Blogs

Haven't written for a while, but (because) much is going on. I'm currently preparing the 2003 fibreculture conference here in Brisbane, with a host of colleagues, and am also hoping to get in a grant proposal for a project I'm developing with my colleague Liz Ferrier at UQ.

No, this isn't about whether you'd rather be obliterated by the weapons of mass destruction of Dubya's evil empire or Kim's evil minnow. Rather, there's the start of an interesting series of articles about content management systems at the All-American Web Portals site (what a name). They're promising to look at a group of PHP-Nuke-style CMSs to compare their features.

Doing more work on my M/C Journal article for the 'fight' issue today. It was accepted for publication with some requests of further changes by the refeerees. One referee wondered about the impact of CD burning and filesharing on CD sales, so I did a bit more research and rediscovered a nice article at The Register which questions the RIAA's claims using its own figures.

Someone on Slashdot pointed to this article on "Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality" by Clay Shirky. Very interesting stuff, and another indication (as if one were needed) of how blogs and similar interactive technologies are coming of age. I'm listing it here for further reference.

Ooh, some very interesting new releases listed in the latest Cuneiform/Wayside announcement. Michael Giles's long-lost Progress is finally available, and there'll be a DVD from Van der Graaf Generator ! Also Robert Wyatt's Solar Flares Burn for You, a new band with Frédéric L'Épée, Happy the Man's new The Muse Awakens and a new CD from Djam Karet.

Another pointer on Slashdot, to a Wired article about the problems for large entertainment corporations as they support the RIAA's war on online music exchange systems (filesharing and Webcasting in particular).

Found a pointer on Slashdot to a set of Economist articles on 'Issues for the Internet Society'. Looks interesting, and I'm bookmarking it for further reading.

Could also make for useful research material,

I'm hearing lots of good things about the new P.F.M. Live in Japan 2-CD set.