Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

More Web video, with an unwholesome emphasis on brains

I am continuing to mine the burgeoning field of Web video, after yesterday's post, and have found various goodies beyond poor, silly Klaus.  VideoSift links to the most interesting content so far.

To begin with, this BBC mockumentary on the brain.  Therein we learn that the brain is like the heart, except with thinking muscles, a mind, and a brain.  Behold the mysteries of the pea's brain, and how it organizes each pod!

There is also the inspired madness of Rejected Family Learning Channel Cartoons.

YouTube keeps fountaining videos, and surely drawing the gleeful wrath of copyright lawyers.  For example, think about this classic Pinky and The Brain musical brain episode (thanks, Pharyngula).

Google Video foregrounds commercial offerings, now.  I'm tempted by this suite of classic Twilight Zone episodes.

I wonder if this explosion in Webvideo is part of how videoblogging is going to grow.  These services take care of hosting, have mitigated somewhat the bandwidth problem, and are ramping up the popularity of short digital videos.  Now for the rise of easier production tools, a la podcasting!

Can Katamari Meetings roll over buildings?

Today's fine neologism comes from computer games:

Katamari Meeting
n. (from Katamari Damacy, an object collection game)

1. A meeting, usually an ad hoc or hallway meeting, that exhibits a positive network effect in its growth; that is, more people join as more people are in the meeting, because people milling around means it must be interesting.

(via Roger)

Web video miscellany

I'm starting to explore new Web video developments.  I don't think we're at a videoblogging boom just yet, though - production needs are still much higher than for audio or (even more so) photos and text.  Bandwidth is still an issue.  And searchability can't break into video content.  But some social mechanisms are easily applied (RSS, addressable microcontent, social filtering), and the tools should evolve in usability, as we saw with podcasting.

Quick notes - Google Video seems to have become a standard hosting site.  That's the place to find those influential SuperBowl ads, for example, for those of us who can't stand watching the thing itself.
YouTube has been getting some attention, although, like other viewers, I expect the arrival of copyright.
VideoSift is interesting, applying a Digg-style social voting mechanism to video clips.

My reward for this morning is a mock German industrial training video.  No German language knowledge required.  Just keep watching the adventures of Klaus and his hapless coworkers during his first day on the job.  Warning: some gore accumulates towards the end.

(inspired by MeFi post)

Still more escape-the-room game-narratives

Today's Web-based games are more from the escape-the-room genre.  To begin with, Cannibal Escape, which traps you in a round, spooky chamber thrumming with gloomy soundtrack.

The art keeps getting better.  For example, I wanted to add this image from later in the story, which shouldn't spoil things, and is lovely:

There's also Nightmare Escape.  Mystery is a bit weirder, somewhat more stark.

(via MeFi)

Novel by blog, or Web 2.0 storytelling

Another story told by blog: The Coffin.  It starts here, February 13th.  Comments have already appeared.

Novels have been appearing in blogs for more than two years (for example; another example; my own project; the oldest example?).  In a related vein, there's also the practice of podcasting novels (for example).

Web 2.0 storytelling: I threw this term out earlier, and find myself returning to it.  So here are some hasty, far too quickly-noted thoughts on Web 2.0 storytelling, not in any order:

• Web 2.0 story content might privilege mysteries, since there needs to be a hook to drive readers from piece to ditributed piece.  Note, for instance, the predominance of mysteries in alternate reality games.
• Web 2.0 stories are likely to focus on time as a major structural element.  I can see smaller Web 2.0 stories which don't do this, but the timeliness and fluidity of Web 2.0 seems likely to drive content that changes over time, morphs, appears on a schedule, and so on.  Readers/users should want to check back on a Web site, or a story RSS feed.  Related: are Web 2.0 stories always in beta?
• Web 2.0 narratives should be social.  It's an obvious point, given the social software element within the Web 2.0 idea, but worth returning to.  Fan fiction, reader communities, participatory narratives, reader contributions, modding, mixing should be hallmarks.
• Rich media appears, but in the context of microcontent, social software, continuous release, open services, and so on.  A single podcast won't do it, without the social participation.  New digital video can't just be experienced as one movie watched on DVD, but should be involved with other pieces.
• Await the backlash.  First will come the Rosens and egostorytelling; next will be the scary Web.

I will get back to this.  The topic feels rich.

(thanks, Steve - have a good trip)

Teaching with doomed devices

This is a fun site: the Museum of Unworkable Devices.  I imagine a pedagogical use, where learners work through these plans to see how and why they don't work.  Any age, any educational level can play.

(thanks, Jesse)

Rumsfeld vs e-Qaeda

Rumsfeld complains that al-Qaeda is beating the US in information warfare.

          The Pentagon chief said today's weapons of war included e-mail, Blackberries, instant messaging, digital cameras and Web logs, or blogs.          "Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today's media age, but ... our country has not adapted," Rumsfeld said.

We've seen this twist on the scary internet before - al Qaeda vlogging, "e-Qaeda", the jihadist virtual state.

While I was working on this blog entry, Fox News, blaring from my hotel room's tv, opined that terrorists were the earliest bloggers (!).

Alternate reality game antecedents updated

I've expanded and updated my earlier post on alternate reality game predecessors, thanks to excellent comments by Infocult readers.   It's grown into a good-sized chunk of text, now.   Please keep up the feedback.

I would love to write more about this.  What venue, though?

Mobile phones snap the dead

Mobile phones are increasingly seen at funerals in Japan, according to Reuters.  One aim is to snag a last image of the deceased:

"Some can't grasp 'reality' unless they take a photo and share it with others ... It comes from a desire to keep a strong bond with the deceased,"

The report also mentions people feeling uncomfortable with the practice, which may remind us of last year's cemetary-WiFi controversy:

"I get the sense that people no longer respect the dead. It's disturbing," a funeral director told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.

BoingBoing notes this practice in the American South.

Didn't we see this last year, with the pope's funeral?

CoComment notes

CoComment is useful so far.  How it works: you create (yet another) account with them.  Then grab their bookmarklet and copy it to your (Firefox) toolbar.  Then open up your CoComment page in a tab.  Ready to comment on someone's blog? 

1. Go ahead and comment (as long as it's not HaloScan, apparently). 
2. Click that bookmarklet.  That'll register your comment with your CoComment page.
3. Check your CoComment page to see that it's lodged there.
4. Check back every so often to see if anyone has commented back at you.  Better yet, stick the RSS feed in your aggregator.

How can this be useful... the primary purpose is to make it easier to keep track of one's comments, as they spread across the surface of an expanding blogosphere.  That would be handy.
You can also push your comments to your blog's front page, which could be useful.

Criticisms:

• Like most Web apps, dialup connections sap CoComment's effectiveness.  No surprise there.  There's a nice ajax-ish embedding of follow comments into one's CC page, but I'm used to checking out other tabs or doing housework while they load from home.
• One site notes that CoComment only tracks comments from people with accounts.  Amazing how a telco-funded project prefers a walled garden, eh?
• Zawodny note this is a sign of rampant social software service proliferation.

It's in beta, invite only, but you should be able to snag one easily enough.  E me if you want one.