What I'm up to these days

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This blog has been even quieter than I feared.  That's partly because I've been busy helping put together CreateBaltimore.  It's a "barcamp" or "unconference" for members of the arts and tech communities in Baltimore.  Nearly two hundred people have signed up to attend, so I think we've hit a nerve.  

I've also been producing the TummelVision podcast and helping in various ways behind the scenes. Heather, Kevin, and Deb have fostered some great conversations with fascinating guests.  I've been learning a lot about tech, social interaction, and networked culture.

Bethanne Patrick and I have also been developing a podcast.  Bethanne has gathered an incredibly active group of global book-lovers around, of all things, a Twitter hashtag - #FridayReads.  It turns out that Twitter is a great way to trade recommendations and engage in conversations about reading things substantially longer than 140 characters.  We're creating a live and recorded audio/video podcast to enrich and grow the community Bethanne has fostered.

I think my own online arts and culture projects are going to be heating up soon as well.  It is past time for me to post and publicize some great stuff I've been working on for The New Modern.  

Where are the girl superheroes?

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There really is an appalling shortage of girl superheroes. I knew that in theory before we had a daughter, but bedtime storytelling needs have made it glaringly obvious.

On the plus side, we've invented Iron Girl, Super Piya, Brave Captain Piya of the Sea of a Thousand Islands, etc.

If only Joss Whedon could invent a superheroine who doesn't suffer horribly and die.

Culture in an Age of Disruption

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My talk on culture in a disrupted, digitally networked era at Ignite Baltimore is now on video. Some nerves meant I read more than performed, but I'm proud of the ideas and imagery I cobbled together.

Here are much clearer images of the slides I used:

The Fate of Culture in an Age of Disruption: An Ignite Talk by Andrew Hazlett

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James Bridle on the Value of Ruins - A Plea for the Past

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An important and thought-provoking talk from the innovative publisher James Bridle:

Between The Alexandrian War of 48 BCE and the Muslim conquest of 642 CE, the Library of Alexandria, containing a million scrolls and tens of thousands of individual works was completely destroyed, its contents scattered and lost. An appreciable percentage of all human knowledge to that point in history was erased. Yet in his novella “The Congress”, Jorge Luis Borges wrote that “every few centuries, it’s necessary to burn the Library of Alexandria.” ...as we build ourselves new structures of knowledge and certainty, as we design our future, should we be concerned with the value of our ruins?

Listen to James' talk at dConstruct here.