Monday, September 26, 2005

from boingboing today

this is from a novel currently being published on the Internet.

"So I'm building a tape-loading seashell robot toaster out of discarded obsolete technology because the world is full of capacious, capable, disposable junk and it cries out to be used again. It's a potlatch: I have so much material and computational wealth that I can afford to waste it on frivolous junk. I think that's why the collectors buy it, anyway."

tags: information architecture, portal, themepunk, perfect junk

also this announcement:

Online Video and the Future of Television
one-day conference in Berkeley
sponsored by the Intelligent Television project

Friday, September 30, 2005
9.30 a.m. - 4.30 p.m.
The Hillside Club
2286 Cedar Street
Berkeley, CA 94709

More than 30 million hours of unique television programming are broadcast every year worldwide, and a growing fraction of it is digital, along with a flood of video from individuals, new production companies, and archives. The availability of large-scale public and private archives of television, video, and film offers enormous promise for educators, entrepreneurs, producers, broadcasters, and investors.

Nearly every aspect of television and video today is in transition. Storage is moving from tape to disk, distribution is moving from broadcast networks to the Internet, schedules are giving way to unscheduled or on-demand access, and viewing now happens via PCs, mobile phones, and home theaters.

This one-day conference, created by Archival.tv and Intelligent Television (http://www.intelligenttelevision.com), brings together archivists, educators, technologists, entrepreneurs, producers, legal experts, and investors to explore the enormous promise offered by the availability of online video and television content. Demonstrations and interactive panel discussions will highlight new video technologies, services, legal issues, and economic models. Participants from diverse -- and until now, largely disconnected -- specialties will be especially encouraged to interact.