Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Patsy Rodenburg - Why I do Theatre
Patsy Rodenburg speaking at Michael Howard Studios in NYC. For more information on Patsy's classes, visit www.michaelhowardstudios.com
Patsy Rodenburg - The Second Circle
Steve Lopez has chronicled the life of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a homeless musician with schizophrenia who sleeps each night on one of skid row's most dangerous streets, in his columns listed here.
http://theenvelope.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-lopez-skidrow-nathaniel-series,0,2774908.special
Watch CBS Videos Online
http://theenvelope.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-lopez-skidrow-nathaniel-series,0,2774908.special
Watch CBS Videos Online
Robert Gupta: Music is medicine, music is sanity
Robert Gupta, violinist with the LA Philharmonic, talks about a violin lesson he once gave to a brilliant, schizophrenic musician -- and what he learned. Called back onstage later, Gupta plays his own transcription of the prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1.
One day Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez was walking along the streets of downtown Los Angeles when he heard beautiful music. And the source was a man, an African-American man, charming, rugged, homeless, playing a violin that only had two strings.
And I'm telling a story that many of you know, because Steve's columns became the basis for a book, which was turned into a movie, with Robert Downey Jr acting as Steve Lopez, and Jamie Fox as Nathanial Anthony Ayers, the Julliard-trained double bassist whose promising career was cut short by a tragic affliction with paranoid schizophrenia. Nathanial dropped out of Julliard, he suffered a complete breakdown, and 30 years later he was living homeless on the streets of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. I encourage all of you to read Steve's book, or to watch the movie to understand not only the beautiful bond that formed between these two men, but how music helped shape that bond, and ultimately was instrumental, if you'll pardon the pun, in helping Nathanial get off the streets.
I met Mr. Ayers in 2008, two years ago, at Walt Disney concert hall. He had just heard a performance of Beethoven's first and fourth symphonies, and came backstage and introduced himself. He was speaking in a very jovial and gregarious way about Yo Yo Ma and Hillary Clinton, and how the Dodgers were never going to make the World Series, all because of the treacherous first violin passage work in the last movement in Beethoven's fourth symphony. And we got talking about music. And I got an email from Steve a few days later saying that Nathanial was interested in a violin lesson with me.
Now, I should mention that Nathanial refuses treatment because when he was treated it was with shock therapy and Thorazine and handcuffs, and that scar has stayed with him for his entire life. But, as a result now, he is prone to these schizophrenic episodes. The worst of which can manifest themselves as him exploding, and then disappearing for days, wandering the streets of Skid Row, exposed to its horrors, with the torment of his own mind unleashed upon him.
And Nathanial was in such a state of aggitation when we started our first lesson at Walt Disney Concert Hall he had a kind of manic glint in his eyes, he was lost. And he was talking about invisible demons and smoke, and how someone was poisoning him in his sleep.
And I was afraid, not for myself, but I was afraid that I was going to lose him, that he was going to sink into one of his states, and that I would ruin his relationship with the violin if I started talking about scales and arpeggios and other exciting forms of didactic violin pedagogy. (Laughter) So, I just started playing. And I played the first movement of the Beethoven violin concerto.
And as I played I understood that there was a profound change occurring in Nathanial's eyes. It was as if he was in the grip of some invisible pharmaceutical, a chemical reaction, for which my playing the music was its catalyst. And Nathanial's manic rage was transformed into understanding, a quiet curiosity, and grace. And in a miracle, he lifted his own violin, and he started playing, by ear, certain snippets of violin concertos which he then asked me to complete, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius. And we started talking about music, from Bach to Beethoven, and Brahms, Bruckner, all the B's, from Bartók, all the way up to [unclear].
And I understood that he not only had an encyclopedic knowledge of music, but he related to this music at a personal level. He spoke about it with the kind of passion and understanding that I share with my colleagues in the Los Angeles Philharmonic. And through playing music and talking about music this man had transformed from the paranoid, disturbed man that had just come from walking the streets of downtown Los Angeles, to the charming, erudite, brilliant, Juilliard-trained musician.
Music is medicine. Music changes us. And for Nathanial, music is sanity. Because music allows him to take his thoughts and delusions, and shape them through his imagination and his creativity, into reality. And that is an escape from his tormented state. And I understood that this was the very essence of art. This was the very reason why we made music, that we take something that exists within all of us, at our very fundamental core, our emotions, and through our artistic lens, through our creativity, we're able to shape those emotions into reality. And the reality of that expression reaches all of us, and moves us, inspires and unites us.
And for Nathanial, music brought him back into a fold of friends. The redemptive power of music brought him back into a family of musicians that understood him, that recognized his talents and respected him. And I will always make music with Nathanial, whether we're at Walt Disney Concert Hall, or on Skid Row, because he reminds me why I became a musician. Thank you. (Applause)
Bruno Giussani: Thank you. Thanks. Robert Gupta. (Applause)
Robert Gupta: I want to play something that I shamelessly stole from cellists. So, please forgive me.
(Laughter) (Music) (Applause)
One day Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez was walking along the streets of downtown Los Angeles when he heard beautiful music. And the source was a man, an African-American man, charming, rugged, homeless, playing a violin that only had two strings.
And I'm telling a story that many of you know, because Steve's columns became the basis for a book, which was turned into a movie, with Robert Downey Jr acting as Steve Lopez, and Jamie Fox as Nathanial Anthony Ayers, the Julliard-trained double bassist whose promising career was cut short by a tragic affliction with paranoid schizophrenia. Nathanial dropped out of Julliard, he suffered a complete breakdown, and 30 years later he was living homeless on the streets of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. I encourage all of you to read Steve's book, or to watch the movie to understand not only the beautiful bond that formed between these two men, but how music helped shape that bond, and ultimately was instrumental, if you'll pardon the pun, in helping Nathanial get off the streets.
I met Mr. Ayers in 2008, two years ago, at Walt Disney concert hall. He had just heard a performance of Beethoven's first and fourth symphonies, and came backstage and introduced himself. He was speaking in a very jovial and gregarious way about Yo Yo Ma and Hillary Clinton, and how the Dodgers were never going to make the World Series, all because of the treacherous first violin passage work in the last movement in Beethoven's fourth symphony. And we got talking about music. And I got an email from Steve a few days later saying that Nathanial was interested in a violin lesson with me.
Now, I should mention that Nathanial refuses treatment because when he was treated it was with shock therapy and Thorazine and handcuffs, and that scar has stayed with him for his entire life. But, as a result now, he is prone to these schizophrenic episodes. The worst of which can manifest themselves as him exploding, and then disappearing for days, wandering the streets of Skid Row, exposed to its horrors, with the torment of his own mind unleashed upon him.
And Nathanial was in such a state of aggitation when we started our first lesson at Walt Disney Concert Hall he had a kind of manic glint in his eyes, he was lost. And he was talking about invisible demons and smoke, and how someone was poisoning him in his sleep.
And I was afraid, not for myself, but I was afraid that I was going to lose him, that he was going to sink into one of his states, and that I would ruin his relationship with the violin if I started talking about scales and arpeggios and other exciting forms of didactic violin pedagogy. (Laughter) So, I just started playing. And I played the first movement of the Beethoven violin concerto.
And as I played I understood that there was a profound change occurring in Nathanial's eyes. It was as if he was in the grip of some invisible pharmaceutical, a chemical reaction, for which my playing the music was its catalyst. And Nathanial's manic rage was transformed into understanding, a quiet curiosity, and grace. And in a miracle, he lifted his own violin, and he started playing, by ear, certain snippets of violin concertos which he then asked me to complete, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius. And we started talking about music, from Bach to Beethoven, and Brahms, Bruckner, all the B's, from Bartók, all the way up to [unclear].
And I understood that he not only had an encyclopedic knowledge of music, but he related to this music at a personal level. He spoke about it with the kind of passion and understanding that I share with my colleagues in the Los Angeles Philharmonic. And through playing music and talking about music this man had transformed from the paranoid, disturbed man that had just come from walking the streets of downtown Los Angeles, to the charming, erudite, brilliant, Juilliard-trained musician.
Music is medicine. Music changes us. And for Nathanial, music is sanity. Because music allows him to take his thoughts and delusions, and shape them through his imagination and his creativity, into reality. And that is an escape from his tormented state. And I understood that this was the very essence of art. This was the very reason why we made music, that we take something that exists within all of us, at our very fundamental core, our emotions, and through our artistic lens, through our creativity, we're able to shape those emotions into reality. And the reality of that expression reaches all of us, and moves us, inspires and unites us.
And for Nathanial, music brought him back into a fold of friends. The redemptive power of music brought him back into a family of musicians that understood him, that recognized his talents and respected him. And I will always make music with Nathanial, whether we're at Walt Disney Concert Hall, or on Skid Row, because he reminds me why I became a musician. Thank you. (Applause)
Bruno Giussani: Thank you. Thanks. Robert Gupta. (Applause)
Robert Gupta: I want to play something that I shamelessly stole from cellists. So, please forgive me.
(Laughter) (Music) (Applause)
Yapper: New tools to build iPhone apps
Yapper: New tools to build iPhone apps
Feb 11, 2010 4:58 PM PST
At Macworld 2010, Sachmanya co-founder Chintu Parikh demos Yapper, a new do-it-yourself software program that allows developers to create an iPhone app without knowing any programming code
Yapper: New tools to build iPhone apps
At Macworld 2010, Sachmanya co-founder Chintu Parikh demos Yapper, a new do-it-yourself software program that allows developers to create an iPhone app without knowing any programming code.
sounds
>> The Apple is a self-service online tool that allows you to make your own native iPhone android iPad app just in a few minutes using your existing RSS feed. And we provide you with the, the tab icons and everything else. So without further adieu we'll do a live demo if WiFi is working, yeah. So you log into the Apple.sets inaudible.com. You sign in and you say start a new app. So if you scroll down the screen please. So here we have, there are 4 steps. The first step is where we show you a demo of what needs to be done. So in the first box you put in your auto sets for your website of the blog. Then you say what is the name of this RSS feed. Here we say it's inaudible beat. Then you select the tab icon. That becomes your tab icon. So as you do this you can see what's getting built right on the screen on your right hand side. It gives you a, this is not the real app, but it gives you what it's gonna look like in your iPhone. So here we will add one more feed and see what happens. So we're gonna add the mobile beak RSS feed. And Arti's phonetic just gonna type that in. See what happens on the right hand side of the iPhone? And then she's gonna select the tab icon. Bingo! Here is your mobile RSS feed. And Matt is that the latest articles that you have on the site? inaudible Yep. So this is live guys. This is; we are not doing it from the laptop, this is from the internet, then going to the inaudible site, getting the live, live feed, and then getting all the entire content along with the images for you. And then you can add up to 12 such feeds, or 12 sections within your app. So if you have more than a few feeds you can add, keep adding those. And then you go to the next page. See here you can see it's getting refreshed as Arti clicks on the icon. Go to the next page. This is where you put in the name of your application. That's how it will be known in the app store. Then you select an app icon. So if you click on the browse please. And you go to inaudible folder. And then select the home icon. So this is your typically your logo. And if you like to launch inaudible so when your application launches it shows you your branded logo for a couple of seconds. So we pick that. Put that in. And you're done building the app, believe it or not. The next step, the step number 3 is really all about how you're gonna describe your application within the app store. So you look and read about it. You can say what kind of keywords they're, they can search your app on, what countries you want to list your app in. What are the primary and secondary categories within which your app will be listed? So you do that, and then you go to the next page. This is my favorite step; of course, it's, this is where I get paid. So for Maxell's phonetic special we have a $99 special where you can make your iPhone app for just $99 instead of regular $499. And then you can add options. You can have an android version. You can have an iPad version. When iPad will be launched will make the app compatible with the iPad, so user experience is customized for the iPhone, iPad. And, and we are the first ones to really have a push notification option. So if you have a breaking story as a blogger or a, or a new site, and you post it out to your user, user is not using your app. But you can push a notification to them saying, hey, we have an exclusive story on our blog, come and read it. So you can have that option here too. And then finally, if you like some custom development above and beyond the standard features we offer, we will do that for you. And this, you're pretty much done. And you go to the next page and pay with the PayPal.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
College
'Active' gaming with Oprah's workout guruIn AP's weekly Video Game Video, "EA Sports Active" for Wii gets the blessing of Bob Greene, Oprah's favorite fitness expert. (Dec. 11)
Video – Virgin Galactic’s VSS Enterprise First Flight
Enterprise’s First Captive Flight – Air and Space Magazine: Virgin Galactic’s VSS Enterprise, the civilian-built and -flown spaceship that will loft six paying tourists and two pilots on suborbital flights for $200,000 per customer, made its first captive carry flight on March 22, 2010 beneath its mothership WhiteKnightTwo over the southern California desert
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
19年拿優等列不適任 銀行解僱無效
19年拿優等列不適任 銀行解僱無效
中央社 更新日期:"2010/03/29 17:49"
（中央社記者賴又嘉台北29日電）在台中商業銀行工作逾22年的呂姓男子，前年金融風暴期間遭銀行以無法勝任為由解僱，雙方鬧進法院。最高法院發現，呂有19年拿優等，資方顯然只是想省錢，判決解僱無效定讞。
法官認為，台中商銀若因金融海嘯導致營收虧損，應按勞基法相關規定處理。但以無法勝任工作為由解僱呂姓男子，於法不合，也損及公司與社會形象，判決資方終止勞動契約無效、僱傭關係仍存在，台中商銀並須給付呂姓男子自解僱後至復職前的薪資。
法院判決書指出，呂姓男子民國74年9月至去年1月間任職於台中商業銀行，但台中商銀卻於97年底，先將他列為「需輔導人員」及「不適任人員」，並於98年 1月通知呂姓男子自農曆過年起終止僱傭關係。
呂姓男子在春節假期結束後到公司上班遭拒，他認為公司解僱不合理，向法院提民事訴訟。
台中商銀向法院主張，呂姓男子工作表現不力；但法院發現，呂姓男子考績，僅94年至96年為甲等，其餘均為優等。
此外，台中商銀自97年1月至98年3月間，資遣、解僱119名年資15年以上的員工，卻在同時間大量僱用283名新進人員。法官認為，台中商銀解僱呂姓男子，真正理由只是在節省成本。台中商銀不服，提出上訴，最高法院今天駁回上訴，全案定讞。
中央社 更新日期:"2010/03/29 17:49"
（中央社記者賴又嘉台北29日電）在台中商業銀行工作逾22年的呂姓男子，前年金融風暴期間遭銀行以無法勝任為由解僱，雙方鬧進法院。最高法院發現，呂有19年拿優等，資方顯然只是想省錢，判決解僱無效定讞。
法官認為，台中商銀若因金融海嘯導致營收虧損，應按勞基法相關規定處理。但以無法勝任工作為由解僱呂姓男子，於法不合，也損及公司與社會形象，判決資方終止勞動契約無效、僱傭關係仍存在，台中商銀並須給付呂姓男子自解僱後至復職前的薪資。
法院判決書指出，呂姓男子民國74年9月至去年1月間任職於台中商業銀行，但台中商銀卻於97年底，先將他列為「需輔導人員」及「不適任人員」，並於98年 1月通知呂姓男子自農曆過年起終止僱傭關係。
呂姓男子在春節假期結束後到公司上班遭拒，他認為公司解僱不合理，向法院提民事訴訟。
台中商銀向法院主張，呂姓男子工作表現不力；但法院發現，呂姓男子考績，僅94年至96年為甲等，其餘均為優等。
此外，台中商銀自97年1月至98年3月間，資遣、解僱119名年資15年以上的員工，卻在同時間大量僱用283名新進人員。法官認為，台中商銀解僱呂姓男子，真正理由只是在節省成本。台中商銀不服，提出上訴，最高法院今天駁回上訴，全案定讞。
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Use Game-Based Marketing for Non-Profits
Use Game-Based Marketing for Non-Profits
With increasing frequency, we’ve been asked to speak to various groups about the use of game mechanics and funware in their businesses. This is a recent presentation covering the use of Funware in non-profit contexts.
With increasing frequency, we’ve been asked to speak to various groups about the use of game mechanics and funware in their businesses. This is a recent presentation covering the use of Funware in non-profit contexts.
Game Mechanics & Funware for Non-Profits
View more presentations from gzicherm.
beamME Delivers
beamME Delivers
Preferred by the Fortune 500 and startup CEOs alike, beamME is the most popular solution for professional, mobile networking. It lets you send your social, digital business card from your iPhone to any other phone or device. Your recipient doesn't need beamME or even an iPhone to receive your card, and both of you can add each other to your default address book with a single click. You get complete history, geo-location and the comfort of unlimited upgrades and priority support. Download now, and try beamME today!
Panel of Young Entrepreneurs (Entire Talk) Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series
Description
Six young Stanford grads and entrepreneurs -- Steven Garrity, Clara Shih, Kimber Lockhart, Jeff Seibert, Josh Reeves, and Tristan Harris -- share their experiences starting companies and raising capital. While being in their 20s may seem to be an obstacle to outsiders, they said they "flipped" this liability into an asset -- focusing instead on their raw ability to bring innovative ideas to life. They advise all young entrepreneurs to be persistent, opportunistic, and scrappy.
Friday, March 26, 2010
The future of... dressing rooms Shop smart with 'responsive mirror'
The future of... dressing rooms
Shop smart with 'responsive mirror'
Shop smart with 'responsive mirror'
The future of... concierges Help for business travelers 'surfaces'
The future of... concierges
Help for business travelers 'surfaces'
Help for business travelers 'surfaces'
Future Computing at TEDxAustin
Future Computing at TEDxAustin
At TEDx Austin, Chief Creative Officer Mark Rolston explores the fascinating intersection of technology with our perceived reality, drawing on examples from our own lives to illustrate how close we are to integrating the two. Mark shares his views on the human interface potential of content and how virtual may become the “new” real with technological advancements people are already working on to enhance human experiences.
At TEDx Austin, Chief Creative Officer Mark Rolston explores the fascinating intersection of technology with our perceived reality, drawing on examples from our own lives to illustrate how close we are to integrating the two. Mark shares his views on the human interface potential of content and how virtual may become the “new” real with technological advancements people are already working on to enhance human experiences.
The future of... ink First electronic magazine cover debuts
The future of... ink
First electronic magazine cover debuts
First electronic magazine cover debuts
how mobile technology can positively impact health care issues
Project Masiluleke - Pop!Tech 2008
View more presentations from frog design.
Cell phones changed everything in emerging markets. Isolated communities got a taste of access and upward mobility they’d never known before. Entire economies shifted as people were able to leapfrog roadblocks to communication. Now mobile technology is promising to transform healthcare in the same way.
Project Masiluleke will start that revolution. In a historic partnership between frog design, Pop!tech, iTeach, Praekelt, Aricent, Nokia Siemens and a number of other collaborators, Project Masiluleke (which means "lend a helping hand" in Zulu) is using mobile technology to tackle the worst HIV epidemic in the world in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, where infection rates are over 40%.
This is not the first attempt to address the HIV problems in KwaZulu Natal, but after sending a team to South Africa to do extensive research on the ground with local experts, we believe it will be the most effective.
frog is envisioning a solution that uses mobile technology in three crucial ways: 1) to encourage usage of low-cost diagnostic tools; 2) to walk patients through the testing process; and 3) to guide them into care should they need it, and encourage healthy preventative behaviors even if they don’t.
Project Masiluleke will offer an innovative distribution model that combines existing, low-cost diagnostic technologies such as saliva and blood tests with mobile support services in a region where mobile adoption rates are approaching 90%. And, crucially, this new solution will provide a level of privacy and anonymity essential to encouraging participation among men who typically elude the system.
Project Masiluleke launched its first phase on the first of October when a text message was sent to 1 million phones - the largest-ever use of mobile messaging to address HIV.
This launch phase is an important step, but a first step. Our goal is to show how mobile technology can positively impact health care issues in Africa so we can build a series of alliances that bring together mobile operators and distributed diagnostics on a global scale.
At frog, we see a future in which local health care providers, NGOs, and government agencies can log onto a website and configure a diagnostic solution tailored to their needs in large volumes and at an extremely cost-effective price. They will be able to increase access to diagnostic tools and regimens as well as prove their effectiveness in some of the most remote and under-served regions on earth.
“This concept kit holds so much promise. The depth of user research and understanding is impressive. The design solution is elegant in its simplicity and use of materials. I hope we get the opportunity to see how it works in the field.”
--Claudia Kotchka, Affiliate IDSA, vice president, design innovation and strategy, Procter & Gamble
“Thorough research leads to sensible packaging design that helps to stop the AIDS pandemic in S. Africa. This utilizes every element of the packaging to the maximum use for communication, storage and transportation. The system also connects the user to online help. Packaging design could help elevate humanity.”
--Eric Chan, IDSA, president, ECCO Design
The future of... data encryption Self-destructing data could help protect your privacy
The future of... data encryption
Self-destructing data could help protect your privacy
Self-destructing data could help protect your privacy
The future of... boarding passes A business traveler's dream
The future of... boarding passes
A business traveler's dream
A business traveler's dream
The future of... check deposits A bank in your back pocket
The future of... check deposits
A bank in your back pocket
A bank in your back pocket
The future of... mobile device chargers Let your walking do the charging
The future of... mobile device chargers
Let your walking do the charging
Let your walking do the charging
The future of... sticky notes Beloved adhesive notes get digital makeover
The future of... sticky notes
Beloved adhesive notes get digital makeover
Beloved adhesive notes get digital makeover
The future of...thermostats Monitoring energy use with new technologies
The future of...thermostats
Monitoring energy use with new technologies
Thursday, March 25, 2010
香港保濟丸含致癌物 中藥溫和 長期服用可改變體質？
香港保濟丸含致癌物 中藥溫和 長期服用可改變體質？
來賓：
衛生署中醫藥委員會主任委員 黃林煌
萬芳醫院副院長暨家醫科主任 謝瀛華
陽明大學藥理學科暨藥理學研究所教授 潘懷宗
醫藥記者 洪素卿
China plugged into electric cars
A Chinese carmaker has launched what it claims to be the world's first-mass produced electric car.
BYD have only been making cars for six years, but have produced a car that runs on batteries and can be plugged into an ordinary wall socket.
The company originally made mobile phone batteries, and it is this expertise that has allowed the upstart to leapfrog the likes of General Motors and Toyota.
The BBC's China correspondent, Quentin Sommerville, took the car for a spin.
Pierre Omidyar on eBay and Pez Dispensers, Leaving the Valley and the Most Important Thing He’s Ever Done
TC: Pierre Omidyar from sarah lacy on Vimeo.
It’s almost a cliché that great Silicon Valley entrepreneurs don’t go sit on a beach when they make a lot of money, they get back to work building another company or at least investing in other people’s companies. But what did eBay founder Pierre Omidyar do? Moved to Honolulu where he can be found sitting on beaches.
But don’t let the top line narrative fool you, Omidyar hasn’t just been looking at sunsets all these years. He’s been busy making good on his commitment to give away some 99% of his multi-billion dollar fortune and lately has been launching Peer News, a new kind of online news service that won’t have reporters or articles in the classic sense, nor will it allow anonymous comments or make money off advertising. He’s definitely got at least the media world captivated once again.
eBay, philanthropy and now a local Hawaiian news site may seem like wildly disparate ventures for the same man to take, but as Omidyar explains in the video below they’re all connected by the ideas of platform and community—two words that have also underlined much of the Web 2.0 movement.
Just like eBay was a platform that gave people everywhere the opportunity to build out a business and change their economic reality, so too does the Omidyar Network seek to give passionate, would-be entrepreneurs an opportunity to change their world and their reality. As Omidyar puts it, he doesn’t have a “cause;” he gets excited about other people’s causes. Similarly at eBay he wasn’t a collector, but he loved hearing about other people’s collections.
On community, eBay was one of the first places that pioneered trust online through its reputation and feedback systems. Omidyar is hoping to bring that same kind of trust and fair-dealing to the local news world with Peer News—which is the reason anonymous commenters will not be welcome.
Omidyar talks about all of this and more in the video below, shot in his office in Honolulu. I started out by asking him about that great founders myth that he started eBay so his wife could trade Pez dispensers. (The one people claimed years later was just a good pitch for reporters.)
More News about Omidyar’s Peer News
by Sarah Lacy on Mar 18, 2010
I’m at the NewsMorphosis Conference in Hawaii today locked in a day of debates about the state of news quality and how the hell we find a business model to keep paying for it. It’s a big issue locally– earlier this year three of Hawaii’s five largest TV news stations merged operations and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin is merging with the other daily paper the Honolulu Advertiser, resulting in plenty of layoffs and general civic concern.
So it’s fitting that the conference ended with a talk by John Temple, the editor of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s new Peer News site, a test case in how the future of local news could work. And thankfully, we finally got a few more details on the site and the approach.
Temple was clear to say “there is no silver bullet” when it comes to fixing the media business, but also sees a great deal of hope in the volatility– this from the guy who was head of the now shuttered Rocky Mountain News, a paper that’s already gone through what so many dailies are dreading.
“We’re not trying to reinvent a local newspaper and put it on the Web,” he said. Indeed, the mission of Peer News doesn’t even contain the words “news” or “media” or “paper.” It’s simply “to create a new civic square.” Core to the development of Peer were three questions:
-What is the role of a free press in a democracy?
-How would you best fulfill that on a local level using all the tools available today?
-How do you do that in a sustainable way?
On content, the most interesting thing Temple talked about was doing away with “articles” as we know them. He criticized the static, episodic nature by which journalists have traditional covered news, challenging readers to hunt through archives for the information they want. Instead, Peer’s “building block” will be a page that’s always updated almost like Wikipedia, or as he put it, “something closer to a living history on a topic that changes as it develops.” There will no longer be a sense of “missing” an article, because the “articles” will be living things. That also addresses the critique that local news swarms around one issue, then moves on. “We’re not going to be hot topic driven,” Temple says. Going back to those questions, Temple says the role of a free press is to inform citizens so they can make intelligent decisions. “Let’s stop making it so difficult,” he said.
The other hallmark of Peer’s approach is what has made blogs popular– a sense of community. But it’s certainly a different approach. For one thing, Peer won’t have “reporters” in the classical sense, it will have “hosts” who help facilitate this civic square answering questions for the community. “In this era, the fact that newspapers still rewrite press releases is an embarrassment,” Temple said. “We’re not going to be stenographers. I think that’s a downfall of journalism.”
But for a site that intends to be very community oriented, there was one big shocker: Peer will not have comments. “(Comments) descend into racism, hate, ugliness and reflect badly on news organizations that have them,” said Temple. Why? Because people do not have to show their faces when they comment so there’s no sense of responsibility, he argued. “We think anonymity is a huge problem when it comes to comments,” he said.
Temple also emphasized that the coverage would not pull punches: “We’re going to call things like we see them. We think there’s real value in taking a stand.”
So what about that business model? As Temple noted, there aren’t that many business models out there to chose from. Unlike most media sites, this will be a member site that people “value and will pay for.” He added “advertising would not be a key focus for us.”
Peer should be launching early next quarter, so we’ll be able to see more of these ideas in action soon. But it’s clear that the site– or “news service” as it prefers to call itself– is taking a markedly different approach from old and what we consider “new” media right now.
And with the benefit of some of these details, it seems less out of step for Omidyar to be starting this company. EBay, after all, was one of the first sites to powerfully leverage community on the Web, pioneering a lot of the systems of trust and reputation we still use today.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Thunder Lizard by Mike Maples Jr.
Thunder Lizard by Mike Maples Jr. from Adeo Ressi on Vimeo.
A talk by Mike Maples Jr. of Maples Investments at the Future of Funding conference hosted by TheFunded.com on February 18th, 2010. Midway through the video, the camera switches to lower quality.
Cool Silly '我飛'，華納威秀演出 10/30/2009
Cool Silly is a Taiwanese-American mainstream pop trio consisting of producer/singer Tone (仲維軍), singer/composer Rayray (劉軒蓁) and rapper/actor Leeway (藍力威). The trio was created in late 2009 upon winning a national songwriting competition in Taiwan. Cool Silly’s song ‘Fly’ is the official 2010 Taipei Flora International Exposition theme song. All lyrics, music, and musical arrangement in Cool Silly’s songs are written and performed by its three members.
Cool Silly（傻酷樂團）於2009年成立，是華語流行音樂風格的華僑的三人組。 由製作人也是歌手的仲維軍(Tone), 第二屆中視《超級星光大道》的劉軒蓁(Rayray),以及是饒舌歌手同時又是演員的藍力威(Leeway)組成。Cool Silly 的歌曲 ‘我飛’ 是 2010 臺北國際花卉博覽會的花博創作曲。所有Cool Silly歌曲裡的詞/曲/編曲都是三位團員創作與演出的。
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Interesting New User Interface
10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.
Over a quarter-century ago, Xerox introduced the modern graphical user interface paradigm we today take for granted.
That it has endured is a testament to the genius of its design. But the industry is now at a crossroads: New technologies promise higher-bandwidth interaction, but have yet to find a truly viable implementation.
10/GUI aims to bridge this gap by rethinking the desktop to leverage technology in an intuitive and powerful way.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
mrt
在 Palakuan 上面找更多類似的影片
2009-10 跨年夜，台北捷運瞬間湧進非常多的人潮，其中，文湖線會不會當機，成了大家關注的話題。結果雖然當天沒有出狀況，但幾天之後竟然又傳出「煞車卡鉗」，緊急疏散了兩百名乘客。
從去年七月四號到現在，文湖線已經通車滿半年，這半年來文湖線總共故障一百多次，平均每一點五天，就故障一次。很多市民都以為，文湖線頻頻故障，是因為之前的馬特拉和現在的龐巴迪，兩種系統的整合出現問題。其實，龐巴迪是用自己的系統直接取代馬特拉的系統，所以並沒有兩種系統整合的問題。現在包括台北市議會和監察院，都已經開始對文湖線展開調查。
從民國八十五年木柵線通車到現在，台北市捷運局已經累積十幾年的工程經驗，為什麼這條文湖線還會狀況連連呢？原來捷運局這次首度引進一種新的控制系統，所有列車的訊息都是靠無線電傳輸，一旦訊號中斷，列車會馬上緊急煞車。偏偏龐巴迪之前對這套系統的經驗，只有做過距離比較短的機場接駁列車。像文湖線這種二十五公里的長距離路線，還沒有足夠的時間測試，台北市政府卻在半年前決定搶先通車。這是不是一項拿市民當白老鼠的決策冒險呢？本報導請大家一起來回顧，文湖捷運的180天。
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
TheDisappearingMale
TheDisappearingMale-CBC_512kb.mp4
44:18 - 1 year ago
The Disappearing Male is a CBC documentary about one of the most important, and least publicized, issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system. The last few decades have seen steady and dramatic increases in the incidence of boys and young men suffering from genital deformities, low sperm count, sperm abnormalities and testicular cancer. At the same time, boys are now far more at risk of suffering from ADHD, autism, Tourette's syndrome, cerebral palsy, and dyslexia. The Disappearing Male takes a close and disturbing look at what many doctors and researchers now suspect are responsible for many of these problems: a class of common chemicals that are ubiquitous in our world. Found in everything from shampoo, sunglasses, meat and dairy products, carpet, cosmetics and baby bottles, they are called "hormone mimicking" or "endocrine disrupting" chemicals and they may be starting to damage the most basic building blocks of human development.
BC Hydro Sustainable Dance Floor
Leila Pejman is joined by Simi Heer as she checks out one of the coolest features at the BC Hydro Power Smart Village, BC Hydro's 2010 Olympic Pavilion - Club Energy, which features a dance floor that actually generates electricity as people dance on top of it.
Leila Pejman makes some trouble at the Expression Wall, a digital graffiti wall at the BC Hydro Power Smart Village, BC Hydro's Pavilion for the 2010 Winter Games.
GetConnected : [03-18-10 8:00 PM]
http://watch.bnn.ca/getconnected/clip277687#clip277687
GetConnected : [03-18-10 8:00 PM]
GetConnected
On this week's episode of GetConnected, we look at the Klipsch Image S4i Earbuds, some of the newest features on the iPhone 3GS, check out an ultra-thin laptop from Certified Data and look at Google Android running on the HTC Magic and Dream.
GetConnected : [03-18-10 8:00 PM]
GetConnected
On this week's episode of GetConnected, we look at the Klipsch Image S4i Earbuds, some of the newest features on the iPhone 3GS, check out an ultra-thin laptop from Certified Data and look at Google Android running on the HTC Magic and Dream.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Start an Organic Farm
Nicolas Donck is one of the pioneer farmers who helped to set up the Morningside Farmers' Market in Atlanta ten years ago. Learn about his farm and what he does.
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