Inside View

Inexpensive Lapel Mic Test

Bernie Goldbach in LIT-Clonmel | Image of Audio-Technica ATR 3350.

I KEEP CHEAP stuff in my gadget drawer and decided to take the Audio-Technica ATR 3350 on a walkabout when requested by voices on Audioboo. Along the way, the little mic recorded an incoming phone call that you can hear in the clip below.

The omnidirectional mono ATR-3350 cost me less than EUR 25 all-in. It's not the kind of technology that you can use directly with a mixing desk because its audio levels are so low. However, when I use it with a fresh battery and record into my Sony ICD MX-20, it delivers consistently good results. Other people who have used the mic with video cameras report spotty results. Even though it comes with ample wiring, it does not pick up GSM noise interference from mobile phones like my XLR microphones always seem to do.

I've used the Audio-Technica ATR 3350 lavalier microphone for more than two years. I'm happy with its durability and reliability but I haven't exposed it to overuse with creative multimedia students or with little fingers at home.

Testing Lavalier

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Bernie Goldbach teaches social audio on a creative multimedia degree programme.

 

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Unwound by Gestures

Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Screenshot from Felix on iTouch.

ONE REASON MY contributions to online social networks has declined is because of an explosion of new gestures. I have to learn those gestures while watching our 18 month old attempt them.

I give my touchscreens to little Dylan because he likes to pull down and refresh content on screens. However, he also interacts with the screens from both top and bottom simultaneously and that sometimes results in unexpected actions.

Dylan has sent garbled tweets on my behalf. He has sent blank direct messages and he unfollows several people every week. Surprisingly, it is the unfollowing that fosters a string of emails between me and online friends.

So if you know you've been deleted or unfollowed by me, blame the gestures of a digital native.

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Bernie Goldbach teaches creative multimedia to family and friends. Gestures are part of a Games Development module in the Limerick Institute of Technology.

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Knowledge is Never Content as Content

Bernie Goldbach in Drogheda | Image from my Flickr photostream.

THERE ARE TIMES like these, on the heels of the suicide of Aaron Swartz, that cause me to think about the precious  status enjoyed by copyrighted content. Years from now, I believe we will recognise copyright as an imperialistic concept.

Nothing I write and nothing I share in a higher education classroom has any value unless it's read and remembered. My course notes, essays, sample questions and readings have to be opened, read, discussed and shared among classmates. Only then does creative content become knowledge. In a related essay, Jeff Jarvis cites "the pioneers of rethinking content’s value"—Lawrence Lessig, Joi Ito, Cory Doctorow, Aaron Swartz—to make the point that "all creation is born of what came before". The realm of intellectual property has changed.

Surprising Traction Deep Inside Google Plus

Bernie Goldbach in LSAD-Clonmel | Screenshot inside Google Community.

WE HAVE OPENED a vibrant Google Plus Community that amplifies the Voices of creative multimedia students. I am surprised by the traction it has gained in a few days.

I set up Voices as a private and closed group. If everyone in the group agrees, we will make it visible but invitation-only. There are important sharing and threading features that happen only when they are enabled by group moderators.

Flickr's Long Tail

Bernie Goldbach in LIT-Clonmel | Screenshot from Flickr Irisheyes Stats.

 

ALTHOUGH FLICKR'S NEW iOS app has rejuvenated interest in its venerable photo-sharing service, liking and sharing photos happens most often with Facebook. However, Flickr's long tail remains very potent.

Sociolinguistics and Twitter

ACRES OF IRISH newsprint cover the current debate over the tone of voice often heard coursing through Twitter and Facebook. I believe the discussions would about the nature of online engagement would improve if viewed through the lens of sociolinguistics.

Local politician Tom Hayes plans to co-ordinate a consultation document that solicits opinion about whether places like Facebook and Twitter should be monitored and even constrained by Irish law. Barristers who have reviewed the issue point to existing statutes on libel, defamation and harassment. If someone feels hard done by the tone of online discourse they can use the law to get their day in court.

But I believe another dimension of this debate deserves careful scrutiny in an academic context. Some of the language I read on the public Twitter timeline cannot be streamed onto whiteboards in Irish schools because it is crude or racist or sexist. And yet it passes for friendly banter among mates. Moreover, it is also pasted onto public Facebook walls and into the cut and thrust of spirited debates on Twitter. Sometimes the invective and downright hostile comments can reduce a reader to tears. I've seen that while the promulgator just shrugs and wanders off to another conversation.

There are clear sociolinguistic reasons why this kind of online demeanour deserves the illumination of academic discussion. And that is what we are doing this semester as part of a critical and contextual analysis of online social media.

[Bernie Goldbach has actively run online discussion fora since 1992 and he lectures at the Limerick Institute of Technology in http://www.lit.ie/Courses/LC517 ]

Irish Tablet Sales Soar

SALES OF TABLET computers are soaring in Ireland, according to research figures studied by Adrian Weckler. [1] we have two tablets in our home.

Laptop sales in 2012 fell by 12% in Ireland, according to figures from GfK. People are buying tablets instead with one in five Irish adults now owning something like our Motorola Xoom or Apple iPad. If our experience is typical, those buying a tablet won't get more than three years of use from a tablet before its operating system fails to update. When that happens, you are stuck with versions of apps that will look older and operate with less capability than their updated versions. This end-of-life limitation happens more comprehensively than with a computer of the same age.

We bucked national trends by giving the grandparents a film camera and traditional photo box. They were delighted to get something that will eliminate motion blur from their snapshots. And they appreciate the ease of getting prints from their local chemist.

Meanwhile, overall sales of digital cameras in the Irish market have fallen 18% in value and by 21% in the number of units sold. People tend to use their smartphones to take photos today. Recent figures from Amarach Consulting show almost two thirds of Irish adults now own smartphones. I don't think Amarach tracked the number of working handsets their respondents have. In my case, I carry four working and unlocked smartphones in my bag representing four different operating systems. I work with several people who use two or three screens throughout the business day to monitor conversations, trends and streams of information.

If you need to work quickly when trends emerge, you shouldn't hide the Analytics behind a browser tab or inside an email marked as "important". The truly important stuff needs to grab your attention by landing front and centre on a screen where you can quickly act on it.

(Props to @adrianweckler for his continued excellence in business journalism. Photo of our Xoom and Moleskine work table.)

1. Adrian Weckler -- "Tablet sales soar as laptops slump" in The Sunday Business Post, January 6, 2013.

Learning from the Visually Impaired

Bernie Goldbach in the Limerick School of Art and Design | Cover art from an Audioboo.

ONE OF THE MOST cherished discoveries in my life is stumbling upon the visually impaired community on Audioboo. If you want to hear the power of social networking, it's worth following a dozen blind people as they navigate through their days.

I went along and clipped a few minutes of audio (below) and also included the most popular sound clip from Audioboo, based upon its mentions in the year 2012 on the world's most compassionate social audio platform.

VI Voices

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Bernie Goldbach develops creative multimedia for the Limerick Institute of Technology.

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