Production and performance

SOUND SYNTHESIS AND SAMPLING by Terence Russ (Boston: Focal Press “Music Technology Series,”; 1996—$32.95, ISBN 0–2405–1429–7, 400 pp., diagrams, chapter questions, time lines, references, glossary, jargon, and index)

VIDEO PRODUCTION HANDBOOK by Leonard Shyles (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998 —$43.96 paper, ISBN 0–395–714–885, 403 pp., illustrations, photos, charts, diagrams, tables, chapter key terms, questions, bibliography, glossary, index; INSTRUCTOR'S RESOURCE MANUAL also available)

FOCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ELECTRONIC MEDIA [CD‐ROM] edited by Christopher H. Sterling (Boston, MA; Focal Press, 1998—$149.95 [individual license]/250.00 [network version for up to 10 users], ISBN 0–240–80133–4, 0–240–80310–8, 1 disk, over 4,000 entries, color motion video and sound clips, B/W and color illustrations, bibliographies, and electronic media chronology [system requirements: PC compatible, 386 or higher, 8MB of RAM, 16MB HD, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher, 2X CD‐ROM drive, 256 color SVGA card or better, and sound card, MAC 68020 or greater, Mac system 7,0 or higher, 6MB of RAM, 16MB HD> CD‐ROM drive])

SOUND ASSISTANCE by Michael Talbot‐Smith (Oxford, England: Focal Press, 1997— $22.95, ISBN 0–2405–1439–4, 230 pp., illustrations, charts, diagrams, safety chapter, further reading, glossary, and index)

THE MOBILE DJ HANDBOOK: HOW TO START AND RUN A PROFITABLE MOBILE DISK JOCKEY SERVICE by Stacy Zemon (Newton, MA: Focal Press, 1997—$19.95, ISBN 0–240–80266–7, 170 pp., photos, lists, forms, illustrations, appendices, biographies of successes, and index)     

Crowdsourcing and the crisis-affected community

This article reports on Mission 4636, a real-time humanitarian crowdsourcing initiative that processed 80,000 text messages (SMS) sent from within Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. It was the first time that crowdsourcing (microtasking) had been used for international relief efforts, and is the largest deployment of its kind to date. This article presents the first full report and analysis of the initiative looking at the accuracy and timeliness in creating structured data from the messages and the collaborative nature of the process. Contrary to all previous papers, studies and media reports about Mission 4636, which have typically chosen to exclude empirical analyses and the involvement of the Haitian population, it is found that the greatest volume, speed and accuracy in information processing was by Haitian nationals, the Haitian diaspora, and those working closest with them, and that no new technologies played a significant role. It is concluded that international humanitarian organizations have been wrongly credited for large-scale information processing initiatives (here and elsewhere) and that for the most part they were largely just witnesses to crisis-affected communities bootstrapping their own recovery through communications technologies. The particular focus is on the role of the diaspora, an important population that are increasingly able to contribute to response efforts thanks to their increased communication potential. It is recommended that future humanitarian deployments of crowdsourcing focus on information processing within the populations they serve, engaging those with crucial local knowledge wherever they happen to be in the world.     

Impediments to Digital Distribution for Software and Books

One of the greatest benefits of electronic commerce occurs when physical processes and products are replaced with digital ones. Digital distribution eliminates manufacturing and shipping costs as well as related intermediary margins. The software and book industries, among others, should be able to take advantage of these economies but for the most part have not. Impediments to digital distribution include the benefits of in-person browsing and demonstration, user readiness, device, infrastructure, intellectual property protection, the sensory experience of shopping, the relative probability of impulse buying, the value of display at retail locations, display and gift tangibility, and the need for alternative Internet payment methods.     

A Pressure Chamber of Innovation: Google Fiber and Flexible Capital

On March 17, 2010, the United States Federal Communications Commission identified broadband as “the great infrastructure challenge of the early twenty-first century.” One month earlier, on February 10, 2010, in anticipation of the FCC's announcement, Google announced its intent to build ultra-high-speed broadband networks across the United States to serve as a model for overcoming this challenge. Since then, Google Fiber, as it is called, has succeeded in being recognized as a model for other communities interested in establishing ultra-high-speed broadband infrastructure. This article serves as an analysis of the political economic consequences of this particular configuration of broadband infrastructure, and argues that Google Fiber operates as a mechanism of flexible capital whereby the emphases on short- over long-term relationships, meritocracy over craftsmanship, and the devaluation of past experience in favor of potential outcomes are embedded in the institutional and technical infrastructure of ultra-high-speed Internet.     

Governance through Philitainment: Playing the Benevolent Subject

This article analyzes Free Rice within the context of “the rise of the ludic sublime,” where video games are hailed as the solution to highly sophisticated political problems. As part of what we call practices of “philitainment,” Free Rice, we argue, functions within the political domain of what Jodi Dean has termed “communicative capitalism” and therefore both captures resistance and actually solidifies global capitalism. Ultimately, this case study of Free Rice reveals ways in which practices of philitainment signal the proliferation of a convergence between the technological sublime and neoliberal politics through which the disinvestment of the state from social problems is legitimized and reproduced through a reconfiguration of citizenship in terms of techno-consumerism.     

From Shelf to Spotlight: Rediscovering Modernist Books From Eastern Europe at The New York Public Library

This essay contextualizes the overall development of eastern European resources at the Library, highlighting some of the personalities who have contributed to building this internationally significant research resource. The development of the Baltic, east‐central European, and southern Slavic collections of The New York Public Library has been a neglected area of the Library's history. Reciprocity with institutions in the Slavic and Eastern European homelands played a vital part in the growth of the Library's holdings of materials in their languages until the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Library materials were acquired through local dealers, as gifts, and on international exchanges, as well as through personal visits to the region by library staff. Modernist books were an important part of these acquisition efforts.     

Collecting the Revolution: The New York Public Library

ABSTRACT

The author examines some of the unique features of the New York Public Library’s Slavonic Division, including an “ecumenical” collecting ethos, urban location, émigré staff, and large, politically diverse clientele, which help explain the richness of its Russian revolutionary era holdings.