Media Revolutions tag:,2008:/4 2008-09-14T16:39:57Z Movable Type 3.32 Oncofertility Short Documentary Series tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2008://4.87 2008-09-14T16:33:33Z 2008-09-14T16:39:57Z This summer I served as Producer on a pilot project at Northwestern called the Oncofertility Communications Initiative (OCI). The OCI's goals were to produce a short documentary series about cancer patients and the challenges they have faced related to having... Sean Zehnder http://www.seanzehnder.com http://oncofertility.northwestern.edu/for-patients/videos I have enjoyed the project immensely, and am very proud of the pieces that our filmmakers Uji Films and Kartemquin Films have produced.]]> Socialesque, LLC tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2008://4.86 2008-03-13T20:40:05Z 2008-03-13T20:51:28Z A little shameless self-promotion here... I recently started a company called Socialesque with an old friend and fellow Media Revolutions Project member, Varun Nayak. At Socialesque, we've developed a rather unique mix of tools to help marketers track user and... Sean Zehnder http://www.seanzehnder.com www.socialesque.com]]> Mmmmmm...Raw Eggs! tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2007://4.84 2007-12-17T20:13:55Z 2007-12-28T14:47:10Z Ever had homemade egg nog? I did once. At a party in college. We were scared of it, and sipped on it politely until we could make our way one by one to the bathroom and flush it away. Since... Emily Zehnder Ever had homemade egg nog? I did once. At a party in college. We were scared of it, and sipped on it politely until we could make our way one by one to the bathroom and flush it away. Since then, I've been more than happy with the supermarket stuff, particularly with the advent of the reduced-fat variety. But during last weekend's big snow, we were pretty well in for the evening by 3 in the afternoon. Four Christmas movies in hand and Thai food on the way, we needed that special something to take that mid-December evening over the top. So I separated four eggs, and whisked the yolks together with 1/3 cup of sugar until they turned lighter in color, and got fluffy. Then I added 4 cups skim milk, 1 cup cream and about 1/2 cup of good ol' Kentucky bourbon. That mixture went into the fridge while I cleaned the hell out of my mixing bowl and spatula. Then the egg whites got beaten with 1 tablespoon of sugar, and I folded the stiff whites in with the yolk mixture. I left it alone for a good hour, and the whites had created a foam on the top so the whole thing tasted like a milkshake. Mmmm. And so easy. Everybody Happy? Part 1 tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2007://4.83 2007-12-17T19:36:02Z 2007-12-18T14:28:01Z The Barefoot Contessa says not to bother cooking for people you don't absolutely love. I'm beginning to understand why. The idea is that if you really love someone, you can forgive them for their dietary eccentricities or not wanting to... Emily Zehnder The Barefoot Contessa says not to bother cooking for people you don't absolutely love. I'm beginning to understand why. The idea is that if you really love someone, you can forgive them for their dietary eccentricities or not wanting to taste things they don't think they like. We'll see. This year, I've been given free reign to cook Christmas dinner at my mother's house. But it's not as free or as simple as it sounds. Not only does my mother not like to cook, she's not fond of messes in her kitchen. And she and my stepfather aren't big on leftovers. She also hates to buy spices she's not sure she'll use again. But in the name of creating one of those really fantastic holiday memories, I decided to make it work. I was full of ideas. How about a green vegetable sauteed with some toasted almond slivers, a really tasty salad? Maybe we could forget the turkey altogether and have a standing rib roast, wash it down with some holiday cocktail and finish it all of with creme brulee or a croissant bread pudding? It's like I pulled out a shot gun. No turkey?! So my husband is dealing with the bird. He likes to do it - and frankly, no matter how good I get at making other things, his turkeys are still tastier than mine. That left me with some sides, and started making suggestions for things we could cut out in favor or new flavor combos. Who needs another crock of stuffing and mashed potatoes? Turns out: Everyone. I decided to let my mother and husband each make one of those, and I could turn my attention to a vegetable tian, with tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, onions and gruyere. Maybe something simple with a green vegetable, some thyme popovers and an exciting dessert...But my mother had to have a pumpkin pie, and when I called my uncle to see what his favorite dish is --- turns out to be green bean casserole. So Mom is going to have to make due with a pumpkin banana mousse tart, and Uncle John will get a from-scratch casserole with fresh green beans and panko-crusted onions. And I'm sticking to my guns on the vegetable tian and popovers. There WILL be new dishes at the table! Too bad it just means more food. But we'll stuff ourselves in the name of progress and I'll report back. NodeBox - amazing open source scriptable graphics application tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2007://4.82 2007-12-05T16:49:44Z 2007-12-05T17:04:34Z NodeBox is an amazing open source visualization tool for Mac OS X. It is basically a scriptable graphics tool, so you can draw things by using a really simple python code editor that's built into the app. One of my... Sean Zehnder http://www.seanzehnder.com NodeBox is an amazing open source visualization tool for Mac OS X. It is basically a scriptable graphics tool, so you can draw things by using a really simple python code editor that's built into the app. One of my favorite scripts uses the Web library to draw a graph of the hyperlinks between sites. It is rather basic in terms of its spidering capabilities, but I still think it has a heckuva lot of wow-factor. The following hyperlink graph is actually for mediarevolutions.org (with a depth=3): nodebox_hyperlink_mediarevolutions_dot_org.png ]]> Bad Ideas tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2007://4.80 2007-11-30T06:05:41Z 2007-11-30T07:40:12Z From the NYT: Facebook keeps tweaking its new Beacon advertising program, which tracks users’ actions on sites other than Facebook. The program sparked a petition from MoveOn.org Civic Action that has won the support of 50,000 Facebook users. Facebook introduced... Jason Gallo http://www.jason-gallo.com NYT:
Facebook keeps tweaking its new Beacon advertising program, which tracks users’ actions on sites other than Facebook. The program sparked a petition from MoveOn.org Civic Action that has won the support of 50,000 Facebook users. Facebook introduced a new version of the Beacon alert box on Thursday that still lacks an easy way to avoid participating.
Unsurprisingly, Facebook has backed off its initial enthusiastic support for Beacon.
Late yesterday the company made an important change, saying that it would not send messages about users’ Internet activities without getting explicit approval each time.
So what's the hubub all about? Beacon tracks users' online purchases, like many other sites, but then sends an update to friends in the user's Facebook network. I see all kinds of geeky reasons why someone might find this a cool service -- keeping track of your pals' book purchases or DVD consumption. But you can already do that through other services, provided your friends have chosen to share their wish list, or movie queue, or purchase history. However, those are opt-in services while Beacon offers a per-purchase opt-out pop-up option. Annoying, to be sure. I'm sure people don't mind sharing some innocuous purchases with their social networking pals, as they see fit, but certainly not all. It seems that it would have been much easier to provide users with a preference pane that allows for permissions to be set on an opt-in basis. However, according to Facebook vice president, Chamath Palihapitiya, the company has no plan to offer a universal opt-out service, instead sticking users with the option of having to individually approve sharing each purchase or drop the service all together. While this stance certainly will appeal to the advertisers, it caries with it the risk of driving away users needlessly.
Two privacy groups said this week that they were preparing to file privacy complaints about the system with the Federal Trade Commission. Among online merchants, Overstock.com has decided to stop running Facebook’s Beacon program on its site until it becomes an opt-in program.
While this may be small beans, and the Beacon program will probably continue as a Facebook feature, what I can guarantee will happen is that enterprising users will create patches, plugins, cracks, or entirely new services to disable, alter, circumvent, or abandon the Beacon program. Users will always adapt and will jump ship the moment another free social networking service pops up that offers better array of services or constellation of privacy settings. Perhaps one of the new programs that arise from the Beacon flap will be the next big thing, that is until another next big thing comes along. Oh, an another thing that users love is being condescended to -- even if the sentiment is true.
“Isn’t this community getting a little hypocritical?” said Chad Stoller, director of emerging platforms at Organic, a digital advertising agency. “Now, all of a sudden, they don’t want to share something?”
]]> Old-South Style tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2007://4.79 2007-11-29T17:56:49Z 2007-11-29T20:41:32Z Being from Kentucky, I take a lot of crap about the stereotypical Southern food: chitlin's, casseroles and so-called "salads" that don't seem to contain vegetables. For years, I've apologized. But after spending a few days with my Southern family over... Emily Zehnder Being from Kentucky, I take a lot of crap about the stereotypical Southern food: chitlin's, casseroles and so-called "salads" that don't seem to contain vegetables. For years, I've apologized. But after spending a few days with my Southern family over Thanksgiving, it finally dawned on me: they're delicious. And the part that appeals to the budding cook in me - they're easy. I had a lot of fun looking over old church cookbooks, packed with recipes for things like Coca-Cola cake and strawberry sour cream salad. Not everyone is ready for those. But try this one on for size: Aunt Janice's Cranberry Salad 1 can whole cranberry salad 1 c. sugar 1 packet cranberry gelatin 1 c. water 1 can pineapples, diced 14 large marshmallows (thank me later) 1 c. chopped walnuts Dissolve gelatin in water on the stove, add sugar and marshmallows. Stir vigilantly until it's all dissolved. Add pineapples, canned sauce and walnuts. Pour into a casserole dish and allow to gel. Overnight is best. This was the best cranberry saald I'd ever had, and I'm one of those lunatics who likes the canned gel stuff. For my part, I tried a recipe for green bean casserole, with fresh beans, beschamel sauce, sauteed mushrooms and panko-crusted onions. I got it from Alton Brown on the Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_81503,00.html. Funny that even with the half and half in the beschamel, it still winds up being lower-calorie than the processed version, due to lack of those horrible French onion things. The recipe calls for a cast-iron skillet, but I made do without one. I know, what kind of Southerner am I? And yes, you really need Panko bread crumbs. A treasure chest of Visualizations tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2007://4.78 2007-11-28T15:47:55Z 2007-11-28T16:08:25Z Manuel Lima a designer at Parsons School of Design, New York created this site as part of his MFA program. It has a ton of links to some really cool visualizations from Art to Social Networks and Transportation Systems to... Kris Singleton http://www.ksingleton.com/ Check it out http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/]]> Saturday Night Artistic Outing tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2007://4.77 2007-11-16T18:08:59Z 2007-11-16T18:12:01Z A little shameless self promotion. Also check out http://selectmediafestival.org/2007/ this weekend. Juan Angel Chavez has built this totally kick ass giant robot. It's gorgeous!!... Michael Pajon Also check out http://selectmediafestival.org/2007/ this weekend. Juan Angel Chavez has built this totally kick ass giant robot. It's gorgeous!!]]> New Documentary by our own Mike Graziano tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2007://4.76 2007-11-12T23:24:59Z 2007-11-13T00:26:16Z "You Should Know ... DJ Colette" Documentary by Uji Films (Michael Graziano and Ernie Park) via Chicago Magazine... Sean Zehnder http://www.seanzehnder.com Uji Films (Michael Graziano and Ernie Park) via Chicago Magazine]]> NewsGaming.... new media political cartoons? tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2007://4.75 2007-11-12T20:09:49Z 2007-11-12T20:17:50Z Madrid An interesting new form of political commentary.... [NewsGaming.com]... Sean Zehnder http://www.seanzehnder.com Madrid
newsgaming%20-%20madrid.png An interesting new form of political commentary.... [NewsGaming.com] ]]> one anthropologist's notion of progress tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2007://4.74 2007-11-12T17:13:08Z 2007-11-12T17:21:56Z What makes a steel ax superior to a stone ax is not that the first one is better made than the second. They are equally well made, but steel is quite different than stone. In the same way we may... Sean Zehnder http://www.seanzehnder.com What makes a steel ax superior to a stone ax is not that the first one is better made than the second. They are equally well made, but steel is quite different than stone. In the same way we may be able to show that the same logical processes operate in this myth as in science, and that man has always been thinking equally well; the impoverishment lies, not in an alleged progress of man's mind, but in the discovery of new areas to which he might apply its unchanged and unchanging powers (p. 230). Levi-Strauss, Claude (1977). Structural Anthropology, v. 1. Harmondsworth: Penguin.]]> Instanced Game Worlds and the Personal Universe tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2007://4.67 2007-11-09T22:13:22Z 2007-11-11T16:21:03Z At first this thread starts as an exploration of a relatively simple dynamic in many massively multiplayer online games: instancing. Quickly, however, I find myself toying with the idea that we're in the midst of a big shift in the... Sean Zehnder http://www.seanzehnder.com At first this thread starts as an exploration of a relatively simple dynamic in many massively multiplayer online games: instancing. Quickly, however, I find myself toying with the idea that we're in the midst of a big shift in the experience and idea of history -- a shift in the way that we construct and transmit new myths for an interactive media era. Bear with me... References Bartle, R. A. (2007). Making Places. [Pre-press article distributed by the author.] Cotter, H. (2007). Art is Brief. You Just Have to Be There. Weekend Arts, New York Times, Friday, November 9, 2007. Wilson, L. Cyberwar, God, and Television: Interview with Paul Virilio. Available at www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=62. ]]> What does Google's Open Handset Alliance announcement tell us about iPhone third-party apps? tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2007://4.73 2007-11-06T19:48:26Z 2007-11-06T20:40:57Z "It's hilarious to hear all of the big wireless companies speaking about open platforms and software. Good for Google.... Varun Nayak http://technfinance.blogspot.com/ "It's hilarious to hear all of the big wireless companies speaking about open platforms and software. Good for Google. here (11.05.07).]]> The Fourth Wall tag:www.mediarevolutions.org,2007://4.72 2007-11-06T16:23:24Z 2007-11-06T16:38:48Z Bravo! Circoripopolo Goes Airtistique... Sean Zehnder http://www.seanzehnder.com Circoripopolo Goes Airtistique circoripopolo%20goes%20airtistique.png ]]> A few speculations on their technical approach: Since it's running in the Flash Player, I assume that they're using ExternalInterface to make Javascript calls which resize and reposition the browser. Part of the beauty of what they've done here, however, is the synchronization of their movements with the specific growing and shrinking of the browser. This type of control could require some pretty sophisticated alpha curves for the particular parameters, or they might've just done it by hand using brute force. In either case, I really enjoy the way it makes you think about the browser window -- kinda arresting like a good play where the 4th wall is broken cleverly.