Newspapers on iPad examples by Joe Bustillos

So when we last left our hero, I was looking for the best way to consume my daily news via my iPad… I had discovered that the Amazon kindle edition of the Los Angeles Times was much improved from earlier versions. My guess is that earlier versions, because of limitations of the kindle itself, were black and white images only and attempted to mimic the look of the print edition in a single column fashion, which led to some navigation difficulties. I really don’t know because by the time I decided to subscribe to the LA Times they had switched to an Onswipe-like layout with side-scrolling and section navigation on the left. See A) Los Angeles Times – Amazon Kindle edition on the right.

Imagine my surprise when I checked out the free LA Times iPad app and it looked pretty like the Amazon Kindle version that I was paying $9.99 each for. In fact, the free version was a little more advanced in it’s usage of screen real-estate, giving the reader a bit more information and options on each single screen. See B) Los Angeles Times – iPad App Edition (free) to the right.

The free version had the better screen usage because the section menu was drop-down, so it was out of the way when not needed. See C) Los Angeles Times – iPad Edition – Sections Menu to the right. And the free version was not lite on content by any stretch of the imagination. Granted, the last time I saw the paper version of the daily I was shocked at how small the newspaper was. It was hardly a shadow of it’s former self. So my guess is that the free iPad version has all of the same content as the paper version.

Finally, one thing that was very frustrating with the Kindle version of the Los Angeles Times was that if I found an article that I wanted to share or clip there was no way to do that in the Kindle version. I couldn’t select the article to copy it or even select any text that I might want to share. Now that might have been a limitation of the iOS interface but it really made the Kindle version feel like it was just for reading and not for sharing or research. The free version had social-networking built-in. Yeah. I cancelled my Kindle-edition. See D) Los Angeles Times iPad Edition Social Networking Menu to the right.

As I continued to explore the free Los Angeles Times iPad app I couldn’t find anyway to “subscribe” or become a subscriber in the traditional sense. I’m guessing that the free iPad version is being supported by the few ads along the bottom of some of the screens. As much as I love getting the whole LA Times for free, I’m concerned about the sustainability of the free model. That said, I’m not happy at the confusing subscription model being promoted by the New York Times that favors paper-subscribers over iPad/online subscribers when there’s so much less waste in the iPad/online model. Note that when you look at the iPad version of the New York Times all of the sections are locked for non-subscribers – see E) New York Times – iPad Edition – PAID Sections.

So, do I enjoy a free-copy of the LA Times every morning on my iPad with my Wheaties? Not so much. It’s tough to settle into the sit-and-read-the-paper-with-breakfast model that I’ve aspired to. Also, I’ve gotten used to skimming dozens of news sources at a time via my iPad RSS reader of choice, NewsRack. There are dozens of more visual newsreaders that mimic the slider model, but my purpose is to skim and select what to read and if I have to wade through tons of images it’ll slow down the process. I guess I’ve chosen a method of going through dozens and dozens of news sources instead of trusting a couple, or as in my dad’s case, one source.

Actually, now that I think about it, part of my problem is that I’m used to skimming and get a lot of my research links via my Twitter-stream. I tend to skim my Twitter resources before skimming my RSS articles. So, there’s a definite disconnect from the traditional news/magazine publication cycle and how I consume my information. As beautiful as some of these news apps are (like the ABC News and BBC apps) I don’t want to go to dozens of iPad apps or virtual magazines. It’s the web2 model: I don’t want to have to go to the apps, I want the news to seamlessly come to me. Man, this is much more difficult than I expected. This is going to require more thought… to be continued…

Sources:
image: Man Reading Newspaper at Beach – Microsoft Office Clipart, http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=newspapers&ctt=1#ai:MP900401660|mt:2| retrieved 1/14/2012.
image: Newspapers on iPad examples by Joe Bustillos, http://josephbustillos.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/newspapers-on-ipad.jpg retrieved 1/14/2012.

These past fifteen years or so, keeping up with tech trends has been my business, and back in the beginning the newspaper would have been of no use (except for the computer store ads in the Saturday Sports section). Local user groups (NOCCC was strong back then) were the first sources of news and computer magazines like Byte and PC World were essential links to information. Eventually TV shows like C/NET TV and the Computer Chronicles and eventually ZD-TV/TechTV filled in the gap as user groups began to fade and virtual communities began to grow through the Internet. TV shows were then replaced by audio and the video podcasts mostly done by full-time podcasters. But I still hadn’t found a consistent “news gathering” process.

When I got my first iPad I was hoping that I would find a much more Eco-friendly way to consume daily news and tech news. I was really looking forward to reading newspapers and magazines on my iPad. One of the first publications to make it’s debut, The Daily, was buggy and I wasn’t really impressed with the quality of the writing style, so I never subscribed beyond the one-month free trial. At the time there were newspaper apps but they were geared for the small iPhone screen and were hardly better than a crippled webpage. This was not the experience I was looking for. In fact the best magazine/newspaper translation to iPad that I’ve found has been the Zinio version of National Geographic. Zinio is an app or wrapper that previously appeared as a Mac and Windows desktop app, but in it’s iPad incarnation not only does it preserve the feel and layout of the magazine but it all offers photo galleries and videos not possible in the paper version of the magazine. The only draw-back is that I have to remember to launch the Zinio app to get to my magazine library, but everything else is pretty seamless. Now that Apple has it’s own “newsstand” version I wonder what the difference might be. Also NG has it’s own stand-alone version. As far as look and feel and multimedia options Zinio works.

Newspaper-wise, in the beginning there was nothing, except for the iPhone versions. Being from the West Coast I was hoping to get the LA Times, but the Times was a Flash-only subscription that wouldn’t work on my iPad. Amazon had a kindle version of several newspapers, but reviews were critical of the offering, mostly related to poor editing and poor image support. But then some time late in the summer I discovered that Amazon had improved their newspaper subscription service and signed up for the Los Angeles Times via Kindle. Ten bucks a month for the daily paper with all of the sections from the original in a semi-blog/onswipe kind of layout. Not too bad. Well, except for when I happened to find almost the exact same version available apparently directly from the LA Times (via an LA Times app), FOR FREE! Doh! To be continued…

Sources:

• image: Newspaper forest green by NS Newsflash/Jon S, http://www.flickr.com/photos/62693815@N03/6277389273/in/photostream/ retrieved 01-10-2012
• video: 2011-02-19 The Daily Before & After by Joe Bustillos, http://www.flickr.com/photos/joebustillos/5463229493/ retrieved 01-10-2012

brian tong and molly wood - image by CNET

Anchored by two very smart and funny tech-observers, Molly Wood and Brian Tong, the once daily podcast seems to have fallen victim to the talk-show radio syndrome where news stories have become launching points for venom and hyperbole. Back when Tom Merritt was part of the crew the balance between news reporting, analysis and rants was well managed, entertaining and worth listening to/watching. The revolving third seat, since Merritt’s departure, has been manned by good people, but all seem to be either too quick to go into rant mode or no one can be found who is strong enough a personality to maintain the news/analysis/rant balance. I’m sure that there are probably constructive reasons for the change, but the reduction of the podcast from daily to weekly isn’t a good sign. And for me, with the rant-a-thon, I can hardly make it through even the weekly sessions.

Case in point, news item: Apple’s Siri voice-service is under scrutiny over it’s apparent aversion to giving info when asked for assistance looking for birth-control. Siri doesn’t seem to have any problem giving assistance when asked for where one can score pot or how to dispose of a body. The latter example, obviously meant to be humorous while the former… well, have you read the Steve Jobs biography? Molly Wood goes into rant mode about Apple’s obvious nanny-mode control issues. Apple had previously responded that it wasn’t a political statement and that, after all, the service is still in Beta. One of Wood’s co-hosts offered that it could have also been a CYA thing, with Apple not wanting to be sued in the future when someone under-age uses Siri to get info and then gets an abortion. Wood wouldn’t have it and called Apple “Beta” explanation bull[shit], and continued the rant. I shut off the podcast and deleted the episode.

What it comes down to is that there’s no one there to pull back on the rants and maintain even the illusion of journalistic balance. It was a little understandable when they were under the pressure of doing a daily tech-news show that they would riff on the headlines and not spend too much time to dig deeper into the stories. And given the ongoing nature of most of the stories and the incomplete record of the events, one does need the analysis. Problem was and is, especially when dealing with anything Apple or Steve Jobs, Wood and Brian Tong always assumed the worst, most controlling, evil motives. To their credit they’ve earned their skepticism over Apple’s motives. Wood has seen how Apple marketing has been savage in their pandering and mistreatment of the press and Tong worked for Apple in the early years of the Apple Stores (which I guess qualifies one for … wounds). Alas, having been poorly treated by individuals or organizations… well, if one is going to be a journalist one needs to rise above it. Where’s the objectivity when one automatically goes for the “evil” reason. I’m not saying that one shouldn’t be skeptical and just buy the marketing fluff, but there is a middle ground that C/NET and Buzz Out Loud seem to have lost a long time ago.

Sources:

• Buzz Out Loud 1568: That’s just the Google Maps guy, ignore him. http://www.cnet.com/8301-19709_1-57334959-10/buzz-out-loud-1568-thats-just-the-google-maps-guy-ignore-him-podcast/ retrieved 12-30-2011.
• Petition To Correct Siri’s Apparent Anti-Abortion Bias Collects Nearly 30,000 Signatures by Laura Bassett/Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/01/siri-abortion-petition_n_1124281.html retrieved 12/30/2011.

Is The IBM PC/XT Doomed To Be Technology’s Next Dinosaur?

by Joe Bustillos – November 17, 1987 – CSUF COMM201 – Feature Article #2

Old TV's and compute monitors - microsoft office clipart

On April 2, 1987 IBM (International Business Machines) introduced a new line of microcomputers and an operating system for their micros that will be incompatible with the original IBM Personal Computer and its operating system (MSDOS). An operating system is an essential program that makes up the “brains” and “personality” of a computer. It enables the computer to “talk” to its disk drives and its screen and it’s what the computer user “talks to” when he types on the keyboard (and you thought nobody was listening). If two computers from two manufacturers, for example AT&T and Compaq, are running the same operating system (MSDOS) chances are pretty good that a word-processing program that works on one computer will work on the other computer.

But IBM’s new operating system, OS/2 (Operating System, version 2) will not run on what makes up the bulk of all IBM microcomputers in use today, the PC/XT-class micros. (OS/2 will work on the newer AT and 386-based machines and of course the brand new PS/2 computers that IBM has just introduced).

Much heated speculation has been generated in the computer press both before and after the announcement about what this will mean to the hundreds of IBM-clone manufacturers, retailers, and support businesses who continue to put out thousands of PC/XT-class machines per month. There is also concern about what this will mean to the estimated six to nine million computer users who currently own IBM PC/XT-class systems.

Will these six to nine million computer users scrap their present systems and invest another $6000 plus to upgrade to the new hardware and software? Will the PC/XT clone manufacturer find himself with several thousand systems in stock and no one interested in buying one? We’re talking about the future of hundreds of garage-based computer operations who have hopes of becoming the next Apple Computer. Fortunately for those who would try to predict the outcome of this tale of computer intrigue and marketing bad luck, there is an historical precedence to look to.

During the latter 1970s, when IBM was busily occupied being the king of the white-robed mainframe computer priesthood, the microcomputer market, which was still in its infancy, was united under one operating system called CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers). Having computers from different manufacturers run the same operating system was quite a different approach from that of the mainframe and minicomputer industry where each manufacturer had his own proprietary operating system and application software (word-processing and billing programs). Because the microcomputer industry was basically dozens of small no-name electronics firms, they saw the cost effectiveness of producing computers that ran under the same operating system.

If a computer user had a word-processing program that worked on an Altair, for example, chances were, if the Altair ran under CP/M, that his program would work on a Cromemco or North Star or CompuPro, provided they were running under CP/M. Even Apple computer, with its radically different system architecture, found a way to run under CP/M and eventually became the largest base of CP/M systems.

Being under one operating system propelled the microcomputer market forward. It encouraged programmers to write new and more advanced programs because they would be able to sell their work to computer users of more than one machine. This, in turn, encouraged more people to buy the micros to run the “useful” programs, which encouraged the development of more programs. Back before 1981, microcomputers were a happy growing cottage industry. But this growth and potential revenue attracted the attention of someone else.

So in August 1981 IBM introduced its PC (Personal Computer). But rather than bring itself under the blanket of the CP/M compatibility it decided to use an operating system (MSDOS) that had the look and feel of CP/M but was not CP/M compatible. The computer user could not take his word-processing program that worked in his CP/M based computer and use it in the new IBM PC. He would have to either write or purchase a new word-processor to use in the new machine. Previous attempts by other computer manufacturers to introduce computers that were incompatible with CP/M had failed because software programmers didn’t want to get locked into supporting a single manufacturer. But the differences between those other manufacturers and IBM were the three magical initials, I-B-M.

It was understood right away that IBM stood for American big business. If a programmer or hardware supplier could catch a ride on IBM’s coattails then it would mean revenue beyond their wildest garage-industry dreams. IBM, for its part, met the microcomputer industry half way and encouraged independent third-party programmers to write programs for the new machine and allowed independent hardware manufacturers to look over its design and build plug-in circuit boards to run in its machine. Both of these steps were radical departures from its previous practice in the mainframe and minicomputer business. And independent third-party people started lining up to become a part of the IBM phenomenon. The IBM PC/XTs were not the best microcomputers on the market but big business started buying the IBM micros to put on everyone’s desktop. It became a saying in Corporate America that “No one ever got fired for buying IBM.”

By 1982 other computer manufacturers were marketing microcomputers that mimicked the IBM PC and used its operating system, MSDOS. In 1983 Phoenix Technologies introduced a chip (the Phoenix ROM BIOS) that claimed to legally provide 100 percent compatibility with IBM and it’s operating system. CP/M based computer sales began to drop and the introduction of new CP/M software slowed to a trickle. Today it is considered an odd event when a new CP/M product is introduced. Nine months ago freelance writer, Ted Silveira, wrote, when ON! Systems introduced the ON! computer, “Is it possible for someone to successfully introduce a new CP/M compatible computer? And at a time when people are beginning to consider the standard 8088-based PC clone to be obsolete? Can these people be anything but crazy?” (Computer Current, Feb ‘87, p 20). Silveira described the computer as “a dream come to life,” but left the question of whether the system will ever sell in the light of day up to the reader.

backgrounder manual - image by joe bustillos

Plu*Perfect Systems co-founder, Derek McKay, in a recent phone interview put it in more straight forward terms. In 1983 he and Bridger Mitchell introduced an inexpensive CP/M produced called Backgrounder that enabled the computer user to freeze his computer screen, perform a handful of computer tasks, and then return to his original screen. They sold close to 3,000 copies (which was respectable for the CP/M market). Last year they introduced Backgrounder II, which allowed the computer user to switch between two full sized programs without really exiting either (a thing that was unheard of in the CP/M market). They have sold less than 300 copies.

Backgrounder II was called “a revolutionary extension for CP/M computing,” in the Nov. issue of The Computer Shopper, a national computer publication. That article has generated only nine inquiries. “And six of those were for real oddball machines,” McKay said. “Some of them I’d never heard of and others I said, ‘I’m not sure if it’ll run on that.” McKay said the sales at other systems houses that carry CP/M products, such as 12-year veteran of computer development, Advent Products of Anaheim, have pretty much dried up. Even retailers that made the move from CP/M to MSDOS products, such as PeopleTalk Associates of Plano Texas, have gone bust, “owing us money,” McKay added. “Their cost structure wasn’t low enough relative to their discounting. It was basically, the more they sold the more they lost.”

McKay paused and smiled. “I don’t want to sound all doom and gloom. We still get [product] out. They trickle out two or three a week.”

So what is the lesson here? Will these six to nine million PC/XT-class computer users scrap their present systems and invest another $6000 plus to upgrade to the new hardware and software? Remember the CP/M user that couldn’t use his word-processing program on the original IBM PC? Will the PC/XT clone manufacturer find himself with several thousand systems in stock and no one interested in buying one? McKay said that he had 200 Backgrounder II manuals lying around that he can’t get rid of. Will PS/2 & OS/2 make the IBM PC/XT & clones into a CP/M story?

Eleven-year veteran of the microcomputer market on the West Coast, Priority One Electronics, has catered to the needs of the microcomputer user and hobbyist since the days when S-100 boards and 8” floppy disk drives were quite the fashion (in the pre-IBM days). Today, in addition to their oscilloscopes and Hewlett Packard scientific calculators (they’re one of the few firms that still supports the computer hobbyist) they are now retailing the newer Apple Macintosh and 80386-based personal computers. Patrick Gatward, a salesman who has been with P1E for three and one half years, said in a recent phone interview that IBM’s announced new line of computers hasn’t affected P1E in the least.

“I don’t see it eliminating anything at all,” said Gatward. “Matter of fact, I think there’s a big market for low end PCs where people in the homes say, ‘oh gosh, for $599 I can get a complete system, with printer and everything.’ I think after a while it’ll be like a typewriter where all the people will have one in their home no matter what,” Gatward said.

Gatward said that for someone to think that IBM’s new PS/2 line is going to eliminate the PC/XT-clones is “like saying a guy can walk in and buy a stereo but might not be able to buy an album any more ‘cause they have cassettes out now.”

Another veteran of the microcomputer wars, Greg Fisher, who has been with Advent Products of Anaheim for its twelve years, said in a recent phone interview that the PC/XT-clones will eventually be phased out, “but not in the same way that it happened to CP/M, because CP/M was replaced.” Fisher said that MSDOS is an “evolving market. The lower power computers were replaced by the more highly powered computers, which are faster but are still functionally identical. You can take a 386[-based computer, which makes up the newest of the IBM line up] today and run the software from the original PC from 1981 on that computer. So, they will be only out done as a 1961 Corvair is out done by an Acura today. They’re still both viable.”

Fisher agreed with Gatward that the present PC/XT-clone user should be able to find software to run on his system for the foreseeable future. The only thing that might change this is if IBM’s PS/2 line really catches on. Fisher said, “I don’t think that it’s going to. I think there’s too much market resistance to be told, ‘now you’ve got to scrap everything up to this point and look at something entirely different.’”

One of the selling points of the new IBM PS/2 line is its ability to do several computing tasks at once, or multitasking. McKay, of Plu*Perfect Systems, and a dozen randomly sampled PC/XT-clone vendors and users said that they feel that that capability is going to prove useful in only the big business market where an office manager might want to tie several keyboards and screens to a single computer (sounds an awful lot like a minicomputer).

McKay, whose Backgrounder II product had pseudo-multitasking, said that what the people really “want is instantaneous recall of a program and they want interruptability. I don’t much need multitasking apart perhaps from networking and communications for any background task.” He said, “there are several real time activities that you would like to run [in the background or multitask]. One is print spooling, network communication, and perhaps modem communication. Those are the only categories that I can think of that warrant real time multitasking.”

“Most people I know,” he said, “can’t run [simple MS]DOS. Give them anything that’s got more conceptual complexity, anything that’s got multitasking has got conceptual complexity, it doesn’t matter if you bring it out through a Windows picture interface, there’s still several things going on at once. Yeah, most people don’t juggle and rub their tummy at the same time.”

Will the PC/XT end up like its CP/M predecessor? Will the PC/XT be technology’s next dinosaur? According to McKay and a dozen other randomly sampled PC/XT-clone retailers and users, the answer is “no.”

They are of the opinion that the PC/XT-class machine is more than adequate for word-processing, data processing, bookkeeping and other tasks that the average home to middle business user is going to need. According to this group, the need for an AT (Advanced Technology) or 386-class machine is only felt in the specialized fields were heavy graphics are needed such as in the CAD (computer aided design) and desktop publishing or where a multiuser environment is required, but that’s strictly big business, they said.

Resources:

• image: Old TV’s and computer monitors, http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=computers&ex=1&ctt=1#ai:MP900437246| retrieved 11/12/2011.
• image: OS/2 logo, http://www.paul-rand.com/site/ibm/ retrieved 11/12/2011.

IBM Personal System/2, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_System/2 retrieved 11/11/2011.

image: OS/2 logo, http://www.paul-rand.com/site/ibm/ retrieved 11/12/2011.

image: File:Ibm px xt color.jpg, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ibm_px_xt_color.jpg  retrieved 11/11/2011.

video: Computer Chronicles > IBM Personal System 2, http://www.archive.org/details/IBMPerso1987 retrieved 11/11/2011.

“Labs Versus Classrooms” is a video essay about the most effective ways to implement technology on a school site.


“Goldilocks & Tech Implementations” is a video essay about how to properly implement a tech program.

“Tools to Manage The Classroom” is a video essay detailing my first experiences using technology as a classroom teacher.

“Tools to Create Curriculum” is a video essay about how I used technology to meet the needs of my students beginning from my first years as a classroom teacher to being school site tech coordinator.

Two Bonus videos:

An introductory look at the video journalism program that I created using 5th grade reporters/editors and 6th grade news-anchors and studio personal. We even had second graders reading the news

“Welcome 2 the Real World” was a music video inspired by the 80s Jane Child song. Students wrote a paragraph about what the word “Real World” mean to their parents and I recorded them reading their essays and added that to footage I’d shot in Downtown Long Beach.

Sources:
YouTube Video: Homeless Man With Golden Voice Reunited With Mom by AssociatedPress, retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LVU0sbdSyY&feature=related on 01/14/2011

YouTube Video: Homeless man with golden voice ‘thankful to be here’ by Today Show, retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/40943737#40943737 on 01/14/2011

YouTube Video: CNN: Homeless man, Ted Williams with golden voice hits jackpot by CNN, retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrBkxcztA_o&feature=related on 01/14/2011

Another day, another Fair Use issue in the headlines. Imagine my surprise as I began to do research to update my previous article on the Fair-Use/Copyright kerfuffle between the Associated Press (AP) and street-artist/icon-wanna-be Shephard Fairey, to discover that the case was dismissed yesterday, January 11th, 2011, and that the two parties had entered into an undisclosed financial arrangement. I loved the lead paragraph from the Animal/New York website:

US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein has dismissed the cases between Shepard Fairey and the Associated Press. And so, the whole copyright infringement vs. fair use vs. fake evidence ballyhooed mess has been resolved with a “confidential” financial settlement. The AP and Fairey will also “collaborate on a series of images,” according to the AP’s press statement. Wait, what?

For those who may not be familiar with the case, Shephard Fairey has been practicing his craft of graphic commentary/stencil graffiti for a number of years and found some notoriety with the Andre the Giant/OBEY image. According to Fairey, in an LA Times video/interview, he said that he wanted to do something for the Obama campaign around the time of the Super-Tuesday push, found an image of Obama and by the following day had a poster with the word HOPE. The poster and image instantly went global. Fairey said that the image captured the leadership and humanity of the candidate and the word HOPE captured the feelings of his supporters. Success.

After the conclusion of the campaign AP threatened to sue Fairey for the use of the photograph that they believed he used to create his poster. Then in February of 2009, Fairey decided to beat AP to the punch and sued AP, claiming that his use of the photo was covered under Fair Use. To make things even more complicated, the photographer who allegedly took the original image, Mannie Garcia, sued AP claiming that he was a freelancer and not an AP employee when he shot the disputed photo and therefore he was entitled to compensation from this litigation. At the end of February 2009 NPR interviewed Fairey and Garcia (separately). It probably didn’t help to settle things down that the disputed poster had just been hung in the US National Portrait Gallery on January 20th, 2009.

It was a textbook case on Fair Use that I immediately chatted with my students about. Looking at Fairey’s actions and pre-emptive lawsuit, those who had read the requirements for a Fair Use defense could say in unison: Fair Use is not a right but a defensible position. Again, Fair Use is not a right but a defensible position.

At the time I asked around to see what others in the media business felt. I asked photographer and TWiT contributer, Scott Bourne, his take on the case (via Twitter) and he said, “I think the artist stole the photo and his fair use claim will end up costing him treble damages. All depends on whether AP owns [the] pic.”

When NPR’s Terry Gross asked the photographer of the Obama image, Mannie Garcia, his take on Fairey using his photograph he said, “[It's] crucial for people to understand, simply because it’s on the Internet doesn’t mean that it’s free for the taking, and that just because you can take it, doesn’t mean that it belongs to you.”

A cursory survey of opinions online at the time from the likes of Milton Glaser on BoingBoing, Mark Vallen on Art-for-Change, The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, and Chal Pivik on the Los Angeles METBlogs, seems to show that the more the pundit knows about the actual steps or changes to the photo that Fairey made to create the poster the more likely the writer came down on the side of Fairey’s Fair Use claim. NPR, of course, did an excellent job covering all of the angles of the story, finishing up with a discussion with law professor Greg Lastowka on the case and Fair Use. Click on the link/player at the end of this story for NPR’s interview.

And so the case stayed here for about ten-months with the photographers crying foul and the graphic artists flipping the bird. Then in October of 2009 Fairey dropped a bomb admitting that he’d lied about which photograph he’d used and destroyed evidence of the actual images he’d used (which he feared would have proven AP’s case because the image required far less manipulation to create the poster). Fairey’s attorneys, which included support from Stanford University’s Fair Use Project, withdrew their support. Photographers 1, Graphic Artists 0.

In my original article I concluded that had my research on this story ended with the NPR piece I would have been left with a different image of Shepherd Fairey than the one I gained via a series of videos that were created long before Obama campaign, when Fairey’s main claim to fame was his “Andre the Giant: Obey!” world-wide sticker/poster/street art project. Fifteen-plus arrests later for “street art” activities and it’s little wonder that he’d be a media darling while at the same time being in trouble for taking someone’s else’s photograph and not thinking twice about using it to make the Obama: Hope image. Even though it would have gone completely counter to his street-artist-persona, a simple call or email to AP would have saved him all of this hassle.

But who am I kidding. In one of the videos, when Fairey says, “Shephard Fairey: Icon” for the G4 series of the same name, implying his own status in the art/street culture world, I was put off by the arrogance and willingness to play both sides of the media. I predicted that when all of this plays out the title of his next video would be, “Shepherd Fairey: Oops.” But I guess given the out of court settlement, the Fair Use test case was kicked to the curb and Fairey is left to say either, “Shephard Fairey: Halfsies” or “Shephard Fairey: Do You Take Checks?”

Media:

NPR: Fresh Air: Shepard Fairey: Inspiration Or Infringement?

If you don’t see the audio player above, you can switch to Firefox or Click here to listen to the podcast

Los Angeles Times Video: Hope: Shepard Fairey and Barack Obama

Sources:

Image: (FILES) People walk past Shepard Fairey’, retrieved from http://www.boston.com/ae/specials/culturedesk/FILES-US-POLITICS-INAUGURATION-PORTRAIT_001.jpg on 01/13/2011

Shepard Fairey Settles Case, Collaborates With AP Instead by Marina Galperina, retrieved from http://animalnewyork.com/2011/01/shepard-fairey-settles-and-collaborates-with-ap/ on 01/13/2011

Barack Obama artwork case settled, retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12170620 on 01/13/2011

Image: Giant/OBEY, retrieved from http://www.graffiti.org/faq/kataras/kataras_fig3Fairey.jpg on 01/13/2011

Obama photo: Mannie Garcia (AP)/Obama image: Shepherd Fairey, retrieved from http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/09/milton-glaser-weighs.html on 04/09/2009

Obama “Hope” Image vs. One Lost Shephard by Joe Bustillos, retrieved from http://joebustillos.com/2009/04/10/obama-hope-image-vs-one-lost-shepard/ on 01/13/2011

Shepard Fairey: Inspiration Or Infringement? NPR Fresh Air interview, retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101182453 on 02/27/2009

Hope: Shepard Fairey and Barack Obama – Los Angeles Time interview/video retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_EOzZ9iaJQ&NR=1 on 04/07/2009

ICONS: Shepard Fairey, YouTube video retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNv-9IOBZZo on 04/07/2009

Journalism in the Age of Data from Geoff McGhee on Vimeo.

The real ad… Jerry Bruckheimer version

Sources:
Student video ‘Gotta Keep Reading’ inspires nation by Meris Stansbury/e-School News. http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/03/18/gotta-keep-reading-video-inspires-nation/ retrieved on 3/19/2010
YouTube video: Gotta Keep Reading – Ocoee Middle School. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6D9jiEYxzs retrieved on 3/20/2010
Thanks Dr. Deason for the e-School News heads up

In Bad Faith, Part 4: The Evil Media

What both the Left and Right seem to forget is that the Media, especially in the form of the movie industry, is a form of banking, and it will do whatever it thinks will make money for it’s investors. Period. It rarely leads and often plays both sides of the issues because it needs to draw attention to itself, not to change things but to make money. The Media is not a perfect reflection of our culture, remember it’s first responsibility is not to reflect Reality, but to make money. And this “bottom line” mentality is not limited to the movie industry but, sadly, has become a big part of the News Industry too. Journalism has felt the pressure to sell it’s wares. We may think of Journalism as a service, but it’s a business. This is not to say that Journalism has abandoned the principles of Objectivity, but it’s more of an ideal, like how Americans try to live up to our Constitution, Bill of Rights and Pledge of Allegiance. Journalism believes in Objectivity, in part, because it’s business model requires a certain level of trust. No trust, no sales. So, at it’s core the News & Media industries are neither Left or Right. They can’t afford to be. They will follow the interests of their audiences, Left or Right, but the commitment isn’t to the politics but to the business of making money. The Media decision-makers are not pushing any position except the one that keeps them viable and better yet, more than viable.

Add to all of this, one of the dangers of our Internet era is that, just as much as we have the possibility to get our news and information from world-wide and culturally diverse sources, it’s just as likely that we will choose only sources that we agree with, creating a kind of echo chamber of information. This is the unintended result of the combination user-selected news/media feeds with user-created journalism. What does this have to do with God and Faith? Well, today it is possible to completely blanket oneself 24/7 with whatever message one wants to hear and completely blank out anything that one doesn’t agree with. For many there’s no problem with this picture except for the part where one might want or need to interact with someone not from ones own media bubble. For Christians we call that the Great Commission. For the Secularist, there is a curiosity to understand our fellow-person (especially if they don’t agree or understand us). So, how do you do that if the other person is not from your media bubble? Is there even a common media language left that you can use to reach this other person?

So, the Media is neither Left or Right. It’s a business that wants to stay in business so it’s going to be careful not to offend what it perceives to be its audience. You don’t like what’s on the air you now have at least three choices: change the channel/stream, turn the thing off, or make your own news/media organization. By the way, according to the film’s official website the film opened in limited release this past Friday, January 22, 2010. At the bottom of this entry I’ve embedded the film’s trailer and an NPR/Fresh Air interview of the Randal Keynes, the author of the book  the film is based on.

NPR Fresh Air Interview: Randal Keynes: When Darwin Is In Your Family Tree:

Sources:
* Movie poster: Creation: The True Story of Charles Darwin. http://www.creationthemovie.com/ retrieved on 1/26/2010

* Charles Darwin film ‘too controversial for religious America’ by By Anita Singh. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6173399/Charles-Darwin-film-too-controversial-for-religious-America.html retrieved on 1/25/2010

* Image: Freedom of the Press poster by Publish! Magazine (nd).

* YouTube: ‘Creation’ Trailer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BREvUKpZTeU retrieved on 1/26/2010.

* Randal Keynes: When Darwin Is In Your Family Tree. Fresh Air from WHYY. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122778363 retrieved on 1/25/2010

I grew up in the era of Tom Wolfe and the blurring of lines between non-fiction, new journalism and fiction. What I learned from those times was that good fiction locks the reader into a totally believable universe while good non-fiction equally employs all of the same the tools of storytelling with a beginning, middle, end, a protagonist, an antagonist and often a hero’s journey. I vaguely remember a Walter Cronkite special made after he retired during which he described the journalistic process of gathering news and then editing it down for broadcast and that this process of editing, deciding what parts of the story to include and what parts to lead with, meant that 100% objectivity was not really possible. Fairness, yes, but real objectivity was an ideal more than a reality. Alas, I’d say that the expectations for “Walter Cronkite objectivity” in news reporting has retreated back to a mythical simpler time before Nixon and the media conglomerate control of all things media. All the more, I’m a bit surprised when an educated audience, who wouldn’t expect complete objectivity from any of the cable or network news networks, swallow documentary presentations, simply because you have the characters saying the words and doing the things that leads you to believe that this is really the way it is. One would hope that documentary producers (as with journalists) wouldn’t completely fabricate stories out of carefully crafted clips. But one cannot forget that the process of editing is a form of subjective decision making entirely dependent on the story that the documentary creator wants to tell. And the “Best” documentaries are not necessarily the ones that tell the most Truth but the ones that tell the best story.

I’ve sat through many a documentary that just stuck the camera out there and tried to tell some semblance of an event or ongoing story, but “failed” because their efforts to “capture it all” resulted in an overly long, drawn out hodge-podge of footage that had no real narrative, no clearly defined beginning, middle or end and usually ended when they ran out of time and/or money. Sadly these unwatchable documentaries are often closer to the “Truth,” if there is a truth to be learned, than the highly crafted works by someone like Roger Moore or even the folks who put together the “King of Kong.” Don’t get me wrong, “King of Kong,” is an amazing film, well worth the viewing. Just don’t expect it to be a complete slice of reality. Billy Mitchell may be an intolerable asshole or just another human being with an overly inflated opinion of his own importance. The asshole makes for a better story.

Sources:
* image & info: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Kong:_A_Fistful_of_Quarters, retrieved on October 12, 2009
* And That’s the Way It Is, by Dan Rottenberg/American Journalism Report, http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=3612 retrieved on October 12, 2009
* YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K7wpatALDQ

• happy voting day USA twitterverse 10:45 AM Nov 4th from TwitBin
• @sarahlane sounds like a perfect way to spend election day. That’s my girl!!! 12:41 PM Nov 4th from TwitBin in reply to sarahlane: “Know why it’s good to be jobless? I’m going to sit in front of the TV watching crappy election coverage all damn day. DRINKING BEER. NAKED” 12:39 PM November 04, 2008 from web
• watching election results on CNN (sound usually off) & live stream from twitlive.tv election 08 w/ leo laporte, & upgrading mbp HD 8:52 PM Nov 4th from TwitBin
• cnn projects obama victory w/ closing of the west coast voting 11:10 PM Nov 4th from TwitBin
• don’t wanna go 2 sleep thinking obama won only 2 wake up like I did in 2000 & 2004 to see the hope stolen from me. Don’t want that… 11:17 PM Nov 4th from TwitBin
• good concession speech, sen. mccain. time for a second beer… 11:38 PM Nov 4th from TwitBin
• @drkiki we resemble that remark.”all the nuts roll south,” but even we can seize the moment to act beyond everyone’s expectations. Cheers! 12:23 AM Nov 5th from web in reply to drkiki: It had to be a great campaign to make Florida go blue.12:05 AM November 05, 2008 from Election 2008
• This one’s for you, USA (see below), a percentage of u are gonna want something stronger 12:23 AM Nov 5th from Twinkle

(should I be concerned that this is my 2nd beer reference in as many blog entries?)

Cnet’s news.com ran an excellent article titled: 10 election tweets worth remembering. I found #4 and #1 absolutely wonderful:

4. As voting lines reached record lengths around the country, CrunchGear blogger Peter Ha told everyone via Twitter to calm down: If you can wait three+ days to buy a damned iPhone then you can wait (in) line to vote, a**hats.

1. And our official “best election tweet” award goes to Twitter user JHix, who wrote about his voting experience: Officially just played the worst video game ever. You mark people with an “x” and then wait almost forever to find out who won.

I love political cartoons. I have a book of cartoons from from famed LA Times political cartoonist Paul Conrad. The Jib-Jab team takes it to a new level (I especially like the good-looking voter at the end of the video).

Following the Republican convention my brother sent me a COMMENTS vs. THE FACTS article by Associated Press writer, Jim Kuhnhenn. My brother gave the article the title: “Republicans Should Not Wear Flammable Pants.” Indeed, as the both parties head for November we’ll watch grown men speak out of both sides of their months with the fingers crossed behind their backs. For example…

PALIN: “I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending … and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ for that Bridge to Nowhere.”

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a “bridge to nowhere.”

PALIN: “There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform _ not even in the state senate.”

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: “The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars.”

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama’s plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain’s plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: “She’s been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America’s energy supply … She’s responsible for 20 percent of the nation’s energy supply. I’m entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America,” he said in an interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain’s phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she’s no more “responsible” for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state _ by population.

MCCAIN: “She’s the commander of the Alaska National Guard. … She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,” he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under “federal status,” which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska’s national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin “got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.”

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor’s election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: “We need change, all right _ change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington _ throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin.”

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate

PC World put their story together using information gathered from an anonymous source, who knew Childs and the atmosphere around the implementation of the FiberWAN network. The source said that Childs wasn’t so much the rogue as much he became convinced that he was surrounded by idiots and the only way to protect the network (and his work) was to lock all of the idiots out. The fact that Childs, who was not the “head architect,” was allowed to work with none of his superiors knowing what he was doing and the fact that the network has operated perfectly since his arrest lends some credence to the “locking the idiots out” version of the story.

I have worked with my fair share of administrators who were probably pretty good at the job they did before they were promoted. Even then I saw their incompetency as an opportunity to take advantage of the situation and take on a greater responsibility for my own job growth and experiment where a “better” boss would have restricted my access. Of course I knew that when my tenure was up and I’d moved beyond what my boss understood as “useful” that it was time for me to let go and move on. It would seem that Childs lost his perspective and chose a different strategy. jbb

Music/Podcast: Buzz Out Loud 771: A Monster episode of Iron butt proportions from the album “Buzz Out Loud from CNET” by CNET.com

Technorati Tags: california, journalism, media, networkadmin, sanfrancisco, thesystem, work

It probably didn’t help that someone, either AT&T or Apple, screwed the pooch with the activation process changing the cheering that was last year’s wonderful experience to jeering as is chronicled in the following video by Mahalo Daily’s Leah D’Emilio:

Music/Podcast: MacBreak Weekly 97: youtalking@me.com from the album “MacBreak Weekly” by Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Merlin Mann, and Randal Schwartz

Technorati Tags: apple, applehardware, california, iphone, media, journalism, techtoys, tv, youtube

just got the pix back from yesterday’s winter dance. yearbook photags took 13 pix. previous dance 500+ pics, firings to follow… argh #

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“Crusader News is a brand new experimental online student newspaper put together by journalism students, invited student writers & staff from Cecil B. DeMille Midde School in beautiful Long Beach, California. It may take some time before news items begin to pop up here on the Front Page, but it’ll be a worthwhile wait.”

Then this past week, in my reporter’s notebook entry I wrote:

“Introduced the website to my journalism class. Most students got the concept but a few had the “puppy dog with the head tilted to the side” look. They’ll figure it out. First story is due next Wednesday, 11/21

“Went out after school to cover the boy’s track practice. I’m really looking forward to the story that reporters Ashley and Darvin will write from an impromtu interview of track coach, Ms. Del Rio. I haven’t had a chance to look at the pictures taken by yearbook photographers Angel and Adan, but I’m hoping that we’ll have something good to include in the yearbook and in Ashley and Darvin’s story. Onward and upward. Mr. Bustillos, Crusader News, Advisor and Publisher”

The website is running Joomla and I really need to put a yearbook ad where Joomla has it’s own ad. Argh. Please check it out at http://demilleknights.com. jbb