Social media as trend indicators It’s not uncommon that when “social media networks” are mentioned, the most common associations among people are with platforms that promote interaction with, and sharing and exchange of user-generated content. With its exponential growth, social media is now regarded as the collective weight and barometer of thoughts and ideas about [...]
The case The recent ruling for ACAPOR case in Portugal-which is being analyzed further down-made me think about the online piracy legislation and a slight, but definitely not insignificant, alteration of it, that is currently taking place. Are the examples of SOPA, ACTA or even famous people’s open opposition against them, coincidental or do we [...]
Every year there is a Usability Award for the most user-friendly website. On www.frankwatching.nl (the web guide with tips, trends and events) they place weeks in advance of this award all kinds of interviews with randomly placed nominees. I found an article in which I read that in 2009 the site of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen [...]
What is the first thing you do when you wake up? For a huge amount of students the answer to this question is: hitting Facebook, even while still in bed. On the 4th of October 2012, Mark Zuckerberg informed the world by writing a Facebook message that more than one billion people are actively using [...]
Who or what is Mendo!? On an ordinary Thursday I’m walking in the well-known Amsterdam neighbourhood ‘de negen straatjes’ for an appointment with Joost Albronda, who is one of the owners of the [graphic] design agency and bookshop Mendo. Entering the shop I can’t stop looking at the beautiful interior, the shop can be described [...]
As a rational creature, man has invented many ways to exterminate his fellowmen; gallows, stoning, crucifixion, electric chair, burning at the stake, guillotine, firing squad, gas chamber, injection with poison are only some of these. Throughout the course of chronicles, history has proven that there is always a reason for humans to eradicate the [...]
Last month was another big moment for us new media geeks: Apple released the iPhone 5. It is even lighter, slimmer, faster and has a higher resolution than the iPhone 4S that came before it. Like with so many of Apple’s products, the iPhone 5 was highly anticipated and millions of people couldn’t wait to [...]
Who doesn’t love social media? Facebook has recently celebrated more than 1 billion active users (becoming one the biggest countries in the world), Twitter has the power to put politicians on the throne or to throw them out in the gutter, people happily (actually quite furiously) comment on forums and big corporations spend top dollars [...]
“It is time to be asking questions about technology. Where does it come from? Who makes it? And for what?” ― Bandi Mbubi (@ TED talk) Explosions of two plants that make Apple gadgets. A series of employee suicides at the Foxconn factory in China. Continuous reports of harsh working conditions. The situation is not [...]
Every website has a history, even though it is sometimes difficult to trace. This history or evolution can tell a lot about the company and it’s goals. Twitter is an example of a website that has encountered many different layout interfaces on it’s welcome homepage. But what do the signs really signify and how do [...]
Do you know the story behind your paper coffeecup? Are you aware of its original source and what happens to it once you dump it into the paper-bin? In a convincing video regarding the Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard provides a compelling and graphic overview on the consequences of conspicuous consumerism. The film offers a renewed [...]
Since the rise of web 2.0 and social media, companies and brands have altered their strategies and jumped into the opportunities that grew with this new digital era. New ways of advertisement and campaigning have found their way to the Internet and it’s users. This has brought with it a new form of surveillance: [...]
Last week a 19 year old man from Lancashire in the UK was found guilty of section 127 of the Communications Act; a British law which makes it an offence to send any message that would be considered ‘grossly offensive’ via a ‘public electronic communications network’. He was sentenced to three months in a young [...]
Last week’s announcement that the European Union has been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize has spurred a host of comments in both traditional and online media. Many critics decried the timing of the award committee, which they considered inopportune in light of the financial crisis that plagues Europe, or were critical about the apparent [...]
Laurentiu Pop is Managing Director for HTTPool Romania (part of the HTTPool Worldwide network) and has been passionate about digital for nine years. He started as a junior ARBOmedia, one of the biggest adnetworks in the country. Then he decided to see how things looked from the other side of the “barrier” and chose Initiave [...]
Considering that we have been publishing in print for more than 500 years, online publishing that has a history not much longer than a decade can only be seen as being in it´s very early stages. Newspapers that has had a profound place in print history must now adapt to this new way of publishing. [...]
“It was absurd (…) that American classrooms were still based on teachers standing at a board and using textbooks. All books, learning materials, and assessments should be digital and interactive (…).” (Isaacson,2011, p. 264) This is a quote from Steve Jobs, published in his biography written by Walter Isaacson. Internet, computers, iPad’s, and other ICT-products [...]
Annette Mees on theater and transmedia Annette Mees is director and co-artistic director of Coney in England. By using various media she creates special plays in which the audience is the hero: “The experience starts when you first hear about it and only ends when you stop thinking and talking about it.” You Have Found [...]
Lomography is the modern term for the type of film photographs taken with analog, simple cameras, initially produced by Lomo PLC in Sankt Petersburg in the ‘80s. In 1991, two students from Austria discovered a compact enigmatic camera which allowed the two to develop a creative, experimental style, by using the cheapest resources available. This resulted in [...]
INTRODUCTION Zesbaans is a digital media and design collective that experiments with media and interactivity. Zesbaans (Dutch for a six-laned highway) has been based in Utrecht, the Netherlands, since its founding in 2007 where it has been involved with projects like video installations in nightclubs and art gallery exhibitions. Very recently, the collective has moved [...]