Think, Imagine: Redistributing the "Independent" in Film

Mark Urman has dedicated his life to independent film. Framed behind a pair of chunky glasses and a slim cut suit, Urman gave the closing address last weekend at the Space, Place, and Imagination conference sponsored by the University of Rhode Island.

From across the podium he effortlessly seized our attention, delivering perfectly crafted stories about his career in the film industry, demonstrating the passion with which he has worked so hard to bring incredible film to the public. Describing his journey towards his current position as the head of distribution for THINKFilm, he shared inside stories that humorously contrasted the history of "films with a vision" and wider-release films that, in their attempts to appeal to everyone, are "becoming bigger and dumber."

Category: The Gnovis Blog

Is the Mobile 'Net's Tipping Point Looming on the Horizon?

The U.S., which has never been a leader in mobile technology, may finally be catching up (ever so slightly, at least) with foreign markets, thanks in large part to Google and Apple’s recent efforts to make the Internet mobile.

Category: The Gnovis Blog

"Digital Humanities" gets an Office (with a capital "O")

The National Endowment for the Humanities announced today the formation of the Office of Digital Humanities, a permanent promotion of the two-year old Digital Humanities Initiative.

Category: The Gnovis Blog

Already Sainted in Art: Obama Turns Into an Icon

As I’ve mentioned before, I support Barack Obama. There are a lot of reasons for this, none of which (I am sure) you care about. However, even I am starting to get a little tired of the shovel-fulls of praise lavished upon him. Will.i.am, of the Black-eyed Peas, just released a second celebrity-filled Obama endorsement video, there have been a number of Fairey inspired knock-offs of Obama art, and even some Etsy sellers using his face.

Category: The Gnovis Blog

Lessons from DrupalCon: Twitter, RDF, OpenID, and more…

I’m spending the bulk of this week at DrupalCon Boston 2008, a conference for web developers who use Drupal, an open source content management system (which, by no small coincidence, is what gnovisjournal.org runs on). Most of the actual proceedings are probably not of interest to gnovis readers, because they are aimed at Drupal geeks, but I’ve kept my ears open for the echos of CCT-friendly ideas, and outlined a few below. I’ll be blogging in much more detail on my personal website, www.sleepcamel.net , throughout the week.

Category: The Gnovis Blog

"We Think": Mass Innovation vs. Mass Consumption?

Charles Leadbeater, a UK-based spokesman of collective creativity and the author of his latest book, "We Think," has some interesting and somewhat controversial ideas about the Internet becoming a "mass innovation."

In the era of Web 2.0, the cultivation of web communities that hype social networking and collaboration, (i.e. YouTube and MySpace) now rely entirely on users to generate their content.

Category: The Gnovis Blog