Static Made | Linkage

Pretty Anti-Social →

Where Flickr deviates from the rest of the social pack, however, is with the company’s choice not to show how many friends or followers a user has.

This is something I’ve always loved about Flickr and a concept I’ve been pondering quite a bit recently. What if our follower counts on other platforms like Twitter and Facebook were not publicly viewable? How would that change the way we participate on these services, our objectives on them and how we interact with each other through them?

One of Flickr’s strengths has always been its community of users and I can’t help but think it’s because the quest for more followers has been removed from the equation.

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Rustbelt Almanac →

The Steel City. The Iron City. The City of Champions. While I’m not originally from Pittsburgh, I’m proud to call myself a Pittsburgher. The city is full of grit and rustbelt pride, but its understated nature is one of the things I love most. We’re not New York and we’re not Portland, and we’re completely cool with that.

Pittsburgh, along with many other rustbelt cities, is mostly content to fly under the radar. From Buffalo to Cleveland to Detroit, the rustbelt is home to vibrant arts, technology and maker communities. Naturally, the backbone to these communities is the network of talented people creating things within them. Often times, though, these people — these rustbelt innovators — go about their crafts with little fanfare or recognition.

Enter Rustbelt Almanac, an indie magazine concept currently in development and at the tail-end of a Kickstarter campaign. From the Rustbelt Almanac website:

While industry may have moved elsewhere, the work-ethic has not. The region is home to countless industrious people; artists, craftsman, laborers, entrepreneurs – Makers. That same void left by industry is the reason the region has such unimaginable potential for growth: there is room for the folks who want to take risks and start something new.

Right on. With a few days left in the funding campaign, these guys are close. I certainly plan to back them and hope they make it.

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The War Over the Open Web →

I didn’t want to post anything here about Google’s sunsetting of Reader, but this article by Barbara Fister is great and points to the larger issue: the platform war against the open web.

The Silicon Valley alternative to the control exerted over our cultural consumption by old-guard media once seemed refreshingly free. No more. It’s time to think more critically about what we have to lose and look for alternatives – maybe even before we have to.

– Barbara Fister for Inside Higher Ed

There is no mistaking it. The Googles, Twitters and Facebooks of the world want us operating within their walled social gardens. RSS stands in stark contrast to this mission by liberating content and distributing it democratically. Unfortunately, Google Reader is the latest, but not the last, casualty in the war over the open web.

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How to Be Free →

I started writing emails to my kids a while back, but haven’t yet mustered up the nerve to publish any of them here on the site. Brian Saemann also writes digital notes to his sons and this one is really wonderful. (via Michael Schechter)

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Coffee and Post Art →

Man Bartlett is the kind of artist that makes me think. He pushes buttons and operates with a keen eye toward innovation. With each new work and each new article, he always finds a way to leave me with many more questions than answers. I like that.

In his most recent post for Hyperallergic, Bartlett makes the argument that the internet as we know it today is a natural evolution from the coffee houses and salons of centuries past. He likens the modern concepts of following, tagging and platforms to the digital equivalents of these real-world, analog (for lack of a better word) gathering places and communities.

We are crafting our own cultural legacies, one post at a time. And these legacies are no longer relegated to locations (the coffee shops of Istanbul, the salons of Paris), but rather to platforms.

– Man Bartlett

A fascinating read. Particularly interesting are his thoughts on digital Post Artists using these platforms for creative expression. Check it out if you have the time.

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Arabic Programming Language →

Ramsey Nasser is a computer scientist and fellow at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center in New York. His creation “Alb” is a development framework rooted in the arabic alphabet. Part conceptual art piece, part vital technology development, Nasser’s project inspires a discussion about the accessibility of code and the diversity of coders.

“Practically speaking, it’s more sensible to just learn English in order to learn code. That shocked me,” says Nasser. “I believe that code and computation should be something anyone can access.”

This project is exciting to me on several fronts. I’m particularly drawn to projects and artworks that deal with the social implications of technology development and exponentially impact the accessibility of content on the web. This project accomplishes both and I’m interested to follow its lifecycle into future versions and releases.

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8-Bit Versions of History →

Seb Chan, of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, writing about acceptable completeness of online collection records:

I grew up on 8-bit computer games for a large part of the 1980s. There’s certainly nothing ‘lesser’ about 8-bit – and many of the best games and interactive fiction of that period are still as immersive and rewarding now as they were then. They just don’t ‘look’ that great – but your brain and imagination fills in the gaps.

Or in design-speak, there are certain affordances that 8-bit provides that are lost with greater resolution.

We shouldn’t underestimate the power of the public, or our visitors, to fill in the gaps too. We might just need to give them a little more than we currently do.

We’re currently dealing with this very issue at my museum, as we prepare to roll out a new website with an integrated online collection. During the past several months, I’ve been involved in daily discussions about what makes a record “complete enough” to publish online. There is certainly curatorial concern — professional unease — around the idea of releasing data records that aren’t perfect. However, I think the tide is starting shift from fear and uncertainty, to an acknowledgment of opportunity and potential for engagement around our collection object records and their various states of completeness.

Seb’s analogy of 8-bit games from the 80s is right on point and hits home for me, also a child of the 80s. I remember playing those games for hours on end, getting lost in the stories and diving deeper into the narrative. Screen definition was irrelevant. My imagination was filling in the blanks and I was determined to go farther. I needed to know more.

Our online collections can and should and need to inspire curiosity, connections and commentary. These are the promises and the duties of accessible published data. The responsibilities don’t end with the data, however. It’s our duty, as stewards of the data, to see that it’s cared-for and respected. Sometimes that means loosening our grip.

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On: Habit →

Mike Woycheck was one of the first bloggers I met here in Pittsburgh. It was 2006 or 2007, maybe. I was just dipping my toe in the Pittsburgh blogging community and learning all I could about Web2.0, as they called it then. During that time I looked to Mike for guidance and interesting ways to utilize these emerging technologies. And I still do.

I’m super glad to see Mike back in the long-form web writing circuit. From his recent post about habits and willing yourself to do incredible things:

Human beings are creatures of habit. Routine. Repeating. Repetition. The forming of the grooves in your brain like a record. That all start with trying something that you like or enjoy and keep doing it. This can be a guilty pleasure or a vice, but we face the same problems when we want to do something positive or even incredible.

An awesome post from a great guy. Welcome back, Mike!

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The Greatest Threats Come From Within →

Suse Cairns expounds upon her most dangerous idea about museums in the coming year: The greatest threats to museums come from within. On the surface this statement may seem pessimistic, but I feel the best part of the essay comes when Suse highlights the positive potential for the sector moving forward:

This is what I believe. We, as a sector, are in a hugely opportune place right now. We are incredibly well connected to one another, and to ideas from within and external to our own profession. A real energy has started emanating at many of the conferences I’ve attended. We drink about museums together, we talk, we share, and we work.

Social media, conferences, and the generosity of the people who work within the sector make it ever easier to forge strong relationships beyond the walls of our institutions, and hopefully also within them, and to share knowledge and vision with one another. Indeed, they also ensure that there are more ways than ever to speak to our audiences and communities, to invite them to be a part of our vision too. And this all gives us a strong position to build from.

I couldn’t agree more. The astounding passion and creativity and genius of the museum professionals I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know just in the past several months is jaw-dropping.

However, Suse is right. Insularity is the antithesis of progress. We need to look outside of the museum fishbowl for inspiration, collaboration and corroboration if we are to truly effect positive change within the sector. Adapting to shifting environments — be they technological, artistic, cultural or economic — is crucial, and we need to be embracing the examples of our counterparts outside the cultural sector.

Alternatively, we should be telling the stories of our own institutions on more complex levels. We need to share not just our own work, but also the work of others in the sector. We should be remixing the work of others, both inside and outside of the sector, and allowing for others to remix our own work. Innovation comes from the open flow of information.

It’s a great time to be working in a museum. I look forward to sharing some exciting projects from my own institution, as well as others, in the coming year.

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Tell Me Something I Don't Know

A while back, I was invited be a guest on the Tell Me Something I Don’t Know (iTunes Link) podcast. Jason and Jim have a really great show and I had a wonderful time chatting with them.

Over the course of an hour, we discussed art, technology, kids, copyright, productivity, mindfulness, bucket lists, marketing, regulating inputs, and much more.

You can stream the episode from the website or I highly recommend subscribing to the feed in your podcatcher of choice.