Archive for April, 2005
What a kick we had about 16 people or so gathered together talking about what each of us were doing and what we see coming in this medium. Tony grabbed a lot of attention when his SLR started whirling then the comment was made “hey has anyone noticed the strange man taking all the pictures?” from that point it was on. How to make money and business models dominated early conversation then the gadgets and tools took over. I did not mingle as much as I would have liked but I had gear to keep up with and video and audio feeds to baby sit. I have quite a bit of content to post in relation to this event and I plan on rolling it out over the next few days.
Tags: Podcasting
Keeping it between the lines I talk about the upcoming Podcasting Hotel event. We did a walk through of the 
Jupiter Hotel and looked at the Internet access situation. Every thing is looking really good the web site should be up soon at www.podcasthotel.com
I will be attending the: Portland Podcasting April Meetup
When: Thursday, April 28 at 7:00PM
Where: Cedar Hills Crossing Conference Room
3205 SW Cedar Hills Blvd
Beaverton, OR 97005
503.643.6563
For more info check out www.meetup.com
I would encourage anyone interested in Podcasting to come check out this group out.
I talked about one of the recent editions of the Daily Source Code where Adam Curry talked about Podcasting for the blind. I highly encourage anyone looking for a topic or content for their Podcast to consider this as an option. For more information check out this web site http://www.blindcast.com/
MP3 File
Tags: Moblog
Well I feel like the schmuck geek I sat for about an hour tonight at the Blue Moon waiting for folks to show up. I had Saturday in my head and must have at least 10 times looked at a posting that said 4-22-05 but my fixation on Saturday let me sip down 2 Hammer Heads before I called my buddy to have him look online to check the posting for this event. Only to have him say to me hey wasn’t the 22nd yesterday. So with shame in my eyes I look up and my wife and say “uh honey it was last night sorry.” Crap I even put it in my calendar wrong. So after I gave Alex a call to apologies for missing the event I made my way home via “Hollywood’s” house and decided to write this up. Well this Geek had a liquid dinner and hopes that those who I was to have met for the first time tonight, excuse me I mean last night, will forgive my tardy attendance of this event.
Tags: Uncategorized
Well I was all excited about Mobloging using Skype but I ran into troubles. I tried from two computer but both had issues on one system with a crappy microphone head set I have had forever the sound quality was so poor it kept thinking I was finished and when I listened to the play back you could hardly hear me. Up stairs in the studio I could not get Skype to take my pass code to even get in to try. Alas this experiment in the lab was a complete bust. So it is I will just have to formulate another experiment and see what I can cook up.
MP3 File
Tags: Moblog
After Alex Williams posted up our meeting I decided to finally give this Mobloging a shot and it turned out pretty darn good. This is a small snippet of me talking about the new updates for the ManyOne website and a good dialogue on Creative Commons. I also said I would track down the name of the fellow who added the enclosures plug-in to movable type his name is Brandon Fuller and information on the plug-in can be found at http://brandon.fuller.name/archives/hacks/mtenclosures/, thanks Brandon. I also made reference to a new website called pocstguest.com http://www.podcastguests.com/ you should check this out if you are a guest or a host for a podcast. Well I hope you all enjoy the content and I will keep churning it out. Until next time –John Anthony Hartman
MP3 File
Tags: Moblog
Sitting down at the webmasters round table at Internet World in 1995 and hearing the debate over content, context and clarifications of standards in their infancy, I had to smile. It was like watching the genesis of the automobile or being in Menlo Park debating the uses of electricity in the last century. This Internet which was slow and mostly textual was so radical in its potential we are still struggling to find out what we can do with this incredible new tool. Instant access to all collected knowledge is nothing to be taken lightly.
One of the first problems the Internet faced was how were we going to get at all this data. Then we moved on to how to categorize all of these web pages to create a usable interface to navigate in this world wide web of interconnected documents and pictures. So the web browser was defined and we began bookmaking our googlings like a bunch of yahoo’s into a confined window. We moved forward and back reloading or histories with plug-ins and link bars eventually integrating multi-media content but we still were confined to minimize able boxes or “windows” to experience the web through.
The concepts of virtual space, hyper space or cyber space are not new but they have never truly been realized. Some very cool concepts in 3D have come and gone but like the 3D movies of the past with cheesy paper glasses they were just fads. These attempts to actualize these realities have been met with bandwidth issues and proprietary structural problems. Now as if the Lilliputians have cut the cables the sleeping giant awakes. The flat world UI is headed for the scrap heap and our natural human experience of haptic 3D interaction is being envisioned as an interface exposing the giant potential of the web.
I for one hope the vision of movement in true space to navigate through data becomes a reality soon. To reach a reality that is not just virtual but visceral and extend our interaction with machines and other carbon based units into fabricated recreations of every day places and unimagined spaces. To be able to cross the Delaware with Washington in a simulated history lesson or conduct business face to face, even though we physical are across the world. The ability to share objects in virtual space as well as manipulate the CAD and mold the object into a new and innovative product will revolutionize manufacturing and many other industries. These are just a few of the possibilities that this thing we now call the World Wide Web can evolve into. This underlying frame work to tie knowledge and people together from all over the globe has so drastically changed the way we work and play in only 10 years that it is oft times unimaginable to grasp the possibilities for the next 50.
I am truly blessed that I have come to realize that it is time to act. To quote myself from a letter I wrote a little while back “All the old feeling immediately rushed to the surface and I realized what am I doing? My quest to try and find the answer as to how we were going to move beyond the flat world interfaces had been locked in some unexciting corporate comma. I had settled but it seems that the passion was still burning coals just waiting to be stoked by the winds of change.” Those winds have started a raging fire and I will not burn out again there is too much to be lost if I slip back into that corporate comma.
It is time for innovators and artists to join forces and create the natural systems that are sure to come. We need to see the expansive bandwidth that stares us in the face and design the new and radically different interfaces of tomorrow and beyond. Enter ManyOnes Universal Browser concept. “Over time, the ManyOne service will evolve to feature information in 3D, audio, video clips and other forms of rich media, allowing users to “fly through” worlds of information with just a click of a mouse and enjoy a fun, new way to explore information.1″ An open source extension of Mozilla with a standardized X3D creamy center this browser not only takes the cake but seems to be the cake.
The idea of a web interface that allows one to experience this “rich media” in a more natural way to move through the solar system as I would as an astronaut. To see the relation of Pluto and its moon and know that if I were sitting on Voyager I would be having a very similar experience is radical in its effect on not only education but the way in which we view the universe in which we live.
To answer the question posed at the beginning: Where in the World Wide Web are we going?
We are moving into a time of ever expanding possibility and like no other time in history we have the potential to create our own existence and make anything imagined if not a “reality” a “virtual reality”. I know that this term has become almost pass? and we have been deluged with gee wiz to the point of disbelief when it comes to 3D/VR etcetera but the truth of the matter is we were all given a glimpse too early. The reality of 1995 was text and a few pictures and we are all watching Lori Singer or Pierce Brosnan dawn incredible contraptions to float through cyber space. The truth will be far more simple than that. Motion capture web cams with software to bring us into the action while Voxel 3D displays shows us the environments we are trying to navigate. Mass market is not complex and fragile it is prolific and simple. Maybe DARPA will dawn the HUDs and fly through moving floored cyber experiences as they perfect field manipulation to create a solid hologram, but you and I wont see that any time soon.
Keep on creating and evolving the web and we will all mold our own future.
Tags: Future Tech
I am currently working for a company called Many One located down in California. This is the most amazing experience I have ever been involved with. I can not even begin to explain to you the utterly incredible things that we are working on. In fact due to NDA I literally can’t. What I can tell you is this; we will be evolving the Internet and the way that you as a consumer interact with data and rich media.
This is just a snippet from the Many One web site:
“Imagine piloting your browser through millions of stars in our Milky Way galaxy - accurately placed - and learning, playing, talking with others around the world who share your passion. Or fly over an accurate, photorealistic virtual Earth exploring the contours of the Grand Canyon, swimming with the fish of the Great Barrier Reef and soaring through the canopy with the birds of the Amazon Rainforest.
You have just imagined the Digital Universe, powered by ManyOne. We believe it represents the most compelling opportunity to reshape the Internet since the birth of the Web.”
We are developing these environments and working with some of the most innovative and amazing people I have ever met.
Here is what some people are saying about ManyOne:
“Is this the new PBS of the Web? Wow!”
- Dan Gillmor, San Jose Mercury News
” … could ultimately turn the Web into a visually stunning and rewarding experience.”
- Neal Weinberg, Network World Fusion
“ManyOne Network is a high-minded business.”
- Peter Lewis, Fortune Magazine
“… a portal network that will probably rival AOL.”
- Michael Krasny, KQED
With partners like NASA,
The National Library of Medicine, University Of California Berkeley, American Museum of Natural History, National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), Boston University,
Environmental Protection Agency and more you can see on the web site, you can imagine the amount of scientific information and data that will be tied into the Universal Browser.
Again due to the limitations I am under from the NDA my ability to give you the details is limited. However if you want to know a
little more check out the Podcast I have done on this topic. You can check out more by keeping your eye on their web site http://www.manyone.net
Tags: ManyOne
Its official I have registered for Gnomedex and I am looking forward to seeing Seattle again. If you who don’t know what Gnomedex is you should check out http://www.gnomedex.com. This event is being hosted by Chris Pirillo and the key note is being given by Adam Curry it happens June 23-25, 2005 at the Bell Harbor Conference Center.
As if this was not enough on July 15-17, 2005 in Portland, Oregon another great event will be held called the Podcast Hotel. “The Basics: For a few days in July, a funky, retro hotel will become a podcast and videoblog studio. Rooms will be for recording, editing and producing. The court yard will be a media lounge. The underground club will be for podcast concerts. And the city of Portland, along with the rest of the world, will become our stage.” Details on this event are still being worked out but if you are interested check out Alex Williams blog on Corante’s web site. http://www.corante.com/podcasting/archives/authors/Alex.php
Tags: Uncategorized
Well I was all excited for our big Vegas trip. I had planes of trying out Mobloging and getting a podcast done from the road but alas the fates conspired against me. The travel was not all that horrible I took along my Shuffle and listened to The Chris Pirillo show and a few other podcasts and made good time. Having arrived before my wife I spent a little time on the phone with some colleagues and partook of a fine malt beverage while I waited. On the shuttle and to the hotel 
lickity split every thing was going just fine until we walked in the door of the hotel and then it began. Not only was my wife’s Juvenile Justice conference going on but the Morticians, Cheerleaders, Hydro solutions providers, Pizza Makers and Spring Breakers were all in town.
I should have known when the woman sitting next to me on the plan said she had to get a hotel in Henderson because everything was booked. Starving and waiting in the first of many lines we slowly wound our way to the check in counter where we were processed and sent to the North Tower. I am guessing that the bell hops were on strike because they were no where to be seen. Hauling all the extra equipment I had brought along to do said podcast I chunked up to the 23rd floor and walked to the far end of the hotel. At this point having let my pregnant wife have the roller bags, I dropped the bags I had been caring and pushed my shoulders back into socket. NO more will I travel with any bag that does not have the roller wheels and a handle!
Preparing to gnaw on my own arm for lack of sustenance we proceed to the elevator to get some food. After what seems like an eternity, we later found out that the North Tower had two broken elevators, we like cattle squeezed into the elevator. At last free of the confinement of the joyous ride down with a group of people I would normally avoid we move to the yet another line for lunch. So the day continues on like this until we finally lay our head down on the ? inch mattress for a miserable nights sleep.
So the week proceeds I win a little loose a lot and realize I am the worst ex-smoker ever. Note to casinos a non smoking section would have kept me playing but the smoke drove me away. My wife and I both get sick and spent a good portion of our time in the horrible bed trying to stay well enough to go have some fun before we leave. So one night while she rested up I went with a friend to the strip to play around. So we gamble and after very limited success we decide to try our luck back at our hotel. We go up to hop on the monorail and it was broken. Well the people watching us shove our tickets in at the front did not bother to tell us that this “Most modern monorail in the world”
was broke. So after listening to the PA tell us about the broken monorail for about 10 min we decide screw it let get a cab. Just as we are about to walk down the stairs here the monorail comes so we queue up and all the other doors open except for the one we are standing at. So we stand looking at the door wondering what the ___ when a maintenance guy comes over pulls a hex key and opens the door.
We hop on get a seat and prepare to head back to the hotel. At least that is what we thought. That’s right you guessed it now the door won’t close. A series of smacks whacks and a few grunts later maintenance guy has no luck. He tries all sorts of non mechanical tricks to get the door shut and still nothing. I notice him walk away and think ok well he’s going to get a tool or something. Nope he comes back after a few minutes and repeats the smack and whack. A few more of the same and its now getting ridicules, I point at a cab down on the street and we start to move for the door when maintenance guy returns and repeats the same thing all over again only this time with a twist he adds some swipes to his repertoire. Sliding his hand down the seam of the door he finally gets the outer door to close and swoosh were monorailin.
The best part was when the monorail stopped a couple of stops latter and it announced that everyone must get off “last stop”. Knowing that we had more stops to come my buddy and I sat tight but a lot of people got off at the closed convention center. They then watched the doors close and those of us who knew better swoosh away.
We had booked tickets to Zumanity for Saturday so the big day finally arrived and we went out to eat at Nine Fine Irishmen at New York, New York and then caught the show. Great Bangers and Mash and a nice Harp to top it off, they didn’t have Killkenny though very disappointing, but all and all a good meal. We then proceed to file into the theater to see the show. All I can say is wow I mean these folks were adding new chapters to the Kama Sutra right before our eyes. Talk about Bangers and Mash yowza! I have no idea how they bent and twisted like that and I can’t imagine myself even attempting one of those moves with out ending up in a full body cast but it was very interesting to say the least.
This night and one other when we had dinner at the MGM Grand were really the only good points of our Vegas trip so I don’t see us going back anytime soon especially not with a baby on the way. So Vegas was a bust. I keep hoping that I would hit some big jackpot to off set all the bad mojo but to no avail. We flew back home and I now have kicked into full head cold action. Ouch I am so stuffed up and my throat is like sandpaper I guess I’m not as wild and crazy as I once was.
Tags: Vacation
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