Groundswell: How People With Social Technologies Are Changing Everything

We use the metaphor of a ladder to show this, with the rungs at the higher end of the ladder indicating a higher level of participation. —Forrester Similar:Poetry Stimulates the Brain's Reward-Anticipation Arousal Near Ends of StanzasI fixed the NY Mag’s clickbaity title, “…AestheticsPublic, Private, Political: Social Theories and Blogging PracticesPublic, Private, Political: Social Theor…AcademiaNo…

Rihanna to star in Universal's 'Battleship'

Director Peter Berg is expected to soon begin shooting the live-action tentpole based on Hasbro’s naval combat board game. —Variety Boggle. Trouble. Sorry. Similar:A study in breaking news headlines.For the UK Guardian, the news is the wor…CultureMan of the People (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 3) When a tranquil envoy make…Rewatching ST:TNG Called to…

Blender 2.53 Beta Released

The Blender Foundation has announced its release of version 2.53 beta. Blender is a free, open-source 3D animation and game design package. I’ve taught it in the past in my New Media Projects course, but no student has ever chosen a Blender creation for a term project, and some of my textually-minded English majors have…

Is The Game Industry A Happy Place?

No, the awesome mascot-based space platformer you cheerily sketched on graph paper when you were supposed to be focused on math homework is not going straight to production. No, in fact, there are not a million page views at the ready for your exhaustive essay on the themes of Silent Hill 2. You will probably…

Almost there…

There is a documentary film on text adventures here. Paths lead off in all directions.>get GET LAMP Similar:The Dauphin (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 10)A pretty 16yo destined to bring peace to…AmusingDespite its impressive output, generative AI doesn’t have a coherent understanding of the …[A] popular type of generative AI model&…CybercultureNYPD's Lt. Cattani offers heartfelt…

Should Journalists Learn Programming Skills?

How very apt… the answer comes in the form of a flowchart. (10000words.net) Similar:The Minecraft GenerationIt’s a world of trial and error and cons…AestheticsIn September, 2000, I was blogging about PICK UP AX, Bellamy's Looking Backward, WB Yeats,…In September 2000, I was blogging about …BusinessWhy We’ll Never Live in SpaceAs much as I love escapist…

The art of slow reading

Still reading? You’re probably in a dwindling minority. But no matter: a literary revolution is at hand. First we had slow food, then slow travel. Now, those campaigns are joined by a slow-reading movement – a disparate bunch of academics and intellectuals who want us to take our time while reading, and re-reading. They ask…

Unpublished Twain Autobiography Rails Against YouTube, BP, War In Afghanistan

Editors of the long-awaited autobiography of Mark Twain said Tuesday they were surprised to discover the unedited manuscript of the forthcoming book contains lashing, in-depth criticism of the website YouTube, the recent BP oil spill, and the ongoing military action in Afghanistan. —The Onion Similar:Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, dies aged 89Harper…

What's Really Going on Behind Murdoch's Paywall?

In a desperate attempt to preserve the financial integrity of journalism size of his revenue stream, media mogul Rupert Murdoch recently put content at the UK TImes and Sunday Times behind a pay firewall. The information-wants-to-be-free crowd can’t wait to see this experiment fail. A Murdoch and Fleet Street veteran with whom I’ve been corresponding…

Updating my "Writing About Interactive Fiction" page

Creating interactive fiction (a genre also know as “text adventures”) means writing computer code that represents objects and behaviors, while also creating interesting characters, a compelling plot, and maybe a few narrative surprises, all of which can be assembled for a reader to experience in multiple different ways. The resources that follow are intended to…

Some iPad Art

After Safari (which comes with the iPad), the app I spend the most time with is definitely SketchBook Pro.  While it’s possible to use a stylus, I don’t have one — I just use my finger. Here’s the first picture I drew — a space shuttle that was, at the time, featuring prominently in the…

MySpace Diatribe Brings Death Threats

The case, California’s first on the issue, concerns a University of California student who ranted on her MySpace account about how much she hated her hometown of Coalinga in the Central Valley. The Coalinga Record, the local newspaper, published Cynthia Moreno’s “Ode.” She sued the paper for invasion of privacy after members of the local…