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

More importance of being....

Well the conference is wrapping up now and I have a few more bits of reflection on presentations to add to my original list:

1. Warnings. I was in a presentation that was generally benign when suddenly I was confronted with images of a decapitated sheep's head in a vice. If you are going to show this, especially when jumping from "innocent" images, it might be a good idea to warn people.

2. Know your technology and do a practice run if possible. Have a video? Play it ahead of time so you know if the audio is wonky or that it won't run without a certain player. Too many minutes were lost in presentations over fudging with technology. In this conference it was fairly easy to get into the presentation spaces ahead of time and make sure everything will run. But even when that's not the case, stick to something you know will work, have a backup plan or even just try to use your own laptop if possible.

3. Do not read your powerpoint. I would hope most people would have something to add besides the few words they have included in their powerpoint. If not, you either don't have enough content or you've loaded your powerpoint with far too much information. Plus I feel like a kindergardener having a book read to me by the teacher - I can read thank you very much.

4. Language. This one is a bit sensitive, but make sure you can converse in the language in which you will be expected to present. If not, make some arrangements. It's very frustrating to not understand something that sounds as though it might be very interesting, but I just can't get to it.

5. Move the pointer! This one might be an issue of minutia but I cannot stand when someone clicks on something either in powerpoint or a video and then leaves the cursor in the middle of the screen. It's quite distracting to see this little finger icon or an arrow when I am trying to focus on whatever it is you are showing.

So that's it for now. I'll have radio silence until I get to London sometime tomorrow afternoon. Oh and by the way, my presentation went well and I am proud to say I did none of the mentioned offenses. But I do have one more don't that I know I am guilty of: stop saying "um." (Any suggestions for me on that one?)