Greetings from Tuscaloosa!

I'm at the University of Alabama for the 31st Association for Integrative Studies Conference. This year's theme is Creativity and Play Across the Disciplines and I am here to yet again convince the masses that social media can be a valuable tool for successful exposure and promotion in the 21st century.

The conference has been really great so far – I got a lot of great feedback from my presentation and I’ve heard a lot of great ideas revolving around creativity and education. I was also reminded of Sir Ken Robinson’s talk Does Education Kill Creativity? If you haven’t yet seen it, I encourage you to look for it online as it is quite revealing.

I have to drive back tomorrow and I’m almost sorry to see this end – AIS is always a great conference. Next year’s theme is sustainability and I already have an idea…

Bad Liz (*slaps hand*)

Dear blog and blog readers,

I have not abandoned you despite all evidence to the contrary. Actually I believe I am suffering from what the people-who-speak-English-with-a-French-accent would call "Le writer's block." And I do have something you could help me with.

I have been attempting to write an alternative bio for myself (alternative in style, not facts). And I need some help getting started. So while this is scary to put out on the internet, I have to ask, "Hey internet, what am I like?"

Any suggestions, attributes or qualities (please no snarkyness here, email me if you want to get personal) will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

(And I promise to post again soon!)

Here I go again!

I'm off again! This time I'm leaving for Cornwall, UK to attend and present in the Image 2.0 Digital Media Futures conference at University College Falmouth. I will be presenting a paper entitled "Web 2.0 and Creativity." The conference will take place at the Tremough campus, pictured above. Wish me luck with my travel - it's going to be a long trip!

Denmark!

I just got back from Denmark where I was giving a presentation on my video series Let Us Praise Famous Men in the conference Transcultural Montage by the University of Aarhus and the Moesgaard Museum.

Here are some images from Denmark:

America's second favorite pastime

So twice in the last 48 hours I've been told that I have an "interest in copyright." Ok, so maybe that's true that I do have some interest and maybe that's because on some level it's linked to my field, but shouldn't everyone be interested in copyright? It's not as though the laws don't apply to those who aren't "interested." Copyright laws are more important than ever and awareness is really important right now. The laws are a lot more aggressive and restrictive than they once were.
Case in point, my new box set of The State DVDs (loved that show, check it out if you've never heard of it). The back of the box set includes a disclaimer stating that they had to replace a lot of the music they used in the original episodes because they didn't have the rights. This show wasn't fly-by-night, it was on MTV. If the music was legal in the 90s why isn't it legal now? What's changed? Copyright laws. (The same thing happened with the tv show WKRP).
So don't think awareness of copyright is an option. This kind of reminds me of email in the 90s. Remember when people would just say "Oh I don't use email" and that was a legitimate excuse? No more. The same is true for copyright. The laws are becoming more pervasive and more aggressive and you might be violating something that you never even knew could be illegal. So don't be scared, get on teh interwebs and "google" copyright today.

(And if you're really stuck for where to start, come to a CopyNight event, also hosted by yours truly)

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Awesome photo thanks to 917press