nicefishfilms

Ten Months ago I predicted that the future is local. Today EveryBlock has announced that they have been acquired by MSNBC.

The neighborhood data rich site EveryBlock is an interesting play for MSNBC as it puts a focus on what people are actually interested in- their world. Billed as a microlocal site, EveryBlock has only been active for a year and a half but in that short time built a strong network of data points.

As stated on their blog, EveryBlock will remain intact (would be nice if FriendFeed follows suit) and continue to operate from Chicago.


msw

I spoke with an old friend today (he's really not that old) and we talked about purpose. This got me to thinking about what I'm trying to accomplish with this blog. The point of this space here is to put my foot down in the stream of flowing information. To demarcate what matters to me- what excites my brain and share it with you. At times this may mean posts about the Large Hadron Collider, advancements in music, neighborly concerns, BIG ideas, writers, directors, artists, scientists, communication methods, etc. It may turn out that this is just a way for me to track concepts that strike my temporal fancy. If it's entertaining to you- great, but my grand hope is that it sparks you towards discovery.

Inspiration happens when we care to look for the unknown.

Louis Gray articulates it better here.

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is - infinite." - William Blake

I do hope that you'll continue reading and communicating- it's a greater journey when shared.

I'll leave you to ponder your own awareness with this - Identity and Individuality in Quantum Theory

msw

I was really enjoying last.fm until the "new" version of the service was unveiled yesterday, and I'm not alone.

According to their blog, "We’ve been listening hard, trying out new ideas, and making tons of changes in response to your feedback. Today we’ve taken the next step in this process, bringing the new Last.fm to everyone." The next step is a huge step backward. What was once an easy to read and interact with service is now so unmanageable it's unusable. It didn't take long for the voices of the users to swell into a cacophony of screams.

I truly hope that they listen to their community and restore the service so I can actually "listen" to my music.

msw

This week Dr. Tony Shore of ObviousPop and I celebrate the BIG picture of the Oscars - informed by music. We're joined by the great collection of molecules- Joe Kirk of NoiseTrade, a true giant in the land of humans- Lucas Hendrickson of The Tennessean and the "not-a-blog" Large Land Mammal and Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins drops into the Experience. Plus- Album picks of the week.

The raw stories we cover can be found here.






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We record the show live on Monday's at 7 pm PST. You can join the live stream here

Music intro: Set the Music Free By Geoff Smith from the album Ones and 0s

The info is rapidly flowing over at FriendFeed so we've decided to do a weekly highlight of some of our 'shares.'

We're big fans of the Large Hadron Collider and tend to post a lot of updates on the developments of the LHC. There will always be some who question the risks of peering so deeply inside the unknown, have no fear-
Particle Collider Not Threat, Safety Panel Says.

Enjoyed this comment from Chris Baskind, "Very well put. Let's smash some particles."

Music is a major part of our lives and we are drawn to intelligent discussion on the matter-

Music Tastes Link to Personality

Another Spin for Vinyl

T-Bone Burnett 'Democratizes' High Fidelity Audio?

Some Film News-

Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Given 2009 Release Date I have complete faith in Spike. His films Adaptation and Being John Malcovich are just fantastic. Imaginative videos like Weezer, Beastie Boys, Björk, etc make my eyes happy. See for yourself.

Professor Roger Ebert teaches us "how to read a movie."

The Toronto Film Fest screens one of our most anticipated films- Picasso & Braque Go to the Movies

Art / Culture-

Color + Design Blog: Art Nouveau by COLOURlovers

Celebrating Hatch Show Print

Kerouac reads from On the Road, David Lynch, Jackson Pollock and more- The 50 Greatest Arts Videos on YouTube

Robots / Science - Yes, we love 'em!

Robots Detect Behavioral Cues to Follow Humans

History Hacker Brings DIY Science From Web to TV
Bre Pettis's Blog

Nothing wowed us more than this- Mars Rover Opportunity takes self portrait.



Keeping feeding your brain.

Visit us over at FriendFeed- Nice Fish Films

This week Dr. Tony Shore of ObviousPop and I cover the latest news in music and tech with an all-star panel. We're joined by Joe Kirk of NoiseTrade Lucas Hendrickson of The Tennessean and the "not-a-blog" Large Land Mammal plus Steve Spalding of How to Slip an Atom.






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We record the show live on Monday's at 7 pm PST. You can join the live stream here

Highlights from the show:

Warner Bros. pulls music videos, fans and bands say ?

EMI and Universal take a better tactic with YouTube.

Zzz, salez numberz for the Zune.

Did you know that the White House has a rockin' record collection?

Listen to the show as we try to figure out how to make some money for Twitter.

Note: If you dance with tech. be prepared to have your toes stepped on every once in awhile. This show taped on Monday, we are just posting it today. Talkshoe was not playing nice with us.

This week Dr. Tony Shore of ObviousPop and I celebrate the BIG announcement - Are You Really Experienced is going LIVE at SXSW 09 - press details here. Be sure to tune into the Ustream Studio LIVE from The Belmont @ SXSW starting March 13th.

We're joined by the great collection of molecules- including a true giant in the land of humans- Lucas Hendrickson of The Tennessean and the "not-a-blog" Large Land Mammal and Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins drops into the Experience. Plus- Album picks of the week.

The raw stories we cover can be found here.






To subscribe via iTunes - click here
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We record the show live on Monday's at 7 pm PST. You can join the live stream here

Music intro: Set the Music Free By Geoff Smith from the album Ones and 0s

The weekly talkcast of music + tech. This week, Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins and I are joined by Shawn Perry, Founder/ Editor of Vintage Rock and special guest Andrew Shapter, Writer, Director - Before the Music Dies, the powerful documentary of the 'mis-state' of the music biz. Watch the full film here.

My music pick of the week: U2, No Line on the Horizon (deep review coming soon.)

The raw stories we covered and the ones we didn't get to this week can be found here.

We want to thank Mosso - The Rackspace Cloud - for their support.

Special thanks to Peter Himmelman for being a leader in using tech. to build stronger connections with community. Experience Peter Himmelman's Furious World LIVE every Tuesday at 7 pm PDT - here






To subscribe via iTunes - click here
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We record the show live every Monday at 7 pm PDT. You can join the live stream/ chat here

Music intro: Set the Music Free By Geoff Smith from the album Ones and 0s

A Year and a half before the great facebook "ownership" freak-out - four men saw it coming. Think it's time we all march towards:

A Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web
Authored by Joseph Smarr, Marc Canter, Robert Scoble, and Michael Arrington
September 4, 2007

We publicly assert that all users of the social web are entitled to certain fundamental rights, specifically:

* Ownership of their own personal information, including:
o their own profile data
o the list of people they are connected to
o the activity stream of content they create;
* Control of whether and how such personal information is shared with others; and
* Freedom to grant persistent access to their personal information to trusted external sites.

Sites supporting these rights shall:

* Allow their users to syndicate their own profile data, their friends list, and the data that’s shared with them via the service, using a persistent URL or API token and open data formats;
* Allow their users to syndicate their own stream of activity outside the site;
* Allow their users to link from their profile pages to external identifiers in a public way; and
* Allow their users to discover who else they know is also on their site, using the same external identifiers made available for lookup within the service.

Isn't it time you declare your rights?

It was a week of really BIG ideas, moments and advancements. Here are some of the noteworthy shares on our FriendFeed.

We were amazed by the 'First Beam' from the Large Hadron Collider.

Celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the computer chip.

Soaked in the Beauty of our friend David M. Bunker's Blog.

Wondered why so many Geniuses struggled with madness.

Pondered the idea of Identity and Individuality in Quantum Theory.

Enjoyed watching new ideas and innovations from the TechCrunch 50 Conference. Some of our favorite companies from TC 50:

GoodGuide - What's inside that product?
VideoSurf - New technology that looks 'inside' video.
OtherInbox - Manage the email overload.
Swype - Will change the way we input text.

Took a full color trip back to the 30's and 40's with the Library of Congress Flickr Set.



"I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today." - William Allen White

Peace to the dreamers- msw

Change is in the air; politically, environmentally, technologically and marked by communal dialog. For me, the dream of what the web can be is starting to be realized. We can drive topics to the top of search results, reach out to civic leaders and influence policy better than before. Recently I was asked to investigate a regional response to a transportation proposal. If approved, the communities would be impacted with increased rail traffic. I saw disparate communities band together, blog their opposition and reach a mass audience way outside their burbs. They stood united and created headlines that could not be ignored by by corporate boards sensitive to stock holder reactions to bad press.

Another real-time example of the efficacy of blog-flogging is the response in East LA to the recent push to ban lunch wagons. The issue should have been a non-starter- businesses lobbied their council reps to restrict the encroaching mobile eateries from taking away traffic. Out of nowhere (where those, who have no "voice" in politics have always, dwelled) took to their typepads and cried foul. They saw the wagons as part of the fabric of their communal existence. The issue is far from resolved but the outcome is no longer a foregone conclusion.

I am exploring the idea of social networking that bypasses the forced communities of enterprise (myspace, facebook) and keeping an eye out for the micro-gatherings formed out of ease of use, access and compelling conversation. I am excited by the reality that we are forcing adaptive technologies that respond to our desires. This marks a change- we drive the programing by participation.

MSW

Social links and twits-

Additional links on Mento

Wired Magazine is doing an interesting one time experiment, allowing us to see their process.

"An almost-real-time, behind-the-scenes look at the assigning, writing, editing, and designing of a Wired feature. Tied solely to the Charlie Kaufman profile scheduled to run in their November issue."

Storyboard - Wired Blogs

Together with his Brother David, Albert Maysles helped us see the power of documentary as Art for the first time. For the Maysles Brothers, documentary was the only way to successfully express the experience of their subjects. They set out to show us the beauty of life shot frame-by-frame. Albert trained his skills while working with Giants like Godard.





Albert's approach was to show our world what he saw, he tore down the wall between pre-structured "scene" and life by pulling back the curtain of the moment and documenting what heard. What we know of The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit, is the result of team Maysles forming a moving document of the group's happening.

Before Albert and David, there were only stiff and forced subject matter(s) trying to escape the conventions of the film medium. Their 1968 FILM Salesmen was the birth- a coming to light- of Non-Fiction Feature. Albert states, "(Before Salesmen)... there was nothing to compete with the Hollywood feature film. Documentaries were maybe of feature length, but not Features."

Their use of found materials informs us of the Universe that is the life of these four Boston Door-to-Door Bible Salesmen. It took a new form of media to fully realize what moving images can do- fix time, place and experience through the medium of cinematic expression- Salesmen is the Creation of Documentary as Film.

Through their fine five part series, VBS.tv invites us to discover the real and reel world of Albert Maysles. In Part 3 of their document, VBS Meets Albert Maysles we journey back to "The birth of the nonfiction feature."




Thank you to the Filmmaker Magazine: Blog for leading me to this moving document.

The futurist Francois Truffaunt knew something before the rest of us when he stated, for the record,



There are more tools for documentation today than in any other time in our history. We don't have just a blog, a Ustream, a flckr post, a tweet, or a "status update," we have new and emerging mediums in which to express our artifacts. These are the documents of our experience we leave for others to discover.

msw

photo of David and Albert Maysles via Wikipedia
movie poster of Salesmen via Wikipedia

This week Dr. Tony Shore of ObviousPop and I dance with the Ones and 0's. The digital evolution continues to re-shape our music "Experience." We take a moment to share some of the "good news." We're joined by the great collection of molecules- Joe Kirk of NoiseTrade and a true giant in the land of humans- Lucas Hendrickson of The Tennessean and the "not-a-blog" Large Land Mammal Plus- Album picks of the week.

The raw stories we cover can be found here.






To subscribe via iTunes - click here
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We record the show live on Monday's at 7 pm PST. You can join the live stream here

Music intro: Set the Music Free By Geoff Smith from the album Ones and 0s

This week Dr. Tony Shore of ObviousPop and I cover the latest news in music and tech. Warner Music Group reports strong but cautious numbers. While Atlantic is spinning the good news of digital sales, we see a need for innovation.

We examine the Social Music Evolution article on Hypebot. We take a tour of Lifestreaming service Strands with Drew Olanoff. Strands offers great ways to stay in touch with what your friends are listening to. Learn how to make your music experience truly social with Strands.

Sign up for Strands by using the beta code: Drew






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My planned blog for today will have to wait. I read a post on "How To Split An Atom" by Steve Spalding, that made me stop what I was doing, and helped re-focus my day. Please do yourself a BIG favor and read- "The Internet, Information And Changing The World"


msw

(image found at: Wooster Collective)

As previously posted, Wired Magazine is conducting an interesting experiment by allowing us to look inside the making of their Charlie Kaufman article. Yesterday, they released all the raw interview tapes. What we learn is that Charlie is always trying to go further with his journey for truth. He's trying discovery something new by taking risks, exploring the unknown. The scribe behind Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind even talks about his reputation of being reclusive.

Kaufman delves into his TV past in part 4, I didn't know that he wrote two Simpsons spec scripts.

I'm impressed with his own sense of humanity.

Take a trip inside a great mind- Listen Here.

Synecdoche, New York is Kaufman's directorial debut. The film has been described as dark and deeply complex. Looking forward to multiple viewings.



msw

This week, Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins and I are joined by Finnian Makepeace of The Makepeace Brothers for a discussion of social nets, emerging tech and the ART of music.

My music pick of the week (same as last week): The Makepeace Brothers

The raw stories we covered and the ones we didn't get to this week can be found here.

We want to thank Mosso - The Rackspace Cloud - for their support.

Special thanks to Peter Himmelman for being a leader in using tech. to build stronger connections with community. Experience Peter Himmelman's Furious World LIVE every Tuesday at 7 pm PDT - here






To subscribe via iTunes - click here
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We record the show live every Monday at 7 pm PDT. You can join the live stream/ chat here

Music intro: Set the Music Free By Geoff Smith from the album Ones and 0s

This week Dr. Tony Shore of ObviousPop and I rip on the tired, worn out Grammys (well I rip, he is more gentle.) We're joined by Joe Kirk of NoiseTrade and Lucas Hendrickson of The Tennessean and the "not-a-blog" Large Land Mammal Plus- Albums picks of the week.

As Tony has pointed out in his after show recap, I was passionate (upset) about what we witnessed at the Grammys. They say it's "it's music's biggest night" if that's it, bye bye music biz.

Fortunately, we know that music has very little to do with what we see on the telecast. I'm done with discussing the old biz, time to focus on what really matters- Great music experience. Music moves me, tingles my brain and is truly part of me. Yes, I get peeved when I see something so dear to me reduced down to a pop tart commercial. The good news is... we no longer have to rely on the rusty pipes to discover and connect with music that matters- buh bye to the rackets, hello inter-tubes.






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Music intro: Set the Music Free By Geoff Smith from the album Ones and 0s

This week, Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins and I cover the 'getting old real fast' stories of the major declines of the major labels. We counter those realities with recent advances in socialNets/ tech which MOVE artists closer to their audience.

We're joined by Marc Ostrick, President, Co-founder of eGuiders for a discussion about 'trusted voices.' Marc Ostrick is a really interesting human with great vision.

'Rizzn' ends the show on the high note of Singularity - well played my friend. Visit the Singularity Institute to learn more.

My music pick of the week: The Makepeace Brothers - enjoy!

The raw stories we covered and the ones we didn't get to this week can be found here.






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We record the show live every Monday at 7 pm PDT. You can join the live stream/ chat here

Music intro: Set the Music Free By Geoff Smith from the album Ones and 0s

In these unsettling times of economic unrest, I find it comforting to gaze upon the unlimited creative potential of humanity.

Give a man a still camera and a green LED keychain light and he will create an urban music soundscape that dazzles the mind. Ryan Cashman strung together a series of 20-30 second exposure images to create Light-Paint Piano.


Light-Paint Piano Player from Ryan Cashman on Vimeo.

HD version available here.

We are seeing outbreaks of true creativity being empowered by technology like never before. core77 is doing some wonderful reporting from the London Design Festival 2008. Part of their coverage included this fantastic bit of work from Christopher Pearson. You've never seen a door like this.



Finally, Vincent Laforet gives us a glimpse of our bright future when he showcases the capabilities of the Canon EOS 5D MKII prototype. His stunning piece Reverie really must be viewed. This is music to my eyes.

When I choose to check in to the unlimited possibilities of my fellow man, I find it's not such a lonely place to dwell.

msw

The weekly talkcast of music + tech. This week, Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins and I are joined by Jeff 'The Dude' Dowd. Calling all little achievers: Lebowski Fest LA is Thursday and Friday. Stay tuned for details on a live stream of the Friday events.

The Dude reminds us of the great film Standing in the Shadows of Motown - If you are a Motown fan, you really should see this documentary!

The raw stories we covered and the ones we didn't get to this week can be found here.

We want to thank Mosso - The Rackspace Cloud - for their support.

Special thanks to Peter Himmelman for being a leader in using tech. to build stronger connections with community. Experience Peter Himmelman's Furious World LIVE every Tuesday at 7 pm PDT - here






To subscribe via iTunes - click here
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We record the show live every Monday at 7 pm PDT. You can join the live stream/ chat here

Music intro: Set the Music Free By Geoff Smith from the album Ones and 0s

I love The Tick, the books, the animated series and the short-lived live action series. We are stoked that Sling is now streaming some hard to find programs including our favorite Blue Bug Hero. Sling, like Hulu offers embeddable, high-quality streams. The site is well designed and offers a nice selection of off-beat programs.

Some of our faves:
Alf
Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Benson
The Bob Newhart Show
Battlestar Galactica (New)
Battlestar Galactic (Classic)
Dream On
I Spy
Lost In Space
Land of the Giants
Murder One
S.W.A.T.
Sliders
Twin Peaks

» Read More

Becoming active in a new social media community is not unlike real world relationships. They always start off strong, filled with the idealization of new experience. Over time you start seeing flaws, imperfections and disturbing behaviors. You start drifting away and looking for a more fulfilling adventure. I have not been enjoying FriendFeed recently and have decided to take an iBreak. I hope we can still be friends though, I don't want us to feel uncomfortable if we see each other around the net.

It's me, not you FriendFeed. I'm a prude, careful of what I put before my eyes. I deplore crass language and am grieved by divisive rhetoric. I seek intelligent dialog and engagement. In the past few weeks I've noticed a shift in the tone of conversation at FriendFeed. I know you're impressed with the some of the "leaders" but a few have sunk to rather immature behaviors. I'm not a fan of mocking those we disagree with. There was a time when we tried to help each other find the good in individuals. I expect us to elevate the conversation, bring forth change and celebrate solutions. I have no problem with sharing the silly things that make us smile. I'm just uncomfortable the crude items I've been seeing. It's like porn- no one can define it, you just know when you see it.

We've had some good times, laughed together and danced with the possibility of a different type of communal gathering. A place where we didn't need to celebrate piffle, spoke to each other with respect and were mindful of what we put in the public stream of information. FriendFeed was like a get together with acquaintances having some rich conversations over a glass of wine or two. Lately it's like someone started doing shots of Jack, took off their clothes and started spewing angry vile.

I know you have it in you to be that place that inspires. I understand things change with growth, but I felt we needed to get this out in the open so we can work things out. I don't want this to devolve into a YouTube comment thread. You have a beautiful mind, I respect that most about you FriendFeed.

msw

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To view the Disqus thread click here

Many thank to Nikki Finke at Hollywood Deadline for posting a great article from Keith Boesky on the missteps the industry continues to make in dealing with social networks. Please take a moment to read the article. -HERE

I was in Milwaukee when the USA TODAY article about talent agencies approach to social network sites came out and I wanted to scream. Then I realized that I was surrounded by every-day people who had better things to do than try to figure out why Hollywood does anything.

msw

more social links- MENTO and HERE

Selections from the Nice Fish Films Blog A Journey of Unexpected Wonder:
http://blog.myspace.com/nicefishfilms


The Prayer of Jabez

And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!" So God granted him what he requested.

1 Chronicles 4:9-10

I have noticed that some have taken this to mean an ushering in of a new prosperity movement within certain segments of the Evangelical Christian community. We choose to see what "I" want. What if... to "enlarge my territory" = make my world bigger? We make our universe larger by knowing our Brothers and Sisters from around the world have a language, culture and artistic expression that can teach us how to express our humanity better and more complete.

I choose to see: that I may not cause pain= keep me from evil. When we discover a village, do we put up our shopping centers or do we tread with respect and listen to their language, smell the food prepared by their hands of love and hear the song that rests in their hearts? Around the world today there is a re-connection to the tongues of the ancestors. May we learn to listen first so that we may dance with our new Brothers and Sisters in the rhythm of their song. it is then that we learn the beauty of respect which leads us to an expansion of the territory of our heart.

_____________________

Words From The Wise

Carl Jung
Seek that which is not possible.

Diane Arbus
I did not inherit my kingdom for a long time.

Euripedes
The sea washes away the stains and wounds of the world.

Samuel Becket
There are two moments worthwhile in writing, the one when you start and the other when you throw it in the wastebasket.

Frederich Nietzche
One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

Henri Barbusse
And the broken melody can only change sadness into beauty.

Gandhi
The impurity of my associates is but the manifestation of the hidden wrong within me.

Kierkegaard
A revolutionary age is an age of action; ours is the age of advertisement and publicity. Nothing ever happens but there is immediate publicity everywhere.

Alden Nowlan
…The day a child forgives himself, he becomes wise.

_____________________

We All Have a Song

The birds are singing with such vigor today. I sang with a Mockingbird Saturday afternoon, I was mesmerized by the connection. I'm learning how to "listen to the wind."

Music helps me see.

A hero of mine recently asked me for my song, what is my song?

Robbie Robertson says; "Everyone has a song. God gave us each song, that's how we know who we are. Everyone has a song."


Sing your song today.

_____________________

Music creates a film in my mind

"Let each listener just open his ears and think of anything. If everything goes well, the music will then capture his thinking, and at least give form, even if not substance, to it. And it might very well be that producing frames of thought within which important ideas may take root, flourish and breed is, in the long run, even more effective than just putting forward important ideas. Maybe music is good for something, after all."

Jos Kunst (author's translation)

_____________________

The Future Belongs to the Curious

From the Screenplay (English translation) of Jules and Jim by Francois Truffaut

(JIM)
Sorel, my teacher, taught me all l know

"What do you want to be," he asked.
A diplomat

"Do you have a large fortune?"
No

"Are you related to anyone famous?"
No

"Then forget about diplomacy."

But what can l become?
"An inquiring mind."

That's not a career.
"Not yet."

"Travel, write, translate"

"Learn to live anywhere, beginning now."

"The future's bright for those who question."

This week Dr. Tony Shore of ObviousPop and I cover the latest news in music and tech with Lucas Hendrickson of The Tennessean and the "not-a-blog" Large Land Mammal Our special guest this week is industry innovator, mentor and thought leader George Howard. In addition to a successful career at Ryko, Mr. Howard teaches at The College of Business at Loyola University, New Orleans, and online for Berklee Media. He's currently working with Wolfgang's Vault, TuneCore and is the Executive Editor for Artists House Music.






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We record the show live on Monday's at 7 pm PST. You can join the live stream here

Highlights from the show:

Bruce Springsteen educates the biz on how to sell records: Be the Boss.

Radio bankrupt in 6 - 12 Months?

Hop on board The Cluetrain Manifesto

When we talked with Marc Canter about Building the Open Mesh, he said the future of the web is going to be open and LIVE. Sometimes the future happens faster than you anticipated. Today, our favorite social network community, FriendFeed went real-time. Now we can look across our feeds and comment as they happen.

Welcome to the new teletype.


msw

» Read More

Marc Ostrick and I are honored to premier our next mini documentary 'OPEN' on TWITtv today at 2pm PDT. Immediately after the showing we will make the film available at eGuiders. We look forward to connecting with you and discussing what emerging tech and community means to us.

If you are coming here via the showing, welcome and we hope you take the time to explore the blog and follow us on Twitter, FriendFeed or Facebook. Chances are, if you're on a social network you can find us via the user name - nicefishfilms.



msw

Last min. blog update, amazing night of great music in store. Special guests include the Blue Eyed Gospel Soul of Jon Gibson, Robert Scoble - The Scobelizer!

It's Peter Himmelman's Furious World LIVE at 7pm PST main chat room here

[after show notes] Music makes film in my mind, My brain alive with notes, melodies and sacred harmonies. Tonight I surfed a nice set of fine particles.

Replay - Webcam chat at Ustream

Marc Canter skyped in to surprise Brian Roy (author of the new Wombat Tracker) with a signed copy of "How to Build the Open Mesh. Canter has pipes!

Excellent re-cap by Ellen Burman- here

The music didn't stop there, Jon and Peter kept the musical conversation going after the show. Thankfully, the cameras kept rolling - view the after show.


photo by Daniel Vendt photo album found here

We gather before and after the show at the Furious World Community.

Wombats HO!

» Read More

As we celebrate Twitter passing the One Billion Tweet mark, I want to ask you a question. Do you use the service to PUSH (send out links) or PULL (monitor and converse)? Last night I had a face-to-face conversation with a Twitter power user. He is an entrepreneur who maintains several accounts for both work and personal use. I do believe that entrepreneurs should be mindful when communicating personal opinions while doing so under their company brand. I don't assume that all who work at a company hold the same beliefs as the person at the top but it's hard to separate the two at times. However, companies should use social net tools in a personal way.

The entrepreneur I spoke with said that some of his accounts are used to PUSH stories and links out. His personal account is more of the conversation tool. I'm not sure he's realizing the full power of the Twitter Universe. All companies should be working towards building communities rather than just PUSHING info out. Mashable had a great post on How to Build Community on Twitter. The writer, Sarah Evans, points out that Twitter is best when used to build conversation. Engagement is the goal here. By definition, spraying info out without listening is spamming.

It begins with the PULL. I PULL info into my Twitter world by using global search on TweetDeck. I'm able to track conversations on a subject basis. I discover people who are talking about things I'm interested in. The next step for me is to strike up a conversation by commenting on a tweet or link. This type of action results in dynamic interaction. I've had some great conversations with people from around the world by listening first, then reaching out.

If all your doing is using Twitter to PUSH, you are missing the true revolution in micro-messaging- the conversation.

Please feel free to follow me on Twitter, if your tweets are discussions, I'll probably follow you back.

[ Related Post: Twitter Me Silly- Everything You Need to Know About Twitter ]

Photo Credit: Discovery Channel, Wild Birds Learn Foreign Languages

msw

This week, Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins and I review the 'Experience' that was the Studio from The Belmont in Austin. What happens when you put BIG ideas and great Music together in one room and stream it live? For us, it meant watching the spark happen as we created space for BIG ideas to grow. Over 1 Million views, new relationships forged and a bit of chaos- it was a week we will not forget.

Joining Rizzn and I are Geoff Smith and Ben Cloutier of Left Side Driver.

Our once regular panel of Dr. Tony Shore of Obviouspop and Lucas Hendrickson didn't join the discussion but I want to thank them for all of their contributions. I believe that it is up to us to keep the song playing and celebrate the social nets that empower the conversations for real-time connections.

Special thanks to Matt, Dylan and Brian at Covalent Records - you made that music stage rock.

A particular fine highlight was seeing Robert Scoble being charged by the musical force that is Peter Himmelman.

The raw stories we didn't cover this week can be found here.






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We record the show live on Monday's at 7 pm PST. You can join the live stream here

Music intro: Set the Music Free By Geoff Smith from the album Ones and 0s

I feel like a kid, downright giddy! Got a flash from the Phoenix Explorer on Mars via Twitter-



See the full size Twitter Flash Image

Read the exciting news From the Official Phoenix Mars Website

The Twitters from Phoenix have been so fun to read- join in

Read the Wired interview with Phoenix

This is our Space- Exploring together. Enjoy the Future my friends!

msw

Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins and I are doing a live blog regarding our "Ustream Studio Live from The Belmont" 'experience.' The conversation is scheduled to begin at 9:45 pm PDT.

There are moments when you just feel something "click." This was the week that FriendFeed clicked. Their Beta was made public and the crowd went wild. Many of the features we were hoping for were implemented like dupe detection which greatly reduced noise.

The people who make up the community of FriendFeed celebrated and joined Tad's Meme by sharing their self portraits.



Special thanks to AJ Batac for taking the time to pull together this image of what community looks like.

I truly hope you will give FriendFeed a try, we're having a blast over there.

msw

What a great week, filled with exciting new information. My mind is swirling and alive.

I can relate to "The Dude" - "You know, a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous. And uh, lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder's head."

Here's a rundown on the new information that has come to light-

- Change.Gov - I will be watching the ways technology is being used to improve our eGovernment. We are seeing a growing emphasis on research and development, green technologies and innovative solutions to our current dilemmas. I'm encouraged to see that we will have a Chief Technology Officer appointment soon.

- Debating A.I. - After watching an hour long discussion on the future of super-computing, I am convinced that we shouldn't try to make computers more like us. When we attempt to emulate true human interaction we end up with incomplete, faulty code. As argued by Jaron Lanier, we should be focused on clean code based on science rather than a "conscious" code. Lanier points to the horrible Clippy as an example of programmers "wasting half of their cycles on ideology" instead of solid engineering.

- Social Media, Connecting Smart Minds - Allen Stern of Center Networks captured an amazing street side speech by Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV. Though his impassioned talk is riddled with expletives, Gary reminds us that conversation is the key to success. He encourages us to engage EVERYWHERE. Don't worry that the big co's aren't using the new communication tools, use that to your advantage.

- Web 2.0 Summit, Entrepreneurs on Parade - Jerry Yang, CEO of Yahoo! seemed a bit confused during his brutal interview at this weeks tech gathering. He states that the Y! is evolving into a platform company or an advertising tool or a starting point destination. Huh? I sure hope they pick one of those things and become truly excellent in that space. Kevin Rose of Digg echoes Vaynerchuck's admonition to actively ENGAGE in as many places as possible on the social net. If you run a company, be out front of your product. Be the champion, the one who is creating real-time conversation. View videos from the Web 2.0 Summit speakers including Jerry Yang, venture capitalist John Doerr and Lance Armstrong here.

My takeaway from all this input? Humans are amazing. We are seeing dynamic changes in the ways we connect. Each day brings new sparks to my brain, lighting up with potential. I'm glad you are here to share this journey. Let's keep the conversation flowing.

Follow me on Twitter here. Jump into the FriendFeed stream here. For regular updates, please consider subscribing to this blog here. Now go out there and be the little achievers you were meant to be!

msw

I've written about Hulu here and have sang their well deserved praises. They're going to be "seen" by millions with an anticipated Super Bowl ad but they are far from your only option. High quality content can also be found at Sling including The Tick. I'm pretty sure we're familiar with these two high profile video streaming sites by now but did you know that Modern Feed offers more sharing options than Hulu and Sling? Modern Feed is a video aggregation service with some serious muscle. The "human-powered" feeders select the highest quality streams available and even take into consideration streaming rates.

You can add your favorite content to Facebook, build your own playlists and even view via their iPhone app. I'm a little fatigued by the visual clutter on their site and must razz them about the pop-under ads. These minor distractions won't keep me away from using Modern Feed on a regular basis though. What really got me excited about this discovery is the depth of content. While Hulu and Sling offer some great gems, they rely too heavily on "front-end" titles. My tastes lay on the very tip of the long tail. I've been itching to watch The Prisoner on my iPhone and iPod Touch* but have struck out on the other video sites and the mini-clips on YouTube just don't cut it. I'm a collector of all things Prisoner, I have the complete series on VHS, Laserdiscs and DVD. (Side tangent here, the first time the series came out on DVD the quality and mastering were just terrible! I had to re-purchase the series on DVD twice and it still doesn't come close to the Laserdiscs.)

To my great delight, I present you the first embeddable version of the complete series of The Prisoner thanks to my newest bestest friends at Modern Feed. Together, we may visit "The Village" anytime we want!




msw

* As of this writing The Prisoner stream is not available for iPhone but there are rumors that if it comes, it will come via Modern Feed.

Along our curious path we have the occasion to converse with some really BIG thinkers. Thinking Out Loud is the raw stream from some of these encounters.

On this SPECIAL edition: The trending issue today on Twitter is #CNN Fails. We're joined by Robert Scoble of Building43, Cyril Mutran co-founder of Twazzup and Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins to discuss the rise of real-time news. The lack of coverage by the US News Networks regarding the Iranian election and fall-out was just stunning and showed the complete failure of old media to cover breaking events like the real-time web.

You can track the Iran Elections on Twazzup or wait a lifetime for tv news networks to catch up.







More resources: Huffington Post Live Blog, "Real-Time Criticism Over CNN Coverage" - NYT,

Twitter Streams Break Iran News Dam

Rizzn has a report that their seems to be an attempt to censor YouTube videos as well - read here

Monday UPDATE: We sent a Twitter message to @ricksanchezcnn and he responded on the air that they did the best they could but news is now a 'collective pursuit.' Rick seems to understand the uproar but I wonder if he realizes that CNN had a real opportunity to mine the 'collective' voices demanding news as it was breaking. To his credit, Sanchez covered the story fully, even showing the grim images coming out of Iran. He even focused on the importance of the SocialNet in getting the story out.




msw

One of our favorite podcasts- 'Stuff You Should Know' were live at 10am EDT with a video stream of their great show.

Watch as Josh and Chuck, senior writers and co-hosts of the Stuff You Should Know podcast from HowStuffWorks.com debunk April Fool's Day.

replay -

Live TV by Ustream


Visit their Blog for more

I run with some big dogs. Established writers, media mavericks, pop-culture mavens, political pundits, industry leaders and successful innovators are among those I call my “buddies.”

With a few exceptions, my friends are experiencing seismic shifts in their professional lives. Many of my close associates are going through re-alignments in their professional careers. Each call, email, instant message is a replay of the previous contact. Tales of downsizing, layoffs, funding woes and sudden change are now common among my circle of once mighty acquaintances.

I have no doubt that these individuals will rise again to lofty positions of influence and success. There is a common thread among these people. Extreme talent honed through hard work. They approach life with unfettered zeal and passion. They create solutions through smart thinking. No economic down-turn is without opportunities. I am confident that my friends will find or create those opportunities. What we choose to do during crisis defines our character. Depression doesn’t work. A new plan of attack is needed when searching for that next step in the professional experience.

Surviving change takes action, common sense and uncommon strength. Here are a few tips to make this transitional time less painful:

Put the Oxygen Mask on Yourself First.

There is a reason we are instructed to apply the oxygen mask on ourselves before helping our fellow passengers. Staying healthy should be first on your “to-do” list. Exercise more- walk, run, swim. You’re going to need those endorphins.

Don’t Show Up To a Bail-Out In Your Private Jet.

A successful Veterinarian friend of mine has always driven a modest car. He’s aware that his clients would look askew at him driving around in a Ferrari. Perception matters more than ever. The days of flaunting wealth are over. The new heroes will be the thrifty individuals. Signal that you are an agent of change by trading in that flashy ride for something friendly to the environment. Save cash, use coupons, make your own coffee.

Never Get In a Land War In Asia.

Donald Trump is a big believer in getting even with your enemies. If you want to spend your time looking backwards then, by all means, take the Donald’s advice. Good companies sometimes make bad decisions. Use your energy wisely by letting go of the past, the supervisor who didn’t appreciate your talents, the Board of Directors who made you a scape-goat. You are now CEO of Today. Prepare your battle station by clearing the clutter off your desk. Start your day with a written plan of attack. Give yourself useful tasks that can be checked off when completed. Stay professionally minded by scheduling your day. This is no time to play solitaire.

A Shrinking Violet Gets Trampled.

Stay visible by networking, writing and leveraging social networks to their fullest potentials. Six Apart, the blogging community, is offering journalists free TypePad resources and revenue sharing. There is no excuse for staying in the shadows. Be the light that attracts interaction.

Study Wise Grasshopper.

Plug into inventive writers. Seth Godin and Mitch Joel are two good sources of inspiration. Read Louis Gray’s blog. Louis writes about understanding technology. He is a tester, a connector and a well deserved trusted voice. You should study his approach and style even if you’re not interested in technology. He’s proof that staying positive equals long-term success. Buy a copy of Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition by Guy Kawasaki. Guy is a true master of building community. Get this book now, read it deeply and take action. Your brain needs to be in training mode. Input wisely.

msw

I'm a firm supporter, user, evangelist of FriendFeed and today they got called up to the 'Majors.' FriendFeed Co-Founder Bret Taylor confirmed the TechCrunch report of the Facebook acquisition in a blog post:

The FriendFeed team is extremely excited to become a part of the talented Facebook team. We've always been great admirers of Facebook, and our companies share a common vision. Now we have the opportunity to bring many of the innovations we've developed at FriendFeed to Facebook's 250 million users around the world and to work alongside Facebook's passionate engineers to create even more ways for you to easily share with your friends online.

I see this a giant win for innovation- others are not so sure. Since the world 'gets' Facebook it seems that another major player in social net would have to fight hard with a ton of money to try and catch up with FB. By joining forces you possibly get a testing/ proving ground - FriendFeed is behind some of the best innovations in the real-time web. Do you enjoy the real-time updates from your friends? A FriendFeed first. Like the 'like' feature in Facebook? That was a FriendFeed innovation.

What does this mean for the service and for the users?

For right now- not much. Wild speculation on my part here but ... before rolling out a huge change to FaceBook, doesn't it make sense to let the community of early adopters, techies and uber-geeks test out features first on FriendFeed? One of the most applauded services of FriendFeed is the open API and strong relationship with the developer community - Facebook has a tremendous value to be gained here if they let the FriendFeed team take the lead here.

You can track the reaction in real-time in several conversation threads on FriendFeed:

Scoble is talking about the deal here Within minutes of the announcement, Scoble gathered the folks from Facebook and Friend feed and recorded this conversation His in-depth collected thoughts here

Bret Taylor's thread here

Thomas Hawk (where I first saw the news) has his thread here

Louis Gray who was moderated a panel with Bret Taylor just last week has this to say "This relationship? It's complicated."

TechCrunch has posted more details of the deal here
To my fellow FriendFeeders - the sky isn't falling, the sky is the limit. Stay cool, take pride that the service you helped bring to the limelight is all grown up and ready for prime-time!

I will continue to add links and sources to this developing story as the week progresses.

msw

It is quite understandable that back in 1776 big news took a few days to reach the Colonies including the momentous signing of the Declaration of Independence. On July 2, 1776, John Adams wrote to his beloved wife Abigale the following, “The Second of July 1776 will be a memorable epoch in the history of America. It will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance … It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever.” Of course we celebrate the day the Declaration was adopted- July 4th. The breath taking revolutionary news took a few days to reach George Washington and the rest of the Colonies. But the news changed the world, the citizens were energized to action. They did something, they sacrificed for the concept of Freedom. They united behind this wonderful ideal of Democracy, this thought that had only existed in their imagination and might not ever come to be.

Can you picture the early Americans huddled in town squares anxiously awaiting news from Philadelphia? Seems hard to believe that news took so long to reach the masses. 232 years later- some information still takes days to reach our consciousness even in this glorious information age. Perhaps we are relying too much on old messengers and delivery methods. We do, however, now have the power to collect the information in real-time and share it with our world. Yet many of us are still relying on the old media gatekeepers to feed us the news they feel is relevant. What if some editor decided that the Declaration wasn't important enough to cover that day? Thankfully, it was the "We the People" who decided to listen intently then disseminate the information to their fellow citizens.

It is truly up to us to listen intently, become more informed citizens and to share our knowledge with our communities. Our forefathers imagined this to be, they sacrificed everything to make it so. Go forth into your virtual town circles and celebrate knowledge, information and your free voice.

The tools are in OUR hands- use a news reader, gather your rss feeds, listen to the debate in real-time, share ideas, excite one another with bold ideas. Connect yourself with BIG thinkers, don't be afraid to converse, blog, twitter, friendfeed or share.

Celebrate the greatness of the past, the wonder of the future and the hope that our imaginations are constantly alive with possibilities- it's a Revolutionary way of thinking.

Read- The Declaration of Independence

Debate or Comment- here

msw

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As we grow more connected through technologies, we are empowered to discover, learn and celebrate the human achievement. Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web are the progressive results of the "human" touch to the net. We are learning from each other how we want the net to respond to our information requests and how to share information more efficiently.

We are seeing communities adapt technologies faster than ever before thanks to the ability to discuss desires and ideas. When Twitter hit the scene, there were some who said 'that's great, but what if...' The latest collaborative efforts to adapt good ideas into a better reality include TweetDeck and the RSS reader Feedly. Both of these adaptations allow us to share our discovered information with our social communities.

Nelson Mandela states it best, "A traveler through a country would stop at a village and he didn't have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not address themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you be able to improve?"

Share your knowledge of life today, dance with the hope that we are growing together!


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

msw

Feel free to jump into the conversation at- FriendFeed



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This week Dr. Tony Shore of ObviousPop and I cover the latest news in music and tech.

As 2008 wraps up, we decide to go "Freewheelin'" with no set topics, just open conversation of what's on our minds.






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This week Dr. Tony Shore of ObviousPop and I cover the latest news in music and tech.

We review some of the "big deals" of last year, the RIAA says goodbye to MediaSentry and artists reach out to their fans for show bookings.






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Thinking Out Loud is our talkcast series with really BIG thinkers. On this edition, we are joined by Peter Himmelman. We explore his career as a musician and artist. Himmelman is using all available palettes to document his journey.







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I am, by default, a loyalist. My friends have been with me on this journey through the best and not so bright times. Even those who occasionally fall out have a place around my campfire anytime they wish. When I began blogging back before the iPod, BluRay, Facebook and WordPress I decided on using NucleusCMS. We've had some fun times together but it is time to make the move on over to WP. I love watching code grow and blossom, fork off into unexpected directions to be applied in ways we couldn't have imagined. This is innovation, this is the promise of open source.

This blog space will remain intact, but the new home is simply nicefishfilms.com We've made our main site fully iPhone and Android compatible, installed some robust plugins for our films and photo's. Hope you enjoy the clean layout. I'll be moving the RSS feeds over to the main site so if you've already subscribed, worry not, we'll keep feeding.

If you've landed here for the first time, please make a note that all new posts and developments will be at nicefishfilms.com I'll be porting some of the past posts from the last few years as they serve as a pretty neat trail guide of our journey so far.

Thank you for reading, subscribing and being so supportive over the years, here's to a new souped up ride!

msw

This week Dr. Tony Shore of ObviousPop and I cover the latest news in music and tech.

We're joined this week by Joe Kirk of NoiseTrade and Lucas Hendrickson of The Tennessean.






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We're riding some big waves tonight on Peter Himmelman's Furious World. Boogie Board Inventor and surfer of this thing called life- Tom Morey - drops into our Furious World.

(post show - notes)

We are to create space for others to express their notes:

Tonight's episode was my first effort of expressing a live Documentary Film.

This is what Umbuntu looks like to me. - msw

click more to view the re-play

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This week Dr. Tony Shore of ObviousPop and I cover the latest news in music and tech.

The RIAA has announced a cease-fire in personal lawsuits just in time for the Holidays. U2 cashes out stock from LiveNation, NoiseTrade wins big and all the breaking news of the week. We run down the stories that touched our world in 2008. Don't miss our predictions for 2009.






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