tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:31:17 +0000Nora Young's blog about the intersection of technology and modern culture.http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Nora)Blogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-3753522243891255968Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:37:00 +00002009-01-29T11:41:40.126-05:00Fox News (yes, I know) is reporting that a digital road sign in Austin, Texas was hacked recently. The impish hackers changed the sign to read “Zombies Ahead”. Heh, zombies. Foxnews.com says that: “According to the blog i-hacked.com, some commercial road signs, including those manufactured by IMAGO's ADDCO division, can be easily altered because their instrument panels are frequently http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2009/01/everyone-loves-zombie.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-2220748243782934950Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:49:00 +00002009-01-18T17:12:24.440-05:00hyper-localismnatureAnother new coffee shop opened up in my area recently, called-ahem-Coffee Shop. It's so new, I can't find it online, but it's right by Clafouti, across from Trinity Bellwoods Park. Nothing much unusual about that; every time you walk down that strip of Queen Street there's something new opening up, or--more and more often, it seems--closing down. What I noticed about it, though, was the cleverhttp://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2009/01/flying-squirrel-flag.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-1210581783227092457Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:22:00 +00002008-09-16T14:31:38.417-04:00McLuhanA guest I interviewed today for Spark reminded me of a great McLuhan quotation: "We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future."We're always looking at technological change in its immediate technical impacts, but with very little sense of all the social organization that surrounds it. The way the social changes with new technology always seems to catch us http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/09/mcluhan-fer-ya.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-1415625772608810012Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:51:00 +00002008-09-04T15:56:24.409-04:00timefuturismnoodlingI saw this cool post at New Scientist, suggesting that we no longer have a clear sense of when "The Future" is, in the way that we once would have said 'the year 2000' or 'the 21st century'.I wonder whether it's actually that we now live in a time of perpetual almostfuture. In the way that we have ennui about technological innovation, and lack surprise, hope and delight about the future. We http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/09/life-in-perpetual-future.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-753069574906533786Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:57:00 +00002008-08-28T17:00:45.601-04:00We just put the first episode of the new season of Spark to bed. We've been working with Chris Kelly from CBC Radio 3, while Dan has been working elsewhere for a little bit. It's amazing how much more exciting it is when you actually hear it as audio, rather than as a bunch of scripts. A kind of alchemy, really. Now only another 41 to make!http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/08/first-one-is-in-can.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-550196228999793885Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:09:00 +00002008-08-25T11:14:14.790-04:00weird artenvironmentFollowing on my last post, Trendhunter points out these silhouette images of animals fused with weapons. It's a bit more ambiguous than Ludo's images. Is it making the point that humans are engaged in a kind of warfare on wildlife, or is it a more ambiguous and Ludo-esque evocation of wildlife's retaliation--kind of, wildlife-as-suicide-bomber?http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/08/more-animals-with-weapons.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-3436850024468010725Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:28:00 +00002008-08-12T11:04:13.204-04:00weird artenvironmentcyborgsLately, I've been thinking about cyborg chic. If we are inching towards a cyborg reality in medical innovations, perhaps we are also moving towards an aesthetic of obvious human/machine crossover. For instance, consider the cell phone ads featuring hands made up of cell phones, or the hot rising star, the deliberately cyborg-esque singer Janelle Monae. The weirdly bloated, waxy effect of http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/08/file-under-weird-art.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-254917426548308380Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:04:00 +00002008-06-24T09:23:33.861-04:00podcastingPAB2008Just came back from Podcasters Across Borders (my third). Great to see old friends again, of course, and to learn some new tricks of the trade. It inspired me to be more diligent about audio quality with thesniffer. It was also interesting to see how the podcasting community has evolved over the past three years. There seems to be a comfort with different streams of podcasting. For some http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/06/podcasters-unite.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-6951757039186486051Wed, 21 May 2008 11:36:00 +00002008-05-21T07:43:54.615-04:00speaking engagementsliteracyGave a talk last night to a great group of teacher-librarians from the Toronto District School Board. It was about social media, the increasingly social character of information, and ethics online, as we move into the reputation economy. They were clearly so passionate about literacy, access to information, and learning in general. It was just great to be around that kind of energy.http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/05/teachers-librarians-and-future-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-3567074711185600204Wed, 07 May 2008 20:50:00 +00002008-05-07T16:58:44.958-04:00surveillancetechnologyplaceThe New York Times' "Sunday Styles" page on the 4th featured this story about software that allows parents to check their children's attendance records and test scores on a daily basis.According to the article,"With names like Edline, ParentConnect, Pinnacle Internet Viewer and PowerSchool, the software is used by thousands of schools, kindergarten through 12th grade. PowerSchool alone is used byhttp://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/05/what-to-make-of-this.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-2838446335860782546Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:03:00 +00002008-04-29T11:11:26.533-04:00I've been thinking a bit lately about whether location matters anymore. Now that we have all these tools for remote collaboration, does it still matter if you are physically proximate to colleagues? To a larger community? And if it doesn't, why do we still get together in physical space?I suspect there are things we get from each other by being in real, physical space that we will never be able http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-hick-tech.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-6711886912050501323Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:24:00 +00002008-04-10T17:33:27.269-04:00marketingfashionWomen's Wear Daily notes that Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld is going to have a 'cameo' in the new version of the Grand Theft Auto video game. He's going to play a DJ. (via PSFK) Aside from the fact that it's hard to imagine a significant overlap between Chanel-wearers and Grand Theft Auto-players, it's another example of the increasing range of 'stealth' marketing going on. It's interesting how many http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/04/karl-lagerfeld-dj.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-936839695212493855Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:36:00 +00002008-04-04T09:40:29.874-04:00communicationBetween my personal communication channels, and Spark communication, my morning routine now involves:-checking my and the show's work email-checking my personal email-moderating the show blog comments-adding my own comments-updating my and the show's twitter feedsAnd that doesn't include the semi-regular actual blog entries for the show or this blog, or thesniffer blog.The one thing the morning http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/04/open-channels.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-8984997909122593779Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:32:00 +00002008-04-01T18:46:09.898-04:00microtrendspop cultureWe've all had that experience where we think we've 'discovered' some cool/weird new trend online, only to be met with eye-rolling from friends and colleagues and the inevitable "ungh. that's been around for ages." I had that experience today, talking to my colleagues about 'sweding', after reading about it in one of WIRED's blogs.The term "sweding" comes from the Michel Gondry film, Be Kind http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/04/lacunae-of-interwebs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-1836820250894109341Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:29:00 +00002008-03-26T14:39:33.059-04:00arthacksAmidst all the increasingly invasive, extreme, (or, on a lighter note, interactive) advertising out there, here's an intriguing little border war. Textually reports that a teenaged graffiti artist named Skullphone hacked into a bunch of digital billboards in Southern California, replacing the ads with his logo of a, er, skullphone. Probably most arresting less because of the hack and more http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/03/advertising-turf-wars.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-3916126290133608383Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:36:00 +00002008-03-17T13:39:34.695-04:00perceptionMy colleague and pal, Matt Galloway, tipped me off to this fascinating video. If I tell you anything about it, it might spoil it.http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/03/awareness-test.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-732179344339158492Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:27:00 +00002008-03-16T16:30:32.314-04:00Well, that little hiatus turned out to be, um, lengthy, but the show seems to be a bird in flight now, so I'm eager to get back to the crisper! I'd like it to be a scratch pad for some of what I'm working on, particularly issues around how our sense of place and time is shifting.http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2008/03/back-in-action.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-892919947607005301Sun, 14 Oct 2007 21:44:00 +00002007-10-14T17:47:04.798-04:00hiatusThings have been so busy with Spark, not only the show, but keeping up the Web side of it, that I've had to say bye bye to personal blogging for the time being. It seems to work best for me as a sort of 'place holder' for ideas that I haven't written down more formally yet, and these days, most of my ideas are ending up on Spark. Hope to be back to it soon.http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2007/10/blogging-mia.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-3561619084222560975Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:07:00 +00002007-06-19T20:46:45.575-04:00My new show, Spark, is going on the air on CBC radio one in September. Woo Hoo! More deets to follow. Many thanks to Nicola, Tom and Pedro for being amazing producers! There's a little more about what the show is about at the show bloghttp://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2007/06/my-new-show.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-7563645582249326603Thu, 14 Jun 2007 12:03:00 +00002007-06-14T08:13:05.680-04:00Marc Andreessen has a fascinating look at Facebook Platform. He looks, first, at the difference between applications and platforms, but then, at how the insanely viral quality of Facebook can create huge scalability problems for successful applications. (Think of the bad rap Twitter got when it looked as though they were having problems with this). His point is that successful apps in Facebookhttp://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2007/06/pros-and-cons-of-viral.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-1128551328369430213Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:20:00 +00002007-06-13T13:23:02.407-04:00Here's one way to deal with info overload. The Guardian has a story about bloggers Fred Wilson and Jeff Nolan who declared email bankruptcy. They were so far behind on emails, they simply announced that they weren't going to reply to any. "I am starting over," said one.http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2007/06/reboot.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-6111442933042482919Wed, 30 May 2007 21:13:00 +00002007-05-30T17:18:25.809-04:00self-promotionMESH 07social mediaJust participated in a panel on how the Web is changing the way we use media, and in particular, how social media is changing our relationship to media. Part of the MESH '07 conference. Interesting co-panelists: Mark Federman, who I have interviewed before for my CBC column, and who brought a very refreshing McLuhanite perspective to the table, and Mark Schneider, veteran journalist who now http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2007/05/mesh.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-2880491694856197276Tue, 29 May 2007 13:14:00 +00002007-05-29T09:16:50.134-04:00pilotsCBCWe finished making the pilots for a proposed new show for CBC Radio called Spark. I worked with the producers of And Sometimes Y, which was fabulous. They're really smart, funny, creative people. It makes such a big difference to any type of creative process.http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2007/05/back-again.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-117534820504288480Sat, 31 Mar 2007 14:34:00 +00002007-03-31T10:36:45.050-04:00Hi,I admit it may seem ridiculous that I'm starting a new blog, when I update poor crispermachine so infrequently, but I've set up this Vox blog to focus specifically on the link between new social media and MSM, with an eye to experimenting with new ways of doing journalism. Please come visit! Leave your thoughts!http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2007/03/new-blog.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11314643.post-116905319188825909Wed, 17 Jan 2007 16:46:00 +00002007-01-17T11:59:51.900-05:00I've been meaning to post on this for a while now. In December, Chris Anderson, (editor in chief at WIRED magazine and author of The Long Tail, which I first mentioned here back in '05) posted on what transparency in mass media might look like. One of the pithiest summaries of its application to the Web is THEN: We control the site. Editors are gatekeepers. NOW: We share control with readers. http://crispermachine.blogspot.com/2007/01/power-of-transparency.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nora)0