Four short links: 9 Apr 2009

Scifi, audiences, transparency, and the peril of public life. No links tomorrow, as I’ll be preparing for our village fete:

  1. The Fantastic That Denies It’s Fantastic: Science Fiction Talk at the Royal Institution — Matt Jones’s fascinating notes from this talk by two academics make thought-provoking reading. “SF is a response to the cultural shock of discovering our marginal place in an alien universe” … “an attempt put the stamp of humanity back on the universe”
  2. Visualize Your Audience (Rowan Simpson) — If you don’t think it’s a big deal for your site to be broken or off line while you make changes … think of all of the people who happen to be visiting at that point and imagine what it would feel like to have them all in the room with you while you flick the switch. No matter how small the number it would probably feel like a lot of people. And, you might be motivated to get the site back up more quickly if they were all standing behind you impatiently looking over your shoulder.
  3. Attribution and Affiliation on All Things Digital (Waxy) — this reminds me how rare it is to see someone about an Internet blowup where someone has actually talked to the parties involved.
  4. We Live in Public (Caterina Fake) — Caterina watched “We Live in Public” by Ondi Timoner and concurs with Jason Calacanis’s musings about the Internet’s ability to promote the worst behaviour: This kind of sociopathic behavior — treating people like things — is one of the most horrifying aspects of online interactions, and something that its very nature promotes.
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