Diigo Bookmarks 08/30/2008 (a.m.)
August 29, 2008 at 5:31 pm | In Uncategorized | Comments Off on Diigo Bookmarks 08/30/2008 (a.m.)-
“Image Disembodiment?”, by Bernard Languillier
Found via …? Kazys Varnelis?, Geoff at BLDGBLOG? (can’t place it, but at some smart blog I read), an essay by Bernard Languillier about how the digital process is changing our relationship with printed images. It’s a to-read-later piece for me right now – haven’t had time to read it thoughtfully yet, but it promises some compelling insights (something a bit better than Emily Gould’s recent piece in MIT’s Technology Review, “It’s not a revolution if nobody loses,” which ostensibly bases itself on Walter Benjamin’s pivotal essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”).
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Intro page from the Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds (RSPB) to a report by a Dr. William Bird (ha!) called “Natural Thinking,” available as a PDF download. Bird’s report is an “investigating [of] the links between the natural environment, biodiversity and mental health.”
This could be a useful reference for urbanist writing, insofar as it underscores the importance of amenities as a necessary complement to density. You don’t want to have density while simultaneously “automating” everything (no more walking, driving only, no interaction with nature, etc.). Even small “hot spots” of natural interaction will work, or more walking with actual natural elements at hand.
Diigo Bookmarks 08/29/2008 (a.m.)
August 28, 2008 at 5:31 pm | In Uncategorized | Comments Off on Diigo Bookmarks 08/29/2008 (a.m.)-
reportonbusiness.com: Harper defends cuts to arts programs – Annotated
G&M article on recent announcement of cuts in arts funding, which co-incided with the Conference Board of Canada’s report on the significance of the arts to Canada’s economy.
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Valuing Culture: Measuring and Understanding Canada’s Creative Economy – Annotated
The Conference Board of Canada’s July 2008 report on the value of culture to the Canadian economy.
Diigo Bookmarks 08/12/2008 (p.m.)
August 12, 2008 at 5:30 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off on Diigo Bookmarks 08/12/2008 (p.m.)-
Voices From the Suburban Blogosphere, by Bob Tedeschi – NYTimes.com
Article that chronicles the role of blogging in the creation of new hyper local / local news eco-systems.
QUOTE:
For readers, the blogs are providing news in ways unseen in traditional local news media.
(…)
Like other journalists who run news sites, Paul Bass, New Haven Independent’s editor, does not consider himself a blogger.“We’re a news site,” Mr. Bass said.
To underscore the difference, Mr. Bass said the site has three full-time reporters and one part-time reporter, all paid for by $185,000 in grants, corporate sponsorships and private donations. The site’s coverage, he added, helped remove a city budget director, change city towing policies and shame board of education members into better attendance, after it publicized the fact that the board’s truancy dwarfed that of city students.
“A lot of neighborhood boards weren’t covered until we came around, so we’re just showing up,” Mr. Bass said. “That’s the promise of hyperlocal journalism, as opposed to blogging.”
UNQUOTE
Hanif Kureishi profile in NYTimes: “My Beautiful London”
August 9, 2008 at 4:54 pm | In ideas | Comments Off on Hanif Kureishi profile in NYTimes: “My Beautiful London”I found this observation really compelling:
France, as well as the rest of Europe, is “going through a huge crisis about identity, race, religion,” Kureishi went on to say. “Their identities have been shattered by immigration. That’s the price you pay. If you want a modern economy, you have hundreds of thousands of workers around your country, you give up . . . a certain part of your identity. That’s the deal.” Then, he pointed out, you have to remake the society, and “it’s that remaking that Europe is experiencing at the moment. But it’s really tricky to have your identity shattered and remade.”
It’s from a profile of Hanif Kureishi, by Rachel Donadio in the Aug.8 New York Times, My Beautiful London. What I like about his remark is that he manages to put the economic underpinnings right into the middle of the issue, exactly where they belong: "If you want a modern economy, you have hundreds of thousands of workers around your country, you give up . . . a certain part of your identity. That’s the deal.”
Diigo Bookmarks 08/09/2008 (p.m.)
August 9, 2008 at 5:30 am | In cities, comments, links | Comments Off on Diigo Bookmarks 08/09/2008 (p.m.)-
Michael Dudley, who only the other day came out with a brilliant analysis of The Dark Knight, now looks at Mama Mia! across a range of feminist texts as well as some urbanist readings. Fascinating stuff, a must-read…
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The end of suburban sprawl – Annotated
Well, well …an opinion piece in the Ottawa Citizen (republished across the CanWest newspaper empire, therefore also in Victoria’s Times-Colonist), unsigned, that lays out the tenets of anti-sprawl and pro-urbanist thinking succinctly and favorably. (Except that while the title calls it “suburban sprawl,” the author calls it “urban sprawl” in the first paragraph. Odd.)
Of interest for a Canadian perspective is that the article hints at the realities of infrastructure funding in Canada.
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You can’t eat Whuffie (but it’s getting harder to eat without it) | ::HorsePigCow:: marketing uncommon – Annotated
Tara Hunt wrote an interesting post on “whuffie” and what it means today. She also then broached the minefield of how (if) the whuffie factor gets monetized. The comments board is fascinating, and I also added my 2cents (actually, more like a $1.25 since I inflated those 2 cents into two too-long comments…).
I’m pretty sure my remarks are way too theoretical and esoteric, but they helped me make some connections and sort out a few things, so even if they’re useless to others, I benefited. Not sure if that has anything to do with whuffie, but there you go…
Diigo Bookmarks 08/09/2008 (a.m.)
August 8, 2008 at 5:32 pm | In cities, links | Comments Off on Diigo Bookmarks 08/09/2008 (a.m.)-
PDF: The Entrepreneurial Advantage of World Cities
31-page PDF (still to read), “The Entrepreneurial Advantage of World Cities,” subtitled “Evidence from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Data.”
From the abstract:
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Recent discussions in the Economic Geography literature increasingly focus on creative cities and the importance of creativity for achieving economic growth. Considering the increased attention on urban areas it is not surprising that the regional dimension of entrepreneurship is a subject of great interest. We set out a framework encompassing the individual process between entrepreneurial perceptions and entrepreneurial activity and demonstrate how the urban environment can have an impact on this process.
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How Buildings Learn | PSFK – Trends, Ideas & Inspiration
PSFK’s Piers Fawkes writes an entry that provides the links (now available on Google Video) to the BBC series, “How Buildings Learn,” by Stewart Brand. In addition to the six parts (each ~30 min. long), Fawkes includes some choice quotes.
For those who know and appreciated Stewart Brand’s book, this series is a great addition.
Diigo Bookmarks 08/07/2008 (a.m.)
August 6, 2008 at 5:33 pm | In links | Comments Off on Diigo Bookmarks 08/07/2008 (a.m.)-
Be Nice to the ‘Creative Class’! :: Views :: thetyee.ca
Why does one too often get the impression that publications like The Tyee are fighting a rear-guard and even anachronistic battle? That somehow, somewhere different patterns are emerging, which its journalists just don’t see, preferring instead the familiar world of what they knew “back in the day”?
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Lobdell’s OC: 42 things I know
William Lobdell’s entry about leavng the Los Angeles Times after 18 years of working there, and his list of 42 things he knows re the newspaper industry (and its moribund state).
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What’s really killing newspapers: They’re no longer the best providers of social currency. – By Jack Shafer – Slate Magazine – Annotated
Shafer’s subtitle says it all, “[Newspapers are] no longer the best providers of social currency.” What’s “social currency”? It’s “the information we acquire and then trade—or give away—to start, maintain, and nurture relationships with our fellow humans.”
In other words, it’s no longer relevant to your interaction with friends and co-workers and other citizens whether or not you’ve all read the same newspaper that morning. There is other social currency that’s more valuable, more interesting, more useful — as currency.
In that sense, the “news” is secondary to “currency” / “value.” It seems that newspapers need to figure out — if they can, if it’s possible — how to leverage currency, not news.
Diigo Bookmarks 08/05/2008 (p.m.)
August 5, 2008 at 5:30 am | In cities, copywrong, creativity, innovation, links | Comments Off on Diigo Bookmarks 08/05/2008 (p.m.)-
Technology Review: 3-D Printing for the Masses
From p.2 of this article:
QUOTE
“Ultimately, I think people will have these [3-D rapid prototyping] printers at home,” says Lipson. The idea is that people will pay a nominal amount for blueprints and then download them, in much the same way that music is shared over the Internet now, he says.
UNQUOTEExciting, especially in relation to Larry Lessig’s REMIX ideas — see his TED presentation, 11/07, where he talks about culture getting the creative remix treatment. Having RPT technology enter the home-use market means manufacturing will get that same treatment. Interesting days ahead…
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Pattern Recognition: Latest Trends (July 08) | PSFK – Trends, Ideas & Inspiration
PSFK’s round-up of trends (recent, 2008). Top of the heap in the list: lists, aka data (how to sort, how to represent, how to use); next, urbanism (varieties).
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San Francisco & Entrepeneurialism | Marktd
I watched this video a couple of days ago (via PSFK’s Twitter feed), and loved the emphases brought to light by the interviews.
– Entrepreneurs liked the density of the city — the ability to encounter colleagues by chance, run into folks, rub shoulders;
– Some talked about liking the “small” aspects of San Francisco: that there isn’t *so* much going on to distract one’s attention from the tasks (work) at handI thought that latter point was kind of intriguing, something to remember when someone once again goes off on how it’s such a bad thing that *this* isn’t as happening a place as NYC or Toronto.
Diigo Bookmarks 08/05/2008 (a.m.)
August 4, 2008 at 5:32 pm | In business, cities, links, urbanism | Comments Off on Diigo Bookmarks 08/05/2008 (a.m.)-
Protein® Feed | Could Globalization Be Going In Reverse? – Annotated
“The world is flat” or “the world is spiky” or …”the world is complex,” maybe? At any rate, this article questions the idea that outsourcing will continue to continue, spreading outward in some sort of new and flattened topography (akin to a downward spiral insofar as the search for ever cheaper labor and laxer labor laws continues, but not wholly downward because economically, there’s an upward trend associated with it, too – hence perhaps the “flat” topography). And it presents some interesting data as well as suppposition for why this might be so. It’s not just the huge up-tick in transportation costs (although that’s a key factor), it’s also the logistics — including “reverse logistics.” For example, consumers *want* to do better, and are becoming more aware of the “carbon footprint” of the products they buy.
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“Trading Places” by Alan Ehrenhalt (The New Republic)
Interesting article (which incidentally puts Vancouver front & centre), blogged by Richard Florida at Creative Class: the subtitle is “the demographic inversion of the American city.” It’s about how the “inner city” and its “inner city suburbs” are now desirable (and expensive) places to live, creating a 24/7 downtown (desired & theorized early on by Jane Jacobs, eg.), while the less affluent (ok, the poor!) are forced to live on the outskirts (suburbs). This used to be called “gentrification,” but Ehrenhalt points out that it’s a much more complex process than just that.
Haven’t read all the comments to this article, but it starts with some excellent ones — intelligent observations by readers.
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Night Life Reprogrammed – NYTimes.com – Annotated
Everything is more intense in NYC, including the geek or nerd “party” scene (meet ups, tweet ups, “ignite” events, etc.). More people = more capital, in terms of creative energy and innovation. (And perhaps headaches… but that’s another story…!)
Of course I’d love to figure out how to sustain a mini-version of this right here (Victoria). Vancouver works very hard at it — but even in Vancouver (I’m told), it’s the same people reappearing at the different events (i.e., nowhere near the critical mass of larger US metros). Part of the problem is enticing people to come out — it’s so easy to stay home, after all…
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