Comments for The Leisurely Historian...

Comment on This Just In: Warner Music Group Lacks Sense of Irony, Common Sense by Tyler

Tyler — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:17:08 +0000

I have an old version of the DDR national choir singing Die Internationale that I ripped of Napster way-back-when, if you want it. I don’t know who owns it though, other than the people of the former-East Germany. Of course, that’s less helpful for an American history thing, I guess.
Damn, man, your website is much prettier and more intelligent than mine.

Comment on This Just In: Warner Music Group Lacks Sense of Irony, Common Sense by Cyberg00se

Cyberg00se — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:11:57 +0000

Or the Chinese built ukes that are cheap and good, and the companies that sell them keep very silent on work conditions there. The uke communities’ dirty little secret. What’s to hide? Show us the factories. Kala, Ohana, etc., I’m looking in your direction.

Comment on Tell a story in five pictures… by Haircut Redux « The Leisurely Historian…

Haircut Redux « The Leisurely Historian… — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:57:36 +0000

[...] About a month ago, I shaved my head for a class project. [...]

Comment on My digital storytelling project pitch… by Nicholas Barnard

Nicholas Barnard — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:28:38 +0000

Tad, I’m intrigued, it really sounds like an interesting story. Admittedly, I watched the pitch in a few separate pieces..

Comment on My digital storytelling project pitch… by tad

tad — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:30:11 +0000

I’m hoping, at the very least, to get some video responses via Youtube. Member-sponsored contests are a big part of the UU… making videos and giving stuff away. So I’m gonna be creating a contest, something along the lines of “Tell your UU Story.”

Skype interviews, if I can get a couple, would be the Bomb, but aren’t strictly necessary.

The video editing, I’m telling myself, is the part I’m doing for my class. The history gathering part of the project is something I’m doing independantly, as a member of the community. At least that’s my rationalization as to why I don’t need IRB approval.

Besides, IRB requirements for oral history are stupid. ;p

Comment on My digital storytelling project pitch… by tanya

tanya — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:16:50 +0000

First, great approach. This was the first time I’ve seen/heard you beyond pictures, and that was a lot of fun!

I particularly liked how you spliced in the videos as examples of what you were talking about.

the biggest complication in the project does seem to be the reaching out to current participants thing, from two angles: first, what if they don’t want to participate? how will that affect your project? Second, is IRB a consideration for a project like this? Maybe not, since it’s digital storytelling and not research in the sense of generalization. (thinking of my oral history for my dissertation here.)

I don’t think that the lack of a coherent storyline would be a problem – like you, I think that would be something that could be handled. In particular, my initial reaction to that is that maybe the story would be that there is no one story – that there are multiple stories, and that’s what Web 2.0 offers.

I’m curious: when reaching out to do interviews, will you be trying video interviews via skype or something else? That seems like it could be the most logical approach, so I was just curious if that was your plan (or something else). I’m really interested in this, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes!

Comment on Interactivity and Digital Storytelling… by Carolyn Miller

Carolyn Miller — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:06:41 +0000

Tad, I enjoyed your article about the lack in interactivity in many works of Digital Storytelling, and liked the examples you did come up with that seem to work on the “Choose Your Own Adventure” model. These two are new to me. However, it might interest you to know that I’ve written an entire book on the use of interactivity in Digital Storytelling. It’s called “Digital Storytelling: A Creator’s Guide to Interactive Entertainment.” It’s now in its second edition (Focal Press, 2008). I hope you’ll have a chance to check it out, since not only does it stress the value of interactivity, but it is also packed with examples of works that integrate interactivity into narrative.

Comment on Just Something Cool I Came Across by Jim G.

Jim G. — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:38:01 +0000

This is a very interesting picture – I may be able to help a little with scope and details. If you care to write me (jgoodspe@edzone.net)
Very nice discovery!

Comment on About Me by Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:10:25 +0000

Hey Tad

I came across your blog and thought you might enjoy this cartoon I did: http://www.thewesternnostril.co.za/2009/09/23/history/

Best

Patrick

Comment on Another Example of Crowdsourcing Memory… by André

André — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:13:20 +0000

That is pretty nifty about the web. You can simultaneously pick brains, using computer processing to access a lot of people processing. I think the comic helped, though. More people read his dilemma than they probably would have had he just stated it in text. People like to process colorful pictures more than words. We’re like fish, we like shiny things.

Comment on The Cloud is a Lie. by Tad

Tad — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:31:09 +0000

JP–

No offense, but you run a company where you market yourself to companies, as a SFDC developer. You market yourself to marketers. That’s what you do. Of course you like “cloud”– it’s a misleading term that’s hip and trendy. It drives sales and intimidates those who aren’t hip to the techno-babble.

“Remote storage” is storing your data off-site. “Remote computing” is the same thing we had when it was terminals hooking up to mainframes. I’m not trying to sell anything here. I’m just trying to call something that is not new– remote storage and computing using third party vendors– what it is, and to suggest that the term might even be evocative of something with more potential to change current technology than the stuff the buzzword is currently being used to sell.

Comment on The Cloud is a Lie. by JP Seabury

JP Seabury — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:22:39 +0000

I won’t fault you for accuracy, but I sure prefer “Cloud-computing” over “Remote Storage and Computing”. That’s what the marketing boys do … when the current name for something sucks, they come up with a better one.

JP Seabury
Remote Storage and Computing Programmer

Comment on The Cloud is a Lie. by Daniel Waterworth

Daniel Waterworth — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:20:05 +0000

Are you serious, I like the term cloud computing. My data would be just as safe if I entrusted it to a weather system as if I entrusted it to one of google’s servers.

Comment on Ska, Wikipedia, and Memory by Another Example of Crowdsourcing Memory… « The Leisurely Historian…

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:06:18 +0000

[...] a recent blog post, I talked about using the internet as a tool to “crowdsource memory.” A day or two [...]

Comment on The Cloud is a Lie. by Tad

Tad — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:22:09 +0000

Saquib– that’s where the phrase comes from, but it’s taken on a life of it’s own. The cloud metaphor gets implemented and mangled in all sorts of ways that suggest that it’s now far beyond that initial cute schematic device.

People say that the data is “out in the cloud,” etc. but that initial schematic your referring to was a reference to the path that packets take in getting to a known source. Knowing the precise path that data packets took to go from site one to site two was unimportant. Thus the cloud– it was obscured and unimportant. The data didn’t go to the cloud, it went through the cloud. To a very solid and un-cloud-like known remote site. The metaphor as it’s been used in the last couple years still fails as a metaphor.

And besides, if it was truly just that “cloud computing” was just use of that internet “cloud,” a lot of things that aren’t counted as cloud computing would have to be included. Nobody is arguing that ARPANet was a “cloud computing” system.