What really killed the Neanderthals
Originally uploaded by steakbellie.

The people who have the tools first determine much about the way they are used.

Take the the content producers on the internet. How many of the content producers share a social, cultural or economic background?

Even though there are different clusters of content producers, ranging from teenie bopper to senile video blogger, the early adopter crowd share much in common.

For example, what if You Tube’s video clips came primarily from North Africa, or the religious right was the first to use podcasting.
The new media narrative might have changed dramatically.
Imagine how different it would be video blogging, podcasting, Second Life, etc. launched in a fascist regime.

I believe that at the heart of many of these new tools is a new media community with a core set of governing values. And even though blogging, podcasting and video producing are now main stream (thank you Mac, You Tube, cheap tech., etc), the founding values of the group that introduced these technologies determined the underlying ways we socialize, produce & consume media online.

Meme Dashboard Widgets
Originally uploaded by daveyn

All the major web social networking sites are producing widgets. What bling did for the rap game, widgets are doing for the new media space. I wonder about the widget revenue model. People might feel differently about posting a widget if it came with advertising, unless they had some input about which ads were featured.

Here’s a great blog post on widgets.

Meme Dashboard Widgets
Originally uploaded by daveyn

All the major web social networking sites are producing widgets. What bling did for the rap game, widgets are doing for the new media space. I wonder about the widget revenue model. People might feel differently about posting a widget if it came with advertising, unless they had some input about which ads were featured.

Here’s a great blog post on widgets.

My creation
Originally uploaded by QuiverandQuill.

I’ve noticed a trend in some community forums. People include every possible way to reach them after signing their name. It’s almost as if providing more ways to be reached is a status symbol. Some common ways people give to reach them

Skype
AIM/Google Talk
Myspace
Flickr photostream
Facebook
Blog(s)
Second Life
Web site
Blip.TV
just to name a few…

I Was Assaulted By This Man Who Identified Himself as a Police Officer and Refused to Provide Me Identification, Photography is Not a Crime
Originally uploaded by Thomas Hawk.

This

Flickrite posted a photo of the man who assaulted him to the Flickr community to identify. I wonder if “identify” will become a Flickr subculture? Will we have rooms dedicated to finding missing children in photos, as well as long last strangers with whom our eyes only briefly met on the train.

Get the whole story.

This story makes me think about public/private space. I always wonder what’s the best way to photograph a person– a stranger–who if you told that you wanted to take a photo, they’d ruin the shot by being prepared for it.