Maybe accelerated change is due to to 2012 and the Mayan calendar, but everything just keeps changing faster and faster. We now know for a fact the galaxies are accelerating as the universe expands and eventually there will be no stars in the sky, no constellations.
Apple introduction of products and new operating systems appears to accelerating, so the end of the world must be near. Just as I thought technology was easier and more friendly I find that Lion no longer supports and Power PC applications, which means that most of my old habits and comfortable ways of working are dissolving into the abyss of time. I feel very much like my students who are just beginning their journey through technology: I did everything right, but nothing works!
So right now I straddle two universes of practices, but like the constellations they are racing away from each other faster and faster, leaving me in the middle of nowhere.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thursday, November 03, 2011
New Series for Webmusicking 3.0
This is a Blog that I have decided to revive. The author Christopher Small revived an Elizabethan term "Musicking" to address the dynamic state of music making. After all, we have acting, painting, dancing, etc. Why not return to the use of musicking to describe the social action that is central to making culture ("culturing"?).
Musicing was established as a Blog more than 5 years ago. I am revising as Musicking to return to the original spelling of the term. I started this Blog when the Web and Technology entered a user friendly modality that changed web surfers from consumers to interactive participants. This was known as Web 2.0. My past Blog entries do not
At this time it appears we have entered a new phase which might be described as Internet 3.0. This includes the social media and the use of instant communication in the form of Twitter and other means of communication and building of networks, such as FaceBook. Now the Internet is a means of self instruction and self inquiry, and a medium for exchange and sharing.
Musicing was established as a Blog more than 5 years ago. I am revising as Musicking to return to the original spelling of the term. I started this Blog when the Web and Technology entered a user friendly modality that changed web surfers from consumers to interactive participants. This was known as Web 2.0. My past Blog entries do not
At this time it appears we have entered a new phase which might be described as Internet 3.0. This includes the social media and the use of instant communication in the form of Twitter and other means of communication and building of networks, such as FaceBook. Now the Internet is a means of self instruction and self inquiry, and a medium for exchange and sharing.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Web 2.0 Weary?
Web 2.0 came into being around 2005/2006 after the .com collapse of 2004/2005, when the economy seemed betrayed by this new upstart Internet technology. When the business world adopted the web as a legitimate arena for conducting its activity, the Internet gained and lost on many fronts.
Web guru Tim O'Reilly collaborated with web pioneer Dale Dougherty to assess the outcomes of this tumultuous time and emerged with an understanding that the Internet had emerged even more powerful, pervasive, and persuasive than before. They saw a new generation of web-making which they dubbed as Web 2.0, an evolution and revolution that moved web users from a role as consumers to a new role as creative collaborators. They came up with a list of transformations that included these old and new practices.
I am sure that you can think of other practices that have emerged in the past several years. I would add that in the emergence of Web 2.0 consumers were transformed into collaborators. We might agree that Napster has been replaced by podcasting, YouTube, iTunes, and innovative applications continue to mushroom. To my mind, phenomena like MySpace and FaceBook are ushering in Web 3.0 with their emphasis on building communities through structured Wikis.
Now there seems to be yet another value that has emerged, that of group process. Community is emerging as an overriding value, perhaps even overemphasized over individual achievement. Group achievement is superior. In addition, participation is strongly urged. In participating, we leave our mark of having been there. "Being There" is perhaps the most important value emerging. Peter Sellers legacy was his personification of the power of presence in his acting in the film Being There based on Jerzy Kosiński's 1971 novel . Television gives us the illusion of being there, and the Internet conspires in that illusion as we can leave our comments, our web identity, and our avatar persona. Perticipant reviews are often just a few sentences, which as they aggregate become more compelling than the opinion of "experts."
Now when we visit websites, we are always asked to sign in. Our monikers and passwords pile up like mystic monuments to an electronic presencing, a new reality that overrides real people and real places. Maybe that is where we are headed in our evolution. Maybe the new being there is sitting in front of a screen while a new cyberworld endlessly and incessantly unfolds before us as we click to acknowledge that we are there, listening and watching. Now, however, we are also making and sharing our own creations.
Web guru Tim O'Reilly collaborated with web pioneer Dale Dougherty to assess the outcomes of this tumultuous time and emerged with an understanding that the Internet had emerged even more powerful, pervasive, and persuasive than before. They saw a new generation of web-making which they dubbed as Web 2.0, an evolution and revolution that moved web users from a role as consumers to a new role as creative collaborators. They came up with a list of transformations that included these old and new practices.
I am sure that you can think of other practices that have emerged in the past several years. I would add that in the emergence of Web 2.0 consumers were transformed into collaborators. We might agree that Napster has been replaced by podcasting, YouTube, iTunes, and innovative applications continue to mushroom. To my mind, phenomena like MySpace and FaceBook are ushering in Web 3.0 with their emphasis on building communities through structured Wikis.Now there seems to be yet another value that has emerged, that of group process. Community is emerging as an overriding value, perhaps even overemphasized over individual achievement. Group achievement is superior. In addition, participation is strongly urged. In participating, we leave our mark of having been there. "Being There" is perhaps the most important value emerging. Peter Sellers legacy was his personification of the power of presence in his acting in the film Being There based on Jerzy Kosiński's 1971 novel . Television gives us the illusion of being there, and the Internet conspires in that illusion as we can leave our comments, our web identity, and our avatar persona. Perticipant reviews are often just a few sentences, which as they aggregate become more compelling than the opinion of "experts."
Now when we visit websites, we are always asked to sign in. Our monikers and passwords pile up like mystic monuments to an electronic presencing, a new reality that overrides real people and real places. Maybe that is where we are headed in our evolution. Maybe the new being there is sitting in front of a screen while a new cyberworld endlessly and incessantly unfolds before us as we click to acknowledge that we are there, listening and watching. Now, however, we are also making and sharing our own creations.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
A Cello Rondo: The Genius of Ethan Winer
How can the spirit of Web 2.0 affect us as musicians? This new spirit offers a new era of sharing your performance and creative techniques. Consider Ethan Winer's A Cello Rondo, a tour de force composed and performed by Winer and presented as a very creative video that I discovered quite by accident on the website StumbleUpon.Com. I still don't know how I got to his imaginative video, but I am glad I did. What a splendid imagination. The only shortcoming is that he should have put in thunderous applause to his bows at the end!
Years ago an academy award film An American in Paris featured concert pianist Oscar Levant performing George Gershwin's Concerto in F. In the film, Levant is not only the pianist, but the conductor, the string section, the brass section, the percussionist---the whole orchestra. You can also see a rather shaky version of Levant playing an excerpt from the concerto on YouTube (not from the movie, but from his own television show).
Levant needed a Hollywood studio and tremendous technical support to realize the fantasy of Gershwin's concerto, but Winer creates his Rondo and the imaginative video with a video camera and the Internet as the way of delivering a new work that exists not as a fantasy but as a wonderful artistic statement in its own right. The rondo form is realized visually as well as musically.
Why not make one of your own?
Years ago an academy award film An American in Paris featured concert pianist Oscar Levant performing George Gershwin's Concerto in F. In the film, Levant is not only the pianist, but the conductor, the string section, the brass section, the percussionist---the whole orchestra. You can also see a rather shaky version of Levant playing an excerpt from the concerto on YouTube (not from the movie, but from his own television show).
Levant needed a Hollywood studio and tremendous technical support to realize the fantasy of Gershwin's concerto, but Winer creates his Rondo and the imaginative video with a video camera and the Internet as the way of delivering a new work that exists not as a fantasy but as a wonderful artistic statement in its own right. The rondo form is realized visually as well as musically.
Why not make one of your own?
Monday, July 10, 2006
Science, Technology and the Arts
In the book Consilience by Edward O. Wilson, two fundamental ways of knowing the world (i.e., creating knowledge) will emerge as the paradigms for the 21st Century: Science and the Arts. The Arts reveal truths about the human experience that can only be verified through such experience, but the arts also extend our vision of ourselves and expand the reality of what it is to be human.
Science produces knowledge, which can only be verified through external observation and internal verification through the exactness of mathematics. It is a knowledge that can be verified and reproduced by others, essentially establishing the reality of facts or the facts of reality.
Technology may be the magic elixir that enables these two great paradigms of knowledge making to intersect and exchange in ways we have not yet dreamed about. Technology is the enabler, extending our reach beyond the limits of imagination, empowering us in wondrous ways. But we should also note with caution that sometimes technique can overpower and replace content. Sometimes it is difficult to know the difference between technical achievement so dazzling we cannot see there is no substance.
In music, technique has been the grand interpreter of excellence. Acquiring technique has required incredible effort and achievement has been hard won and often long-suffering. What many object to in the new technology is that beginners are empowered with the expressive range almost the equivalent of masters. Such mastery comes too easily, and the outcome is still in question, at least inviting new inquiry and review.
But perhaps we need patience to understand that such replicas of achievement are not new emerging masterworks. They are really the relics and artifacts of the past in new clothing. The new technologies and processes are busily assimilating and digesting the content of the past, and we have yet to see the emergence of a true mastery of the new techniques, the new technologies. We are too easily led astray by the glib constructs of technical prowess. New master artists will emerge when completely new paradigms of understanding and expression are uncovered in new probings of the human condition.
Science produces knowledge, which can only be verified through external observation and internal verification through the exactness of mathematics. It is a knowledge that can be verified and reproduced by others, essentially establishing the reality of facts or the facts of reality.
Technology may be the magic elixir that enables these two great paradigms of knowledge making to intersect and exchange in ways we have not yet dreamed about. Technology is the enabler, extending our reach beyond the limits of imagination, empowering us in wondrous ways. But we should also note with caution that sometimes technique can overpower and replace content. Sometimes it is difficult to know the difference between technical achievement so dazzling we cannot see there is no substance.
In music, technique has been the grand interpreter of excellence. Acquiring technique has required incredible effort and achievement has been hard won and often long-suffering. What many object to in the new technology is that beginners are empowered with the expressive range almost the equivalent of masters. Such mastery comes too easily, and the outcome is still in question, at least inviting new inquiry and review.
But perhaps we need patience to understand that such replicas of achievement are not new emerging masterworks. They are really the relics and artifacts of the past in new clothing. The new technologies and processes are busily assimilating and digesting the content of the past, and we have yet to see the emergence of a true mastery of the new techniques, the new technologies. We are too easily led astray by the glib constructs of technical prowess. New master artists will emerge when completely new paradigms of understanding and expression are uncovered in new probings of the human condition.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Connectivity and the Domain of Making Music
Suddenly I realized that today a musician's computer is virtually useless unless it is connected to the Internet.
Several years ago, this was not the case. The CPU was almost the exclusive domain of activity, and being connected to the Internet was a convenience, an asset you appreciated, but your musical computing went on, regardless.
Now, musicians cannot function effectively as 21st Century creators without being connected to the Internet. For one thing, computer applications are updated with new features, functionality, and security almost daily. For another, musicians exchange music notation and sound files routinely as they compose and rehearse for performances. The Web can provide an important interactive planning space for performances and productions.
But I think that many of us are ready for a Google-like company in music that understands the concept of distributed computing, so that the computer would connect to a digital music world that erases the proprietary nature of music notation. Cross platform applications in recording and midi technology have made this concept one that can be achieved somewhat easily. But we really have a need for Logic, Cubase, Sibelius, Finale, Pro Tools, and others to become on-line processors where we can connect from anywhere in the world and work on our recordings or musical scores.
This would be the equivalent of a true musical blog, where the blogger creates musical content rather than words.
I realize that this runs counter to traditional models of capitalism, and yet, Google has been able to thrive in the world of distributed computing as a model business venture for the 21st Century. Part of the problem may be that companies that have designed music notation programs have approached these applications in a very conservative manner. These notation programs seem most useful for someone with an existing score to transfer to computer notation. These applications have achieved a phenomenal engraver-like quality and as such, are great for desk top music publishing. But such programs are so rigidly designed that they are quite frustrating for a composer. This approach to notation does not allow for intuitive sketching.
What we need is a musical sketchbook tool that exists like a blogger. It needs to accommodate the traditional notational practices while allowing for innovative interpolation of new notation to include new expressive needs for the 21st Century. More importantly, this sketching tool should reside on the server so that upgrades are maintained at the source and the person working is only concerned with the creative act of making music.
Several years ago, this was not the case. The CPU was almost the exclusive domain of activity, and being connected to the Internet was a convenience, an asset you appreciated, but your musical computing went on, regardless.
Now, musicians cannot function effectively as 21st Century creators without being connected to the Internet. For one thing, computer applications are updated with new features, functionality, and security almost daily. For another, musicians exchange music notation and sound files routinely as they compose and rehearse for performances. The Web can provide an important interactive planning space for performances and productions.
But I think that many of us are ready for a Google-like company in music that understands the concept of distributed computing, so that the computer would connect to a digital music world that erases the proprietary nature of music notation. Cross platform applications in recording and midi technology have made this concept one that can be achieved somewhat easily. But we really have a need for Logic, Cubase, Sibelius, Finale, Pro Tools, and others to become on-line processors where we can connect from anywhere in the world and work on our recordings or musical scores.
This would be the equivalent of a true musical blog, where the blogger creates musical content rather than words.
I realize that this runs counter to traditional models of capitalism, and yet, Google has been able to thrive in the world of distributed computing as a model business venture for the 21st Century. Part of the problem may be that companies that have designed music notation programs have approached these applications in a very conservative manner. These notation programs seem most useful for someone with an existing score to transfer to computer notation. These applications have achieved a phenomenal engraver-like quality and as such, are great for desk top music publishing. But such programs are so rigidly designed that they are quite frustrating for a composer. This approach to notation does not allow for intuitive sketching.
What we need is a musical sketchbook tool that exists like a blogger. It needs to accommodate the traditional notational practices while allowing for innovative interpolation of new notation to include new expressive needs for the 21st Century. More importantly, this sketching tool should reside on the server so that upgrades are maintained at the source and the person working is only concerned with the creative act of making music.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Digital Code & Yin and Yang
Digital technology has rapidly transformed the world as we know it. It has penetrated every aspect of our existence and will continue to make inroads. Although the Internet is a part of this transformation, all aspects of our lives: transportation, entertainment, cooking, communication, finance and economics, publishing, reading, writing, and on and on... digital code has transformative power.
Digital code is the sorcer's apprentice. It is the secret magical word, the abracadabra of modern life. It is no accident that it is dependent on electrical energy. The structure of humans is also dependent on electrical connections through nerve endings so impulses are transmitted back and forth to strategic locations. Electricity is the primary ethos, emulating the energy of the cosmos. The supreme energy is light, and nothing can compare with the speed of light. The speed of light is the structuring force of the universe. Light is the ultimate communication, defining existence, "Let there be light!"
Our discovery of the binary system is the discovery of ourselves. The essence of the binary system is the yin and yang, the negative and the positive, the state of on and off. From the simplicity of this fundamental truth comes all complex structures and events. Time itself is the manifestation of this simple structure.
This binary reality makes it possible for us to find fundamental pathways that link our processes and ideas and unify knowledge. This is an incredible age of discovery. Right now, we are dazzled by its novelty, but we are also rocketing to a new awareness of the possibilities of what we can become.
Digital code is the sorcer's apprentice. It is the secret magical word, the abracadabra of modern life. It is no accident that it is dependent on electrical energy. The structure of humans is also dependent on electrical connections through nerve endings so impulses are transmitted back and forth to strategic locations. Electricity is the primary ethos, emulating the energy of the cosmos. The supreme energy is light, and nothing can compare with the speed of light. The speed of light is the structuring force of the universe. Light is the ultimate communication, defining existence, "Let there be light!"
Our discovery of the binary system is the discovery of ourselves. The essence of the binary system is the yin and yang, the negative and the positive, the state of on and off. From the simplicity of this fundamental truth comes all complex structures and events. Time itself is the manifestation of this simple structure.
This binary reality makes it possible for us to find fundamental pathways that link our processes and ideas and unify knowledge. This is an incredible age of discovery. Right now, we are dazzled by its novelty, but we are also rocketing to a new awareness of the possibilities of what we can become.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Checking the Roadmap
We have focused mainly on authoring techniques that have emerged during the past year amidst upheavals i the digital world. Macromedia, once a small and independent digital spirit, has been gobbled up by Adobe. For now Macromedia applications remain intact, but expect major changes in the coming months. There is a genuine opportunity for synergism that may flip applications of new technology into totally new conceptions.
In looking back at our emphasis in the experimental course, we have focused on tools that assist in creation of interactive experiences on the Internet. Have travelled all this distance it may be helpful to write down the directions of where we have been over the course of a semester. Here is what we attempted:
TOPICS
In looking back at our emphasis in the experimental course, we have focused on tools that assist in creation of interactive experiences on the Internet. Have travelled all this distance it may be helpful to write down the directions of where we have been over the course of a semester. Here is what we attempted:
TOPICS
- Blogging
- Domain Search, Domain Registration, FTP
- Media in Music and Music Education
- Implications of Ed Tech 2.0 and Web 2.0
- Music Creating and Teaching as Platform
- Flash: Animation
- Flash: Buttons and Behavior
- Flash: Media Control (Video and Audio Playing & Behaviour)
- RSS Syndication
- Action Script Introduction, Syntax
- Action Script Application to media (links, players, etc)
- Introduction to Web Authoring : Frontpage (based on Word using Tables and Frames)
- Introduction to Wikis and other web-based authoring and web sharing (such as Moodle)
- Dreamweaver: Introduction, Text and Image.
- Dreamweaver: Flash, Flash Elements: Flash Button, Flash Text, Flashpaper, Flashmovie, and Plugins (all other media such as mp3 mov. Wmv, avi, mpg)
- Webdesign I: Frames, Tables, and Layout
- Webdesign II: CSS, Layers, Timelines
- Obtain an outside domain to develop a website independent of NYU
- Begin and maintain Blog throughout (one to two entries per week)
- Start a RSS newsfeed (FeedDigest)
- Obtain working copies of Flash and Dreamweaver
- Make comments on Blogs of Colleagues
- Visit and Comment on Domains of Colleagues
- Obtain an FTP Program and practice connecting to new Domain
- Use Flash Demos as basis for Creating Animations and other Flash Documents (student's choice)
- Connect Dreamweaver to new domain and directory
- Install a sample page for website on new Domain
- Share work over the semester with the class (student connects computer to projector)
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Look Who's Talking, Now!
Here I was going on and on about how great Evoca is, and our colleague at Cybergogy has been using Odeo since January to send out sung parts to his chorus so they can learn by listening and imitating. Odeo is one of the front-runners in the web recording and file sharing. Others in the field include Springdoo, WaxMail and my latest personal favorite, YackPack, which is designed to bring groups together for yacking (what else?)
The idea of connecting with others by using your voice brings an asynchronous quality to the concept of live chat sessions, using the voice to communicate because of the additional layers of meaning that come with the spoken word. The concept is extremely easy. All you need is a microphone or your telephone, and you are in business. Sound files are kept on the server and you can e-mail the files immediately to one or more parties as well as designate whether they can be heard by the public or only by the group.
Some of the services are in it for the money (!!), but nearly all have some free version or a free introductory trial period. If you use your imagination, you can begin to dream how such a service may add to pedagogical tools, but also what features you might want to make it an more effective educational tool. Musicians are using it as a convenient way to transmit examples and maintaining files on a server instead of your computer hard drive.
The idea of connecting with others by using your voice brings an asynchronous quality to the concept of live chat sessions, using the voice to communicate because of the additional layers of meaning that come with the spoken word. The concept is extremely easy. All you need is a microphone or your telephone, and you are in business. Sound files are kept on the server and you can e-mail the files immediately to one or more parties as well as designate whether they can be heard by the public or only by the group.
Some of the services are in it for the money (!!), but nearly all have some free version or a free introductory trial period. If you use your imagination, you can begin to dream how such a service may add to pedagogical tools, but also what features you might want to make it an more effective educational tool. Musicians are using it as a convenient way to transmit examples and maintaining files on a server instead of your computer hard drive.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
New Music Wiki
A promising new interactive Wiki for composers and performers of new music is now available entitled S21 New Music Wiki. Anyone can join, provide a bio, pictures, sound files and contribute articles and ideas about new music. You can add your music blog, and play a role in how the Wiki develops as an on-line resource.
The creator of the Wiki extends the following invitation:
I found this Wiki when I was creating my new specialized search engine and created a search term "music wiki." This was the first item that came up on the search. The openness of the site is attractive. Who knows? This music wiki might be at the right time with the right structure. Maybe this will become the definitive music wiki for contemporaries.
Try it. You might like it!
The creator of the Wiki extends the following invitation:
What we hope to do here is to build a reader-created community/encylopedia of new music composers, performers, history, schools, important works--you literally name it. Since first person sources are always the best place to start, I am hoping that all of you who are active in creating and playing new music will create entries for yourself and the groups you are associated with....
You are also welcome to post entries for favorite composers or performers who no longer have access to wikis because they are dead. Don't post about people or events or movements that happened before 1900 unless they are essential to something that has happened in new music since.
For biographic entries, I envision a format of something like: bio, photograph (it's easy to upload an image-click on the Upload file link in the left nav bar), list of works, recordings (with links to place to purchase), reviews, with links, and anything else. Take as much space as you need, but if your entry is longer than Bartok's than you are probably hogging space.
I found this Wiki when I was creating my new specialized search engine and created a search term "music wiki." This was the first item that came up on the search. The openness of the site is attractive. Who knows? This music wiki might be at the right time with the right structure. Maybe this will become the definitive music wiki for contemporaries.
Try it. You might like it!
Friday, April 07, 2006
Flashpoint: Integrating Multimedia Software
Dreamweaver 8 brings the concept of integrated software to Macromedia's (now Adobe) multimedia suite. The integration of Flash with Dreamweaver provides convenient ways of implementing Flash inside of Dreamweaver.
There is no question that the use of the table technology as a design element is making the need for frames somewhat obsolete. Frames join multiple pages in a single display, and are a bit of a nuisance with regard to navigation and updating, especially since there is a hidden source page creating the frames. Tables are easier to edit and to modify, and provide a greater range of design and display possibilities.
Still, for those of us in music, we are still looking for web support of notation and sound design that is not proprietory in nature. We need web browser helpers (plugins) to read and perform conventional and experimental music notation. Sound sharing and development can be a dynamic interactive group creative process. But we are still at a Web 1.0 level with regard to sound on the web where the prime motivation is to have consumers, not creators, of sound files, mostly mp3 based files for downloading.
It would be great to have a Wiki for working on theory or composing, but at the moment we have to resort to e-mail attachment of files for Finale, Sibelius, Overture, etc., that must be opened in the proprietary software. This simply extends the older pedagogical model of handing in homework. This practice prevents sharing examples. Shared homework enables students to learn from each other. The current music software makes it difficult to implement Educational Technology 2.0 where materials are created, responded to, and evaluated as a shared process.
There is no question that the use of the table technology as a design element is making the need for frames somewhat obsolete. Frames join multiple pages in a single display, and are a bit of a nuisance with regard to navigation and updating, especially since there is a hidden source page creating the frames. Tables are easier to edit and to modify, and provide a greater range of design and display possibilities.
Still, for those of us in music, we are still looking for web support of notation and sound design that is not proprietory in nature. We need web browser helpers (plugins) to read and perform conventional and experimental music notation. Sound sharing and development can be a dynamic interactive group creative process. But we are still at a Web 1.0 level with regard to sound on the web where the prime motivation is to have consumers, not creators, of sound files, mostly mp3 based files for downloading.
It would be great to have a Wiki for working on theory or composing, but at the moment we have to resort to e-mail attachment of files for Finale, Sibelius, Overture, etc., that must be opened in the proprietary software. This simply extends the older pedagogical model of handing in homework. This practice prevents sharing examples. Shared homework enables students to learn from each other. The current music software makes it difficult to implement Educational Technology 2.0 where materials are created, responded to, and evaluated as a shared process.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Tired of Googling? Create Your Own Swicki
As you make your websites more interactive, you can now create a specialized Swicki hot search that uses the technology of Web 2.0 to embed the search in your website, designed and customized by you, a kind of modular search blog. Eurekster has created Swicki, a wiki that searches for particular things as defined by you, and that is set up to learn from you as you work with it. You create it and modify in an ongoing process.
The swicki adds value to your site. Swickis are communities that evolve a community intelligence as they learn the ideas you and your users project. You can make your site more relevant to your vsitors and participants, a place to go to find out focused information that is constantly changing. It operates much like a newsblog, but is more concise and compact. Swickis are the energy of the Internet waiting to be unleased by the power of a click.
Go to Eurekster and create an account. Follow these steps:
The swicki adds value to your site. Swickis are communities that evolve a community intelligence as they learn the ideas you and your users project. You can make your site more relevant to your vsitors and participants, a place to go to find out focused information that is constantly changing. It operates much like a newsblog, but is more concise and compact. Swickis are the energy of the Internet waiting to be unleased by the power of a click.
Go to Eurekster and create an account. Follow these steps:
- Customize your Swicki by giving it a name. The name would reflect a specific focus such as "downloading music."
- Choose a layout that would work best on your website from the three options. Then enter the keywords and phrases that would exist like topics for your search, such as "music downloads, downloading techniques, soundfile sources, mp3, etc."
- Choose a design (test it by looking at the many options. Chose maximum font sizes and relative font sizes.
- Give your Swicki some hints about where to search. Identify the website that you want the search engine to be on and select categories that your search pertains to.
- Copy the code you have generated by your choices and paste into the appropriate place in your website (if it is a blog, then paste it into the template into the sidebar or the body, depending on the layout you chose.)
Thursday, March 30, 2006
MOODLE & EVOCA: Wiki Community Builders
Moodle is a wiki for building a community of teachers/learners. It is an open source alternative for Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Blackboard. Content will be created by the community of users and their involvement with the subject can extend beyond the traditional boundaries of course dates. Although it is relatively new, Moodle is already widely used internationally in a number of languages.
For my purposes, I am exploring Moodle as a a platform for WebMusicing or EMusic. As the idea evolves as to how we can extend our musical growth and experience through connecting with likeminded individuals and musicing on the web, I am trying out different strategies and premises for building community. Moodle may be a step in the right direction. I came upon the idea through a news source on the Musicing News and Views newsblog.
And somehow, my search for Moodle brought me to a intriguing site, Evoca, a community of individuals connected by sound. This site approaches creating soundscapes and soundbytes like bloggers approach creation of text-based sites. You might call it Audacity on Line, except that you can't yet edit sound files---but if you have a mic, you can record on the spot from anywhere on the Internet.
Evoca is emerging as an audio sharing community, an audio version of Flickr that is in its infancy, but representative of a new generation of applications for users who are interested in sharing work with each other. You can get a sense of this new perspective since often new versions of software provide a new option for saving or publishing called "share."
For my purposes, I am exploring Moodle as a a platform for WebMusicing or EMusic. As the idea evolves as to how we can extend our musical growth and experience through connecting with likeminded individuals and musicing on the web, I am trying out different strategies and premises for building community. Moodle may be a step in the right direction. I came upon the idea through a news source on the Musicing News and Views newsblog.
And somehow, my search for Moodle brought me to a intriguing site, Evoca, a community of individuals connected by sound. This site approaches creating soundscapes and soundbytes like bloggers approach creation of text-based sites. You might call it Audacity on Line, except that you can't yet edit sound files---but if you have a mic, you can record on the spot from anywhere on the Internet.
Evoca is emerging as an audio sharing community, an audio version of Flickr that is in its infancy, but representative of a new generation of applications for users who are interested in sharing work with each other. You can get a sense of this new perspective since often new versions of software provide a new option for saving or publishing called "share."
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Specialized Newsblogs
The Internet has changed the nature of news. News is no longer what a group of editors at the newspaper or radio/television editors decide to report in their time/space for an ever-shrinking audience (they are all going to the 'Net).
News is happening all the time to all of us and it is altering our fields from moment to moment, since news is essentially the emergence of new information, events, techniques, concepts, and ideas. The main forum for this news is the WWW, but we can't possibly keep visiting all the websites we need to every hour or so. RSS aggregators scan the Internet according to our specifications and harvest the latest postings (most update every few hours).
Managing a newsblog for the web is not something you can set once and then forget it. It requires a degree of monitoring and tweaking as new sources for feeds are discovered and added, as keywords are refined to sharpen the focus, and other criteria are developed for how the information should be displayed.
If you have visited Musicing News and Views recently, you will notice it has changed considerably in the past few days. It still looks the same, but the content has changed drastically. There have been new sources added, and the newsblog searches for the most recent entries on the sources and reports them in the order of newest to oldest. For sources that are blogging as a source for the feeds, they may find they are not included if their blog entries have been few and far between. I find I am discovering new ideas as I visit the newsblog. As far as I know Musicing News and Views is the first newsblog of its kind, and several of my colleagues have created newsblogs to reflect their interests and/or needs.
Musicing is expanded to mean making music and music making and all the attendant factors that are a part of this human activity of creating, playing, listening, studying, teaching, learning, theraping, and technologizing that make up the lives of people musicing today. These activities all meld into process in which distinctions overlap and actions complement and stimulate one another.
News is happening all the time to all of us and it is altering our fields from moment to moment, since news is essentially the emergence of new information, events, techniques, concepts, and ideas. The main forum for this news is the WWW, but we can't possibly keep visiting all the websites we need to every hour or so. RSS aggregators scan the Internet according to our specifications and harvest the latest postings (most update every few hours).
Managing a newsblog for the web is not something you can set once and then forget it. It requires a degree of monitoring and tweaking as new sources for feeds are discovered and added, as keywords are refined to sharpen the focus, and other criteria are developed for how the information should be displayed.
If you have visited Musicing News and Views recently, you will notice it has changed considerably in the past few days. It still looks the same, but the content has changed drastically. There have been new sources added, and the newsblog searches for the most recent entries on the sources and reports them in the order of newest to oldest. For sources that are blogging as a source for the feeds, they may find they are not included if their blog entries have been few and far between. I find I am discovering new ideas as I visit the newsblog. As far as I know Musicing News and Views is the first newsblog of its kind, and several of my colleagues have created newsblogs to reflect their interests and/or needs.
Musicing is expanded to mean making music and music making and all the attendant factors that are a part of this human activity of creating, playing, listening, studying, teaching, learning, theraping, and technologizing that make up the lives of people musicing today. These activities all meld into process in which distinctions overlap and actions complement and stimulate one another.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Podcasts, Screencasts, and Wikis
Three "new" technologies seem to be capturing the imagination of the Web 2.0 generation:
Screencasts use screen capture technology to demo new software such as the this short 90 second tutorial on how to use Linky, or mixing video and screen capture such as Jon Udell's account of a flood in Vermont.
Wiki may best be known for the Wikipedia. The public has been creating this on-line encyclopedia for years. It has become one of the largest shared creative projects on the Internet. Wiki coms from the Haiwian word wiki wiki which is used to describe something as quick or fast. This collaborative approach to creating knowledge has tremendous implications for the arts, but it is time that we understand art as not only expression but as a form of knowledge. Maybe then we can enter into collaborative creations with a sense of adventure and discovery.
These three technologies have helped to reshape the new age of digital technology, making the acronym CAI more and more obsolete in terms of teaching and learning, perhaps taking on a new meaning for CAI: Can't Attract Interest.
- Podcasts (audio and video files made available through RSS on a subscription basis),
- Screencasts (usually tutorials and short "documentaries" which is taking screenshot of demos of software while the steps are being narrated), and
- Wikis (a database that is expandable and editable by all participants).
Screencasts use screen capture technology to demo new software such as the this short 90 second tutorial on how to use Linky, or mixing video and screen capture such as Jon Udell's account of a flood in Vermont.
Wiki may best be known for the Wikipedia. The public has been creating this on-line encyclopedia for years. It has become one of the largest shared creative projects on the Internet. Wiki coms from the Haiwian word wiki wiki which is used to describe something as quick or fast. This collaborative approach to creating knowledge has tremendous implications for the arts, but it is time that we understand art as not only expression but as a form of knowledge. Maybe then we can enter into collaborative creations with a sense of adventure and discovery.
These three technologies have helped to reshape the new age of digital technology, making the acronym CAI more and more obsolete in terms of teaching and learning, perhaps taking on a new meaning for CAI: Can't Attract Interest.
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