6 posts tagged “2006”
I had an interesting time on Christopher Lydon's Open Source Radio show last week. It was wonderful to share the mic with Heather Champ, one of the pioneers of Photography 2.0 with the Mirror Project, who now is Community Manager for Flickr. It was a bit strange, however, to hear the comments of Fred Ritchin, who seemed to want to cling to the 'top down' media hierarchy of we tell you what you should be interested in.
I was also surprised at his reluctance to give the amateur photo community its due by insisting that they shouldn't be spoken of in the same context as photo great Henri Cartier-Bresson. What was Cartier-Bresson before the fame? An amateur named Henri who liked taking photos with that new, small camera called a Leica.
And why don't we like the self-portraits? Why is it art when Lee Friedlander does it and not when the photographer is Solea?
I thought most of us in the main stream media had come to realize that it is better to embrace, understand and get on board, rather than to try and stand in front of the 21st century media train. Technology and the internet are changing photography just as they have changed society; how we choose to use our new tools is the only question worth asking.
To hear the show, follow the Open Source link above, or click here for the mp3.
I am in love with the films of Wim Wenders!
While I am quite fond of Paris, Texas, and adore Wings of Desire; it was the film Tokyo-Ga which makes me swoon.
This 1985 doc is an homage to the great Japanese director Ozu Yasujiro, and it follows Wenders on a personal pilgrimage to Tokyo in search of Ozu's trail. It is visually and acoustically very effective at setting the mood for Wender's wanderings, and it foreshadows techniques that we see later in Wings of Desire and Buena Vista Social Club.
I had this film on 8-mm tape for a while and would watch it constantly; then my camera broke. I haven't looked at it in over 10 years as, with most of Wender's films, it has not been available on DVD. Imagine my surprise when I found it package with the Criterion Collection's release of Ozu's Late Spring. What a wonderful treat!
My weekend is now set!
On my other, other blog, Good Reputation Sleeping, I have often talked about my love for Battlestar Galactica. I haven't written much about the last season though, it was just too intense.
If the first season created and itch I had to scratch, last season was down to the bone; a weird mix of pleasure and pain.
Now Battlestar is back, in glorious techie form, for a month on the net.
So say we all!
A very lack-luster finish to the summer in this part of the world.
Today, I am dodging raindrops. A fitting end to a season I never got in sync with this year.
I am looking forward to the crisp, cool, clarity of fall.
The last few months have been a whirlwind of activity at work. We are downsizing, no secret; and at the same time, we are attempting to meld the newspaper with the web in what could be pessimistically viewed as transferring as many of the able-bodied to lifeboats as fast as possible.
I have been a part of that effort in both covert and overt ways, but something has been nagging me from the back of my brain this whole time.
Last week, I committed a minor 'internet transgression' at work. Something done in a harmless fashion and with the best intent, but nevertheless something bad in the view of my employer. During the 10 minute or so conversation that it took to correct the situation (i.e. remove the video from YouTube), a light bulb went on and I knew what had been bothering me.
Most newspapers won't survive the transition to a web-based information structure because they are, first and foremost, corporate. Journalism is what they do, corporate is who they are.
Corporate believes in competition over cooperation. Corporate believes in control over freedom. Corporate believe in profit. Corporate believes in secrets.
All of these values run in the opposite direction from what web journalism is and what it is becoming. At its essence, the web is about freedom and choice and cooperation, and the blossoming citizen journalism flow is one of those results. In the 10-plus years of the web's existence, why have no major web enhancements come from traditional news organizations, even though many of them were among the first to set up shop online?
Innovation and survival on the web require sharing and cooperation. They also require an openness and free flow of information that corporate journalism refuses to provide. Controlling the information flow is what corporate journalism is about; web journalism is about getting around that. As the web develops its own mechanisms for journalism, many many people will follow.
The speed of change is ever increasing; unless corporate journalism can become much less corporate, it will be left behind. Heck, Yahoo News is the already the biggest news site on the web. A strategy of control is not a strategy for survival. Embracing the freedom of the web is the only way to become part of the flow; fighting it will leave many journalists and their organizations washed up on the shore.
A new blog and a new opportunity to communicate. I have been at this (blogging) for a long time, skipping from blog to blog every few years. I have been on my typepad blog for a while now; time to try something a little different. No one knows me here, this is a secret place to talk.
