My Purpose colleague, Alessandra Orofino, and I will be teaching at SVA’s MFA program in Design for Social Innovation when the department opens in fall 2012.

Social innovation is the application of new strategies and models to solving the challenges the world faces and to strengthening society.

The MFA in Design for Social Innovation will prepare students to apply the principles and ethics of social innovation as filters for understanding and as a discipline for engaging with and improving the world through design.

Graduates of the program will be more than graphic designers, filmmakers, advertising creative directors or interactive systems designers. They will be all these, mastering all the skills and knowledge of how to apply them to have a positive impact on business, society and their own lives.

Check out the department website for more updates.

Textbooks have not gone the way of the scroll yet, but many educators say that it will not be long before they are replaced by digital versions — or supplanted altogether by lessons assembled from the wealth of free courseware, educational games, videos and projects on the Web.

[...]

In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this summer announced an initiative that would replace some high school science and math texts with free, “open source” digital versions.

With California in dire straits, the governor hopes free textbooks could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Among the article’s interviewees is Neeru Khosla, co-founder of the non-profit group CK-12 Foundation, which develops “flexbooks” that can be adapted to state educational standards.  (Khosla has also been featured on OpenEd and on the Creative Commons blog.) Khosla explains the virtues of the flexbooks:

You can use them online, you can download them onto a disk, you can print them, you can customize them, you can embed video. When people get over the mind-set issue, they’ll see that there’s no reason to pay $100 a pop for a textbook, when you can have the content you want free.

The article uses terms like “digital textbooks,” “free courseware,” “open source,” and “open-content,” but what exactly do these terms mean? While there is reference to the adaptability and customization digital texts, the article does not explicitly mention copyright.  While digital delivery of educational materials may solve some of the cost barriers of education, without an explicit understanding of terms like “open” and “free,” legal and social barriers remain.  As far as I am concerned, government-funded “digital textbooks” or “free courseware” should be as free as possible from copyright restrictions (licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution license, the least restrictive of CC licenses) or in the public domain.  Only then will they be truly available for sharing, collaboration and reuse.  The fact that they are simply “digital” or “available on the Internet” alone is not enough.

The road to a digital future for education is not without its bumps.  Lewin brings up the issue of a the digital divide: “Not every student has access to a computer, a Kindle electronic reader device or a smartphone, and few districts are wealthy enough to provide them. So digital textbooks could widen the gap between rich and poor.”

The increasing adoption of digital textbooks may save on some costs, but will also require additional investment in computer hardware.  But the real issue at stake is not just the economic costs of education, but instead the need to focus on increasing the accessibility of knowledge.  In order for learning resources to be truly accessible, the issue is not just online vs. offline, digital vs. print.  To reach their maximum social and educational potential, learning materials in the digital future  will need to free from excessive copyright constraints (with clear open licensing like CC-BY or public domain declaration) in order to allow teachers and students the maximum freedom to legally share, modify, and improve upon them.

Also check out Jane Park of ccLearn’s post from last September: “Back to School: Open Textbooks Gaining in Popularity.”

Panel discussion from the the Aspen Ideas Festival.  Thanks to the Breakaway Cook Eric Gower for the tip.

Billions to Be Served: Meeting the Needs of the People and the Planet

The United Nations has determined that, in the next 40 years, we must double crop production to feed, fuel and clothe nine billion people. How do we meet this challenge with converting every forest and savannah into agricultural land? What are the unexpected alliances that can lead the way forward?

My thoughts:

Panelist Jason Clay mentions that one of the ways to increase agricultural yields is to open up patents and other research information to foster innovation and increase equality of access of food production technologies.  Controversy over genetic engineering aside, I can agree in principle with that strategy.  He makes the unfortunate use of the words “intellectual property,” an overreaching and unhelpful term.  What is at stake here is patents specifically, as well as research data (scientific facts, whose protection as “intellectual property” under copyright is questionable).  Patents and copyrights are temporary monopolies designed to promote innovation.  “Intellectual property,” is a confusing and problematic umbrella term that conflates this kind of monopoly with actual physical property.  (See Richard Stallman’s article for more)

I find it troubling that the panel takes it as a given that the human population will continue to grow to reach 9.5 billion and that the trend of increasing income and increased demand for more energy-intensive foods (i.e. more meat) will continue.  Lots of things could happen to prevent the human population from reaching 9.5 billion.  The competition for diminishing resources could lead to large-scale geopolitical conflicts that result in millions of casualties.  But that’s a worst case scenario that I hope does not come true.  My real point is that we also need to look at ways to slow population growth and consumption patterns, not just increase yield to meet demand.  Increasing the educational and social status of women and family planning programs are examples of ways to decrease birth rates.  If a more holistic economic model that takes into account the REAL costs of factory farmed meat were taken into account, either through taxation or more effective environmental protection standards, then the price of meat would go up, and put a check on consumption.  Cheap food is not necessarily a good thing across the board.  Affordable grain yes, cheap meat, not so much.  Grain riots are real, filet mignon riots are not.

It’s not helpful to simply increase corn production if most of the corn is used to feed livestock or used for biofuels.  I’m not anti-meat, but is indisputable that it is less efficient to feed grain to cows to make beef than to feed the corn directly to people. We can’t just focus on increasing yields without reevaluating how those yields are distributed.  We can’t just blindly increase supply using our current business and production models without trying to respond to ways to modify demand.

Henrietta Holsman Fore frames agriculture and food production as a meta-issue that encompasses politics, economics, education, etc.  I agree, but I have a problem with her specific claim that farmers growing opium poppies in Afghanistan instead of “legitimate crops” is a political issue.  Actually, it’s an economic issue.  Even if drug prohibition laws are firmly enforced in Afghanistan as an extension of the US jihad on drugs, simple economics still govern behavior.  Prohibition simply keeps the price of opium and derivatives high, and farmers will still be willing to take the risk of growing opium if they can make more money than growing food crops.  There is also the demand side of things, which is an economic and public health issue in that we need to address the conditions of poverty and alienation that induce people to start using opiates in the first place.

Hugh Grant (CEO of Monsanto, not the actor): “When a farmer can’t feed herself, than something is broken…Farmers need help and training.”

I actually agree with the head of Monsanto on this one.  But that training should not necessarily impose US industrial food production practices on developing countries.  That training should not become a promotional tool for biotech businesses.  Farmers need training, but the people doing the training also need to be knowledgeable and respectful of traditional knowledge.  Farmers can’t feed themselves when they become dependent on growing monocultures of commodity crops.  Crop diversity is one of the keys.

Jason Clay: “Coca Cola’s operations where shut down in many areas of the world (during the food crisis) because they couldn’t buy sugar.”

Sorry, but it’s hard to shed tears over this one.  Just because the world’s billions need food does not mean that they all need to drink Coke.  The worlds farmers could be growing a diverse variety of food crops to feed themselves instead of large monocultures of corn and sugarcane to sell to Coca Cola.

Nicholas DiBiase (@Hepnova) from Hepnova and Noah Dyer (@WealthNetTeam) from WealthNet Partners give a brisk talk about the basics of branding and how it can affect relationships with potential investors. Geared toward the entrepreneur, this video introduces the essential concepts of branding and why they matter to the startup seeking funding.

Stories, examples, and counterexamples along with an amusing skit keep this first salvo in the struggle against bad marketing fresh and entertaining.

This piece was produced for the online educational resource/expertise marketplace Advisor Garage.

This is the fifth in a series of “This is real DIY” experimental documentary videos. Music by Hepnova.

The Creative Commons summer interns gave their midsummer presentations to the CC staff yesterday.  Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito was in town, so he sat in on our presentations and gave feedback.  I talked about my main project for the summer: coming up with an internationalization strategy for ccLearn’s OpenEd project.

The OpenEd site (currently in beta) is:

for anyone interested in open education, from Open Ed experts to those new to the field…

This site should help you arrive at a variety of information, whether you are looking for an organization contact, a particular report, guidance on how to license your educational work, or information on where/when a particular conference is being held. However, please keep in mind that thought we host some of these resources (such as event data), most of the information on this site is linked to other sites. Rather than duplicate efforts, we choose to drive traffic to the many excellent, existing resources out there. The goal is for everyone to contribute by adding information and links to sites we have not yet discovered.

OpenEd is a point of departure for people to understand some of the issues and aspirations related to open education, and we expect it to drive interest in creating new forms of media and outreach to help more people understand open education, CC licenses, and hopes for the future.

In related news, the CC interns have been participating in periodic lunch talks with interns from other tech-related non-profits in the area.  Previously, we have “done the Google” and also gone down to Stanford to hear a presentation by Ryan Calo, a fellow at the Center for Internet and Society.  Today, we are headed to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for a talk by Seth Schoen called “Information Security Discovers Physics.”

At the time of writing, all of the works are available for free (legal) viewing or download online except for Food Inc., which is now in theaters around the US – and a must see for EVERY American.  I know I have kind of geeky interests, and not everybody cares to read 300+ page books about copyright, but everybody eats, so go see Food Inc already!

Books

The Wealth of Networks
How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
Yochai Benkler

Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace 2.0
Lawrence Lessig

Free Culture
How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity
Lawrence Lessig

Remix
Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy
Lawrence Lessig

The Pirates Dilemma
How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism
Matt Mason

The Public Domain
Enclosing the Commons of the Mind
James Boyle

Viral Spiral
How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own
David Bollier

The Future of the Internet And How to Stop It
Jonathan Zittrain

Music and It’s Reflection on Society
Catalan: La Música i el seu reflex en la societat
Spanish: La música y su reflejo en la sociedad
Edited by Indigestió
A collection of essays about the role of music in contemporary society. Only in Spanish and Catalan for now though.

Tales from the Public Domain: Bound By Law?
“Bound by Law translates law into plain English and abstract ideas into ‘visual metaphors.’ So the comic’s heroine, Akiko, brandishes a laser gun as she fends off a cyclopean ‘Rights Monster’ – all the while learning copyright law basics, including the line between fair use and copyright infringement.” -Brandt Goldstein, The Wall Street Journal online

Documentaries

Good Copy/Bad Copy
A Danish documentary about the current state of copyright and culture

Rip: A Remix Manifesto
A Canadian documentary film about copyright and remix culture.

The Future of Food
An in-depth look into the controversy over genetically modified foods.  Watch it online at Snagfilms.

Food, Inc.
Filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA.

The Legend of Leigh Bowery
The Legend of Leigh Bowery explores a life lived as if it was a performance. Leigh Bowery was a costume/clothing designer, nightclub impresario, performer, and musician whose vision influenced many of today’s most important artists. He later became known to the world at large as the muse and subject of preeminent British painter Lucian Freud.

This is an update on my internship with ccLearn, a division of Creative Commons,  a non-profit organization dedicated to realizing the full potential of the internet to support open learning and open educational resources. Our mission is to minimize legal, technical, and social barriers to sharing and reuse of educational materials.

We are working on a site called OpenEd, a site for the Open Education Community and are looking for input and participation from past and present JET Programme participants (I’m a JET alum and webmaster of the JET Alumni Association of NY) as well as other members of the ESL teaching community.

The JET community already has a history of sharing lesson plans and ideas. On a more global level, educators and and institutions have being contributing content (lesson plans, worksheets, multimedia, etc.) to the pool of Open Educational Resources (OER), a kind of educational commons that fosters collaboration and yields greater flexibility and creativity in education.

OER are openly licensed educational resources for teachers and students. All materials that are licensed with a Creative Commons license are OER. OER are “some rights reserved”, meaning that you are free to use a CC licensed work without asking permission as long as you adhere to the license terms. Depending on the license used, you can access, share (copy, distribute, display), adapt (perform, translate), or derive (modify, remix) OER. The openness of a resource increases with the uses allowed.

The OpenEd site is a wiki, so like Wikipedia, anybody can edit the site.  We welcome members of the JET community to add to and edit the site.  We would love to see more links to educational resources as well as personal stories about how you have used open educational resources.

We invite you to take a look at the JET Community page on OpenEd.  You can set up an account on Open Ed and edit and add content.

I will be in San Francisco this summer interning at ccLearn, the education division of Creative Commons.  According to the ccLearn site:

ccLearn is a division of Creative Commons dedicated to realizing the full potential of the internet to support open learning and open educational resources.
Our mission is to minimize legal, technical, and social barriers to sharing and reuse of educational materials.

I look forward to put into practice some of the theoretical and techie knowledge I’ve picked up at ITP.  It’s also a great opportunity to live in California for the first time.  Find out who else is interning at CC this summer 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

The head(banger)phones are a personal music device made up of a pair of headphones and a sensor.  When the user wears the head(banger)phones, the motion and position of her head triggers different sounds, creating a dynamic interactive musical experience.

Source code after the jump:

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

int counter = 0;  //variable for controlling tempo
int tempo = 20; //the higher the number, the slower it goes

//minimum and maximum values coming from accelerometer
int minX = 270;
int maxX = 440;
int minY = 270;
int maxY = 440;

Serial myPort;  // The serial port
int accelX=0;
int accelY=0;

Minim minim;
AudioSample kick;
AudioSample x1;
AudioSample x2;
AudioSample x3;
AudioSample x4;
AudioSample x5;
AudioSample x6;
AudioSample y1;
AudioSample y2;
AudioSample y3;
AudioSample y4;
AudioSample y5;
AudioSample y6;

void setup()
{
println(Serial.list());
myPort = new Serial (this, Serial.list()[0], 9600);
minim = new Minim(this);
size(1440,850);
background(0);
textFont(createFont(“Helvetica”, 80));
textAlign(CENTER);
fill(255,0,0);
text(“head(banger)phones”, width/2, height/2 – 50);
fill(255);
text(“(move your head)”, width/2, height/2 + 50);

kick = minim.loadSample(“kick.mp3″, 1440);

x1 = minim.loadSample(“x1.mp3″, 1440);
x2 = minim.loadSample(“x2.mp3″, 1440);
x3 = minim.loadSample(“x3.mp3″, 1440);
x4 = minim.loadSample(“x4.mp3″, 1440);
x5 = minim.loadSample(“x5.mp3″, 1440);
x6 = minim.loadSample(“x6.mp3″, 1440);

y1 = minim.loadSample(“y1.mp3″, 1440);
y2 = minim.loadSample(“y2.mp3″, 1440);
y3 = minim.loadSample(“y3.mp3″, 1440);
y4 = minim.loadSample(“y4.mp3″, 1440);
y5 = minim.loadSample(“y5.mp3″, 1440);
y6 = minim.loadSample(“y6.mp3″, 1440);
}

void draw()
{
counter = (counter+1)%tempo;

if (counter == 0)
{
//always play the kick
kick.trigger();
//play samples according the the X value
if (accelX == 1) {
x1.trigger();
}
else if (accelX == 2) {
x2.trigger();
}
else if (accelX == 3) {
x3.trigger();
}
else if (accelX == 4) {
x4.trigger();
}
else if (accelX == 5) {
x5.trigger();
}
else if (accelX == 6) {
x6.trigger();
}

//play samples according the the Y value
if (accelY == 1) {
y1.trigger();
}
else if (accelY == 2) {
y2.trigger();
}
else if (accelY == 3) {
y3.trigger();
}
else if (accelY == 4) {
y4.trigger();
}
else if (accelY == 5) {
y5.trigger();
}
else if (accelY == 6) {
y6.trigger();
}
}
}

void serialEvent(Serial myPort)
{
// read the serial buffer:
String myString = myPort.readStringUntil(‘\n’);
// if you got any bytes other than the linefeed:
if (myString != null) {
myString = trim(myString);
// split the string at the commas
// and convert the sections into integers:
int sensors[] = int(split(myString, ‘,’));
if (sensors.length > 0) {
accelX = int(map(sensors[0], minX,maxX,1,6));
accelY = int(map(sensors[1], minY,maxY,1,6));
println(accelX + “,” +accelY); //debugging to make sure the values are coming through and being translated
}
}
}

//don’t really know what this does, but the Minim sample code says to be sure to do this, so can’t hurt
void stop()
{
x1.close();
x2.close();
x3.close();
x4.close();
x5.close();
x6.close();
y1.close();
y2.close();
y3.close();
y4.close();
y5.close();
y6.close();
minim.stop();
super.stop();
}

Here is my first attempt at animation with Adobe After Effects, inspired by Surrealism, Dada, and early MTV animations.

All the source images were taken by me or Kris and can be found in my Flickr account.

Music: Netmaster 2 (Safety is Dangerous Glitch Mix) by HEPNOVA.

[YouTube] [Vimeo] [Blip.tv]

Source code after the jump:

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

Minim minim;
WaveformRenderer waveform;
//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”, 50, height/2-30);
text(“to play”, 50, height/2+45);

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);

waveform = new WaveformRenderer();
play_a.addListener(waveform);
play_b.addListener(waveform);
play_c.addListener(waveform);
play_d.addListener(waveform);
play_e.addListener(waveform);
play_f.addListener(waveform);
play_g.addListener(waveform);
play_h.addListener(waveform);
play_i.addListener(waveform);
play_j.addListener(waveform);
play_k.addListener(waveform);
play_l.addListener(waveform);
play_m.addListener(waveform);
play_n.addListener(waveform);
play_o.addListener(waveform);
play_p.addListener(waveform);
play_q.addListener(waveform);
play_r.addListener(waveform);
play_s.addListener(waveform);
play_t.addListener(waveform);
play_u.addListener(waveform);
play_v.addListener(waveform);
play_w.addListener(waveform);
play_x.addListener(waveform);
play_y.addListener(waveform);
play_z.addListener(waveform);

textFont(createFont(“Courier”, 200));
noStroke();
frameRate(30);
}

void draw()
{
noStroke();
fill(0,0,0,20);
rect(0,0,width,height);
waveform.draw();
}

void keyPressed()
{
fill(255);
if ( key == ‘a’)
{
play_a.trigger();
text(“A”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘b’)
{
play_b.trigger();
text(“B”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘c’)
{
play_c.trigger();
text(“C”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘d’)
{
play_d.trigger();
text(“D”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘e’)
{
play_e.trigger();
text(“E”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘f’)
{
play_f.trigger();
text(“F”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘g’)
{
play_g.trigger();
text(“G”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘h’)
{
play_h.trigger();
text(“H”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘i’)
{
play_i.trigger();
text(“I”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘j’)
{
play_j.trigger();
text(“J”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘k’)
{
text(“K”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
play_k.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘l’)
{
play_l.trigger();
text(“L”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘m’)
{
text(“M”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
play_m.trigger();
}

if ( key == ‘n’)
{
play_n.trigger();
text(“N”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘o’)
{
play_o.trigger();
text(“O”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘p’)
{
play_p.trigger();
text(“P”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘q’)
{
play_q.trigger();
text(“Q”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘r’)
{
play_r.trigger();
text(“R”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘s’)
{
play_s.trigger();
text(“S”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘t’)
{
play_t.trigger();
text(“T”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘u’)
{
play_u.trigger();
text(“U”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘v’)
{
play_v.trigger();
text(“V”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘w’)
{
play_w.trigger();
text(“W”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘x’)
{
play_x.trigger();
text(“X”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘y’)
{
play_y.trigger();
text(“Y”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if ( key == ‘z’)
{
play_z.trigger();
text(“Z”, width/2-60, height/2+50);
}

if (key == ‘ ‘)
{
fill(0,0,0,20);
noStroke();
rect(0,0,width,height);
}
}

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

class WaveformRenderer implements AudioListener
{
private float[] left;
private float[] right;

WaveformRenderer()
{
left = null;
right = null;
}

synchronized void samples(float[] samp)
{
left = samp;
}

synchronized void samples(float[] sampL, float[] sampR)
{
left = sampL;
right = sampR;
}

synchronized void draw()
{
// we’ve got a stereo signal if right or left are not null
if ( left != null && right != null )
{
noFill();
stroke(255);
beginShape();
for ( int i = 0; i < left.length; i++ )
{
vertex(i, height/4 + left[i]*120);
}
endShape();
beginShape();
for ( int i = 0; i < right.length; i++ )
{
vertex(i, 3*(height/4) + right[i]*120);
}
endShape();
}
else if ( left != null )
{
noFill();
stroke(255);
beginShape();
for ( int i = 0; i < left.length; i++ )
{
vertex(i, height/2 + left[i]*120);
}
endShape();
}
}
}

I have written a Processing sketch, with the help of the Minim library, that that plays back the “percussion letters” when the user types on the keyboard.  There is a bit of latency and audio “crackle” that still needs to be worked out, but for the most part, the musical typewriter works.  The next step is to build a related program that can read a text file as a musical score, translate the letters into percussion alphabet, play back the results, and save the audio playback as a file.

For more info, refer to my previous post about Text2Drum, or see my source code for the musical typewriter after the jump.

Musical Typewriter source code:

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

Minim minim;
//AudioPlayer objects for each letter of the alphabet
AudioPlayer play_a;
AudioPlayer play_b;
AudioPlayer play_c;
AudioPlayer play_d;
AudioPlayer play_e;
AudioPlayer play_f;
AudioPlayer play_g;
AudioPlayer play_h;
AudioPlayer play_i;
AudioPlayer play_j;
AudioPlayer play_k;
AudioPlayer play_l;
AudioPlayer play_m;
AudioPlayer play_n;
AudioPlayer play_o;
AudioPlayer play_p;
AudioPlayer play_q;
AudioPlayer play_r;
AudioPlayer play_s;
AudioPlayer play_t;
AudioPlayer play_u;
AudioPlayer play_v;
AudioPlayer play_w;
AudioPlayer play_x;
AudioPlayer play_y;
AudioPlayer 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.loadFile(“A.mp3″, 512);
play_b = minim.loadFile(“B.mp3″, 512);
play_c = minim.loadFile(“C.mp3″, 512);
play_d = minim.loadFile(“D.mp3″, 512);
play_e = minim.loadFile(“E.mp3″, 512);
play_f = minim.loadFile(“F.mp3″, 512);
play_g = minim.loadFile(“G.mp3″, 512);
play_h = minim.loadFile(“H.mp3″, 512);
play_i = minim.loadFile(“I.mp3″, 512);
play_j = minim.loadFile(“J.mp3″, 512);
play_k = minim.loadFile(“K.mp3″, 512);
play_l = minim.loadFile(“L.mp3″, 512);
play_m = minim.loadFile(“M.mp3″, 512);
play_n = minim.loadFile(“N.mp3″, 512);
play_o = minim.loadFile(“O.mp3″, 512);
play_p = minim.loadFile(“P.mp3″, 512);
play_q = minim.loadFile(“Q.mp3″, 512);
play_r = minim.loadFile(“R.mp3″, 512);
play_s = minim.loadFile(“S.mp3″, 512);
play_t = minim.loadFile(“T.mp3″, 512);
play_u = minim.loadFile(“U.mp3″, 512);
play_v = minim.loadFile(“V.mp3″, 512);
play_w = minim.loadFile(“W.mp3″, 512);
play_x = minim.loadFile(“X.mp3″, 512);
play_y = minim.loadFile(“Y.mp3″, 512);
play_z = minim.loadFile(“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.play();
play_a.rewind();
}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

if (key == ‘ ‘)
{
background(0);
}
}

My final project proposal for Physical Computing at ITP:

head(banger)phones – a personal musical device

A set of headphones rigged with an accelerometer that detects the motion of the user’s head and converts that motion data into MIDI data via an Arduino microprocessor.  The MIDI then triggers percussion sounds in a software synth on the computer, which feeds the audio signal back to the user wearing the headphones.

Here is a video of my proposal to my class.

head(banger)phones from lee-sean on Vimeo.

I was part of the brainstorming, implementation and localization team of the original Stop the Clash video in 2007, when I worked at Avaaz.org.

I’m going back to school!

I have been accepted into the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University (NYU). I will be starting the two-year Masters of Professional Studies (MPS) program in September 2008. According to their website, ITP is:

A graduate department dedicated to creativity and critical thinking applied to new technologies…More than just a graduate school, ITP is a creative ecosystem – a living and interdependent flow of people, projects, ideas and applications all dedicated to exploring and expanding the ability of real people to use media to connect to one another and influence the world around them.

I learned about the program from my former Avaaz colleagues Ji Mi Choi, who worked at ITP, and Paul and Milena Berry of Talacon Social Software who are ITP alumni.

While I concentrated in Government (Harvard-speak for majoring in political science) in undergrad, I have always wanted to go to art school as well. ITP deals with the intersection between technology, art and society, so I think it is the perfect fit for me. I hope to build up some technical chops and make some good connections so I can further develop the multimedia production, technological consulting services and music production wings of my company, Hepnova Multimedia.

Since ITP is an open-ended, experimental program, I am also open to whatever new interests come my way once I am there. I heard ITP alum James Clar give a talk last Friday about his career path. He studied film production at NYU for undergrad and then went to ITP and ended up doing interactive lighting design. I am excited about the versatile toolkit that ITP students acquire and the open-ended career paths that open up afterwards.

For those of you that are interested in applying for the program, I am putting my ITP application personal statement online here. I hope it will be of use for potential applicants.

Also check out current ITP student Caleb Clark’s Graduate School Application Help guide and ITP 101: Lessons learned from year one of the ITP.

I also applied to the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Program in Social Entrepreneurship for a fellowship to cover my tuition at ITP. Unfortunately, I did not get the fellowship, but NYU did give me a comparable scholarship.

In case anybody is interested, here are my Reynolds Program application essay and biographical sketch.

So I guess I am finally taking the plunge and going to grad school, five years after I graduated from undergrad. After an intense undergrad experience, grad school was not even on my radar. For some time, I thought I would never go back to school because there wasn’t any thing I was interested enough to spend the time, effort and money to specialize in.

I taught English on the JET Programme in Japan from 2003-2006. I was applied and was admitted into the Masters Programme in Asian Studies at Lund University in Sweden in 2006, but I pulled a “runaway bride” and I ultimately declined the offer at the last minute and did not enroll.

Once again, if anybody is interested, here is my personal statement from my Lund application.

Why study Asian Studies in Sweden? Kinda random, I know. I had a wonderful experience studying abroad at Lund during the summer of 2002, where I did a masters-level course in human rights law as part of the Øresund Summer University, so Lund stayed on my radar. Plus, tuition is FREE at Swedish universities (but you still have to pay for your room and board and other expenses), and I had been fascinated by Sweden since a family vacation through Scandinavia when I was in high school. I even took two years of Swedish language in college, although I barely had the chance to practice since the summer program I was one was entirely in English.

Looking back, I didn’t really have an endgame for what I wanted to do after the program (except maybe stay out of George W. Bush’s US of America for a little bit longer, which I guess is a good enough reason), so I did not enroll. Lund is great as a college town, but after 3 years living in Nakatsu, a small provincial Japanese city (more of a town really), I wanted a taste of big city life, so I moved to New York City. Originally, I came to NYC under the pretense of visiting friends and checking things out, but I got my last gig at Avaaz and just ended up staying and settling here and getting my current job at Human Rights Watch.

Tsar Nicholas and I also decided to make the Hepnova Multimedia project a legit business, so we set up an LLC and started doing freelance gigs for clients ranging from Progressive Source Communications to a women’s lingerie business. We have done websites, logo designs, translations, video editing and a variety of other gigs.

I really feel ready for ITP now. I think the masters program will give me the skills and experience to do something creative with technology as a full-time gig. I will be sure to keep all my blog readers posted on what I am up to in grad school. I also hope this post was useful for people considering ITP or people considering grad school in general.

I was part of the creative team of the Clash video, and worked on the localization/subtitling of the non-English versions. After our video was featured on YouTube earlier this week, the number of view counts has shot up dramatically. The video is stirring up quite a buzz online!

RICKEN PATEL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF AVAAZ.ORG’s YOUTUBE DEBUT

This was shot using my MacBook’s built-in webcam at Avaaz.org’s New York office.

About Hacktivismo
Hacktivismo is an international group of hackers, human rights workers, lawyers and artists that evolved out of THE CULT OF THE DEAD COW (cDc), a publishing and computer security group. We believe that privacy and access to information are basic human rights. Hacktivismo assumes as an ethical point of departure the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. We also support the Free Software and open-source movements.

Our Mission
To conduct and publish scientific research in the areas of information technology, communications and electronic media; and, to assist (where possible) non-governmental organizations, social justice groups and human rights entities in the use of advanced information technologies for the furtherance of their works. We also intend to have fun doing this. Turn it up. Way up.

The Hacktivismo Declaration

Check them out! Also check out this article about China, Google and Genocide, written by Oxblood, Executive Director of Hacktivismo.

Learn to make videos today!

Global Warming Threatens Polar Bears with Extinction!

Time is running out for polar bears. Scientists warn that rising Arctic temperatures may cause nearly all of the summer sea ice that the bears depend on for survival to vanish by 2040. Polar bears are already suffering the grim effects of global warming: birth rates are falling, fewer cubs are surviving and more bears are drowning. With more than 25 percent of the world’s polar bear populations already in decline, further warming could drive this beloved animal to extinction by the end of this century! Act now!

Here in Nakatsu, the school system is still very egalitarian. Sometimes too egalitarian, at least on the surface. For example, there are strict rules about uniforms and hairstyles, (lack) of make-up, etc, but students still express their individuality (and their consumerism) with their name-brand accessories, backpacks, stationery, etc. From elementary school on through junior high (the period of compulsory education in Japan), tracking students based upon ability is strictly forbidden. That means, in my English classes at school, I have kids who don’t even know the alphabet after 3 years of English to kids who can read and write rather well, all in the same class. The teachers have to follow a strict curriculum and they plug through things, aiming at the average or below average student. This means that the students who fall behind are completely lost, and the high acheiving students are totally bored. Nobody in junior high fails anyway. Everybody is socially promoted and will graduate with their class. There are no tests to graduate junior high; the challenge is the entrance exams to get into more competitive high schools or universities.

With the “juku” system of cram schools, the supposedly egalitarian nature of the state school system is pretty much bogus anyway. The jukus are private cram schools that usually operate after school and on weekends. Since jukus are private, it costs money to send one’s children there, thus favoring those with more financial means. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with students getting tutoring to help them succeed, but the widespread juku phenomenon begs the questions: if the school system is so good, why do even the smart kids need to go to juku?

From conversations with some of my better English students, I gather that this is where much of the real learning happens anyway. So if students learn the English they need in juku to pass the exams, they can totally phase out of English class or any other classes. Remember that class attendance and junior high grades don’t matter – you will still graduate no matter what. So students never have to participate in class, even the smart ones if they don’t want to, as long as they can pass the written entrance exams to the high school of their choice.

I think that the real purpose of the compulsory school system is socialization and control. In some respects, the school system is part of the social welfare system. All students get immunizations and health exams through the school system. There is also a system of low-cost subsidized school meals. Everybody eats the same thing, including the teachers and the office staff. School is where the kids learn to “be Japanese”: how to use the proper level of respectful verb forms depending on the social context of discourse, and how many degrees of incline to bow in a given situation, how to be a group.

The public school system is very paternalistic. Schools will set rules regarding the student’s conduct outside of school in addition to the already strict rules at school. At one school I teach at, the student’s aren’t supposed to stop by the convenience store on their way to or from school to buy snacks. They aren’t supposed to be at the video game arcade after a certain time. These are rules set by the school (an extension of the state), not the kids’ parents. If a kid gets into a fight outside of school, or gets caught shoplifting, the police will call the kid’s homeroom teacher who will also likely take blame for the kid’s parents for not “teaching our child good ethics.” School days are long, and school holidays are very short compared to the US. School teachers are more than teachers, they also work as social workers and surrogate parents. Despite all the time Japanese kids spend at school, they probably don’t spend more time learning in a classroom environment than the average American student. The Japanese kids are at school, doing club activities, preparing for numerous school events like sports days, culture festivals, song contests, etc. that take up a good chunk of the school year. These activities mold kids into a collective and build up an esprit de corps. The kids can spend hours and hours preparing for sports day and culture festival during the school day because we already know that juku is where the real learning happens anyway.