Author Archives: gaboosh

September 11, 2011

[CMS.860] Civic Media, the ‘Crisis in Journalism,’ and Digital Inequalities

Note: As part of the required work for my Intro to Civic Media course at MIT this semester, I am required (though certainly willing) to produce weekly reactions to our assigned reading. I will usually include a summary of my piece plus a link to the MIT Center for Civic Media blog, but I don’t have access yet so I’ve included my entire assignment here this week.

I feel as though it’s easy to want to present a definition of civic media that calls to mind images of change, influence, and nobleness. I hesitate, however, to go beyond a very boring and un-romantic assertion that civic media is any channel (be it vetted or otherwise) that informs an individual about her community—from town to global village—and vice versa. As part of this definition, I outline the following principles:

1. Civic Media need not require action on the part of the consumer

In this week’s readings I noted the repeated mention of “engagement.” Jenkins, for instance, argues that civic media itself is defined by that which “fosters civic engagement.” I’m not comfortable with this connection, however. Engagement with one’s community implies action, or at least a link that goes beyond simple information sharing. I don’t believe Jenkins means to exclude local newspapers or blogs, but I want to make sure my definition is inclusive. Be it Boston.com’s Your Town section or BBC’s World News, teaching media consumers about the community of which they are part is the most basic of principles for civic media.

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June 9, 2011

The Skeptical Technologist: A Super Sad True [Love?] Story

I just finished Gary Shteyngart’s “Super Sad True Love Story“—though, if you’ve had even the most brief of conversations with me in the past month or so, you know this already: I haven’t really stopped talking about it.

The novel presents a dystopian view of America, set in a time in the future where everyone’s data is public, accessed via a single device. The impotent government is simultaneously oppressive of its constituents while under the control of corporations. And society is illiterate, referring to good old fashioned books as ‘written artifacts.’ Sound familiar? It’s no surprise that when presenting his work at a public reading at the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square, Shteyngart pinpointed the book’s timeframe as ‘Next Tuesday.’

It’s interesting to me how confused some get when they hear me praise a work like this as accurate or, at the very least, a prophecy behind which I can get (sometimes I describe it as the pharmacist who, shockingly, does not self-prescribe Prozac). One friend was even dismissive. “No,” they declared upon my refusal to read books on any material but paper, “that is complete nonsense.” After all, what right does a ‘tech guy’ like me have to be so skeptical of the very systems in which I work every day?

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April 27, 2011

Gmail, Your [Outgoing] Spam Filters Are Terrible

So, I got hacked. Boo hoo. It happens. The worst part? Changing all of my passwords across the board (since having access to my email gives you access to a whole lot of other things). The best part? Having old friends reach out to tell you that you’ve been hacked and starting up the first conversation with them in five years.

I realize passwords can be stolen. Maybe I’m a sucker and was phished. Maybe one of the various public Wi-Fi networks I’ve been on in the past few months of traveling was compromised. It doesn’t matter. I should be changing my password more often.

But it also got me thinking. How was it so easy for these guys to send out a few hundred emails from my Gmail account? If Gmail is so good at filtering incoming spam (and it definitely is), how are its outgoing spam filters so poor? There are things Gmail could do to help this problem.

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March 23, 2011

SXSW 2011 Recap: Why Everything is Amazing But Nobody is Happy

First in a series of my quick(-ish) reviews of the panels I attended during SXSW Interactive in March 2011. Mostly for my own reference. But if you’ve got something to add, please do.

By the time I landed in my seat for this panel, I was quite tired. BOS was a complete madhouse thanks to the spring breakers and getting to my hotel from AUS wasn’t so smooth either. I had very little time to throw my bags down in my dungeon of a room and get outside in case the next shuttle came by to bring me to the Austin Convention Center. Once I arrived there, I immediately understood why I was told again and again about South By Southwest: “dude…it’s overwhelming.” So many people…everywhere.

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March 19, 2011

SXSW Interactive 2011 Recap

I’m going to be posting a more thorough review of every panel I went to in Austin last week, but thought I’d start off with a quick summary.

You hear (and read) a lot of criticism of SXSW lately, mostly surrounding its size and popularity. Even as a first time goer, I find all of this disappointing.

I’ve been trying to get to SXSW for a while, but it wasn’t until I started working for myself that I could convince my boss to send me (har har). I felt I wanted to be down there to be close to the innovation and the products that were driving my industry and what I do on a daily basis. As it turns out, it was the thinking that I found most valuable. I went down there looking to improve my skill-set and knowledge as a creative developer. But, as I’ll note in my upcoming panel reviews, it was my role as an MFA candidate at MassArt’s DMI that led me to gain the most value. And I still got a bit of networking (and celebrity sighting) in.

Me, Mr. Daly & Mr. Drap– I mean Mr. Hamm

Me, Mr. Daly, and Don Dr- sorry, I mean Jon Hamm.

I realize the festival has grown exponentially over the past few years. I also realize that there are a ton of people who go down there just to party for a few days. I heard many veterans complaining about not being able to find any good panels (which amazes me, considering there were at least 10-15 going on at any given time). And I am definitely glad I’m not an Austin resident having to deal with being inundated with tourists for 10 straight days in the middle of March.

But there are a lot of smart people in this world. And it’s great that a lot of them all go to the same place to share their smarts with people like me. I really enjoyed the show, and I can’t wait to get back next year.

March 3, 2011

Memex & Facebook: Similar tools. Similar goals. Divergent paths.

I recently quit Facebook. It simply became something I don’t need anymore. It was taking up my time and attention and not providing much value in return. I flipped the switch just after midnight on 1/1/11, but I considered the move for a long time.

One catalyst, however, was the reading and analysis we’ve been doing for our seminar class at DMI. Last semester our focus was on the history of dynamic media–reading mostly philosophers, scientists, and technologists who wrote during the 1950′s, 60′s, and 70′s. They had no idea what was about to happen to the world, but some of them had rather vivid predictions.

One such vision was the Memex, a system of documentation, tracking, and sharing that would enable scientists (having just come out of WWII) to better collaborate on findings. The idea, according to its inventor, Vannevar Bush, was to better mankind by spurring innovation through this improved collaboration. Bush’s Memex (as described in this Atlantic Monthly piece from 1945) was never seen through to mass production (or even much serious prototyping), but the concept that sharing information would better society has stayed consistent. It was what Ted Turner believed in when he started CNN, and it’s what Mark Zuckerberg believes.

But something happened along the way. Bush wrote that

“there will always be plenty of things to compute in the detailed affairs of millions of people doing complicated things.”

But what he was describing was a process of introspection. By the time this charge landed in the laps of guys like Zuckerberg, the process has turned into over-sharing. So where do the two systems (Memex & Facebook) converge? How do they differ?

I wrote a paper for the DMI last October that touches on those questions. It was featured on the DMI website as an abstract. If you’d like to read the whole thing, you can do so here (pdf).

March 2, 2011

Tory Row 5K

The really awesome and really talented gents over at Second World Design designed this beautiful site for a 5K, sponsored by local favorites Tory Row and Cambridge 1. I was fortunate enough to work on the development which is driven primarily by CSS and jQuery.

Great client, talented designers, simplicity, and running for beer. That’s a dream project right there.

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February 9, 2011

EliezraSchaffzin.com

Recently launched a quick WordPress based site for my sister, The Brilliant Writer. She wanted an easy way to post her work as it is published, recognized, etc. The project included some WP template dev with some custom meta fields and such. Simple design and simple execution, combined with an easy to work with client made this a great little project.

She’s way smart and way talented. I may be biased though. So check it out for yourself.

January 22, 2011

Processing.js Fractals

Been playing with the latest from the processing.js project. I don’t spend that much time in Processing, so I don’t have much to try to port for the JS implementation, but I decided to give a simple fractals script a try. Here’s the result (not going to work in IE…best results in Chrome or Safari)

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January 3, 2011

MITX What’s Next

Representing what’s next in the Massachusetts tech landscape, MITX wanted a way to wish its members a happy new year, while giving them the chance to vote on “What’s Next” for 2011. Theorem Creative designed and built this immersive Flash based application that let users rank predicted significance of a number of industry trends. (more…)