eJamming: Skype for Musicians

This is an amazing way to musically connect with people, with so many applications for education and entertainment. I just signed up, and am ready to play…I mean try out.

eJamming makes software that enables people to practice music together 1000 miles apart. The idea is to let musicians practice together even when they can’t get together physically, or to let students and teachers work together remotely.

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Thanks * 911 Media Arts Center

I want to give a shout out to Seattle’s excellent 911 Media Arts Center, “a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting independent digital media artists in the creation and exhibition of their work.” As part of their mission, they provide “education, training and the dissemination of knowledge” through classes, workshops and web resources. Plus as an extra bonus, they are smack dab in the middle of the Seattle’s up and coming South Lake Union, which makes for a beautiful walk if you work downtown.

I am preparing for a business video shoot in Portland tomorrow, and they are hooking me up with extra audio goodies (mics, mixer). Special thanks to Jon Schwartz and Steve Vroom for their help. If you are like me and video is continually becoming a popular element in your training or other needs, resources like 911 Media are great places for knowledge transfer, as well as affordable, quality equipment to rent, which can be too expensive to buy.

Who Needs a Record Label…Trent Reznor & Saul Williams

This is very cool to see. Radiohead throws in an experimental DRM and record label free delivery and artists like Trent Reznor & Saul Williams are building on this game changing concept, which will ripple and eventually cause waves in the music industry. How / will record labels become SMART and adapt their business paradigm? This applies to all industries, OPEN up or CLOSE down.

The time has come! Pre-order emails for Saul Williams’ THE INEVITABLE RISE AND LIBERATION OF NIGGYTARDUST, produced by Trent Reznor, have been distributed. The album is available for free at 192kbps bitrate or 320kps/lossless if you put forward some cash. Please support this artist and label/DRM-free distribution!

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Man With a Camera * Kyte.tv

Have you seen San Francisco’s Stanley Roberts, man with a camera, which can be seen on the KRON 4, Kyte.tv and YouTube? This seemingly low-fi production, with concise editing quickly captures your interest and a tongue and cheek voice over hits serious points home. Beside having awesome direction and flow, it is also a great example of delivering your content via multiple channels. This form of video journalism will likely pick up momentum as media distribution continues to decentralize.

Stanley patrols the streets of the Bay Area looking for people who brazenly defy the law or common courtesy. His “People Behaving Badly” camera catches people double parking, failing to stop at signals, refusing to yield for pedestrians and much more.

National Geographic * Global Warming Effects

This Global Warming Effects interaction is a an effective use of information design and interactivity. – someone dugg this AM.

National Geographic continuously delivers effective informal learning content by incorporating effective design elements.

They utilize grid, color and emphasis, which engages the user and raises their information to the top.

They also deliver amazing podcasts, videos and games to target different learning styles. They even incorporate personalization in some of their games to help with engagement. The graphics, animation and video editing are quite spectacular. Check them out.