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This website catalogs the growing trend of utilizing animated infographics to convey information. Not only is it becoming necessary to continuously filter the great amounts of data we experience into slick new ways of perceiving, a database that houses these new tools of perception becomes useful. Of particular interest to me is the combination of database with social media on vizualizing.org - the site hosts contests and challenges to better suss out interesting new designs in organizing information.

Russian net artist, Olia Lialina, one of the trailblazers in this new medium,approached from background in film and theory. Her website, linked above, was also the first network based art gallery, causing much feedback (positive and negative) from offline / online artists. You'll find Lialina's net.art works from the 1990s below her bio and cv information.

I stumbled upon Teo Spiller while looking through different examples of Web Art. Spiller worked with some interesting concepts, and questioned many of the social norms that occur in the digital world. One of the most interesting pieces in my opinion, is titled "Nice Page" and was created in 2000. It is a webpage, completely overtaken with bright text, and segmented images. While this piece might seem to be a page that showcases a multitude of webpages, displayed for an audience, as if flipping through the pages of the web, it is actually meant to critique the superficial attitudes what are associated with the web. The piece itself bombards the viewer with a lot of information, acting as a protest to the way we are constantly flooded with information. Spiller, Teo. "Nice Page" 2000 http://rhizome.org/artbase/artwork/2516/

As I read 'Web Work: A History of Internet Art' by Rachel Greene, I highlighted some of the websites mentioned to go back to and explore. One of these sites was jodi.org. On my first visit to the site, I just typed in Jodi.org in my Chrome browser, which I will warn you right now: DON'T DO IT! I was brought to a blank black page with no information except that my pop up blocker informed me that it blocked a pop up. Being the fool that I am, I changed the setting to allow pop ups from jodi.org, thinking that maybe the pop up was part of the net.art I would find on the page. Immediately a half dozen or so pop ups popped up and started moving around the page, as I tried to close out of the windows they became more and more erratic and finally I just quit Chrome to get out of there. Then I went to Jodi.org throughout the portal of the Wayback Machine. It seemed like another one of those: "rabbit-hole-look-there-are-so-many-fucking-links-all-over-that-move-and-change-colors-and-shit-aren't-we-so-disruptive-type-sites." that Clae was talking about. Then as I was writing this up, in order to give a better description of the site I went to outside of The Wayback Machine, I went back to Jodi.org and a different page came up! Each time I closed the window and went back to Jodi.org, I was directed to a new and different page. It still seems sketchy and I only visited a few more pages, but I thought it was interesting anyways. "Jodi.org." Accessed February 20, 2014. http://jodi.org.

Aha! JODI, of course! This happened to me too---I couldn't remember which net.artist it was. It's certainly one way of engaging a viewer. This reminds me of something that the writer William Burroughs once said in an interview "If I really knew how to write, I could write something that someone would read and it would kill them" ---- JODI's site doesn't seem so fatal in intention, but there is a strong sense of panic induced by their clever coding!

I started my media archeological dig in hopes of finding out when the icons of social media sites (tumblr, facebook, etc) started appearing on websites of official news sites. I chose Salon.com somewhat arbitrarily. Surprisingly, I discovered that salon.com was not always the property of today's news and entertainment magazine. As it turned out, the URL originally belonged to "Salon dot Com a Cyber Community," a hub of salon and beauty professionals, and was established as such in 1997. The oldness of this site is prominently paraded in the design --- brightly and variously colored text against a black background, words underlined to denote hyperlinks, lines of text centered to (presumably) maintain order-- while avoiding the headache of working with framesets and tables in web design of this era. No images. There is a broken link up top, a 'counter', based on surrounding information. The use of the term "cyber" to characterize this community is another bit of faded jargon linking the site to the 1990s. During that decade, the 'cyber' prefix was affixed to many people, places and things to signal 'new media' status. Some versions of this site also link to an "E-Zine," another trope of remediation, aimed at association with 'e-mail', most likely. It seems that some point in early 1999, salon.com shifted to the Salon Media Group, and the early versions of the web magazine that persists to this day appeared (tables and css in effect!)

A comparison of the New York Times website between February 18, 1999 and January 15, 2014 reveals more than a few amusing differences: the older site includes "on the Web" in the title, the increasingly user driven results on the modern page (most emailed headlines, personalized weather reports, customized alerts), the search function on the old site buried halfway down the page, almost as an afterthought. Most telling, however, is the great focus on the digitized version of the paper in the modern incarnation. Specifically, there are ten unique buttons on the front page offering unlimited access to the site, with new and improved usability. The shift from paper to digital media is clear here. Sales of the physical paper are low, as more people choose to access media via personal devices. Naturally, when accessed from one of these devices, the site redirects the user to a mobile friendly version - a stark, pithy version perfect for the instant absorption of a few headlines. In this way, the 1999 version of the site foreshadowed the NY Times' decision on March 2008 to use the second and third pages of its physical copy for article abstracts, as Nicholas Carr points out in his article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The front page is made up of only abstracts that lead to the longer, less efficient articles. The 2014 site has kept this standard, only now including user defined popularity in articles, as mentioned above. Overall, the trending is as would be expected - greater personalization, monetization of access, and interactivity (a few more imbedded videos). These changes speak to a larger shift in how the user access media - the decline of the paper copy and an old institution rallying to survive modernity.

thanks for the reflections on this news and information juggernaut! The long obsolescence of print seems clear in your observations here. A complementary study might look at the 'migratory patterns' of NYTimes readers in terms of their info-consumption habits, preferences and motivations for adapting to the screen

Radical Software was created in the 1970s by Beryle Korot, Phyllis Gershuny, and Ira Shneider to create a network of video sharing. This site has PDF files of the Eleven issues published and distributed by Radical software between the years 1970 and 1974. The website also provides the history of The Raindance Corporation which was created in 1969 by a radical media activist and artist by the name of Frank Gillette. The general Idea behind Raindance Corporation was to created a collection of works and ideas for "implementing communication tools in the project for social change." The website also discusses in detail the intent of Radical Software and fight towards creating a world of free and accessible information.

thanks, this is an excellent example of primary source document, the actual artifact providing visual detail of its historical context that escapes easy translation. This site is equipped with a well organized search and browse function, too!

Apple.com, 1996-2014

The design layout of the page is cosmetically very different from contemporary design practices. The use of color and typography isn't precise or functional in the way that it would speak to the brand's ideology of today's Apple. The landing page is more of a "news" page with hyperlinks to stories of Apple's news. The site is no doubt limited by the web's capabilities but is also a very straight forward, engineered approach; an extension of the culture of Apple at the time; a company of engineers, inventors, and tinkerers, rather than artists and designers. Much more emphasis was placed on the function of the website, rather than the form. By comparison the news section still exists on the landing page, only it has been relegated to a 6pt size link on the bottom right of the landing page. Apple now features products on the landing page, rather than news about events. Although, I do know the keynote speeches are featured on the landing page once a year. From 1996, up until the 1998, the layout was a menu of links on the left side of the page, a cluttered and unfocused aesthetic. In 1998 the iMac is first introduced along with an entirely clean aesthetic throughout the website. Only the necessary information is readily available; shifting the viewer's focus to the product, rather than the company itself. In the year 2000, the top-centered navigation bar is introduced, an design decision still used today on the Apple website. The aesthetic itself is relying heavily on skeuomorphism, with harsh drop shadows and faux buttons abound. Unfortunately, most of the links do not work, limiting me to a view of the landing page throughout time. Interestingly, most of the design layouts remain similar to the established aesthetic in the early 2000's, up until 2013 when Apple began to move away from skeuomorphic design and into a flattened out, more streamlined appearance.

Thanks for these observations on the development and dramatic shifts in the late 90s arrival of the 'clean' or seamless Apple look. Tucking away the old culture of the company, as you say--- the long-haired homebrew computer hacking gets a haircut! Thanks also for comments on the 'skeuomorphic' --- a tie in with processes of remediation.

We can see that this website looks like it dates from the late 90s/early 2000s and targets a younger audience due to the style of text used in the header (the 3-D text and the star to dot the 'i') and the overall basic layout that makes use of a more generic type face. All of the information that can be found on the site is hyperlinked on the left side of the page, and when one hovers over each link a colored, square icon spells out the name of the link letter by letter. Compared to contemporary websites, this effect seems to be more of a glitch than a cool, new use of technology. Also to note are some of the terms used throughout the site, including "cool stuff" being listed as the first hyperlink in the left column of the site, as well as the small add for sweet16.com found in the center of the page. A less sophisticated typeface is used in this ad and we see a flower in place of a '.' between sweet16 and com. It is also described as 'The freshest place to party!'. There's only one picture on the right hand side of the text, of a younger Britney Spears in a lace up leather crop top (much different than the fashion style she wears today) and there's a tie dye like pattern in the background of the website that further emotes the style of the late 90s and early 2000s.

Thanks for the thoughtful analysis of the design elements --- as you describe, they seem aligned with visual trends of their recent historical context and also point towards a particular audience. The presence of ads is often a helpful hint when decoding the target audience of a website. It's interesting to me, as well, that this early website is identified as Britney's own "welcome to my official website," the use of language implies she is responsible directly for the content. ---more recently I suppose its implied that she's professional enough, or more of a brand than person, to rely on that sort of gimmick to connect with her audience (?)

As mentioned in Siva Vaidhyanathan's reading portion "Open Source as Culture/ Culture as Open Source", computer scientist Richard Stallman began developing the pursuit of the Free Software Foundation. During the 1970s and 1980s, Stallman was working for MIT, he "set out to establish" this foundation that would help "prove that good tools and technologies could emerge from a community of concerned creators" (26). The link I provided is for the "about" section on the Free Software Foundation's current website. I thought this might help provide more insight about the program and offer information regarding their goals and work to keep the public free and in charge of their own computer monitoring. Free Software Foundation, Inc., "Free Software Foundation: About." Last modified 2014. Accessed February 5, 2014. https://www.fsf.org/about/.

Thanks for building out a link to this site, there's a lot of rich connections that continue to be relevant, perhaps more recognizably today with copyright concerns surrounding audio and visual media.

While short, this article by Tim Worstall sheds light on the ever-present possibility of censorship in a closed corporate ecosystem of products and cites the example of Drones+, an app designed to provide up-to-date information on drone strikes, and the reasons for which it has repeatedly been banned from appearing on the App Store. This calls to mind several of the ideas present in the Half-Inch Revolution concering the dangers of a system predicated on the delivery of content overseen by a single source. Worstall, Tim. "The Problem With Apple's Closed Apps Universe." Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/08/31/the-problem-with-apples-closed-apps-universe/ (accessed February 7, 2014).

A resonant example from everyday media life. There was a somewhat similar disruption a few years ago with an iPhone game app premised on revealing the external costs of iPhone production and disposal. A bit more bald in its critique, it too was rejected.

As mentioned throughout the interview with Ricardo Dominguez, the Electronic Disturbance Theater is a group of cyber activists who use electronic civil disobedience to non-violently take action against political powers. On this site, a part of thing.net, there are brief descriptions of the Electronic Disturbance Theater and electronic civil disobedience. There is also information surrounding the EDT's influences, beliefs and methods of electronic civil disobedience. Many of the brief descriptions are accompanied with links to larger, more in-depth articles as well. Wray, Stefan. thing.net, "The Electronic Disturbance Theater and Electronic Civil Disobedience." Accessed February 12, 2014. http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/EDTECD.html.

Thanks, this is an excellent supplement to the interview, lots of context for related ideas from broader situation behind the Zapatistas struggle and 'etmological' roots of the ECD concept

This is a page I came across whilst frustratedly slogging about on one of those rabbit-hole-look-there-are-so-many-fucking-links-all-over-that-move-and-change-colors-and-shit-aren't-we-so-disruptive-type-sites. It is rather unremarkable in most ways, but I found it a semi-welcome respite from the rest of the site. Like many other sites of this era, it is a web poetry message board of sorts that relies on user generated content, namely semi-anonymous bits'o "creative writing" that are supposedly prompted by way of the writer viewing one of three pairings of images. Some users attempt to narrativise the images to varying degrees of success, and some people write about fucking jars of peanut butter, as in literally humping said jar. Like many such collections of user generated avant-poetry it becomes increasingly difficult to suss out which pieces have an actual considered conceptual core, and which are just word diarrhea. Nevertheless, I found some of them sort of charming. Also of note is that there are mail-to links associated with each writing that are supposedly linked to the writers email account. This seems bizarre in a present where such personal information is closely guarded, hidden from the masses of web-weirdos and spambots.

I selected a name I found interesting in the reading, Ben Benjamin. His website "superbad" launched in 1997 takes participants down a spiral of bazar, unrelated, flashing, digital art loops. Like the article "A History of Internet Art" mentioned, "beware that, seen out of their native HTML, out of their networked, social habitats, they are the net.art equivalents of animals in zoos." So I went to see what one of the mentioned artists work was all about. As the article mentions Ben Benjamin's work was featured in the Whitney Museum Biennial in 2000. Wikipedia also informed me he won a Webby award in 1999. "Superbad." Superbad. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.

This article lays out a semi-realistic landscape of the closer future of the internet of things. The provided infographic is a barrage corporate logos separated into sections of lifestyle and platforms. The image itself is a little disturbing, putting into mind a close future surrounded by a cloud of companies, infiltrating our homes with even more information invading our privacy. That being said I liked this article in particular because it did not have a cynical view of the internet of things and did not suggest we judge the validity of the technology on the worst case scenario. I think it's important to be paranoid, but not so much as to stall progress. Turck, Matt. "Making Sense Of The Internet Of Things" Tech Crunch. May 35, 2013. Accessed March 19, 2014. http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/25/making-sense-of-the-internet-of-things/

A few thoughts --the infographic begs for better design, so too the implementation of IoT? Perhaps pronoiac view is happy medium to achieve here ---- Progressive paranoia, or "pronoia" was an outlook popularized amongst cybernetic countercultures of the 1990s. General concept was that "universe is conspiring on your behalf"

One example of how objects are slowly turning into spimes, is the addition of RFID into products that consumers use on a daily basis. Baltimore is one of a few cities that have begun distributing trashcans to businesses and individual house holds that contain the id chips. It is the hope that they will be able to collect information that will assess the usage of the cans by the customer, as well as other factors that are useful for creating a positive trash-collecting experience both for the company and the customer. Mark Reutter, Mark. "Inside City Hall: Are you ready for "smart" garbage cans?" Baltimore Brew, November 21, 2013

Here's a collection of the NSA slides, revealed by Edward Snowden by way of the Guardian news. The slides detail the various pervasive and invasive methods of surveillance, tapping into phone and social media networks, as orchestrated by the National Security Agency. This is the internet-of-things-that-go-bump-in-the-night. Also, as discussed in class, the layout and design of these slides is often horrendous, complicating or obstructing clear communication of information. "NSA Prism program slides" The Guardian News. Published Friday 1 November 2013 http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/nov/01/prism-slides-nsa-document. Accessed April 6, 2014