From September 2005 to June 2006 a team of thirteen scholars at the The University of Southern California's Annenberg Center for Communication explored how new and maturing networking technologies are transforming the way in which we interact with content, media sources, other individuals and groups, and the world that surrounds us.

This site documents the process and the results.

what if I don't want it?

Very interesting piece on web 2.0 and the issues involved in relinquishing control of your applications to someone else:

Web 2.0 and the drive-by upgrade by Fraser Speirs -- Overnight someone sneaked into my office and upgraded an application on my computer....

There are a number of issues on the table here. Besides someone else determining what "version" software you're running, there is the other problem of needing the network to work. This is a problem I have with wikis and blogs, and why I've done quite a bit of playing around with trying to "sync" mySQL databases. Yuck. VooDooPad is a great local wiki solution, but is weak on the network side...but at least I can work when I'm off the grid.

Submitted by todd on October 24, 2005 - 4:31pm

no more reading blogs at work

If you can't read the netpublics page from work, maybe it's because we mention that four letter world, "BLOG"!

Wired carries an article on web filtering software gone amok...

No Longer Safe for Work: Blogs

Submitted by kvarnelis on October 24, 2005 - 11:44am

downloadable netflix suffers a setback

Dave Zatz's blog on high tech entertainment carries a cautionary note amidst all the attention that the video iPod has garnered. Netflix is indefinitely postponing its launch of a downloadable movie system because of opposition from the studios.

read more

Submitted by kvarnelis on October 22, 2005 - 11:09am

Mash-up ecologies: the case of google-maps

With “A Journey to a Thousand Maps Begins With an Open Code

Submitted by fbar on October 20, 2005 - 11:33am

video ipod review

Last month I was ready to upgrade to a new iPod from my third generation model, but the rumor sites began to make noises that an upgrade to 80gb was in the works so I held off.

After the announcement of the video iPod last week I decided that even though I was a little disappointed by the size of the drive, a bigger one would be unlikely before January so I ordered a 60 gb unit from Apple.

I was supposed to get my iPod tomorrow, but FedEx delivered the unit a day early.

Read on for my review of the video iPod after half a day of playing with it.

Submitted by kvarnelis on October 19, 2005 - 5:30pm

Mike Liebhold Lecture: The Geospatial Web and Mobile Service Ecologies

In collaboration with ARNIC, Michael Liebhold, Senior Researcher, The Institute for the Future spoke to the Networked Publics group on October 27, 2005 in the living room of the Annenberg Center for Communication at 2pm. 

 

Submitted by kvarnelis on October 19, 2005 - 1:34pm

vingle me

Apple has patented the term "vingle". What is interesting are the details of the filing. As reported at tuaw, there are bits about temporary use of on-line non-downloadable software to enable users to program audio, video, radio, etc..."

So...Apple is going to do remix for the masses? Stay tuned...it could get interesting.

Submitted by todd on October 18, 2005 - 3:25pm

blackboard + webct = even worse product

egad....opensource take me away...

Blackboard and WebCT, leading providers of enterprise software and services to the education industry have announced plans to merge. The announcement was made at October 12th at 4 pm EST in a news release posted on PR News wire.

"I have had experience with both companies and view this merger as combining excellence with excellence to advance the e-Learning industry, I also see this combination as a way to break down barriers across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and to open the door to new opportunities for collaboration among institutions using different e-learning platforms." - Jack Wilson, President of The University of Massachusetts and current WebCT Vista client.

Submitted by todd on October 17, 2005 - 1:01pm

Death to LBS?

I posted a brief note on LBS — Location Based Services — with a bit of inspiration from Russell Buckley's dispatch on the pathetic offerings recently announced for mobile phone-based LBS services from British Telecom.

It made me think of the door-before-the-house way of designing for social practices. When you put the meme-fetish-acronym du jour ahead of an appreciation of the practice you're supposedly designing for, you wind up with ATM finders.

Submitted by jbleecker on October 17, 2005 - 3:45am

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