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Category: Social Media

Flickr-Day in History


Two years ago, October 17th 2006 saw a project called “One Day in History” as a part of History Matters campaign organised by the National Trust and key heritage organisations. People of all ages and nationalities, living in Britain, could send a blog post describing what they did on the day.

Whether or not the guys at Flickr knew about this project, they have certainly taken up a similar idea, and last year pioneered 24 Hours of Flickr – a pool of photographs taken on May 5th 2007, capturing a moment in life of over 7 thousand people. You can visit the link above to flick through the photos, and some of them are sure to put you in the mood for Flickr 888, which will take place on August 8th, 2008.

Better yet, Flickr are teaming with MOO, to print exclusive Flickr 888 Postcard Packs, to be available in early autumn. Suddenly there seem to be more reasons to think of participating in this project.

One of the Flickr friends who, I think, should consider taking part is John Grundeken from the Netherlands. You surely have seen his amazing design for a tie, commemorating his adoration for Barbra Streisand. As an artist, John specialises in linocut, and you can view some examples of his work online. I faithfully followed his Paris 2007 and Paris 2008 sets, but, if I am honest, John’s treatment of flora can leave one spellbound. This may sound strange, especially if John reads this, but he photographs flowers and plants, like I photograph streetlights – passionately, copiously, and lovingly. Hyacinths, roses, irises, peonis, orchids… you name it! I should also note his love for gardening and planting, which obviously adds an extra touch to his work. And with John’s permission I have an ace work of his, but just for some more time this is going to remain an ace up my sleeve.

Break a Leg And Have a Break Using Google

I never thought that I would use the phrases “break a leg” and “have a break” to play on words, but here it goes. Just to let you know from the start, a series of pre-written posts will be appearing on my blog for some time in the future. As you might know, Blogger now allows you to schedule your posts, which I used a few times previously to test that the feature worked well. It did, and now I have no choice but to commit myself to it for a period of time – while I’m nursing my broken ankle.

Yes, playing on words. We use “break a leg!” when wishing luck to a person. (If I’m not mistaken, in German language they actually wish to “break a neck“). I suppose this is what my friends wished me when I left for Beck’s Canvas – and I did really well, as you may have read, seen and heard. Of course, they didn’t know that on my return, on my way into work, I’d actually break my ankle. I still cannot get my head around the fact that I did it, while wearing trainers and walking (not running) on the road that was perfectly plain (although it was a drizzly day). Then, of course, since this happened, I’ve been told at least three stories of really horrific accidents, one of which occurred in the kitchen. Also, in the news there was a story a couple of months ago of a Mexican donkey, who for whatever reason bit one man and kicked another, breaking the latter’s leg. The donkey was put into prison for misbehaviour; I suppose I could become the (wo)man who sued God, but that’s going to take too much of my energy. So, I console myself with the fact that my flat is not on the sunny side, it’s relatively shady here, and I am trying not to feel extremely gutted at how many things I am going to miss in 5 weeks of being off sick and in cast.

As I have to keep my leg up in the air all the time, and as I don’t use a Blackberry or suchlike for blogging, I thought I would be unable to blog. But, thankfully, I remembered about scheduling in Blogger, and was able to pre-write a few posts, to avoid disappearing for too long without a word.

Also, Google has recently rolled out their Knol: A Unit of Knowledge. I posted about Knol a year ago on the Russian blog, and I know a few readers there were interested in the financial opportunities of Knol (because, yes, you are going to be able to earn some money, provided you consent to the advertisement in your article). Back in 2007, Knol looked like an onslaught on Wikipedia. Indeed, all Knol articles have to be written under your real name, which is a welcome departure from a collectively (and not always well) edited people’s encyclopaedia. Having said so, one look at the Knol’s current home page makes you wonder if the whole feature may become an ex catedra space for medical professionals. Not that I don’t want to seek and find medical advice online… Thankfully, there are some reassuring Knols, e.g. Music in Capoeira by Johan Mengesha.

Yet the fact that Google allows advertising on Knols makes a prospective onslaught on Squidoo more plausible. You can use your Squidoo lenses to earn money for yourself or a charitable cause close to your heart, but now you can also do that through Google.

In short, in addition to diverse and sundry things from the past you can now use Google to: 1) pre-write and schedule your posts for future publishing; 2) write an authoritative article and earn money with it. I’m not sure how far Google has gone with Comments on the News feature they reported on planning to have back in August 2007, but surely there will be more Google-y things to come, anyway. May I suggest a personalised forecast for prospective leg-breakers, please?

Free One-Year Subscription to the Encyclopaedia Britannica

Earlier this week I read on TechCrunch‘s article about the Encyclopaedia Britannica giving out free one-year subscriptions to web publishers. Michael Arrington writes,

“As an outsider, Britannica’s future is clear. Eventually, and if they don’t go out of business first, they’ll be forced to make all their content freely available on the Internet, and will probably create a wiki-like format that allows user editing. Their differentiating factor from Wikipedia will be that they have experts guiding articles, so they’ll have a claim to be more authoritative.”

This is certainly a valid point, although I still remember the time when the full edition of the Encyclopaedia landed on the shelves in one of Moscow’s major bookstores. I have used the encyclopaedias when I was a student: it was just great to dive into Britannica or Larousse to gain more information or to obtain a different perspective on a subject. Later on, when it came to researching professionally, I’d use the Dictionary of National Biography much more often. As often on such occasions, the habit of taking a dictionary off the shelf dates back to my childhood. We had a thick Large Encyclopaedic Dictionary at home, and as I was growing up and beginning to ask difficult questions, my grandmother would often take the dictionary off the shelf and read it with me.

So, I jumped at the opportunity to apply for a free one-year subscription, and I’m delighted to let you know that I was successful. I took the image of the page to show what you find inside, once you’ve completed the subscription process. On the right, your options are: Featured Video, Britannica Blog, Advocacy for Animals, Geography & Travel, Science & Technology, History & Society, Arts & Entertainment. I opened the History & Society page, and the featured article is on Scottish Enlightenment (do I need to tell you that I want to read it now?). Below are several further options, which include Photo Quiz, Born This Day, Quote of the Day, Featured Contributor, etc.

Furthermore, as an email from J. C. Miller explained,

“On that last note, let me point out that you can make any Britannica article available to your readers simply by linking to it from your site. That’s right. Even though portions of the site normally require a subscription to access them, there’s an exception: when a Web site links to a Britannica article, Web surfers who click on that link get that article in its entirety. You can link to as many articles as you like, as often as you like.”

And so, speaking of Born This Day feature… I’d have forgotten about Al Pacino birthday, had it not been for the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Evidently, there are more benefits of being a Britannica subscriber than one would’ve thought, and if you click the link in his name above, you should be able to view the full article on Britannica‘s website. I won’t list all Al Pacino’s films I’ve seen: he’s one of my favourite actors, and naturally I’ve seen more than just one film starring him (by the look at what Wikipedia lists as his “main” works, I’ve almost done my “Essential Al Pacino”). I haven’t seen Angels in America, which is why I’m using a 2004 Golden Globes image of the series team: there you can see not only Al Pacino, but the wonderful Meryl Streep, as well. It gets better though: Al Pacino is currently filming Dali & I: The Surreal Story. And he plays Dali. And opposite him is the Irish prodigy, Cillian Murphy. The film is due to be released in 2009.

My sincere greetings go to Al Pacino and the no less sincere gratitude – to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Wonderful days, my friends. If any of you wishes to use the generosity of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, please read their blog post about it and follow the instructions.

Smell-o-Phones and the Study of a Scent

I read “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” by Patrick Suskind twice, although I still haven’t seen the film. The opinions of some people whom I trust did play a certain role in delaying my watching it. However, upon recently reading an article in The New York Times I feel Tom Tykwer might have been a tad early in making the film. Then, of course, so were the generations of film directors.

“When Roses Won’t Do, E-Mail a Fragrance” is an article introducing the latest Japanese invention – a kind of “smell-o-phone”. As the authors explain,

“users will be able to select and send certain fragrance recipes to an in-home unit that is responsible for concocting and releasing the various fragrances. Each holds 16 cartridges of base fragrances or essences that are mixed to produce the various scents in a similar way that a printer mixes inks to produce other colors.”

This is the point where I don’t know if art imitates technology, or technology imitates art, as I read further:

“The first step is to choose a scent from the multitude of fragrance recipes available through an I-mode site on a cell phone. Once chosen the instructions on how to make the scent are then transmitted to the fragrance device through infrared from the phone, and from there the scent is quickly mixed and emitted.
If distance is an issue, the other option is to send the instructions to the device via an e-mail message. The message is intercepted by a home gateway unit that is latched to the home’s broadband connection and sends the instructions to the fragrance device at home. Using this method users can set the time and date of fragrance emission, so one can come home to the relaxing scent of lavender, for example.
There’s even room for creating customized scents, which can be shared with other users through the fragrance “playlist” on the Web site.
The technology is not only limited to creating a pleasant-smelling workplace or home. NTT also sees it as a way to enhance multimedia content. For example, instead of just sending an image of a bouquet of roses to a friend, one can boost the experience by sending the fragrance as well.”

In conclusion, “NTT Communications believes that fragrance is the next important medium for telecommunications, as more value is placed on high sensory information.”

As I was reading the article, I’ve been thinking of using telecommunications for viral perfume marketing. I think Jean-Paul Gaultier could use the idea very creatively: he could team up with a mobile phone manufacturer, to produce mobiles in the form of his famous perfume bottles (see image) and to have them emit the precious scents.

And next, of course, we’d be in for the new spin in film remakes. And that’s where “Perfume” enters the picture. The very first pages of the novel (sorry, I’ve got no English edition at hand to quote directly) paint us the portrait of Paris we’d rather ignore. We’re used to think of Paris as the capital of fashion, emitting fabulous aromas and scents. In the 18th c., however, the city was far from smelling nicely. Unwholesome vapours filled the streets and houses, and if you actually imagine the repertory of smells as you read through it, you’d be repulsed. Looking at the critique of the novel, it may be that this smelly Paris gets well past the noses of the readers. If, however, the Japanese venture gets to be used in multimedia and film, the remake of “Perfume” may set us on the right track to reading the novel. At any rate, making films smell will for once change our romantic outlook on many a historical epoch, which in turn will open an altogether new subject in both disciplines of History and Film: The Scent Studies.

Image credits: Glamour Magazine.

The Threepenny Opera, Mina, and Facebook


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Originally uploaded by robinhamman

This entire post very closely relates to the phenomenon of social media. Thanks to a good Italian friend of mine, last year I’ve discovered many names that made the history of Italian music in the 20th c. One such performer is the incomparable Mina Mazzini, whose fan I instantly became (probably to some regret on the part of my friend who adores Mia Martini). When I came across this picture of Robin Hamman’s Flickr photostream, it instantly made me remember of the famous song “Mack the Knife” performed by Mina in the clip below. But when I turned to find some information about the song, it turned out that the almighty Wiki doesn’t list this 1974 performance. I mention the phenomenon of social media because of the whole net of connections one can establish while surfing the web and remembering things they’ve seen before.

The song in question is a classic number composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper). Premiered in Berlin in 1928, the song has started a long and winding story of its numerous adaptations. The lines I particularly remembered in the case with Robin’s picture were “Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear/ And he keeps them pearly white”. What is interesting is that in Russia in the 1990’s there was a TV show called “The Pen Sharks”: it had a pool of journos and broadcasters throwing questions at the celebrities, mainly singers and mainly Russian, although I remember them “showing teeth” at Pet Shop Boys.

To round up this post, I’ll tell you a true story that happened when I was a student in Moscow. I had two tickets to the theatre, and I invited one of my best friends, another girl, to come with me. The tickets indicated that we’d be sitting in the first row, which was fantastic. On the day we came to the theatre (where none of us had been previously) and found out that the chairs in the first row were taken away. We asked for assistance, and it then turned out that I brought myself and my friend to the theatre a day earlier!!! I’ve only recently remembered about this experience, which was as embarrassing as it was hilarious, but this time I thought: what would have happened, had I was, in fact, a guy who took his date out for a theatre play? Would my romance be over because instead of the first row we’d ended up sitting in, like, twenty-first row? What is interesting, though – and which is the reason I’m telling you about this – is that we ended up watching The Threepenny Opera.

BBC Manchester Guest Blogger

There are certain things you don’t realise until some significant time later. I never realised – until just now – that the BBC Manchester Blog was only one (!) day older than my blog. On 23rd August 2006 Robin Hamman and Richard Fair addressed the prospective readers on the subject of taking part in the BBC Manchester Blog project. On 24th August 2006 I’ve opened Los Cuadernos.

In a year and a half both blogs have evolved significantly, but now I’ll only speak of the BBC Manchester Blog. Robin and Richard have been working on it most of the time, creating some fascinating content, and having Kate Feld as a contributor. There were a few bloggers’ meeting-cum-workshops, coverage of blogging tips and topics, blogs, and Manchester events (I decided to highlight the Manchester International Festival, a great example of how a blog can be used to cover a series of events). At the turn of the year the Blog has introduced a new feature – The Guest Blogger. The idea is to invite a blogger (or someone who’s avid to try their hand at writing for the web) to contribute an article. So far Paul from IckleWeb narrated an illustrated story of the Rochdale Canal; Geoff from 40three pondered on the obscure attraction of blogging; and Rose Kennedy has shared some impressions of leaving the UK for Romania, to be with her family.

In his post Hairballs and Blogging Richard goes in more depth about this feature, so if you want to participate just follow the above link to the BBC Manchester Blog. It is fairly obvious that there will be some preference to local content or to your observations on blogging, but this should by no means limit the scope of your ideas. If you are following the BBC Manchester Blog, then you certainly know about the variety of topics it has covered. One particular idea that has just sprung to my mind is this one: if you’re an avid Facebook user who’s tried to organise a group or to take part in an event via this super-social network, or if you have extensively used/misused/abused/disused (whatever applies) Facebook applications or other types of social media, then why not suggest to share your observations with all who read the BBC Manchester Blog? A post on a similar subject – “Is It OK to Blog While Off Sick?” – has already appeared in the past.

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