Since it seems I still can't post the links to everyone's blogs in the description field on the left, here are the links again to everyone's page:
donna | julia | lenara | loubna | marguerite | masako | naz | reina | carol

Although it's the last minute to discuss, I'm wondering if we are really going be able to see the repository this evening? According to Marguerite, there seems to be no repository exhibition, right? Should we just go anyway?
Martin, I hope you can get this message before 5pm and post an answer...

Donna: Mahir's webpage can be found at:
http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/primall/mahir/

There's also a huge number of other sites devoted to him - you can try http://www.mahircentral.com as well - they have a list of Mahir-related links divided by category.

And if you're interested in stories of accidental popularity on the Internet try also http://www.amiallyourbaseornot.com - In this case not a person but a sentence from a videogame became famous and generated hundreds of spin-offs.You can try reading the story first before watching the movie.

CD-ROM

The CD-ROM Survivors: Testimonies of the Holocausthas arrived and is available for borrowing this week.

I've put it in locker #88 on the 9th floor (above the KU), next to the Center for Educational Technology. The locker has a combo lock, of which I'll send you the combination by email this evening.

Please try to review the CD-ROM before class this week. You should be able to get a good idea of its overall structure and functioning, as well as watch at least one of the testimonies it includes, in around 2 hrs.

Home Pageavailable for download

I've just uploaded the files of Doug Block's film Home Page the KU dropbox at the New School. The dropbox is inside the New School firewall, so can't be accessed from outside, but if you're at the KU you should be able to login to the box using a standard FTP client and download the files to a Zip disc.

The dropbox address is: roadrunner.newschool.edu. You don't need a userid/password - the box is anonymous login.

Unfortunately, the box is emptied every day at 11 am, so you'd have to download before 11 tomorrow. I'll upload the files again later this week in case you miss the chance to get them this time around.

Links

For anyone not familiar with HTML and wants to add links to their posts, here's a link to the tutorial on how to make links on the WebMonkey site. This is a great place to get a quick intro to HTML.

Hey all,

Carol, here's a link to Jennicam, or you can just follow the link on the syllabus on interzone. Weren't you researching CameraPlanet though?

Donna, we weren't able to review the footage today because of a mix-up with the tapes - however we'll be reviewing them tomorrow at around 1:30 in the Center for Educational Technology (CET), upstairs from the KU on the 9th floor. Anyone who can stop by will be welcome. We're planning to pull a couple of clips from last week or the first week to show in class, and I'm hoping to post these on interzone over the weekend.

I'm currently trying to get a dropbox set up where I can upload either all the footage files from a given week, or at least selected highlights, which would be available for download by anyone in the class. This would be password protected, not open access. More on this in class tomorrow.

Hope you've been finding the webcam sites interesting, and remember to post your response/comments/questions about them on your weblog by the end of today so we can review them before class tomorrow.

See you tomorrow!

Okay, here's the list of blogs so far. I had to take you all out of the description field because it's limited to 500 characters, so I'll have to figure out where to put you! This will do for now. So in alphabetical order...

donna
julia
lenara
loubna
marguerite
masako
naz
reina

Seems like most people in the class have now managed to accept your invitation to join our communal weblog (i.e. this one!)

I've sent out new invitations to anyone who hasn't yet signed up. You won't be able to post to the blog until you do so.

The rest of you: when you login to blogger now, you should see "zone" listed along with your personal weblog. Just click on it to go to the edit page for zone, and start posting!

Remember to compose any longish posts in a text editor offline and cut-and-paste them into blogger's edit window. If you get error messages, incomplete page loads, or your browser freezes, etc., try this: log out (if possible) and/or quit browser, then after a couple of mins relaunch browser and log back in. You may find that a post/edit you made has been implemented - it can take a minute or two for a new post/edit to work its way through the system.

One other thing - I've been having trouble with getting the "view web page" button to work in Netscape. In Internet Explorer, though, it works just fine. So maybe IE is the best browser to work in after all...

A reminder that Lev Manovich will be signing copies of The Language of New Media this evening at the New Museum of Contemporary Art on Broadway (south of Houston) at 6. If you haven't already picked up a copy of the book, this is a good chance to do so and get the author's autograph!

By now you should have set up your personal weblog on Blogger - if you haven't done this, please do so as soon as possible. If you've been having problems and were unable to do so, please let me know by email before class tomorrow.

You should also and received, and accepted, an invitation to join this weblog (which will allow you to post to it). Use this as a sort of asynchronous chatroom, for posting announcements and/or annotated links to sites/page relating to the class.

Some of you have been asking about the content of posts on your personal weblog. A reminder that you're required to post at least one question or comment about the assigned reading or online materials by midnight Thursday before a given class (i.e. at midnight today). This is meant to serve as a basis for class discussion the following day. For this reason, on Friday before class, try to take a look at what other people in the group have posted on their blogs (links to all class blogs will be on the zone page).

In terms of the content of "response" posts, try to be concise - remember that yours will be only one of about a dozen other posts people will be looking at. Don't worry about saying the "right thing" - your goal should be simply to raise something which you think it would be interesting and/or worthwhile discussing in class. To this extent, it's useful to think of your post in terms of a specific CLAIM you're making about the materials, a QUESTION you'd like to raise to them, or a FOLLOW-UP to a point someone else has made, either online or in class (for this reason it's important to be attentive not just to me but to what other people in class are saying!)

In your posts, be specific about the context you're referring to and make your claim/question/followup as focused as possible - avoid vague, generalized, or over-subjective posts. If you're making a claim, in particular, give reasons for how you arrived at it, and think about how you'd support it if challenged (examples, etc.) Referencing texts we're reading the class can be a useful starting-point for discussion (use short quotations or give page numbers).

In the case of this week's topics, here are a few questions to get you started. I'm especially interested to hear what you made of Justin Hall, the main character of Doug Block's film Home Page, as well as of the blogs of Meg, Jason and any of the other links. How would you characterize the various positions of the different people in the film vis-a-vis new media technologies and their potential/threat? How does what Justin or Meg are doing relate to older media/cultural practices (diaries, home movies, photo collections, the fridge door). How are new media and communications technologies impacting social relations, our sense of personal identity, our experience of time and space? What are the ethical issues raised by posting personal histories in the public domain of the web?

I'll be evaluating the quality of posts by their success in generating productive discussion of and reflection on the course materials. Claims and questions will be evaluated by their insight/sophistication, followups by their responsiveness to comments by other group members.

Last week, I also asked for feedback about the project of videotaping part of the class - we'll be discussing this at the beginning of class tomorrow, but in the meantime I'd welcome any comments or suggestions on this weblog for how we can make best use of this resource for the class.

Hope these guidelines help - feel free to ask for more details about any of the above points in class tomorrow.

I'm adding new blogs to the left column as they're coming in. We'll spend part of class on Friday discussing any problems you might have had - on the whole I've found Blogger pretty trouble-free (which is why I decided to use it), but there may be firewall issues if you're accessing it from within the New School.

Paul - yes, if you can make it to the book signing at the New Museum on Thursday, you'll be able to get the book there.

Hi everybody!

Lev Manovich's lecture at the new museum this thursday at 6PM includes a book signing session, so the book should be available for sale there! Hey, and you can even get it signed! :)

Welcome to the zone...

This weblog is for conversation about anything relating to the course by the class. Remember that this isn't your personal blog (which you should have created anyway), but for discussion among the group, like a BBS.

You should get an email message soon inviting you to become a contributor to zone. If you've already set up a Blogger account, you don't need to reply to it - the zone page should show up on your list of blogs when you login and you can post to it. If it isn't, try replying to the email and see if that works. If you still can't access it by next Friday, let me know.

Martin