, I’m feelin fine again. Alright.

I thought I had something else to post about. Coulda sworn it. Joe has been pulling this in conversations recently, starting off by saying he had something good to say, but forgot it. I think it’s rubbing off. Bummer. Well, I’ll post something someday.

Jesus Fucking Christ

So that server move is not going smoothly. Every wordpress install I have has problems, and the landshark site has new issues. Best of all, my ISP blocks the ports I need to fix it. So I’ll have to go to the library or something and see if I can get anything done. Troubleshooting in public is not a pretty thing – nerd rage should be kept hidden.

Whoops

So, I’m on a new (physical) server now, with the same great company, but the switched killed my last two posts. It’s ok, they were just boring photo posts.

Anyway, started class today, and I wanted to write them down so I don’t forget them:
Contemporary Native Americans, Cross-Cultural Communication, Studies in Literature & Culture, Hist of Latinos/as in U.S., and Philosophical Foundation of Human Rights.

Also, while I’m at it, last semester’s:
Poetry, The Short Story, Sociology of Gender, The City in Western Tradition, and The History of Urban America.

Movie Night

So I watched two movies tonight – one of those nights. First was a movie someone got me because it involves people traveling around in a bus. It was actually a pilot for a tv series in the early 70s that never got picked up: In Search of America. First off, he has a really nice bus. For all they do to try and make it look like a ratty piece of crap, his bus is seriously sweet, and a hell of a lot more money went into it than my bus. Past that, the movie is incredibly predictable, and not especially interesting. It somehow manages to be preachy without having any message.

Later, I watched Shortbus. Shortbus is good. See it. Preferably with open minded people. It made me want to go to New York, or some big city, where you can actually interact with strangers. Somehow, that doesn’t happen at UConn. Even though I’m surrounded by twenty thousand people, the rules are different, and strangers aren’t welcome unless everyone is drunk. Even though we never really talk to our neighbors, they’re not strangers – they know us in their own way (“It was four in the morning and they were throwing things at the wall!“). That potential for interaction with radically different people is pretty well summed up in a story by Elna Baker that I listened to between movies (Yes Means Yes). So there you go – a very media rich night.