Making change and taking action are personal. Always has been. Now I find my commitment to sustainability has gone to another level as I like millions of parents before me have seen my worldview expand dramatically with the news that Sasha is modelling in London and Gabbie is studying acting at Fox Studio ...
As Virginia invaded our place from Bristol, Mal and I talked over Kofi with Gabbie about her future at the Studio and on Sunday ice cream against the sunset of at Watson Bay tastes the most nostalgic ... After achieving so much at swimming Gabbie passed the audition for the Brent Street Studio of Talent Development High School at Moore Park Brent Street is far more than a performing arts school. It is the energy centre of a much larger organisation, specialising in various facets of the entertainment industry. Students from an early age mix and mingle with professional performers. They watch actual rehearsals and are exposed to the real industry. This is unique and part of the culture that produces high caliber graduates year after year. When will I be famous? ELLE Macpherson's brother says he is fast expanding his child talent company to meet demand from active youngsters. Ben Macpherson's publicly-listed talent agency Artist and Entertainment Group acquired Sydney's Brent Street theatre and dance school in October and is now looking to take the brand national. Gabriella first Rich and now Famous ;-)
The Lives of Others 'Entering the blogosphere': some strategies for using blogs in social research … Since 1999 Media Dragon and other blogs have become a significant feature of online culture. They have been heralded as the new guardians of democracy, a revolutionary form of bottom-up news production and a new way of constructing self and doing community in late-modern times. This article highlights the significance of the blogosphere as a new addition to the qualitative researcher's toolkit and some of the practical, theoretical and methodological issues that arise from this. Some of the key ethical issues involved in blog data collection are also considered. The research context is a project on everyday understandings and experiences of morality
Jay Rosen The limitations of the crowd
On Creative Economy, MARGARET SIMONS looks at the results of an experiment in online reporting launched by Jay Rosen
Just when you think you’ve got a handle on what the internet is or might be, it shifts. Those of us who have in middle life familiarised ourselves with Google and email while dismissing social networking as a passing fad for teenagers should be thinking again. The data suggest that social networking may turn out to be what the Internet is all about – its killer application – and that our children will think us stupid for not seeing this at first glance.
Last month’s issue of Computer magazine made a bold claim – that social networking internet sites were not merely time wasters or means for teens to organise parties and share music. Rather they were “an evolution in human social interaction.” Professors Alfred Weaver and Benjamin Morrison – both researchers in computer science – claimed that the use of social networking sites is causing a major shift in the internet’s function and design...
• WANDER the mahogany-veneer rows of most Australian newsrooms over the last five years and you would have heard from various old farts that the internet was nothing to get too excited about. At first it was said to be a passing fad. Once that line ceased to be credible, it was said that it didn’t really matter. What mattered was content, and the credibility of the brand, and most of all good journalism. The method of delivery made no essential difference.
• · The internet looks like becoming a single social networking platform Catching up ; Slavic Village has street after empty street of boarded-up houses, their roofs caving in, collapsed balconies hanging from the fronts of buildings. Subprime people in Sydney all living in the streets …
• · Michael Fullilove of Lowy Institute for International Policy:
This paper argues that diasporas (communities which live outside, but retain their connections with, their homelands) are getting larger, thicker and stronger – with important implications for global economics, identity, politics and security. World wide webs: Diasporas and the international system ; Effective protection against insider trading is critical to market confidence and, over time, liquidity. This paper deals with the key company and market risks associated with poorly governed director and executive security trading. Director and executive security trading
• · · It remains something newspapers are embracing as the 2008 presidential campaign hits its stride and the primaries loom Political Bloggers at Newspaper Sites in Drivers Seat for 2008 Campaign Coverage ; Today I heard Raintown by Deacon Blue for the first time in about 20 years Artistic coverage - Nostalgia for Beginners: Raintown
• · · · Analytics is like writing, or art. There isn't a single "analytics" to learn, rather it's a state of mind paired with a set of skills. You need to love exploration and discovery, solving puzzles, shaping data like clay, proving yourself wrong. Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written. All of this information is saved. We Feel Fine ; Ingram chairman John Ingram issued a brief statement on Amazon's recent move to drive POD publishers to use Booksurge if they want their books sold directly by the e-tailer, noting it clearly is alarming many of our publisher partners. At the same time, Ingram reports that so far we've been unable to get a response directly from Amazon.com. He says, We all live in a world where decisions are made about insourcing and outsourcing, and free choice is important. At Ingram Book and Lightning Source, we are going to work really hard to continue to be the compelling choice as publishers make their outsourcing decisions.... At Lightning Source, we produce a great product and thus do justice to our publishers' valuable titles. There is no question that we provide the highest print quality, the fastest turnaround speeds, and the most comprehensive portfolio of channels for a publisher's books. Amazon changes rules for print-on-demand publisher
• · · · · Bank bailouts: corporate success is the success of a few individual executives; but when the company fails, we must all fail with it. Socialism for the rich: the unwise free market; ON MY 50th birthday I've officially become a happily grumpy old man. Here for the record is what makes me grumpy.
People who talk and read during the pre take-off airline safety demonstration - especially the federal minister who chatted through the life jacket instructions on her way from Adelaide to Sydney the other day.
Wires under my desk that become entangled without being touched. Politicians and bureaucrats who fail to recognise they are the employees and we are the employers. People who take forever to say goodbye when leaving one's home. Back-office types who request the "original" death certificate when sorting out an estate. Marx and Engels
• · · · · · Graeme Wood, the founder of one of this country's most successful online destinations, actually took "making money while you sleep" to a logical conclusion by creating a site that effectively sells beds at hotels to a world virtually addicted to travel. ONE of the greatest pay-offs for the new-age online entrepreneurs is that as soon as they create a website that eyes want to surf to on the internet, on a regular basis, and the marketing campaign has some traction, it's just a matter of making money while they sleep. What If Wotif; Here’s a cool demonstration of pure engagement. No, it’s not an innovative new media idea or the hottest viral on YouTube. It’s a “How tall are you?” measuring stick. On its own, knowing Arnold Schwarzenegger is 187 cm tall doesn’t grab me, but the knowledge that Maria Sharapova and Jozef Imrich is as well ;-)