Frontline's "Digital Nation"

An excellent documentary, broken in 8-10 minute pieces (so I can teach with it) that tries to "pause" and look around at how the human experience is changing and evolving (or devolving?) as our lives become digital.

Frontline comes through again. Watch the whole program online. Fan them.

Social Media (Did You Know Mashup)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

Amazing photos from Mars are released...is anyone watching?

A bouncing boulder comes to a stop...on mars!

A (false color) detail
of sand dunes (above) and the actual photo (right).

Gully channels show evidence of water activity.

I remember how the whole world stopped and held its breath when the first men stepped out onto the lunar surface. It seems surreal that the headline for ice on Mars came and went and these other-worldly photos are being missed.

They're talking about Web 3.0

Experts ask if the future web I see will be the same one you see. They wonder if we will continue surfing or have machines do it for us. Google has one vision of our future (based on their ubiquitous apps) while the inventor of the web,Tim Berners-Lee explains how the semantic web is evolving, where information brings multiple connections linking databases together.

Digital Inspiration brings together several different presentations to explore this debate on where the web is going.

Google Wonder Wheel

Does everybody already know about the options Google has for searches? (They went live last May, but I missed it then.) Do a Google search, then, on the top left side, click on "more options." You can see your results in a whole lot of different ways, but to see them visually in a concept/mind map kind of way, click on "Wonder Wheel." Click and play, or get instructions at Google's site.

Muzorama animation --- nonlinear storytelling

Reposted from NPR:
"You’re not losing your mind. You’re just spending a few minutes in Muzorama.

When we hear the word “animation” many of us think of the narrative storytelling of The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Pinocchio, or Shrek, but when you enter the universe of Muzorama all the laws of physics and logic surrender to the unpredictable imagination of French illustrator Muzo and the Muzorama team.

Produced in 2008, Muzorama is not merely a 3D animation, but a Jungian, psychedelic freefall of visual irony, extremely inventive situations and unending surprises."

Muzorama from Muzorama Team on Vimeo.

"Did You Know" + Creative Commons = Powerful New Media

Exploring what happens to a good idea online by looking at "Did You Know? 2.0," Creative Commons, how people have riffed on the material, and the latest version just released, "Did You Know 4.0). It's a great example of how Creative Commons allows a good idea to be adapted, developed, updated, and transformed.