First, I want to be clear: I have not installed, used or been invited to use Google Wave.  That’s my disclaimer, and I’m sticking to it, for now.

The Google Wave team sent out invitations to an additional 100,000+ test users starting September 29, 2009 (the original preview was for developers only and the number of developers involved has not been broadcast).  This set of users consists of three main subgroups: public users who signed up early, developers, and a select group of Google Apps users.  So what are they getting?

Google Wave has been highlighted in many ways: as a real-time communication platform, as a reinvention of e-mail for the 21^st century and as an online collaboration game-changer.  There are an enormous number of articles and posts on Google Wave available and I’m not going to try to be comprehensive about this (I will provide links at the end of this post if you wish to do some more reading on your own).  What I am going to do is point out a few things that I think are truly interesting and compelling about what Google is trying to accomplish with Wave, and a few open questions I have about how it might work or be adopted. Read more…

A variety of different types of video formats were used in putting this piece together.

“Sondella” is a Xhosa word which means “come closer”. The footage was shot with a:

Panasonic GH1 Digital SLR micro 4/3’s sensor @ 1080/24p – AVCHD
Nikon D90 Digital SLR @ 720p M-JPEG
Panasonic DVX-200 Standard Definition 720/24p

The piece was edited together using Final Cut Pro 7 with a wee bit of color grading using Color and a sprinkle of optical flow filter using Motion.

Let me know if you can name which part was shot with what camera.

Through the use of digital media and social software artists performing in Seattle and South Africa are be-coming closer. This web-based offering is but a first step…for when these artists are able to actually be in the same time zone, zip code, and space they will manifest a movement that amasses major moves that matter.

On Sept. 9, the Beatles finally entered the world of digital music. This was an inevitable move, but what’s truly interesting is how they chose to do it. Well-known Beatles fan Steve Jobs has yet to secure the world-famous music catalog in a digital format for iTunes. So who did? MTV/Viacom and their video game studio Harmonix, which created “Rock Band: The Beatles” for video game consoles.

Money is said to be one of the sticking points in the negotiations to bring the Beatles’ catalog to iTunes. I have no doubt that money influenced the Beatles’ decision to do a video game, but I’d also bet that they wanted to do something different and cutting-edge. Read more…

“You’re punk rock.”

That’s how a Microsoft staffer described our digital media Masters program at the conclusion of my recruiting presentation late last year.  Loud, brash, aggressive, simplistic, imperfect?

Actually, punk was a reaction to an old world order of music.  Just caught this passage in the liner notes to the first Cowboy Junkies CD, originally released in 1985:

One of punk’s lasting legacies perhaps the most dramatic of the changes that it brought about, was proving that you don’t need to be signed to a major label to make a major record.  In the early ’70’s, it seemed inconceivable that a band could literally “do it yourself.”…Punk had been a reaction to the 48 track studio system that had taken the means of making records away from new bands in the first place…

Despite my staid upbringing in law and TV journalism, I’m slightly subversive.  So I see opportunity in how digital media disrupts the concentrated power and high barriers to entry of traditional communication.  We named this site with that disruption in mind: flip the media.

And today, we’re rolling out the Media Space, our online collaborative platform — the front door to the community media lab we’re building here at the University of Washington.  Believe it or not, collaboration is not easy in higher education. Academics specialize in niche subject areas, research relies on funding for highly specific deliverables.  The “ivory tower” is actually a collection of silos.

Obviously, that won’t fly in a graduate program where we focus our attention on communication in a networked, interactive world.  And we had to ensure that we’re practicing some of what we’re studying, such as Shirky’s Holy Trinity: sharing, cooperation, collective action.  (My colleague, Kathy Gill’s Twitter book class is an example of how we work and the discussion we provoke)  So we needed an online platform to make that happen.  And it all begins with “Got an idea?”

Read more…

The only thing certain about Twitter may be its uncertainty. The microblogging service is booming, but more than 60 percent of users quit Twitter after a month. Partnerships are rumored, as are acquisitions, but so far these remain mere gossip.

Considering Twitter’s fickle future, Shel Israel, coauthor of Naked Conversations and The Conversational Corporation, is risking immediate antiquity with Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods, which hit bookshelves and Kindles on Sept. 3. However, much like a sports commentator providing deep analysis mid-game, Israel takes a look at what’s happened with Twitter so far, explains it with enthusiasm and candor, and leaves us with a better sense of what’s happened and what’s ahead.

For those immersed in social media, Shel Israel comes with serious street cred. He coauthored Naked Conversations with blogger and tech evangelist Robert Scoble. Groundswell author and Altimeter Group founder Charlene Li provides the foreword for this book. Brian Solis, principal of FutureWorks, took Israel’s booksleeve headshot. And in the book, Israel name-drops hanging out with Jeremiah Owyang, perhaps the most visible tech consultant on Twitter. The average citizen of Twitterville wouldn’t recognize these names, but communications professionals — the intended audience of this book — recognize these names as prominent social communications experts, setting up high expectations for the book.

In an entertaining and compelling first half of the book, Israel doesn’t disappoint. Read more…

As a new addition to the MCDM family, I’d like to introduce myself by posting a story regarding my recent travels to South Africa. Looking forward to many great happenings as the Associate Director of the MCDM.

Scott Macklin participated in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Diversity Conference – BREAKING BOUNDARIES, EMBRACING DIFFERENCES in August. Featured in the week of events included a screeing of his film, “Masizakhe: Building Each Other” and follow up panel discussions. This was the film’s homecoming.

“Masizakhe: Building Each Other” from Scott Macklin on Vimeo.

Read more…

In the wake of DePaul University’s announcement about its forthcoming journalism class focused on Twitter, John Cook at TechFlash has written about the University of Washington’s graduate-level summer course focused on Twitter.

Read more…

In England and New York City, The Economist is testing a program where customers can order a copy of the magazine by 9 pm on Thursday and have it delivered to their home before 6 am on Friday. The price? The same as the newsstands, which don’t receive the magazine until 9 am on Friday.

According to AdAge:

New Yorkers who have signed up for weekly texts announcing each issue’s topics will also receive a URL for a web page they can visit to order the issue. [...] The Economist’s on-demand delivery service aims to make it easier for occasional readers to buy on demand. [...]

Overnighted copies cost $6.99, just like newsstand copies readers have to go get themselves. The Economist says the resulting circulation revenue is just as profitable because the delivered copies don’t require giving cuts to retailers or wholesalers.

I’m a member of the “print isn’t going away soon” school, although I also believe that digital delivery is the direction. When Kindle/Sony eReader figure out how to “loan” and “sell used” copies, then that medium will take off.

I think it’s great that TheEconomist is experimenting with new distribution models. I don’t know TheEconomist sales per issue versus sales by subscription ratio, but it would be an interesting data point. Anyone? Disclaimer: I’ve been a subscriber to TheEconomist since graduate school.