I just finished today Clay Shirky's awesome book Here Comes Everybody, a cogent description of the sea-change in social organization that we are witnessing due to the advent of online social networking tools. Shirky's book has me thinking about what lessons I can take away from it for Yehoodi, the swing dance community site I…
Category: Information Society
Why you should see “Star Trek” in the theater
Last night Swifty, Arfer and I saw the new "Star Trek" movie at the beautiful Ziegfeld Theater in midtown Manhattan. It was just about the perfect blockbuster movie experience. Here's some reasons why you should spend $12.50 see it in an actual movie theater (instead of waiting for DVD/Blue-ray, watching it on your iPhone, etc.):…
Helping “digital immigrants” see Web 2.0 as an asset for youth
Technology Trends: a Look at the Future View more presentations from Global Kids. Last month, my colleague Amira and I had the opportunity to speak to several coordinators of Neighborhood Network sites around the country. Neighborhood Networks are onsite, multiservice technology centers aimed at promoting self-sufficiency for residents of assisted housing. Giving this talk was…
An odd morning: Tom Hanks in a weinermobile, Diane Sawyer on a trampoline
Early this morning, my mom, sister and I got VIP passes to see "Good Morning, America" being taped live at Times Square. Apparently every weekday morning, ABC staff let in a small group of about 30 folks to watch the live taping from 7 to 9am. The VIP pass was nice, allowing us to get…
Virtual tributes to swing dance legend Frankie Manning on Twitter, FaceBook, Yehoodi, etc
As news about Frankie Manning's passing spreads around the world today, I witnessed an explosion of surprise, grief, and tearful remembrance live on the internet. It was like being surrounded by the voices of hundreds and hundreds of Frankie's friends and fans from around the globe in a collective, ever-changing memorial. It's a fitting tribute…
Watching the “This American Life” simulcast: collective storytelling in the Digital Age
Tonight Christina and I went to see a live simulcast of the public radio show "This American Life" being shown at the Union Square Regal theater, along with 143 other movie theaters around the country. It was rather strange knowing that the show was being taped live just a few blocks south at the NYU…
HASTAC Digital Media & Learning Showcase: a laptop orchestra, OLPCs in Chiapas, vloggers in Mumbai, and more…
Here's a neat little clip of Connie Yowell of the MacArthur Foundation welcoming the 2008 and 2009 winners of the HASTAC Digital Media and Learning competition, including myself and Amira from Global Kids. Connie always does such a great job synthesizing the broader historic trends, the cumulative impact of the various digital learning projects supported…
Lessons from a Successful Viral Media Campaign: 128 “Global Shim Sham” videos (and counting) for Frankie Manning!
View Larger Map When the organizers of the Frankie Manning 95th Birthday Festival cooked up the idea of having lindy hop scenes from all over submit videos of themselves doing the Shim Sham line dance, we had no real expectations for how many would come in, or from where. I remember telling co-organizer Shorty Dave…
Tell your lindy hop story at IamLindyHop.com
Spuds turned me on to this super cool website started by lindy hopper Ben Yau from Pasadena called : IAmLindyHop.com. The purpose of the site is to "gather and share stories of Lindy Hop" from the dancers, musicians, instructors and DJs that keep this artform alive every day. As Ben writes, "each person has a…
The fine art of online multi-slacking
Back in the day when I used to have cable TV, I would end every work day with some zone-out time channel surfing for an hour of two before bed. I would steer toward the crime procedurals, 80s action movies, billiards tournaments — anything that involved no intellectual thought whatsoever. I would often regret it…