Cognitively Nonplussed

July 16th, 2010 by Dan O'Connor · No Comments

And so, with the lightning reactions for which I entirely anonymous around the globe, it is time to turn a beady eye upon Clay Shirky’s notion of ‘cognitive surplus’. You can watch a video of him explaining this here, and read a rough transcript of same here. Our own Shona Ghosh reported from Shirky’s London [...]

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Fish / Barrels / Shotguns

March 19th, 2010 by Dan O'Connor · 2 Comments

As Gilbert Gottfried once said of roasting Chevy Chase, ‘Making fun of Chevy is like shooting fish in a barrel. Dead fish’.
Much the same sentiments then, gentle readers, as I needlessly post this link to Nestle’s Facebook page.

var addthis_pub = ‘ryanmacmillan’;
var addthis_brand = ‘Ryan*Macmillan’;var addthis_language = ‘en’;var addthis_options = ‘email, favorites, digg, delicious, myspace, google, [...]

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Google explains your error, mortal.

February 17th, 2010 by Dan O'Connor · No Comments

Naturally, I had begun to write a post this weekend about l’affaire Buzz and the attendant privacy concerns, but alas I was rather beaten to the punch by seven or eight million other people. So, no post from me explaining how Google Buzz marked little more than the further erasure of the line between your [...]

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Initiative/End

November 18th, 2009 by Dan O'Connor · 2 Comments

Recently, Iain posted an inquiry into the definition of various types of social media initiative - making particular note of the need for teleology; that is, to make clear the ends to which a social media initiative in instigated. Not only is it important to identify that at which the initiative is ranged, but there [...]

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Let me Google that for you, Google.

September 30th, 2009 by Dan O'Connor · 1 Comment

And so, dear readers, to the first in an occasional series which we might call ‘Google’s Cultural Tin Ear’.
It will have escaped the notice of none that Google have recently gifted the world with their latest innovation, which goes by the surfy-beachy-hip-and- greenish monicker of ‘Wave’. It is, so we are told by a reliably [...]

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