I just received a call for papers for a conference entitled Politics and Information Systems: Technologies and Applications (PISTA ‘03) which is hosted, not ironically with the International Conference on Computer, Communication and Control Technologies in Orlando Florida this fall. I think there is a fascinating paper on weblogs and the microcontent influence on politics.
Weblogs certainly have an influence on the political system in America, first through their effect on the mass media (which sucks off their ideas like a bottom feeder), and second through their democratizing effect on readers (see Joi Ito on Emergent Democracy). If I can come up with a good number of examples, I’ll try to throw together an extended abstract by June 15th. Let me know if you can think of anything pertinent.
I’ve been swimming in blog data for the past few days, preparing for my upcoming presentation at Sunbelt XXII, a social networks conference. Needless to say, I’ll be working up until the last minute, looking for new insights. I’ll make sure and let you know if I have any 
i just added overstated to blogdex. it was a sort of awkward experience. or maybe that’s the 4 cups of coffee speaking.
working on my top ten list yesterday, i came to the conclusion that while the semantics of online documents are well formed and pretty unambiguous, offline media is a big mess.
weblogs provide the ability for people to discuss content on their own terms, and services such as allmusic, amazon, cdnow, imdb allow them to contextualize their discussion. by linking to cdnow, i allow people who read about music on my site the ability hear samples of that music. by linking to amazon, a reader is connected to a set of expert knowledge, and connections to topically similar media.
each of these services provides a different set of features, each with their unique branding. my biggest wish at the moment is for a standard, but there doesn’t appear to be any convergence happening in the near future. while i’m in a list making frenzy, i thought i would outline the qualities that would make the ultimate media resource:
- online samples: cdnow pioneered this technique for bringing offline content online without infringing on copyrights. now amazon also offers sample pages from books.
- expert commentary: where would we be without critics? imdb aggregates expert commentary by linking to external resources, while allmusic, amazon, and cdnow all maintain their own “experts.”
- user commentary: bringing people together around content (and purchasing it) has been a major cause for the success of amazon. with other competitors offering similar prices, the only service that e-tailers like amazon have is the community and meta-information they have collected around their products.
- multi-media: the ultimate media resource should exist regardless of the media type: movies, books, music, magazines, etc.
- relational information: every time i go to allmusic, i spend at least 10 minutes off on some tangent as a result of their fine system of interconnections. the collaborative filtering at amazon has a similar effect (”those who purchased this book also purchased..”), but often misses some of the obscurata that allmusic is famous for connecting. even the simple social network provided by imdb is enough to navigate through the world of movies.
however, until someone invents this resource, i’ll have to continue my schizophrenic linking behavior. allmusic for music, cdnow for music samples, amazon for commentary, imdb for movies, …
current resources:
all music,
amazon,
cddb,
cdnow,
internet movie database,
library of congress
so i’ve finally given in. after being an outsider for so long, i’ve finally decided to become part of the intellectual melting pot. after watching countless memes wax and wane, i’m discontent not being part of the system. plus, now that my domain of study is, well, weblogs, i can write this off as research.
i’ve been carrying my top ten lists around in my head for nearly a month now, so i’ll use this first post as an excuse to get them into a more stabile medium:
top ten music selections of 2001
- all (wolfgang voigt)- alltag 1-4 (kompakt)
- rhythm & sound - rhythm & sound (Rhythm & Sound)
- freescha - kids hit the floor (attack nine)
- the strokes - is this it (Rough Trade)
- the neptunes/N*E*R*D - in search of (Virgin)
- american analog set - know by heart (tiger style)
- preston school of industry - all this sounds gas (matador)
- the pernice brothers - world won’t end (ashmont)
- pub - do you ever regret pantomime (ampoule)
- richie hawtin - de9 closer to the edit (minus)
top ten movie selections of 2001
- amelie
- in the mood for love
- royal tenenbaums
- snatch
- waking life
- ghost world
- monster’s inc.
- memento
- traffic
- zoolander (i’m not kidding)
