blogs buddhist facebook iPad iPhone mobile phones multitasking social social networking Twitter: buddhist facebook iPad mindfulness mobile phone social media twitter
by Anthony
leave a comment
Mindful Social Media Practice
I found this article on the Buddhist website Tricycle.com titled:
10 Mindful Ways to Use Social Media
http://www.tricycle.com/community/discuss-10-mindful-ways-use-social-media
The article really spoke to me in terms of how many people could use social media but often don’t. In fact, it seems to me that many of the complaints about social media stem from their interactions with or understanding of social media by those who don’t practice mindfully. (And I’m sooo guilty of this too!)
Ever hear someone complaint that Twitter is a broadcast medium where everyone is shouting and no one is listening? Or that they’re afraid spending their whole lives on Facebook? If you use social media mindfully, authentically, aware of your intentions, truthfully and in a helpful way, while still being here, now, in the present moment with the people you’re with I believe many of those complaints would begin to dissipate.
It’s when we begin to use social media as a coping mechanism to escape the reality we’re in that often times leads to this all-or-nothing outsider mentality. What mindful social media practice means to me is that when I’m online, I can be totally online. When I’m offline, I can do that with my full attention too. It’s when I get distracted in between… usually on my phone, answering an email or responding to a post while walking down the hallway that I realize I’m not mindful of reality. I’ve found it much more helpful to eat while I eat, surf while I surf, and walk when I walk. And that doesn’t mean that since I have the internet in my pocket I can’t look something up when I need too, even if it’s in the middle of a meeting.
So the question is, are you using social media to escape reality?
blogs elearing links multichronic_classroom social networking Twitter web2.0: education higher education professionals social networking students twitter twitter lists web 2.0
by Anthony
leave a comment
Twitter for Students
I was thinking about compiling a list of possible use case scenarios for Twitter in education and found some great links that already do that:
There’s one top tip I couldn’t agree with more:
Track a professional: If you’re interested in pursuing a particular career and want to learn more about a certain leader in that field, you can “follow” a professional’s tweets.
For lists of the Tweeters I follow in specific fields, visit:
http://twitter.com/#!/anthonyfontana/lists
I am always willing to find new folks to follow in each of those fields as well. So send any suggestions to @anthonyfontana or comment below.
creativity gaming: angry birds creativity economy games gaming iPad iphone ipod itouch rovio video games
by Anthony
leave a comment
Imagining A Different Angry Birds
Wouldn’t it be great if Rovio, the makers of the popular game Angry Birds, came out with a version of the game in which you could design your own levels?
Imagine a nice touch interface where the building blocks – wood, stones, ice, etc. – were available to drag and drop into a set of your choice. You could place the pigs where ever you wanted, assign which birds could be used, and test to see how hard your puzzle would be.
Then, let’s say you were able to post the puzzles you created for others to play? You could be awarded “designer” points for how many times they were played. They could rate also them for more points. Points could be turned in for rewards, badges, new games, etc.
This is how games establish creative economies. Now that the playability is beginning to wear off on Angry Birds, it’d be great to play with it as a creative tool and have as much fun as the devs have.
applications best of browser facebook gaming google hardware iPad mobile phones movies music social social networking Twitter web apps web2.0: 2010 Android angry birds app of the year apps best of chrome facebook game of the year google google voice grooveshark hulu hulu plus iOS iPad iTunes movie of the year netflix pandora technology The Social Network web apps worst of
by Anthony
6 comments
Best and Worst of 2010
Best of 2010:
My ‘Best of’ list may help you save a few bucks next year, be more (or less) productive, or just keep you busy clicking links for a while.
Device: iPad
http://www.apple.com/ipad/
I take it everywhere. It’s my GPS, MP3 player and radio while I drive. It’s my pencil and paper at work, it’s my computer of choice, even if it’s not capable of everything I need at all times. My top uses and apps:
- Safari: Email and web surfing (including Facebook, Google Docs, and Google Voice)
- Netflix, YouTube, VLC Media Player, and TED Talks for video video video
- Twitter, Flipboard and Newsy for news
- Pages, Evernote, and Keynote for word processing and work
- Pandora and Clock Radio for music
- Sketchbook Pro and Adobe Ideas for drawing
- Kindle for reading
- GPS Drive HD and Maps for driving and directions
- Skype (with subscription) for phone calls
All around app: Google Voice
https://www.google.com/voice
This app is totally free (used in a browser) and has saved me $15 a month in texting fees by routing the SMS texts thru my email and data plan on my phone. I can also use the Google Voice app on my Blackberry to send or receive texts if I wish. I get my voicemail transcripts in email to read when I can’t take a call. It’s a game changer for saving money.
Biggest Surprise: Google Chrome
http://www.google.com/chrome
The most secure browser out there and perhaps the fastest one too. I now know why they made this little browser into it’s own operating system. I’m already living in it. Customize it with extensions and without the (Firefox) lag. Here’s a few I like:
- Google Voice – get notified and answer texts without leaving your tab
- Google Tasks – a to do list
- Google URL Shortener – keep it short, tweet from there
- Evernote
Music: Pandora/GrooveShark
http://www.pandora.com/
http://listen.grooveshark.com/
Everyone uses Pandora. The fact that it’s on every device I own makes it ultimately useful at all times. Gooveshark is another great web app where you can actually listen to the songs you want. I’m not sure how they are making this happen since it seems to be peer to peer (P2P) sharing. Make a playlist, listen to whole albums, Tweet a song with a tiny URL… all for free! Sorry iPad users, this puppy uses (ugh) Flash.
Movies/TV: Netflix
http://netflix.com/
I cancelled my cable bill this year and saved a bundle with Netflix on my Wii, iPad, and laptop. The streaming library is ever increasing and if you like TV, are willing to give up new content full of commercials, this is your last stop. My favorites:
- Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe (yes, I’m a sci-fi dork) – all seasons
- South Park – seasons 1-12
- Firefly, Dollhouse, and Buffy (the Whedon trilogy) – all seasons
- For the kids: Spongebob, Fairly Oddparents, and Invader Zim (ok, those are for me)
Game: Angry Birds
http://www.rovio.com/
2 Games, a bazillion levels, hours and hours of addictive fun. iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone and Android. Nuff said.
OS: Android
http://www.android.com/
Although I don’t own a device running Android, the fact that I want one so badly is proof that the fastest selling mobile OS on the market kicks ass. It has a huge development team, an open system, and took Linux from being a joke (sorry Linus) to what could end up being the most widely distributed OS of our time.
Movie: Inception
http://inceptionmovie.warnerbros.com/dvd/
Nolan’s best movie to date. Thrilling, conceptual, and an all around spectacle. Buzz Lightyear, Iron Man and Zuck didn’t stand a chance.
————-
Worst of 2010:
Devices: Google TV / Apple TV
The biggest let downs of the year. A device that could change everything. A device that could have brought the best mobile operating systems (Android and iOS) to our TVs and give us millions of apps to play with… instead searches our cable box for content and giving us more ways to pay for overpriced content. Boo. Fail.
All Around Worst App: iTunes
For the 10th year running: iTunes. What a beast. Slow to start up. Hard to use. Copying all my files to who knows where (whenever my hard drive is suddenly out of space, iTunes is to blame). Here’s an app by the maker of the iPad whose iTunes app doesn’t even perform the simplest task: subscribe to podcasts – i.e. automatically download new content. This year iTunes also introduced Ping, a social network (as if we needed another) for music. Note to Apple: Concentrate on usability and usefulness.
Music: The Social Network OST
My biggest gripe here isn’t with the music. I’m a huge Trent Reznor / Nine Inch Nails fan! My problem is with the price. Facebook is free. Everything Trent does is free. This is one piece of musical soundtrack that should have been free.
Movies/TV: Hulu and Hulu Plus
What a joke. Limited content, too many commercials, and an over priced app for shows that eventually expire. Hollywood really has to be reaching with this last ditch effort to save commercials. Forget it. Put a Pepsi or McDonalds logo (linked to a limited time offer) down in the corner and drop the commercials and the charge for the app.
browser communication links social social networking Twitter: delicious internet tools ling aggregation rss social bookmarking social media twitter
by Anthony
leave a comment
Twitter tastes Delicious
Yahoo recently announced it was shutting down or selling Delicious. Delicious.com is a social bookmarking tool bought by Yahoo in 2005. Delicious says it will stay open.
I say Twitter should buy Delicious. Talk about a powerhouse combo! So many people use Twitter to aggregate and pass links, often times never saved or seen again (just like the tweets themselves). But wouldn’t it be great if every link you ever tweeted was automatically bookmarked and stored for you? What if every posted by everyone you ever follow was stored too?
What’s even greater is that Delicious does tags (folksonomy), something long missing from Twitter. Could Twitter put that tag system to use, not only for links, but to get rid of this silly hashtag stop-gap measure and get down and dirty with some real taxonomicial mojo?
A few years ago, links were the currency of the web: traded, saved, and stored. Very few of us keep detailed records of links, unless doing research or a paper or something. If we did keep track, we had a myriad of resources to choose from: blogs, wikis, and RSS through sites like Delicious. Today however, we’re still passing links every day, but with Twitter as our aggregator. Where Digg.com succeeded over Delicious was in its community. Where Twitter succeeded over Digg.com was… in its community (and respect for community). Where Twitter fails is in its storage and search for past links and other metadata, i.e. who passed it to who and how.
Twitter is growing up fast and has made only one big purchase: Tweetie, the best Twitter iPhone app at that time. In doing so, it strangled the market for Twitter apps and put a solid stamp on its mobile product. By buying Delicious, Twitter could do the same for the short URL, which was developed entirely on the premise that most links take up too much of the 140 character limit. There are security concerns with such links and where they might land. Giants like Google have stepped into the foray with http://goo.gl/ and Delicious uses http://icio.us. But services like http://bit.ly/ and http://tinyurl.com/ seem to be ruling the day. But for how long? By buying Delicious, Twitter could shore up the shortened URL market and with deeper integration and tools then they currently use now.
#artfail art exhibition links: #artfail #sculpturefail ann arbor art exhibition funny sculpture the gallery project thegalleryproject
by Anthony
1 comment
#sculpturefail in Ann Arbor – A Review
My work was recently reviewed by Mark Adams of MadeWithPassion.com:
I can imagine the artist trying to come up with the most absurd piece of modern sculpture to fit the name, finally settling on just grabbing a bunch of unsharpened pencils into a bundle, letting go, and thinking, “Art, lolz.”
Finally, someone who gets me.
The work is on exhibit from Oct. 20th – Nov. 28th at The Gallery Project in Ann Arbor, MI.
Photo courtesy of Mark Adams.
http://www.madewithpassion.com/whats-so-funny-2/
applications bgsu blogs communication facebook social networking: application bgsu calendar facebook mobile
by Anthony
1 comment
art bgsu blogs secondlife virtuality: bgsu second life wolfe wolfe center
by Anthony
leave a comment
art exhibition: art dffla downtown exhibition LA los angeles Video
by Anthony
leave a comment
@dffla Cockpit Karma
Today’s Downtown L.A. Film Festival video. The prompts from curator Christi Nielsen were:
Fuck the machine
Rule of engagement
“After that day, he no longer knew how to fly.”
art exhibition: art downtown film film festival LA los angeles Video
by Anthony
leave a comment
@dffla 2010
I will be creating and exhibiting a number of short videos/maybe films with the Inter.sect Art Collective at this year’s Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles. Today’s is below. As many times before, Inter.sect Art Collective is a group of artists from around the country who create work by prompts. The prompt for the work below was ““I’m gonna share with you a vision I had because I love you.”
