I’ve just been featured as one of “100 Passionate People” of Taiwanese-America on TaiwaneseAmerican.org! View my profile here.

About the 100 Passionate People Project:

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and the 2nd week of the month is Taiwanese American Heritage Week. TaiwaneseAmerican.org is pleased to present the profiles of a wide cross-section of everyday Taiwanese Americans who many of you have told us that you find personally inspiring or passionate about what they do. Each day this month, we’ll present about three people, of all ages, generations, and careers until we reach 100 people.

Make no mistake, this is NOT the 100 “most passionate” people, because we know there are many more folks to connect with or hear about who also fit this criteria and deserve to be highlighted, too. With your help, we will find them. This project is just the beginning.

For now, this is a glimpse into the diversity of our community and a collection of their stories and opinions. In the future, we’ll be planning other “100 people” projects based on various themes (i.e. tech, community leaders, moms, etc.) and eventually grow our project into a historical archive chronicling the stories of Americans of Taiwanese heritage.

If you know of someone who you think should be profiled this month or in one of our future projects, please send this link to them: http://bit.ly/cSZvf4

1. Washington Post writer Ian Shapira writes an article about business coach/’generational consultant’ Anne Loehr: Speaking to Generation Nexus: Guru Explains Gens X, Y, Boomer To One Another
2. Gawker blogger Hamilton Nolan picks up the story: ‘Generational Consultant’ Holds America’s Fakest Job
3. Shapira complains that Gawker stole his story: The Death of Journalism (Gawker Edition)

My take

Shapira’s claim that Gawker did not properly attribute him are unfounded.  The Gawker post links to the original article and to Loeher’s generational cheat sheet.  Hyperlinks are the footnotes and citations of our generation (as Loeher would probably say). I’m giving my advice for free: my generation thinks that generational business coaches are B$.  We live in a cut and paste culture; computers lower the barrier to making derivative works, as the next section of this post will demonstrate.  The subject of the original article was pretty ridiculous to begin with, as if it were tailor-made for Gawker fodder.  Gawker added value to the original with its snarky commentary. (Ms. Loeher, is snark a characteristic of my generation too?)

If Oscar Wilde were alive today, he would probably say, “the only thing worse than being blogged about is NOT being blogged about.”  While we are on aphorisms, let me give you some more free (useless) advice about my generation, courtesy of Descartes, updated for our times: Blogito ergo sum. “I blog, therefore I am.”

I don’t think Gawker is so much ruining journalism as Shapira claims as much as it is Maybe the WaPo should stick to actual news coverage and investigative reporting (after all, this is the newspaper that exposed the Watergate scandal, but “old media” can’t just rest on its past laurels).  “New media” like Gizmodo is going to give newspapers a run for their money in terms of business model.  Newspapers can either adapt their business models and learn to compete with the supposed “pirates” (“piracy is just another business model“), or they can fail.  They can revamp their content and delivery models, or they can streamline and specialize in what they do best.  But here’s a hint for being hip with the kids: complaining about the death of journalism is old news and kind of played out.

Or, in a move of desperation, they can throw down the gauntlet and start an Internet turf war like Shapira has done, which is actually a very Gawker-esque thing to do.  (What would Anne Loeher say about how that reflects on Shapira’s generational values?) It certainly has succeeded in getting people’s attention, but I hope this is not the sustainable business model the WaPo has in mind.

Commentary from the blogosphere AKA aggregation adds value

Stowe Boyd: As Media Economics Shift, Old Media Can’t See The Forest, Only Trees

So, at core, the issue here is something larger. Who owns the world of discourse? Who is allowed to profit, and in what way, from the actions of participants in this web sphere?

Various arguments could be made about fanciful mechanisms.

• Imagine a world where people are paid to read stories, basically getting a kickback from publishers from ad revenue. (Hasn’t caught on.)
• We could weigh the value of every link pointing to or away a piece on the web, and a complex, Google-pagerank-ish algorithm could figure out to six decimal points how much everyone owes each other each week. (Impossible to implement, I bet.)
• Authors could attempt to demand that no one should link to their pieces, or clip any information from them without permission or recompense. (Counter to fair use provisions of copyright and free speech protections.)
• Companies like the Washington Post can put everything behind a paywall. (Good luck.)

These mechanisms hinge on old thinking about value.

The web is a place where connection trumps content: content isn’t king, context in a web of meaning is king.

Rachel Sklar: Did Gawker Rip Off The Washington Post? Yep.

The blogosphere has done something weird to the media industry: Now, the imprimatur of having contributed something is not the original byline, but whether your piece was “picked up.” Pickup provides that extra stamp of relevance, that what you did is worthy of inclusion by the all-important aggregators — the outlets which determine the days need-to-know stories, so busy people with no time to read any of it will at least know what’s up. Yes, yes, congratulations on getting your little article published in a top national newspaper — but a Drudge/Romenesko/HuffPo/Gawker link? Awesome!

It’s not just about traffic, it’s about affirmation: You’re on to something. You’re relevant.

Zachary M. Seward: Gawker and The Washington Post: A case study in fair use

Words in Post article: 1,527
Words from Post article quoted in Gawker post: 226 (15%)
Original words in Gawker post: 204
Labor devoted to Post article: about 2 days
Labor devoted to Gawker post: 30-60 minutes
Cost of Post article: roughly $750
Cost of Gawker post: roughly $20
Revenue generated from Post article: unknown
Revenue generated from Gawker post: roughly $200
Blog links to Post article: 7
Blog links to Gawker post: 4
Rank of Gawker post among referrers to Post article: 2nd
Rank of Post article in Google search for profile subject: 3rd
Rank of Gawker post in Google search for profile subject: 6th

Matthew Ingram: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

I’d be willing to agree that Gawker could have — and maybe even should have, in an ethical sense — mentioned Shapira and his story specifically. But there is no way in heck that a post with three links and an explicit reference to the source constitutes anything approaching a “rip-off” or the “death of journalism.” How about the death of hyperbole, and the rebirth of rational debate about the value of linking and traffic, and/or the ethics of sourcing online? That would be nice.

emptywheel: The Stealing Wars: What’s Good for Gawker Is Good for WaPo’s Slate

Shapira has a point about this particular instance of Gawker’s abuse of etiquette. But he misses all the ways that this information economy is a multiple-directional exchange, one the WaPo is as happy to engage in as Gawker.

VOXPOPULI: How Alan Denton And His Gawker Henchmen Are Ruining Journalism Forever

So, what’s the point of all this? Shapira points out that what took him a day to produce took Gawker less than an hour to claim as its own and make ad revenue from. Newspapers and other traditional media are certainly not the only form of journalism, but they are the ones that 1. pay well enough for one to live a decent life as a working journalist and 2. have (had?) the resources to allow for real news-gathering, which takes time and effort. And with newspapers fading away, there’s less original content for blogs to re-purpose as their own.

On the other hand…blogs are more fun, or can be, and I myself am a Gawker regular. Blogs are a lot less formal and the best don’t, after all, just cut and paste without adding a bit of their own eleven herbs and spices. In the age of the Internet, information is an increasingly free commodity.

Appendix

This is totally tangential, and I doubt you’ve made it this far, but I’ve had my own brush with Nick Denton’s blogging empire before.  Gizmodo picked up my head(banger)phones project from the ITP Winter Show last December.  They misreported the programming language I used to execute the project.  I posted a comment to correct them, but the post was never corrected.  Oh well, I enjoyed the 15 seconds of Internet fame while it lasted.  You could always read the official story about the head(banger)phones on LEESEAN.NET.

In case you haven’t heard enough from Shapira:

Washington Post staff writer Ian Shapira will be online Monday, Aug. 4, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss his Outlook article titled “How Gawker Ripped Off My tory and Why It’s Destroying Journalism.”

I customized the WordPress theme based on code from Chris Pearson’s Cutline theme, and I also got some design inspiration from Upstart Blogger’s Enormous theme.  The font in the header image is Gill Sans Ultra Bold.

LEESEAN.NET by Hepnova

Enjoy cyberstalking me here.

Here are some news clippings of the ITP Winter Show from across the Internets:

MAKE: Blog: ITP Winter Show 2008 – Best of show… Plate spinning DJ, drinking piano, magnet music

MAKE: Blog: More from the ITP Winter Show 2008

More from the ITP Winter Appearance 2008 | USD6.com

ITP Winter Show 2008 – Highlights.  – Wiredset / Blogs / Mark Ghuneim

ICM Final in Progress: Musical Typewriter

ICM Final Project Proposal: Text2Drum

After getting help from the ICM email list, I changed my AudioPlayer objects to AudioSamples, which only need to be triggered once, as opposed to AudioPlayer objects that require play and rewind functions.  This tweak solved my latency and crackle issues.

Testing out the new version has reminded me of the aural pleasure of typing on analog typewriters.  The rhythmic, percussive quality of clanking keys is now lost on contemporary computer keyboards that make more muted sounds when used.

I also thought it would be cool to visualize the waveform of the audio output and display that along with the letter on the screen.  Well, back to work…

New code after the jump:

import ddf.minim.signals.*;
import ddf.minim.*;
import ddf.minim.analysis.*;
import ddf.minim.effects.*;

Minim minim;
//AudioSample objects for each letter of the alphabet
AudioSample play_a;
AudioSample play_b;
AudioSample play_c;
AudioSample play_d;
AudioSample play_e;
AudioSample play_f;
AudioSample play_g;
AudioSample play_h;
AudioSample play_i;
AudioSample play_j;
AudioSample play_k;
AudioSample play_l;
AudioSample play_m;
AudioSample play_n;
AudioSample play_o;
AudioSample play_p;
AudioSample play_q;
AudioSample play_r;
AudioSample play_s;
AudioSample play_t;
AudioSample play_u;
AudioSample play_v;
AudioSample play_w;
AudioSample play_x;
AudioSample play_y;
AudioSample play_z;

void setup()
{
minim = new Minim(this);
size(500,500);

background(0);
textFont(createFont(“Courier”, 50));
text(“Type letters”, 30, height/2-50);
text(“to play”, 30, height/2+25);

play_a = minim.loadSample(“A.mp3″, 512);
play_b = minim.loadSample(“B.mp3″, 512);
play_c = minim.loadSample(“C.mp3″, 512);
play_d = minim.loadSample(“D.mp3″, 512);
play_e = minim.loadSample(“E.mp3″, 512);
play_f = minim.loadSample(“F.mp3″, 512);
play_g = minim.loadSample(“G.mp3″, 512);
play_h = minim.loadSample(“H.mp3″, 512);
play_i = minim.loadSample(“I.mp3″, 512);
play_j = minim.loadSample(“J.mp3″, 512);
play_k = minim.loadSample(“K.mp3″, 512);
play_l = minim.loadSample(“L.mp3″, 512);
play_m = minim.loadSample(“M.mp3″, 512);
play_n = minim.loadSample(“N.mp3″, 512);
play_o = minim.loadSample(“O.mp3″, 512);
play_p = minim.loadSample(“P.mp3″, 512);
play_q = minim.loadSample(“Q.mp3″, 512);
play_r = minim.loadSample(“R.mp3″, 512);
play_s = minim.loadSample(“S.mp3″, 512);
play_t = minim.loadSample(“T.mp3″, 512);
play_u = minim.loadSample(“U.mp3″, 512);
play_v = minim.loadSample(“V.mp3″, 512);
play_w = minim.loadSample(“W.mp3″, 512);
play_x = minim.loadSample(“X.mp3″, 512);
play_y = minim.loadSample(“Y.mp3″, 512);
play_z = minim.loadSample(“Z.mp3″, 512);

textFont(createFont(“Courier”, 200));
}

void draw()
{

}

void keyPressed()
{
if ( key == ‘a’)
{
background(0);
text(“A”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_a.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘b’)
{
background(0);
text(“B”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_b.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘c’)
{
background(0);
text(“C”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_c.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘d’)
{
background(0);
text(“D”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_d.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘e’)
{
background(0);
text(“E”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_e.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘f’)
{
background(0);
text(“F”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_f.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘g’)
{
background(0);
text(“G”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_g.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘h’)
{
background(0);
text(“H”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_h.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘i’)
{
background(0);
text(“I”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_i.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘j’)
{
background(0);
text(“J”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_j.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘k’)
{
background(0);
text(“K”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_k.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘l’)
{
background(0);
text(“L”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_l.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘m’)
{
background(0);
text(“M”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_m.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘n’)
{
background(0);
text(“N”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_n.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘o’)
{
background(0);
text(“O”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_o.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘p’)
{
background(0);
text(“P”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_p.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘q’)
{
background(0);
text(“Q”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_q.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘r’)
{
background(0);
text(“R”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_r.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘s’)
{
background(0);
text(“S”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_s.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘t’)
{
background(0);
text(“T”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_t.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘u’)
{
background(0);
text(“U”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_u.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘v’)
{
background(0);
text(“V”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_v.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘w’)
{
background(0);
text(“W”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_w.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘x’)
{
background(0);
text(“X”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_x.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘y’)
{
background(0);
text(“Y”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_y.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘z’)
{
background(0);
text(“Z”, width/2-60, height/2+20);
play_z.trigger();
}

if (key == ‘ ‘)
{
background(0);
}
}

void stop()
{
minim.stop();
super.stop();
}

Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish newspaper, came out with an article yesterday about the internet phenomenon (and now book) Stuff White People Like.  It’s got some great commentary and a precious interview with the SWPL author Christian Lander.  Here is the original article (in Swedish) My rough translation below:

Photo caption: Christian Lander makes fun of white people’s desire to recycle, eat healthy, like “indie” and to do things outdoors.

The White Will to be Unique

The well-educated, liberal and self-righteous upper-middleclass are the subject of ridicule in the successful blog “Stuff White People Like,” which is also now in book form.  Author Christian Lander explains for DN (Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish newspaper) why this group is so fun to make fun of.

People seem to have always liked to put each over into categories.  “Us and them,” is probably the most basic of these.  If we break things down in more detail, not only are there groupings based on socio-economic class (upper class, working class, etc.) but also groupings based on appearance and interests (stekare [preppies], Emo, kulturtante [women of a certain age who like the theatre and culture], hipsters).  Charles Dickens did just this in 1836, when he published a collection of essays under the title, Sketches by Boz.”  The book begins with a rather dry and ironic description of a number of characters in Victorian London.

One-hundred and seventy-two years later, Christian Lander started his blog, “Stuff White People Like,” mostly as a joke after a discussion about how he would like more white people to watch the TV show “The Wire.”  On the 18th of January this year, he posted the first entry, “Coffee.”  After six weeks, the visits counter had reached 300,000 visitors a day, and was up to a million earlier this summer.  The latest entry on the list was number 106, and is about Facebook.

“The growing popularity of the blog was totally viral,” explains Christian Lander by telephone from Los Angeles.  “People told their friends about it, posted links on their own sites, and spread the word more widely.  If I had understood the fully [how big it would become] I would have sold my work for a lot of money to a marketing company, but unfortunately I didn’t do that.”

The white people that Lander caricaturizes belong to a well-educated American upper-middle class.  They lean towards the left and concern themselves with the environment, culture and the world around them.

“One thing that sets them apart the most is perhaps organic food.  They are out for recognition that what they are doing is right.  There is definitely a certain measure of self-hate there; as if they have to undo all of the evil that white people have done historically.  But at the same time, they also look down on other people who don’t do as much good as they do.”

The blog’s popularity led to publisher taking notice, and last spring Lander landed himself a contract that allowed him to quit his job as a “kind of copywriter.”  For the last few weeks, the book version has been number 17 on the American bestsellers list.

Christian Lander is himself guilty of many of the descriptions in the book, which he believes to be one of the reasons for his success.  He is obviously white, with an unfinished doctorate in literature (#81) and has studied abroad (#72), has a beard (#95), glasses (#140), and a nice bicycle (#61).

“I know that I am pretentious and silly with a lot of those things, but I can’t help it.  I am in fact looking out for myself for the most part.  If I can’t make fun of myself, then it wouldn’t have been all that funny.”

Lander’s book is an heir both to Dickens and to earlier classics in the genre.  Lisa Birnbach’s “The Official Preppy Handbook” in 1980 dealt with the dresscodes, drinking habits and mating rituals of the American northeastern upperclass.  Three years later, literature professor Paul Fussel put out “Class. A Guide Through the American Status System,” which investigates, among other things, why the upperclasses prefer small balls and the lowerclasses big ones.

In recent years, we have been able to read the same kind of comic anthropology applied to hipsters in “The Hipster Handbook,” and the filthy rich in “The Filthy Rich Handbook.”  And now we can read about the group Lander caricaturizes with the subtitle, “The unique taste of millions.”  For one example of this, one only need to go to the side muxtapestumbler.com, which is search function linked to the popular internet service Mutape, where users upload songs to their own “personal” mixtapes.  One quickly realizes that there are extremely few users that get even close to being original.

“Yup, that’s a good example,” says Christian Lander

“The funny things is that the people I talk about think that they belong to a awfully special minority.  They forget in fact that there are actually millions of people out there that also have that ‘alternative taste,’like ‘indie,’ read books and watch movies.”

You’ve studied in Copenhagen.  Do you have anything in particular to say about Scandinavian white people?

“They are what all American white people aspire to be.  You are fantastically socially progressive, you are physically fit, you speak several languages.  Yes, you are the ideal.”

But is the book meant to be a guide for becoming a white person?

“No, no, no, it is a guide for how to take advantage of white people.  What you want to do is to use their weakness to get them to do favors for you.”

What can one get them to do then?

“You can get them to paint your house, give you a lift to the airport, cook you dinner.”

And if they cook dinner for you, will that be a good dinner?

“Absolutely.  As long as they stay away from trying to do your national cuisine.  In that case, there is a risk that they will fuck it all up.”

By Agnes af Geijerstam

Translation by Lee-Sean

1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket
2. Your significant other? Spidermonkey
3. Your hair? black
4. Your mother? same
5. Your father? same
6. Your favorite thing? Exploration
7. Your dream last night? Gorillas
8 Your favorite drink? Tea
9. Your dream/goal? Recognition
10. The room you’re in? Cubicle
11. Your hobby? Travel
12. Your fear? Boredom
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Jet-set
14. What you’re not? you
15. Muffins? tops
16. One of your wish list items? Murakami
17. Where you grew up? Scottsdale
18. The last thing you did? click
19. What are you wearing? Uniqlo
20. Favorite Gadget? Crackberry
21. Your pets? none
22. Your computer? MacBook Pro
23. Your mood? happy
24. Missing someone? soon
25. Your car? subway
26. Something you’re not wearing?  fur
27. Favorite store? IKEA
28. Like someone? sure
29. Your favorite color? clear
30. When was the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? recently

Is this meme the gift that keeps on giving?  Like syphilis?  I think this might have to stop with me.

While we are on the topic of commitment and settling, don’t miss this past Sunday’s NY Times Magazine article on young married gays in MA.

From Tom’s Farewell Party in Brooklyn Heights – 16 June 2007

Avaaz’s ‘Stop the Clash of Civilizations’ video has been nominated for the Best Awareness Raising Video category of the Progressive Source Awards. Anybody with an email address can vote for us online, so check out the other entries and vote for us here.

Above: on the beach on Long Island

Above and Below: Astoria, Queens

Above: Modeling the Avaaz “Save the Polar Bears – Stop Global Warming T-shirt”
Get your own T-shirt here
Björn the Bear by HEPNOVA

Lots going on recently, so I haven’t had a chance to blog.

Check out my 2 new photo sets on Flickr:

Central Park (3 June 2007)

Family visit in NYC

Coming up (when I have some time): I want to post a reviews of Morimoto and Rosanjin, two Japanese restaurants I dined in with my family, and tell the story of how the NYPD came to my rescue.

Even though I have lived in NYC for almost 9 months now, I feel like there are still so many parts of the city that I haven’t seen yet. Today, Kris and I walked around the city and acted like tourists, looking up at the buildings and taking pictures of everything.

See all the pictures on my Flickr account.