Gaming For A Better Real World
Game designer/researcher Jane McGonigal asserts that collaborative videogames are the key to solving our real-world problems. In the video here, she outlines why she considers World of Warcraft to be an “ideal collaborative problem-solving environment.” She discusses four key factors in gaming culture that give gamers an edge at problem-solving—urgent optimism, social fabric, blissful productivity, and epic meaning.
Climate Change Search Trends Visualized
In this short video, filmmaker Dan Nienhuis uses data from Google Insights to analyze how, when, where, and why people think about four common eco-buzzwords—climate change, global warming, carbon footprint, and go green.
Music Blogging Throwdown—Evading DMCA Takedowns
Dubbed musicblogocide2k10 Google deleted at least six known music blogs from its Blogger platform. Google posted an official response highlighting their current procedures for handling DMCA complaints that were last updated last summer—Google implies that they warn offending bloggers but cite difficulty contacting offenders in the past. They also include the link for filing a DMCA counter claim.
Censorship and Media In An Expanding Internet Population—Do You Feel Censored On The ‘Net?
Blocking sites = blocking progress. I’m American. It’s hard to imagine über-restricted Internet surfing. In the U.S. internet censorship does exist in workplaces, libraries, and schools but U.S. censorship is minimal compared to Chinese censorship. Censored sites in China include wikipedia.org, amnesty.org, nasa.gov, digg.com, bbc.co.uk, cnn.com, guardian.co.uk, facebook.com, flickr.com, tumblr.com, wordpress.com, youtube.com, and—WTF—even disney.com is censored.
Dancing Graffiti
The film Bomb It portrays graffiti as the “biggest art movement in humankind.” With any movement there is opposition and many see graffiti or tagging as mere vandalism. Art or vandalism—where do you spray the line? “Graffiti is energy” says Bronx graffiti artist T-Kid and “it represents life” says artist Pose 2. The same can be said about dance—
