Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Indie Culture: All Creative Work Is Derivative [Video]

 

In this thought-provoking illustration of derived artistic inspiration stretching as far back as nearly two thousand years ago, artist and free culture activist Nina Paley argues that all creative works are built on what came before, essentially challenging the very notions of copyright control.

via www.psfk.com

Infographic: The Rise and Fall of Social Networks

Facebook has announced that it now has 500m active users, just six years after it was first launched. The site has become the poster child of social networking on the web. However, other networks have not fared so well.

View Large | via www.bbc.co.uk

'No Phone Zone' Lesson Plan: Teaching Teens the Dangers of Texting & Driving

The "No Phone Zone" lesson plan will educate students on the dangers associated with distracted driving (texting while driving, talking on the phone while driving).

The creation of this lesson plan was inspired by an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show that focused on the dangers of distracted driving. According to a 2009 Pew Internet Study:

• One in three (34%) texting teens ages 16-17 say they have texted while driving. That translates into 26% of all American teens ages 16-17;

• Half (52%) of cell-owning teens ages 16-17 say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. That translates into 43% of all American teens ages 16-17;

• 48% of all teens ages 12-17 say they have been in a car when the driver was texting;

• 40% say they have been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger.

No Phone Zone Lesson Plan

The Oprah Winfrey Show has provided teens with a myriad of digital resources--including an easy online editor--needed to make a 60-second PSA.

Students can create their own media, and mash it together with Oprah's voiceover, footage, music from The Oprah Winfrey Show and the No Phone Zone logo.

Best of all? It's all free!

This lesson plan was created by Derek E. Baird and has been released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. This lesson plan is not endorsed or affiliated with Oprah, OWN or Harpo, Inc.

Update: Education World has selected my 'No Phone Zone' lesson plan as the "Tech Lesson of the Week!"

Update: Scribd, the social publishing network, has chosen my 'No Phone Zone' lesson plan as a featured document of the week! Thanks Scribd!

Weekly Wrap: BBC Digital Revolution, Creating Word of Mouth Buzz, 2010 Online Community Predictions, Perpetual Beta, Robots Attack & More!

5 Triggers for Creating Online Word of Mouth: Word of Mouth is clearly one of the fastest growing sectors in marketing. PQ Media’s recent study has it growing 14.2% in 2008 to $1.54B and expects it to reach $3B by 2013.

Powering that growth are social technologies that have made it increasingly easier for individuals to grow their sphere of influence and quickly spread content to their expanded social networks online. [WOMMA]

BBC Digital Revolution: Digital Revolution (working title) is an open source documentary, due for transmission on BBC Two in 2010, that will take stock of 20 years of change brought about by the World Wide Web. Sorta Related: Oprah's Film Club. [BBC] [Barking Robot]

13 Year Old Runs Up 22K Cell Phone Bill: A father is hoping his cell-phone service provider will cut him a break after receiving a bill for nearly $22,000 in charges made by his teenage son. [KTLA]

Streaming Will Never Stop Downloading: Far from being a cure for the industry's woes, substituting streams for downloads wastes bandwidth, reduces privacy and slows innovation. [Guardian UK]

Listen Without Prejudice: Dan Coates from Ypluse.com shares how to use the power of music to connect youth with the emotions that they feel as they discover themselves and the world around them. Also Related: For Gen Y, Music is Oxygen. [MediaPost: Engage Gen Y] [Barking Robot]

2010 Community Management Predictions: What will online communities look like in 2010? What will community managers be talking about? What legal changes are bubbling away? We asked some fantastic community managers for their 2010 predictions, and if their thinking comes true, 2010 is going to be a very exciting year. [Fresh Networks]

Beware the Youth--They May Think Your Marketing is 'Evil': The youth today is savvy; intelligent; and importantly, powerful. Powerful? Yes. Looking at demographics; purchasing power; and the extent of influence to set trends, this is a group to be admired; respected (yes, they ain’t no fools); and targeted intelligently. [MediaUpdate]

Facebook is Here to Stay: Facebook is not only the overwhelming favorite social networking site (SNS) among college students; it may rapidly become the only SNS that matters, according to research by Anderson Analytics. [Yahoo! News]

Perpetual Beta | The Communications Pro of the Future: The Communications pro of the future must be a master of three important disciplines: Radical Listening, Social Influence, and Perpetual Beta. Within each are new practical skills that will define the true PR master – the next generation trusted advisor. [Digital Influence Project]

Unknown Filmmaker Gets $30m for Robot Movie: Fede Alvarez, an unknown filmmaker from Uruguay, has been given $30m by Hollywood studio bosses - to turn his $500 YouTube video of a giant robot invasion into a movie. [NewsLite]

Augmented Reality Makes Money: Augmented reality start-up AcrossAir, which makes apps that help you find nearby subway stops and restaurants, turned profitable last month and is launching a bar finder this week. Also Related: Augmented reality glasses have been developed, projecting real-time language translation directly into people's eyes, Terminator style. [Venture Beat] [Brand Republic]

Introduction to Using Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.

The Commons provides free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof.

This printable guide provides an overview of how to use Creative Commons along with additional information regarding technical implementation on the Web. Introduction to Using Creative Commons

Additional Resources

• Creative Commons
• Flickr + Creative Commons
• Yahoo! Search + Creative Commons 
• Support Creative Commons

A Visual Breakdown of the Twitter Community

Originally uploaded by mkandlez on Flickr under a Creative Commons License.

Mary Poppins Remix'd

Related Resources

• Henry Jenkins > Convergence Culture
• Remix Culture
• Creative Commons > ccMixer
  

Mozilla, Peer 2 Peer University & Creative Commons Launch OER Program for Educators

The Mozilla Foundation, in collaboration with ccLearn/Creative Commons and the Peer 2 Peer University, launches a practical online seminar on open education.

This six week course is targeted at educators who will gain basic skills in open licensing, open technology, and open pedagogy; work on prototypes of innovative open education projects; and get input from some of the world leading innovators along the way.

The course will kick-off with a web-seminar on Thursday 2 April 2009 and run for 6 weeks.

Weekly web seminars introduce new topics ranging from content licensing to the latest open technologies and peer assessment practices.

The course is targeted at educators who want to help shape the open education future. Participants should have some knowledge of web technologies, or open content licensing, or open pedagogy (or all three), but don't need to be experts.

You can learn more about the course by clicking here.

Additional Resources

• Open Yale Courses
• Didactics World > Bridging the Digital Content Divide
• Creative Commons > Education
• Video: Wanna Work Together?
• Education Guardian Weekly > Reading Poetry at Yale...
• Didactics World > Open Content Provision Through ccLearn

Educator Guidelines: Fair Use in Media Literacy

The Center for Social Media at American University is proud to announce the upcoming release of the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. This code is a step-by-step guide to fair use in an academic setting that enables teachers and students who use popular culture to know when their uses are legal.

The Code of Best Practices was created in collaboration with the Washington College of Law’s Program on Information, Justice and Intellectual Property and with our new partner Media Education Lab at Temple University. The Code will be released in hard copy in Philadelphia at the Kirby Auditorium on November 11, 2009, and is available online here.

To get a sense of what the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy is all about, watch our Media Literacy video. [via]

Related Resources

• Creative Commons > Wanna Work Together?
• RIAA to Tennessee Schools: Show Us the Money
• Barking Robot > Open Educational Resources (OER)

Guest Post: The Highway Girl 2009 College Tour

I'm pleased to welcome Samantha Murphy, founder of The Highway Girl, as the first guest post here on Barking Robot. If you have an idea for a guest post, send me an email.

My name is Samantha Murphy and I'm a singer songwriter and Founder of The Highway Girl. I've been quoted widely in the press as being the voice for independent artists. I've participated in many academic and professional conferences, including a symposium at the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University. In addition, I went to Capitol Hill to speak on the issues surrounding digital music and copyright.

My show, The Highway Girl, is a traveling music show that's been running for over three years. Past guests have included Cary Brothers, Elvis Perkins, Inara George of Bird & the Bee, Mike Schmid, Teitur and Harvey Danger.

The Highway Girl has over a million subscribers. The show explores the convergence of music and technology, as well as the life of the artist. Samples of the show may be found on TheHighwayGirl.com artist page.

Students, Digital Downloads & Copyright

In the digital age, we're both hopeful and uncertain about how we will transform the music industry. How can we evolve as artists and become more open with what we create? I believe we can do that as we begin to trust that it's you, the people, who will support us not the industry.

It is the people, like your students, who buy our albums (and downloads) that keep us going. It is you, the person who has taken the time to find this great music, who matters most. You are the one who will keep great music alive by deciding who you will support. You have an opportunity to use your voice when you find music you love enough to pay for it.

As an artist who has spent a lot of time speaking at universities and conferences, it's clear to me that students need to be informed on the critical issues facing artists in today's ever changing climate. They also need a trusted source where they can discover great artists and music they will gladly support.

I believe that students want to support the artists and music they love. In the digital age, how do students find those artists when there are no trusted filters in place yet? The logical answer is to sample an artist's music before you dive in. The Highway Girl not only welcomes, but encourages students to sample the music of the artists we feature, while supporting their work in a variety of other ways.

The Highway Girl: 2009 College Tour

In an effort to help educate students, The Highway Girl is organizing a special college tour this spring and would love to include your college or university on our tour. We envision scheduling a 60-90 minute session for music, media and technology students.

The sessions will encompass a one on one artist interview between myself and a local singer songwriter, a short acoustic performance followed by a Q & A on digital music and copyright with the students. We're aiming to have an audience of 150-200 students in university auditoriums.

The Highway Girl Tour is supported by organizations like Digital Freedom, Creative Commons and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. To include your university on our itinerary, send us an email at sm (at) thehighwaygirl (dot) com and we will gladly respond with further information.

Related Resources

• SMtv Music
• The Highway Girl Blog
• Samantha Murphy & Digital Freedom

K12 Online Conference 2008: Call for Papers

The K12 Online Conference 2008 has just issued a call for proposals. This year’s conference is scheduled for October 20-24 and October 27-31 of 2008, and will include a pre-conference keynote during the week of October 13. The conference theme for 2008 is "Amplifying Possibilities."

Participation in the conference (as in the past) is entirely free. Conference materials are published in English and available for worldwide distribution and use under a Creative Commons license. The deadline for proposal submission has been extended to July 11, 2008.

You can get more information, including the proposal form, over on the K12 Online website.

Related Resources

• Creative Commons
• K12 Online > Ning
• Classroom 2.0

Adobe, Acrobat & Buzzword

Adobe has launched Acrobat.com a new suite of web-based services that includes, Buzzword, an online word processor that will--especially in the education 2.0 community--go head-to-head with Google Docs.

According to the Acrobat blog the new Acrobat Suite is comprised of three distinctive applications:

• Adobe Buzzword for creating and reviewing documents together.
• Adobe ConnectNow for holding full-fledged online web conferences/video conferencing with up to three people.
• The Acrobat.com organizer for sharing 5GB of files with others online, including the ability to convert 5 documents to PDF and embed your documents in blogs, wikis or other web pages.

Buzzword is compatible with MS Word and also allows you to export your document as a RTF, PDF or MS Word file. It also includes many features to allow for easy web-based collaboration such as real time editing, version control and a slick interface that allows you to easily insert and scale pictures in a Buzzword document.

One of the issues we faced on Yahoo! For Teachers was creating a rich text editor that was easy-to-use, compatible with MS Word and easily allowed users to insert and manipulate images in a document. I spent some time this afternoon playing around with Buzzword and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with what Adobe has put together.

One feature that I didn't see (and if anyone finds it, let me know) was a Creative Commons plug-in (similar to the one in MS Office) that automatically inserts a CC license into a Buzzword document. I feel that the inclusion of this type of plug-in would provide teachers with an opportunity to discuss copyright and digital literacy issues with their students. I also believe that a CC plug-in for Buzzword would provide a boost to the open educational resources (OER) movement.

As education continues to move towards the web, these types of collaborative tools will be increasingly important. It's clear that Adobe has spent a lot of thought into this product and the result is an impressive suite of free tools that will surely be popular within the education community. This type of virtual collaborative environment also appeals to the digital sensibilities of Gen Y students.

The Acrobat suite of tools are very impressive and just may well provide the first real peek into the 21st Century classroom.Side out: Adobe.

Game on.

Related Resources

• Acrobat Blog
• Google Apps
• Mash Up EDU: A New Digital Pedagogy

TeenFaze.com: T/ween Paradise

TeenFaze is a new social network focusing on the things (called "shows") that matter most to teens: music, fashion, advice, sports and movies. Here's the official community description from their About page:

"TeenFaze.com is a site for each and every one of you who is now experiencing life as a teenager. It’s your first step into the world of independence and we want to keep you informed about all the cool stuff going on out there that awaits your personal taste and choices."

While this is a relatively new site, it already has a great deal of advertising directed toward filling the wants, needs and "personal taste and choices" of their teen audience (and their parents). Disney, in particular, has several movie promotions on TeenFaze.

One of the more interesting aspects of TeenFaze is that some of the content published on the site is created by "real live" teens. TeenFaze is also offering internships for college and high school students to contribute editorial content for the site.

In an effort to engage users, TeenFaze has a "Rewards Points" system where users can garner points for participation an in turn, redeem them for prizes. Points are accumulated by posting the TeenFaze forums, rating a post, or selecting a post as a "favorite."

You are also able to download images or media that other community members have uploaded to their TeenFaze page. These pages don't contain any information regarding copyright or how these images can be remixed or reused in derivative works. One way to easily address this issue would be the integration of Creative Commons licensing into TeenFaze.

Another issue, in terms of social networking safety, is that you can't flag or report abuse in the forums or other areas of the community. There should be explicit avenues for TeenFaze members to report abusive behavior, speech, or cyberbullying.

Will TeenFaze turn out to be the next MySpace, Bebo or MyYearbook? Or will (fickle and savvy) t/weens skip web-based social networks and move along to mobile social networks. Time will tell.

Related Resources

• ConnectSafely
• TeenFaze Community Guidelines
• YPulse > Youth Media

[5/21 Update: I was contacted by Darren Polish at TeenFaze and he pointed out that there is indeed a link to "Report Abuse" in the TeenFaze forums. My apologies for overlooking that safety feature. TeenFaze has also added several new safety features, which are outlined here.]

Animoto: Learning Made Musical (and Fun)

Animoto is a slick new web app that takes your pictures, mashes it with audio, and creates a music video that can be exported to YouTube or embedded in a variety of social networks or blog.

Here's a Animoto short video I created using moblog pictures I took on a recent trip to San Francisco. I uploaded my pictures from Flickr, picked a slick track by The Dimes, and Animoto did the rest!

There are lots of ways you can use Animoto in the classroom. Animoto is a natural fit for project based learning activities. This is a great way to get students actively interested in history, literature or even science.

And unlike the open web, Animoto provides teachers and students with a controlled environment for them to create and share video. Other sharing options include email to a friend, downloads (for Pro accounts) and some sort of iTunes integration.

Creating a music video with Animoto is also a great way to open the conversation about copyright and Creative Commons. One of the barriers for educators using this type of technology is fear about using music and all the copyright issues that pop up when using an audio track in a video project.

Animoto has done the education community a great service by providing a wide variety of music that can be used by students and teachers. Creative Commons also has a wide selection of music that can be used in an Animoto movie.

You can import your images from all the major photo sites, including Flickr, Facebook, Picassa Web Albums, and Photobucket. Film shorts are free, and full-length videos are $3 bucks. All in all, Animoto sports some really amazing technology.

I have no doubt that the education community is going to create some really amazing projects using Animoto. And towards that end, I've created a public YouTube group, AnimotoEDU, where you can share your classroom project with other educators.

Related Resources

• YouTube Group > AnimotoEDU
• Animoto: The Buzz
• Creative Commons > Audio
• Animoto Blog
• Education & Copyright

Yale University: Embracing Open Education

Yale University has joined the OpenCourseWare (OCW) movement and is now offering free courses through Open Yale Courses that anyone in the world is free to participate.

Seven departments (astronomy, English, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology and religious studies) at Yale are among the first at the university to offer classes via the Open Yale Courses program.

The Open Yale site describes the program as follows:

"Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to seven introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The aim of the project is to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn.

Open Yale Courses reflects the values of a liberal arts education. Yale's philosophy of teaching and learning begins with the aim of training a broadly based, highly disciplined intellect without specifying in advance how that intellect will be used.

This approach goes beyond the acquisition of facts and concepts to cultivate skills and habits of rigorous, independent thought: the ability to analyze, to ask the next question, and to begin the search for an answer.

We hope these courses will be a resource for critical thinking, creative imagination, and intellectual exploration."

The Open Yale Courses have been funded and supported through grants from the William and Flora Hewitt Foundation, as well as the Yale Center for Media and Instruction. Open Yale Courses have also integrated Creative Commons licensing into their course materials.

Additional Resources

• Open Yale Courses
• Didactics World > Bridging the Digital Content Divide
• Creative Commons > Education
• Education Guardian Weekly > Reading Poetry at Yale...
• Didactics World > Open Content Provision Through ccLearn