Got a Webcam? Leave us a Message with SideFlicks
As my colleagues over at Evilvlog have discovered, the webcam message machine in the sidebar slows everything down too much, so I've put it on its own page and linked to that page from the sidebar.
Thanks, Evilvlog.
Tags: Faux Press Movlog
ramblings :)
ReplyDeleteThat's a cool toy.
How practical is it though?
Have you seen others using it besides evivlog? What are they using it for? Just the random stuff like evilvlog? Or some more specific purpose? And how much is it getting used?
Now that we've redesigned... ahem... wiped out all the crap and rebooted evivlog perhaps we can try this in the sidebar again?
What was loading slow about it? Was it loading like 500k of crap?
I use a plugin called "flash blocker" with Firefox... I highly recommend it. As 99.99% of all Flash on the web is advertising... you can then very easily whitelist any site you like... or enable the any particular flash element simply by clicking on it.
It's an essential tool for "mental environmentalism". Yet another topic which I could speak for hours and hours on. Just see adbusters though. I believe that's where it originated from. :)
Needless to say there is a parallel "mind-space" to the physical space. Cyberspace is one one such mind-space. Mainstream media like radio, newspapers, and TV are part of this mind-space. Some might call it information space... it's what I do... I architect mind-space.... it's called information architecture... it's real world parallel is of course urban planning, plumbing and architecture.
The point is we pollute the mind-space as much as we pollute the real spaces like the earth. Actually, that's an understatement. SInce we have absolutely NO understanding of the detriments of polluting the mind-space... just vague ideas... i.e. columbine, general depression, alcoholism, anorexia and other widespread "social diseases"... and we have yet to explore the relationship between these diseases and mental pollution... i.e. the world wide experiment of television...
Anyway... since we have yet to really explore and understand the relationship of REAL world pollution... let alone "mind-space" pollution... the mind-space is a WAR room. Seriously, and literally. We are all to some extent collateral damage in a war largely waged by corporations over this mind-space. But we also participate in it. Our participation in it... i.e. blogging/vlogging is the new front-line of this war. THe very presence of new media as these has shifted the front.
The front is no longer JUST *adspace* on radio, television and newspapers... the new front-line is now the internet... and to the degree which we define this space and participate in it it WILL become more humane.
The new public space in the mind-space... the new equivalent to the private public spaces of Shopping Malls and workplaces and churches... and the true public spaces like parks and public buildings... is the blog, the bulletin board, podcasting, and videoblogging.... and very scarily... also youtube, and flickr and the like.
It is these private public spaces that scare me the most. Much like a shopping mall which can kick out a person because they don't like what their t-shirt says... or an Airline that can give six middle easterners the boot even though it is completely bigoted and racist just because it's a *private* company... these private public spaces are the new front-line of this war.
These *private public spaces* like airlines are the Birmingham busses of the new era. But whereas that fight was in I believe about racism in public spaces... we now hide our bigotry and racism in these *private public spaces* under the guise of 'homeland security'... and instead of racism we call it "islamophobia".
I call these corporations that own these new *private* public spaces that have increasingly come to dominate our our physical and mental environments (like radio, television, and now the internet) *the new church*. Our new religion of free market economics must be separated from the state just as separation of the separation of the old church and state. The power of this new religion is undermining society.
While I loath their tactics... this is the message of the easter islamic cultures whom find their cultures undermined by our blind workshop of free market economics. The US worship at the alter of free market economics the same as we worship at the alter of the car, and the alter of broadcast media.
It is not that these things are fundamentally evil at all. I love all three of these things... they have great rewards. It is our complete and utter unquestioned and unchecked dependance on these things... to the absence of alternative methods of transportation, like public transportation, and bikes, and walking, and trains, and buses.
And our dependance on broadcast media as THE major propagator of culture... media that excludes our very participation in our culture.
This dependance on the broadcast media in collusion with the unchecked distortion of governance by special interest money from free market organizations (corporations)
Our over-dependance on the automobile is just an example to me... an example of great interest.
But what my focus on, where I believe the greatest danger is at. Is that the unchecked collusion of corporations in politics, especially broadcast media. So called special interest money... politics, particularly in the FCC, particularly in setting policy for intellectual property... particularly the issue of network neutrality, copyright, WIPO and the WIPO treaties... threatens to further derail and undermine the very core freedoms that have allowed US... the new generation of netizens, a new more human balance in this mind-space.
We must continue to not only create this mind-space through blogging, podcasting, vlogging, and setting up our own bboards and discussion groups.
But we must continue to own and expand our freedoms and experiments in creating our own spaces. Spaces where WE can redefine democracy, redefine freedom, redefine intellectual property and law... such as has been done with the GPL, open source, and Creative Commons... and redefine the very mechanisms and constructs by which we participate and collaborate societally, culturally, and economically.
In short... in order for the world to continue to become more humane, we must increasingly take the power back as people from the modern institutions of corporations and governance to keep the mind-space open and free.
This new frontier of the mind-space, is no less critical to the progression of humanity then discovery of the new world, the west... the colonization of this new frontier, this new mind-space is no less an opportunity, and perhaps much greater of an opportunity to recreate a more humane world (yes I'm talking utopian vision) then that world that came before it.
There is a direct parallel between the colonists of this new frontier, the internet, who flee persecution from the tyranny of the past economic and political bureaucracies... a parallel with those who fled the economic hardships, and religious and political persecutions of of european and other old world cultures to colonize the new frontiers, the new world.
As they sought out and establish new models for political, religious and economic freedoms establishing among other things the U.S. constitution... so to do we flee the persecutions not only of physical realities but of the persecutions of our present economic and political systems... seeking out something better than a culture driven by completely by the cult of mass popularity, a culture driven by participation... economic collaborations more equitable then working for a corporation... i.e. open source... and a political climate more effective then such as out two party democratic system which is endlessly undermined by scandal and bastardized by the special interests of private economic institutions.
Its not that which we are leaving behind is bad... sure it has it's evils, but so to will future systems be imperfect. It is the opportunity to do better... to borrow another's words... "to establish a more perfect union" all people. To take what we learn in these new frontiers, this mind-space... and have it inform, elevate and improve the real world realities.
Some of my favorite elements of reality are...
a) the rebirth and new respect for geographical proximity (aka. localism)
b) the rebirth of general public participation in creating and defining the great debates of which there are three... the creation of culture... the political debate, and economics
and above all, a few specific elements, new economic models for the a more equitable distribution of wealth goods and service...
c) micro-lending.
d) social capital... the economy beyond money... a new understanding of the foundation of modern economics
and finally
e) what has been called the "economy of abundance" or a world in which everything is free.
The premise of this last... being that there is a more equitable economic situation then that of creating an economy of have and have and have nots. An increasing realization that there is not only a moral and ethical imperative but a great economic advantage in making sure all the world has access not only to education, food, shelter and clothing, but also the internet... and with it access to a new necessity of life... one we are just beginning to understand... a fundamental *access* to our own culture.
To put it bluntly and simply as possible. Selling our culture on little plastic discs which you either had or did not have access to is an incredibly myopic and stupid model.
What is being learned...as has been learned with necessities like water and clothing... is that we not only MUST we provide a basic access... but that providing basic access... to health care... to food water, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education... AND even elements of our culture like music, books, and movies... actually has tremendous economic advantage.
You can give compete with free. We can freely provide water to everyone in the world for free and have a thriving industry for water.
We can make sure the whole world is clothed by giving away water for free to those who need it... to meet the basic necessity... and yet perhaps even BECAUSE this necessity is met... then have an amazing thriving market for fashion of all manner.
And above all as teachers, musician, writers, directors, and artists everywhere are proving... we can give the world universal access... some root level of access to every facet of our intellectual world and culture... we can give it away for free and yet precisely because of this basic access... our economy will explode.
Some call this "open access media"... some call it a "economy of abundance".
It is definitely an economy beyond have and have nots, an economy beyond the scarcity model.
I call it an economy of *appreciation*, of which I will have to explain some other time. Needless to say, a musician can give away an low quality mp3 for free... to participate in the cultural debate because they have provided this fundamental access establish an *appreciation* of their craft that is endlessly marketable in an endless variety of "experiences", such as not only merchandise or concerts, but also as high quality mp3's, CD's, Vinyl, and other various experiences of increasing quality and variety.
The fundamental questions are only this.
How much do we give away for free?
How much do we hold in reserve?
And how do we package what we hold into desirable products and experiences?
The answer to the first two is a simple question of "sell-side" supply and demand economics. It is already happening. More and more is being made available for free (legally) every day. More artists give away more and more mp3's... there are more movie trailers... longer and better... google digitizes and makes searchable more and more books, podcasters and videobloggers, share more music, ideas, and of their craft... and writers leave more ideas, thoughts and writing on their blogs... and in other people's blogs in their comments. ;)
By doing all these things we are creating not a utopia, but we are incrementally improving on and making the world more humane, and more equitable and full of opportunity for all humankind.
Will such simple ideas as this idea of providing universal access solve the problem of world hunger... probably not, but wether a tiny or larger piece of the puzzle (I cannot say) it is definitely another piece of the puzzle in some way. it is definitely progress.
Stole the toy from Evilvlog and haven't seen it elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteWere it effective, part of it would be very small and embeddable in every post with an aggregator for the sidebar so folks could comment "on" posts.
Oh well :)
I'm up in the middle of the night without enough brain power to digest your long post - but thanks for adding your mindspace thoughts to my public mindspace.
Very exciting.