Category: General

ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) has a new report on quality of service for Australian internet and broadband connections.

Many may have seen this before but Ishkurs Guide to Electronic Music is lots of fun. By no mean defintive but none the less a good overview of genres and the evolution of styles….

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You may notice a new look and some new features . . . . Just testing some new stuff.

Open standard and toolset for Lego drawings/plans.

Ahh the memories.

An interesting short article refuting some of Prensky’s approach from NESTA (UK’s National Endownment For Science Technology and the Arts)

The notions of digital native and digital immigrant may be useful slogans for provoking argument. There have been clear social and cultural shifts that need to be investigated because they are deep and profound. However, the slogan does not stand up to inspection:

The vast majority of children in advanced economies spend less than 30 minutes a day on computer games. The main demographic for computer games players is in fact 20-35 year-olds.

The notion of a teenager tied to the phone calling their friends as an illustrative concept pre-dates the mobile phone (see 1960s US sitcoms). Most adults can afford to use voice rather than the cheaper SMS. Also 76% of adults in the UK have mobiles phones – this does not seem to indicate a major generation divide.

Professional adults actually make more significant use of the different capabilities of ICT than anyone else – think of architects or accountants… or zoologists. Examine sales figures and marketing strategies of any major systems vendor.

From the US: the highest usage of the internet at home is among 35-44 year-olds (29.2%).

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that testifies that not all teenagers spend lots of time with technology. They do lots of other things instead – riding horses, playing music, skateboarding or whatever.

Regular contributors and readers . . . . we have two new categories for posts –

Web2.0
Digital storytelling

If there are other categories you’d like me to create for posts then please add them in the comments.

Remember that in Web 2.0 world, tagging is everything.

Center for History and New Media has just launched this. Nice use of Google Maps.

The Center for History and New Media, the University of New Orleans in partnership with the National Museum of American History, and Louisiana State Museum recently launched a new digital history project, the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank (http://hurricanearchive.org). I think this is a great example of how digital archives can help document the history of current events. Also, we included a Google map that allows all contributors to plot their locations during the hurricanes or where they took specific photos or recorded podcasts. This offers historians and others a great way to compare primary sources digitally that is more difficult when working with a physical archive.

Here is a little info about the project. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments on the site.

“The compelling images and stories seared into the memories of all who lived through last year’s hurricanes will endure through an online hurricane archive. Anyone may visit the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank: Preserving Stories from Katrina, Rita, and Wilma at http://www.hurricanearchive.org to read the submissions of others before contributing their own memories and pictures to this growing collection. All experiences related to the storms are sought, whether one was directly affected by the storms or served as a volunteer hundreds of miles away.