Hi. This post lists and links to my first 50 posts on this blog, indexing 50 brief critical essays on contemporary media culture. Topics include The Leveson Inquiry, Occupy Wall Street, Privacy, Music, Food, Economics and more. Try one. 1. Happy Birth Day! my blog is born 2. Gifts and Books, Books and Gifts books as... Continue Reading →
In New Zealand, electronic-bracelet-wearing Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has gone on the offensive again, launching a new dance video produced by Black Eyed Peas' musical director Printz Board that directly attacks John Banks, the NZ cabinet minister whom Dotcom claims asked for – and received – an anonymous and illegal $50,000 campaign donation from him.... Continue Reading →
As regular readers of this blog will know, I believe we are living through a profound cultural crisis as digital culture (OS3) undermines and overthrows literate culture (OS2). My new book, You Are Your Media, tracks this conflict across many different social spheres, from food to architecture to business and beyond. Remarkably, we can see... Continue Reading →
Yesterday I introduced the idea that the greatest transformative potential for any social initiative lies in creating feedback loops between OS1 and OS3. By OS1 I mean oral culture and technologies and by OS3 I mean digital culture and technologies. I also said that in order to effectively implement such strategies, which I refer to... Continue Reading →
A couple days ago I posted a recording called Where The Bears Go by my duo The John Waynes (so named because it consists of John Sobol (me) and Wayne Kelso). Today I posted a second recording by The John Waynes called The Evil I. For those keeping score, Where The Bears Go is a... Continue Reading →
Last night I was speaking with Moses, a visitor from Kenya, about the difficulty young people have finding jobs in his homeland, even when they have a degree. Because, he said, "It is not what you know that matters but who you know." Now this is a phrase I have also heard used to describe... Continue Reading →
For some years now I have been an active contributor to a terrific listserv called the Institute for Distributed Creativity (iDC), run by Trebor Scholz of The New School in NY. From now on I'm going to cross-publish my iDC posts here. My first such reposting is below. Subject: Re: [iDC] Can DIY education be... Continue Reading →
Late last night I met Amadou from Senegal and we started talking. As I always do whenever I meet anyone from somewhere else, I asked him about how people use digital technology in Senegal. Like Array of Words, who recently returned from the Philipines with tales of the Manilla Street Kid Digital Gift Economy, Amadou... Continue Reading →
YOU ARE YOUR MEDIA 