I just finished reading the interview and I’m happy to confirm that I didn’t sound insane or say anything terribly inappropriate this time. I find I do have something of a tendency to do this. If we’ve spoken in any capacity, you may have confirmed this for yourself.

Case in point: at the end of the interview, Stephen said, “We did a story last December on Second Life and Google Lively. I wish our writer had been able to get in touch with you for it.”

“Oh, am I not the top hit on Google for ‘Second Life Vancouver’ any longer?” I asked.

I really can’t believe the things that drift out of my mouth sometimes.

But more importantly, no, no I am not the top hit for ‘Second Life Vancouver’! In fact, I’m not even on the first page.

Currently, the top hit is an article about the Vancouver Police Department’s recruitment/awareness project undertaken by the Masters of Digital Media program, prior to my employment there at the Great Northern Way Campus.

That’s only peripherally related to me! Man.

Anyway. You should go read the Q&A at Straight.com!

Ultimately, I suspect I’ll roll this site into it.

Anyway, while the art style I’m using is very, very different than this, both use a nice slab serif typeface called Rockwell. While selecting it, I came across this this video I liked from a couple years ago: the “Say ‘what’ again. I dare you.” scene from Pulp Fiction, in type form.

I’ve been convinced for a long time that the biggest threat to free speech in the 21st century is not, as in past eras, some kind of trend towards authoritarianism, but rather, intellectual property encumbrances. The idea that VANOC can trademark lines from O Canada is appalling to me. It’s bad enough that the Olympics have become so branded and mired in the exclusivity of the brand that they’ve threatened Olympia Pizza in Vancouver’s West End, to say nothing of the actions taken since then.

Thus, I wholeheartedly support the choice to the True North Media House in response to the line trademarked by VANOC.

But I’ve been thinking about situations where The Authorities have confiscated memory cards or deleted photos and so, I’m wondering about technical workarounds to this: I would consider using an EyeFi card in my camera to tether with a 3G phone (say, a jailbroken iPhone or possibly something with reasonable battery life.) to automatically upload my photos to my website or Flickr so that I wasn’t actually storing any pictures, I was posting them live. Short of jamming or Iranian-scale network monitoring and packet inspection, there would really be little anyone could do, assuming the images themselves were legal.

If I take a photo of a poster with the Olympic Rings, is distribution of that photo a trademark or copyright violation? Is my use of the words “Olympic”, “2010”, “Winter”, or “Games” in this post actionable? No, but what if I’m doing so in protest of something involving one or more of those words?

I mean, I don’t seriously consider myself at risk for having the last name “Winters”, or for writing under that name, but it’s so important to explicitly affirm that I have the right to do so when proposing –or passing!– any law that purports to restrict speech.

From the TNMH website:

We intend to create a space in downtown Vancouver to serve as a media resource centre with high-speed internet, audio and video production facilities, green screen and interview space, press conference space and workstations.

This project was launched by a group of media makers who covered the past several Olympic Games as un-accredited media. The organization has grown into a extensive group of volunteers from various industries and bringing diverse skills and motivations to the project.

Nice, right? Dave notes that they’ve been careful to identify as a group distinct from anti-Olympic protestors as well as the IOC itself. He says that his interest is in finding the stories the mainstream media can’t or doesn’t cover. He wants to make friends with people from other countries, hang out with them and enjoy a game or two: this is what breaks down the differences between us and makes it hard to hate people from “over there”, wherever that may be.

And he’s right. Studies demonstrate residing in large, diverse cities, or international travel — even religious pilgrimage — increases tolerance, respect and understanding for people lucky enough to be able to make the trip. And isn’t that what the Olympics are supposed to be about?

Unlike a few friends and bloggers, I’m not a huge sports fan myself. At the same time, I’ve been known to enjoy watching a game, taking in an event. But it’s the stories Dave’s interested in telling that are most interesting to me. And that’s why I’m going to go to the next TNMH meeting.

For instance, this infographic from last year uses area and two states to visualize the loss of over $88 billion in value during the collapse of the US banking system. It’s very effective, conveys the massive drop in value well, and frankly, it works better with an animated transition than a static image would have.

This is an important point: just because you can make something “interactive”, it doesn’t mean you’re not better off with a nice, standards-compliant JPEG. (Hey, how’s it going, Canadian Press?)

On the other hand, there really isn’t a better way to represent the data available than how the NY Times has here. Colour me impressed.

One side effect of this is that banks are suddenly forced to cut back on things like mortgages to unemployed people and employees — who are now unable to secure mortgages from their former employers. Bummer.

Case in point: Scarlett McCutcheon, former Bear Stearns employee, featured in this BBC News piece:

“I was very surprised when I was called into the head of the hedge fund group’s office and told that due to restructuring reasons, I was being let go.”

“Wow,” reporter Karen Nye responds.

On voiceover, Nye continues: “For one of the financial industry’s worker bees, living in a big city without an income is NOT easy.”

McCutcheon agrees: “You know, I’m not one of these… uh… storied Wall Street workers who makes millions of dollars in bonuses. You know, I had to pinch my pennies and really tighten my belt.”

Wow, that’s tough. Living in Vancouver without an income is tough enough, let alone a city like New York. Hey, I wonder what job she lost. The video didn’t mention that part. Let’s take a look at her LinkedIn profile:

Scarlett McCutcheon
Greater New York City Area
Past: Vice President at Bear Stearns

Aw, that’s a shame. It always sucks when upper management in the very department that cripples a multi-billion-dollar banking corporation gets let go because they fucked up so badly that it triggers a global economic crisis. How unfair.

BBC News: Life for Wall Street unemployed

YouTube

Flickr

No, what I actually found interesting was that I’d never made the connection that Donald Sutherland was Tommy Douglas’ son-in-law. I knew who they both were individually, and I knew Donald was father of Kiefer, but I never actually associated the two.

When I mentioned this bit of trivia to a friend, he didn’t seem to understand why I was telling him this. Why was this fact important? At first, I couldn’t tell whether he meant its importance in the article or in our conversation, but that got me thinking — did it actually matter which he actually meant? Why would someone consider that sort of trivia important? Moreover, if it’s not, why did the CBC see fit to include it?

Upon a little consideration, this is easy. To be fair, nobody knows who Tommy Douglas was. However, several million people watch 24. By associating “Tommy Douglas”, a relatively unpopular brand, however important a figure he may have been, with a highly popular, well-known brand like “Kiefer Sutherland”, the article’s details are reframed for a broader audience.

The audience, seeing the man’s grandson hacksaw off terrorists’ heads every week, have formed an emotional familiarity with him. Seeing the vast number of people: A) who try to kill him, B) who he kills, and C) who he chooses not to kill — in a single day — causes us to become interested in his day. For those of us who choose let him into our homes, he’s very much a part of our lives.

So, when we see this story — police pursue popular populist — placed in pop-cultural context for us, what do we come away with? “Hey, the Mounties spied on Jack Bauer’s grandpa! What the hell?”

Predictably, Ze Frank already spent time thinking about this stuff… presumably so I didn’t have to.

(Original link via Rob Cottingham)

Why on earth does this tool use the same icon for identifying a target country as the button you click on to determine information about the top 10 countries with female political leadership and so on?

If I click on a country name, shouldn’t I be able to see it highlighted? Doesn’t it make sense to see how regions are ranked? I realize this isn’t a university mapping textbook, but honestly now.

When comparing regions, static maps can be far, far more compelling and contain much more relevant information. Cases in point. Bad CBC!