Atom Feed
November 23, 2004
I’m now receiving spam about ID products “because you registered to attend Inside ID Conference & Expo that was held November 15-17, 2004…” Spamming people who attended an ID conference? Someone dial 211 and connect me to the Irony Squad…
Jake Shapiro of Public Radio Exchange is giving a lunchtime talk at the Berkman Center about how PRX is making it easier for creators of radio programming to get their stuff found and picked up by non-commercial radio stations.
PRX sits between stations and producers. It’s “a web-based service for digital distribution, peer review, and licensing of radio content.” You upload content, and others can peer-review it. Then stations can download it and use it. Creators get royalties. PRX is a fair and transparent broker between producers and multiple stations. Jake says the market is ready for it because there’s a desire for new voices, because people are concerned about commercial consolidation, and because we’re getting used to new distribution paths.
Core tools: Digital storage and delivery, searching, peer review, rights management (not hardwired into the files themselves) and the “PRX economy” (i.e., producers and stations pay PRX, and royalty checks are sent to creators). So far, they’ve paid out $25,000. “But mainly that’s for pieces that otherwise would have gone for zero.” Stations pay based on their size. Producers pay for storage ($50 for 5 hours). Anyone can create an account and upload stuff. Only non-commercial radio stations can download, although there are some exceptions and Jake expects there will be more. Anyone can listen to a program — registration is required but free — although it’s intended for other producers to review it. (Jake says anyone can listen to the programs, but it’s not well set up to be used as an Internet radio station itself.)
They opened their gates 14 months ago and now have 2,045 pieces (filling 539 hours), 4,544 accounts, 1,968 reviews, 220 radio stations with accounts, and about 1,500 pieces that have been broadcast. They use peer reviews to surface items, but also use an editorial board to write “magnet reviews.” PRX generally doesn’t deal with pieces with immediate news value, although they’re working on it.
Rebecca MacKinnon points out that PRX could be a valuable source of international news and features that aren’t showing up elsewhere. It’s already happening to a small degree, Jake says, and they’d like to do more.
Yes, they’re experimenting with podcasting. In fact, they’re listening to podcasters and wondering which ones would make good radio producers. But, Jake says, often production quality is poor; sticking a mic into your laptop apparently just doesn’t cut it. Jake recommends Transom.org for information about tools.)
This is exciting stuff.
Jock Gill points to an article from a year ago in which Tom Atlee compiles a fascinating set of links about Citizen Deliberative Councils: “A Citizen Deliberative Council (CDC) is a temporary council of citizens convened to deliberate about public concerns (either about a specific issue or the general state of the community and its future) and to provide guidance for officials and the public.” (Quote from here.) Atlee writes that in British Columbia, Canada, one Citizens Assembly “on electoral reform, been given the power to put a proposal directly to a vote by the people in a regular election.”
He describes it in an email that’s circulating:
This Assembly was formed with 160 randomly selected citizens charged with reviewing existing and innovative voting systems. After ten months of study, reviewing hundreds of written submissions, holding public hearings, hearing from experts, and deliberating together, they finally announced their recommendations in October 2004 (see the newsletter below). It is quite clear these citizens really love the new system they’ve designed. It’s a combination of instant runoff voting and proportional representation (see notes below) which they have customized for their province and named BC-STV, short for British Columbia Single Transferable Vote. 146 of them voted in favor of it. Only 7 voted no.
Before they launched this remarkable democratic exercise, the government pledged to submit their recommendations (whatever they were) as a referendum to the voters in May 2005. Now, if that referendum passes, the government has further pledged to push through legislation that organizes the province’s electoral system to use the new voting method in the 2009 elections.
Fittingly, the Assembly did its work in public, including on the Web.
I got my Canon S60 in part because Tim Bray recommended his S50 so highly, and I’ve been very happy with it.
Tim’s posted some photos he took with his camera before he upgraded to the S70. They’re lovely. The subject of one reminded me of a picture I took last week after our autumnal snowfall here in Boston.
These photos by Max Lyons, on the other hand, make me want to leave for Scotland immediately.
November 22, 2004
I ran the audio of my Library of Congress presentation through DragonSoft, thinking that this would be an easy way to make a transcript. Here’s how it renders the opening:
To him here are sure you are in the OK when loan. And I have a want a and were a Shannon I. here in him that we here, third and or Shannon, there will you a very moral him the now I will to him eight. All for your has no longer so I know I’ll tell you are you sure you will I know him the eight him she and her to him we will be in the only to the him to all or me one alone are sure to in yeah, I here you to him are the only in normal, her know there are no more I mourn air him sure all the handle or in yeah, only yeah OK I did yeah for your third him I will or a travel and hey him in I mourn room will sure you sure you a little. The interim, hey oh, that her him to enter yeah there will all or of the and they yeah, yeah yeah fo their him a little room should him in him in him the him. We him to you or you all or yeah r yeah
I seem to have the “Translate into Molly’s Sililoquy” option on.
Yes, I did train the software. In fact, if I play the WAV file over the speakers into a microphone, DragonSoft does much better…but not good enough to make it an appealing option for this project.
I just received a hand-written fax from Congressman Tom Reynolds:
David –
As I was watching the returns on election night…gonig through the roller coaster ride of misinformation before we finally declared victory, I thought of all the Businessmen [sic] whose hard work made our triumph possible. As such, I’ve nominated you to receive the 2004 Businessman of the Year Award. Your official nomination documents are enclosed. Please call my assistant right away at 1-800-810-1894 to accept your nomtination. Your chances look great!
Tom
Woohoo! Republican Businessman of the Year! And it’s practically a lock! Unfortunately, the 800 number was busy, but I’ll keep trying!
To help me fight comment spam, I really need to be able to programmatically open all selected messages in Thunderbird and process the contents. I had a script in Outlook that did this, but I can’t find or figure out how to do it in Thunderbird. The hard part is opening the selected messages. Anyone have a code fragment or two that they can post or point me to?
Thanks!
Oliver Willis has an open thread for branding the Democratic Party. There are some kickass ideas there.
(Thanks to Ina Steiner for the link.)
November 21, 2004
For those who thought there might be some trickery in the fabulous How to Fold a Shirt video I posted about, here’s a translation I found on a message board:
“Start by laying the Tshirt flat and sideways in front of you, neck opening to your right. Find the centerpoint on the far side and pinch it with your left hand, about two inches in from the far edge.
With your right hand, draw a line from your left hand to the right edge of the tshirt, parallel to the edge of the shirt. This brings your right hand to the neck-opening side of the shirt. Grasp the edge with your right hand.
Now, while maintaining your grip, cross your right hand over your left, towards the opposite (waist-opening) end of the tshirt. Maintain the same imaginary line you’ve been working on (about two inches from the far edge of the shirt, parallel to the edge) and add the new edge to the grasp of your right hand.
This is where the magic happens. Simply uncross your hands and extend them in front of you, lifting the shirt perpendicular to the floor. Complete the fold by letting the loose arm hole drop to the floor and folding the shirt in half over it!
PS: The msg board requires registration, so here’s a link to the Google cache of it.
PS: The instructions work.
Joshua Glenn wonders in the Boston Globe today why the adminsitration will not release what the R in “Alberto R. Gonzales” stands for. What’s Gonzales got to hide?
Joshua guesses that R might stand for Rosebud, Ragnar, Reuben, Rico, Romeo or Rudyard. Or pehaps, he says, it’s something French such as Rémy, Robbe-Grillet. Or perhaps Roewade, Rove or Rambo.
Personally, I think it’s Alberto Roosevelt Gonzales, but I’m open to speculation.
Joho the Blog uses WordPress blogging software.
Thank you, WordPress!
