Julianna Yau’s blog

This afternoon, there was a workshop presented by Rowley Mossop: When Virtual Worlds Collide - Challenges for the Arts in the Hypermedia Age. It was a much more focused presentation and discussion on some of the things discussed by Eli and John this morning, but with a much stronger marketing slant (comments with ~ are mine):

-songza.com

-new media –> impact on:
–concept of rarity
–production, distribution, etc
–behaviour & expectation

-the experience –> the emotional investment
-price/value of distribution & experience is shifting

-incumbent media are innovating to protect the value of their existing experience & products
-entrant media are innovating to build new businesses from new experiences & products
-innovations will impact how audiences expect to experience culture

-how can we use emerging technology to create something of value to attract and retain users/buyers?
-what is valuable to users? buyers? advertisers? funders?

-concept of RARITY
-emerging technology combinations are replacing rarity with ubiquity
–songza
–youtube
–the real news (broadcast out of Bathurst St in Toronto; technology has made it possible to reach a wide audience with a small budget)
-being able to find things
–rarity used to be a value because things were hard to find; ubiquity now more prevalent and effective
~~> but, again, what about Barney?

-”we all know now that intellectual property doesn’t mean much”
~~> what?!?!

-asking why people would go to concerts which were formerly sold on rarity if everything is available online
-need another strategy if your work is based on rarity (again, what about Barney’s success at forcing rarity?)

-market definitions based on geography
–no longer apply
–used to NEED to have geographic footprint & monopoly due to technological restraints
–because of reach, loss of local ads & personalities as value
–also loss of value for scheduled programming to reach specific audience

-users don’t pay content creators for access
~~> no, they pay the companies who provide access to the content, which is causing a whole host of problems between creators and those companies

-cost of content creation & distribution dropping
-boundaries of IP are dissolving
-offline, the cost of production is often higher than the price people are willing to pay for it

-new tarrifs, new ways to pay, new products
-ad-supported content

~it’s easy for people to make money by creating content in new formats and media, but what about people who are offering traditional things? how do we bridge the two? esp with physical objects?

-it’s all about “the experience”
-how to make live experience valuable rather than simply a replacement
-people find there is a higher engagement level online
-incorporate audience into the art!
-sampling ~~> not just for beauty products and food!

-metropera.com/metroperafamily.org
–haven’t changed the core of what they do or offer
–created impression of rarity
~~~>how does that fit with all the talk about rarity disappearing? I think there are two models here…
–redefined their market
–made themselves THE opera house of the world
–multiple formats of broadcasts; many ad-supported

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Eli Singer had a great presentation on How is the web transforming the arts?

Here are my notes (Flickr images here):

-memes
-diy culture, share culture
-democracy
-blogs – self publishing
-web breaking down hierarchies
-screen real estate equal for all publishers
-graffiti research lab
-public art and the web
-how to take graffiti to the digital life?
-companies taking grassroots graffiti art and using it for ads
-library of congress
–no histories behind images; put them all on Flickr, and through crowdsourcing, piece together history of the photos
–taking images out of libraries and putting them on the web for everyone
–tags an images
-how to weave yourself into a community or conversation on the web?
–not the same for corporations and arts institutions
–reputation within community
–bringing legitimacy to others by inviting participation
-The Power of the 2×2 Matrix
-casecamp.org –>!!!!!
-focus on the social, not the tool
-how can people connect with each other?
-”the network is the hub”; network can be anything
-strategic use of tools to create experiences for individuals, communities, and brands
-Broadcast model - source: cymfony
-peer to peer model – source: cymfony
-platform ==> community ==> content
-integrate into existing community vs building your own
-when integrating in an existing community, plugging into existing numbers
-who do you want to reach out to and who do
–”head” –> everyone; broadcast
–”tail” –> very specific number of people
–”shoulder” (Eli’s target) –> the mid-ground; not just about broadcast, but dealing with “meaty issues”
-which community are they in?
-word of mouth happening more online (blogs, social networking)
-whippersnapper
-curotatoral podcasting
-whippersnapper also on FB (group)
–art is for dead people show
–whippersnapper also has videos to explain how to participate (feels like Drupal instructional vids)
–uploading photos and tag with gallery name!
-SickKids hospital –> radiothon –> social media
–web is built for storytelling
–radiothon videodiary –> daily video; shot on-site; co-branded; rleased online; drive donations
–content –> how to maximize use of small size of screen and closeness to screen
–syndication!
–SickKids hospital widget; share button, donate button; allows websites to customize look of widget and add their own logo
-MoMA –> everyone else taking photos an videos and posting online… where was MoMA? they joined in when question was posed to them

Questions from audience

-permissions forms for people who were interviewed (esp when children involved)
–with SickKids, they already had an existing process and agreement form; added internet to form; contained location for filming

-what about getting off the internet? (dying communities) how to shut down a FB page?
–data owned by FB/YouTube/etc, not you
–control issues with own vs other community
–recognized of an issue; islands and walled communities are issues; OpenSocial
–whippersnapper –> difference between their own website and their presence on others
–own website is official voice; limited community
–most of the community lives on FB

-how to build a list of bloggers?
–technorati?
–local blog indexes
–flickr –> look for photoblogers in city
–follow linkbacks/trackbacks
–build human relationship first

-street teams for independent music community —> are there incentive-driven activities for online community? offering fans incentive to help? is it happening?
–can happen, but more for companies sending free stuff for reviews
–backstage access for blogging
–TIFF –> blogger for them; site listed on TIFF; on both TIFF website and own
—incentive was the affiliation
—real-time feedback
—connection with related ppl
—community, not volunteers
-incentive without alienation

-performance art; unions; limit of how much can be shared–how to address?
–Andy Warhol show –> no photos allowed; had Cronenberg talk about Warhol
–Shakespeare Theatre, Washington –> backstage access; interiews; gave bloggers access to their own images rather than bloggers’ images
–Stratord’s blog

-authenticity — how to achieve?
–err on the side of community
–flat hierarchy
–don’t just start broadcasting
–PARTICIPATE
–connect with leaders of community

-online prescence overshadowing brick-and-mortar gallery? (whippersnapper)
–their events are always packed
–made it about participation in the real space too

-engagement process, not just advertising
-people helping each other and having conversations with each other
-supporting social networking with staff –> resource intensive –> start small
-change in cultural experience

-some people don’t want to be involved because they don’t want to give away their story; ho to create more content?
–culture of secrecy
–Apple
–mystique
–Steve Job’s product launches!

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I attended three sessions today, and am back home temporarily (instead of attending the keynote speech) because I need some down time to collect my thoughts. Tons of information coming at us, and it wasn’t long before I got the hang of sending updates to Twitter and Flickr. I’ll be posting the mostly raw notes I took from the sessions, with some linkage (esp to the Flickr images after they’re tagged and captioned).

It’s been a draining day, and I honestly don’t know whether I’m returning for the networking reception and dinner. Unlike CopyCamp, the TIAC was spread across two buildings and several rooms. The university was not the easiest to navigate (especially for a directionally challenged person like myself), and the construction that was happening didn’t help. Lunch was a bit of a headache for me because I took [myself and some unsuspecting victims] the long way to the university plaza. Even without that, I think I would have felt rushed (despite what another person had mentioned to me)… maybe it’s just because I like to really take my time with meals. At least with CopyCamp, food was provided and lunch was more of a break than an interruption.

I also did notice a big difference with the networking. Part of the issue was the size of the group. It was somewhere between the number of attendees at the Visual Arts Summit and CopyCamp. I found that with the BarCamp model that CopyCamp followed, and the smaller group, I was able to not merely meet but have more real conversations with the other attendees. I suppose that’s why TIAC is having the networking reception I may not attend

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Yesterday, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada wrote about Facebook’s laxness on privacy and third-party applications. I was a bit surprised by the quality of the post, because their blog typically provides a good amount of relevant information. However, even after following the links in the post, I found it difficult to piece together (a) how the applications can “steal” your information, or (b) what the applications can steal.

It wasn’t until I followed a link from one of the BBC articles to Click’s advice for worried Facebook users that I understood what the concern is. Applications can have access to your name, networks and lists of friends, plus your selection of the following:

• Profile Picture
• Basic Info
• Personal info (activities, interests, etc.)
• Current location (what city you’re in)
• Education history
• Work history
• Profile status
• Wall
• Notes
• Groups you belong to
• Events you’re invited to
• Photos taken by you
• Photos taken of you
• Relationship status
• Online presence
• What type of relationship you’re looking for
• What sex you’re interested in
• Who you’re in a relationship with
• Religious views

This was certainly not news to me (particularly after I wrote a Primer on Privacy & Facebook, available as a PDF or OpenDocument download. Although I agree that it would be good for Facebook to more actively promote usage of their privacy settings (someone suggested that they include a privacy setting walkthrough in the post-setup activities), I more strongly believe that users need to start taking accountability for learning to use the privacy controls at their disposal.

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Following closely on the heels of CopyCamp is the Technology in the Arts conference, being held at University of Waterloo. And although I find the barcamp model to be very exciting, I must admit that I like knowing ahead of time what the schedule shall be so I can plan my time (I’m a perpetual planner). There’s a fantastic session lineup at the TIA conference, and trying to decide which ones I want to attend was as difficult as it was for CopyCamp. I was surprised by my initial desire to attend sessions which would present familiar topics (like their session on CMSs or session on copyright law, technology and cultural management).

I reasoned myself into sessions where I would be exposed to information which I don’t already have or can’t get through my contacts. For example, I’m very interested to hear about The Evolution of Technology at the Canadian Music Centre, but I know people who know people at the CMC and can probably get that information outside of the conference. However, I’m not as connected to the museum world or b-boying movement.

This will be an interesting conference to attend following CopyCamp. I’ll be unencumbered by my full-sized laptop, and hopefully be able to take more notes with my Eee. I’m not sure whether I’ll have internet access, actually. I sent the organizers an email about that yesterday, so we’ll see what they come back with when the traditional work-week resumes. Based on what I could gather from the UWaterloo website, I don’t think I could get access to the university network even as an alumna. I don’t expect to be able to connect to the network, which will be a delicious piece of irony. I’ll probably more easily be able to connect at one of the Williams coffee pubs near campus than trying to finagle access from the university itself. Of course, I could always just go home for lunch instead…

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Today, Crave finally picks up on the fact that DeviantArt exists, and somewhat questionably touts it as “a YouTube for artists”.

Although well-meaning, Ina Fried does not seem to be aware that:

• YouTube is used by artists (although YouTube, oddly, does not have a channel for artists who do not fall under the umbrella of Director), as are other popular websites for user-generated content, like Flickr
• artist-specific websites for content display, such as Saatchi Online and MyArtSpace also exist (although they haven’t been around as long as DeviantArt)

What I did get from Fried’s article was exposure to the Coton v. TVX Films case. This case was initiated last year when Lara Jade Coton found that a self-portrait she had taken when she was 14 was used on the cover of a porn flick called Body Magic. The self-portrait, unlike the growing collection of 14-year-olds’ self-portraits found on sites like MySpace, is sexy but is not sexually-explicit/erotic and doesn’t contain nudity.

TVX Films (sorry, I’m not linking to their website, but you can search for them easily enough) shoot themselves in the foot by (a) removing Coton’s copyright notice from the photo and (b) indicating on the back of the DVD case that “Everyone associated with this DVD is 18 or over”. Although Coton’s website currently indicates that she is 18, she was not 18 in the photo and TVX Films wouldn’t have much to support that they were able to validate her age without having been in contact with her.

With child exploitation and copyright infringement being such hot topics right now, TVX being a big, bad company in the porn industry and Coton being a beautiful and talented young artist, I don’t expect TVX Films to be able to get away with this one.

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Last week, I was reflecting on the fact that my cynicism actually protects me from quite a bit of frustration. This reflection came just in time for me to be aware that because I don’t expect anything to be done for the right reasons, I am not shocked to find capitalists behind the bubbly front of social networking sites. I do, however, still experience quite a bit of frustration because I maintain that things should still be done properly, and am often called an idealist for that reason…but that’s a whole other discussion.

Tom Hodgkinson’s article on the “shady” inner workings of Facebook sound, to me, like the lamentations of someone who is more naive than insightful.

I totally respect the fact that there are many people out there who choose not to participate on websites like Facebook (even though I give some of them a hard time, just for fun). Like phones, email, post mail, VOIP, instant messaging and “the rest”, a social networking site is merely a tool, and doesn’t work for everyone.

Personally, I like maintaining regular contact with friends and colleagues through Facebook because it allows me to do it on my own time. Of course, it’s no substitute for in-person interaction but I find it very handy for keeping abreast of my friends’ more mundane events. By doing so, I’ve noticed that when I have lunch with a friend, we can have more [frequent and valuable] meaningful conversations without having to play catch-up firstly.

If someone else wants to use it as a make-shift dating site or homage to themselves, do I really care? Not so long as I continue to be able to ignore their requests to be my friend. Like in a high school or any other social space, cliques form naturally and most people gravitate towards others who are there for similar purposes. I’m sure the people who are merely on Facebook to boost their self-image think that people like me are taking the fun out of Facebook by using it to network professionally, but don’t really care because there’s enough space for us all.

Hodgkinson’s profiles on the brains and finances behind Facebook were actually a very interesting read. I’m sure he had intended for the information to show how that Facebook is really being operated by “The Man”, but I found their histories to be quite cool. I had not known about Peter Thiel prior to reading Hodgkinson’s article, but found his work to be extremely exciting. I know my affinity towards Thiel is mostly due to “The Diversity Myth”, which he co-wrote, because it seems to be a more expansive version of the same realization I reached in high school during one of our many assemblies to “celebrate multiculturalism”.

Although I don’t think Facebook is perfect (far from it; I agree with Hodgkinson’s, and most other people’s, dislike for the recent fiasco over the opt-out/opt-in problem with Beacon), many of the problems Hodgkinson has with Facebook are not unique to Facebook.

1 Everyone will advertise at you

Facebook doesn’t charge for membership, and instead uses advertisement as its main source of revenue. Even newspapers like The Guardian, in which Hodgkinson’s article was published, use advertisement. Not only do many other businesses use ads, and targeted ads, as part of their revenue source, not all of them are transparent about their ad targeting practices.

2 Nothing ever gets deleted on the internet

Maybe not nothing ever gets deleted, but data retention is a huge issue which is not limited to Facebook. You’ve got to be very new to the internet if you aren’t aware that anything you put online will probably exist until the end of time (or at least the end of the internet), either online, on a backup, or on someone’s personal computer.

3 Privacy isn’t guaranteed anywhere anymore

Social networking sites may make private detectives a thing of the past, only to be relived in Film Noir, and are certainly making people realize that privacy is an illusion. While I don’t agree that privacy should be allowed to be an illusion, I also realize that anyone who really wants to know about my most intimate confessions will find a way to do so, whether I’m on Facebook or not. Luckily, I don’t think anyone really cares to do so.

4 Facebook only knows what you tell it

Most of the information you give Facebook for it to build a profile on you is optional. Users need to take responsibility for how they share their information. If you’re going to do it through Facebook, of course they’re going to use that data. Duh. Many of the fields, like your gender and marital status, are optional. So are the bajillion applications which harvest more information about users. Just because you’re presented with a field doesn’t mean you need to complete it. Social networking sites need to be responsible for how they use the data they have, but the users who provide that data share that responsibility and need to start owning up to it.

5 Opting out doesn’t mean closed communication…ever

If Hodgkinson ever read any other privacy policy (like the one for a financial institution or utilities company), he’s probably likely to find that they also indicate that opting out of notifications will not cease all communications. I assume those clauses exist so that the company with which you’re doing business can still contact you if there’s a problem with your account—whether they abuse that is a whole other issue, and I have yet to be spammed by Facebook. They actually deliver fewer direct mailings (via email) to me than my credit card companies, opting instead to broadcast updates on their blog.

6 The CIA would probably look at your stuff anyway, if they really needed to

Does anyone really think that the CIA, or any other homeland security organization, would not be able to access your information on a social networking site just because that site’s TOS didn’t say that they could? I don’t.

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Yesterday, Facebook issued an apology for the poor product launch of Facebook Beacon and added the option for users to block all Beacon updates in the “Privacy Settings for External Websites” portion of their privacy settings page.

I’m sorry that Beacon was so poorly launched. I enjoy sharing my activities with my friends (to their amusement or annoyance), sending updates on the movies I’ve watched, blog postings I’ve written, books I’m reading and websites I’ve visited, and creating about a bajillion status updates. Being extremely concerned about privacy,  I also enjoy having full control over exactly what is shared with my friends. It seems Beacon could have been much better received if they were more transparent about how it works, and more proactive about giving users control over the updates from day 1.

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Facebook finally decides to make Beacon an opt-in program rather than an opt-out program.

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Canada’s Privacy Commissioner blog points to a report from the Information Commissioner’s Office in Great Britain on youth, privacy and the internet.

Although the report focuses on British youth aged 14-21, I doubt the results would be drastically different for a different demographic.

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