I'll be your accident if you will be my ambulance

Real Democracy Now

2011-05-22T06:41:00.000-07:00

During the last week protesters have occupied many of the central squares all over Spain in order to ask for a re foundation of Democracy and against the situations and attitudes which led to the financial crisis. The concentrations have popped up during the political campaign for local and regional elections in most of the country. Unemployment is over 20% in Spain, raising to 43% among youth, and politicians are seen as one of the main problems in the last national surveys.

The main protest takes place in Plaza del Sol, the main square in Madrid, where the Km zero is set for all the Spanish roads. The following are two videos and a photo gallery summarizing what happens in Sol.

If you want to know more, the main twitter hashtags are:
#acampadasol #acampadabcn (same protests in Barcelona) #nonosvamos #democraciarealya #yeswecamp

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Fixing other people's mistakes

2011-02-09T04:34:00.000-08:00

By Cyroul

[Source Pierre Tran]

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Enhanced State of the Union

2011-01-26T06:30:00.000-08:00

Next year, maybe twitter and a live poll regarding the main issues.

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The Story of Beer

2010-12-28T01:45:00.000-08:00

[Via The World's Biggests]

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The World Map of Facebook Connections

2010-12-14T23:45:00.000-08:00

[Via BBC]

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Wordpress in data

2010-12-08T19:58:00.000-08:00

The Power of WordPress by Tech King

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Conditional Cash Transfers

2010-12-06T19:46:00.000-08:00

Presentation of my paper on Conditional Cash Transfers for my Emerging Markets Class at the MCDM

Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) on Prezi

Bedbugs Infestation

2010-12-03T09:55:00.000-08:00

[Via NJ.com]

Waiting for the Interurban

2010-11-30T22:28:00.000-08:00

Here's the story of the sculpture

Here is another link to the complete photo set.

Waiting for the Interurban is located in Fremont, Seattle.

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Personal Finance on Napkins

2010-11-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

Compilation of the series created by Carl Richards for his Bucks Blog in the NYT. Clic on the image in order to go to the interactive feature.

[Via NYT]

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T00:19:00.000-08:00

For more Gas Station messages, check this Flickr set.

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African Undersea Cables for 2012

2010-11-23T17:28:00.000-08:00

[Via Many Possibilities]

The Story of Social Media Bookmarking

2010-11-20T20:39:00.000-08:00

[Via Screensumer]

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Visualizing Scientific Evidence for Health Supplements

2010-11-14T20:51:00.000-08:00

[Via Information is Beautiful + TED Talk by David McCandless]

High School Movies, a Timeline (1973-2007)

2010-11-12T12:53:00.000-08:00

[Via: OnlineMBARankings.com]

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Facebook Splits: Spring Break & Christmas Season

2010-11-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

Nice graphic showing at which dates Facebook users announce that they have break their relationships in the social media service.

[Via Mathias Mikkelsen]

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Incepcion timeline

2010-10-31T19:11:00.000-07:00

[Via *dehahs- Devianart]

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Global Telephone Traffic Map

2010-10-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

[Via Tele Geography]

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Gen Y and online shopping

2010-10-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

[Via The Wall]

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A Map Made of Adresses

2010-10-25T13:13:00.000-07:00

Wonderful project by Axis Maps where typography serves not only as content but also as continent. They have realized maps of Boston and Chicago with this technique.

How to Have an Idea

2010-10-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

[Via Frank Chimero]

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How the Internet will be in 2020

2010-10-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

[Via Intac.net]

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How To Handle Irate Customers

2010-10-22T13:16:00.000-07:00

[Via:CRM Spec Ops: How To Handle Irate Customers]

Public Spending in the UK: 1948-2010

2010-10-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

[Via The Guardian]

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You can Make Department Cuts to the UK Budget

2010-10-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

[Via The Guardian]

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The Rise of the Android

2010-10-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

[Via Gigaom]

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Web Designers in data

2010-10-18T23:02:00.000-07:00

[Via TechKing]

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The Trustworthiness Of Beards

2010-10-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

[Via Buzzfeed/Reddit]

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What happens when you swipe your credit card

2010-10-13T16:33:00.000-07:00

[Via Fee Fighters]

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Social Media Villains and How to Get Rid of Them

2010-10-12T12:54:00.000-07:00

[Via Pierre Tran]

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The true size of Africa

2010-10-11T15:01:00.000-07:00

click on the image for a longer version

By Kai Krause

[Via geekosystem]

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WordPress history, the jazzy rise

2010-10-07T07:32:00.000-07:00

[Via Bloggingpro]

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Facebook profiles

2010-10-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

[Via Fast Company]

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Does Technology make us more productive?

2010-10-03T20:19:00.000-07:00

[Via GOOD]

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The Darwinian Evolution of Windows

2010-10-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

Infographic: The Darwinian Evolution of Windows by Tech King

Thanks Andy for the tip

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How to farm mussels

2010-09-29T09:22:00.000-07:00

Here it is one of the gorgeous travelogue drawings made by the Infographic team at Spanish newspaper Público during the last summer. The idea was to create graphics using old moleskines and any kind of material, coming up with some kind of purely analog illustration. Público's head of infographics is Álvaro Valiño. This graphic was created by Artur Galocha.

If you want to check all the travelogues, clic here.

Medical career salaries and educational costs

2010-09-10T04:47:00.000-07:00

[Via eLearners.com]

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My new portfolio

2010-09-09T13:22:00.000-07:00

Xurxomartinez.com, my professional web and portfolio.

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Colors and purchases

2010-09-06T23:55:00.000-07:00

[Via Kissmetrics]

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Internet memes—Infography—

2010-08-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

Via: Online University

[Via Zee]

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FACT mixes

2010-08-29T23:04:00.000-07:00

Probably the FACT magazine Mixes are the best and more solid of the many music mix series out there—check this Day&Night post for a good selection—. And one pretty eclectic too: from Indie heroes—The XX—, to reputed DJs—Ben Klock—, remixers—Ewan Pearson—, or electronic music producers—Autechre, Robert Hood—.

The good thing is that each week there is a couple of new mixes to discover. The not so good thing is that download is only possible during three weeks. Again, the good thing is that there is a complete archive in Mixcloud, so the music is available online.

Two of my favorites are the ones by King Midas Sound and Fantastic Mr. Fox, but there is a lot of music to explore.

Fact Mix 161: Fantastic Mr. Fox by Fact Mix Archive on Mixcloud

Fact Mix 103: King Midas Sound by Fact Mix Archive on Mixcloud

Tomi Lebrero & Vincent Moon

2010-08-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

This is one of the Videos Vincent Moon showed yesterday at one video workshop in Seattle. Shoot in Buenos Aires February 2010, it portrays Tomi Lebrero. Is just one take and incredibly beautiful. Moon himself said that it was one of his finest works.

Take Away Show #104 _ TOMI LEBRERO from vincent moon / temporary areas on Vimeo.

What big companies told Behavioral Advertisers about you

2010-08-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

I agree with Jeff Jarvis when he says that web cookies have been there for more than fifteen years, and that the advertiser have always knew things about us that we never told them. In fact that's part of the bargain: we get web content for free because we are being targeted with commercial intentions. But that doesn't make the following infographic by the Wall Street Journal less scary. It tracks the main 50 websites in the US and explains how many cookies do they install in your browser when you visit their site and who do they sell your information.

Can we date?

2010-08-18T23:19:00.000-07:00

Good article and great infography [text by Erik Bryan, graphic by Jennifer Daniel] in The Morning News.

[Vía Euge]

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What Is Behavioral Targeting?

2010-08-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

Presentation for my U.S. Digital Media Law and Policy class. MCDM - UW. Summer 2010.

Behavioral Targeting on Prezi

Great HTML5 game

2010-08-13T18:59:00.001-07:00

[Via Monocubed]

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Prezi: You will swoon as I zoom

2010-08-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

Forget about slides. In today’s hyperlink world, a classic presentation feels like being inside of a corridor without the option to enter any of the side doors.
If you’re still stuck on PowerPoint presentations, it may be time to try out more dynamic alternatives, like Prezi, which has the financial and advisory back of TED and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

TechCrunch contributor Robin Wauters called Prezi "the coolest online presentation tool I've ever seen." And Garr Reynolds, who coined the phrase ‘Presentation Zen,’ earlier this year declared Prezi a presentation tool more suitable for the digital natives than its competitors.
That’s a lot of praise for Prezi. So, let’s see what it’s all about.

Elevator pitch
Prezi is a flash-based nonlinear storytelling tool for creating dynamic multimedia presentations. The end result is not a set of slides, but a canvas where the user can zoom in and out, discovering contextual relationships.

Prezi’s strengths
As Prezi's Community Manager, Zoltan Randai, explains, “slideshows haven't really changed since the late 1950-s, when the first acetate slide projector hit the market, while Prezi matches the way we consume information on the internet.”

Prezi is more customizable and agile than Power Point or Keynote, and offers the ability to integrate video, .pdf documents and vector images.

Because it’s an online service, Prezi is not only a creation tool, but also a distribution platform. This is fostered by the fact that many “prezis” are created as public objects that anyone can see, embed, and even copy and modify.

To keep the final product private, you need to sign up for a paid plan, but since January students and teachers can get the basic paid plan (“Enjoy”) for free. This has helped boost traffic to their site.

In addition to educational purposes, Prezi can also be a powerful tool for businesses.

“Prezi allows the audience to get your points immediately, while they have a clear picture about relations, arguments, and the tiny details. Many customers use Prezi not only for business presentations, but also for project planning, market research and analysis. They use it as a media wall in their offices or on the smart board at meetings. But the most interesting way of using the tool is collaborating in workgroups,” says Randai.

As storytelling starts to be more important in all complex organizations—from
schools to companies—Prezi seems to be in a great position to become a basic tool for internal communication, and even as a journalism tool for multimedia pieces.

Some examples
The best way to learn what you can do with Prezi is to take a look at what others have done:

How to make business presentations
Sweet recipe to solving problems (a good example of Prezi’s animation capabilities)
Playing to Learn? (an example of an educational prezi)
MySpace LeWeb Keynote (by MySpace Mike Jones)

For more examples of public prezis, visit http://prezi.com/showcase/

This article was originally written for the class Digital Media Economics and Management. MCDM, Spring 2010.

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Distorted Xx

2010-07-05T21:50:00.000-07:00

Artopia 2010

2010-06-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

Another neighborhood party/festival in Seattle. This time is the Artopia 2010 at Georgetown. the town was built next to the Rainier Brewery, which was one of the biggest in the world. In 1910 the town was annexed to Seattle. Artopia is organized by the artist community in the neighborhood.
Click here to se more photos and videos.

Fremont Solstice Parade

2010-06-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

These are photos and videos from the Fremont Solstice Parade, in Seattle. Part of the 2010 Fremont Fair this is a popular—in the best sense of the word—party where everybody is invited. To see more videos and photos, click on the image above.

WSB: Old Business for New Times

2010-06-19T18:51:00.000-07:00

WSB: Old Business for New Times from seretuaccidente on Vimeo.

Tracy and her husband Patrick are the publishers of the West Seattle Blog, one of the hyperlocal weblogs that have proved it is possible to make a living from community journalism in a neighborhood or small town. She has been identified as one of the communicators who is finding ways of making sense of news as a business by people like the Poynter Institute — she is part of their Sense-Making Project — and the News Innovation program at CUNY.The economic crisis and the change in the way we share information have accelerated a situation that most of the media has refused to accept: the end of big editorial structures and advertising as a huge source of revenue for journalism.

While most of the industry is waiting for a revolutionary shift to a completely new business model for what we call journalism — or maybe we should just call it “telling stories that matter” — people like Tracy Record are succeeding in being revolutionary by using common sense and a small structure to apply their “old journalism” knowledge to the new online world.

In this video interview, Tracy explains the journey that took the West Seattle Blog from a hobby to a full-time job that provides the sole source of income for her family. She also talks about the roots of the Legacy Media crisis, why online ventures are still not profitable for big journalism outlets, and the key to her success.

Finally, a tip from Tracy to those who may be thinking of creating a media site for their neighborhood or small town: “Know how your neighborhood works, and make sure that your audience is really underserved.”

(originally posted in Flip the Media)

Life Without Buildings: The Leanover

2010-05-16T23:30:00.000-07:00

The best song from the best group you didn't knew about—and that doesn't exist anymore—

Northern voice conference

2010-05-11T15:47:00.001-07:00

My summary of what happened during the 2010 Northern Voice conferences in Vancouver, B.C.

Northern Voice 2010 on Prezi

Eugene Cho at TEDxSEA

2010-04-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

The most engaging talk in the Seattle TEDx event. Eugene is the founder of the NGO One Day Wages.
- You can check other Eugene Cho's videos in Vimeo here
- More videos from TEDx Seattle

A special report on innovation in emerging markets: First break all the rules | The Economist

2010-04-25T10:18:00.001-07:00

via economist.com

Posted via web from seretuaccidente's posterous

Easter eggs: the video

2010-04-05T23:52:00.000-07:00

Easter eggs from seretuaccidente on Vimeo.

Easter eggs

2010-04-05T00:29:00.000-07:00

Spring break

2010-04-01T12:45:00.000-07:00

Photos from my trip to L.A. and San Francisco

Holy Week, by The Big Picture

2010-03-31T10:43:00.000-07:00

Awesome selection by Boston.com, as usual.

Evolution and Trends in Digital Media Technologies

2010-03-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

The presentation of my paper on Sports TV Broadcasting for the Evolution and Trends in Digital Media Technologies class. I include after it another three presentations from class that I really enjoyed.

Sports Tv Broadcasting

View more presentations from Xurxo Martínez.

LI XIANG

Fashion diffusion and the role of media

View more presentations from jekyllisa.

DEAN HUDSON

Com546 Final Pres

View more presentations from deanhudson.

ERIKA TAKEUCHI

From snapshots to social commodities: The rise of the shutterbug

View more presentations from silknsavvy.

All the projects and presentations can be reached here.

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Honor & Tradition

2010-03-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

Honor & Tradition from seretuaccidente on Vimeo.

An exploration of the Western Martial Arts in the words of instructors and participants in the 4W Workshop, organized by Academia della Spada in Seattle.

Camera, Stephen Brashear
Editing, Xurxo Martínez

There is another version with a music montage at the end.

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Say it loud

2010-03-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

Gary's Forecasting stone

2010-03-10T20:46:00.000-08:00

I love it.

Photo by Gareth Harper.

Vía Sam's The Evolution of Machine Translation presentation.

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1, 2, 3

2010-03-07T15:04:00.001-08:00

Take Away Shows Wordle

2010-03-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

For the lazy people, a Wordle version of my paper on the Take Away Shows(more than 9,000 words, none of them bad).

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Take Away Shows: music streams

2010-03-01T19:52:00.001-08:00

Here's my paper on Les Concerts à Emporter / Take Away Shows and La Blogotheque.
Take Away Shows

Visualizing World Aid to Haiti

2010-01-28T11:58:00.000-08:00

Data by The Guardian. Uploaded by rpnabar

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A day in Seattle

2010-01-11T15:10:00.000-08:00

Slideshow for my Storytelling class. The assignment consisted on a "I am" digital story in which we used about 10 photos, background music and audio narration. The music is a loop from an Atlas Sound song, 'Marietta', published in a non-commercial EP—Things I'll Miss— that can be download here.

The best parental control ever

2010-01-08T11:22:00.001-08:00

via worktobejudged.com

In Tera Brasil

Posted via web from seretuaccidente's posterous

Best videos of 2009

2009-12-31T07:31:00.000-08:00

Best music of 2009

2009-12-23T05:06:00.000-08:00

10 Best records of 2009 _in numerical order_
1. Merriweather Post Pavilion, by Animal Collective
2. Zii e Zie, by Caetano Veloso
3. XX, by XX
4. Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, by Bill Callahan
5. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, by Phoenix
6. Fever Ray, by Fever Ray
7. Let's Change the World With Music, by Prefab Sprout
8. How to Get to Heaven from Scotland, by Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs
9. Jewellery, by Micachu and the Shapes
10. Inspiration Information 3, by Mulatu Astatke & Heliocentrics

Hear the list in Spotify (except Bill Callahan)

Another 28 great records of 2009 _alphabetical order_
Album, by Girls
Beacons of Ancestorship, by Tortoise
Beat Conducta 5-6, by Madlib
BiRd-BrAiNs, by tUnE-yArDs
Bitte Orca, by Dirty Projectors
Bromst, by Dan Deacon
Dark Was the Night, VV.AA. (curated by The National)
Embryonic, by The Flaming Lips
Farm, by Dinosaur Jr.
Five Years of Hyperdub, VV.AA.
Hold Time, by M. Ward
Logos, by Atlas Sound
Manners, by Passion Pit
Noble Beast, by Andrew Bird
Popular songs, by Yo La Tengo
Primary Colours, by The Horrors
One, by Ben Klock
Rockwell, by Anni Rossi
The Ecstatic, by Mos Def
The Eternal, by Sonic Youth
The Good Feeling Music, by Dent May
The Love Language, by The Love Language
To Be Still, by Alela Diane
Together Through Life, by Bob Dylan
Veckatimest, by Grizzly Bear
Watersports, by Mi Ami
Wavves, by Wavves
Wilco (the Album), by Wilco

Hear the list in Spotify (except Tortoise, Hyperdub, Ben Klock, Alela Diane, Bob Dylan, Grizzly Bear and Mi Ami)

14 songs of 2009 _alphabetical order_
1901, by Phoenix
Hibari, by Ryuichi Sakamoto (video)
House of Diamonds, by Bowerbirds
Islands, by Xx
Lalita, by The Love Language
Lisztomania, by Phoenix
My Girls, by Animal Collective
Osaka Loop Line, by Discovery
Rum Hee (Deerhoof Remix), by Shugo Tokumaru (In Fairtilizer)
Sasong, by Avery Tare & Kría Brekkan (In YouTube)
Stillness Is The Move, by Dirty Projectors
The Reeling, by Passion Pit
Velvet, by The Big Pink
Woof Woof, by Dan Deacon

Hear the list in Spotify (except noted)

Fourteen beautiful Spanish records from 2009 _alphabetical order_
1971, by Elle Belga
A Nadie, by Javier Corcobado
And it Matters to me to see you Smiling, by bRUNA
Chill Out, by Joe Crepúsculo
Chorando Apréndese, by Emilio José
Desayuno Continental, by Extraperlo
En la Cama con Antonna, by Antonna
El Perro Es Mío, by Francisco Nixon
El Primero Era Mejor, by Manos de Topo
La Educación, by Abraham Boba
La Mejor Hora para Despertarse, by La Banda Municipal del Polo Norte
Larga Duración, by Lagartija Nick
Macumba o muerte, by Za!
Otra nube, by Javier Colís y las Malas Lenguas
Romancero, by La Bien Querida

Hear the list in Spotify (except Joe Crepúsculo, Antonna, Manos de Topo, Javier Colís and La Bien Querida)

Best Generic Music Blog: Bolachas

Best Genre Music Blog: 300 Discos importantes da Música Brasileira

Best Concert a Emporter Kazuki Tomokawa part 2

Kazuki Tomokawa - A Take Away Show #98 - Part II from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Mom & Apple Pie

2009-12-15T10:32:00.000-08:00

Mom & Apple Pie from seretuaccidente on Vimeo.

A documentary on sounds, textures, and sugar.

In front of the camera: Kate McDermott
Behind the camera: Xurxo Martínez

This is my final work for my Web Strategies for Storytelling class. Master of Communication in Digital Media, University of Washington. Fall 2009.

Visit Art of the Pie at http://www.artofthepie.com/

Camera: Canon HDVCAM HV30
Sound: Rode Microphone NTG-2
Edited with Sony Vegas

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Small revolution in Spain

2009-12-03T18:05:00.000-08:00

The story goes like this:

a) Spain is one of the countries with higher levels of piracy of copyrighted content (link).
b) Spanish Culture minister, Ángeles González-Sinde, is an screenwriter that has a very tight relation with Spanish blogosphere and twittersphere.
c) This week her Ministry introduced a polemic paragraph in a big law project on Sustainable Economy (focused on recovering from the Economic Crisis). The paragraph said that the government could close websites or blogs that infringes intellectual property without any judicial control (link).
d) Bloggers, journalists and users created a Manifesto in Defense of Fundamental Rights in the Internet (link).
e) Legal analyse of the Law propose by lawyer David Bravo (link).
f) After a talking with some of the responsibles of the Manifesto, González-Sinde just says that it was a very interesting meeting. Hours after, Spanish President, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, had to step back and explain that no one in the government will close any webpage and that changes may be made in the law proposal (link).
g) Members of PSOE (party in power in Spain) complained because González-Sinde didn't make clear what consequences the paragraph could have.
h) Spanish newspaper Publico opens friday edition with the image of the keyboards ctrl+z (Zapatero's nickname/brand is ZP) (link).

Today in the news, tomorrow in a Clay Shirky book.

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Adam Sandler Thanksgiving Song

2009-11-26T22:34:00.000-08:00

From Saturday Night Live.

A link for those outside USA (and who can't see Hulu)

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Give out the short story, sell the novel

2009-11-16T12:10:00.000-08:00

iTunes made it possible to sell small music elements (songs) without needing to buy the whole work -the record-. And it made sense, not only because many people used to buy a CD just because of one or two songs, but because the psychology of the price (hey, is just $,99) and because one song is easily consumed on its own.

Can the same be applied to single articles, tales, a short video and any kind of single multimedia piece? Or the 'small stuff' is condemned to be free int he internet? Bill Wasik, Senior Editor of Harper's Magazine, bets for the latter.

Is easy to see a chapter sample, a small video related to a bigger one or a short comic strip as the -free- hook for a future sell. I also understand that give away excerpts or examples is the better way to promote you as an artist or a content producer.

But does it mean that selling small pieces in the internet will be a mission impossible? I think so. At least if we think about isolated objects that can be consumed in less than 10 minutes. Compilations will be the only way for short pieces to get to the market.

So, why someone will pay $,99 for a song and not the same for a videoclip or $,1 for a newspaper article? Because the users are used to pay $,99 for a good quality mp3, but always have seen videos or read articles for free. The only way this habit could be changed is with such a great user experience that would become a value in itself.

When Wasik talks about the non profit business model for newspapers I guess that he's also thinking about this: how difficult is to make the users pay for what always was for free.

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US Airways Flight 1549 3D Reconstruction

2009-11-13T23:00:00.000-08:00

Kas Osterbuhr, an engineer at K3 Resources who specializes in the visual presentation of complex data, goes one step further while showing how the the US Airways Flight 1549 crashed over the Hudson River. It reconstructs the flight using vast amounts of material, including radar information showing the position of the geese that led to the Airbus A320 losing power. The result is an incredible series of videos. This was the main one. Here are all of them.

The whole story, in Wired.

[Via Xocas]

Hulu's doubts may be others' chances

2009-11-09T10:52:00.000-08:00

I love to see 30 Rock in Hulu. In fact is the only way I can do it, as I'm in my wonderful Web Strategies for Storytelling class when it's aired. The video and audio quality is good, the ads are few and not too horrible -great moment to check the mail- and if you want more you can access to any other episode in just two clicks. It works for me, and I don't really care if it works for Hulu's owners.

So I fully understand Quincy Smith's and Laura Martin's points: Why did they (Disney, GE and NewsCorp) decided to do it so well and so easy if they were not sure about how to make money of it?

Now it would be pretty hard to tell the users "hey, we've changed our minds and a) we're not going to put as much content online or b) we are going to charge you for what now is free". You need to be very careful with that kind of moves.

The strength of Hulu comes from the fact that some of the biggest players had agreed to act together. That way they get more than decent prices for the ads -$50 CPM is just amazing. The basic CPM for regular banners in a web site without special campaigns is just $1- and an offer big enough for the users to stay hours in the site. Others like Turner's Adult Swim or CBS' Social Room are too small or more experimental, and have less reach than Hulu.

All that said, if Hulu decides to charge for the films and episodes, not only would be the time for other smaller and free players to get new users, but also the time for more open and social-media like options. I'm thinking about Boxee, an open software media center that aggregates the most interesting free video content online and that even enables Torrent downloads from all kind of platforms. This application has been awarded at the CES as Best product in the 'Maximum tech' category and will turn from alpha to beta in a month. The more good quality video content that applications as Boxee are able to offer the less impressive and essential Hulu would look like.

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Hiking in the snow

2009-11-07T23:17:00.001-08:00

Mount Rainier FIUTS hiking evening from seretuaccidente on Vimeo.

Good storytelling makes the audience fill in the blanks

2009-11-02T10:48:00.000-08:00

Both oral and writing storytelling have a quality that has really worked for them: part of the story always happen/is produced in the imagination of the audience. You can make a very detailed description of a dress or the view from a window, but each one pictures something different in their mind. The person who is reading or listening usually adds not only sensory aspects to the narration, but also personal memories to the narration. So she or he is never passive, always interacts in any way with the story itself.

For visual representational media things can be different, as some times the storytelling tries to give all the information to the audience. I'm thinking about video content, which usually drives the audience through all the details of the story, making the spectator passive. But a photo, drawing or painting can also tell a whole story by itself. Those cases usually ask for a talented storyteller and an audience ready to fill in the blanks.

What about web storytelling?
The Internet makes it possible to combine different formats in the same piece. This comes to be not only an advantage, but also a danger, as we can confuse the viewers with format changes or fall into aesthetic temptations.

A good web narrative should do two things: provide space for the reader to 'fill' some information and engage the user asking for his or her interaction at some points.

The web storyteller need to be sure that each part of the story is told using the format that makes more sense from the own story point of view.

For me a perfect marriage for web storytelling could come from the mix of video and flash infographics, where the infography in itself is the container and video provides framed stories inside the whole story.

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An astronaut, e-postman or maybe online communicator

2009-10-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

This post is about where do I see myself in the near future. A kind of What do you want to do when you grow up? where grow up means 'after leaving the Master of Communication in Digital Media'.

Want to start saying that for me the best plan is always Plan B. When I research one city before going on holiday is just to feel that I will have things to do in case I don't feel safe or confident enough to improvise, which is my first option. And I feel this post is something similar: I guess I still don't know what will be the perfect place for me, maybe it doesn't even exist, but will try to picture myself in the future with what I know now.

My background is online information, ranging from regular writing to product management. And my reasons to be in this Master are to learn a different information culture, see from the inside what's going on in the USA and, more specifically, learn new ways to tell stories and to provide information.

So I want to be...
In the next years I see myself trying to create new storytelling formats for the Internet and figuring out which way the users want the information to be delivered in an overcrowded and multi source world. I feel that we need to come out with some 100% internet journalistic genre, other than links and tweets.

If I have to think about just one position that already exists and I would love to have it would be at The New York Times Research and Development Lab. This is a place where they try to display the NYT content in ways that could be more convenient for mobile devices or could break the notion that an online newspaper is "just the same" in another platform. They also try to create formats that doesn't need to resemble a printed media and would be internet native.

And if I find a different way to tell stories and communicate I will be happy. Don't need to make money for this or to become famous. For me Internet is a place where people gets and gives things from and for others, and I'd love to make my contribution something else than posts, comments and photos.

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The history of internet

2009-10-24T23:18:00.001-07:00

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

This is a german animated documentary explaining the inventions from time-sharing to filesharing, from Arpanet to Internet.

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NYT video section: doing as always but in a different way

2009-10-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

The New York Times was one of the very first print newspapers in producing specific video content for the web version. In 2005 they started to create their own videos, ranging from breaking news to in depth reports. Most of the content were created by NYT staff, including interviews conducted by some of their better known journalists.

My feeling as an user is that they've always tried to meet the quality and excellence of their written stuff. Although it took some time to adapt their style to an audience used to shorter pieces than the ones they use to deliver at first, now their archive (http://video.nytimes.com/) is really a video world in itself. A place for both the casual user and the one that thinks that looking for something interesting at Youtube is a loss of time.

Text and video are complementary
The company has made a great work trying to make video and text sites compatible and complementary. Just to put an example, anyone interested in business information sure will have time to spend at their video section, that offers both interviews, analysis and help discovering innovator ideas.

Two of the most popular columnists of the printed version, David Pogue and Mark Bittman, have their own spaces in the video site, where they show (each on in his own style) that an information video doesn't need to be a simple visual translation of a text and create formats that are not just well fitted for the internet, but make their videos perfect for watching with a mobile device as a video podcasts.

Since 2007 The New York Times is one of Brightcove's investors and uses their software to manage most part of their site.

For the last two years, the video section of The New York Times has also tried to create or use formats that would set apart, both from the content and the formal points of view. That way they came out with Blogginheads (a deal with http://bloggingheads.tv/ in order to showcase all kind of debates), or the Screen Tests, where popular actors talk in a minimal and intimate way.

Finally I guess that creating content in a similar way that a magazine does (entertaining, somewhat timeless, not mandatory tight to the breaking news) they have create a pure internet experience, where any of the videos can be considered a piece in its own or just a part of something else.

Tasting Pears

2009-10-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

Tasting pears from seretuaccidente on Vimeo.

Horrible back light, I know. Used a Flip HD + mini-spider tripod and iMovie for edit.

Can a pear be too sweet? This Comice from Safeway ($1.5) was. Not bad at all and really tasteful, but the excessive sugar killed the natural flavor. I guess it should be great with plain yogurt.

Maybe the cheapest thing I found at KFC was this Bartell pear. Just $2 per pound. A single yellow bell pepper was more expensive. Is not only that it was too green. The outside was great but you had the feeling that it had been frozen. The flavor was just decent. For decoration.

From the Farmers Market I chose one Bosc at $2.5 each pound. Just ripped. The smell is great. So is the texture. The flavor was not as expressive as the Comice but I found it better, because was far more natural. Need to get more of this.

Free books at $26.99

2009-10-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

Chris Anderson: "Zero is one market and any other price is another".

'Free' is not a completely new marketplace. As Anderson writes in the book of the same title and before in the Wire article Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business, there are examples of businessmen that decided to give away one of their products in order to gain something: either audience or create in the consumer the need of a complementary product.

In fact this is what he has done with the book. For a limited time, anyone could read a pdf version for free in Scribd, and even now anyone can obtain the unabridged audio version, read by Anderson himself, without paying for it. But if anyone prefer to have the hardcover book version at home, then he or she will need to pay $26.99.

The book talks about a reality in the digital world: storage and delivery costs are getting cheaper and cheaper each year and tend to zero cost. And talks also about 'free' as a marketing trend that is becoming one of the few successful nowadays: give something for free and you'll have the attention that would cost enormous amounts of money otherwise. And Anderson does so with an entertaining style, mixing storytelling and statistics.

But in all its brightness, it would be dangerous to see his points as perfect, absolut or definitive. It wouldn't be fair to look at this work as a philosopher's stone that can solve all the business model problems. Mainly because Anderson tries to show how it works something that is still growing and mutating.

Healthy controversy

For that reason is good to find voices as Malcom Gladwell's that make objections and ask questions that, if answered, can help the 'free' hypothesis to become stronger. A good example is Anderson's response to Gladwell in the post Dear Malcom: Why so threatened?

I don't really see a tremendous difference between what Anderson says and Gladwell's points. Basically what the latter says is that most web free services that are successful engaging people still doesn't make enough money to pay their costs. And that considering 'free' an iron law is wrong, because what really happens is that the digital age has changed everything and now we have to figure out how to make a living from our intelectual work. And 'free' is just one more option among the many that can show up in a near future.

And I find too adventurous to state, as Seth Godin does, that a publishing company as Conde Nast will sure disappear quite soon. I agree that they'll have to change, but may stay in business even longer than Youtube, Hulu or MySpace. Godin himself says that "only really valuable information will get paid", and Conde Nast produces great information. Their challenge is to guess how to monetize it, and Mark Cuban believes that the Music industry has already found a path: you can give content for free but always keeping control on the distribution.

Internet and 'free'

For me, the concept of 'free' in the internet is somewhat wicked. First because is not real free: you are paying for the connection. Then, because giving content without expecting money in return was a great marketing idea when the commercial internet started up, but it haven't fully proved to work from an economic point of view.

If advertising revenue keeps low and no-one comes with new business models, a lot of webpages will have to close at some moment. Even some with millions of users. Because millions of users represent millions of profit options but what they are, for sure, is millions of spendings. Will MySpace or Hulu resist if they don't have benefits in three more years? If they do is for strategy reasons related with companies that have their assets in the offline world.

And also internet 'free' is wicked because you tend to think that you have some kind of right to get everything without paying. And maybe won't use a web service that is $1 more than free, even if is terribly useful. But at the same time you but will pay $5 for a latte and a muffin in any coffee shop just because you need to make time waiting for someone. Culture and environment makes a big difference when stating what are you willing to pay for.

And that's the reason why the paper version of Anderson's book needed to have a price. Because all books have. At least until now.

Xx

PD: 2 cents on storytelling in a 'free market': if both the creation and distribution costs are almost free and I can compete with the best possible price (zero), I'll find myself in the same start conditions than anyone else. This can be stressful, but also hopeful: all I have to think about is to deliver the best possible product, focusing in the user's attention because of my topic and trying to engage them at the very beginning of my pieces.

Yo La Tengo: 'A girl like you' and 'Our way to fall'

2009-10-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

Yo La tengo - A Take Away Show - Part 1 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

A beautiful evening in Paris, one of the greatest (indie) rock bands of the last 20 years, and an adventurous group of filmmakers lead by Vincent Moon. A cover of a Troggs' classic, and one of Yo La Tengo' best songs. Here we are, another Les concerts a emporter jewel on La Blogotheque. Maybe the best of the year, so far.

Second part (with 'Sugarcube', and 'Periodically double or triple') is also great.

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Meet the boss' map of Google acquisitions and investments

2009-10-05T08:42:00.000-07:00

Click on the map to see the original article

[Vía NYT technology journalist at Publish2]

Whistle my name

2009-10-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

This video is part of a marketing campaign made by spanish agency La Despensa (check other works in their Youtube page) for the online learning service Buusu.

The clip performs a group of people from La Gomera, one of the Canary Islands, who still uses the ancient... launguage? of Silbo Gomero, a way of communication that consists on whistles. In a way similar to Morse. The campaign was awarded with a Silver Lion at the last Cannes Advertising Festival.

In the last years Silbo has been re-introduced in the public education system of Gomera, and hopefully a bunch of young guys will learn it and keep on using it for a long time.

Last week the Silbo Gomero has been included by Unesco in the List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, among others as Argentina's and Uruguay's Tango, China's Qiang New Year festival or Azerbaijan's performance art Ashiqs.

+ INFO:
- Official site for the promotion of Silbo Gomero (spanish).
- Here's an article by one researcher from the UW dated back in 2005.
- Coursebook (in english)

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Ideas for final video work

2009-10-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

Ideas for the final video work at com597b from seretuaccidente on Vimeo.

For those that have problems with the video (the audio is quite low) or my english, or just because is more than 45 seconds long, here's the four options I put on the table:

- Neighborhoods, because most of the Seattle ones work as small independent units, have their own personality and resources. Quenn Anne and International district are world apart. This subject is open enough for people also to focus on any daily issue that involves the people you live with and the relations with/among them

- Transport (bus, bike, car, light rail, monorail, train...) because is one of the defining characteristics of the city and allow to talk about the people and the relations with the place where they live.

- Music, that have been a city's leitmotiv for the last 20 years (from Mudhoney to Fleet foxes), is one of it's creative forces and also can give us the opportunity of talking about the cultural diversity of Seattle.

- Coffee + coffee shops. This is an obvious one, don't know if too closed. What's the role of the coffee houses in the daily life, if the (again) cultural and ethnical diversity has something to do with the fact that Seattle is one of the prime consumers of coffee in the States...

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Hanson Hosein and the Future of Digital Media

2009-08-31T00:13:00.000-07:00

Great radio interview with Hanson Hosein as guest. He talks with clear vision and no fears about the mass media (and their business model) crisis, and explains how the internet has made more evident (and sooner) the problems 'old media' have been developing for the last 10-15 years.

Xx

Disclaimer: This fall I'll become an MCDM student, so Mr. Hosein will be, in a way, my 'boss'.

2nd disclaimer: It happens that the journalist who interviews Hanson Hosein, Ross Reynolds, is also my classmate in the Master.

Valuable brands that play the social game

2009-07-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

Among the most valuable brands, this report shows which of them work harder and better in the social media world. Starbucks and Dell are by far the most active. If you focus in the industry, obviously Media and Technology companies get the best scores, while finance ones get the worst.

Engagementdb Social Media Engagement Report 2009

More info in Social Media DB

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Gauging Your Distraction - Interactive Feature

2009-07-18T12:57:00.001-07:00

Another brilliant work from the NYT. The related story is this: Drivers Dismiss Risks of Multitasking on the Road, focusing not only on alcohol intake, but also on mobile texting.

via nytimes.com

Posted via web from seretuaccidente's posterous

Time Lapse: Mardi Gras

2009-07-15T14:39:00.000-07:00

Time lapse is a technique where each video frame i captured at a slow speed an later reproduced at a normal rate of speed. The result is similar to the slow motion animation.
- Timelapse videos channel
- Here an interview with Luis Caldevilla, from TimeLapses.tv (in spanish). Google translation to english

- A nice example of time lapse video

Mardi Gras from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

An aggregator with a newspaper's heart

2009-07-10T09:18:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to show you the web I've been working on as PM for the last 9 months

http://fresqui.com/

Is a social aggregator (as digg.com or reddit.com) but with the the looks of a very 2.0 online newspaper. We wanted two (maybe three) main things:
- Give video and images the same relevance as text articles
- Be a confortable place to stay for everyone: social aggregators (even twitter) use to have very interesting content, but the interface is too hard and geek for a lot of people who looks for information in the internet.
- Avoid the feeling that this is a voting contest and that if Mr. Popularity sends an article it will be in the frontpage in few minutes. Of course we use the votes in order to create the top, but also give more relevance to a visit that comes from a mail or a tweet than to a visit from google and we think that if a reader goes to the original source that means he or she really liked it and is more valuable.

Hope you enjoy it

Free, by Chris Anderson

2009-07-07T05:59:00.000-07:00

In Spotify http://open.spotify.com/artist/069iwlh30hAnUrskUmvcp7

FREE (full book) by Chris Anderson
[Vía @carlosalonso]

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Man Man: freedom music

2009-07-03T03:45:00.000-07:00

Man Man at their best. Is great to see both the energy they display when playing in the street with a bunch of kids as improvised companion and how do they finish their concert and lead the people as modern Hamelin flautists.

#95.5 Man Man - A day at the races and A night at the opera
Cargado por lablogotheque

By La blogotheque

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The eyes that controls the world

2009-07-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

In London, near Brick Lane

Steam, smoke and the magic ring

2009-06-25T00:19:00.000-07:00

This spectacular pic was taking by the NASA's ISS. It belongs to the eruption of Saychev Peak on Matua Island on June 12th. You can see the steam (white oval on top), the cloud of dust and how the violence of the eruption forces the clouds to give space: a kind of ring due to the atmospheric shockwave.

It takes some time to open the image, but is worth the wait.

[Via io9]

Space Jigsaw

2009-06-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

I'm ashamed of my performance with this beautiful BBC graphic. Now it's your turn

Here you are the instructions:
Build the Solar System, from planets to space probes.

Choose which level to complete
Drag and drop each object into the right place

WIDTH="940" HEIGHT="705"

CODEBASE="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab">

PLAY="true"

LOOP="false"

QUALITY="high"

MENU="false"

TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash"

PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash">

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Twitter search in plain english

2009-06-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

Not the most original video in history, but clear and thought enough to be clear. Created by Commoncraft for education and training purposes.

St Vincent: Actor out of work

2009-06-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

From a Pitchfork's new performance series set in a chapel in the middle of a Brooklyn graveyard and named Cementery Gates. St. Vincent sings one of the songs from the album Actor. What I like from hearing St.Vincent performing alive is to realise that her songs are not only beautiful and well built, but also urgent and touching. I don't think that perfection she looks for in the record production makes the songs any better than this.