So, why MPEG-4 support in Silverlight? It’s pretty straightforward, really. We have customers with libraries of H.264 content they wanted to publish to Silverlight, but didn’t want to reencode to VC-1. Silverlight’s strengths go far beyond media playback, and customers wanted the choice to deploy a wide variety of existing content within Silverlight. Silverlight aspires to provide as much choice as feasible as to how Silverlight can be authored and delivered. H.264 support is something we’d considered for past versions, but there were higher priority features we needed to deliver first. Silverlight 2 provides us a very rich base for delivering web apps, so we can start spreading our wings a bit.
Amazon is expanding it’s video distribution. Via NewTeeVee:
Amazon has extended its paid video service to streaming, Macs, and compatible Sony BRAVIA devices and televisions. It previously only made movies and TV shows available for download to PCs or on TiVos. The moves were all expected and forecast, but they are no less important for Amazon to have a viable online entertainment portal.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, in collaboration with the University of California, Irvine, Duke University and the virtual network HASTAC, announced today a second annual open-call competition that will provide $2 million in awards to innovators shaping the field of digital media and learning. The Digital Media and Learning Competition, supported through a grant to the University of California, Irvine and administered by HASTAC, has been expanded to pilot international submissions and introduce a new category focusing on young innovators aged 18-25.
“Digital media are helping to make the world smaller, spread ideas, and encourage collaboration across borders and among people who otherwise might not have an opportunity to work together,” said MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton. “To ensure support for the freshest thinking and most innovative applications of digital media to learning, we have expanded this year’s competition to include international submissions and ideas from young people, who are often the pioneers of the digital space.”
Awards will be given in two categories:
Innovation in Participatory Learning Awards will support projects that demonstrate new modes of participatory learning, in which people take part in virtual communities, share ideas, comment on one another’s projects, and advance goals together. Successful projects will promote participatory learning in a variety of environments: through the creation of new digital tools, modification of existing ones, or use of digital media in some other novel way. Submissions will be accepted from applicants in Canada, People’s Republic of China, India, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, countries in which HASTAC or MacArthur have significant experience. Winners will receive between $30,000 and $250,000.
Young Innovator Awards are designed to encourage young people aged 18-25 to think boldly about “what comes next” in participatory learning and to contribute to making it happen. Winners will receive funding to do an internship with a sponsor organization to help bring their most visionary ideas from the “garage” stage to implementation. For this competition cycle, submissions will only be accepted from applicants in the United States. Winners will receive between $5,000 and $30,000.
Pardon the geek-out, but this is a really sweet video/presentation of Adobe’s forthcoming rich-media tools- Flash 10, AIR, Thermo, Flex 4 and others. An hour+, so it might take more than one sitting.
By murdering Damien Hirst, I propose to create the most valuable artwork in the world, more valuable than the sharks, cows and golden calves Hirst himself sells for astronomical sums. That artwork will be the body of Damien Hirst, in all his glorious power, preserved in a vitrine. I think poison is probably the best way. . . but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Machinecollective is about physical computing, hardware prototyping, (remote) personal manufacturing, human/machine interaction and control surface development. Machinecollective is you, me and the machines, connected through this online community. Machinecollective is a public experiment, with community driven open source hardware as a foundation for further exploration and development.
Scenes from the life of Andy Warhol, as seen by four pioneer avant-garde film-makers and close friends of the Pop-artist.
Jonas Mekas, the irrepressible force behind the promotion and preservation of experi-mental film, is also known for his rapid-fire diary films. Award Presentation to Andy Warhol documents Mekas giving Warhol the Film Culture Independent Film Award. His Scenes from the Life chronicles not only Andy Warhol, but also the social and cultural excitement that swirled around him, throb-bing to a hypnotic Velvet Underground beat.
Willard Maas was husband of filmmaker, painter and actress Marie Menken. Together, they were, for Warhol, “the last of the great Bohemians.” Their films have in common a lyric lightness and a love for jolting visual rhythms.
