Check out Mozo’s Vice Calculator and become Australia’s first vice president.

It’s on the search for Australia’s first “vice” president using the quirky Vice Calculator. The “vice” calculator shows how much you will spend on vices in your lifetime.

Here’s a chance to figure out your vices, either giggling heartedly or nervously at the results! Mozo is asking people to post their “vice score” and a campaign pledge on Facebook to win $5,000. Perhaps a great way to bring some levity to the excess of the silly season and fuel for a New Year resolution!

Check out the campaign landing page and maybe find out your vice score:

• http://mozo.com.au/vice-calculator

#Geek in Residence. Grant opportunities for Australian geeks and technologists.

Geek in Residence brings the expertise of technically confident artists and creative technicians together with a host organisation.

Deadline: 9 December, 2009.

Check out the details at http://artsdigitalera.com/gir

Streamflow Conditions and Timestamp. An online exhibition, 24 hours of networked #writing starts Dec 5, 09.

Streamflow Conditions
Charting a poetics of language, code, and networks
+
Timestamp
24 hours of networked writing

an online exhibition and live writing event launching Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009 @ Subito Press
http://streamflowconditions.subitopress.org

~Beacons~
John Cayley (CA)
Roderick Coover (US)
Ian Hatcher (US)
Mez Breeze (AU)
José Carlos Silvestre (BR)
Stephanie Strickland & Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo (US)
Rui Torres (PT)

code poetry ~~ code proper ~~ ghosts in the network ~~ river expeditions ~~ edges of chaos ~~ immersive horizons ~~ eco-poetics

TIMESTAMP: ONLINE LAUNCH EVENT DECEMBER 5th @ 4:35pm UTC-7 [MST]

Beginning at 4:35pm MST (sunset in Denver, Colorado) on December 5, 2009, the artists of the online exhibition, Streamflow Conditions, will perform online for 24 hours* through networked writing, live coding, streaming video, or other means.

Each artist will occupy a 4-hour shift, and the schedule is designed to facilitate audiences outside of the artists’ individual timezones. Writing or links to activity will be posted to the shared twitter account, “timestampstream” and intercepted at Subito Press. You are invited to follow along and respond.

The performances will end at 4:35pm MST on Sunday, December 6.

*see schedule of shifts at the end of announcement and use this link to translate into your timezone:http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

SITES: http://www.streamflowconditions.subitopress.org

+
twitter.com/timestampstream (follow/respond)

STREAMFLOW CONDITIONS: EXHIBITION & EVENT DETAILS

Streamflow Conditions** is an online exhibition of electronic literature and networked writing curated by Judd Morrissey at the invitation of Subito Press at the University of Colorado. Beginning with a site-specific consideration of the Colorado landscape and its engineered waterways, the selection of works examines discrete markers in the contemporary data-scape of writing within networked culture. The artists and works chosen each represent an innovative use of language in conjunction with code, data, or networked spaces. The exhibition as a whole engages the overflowing boundaries between presence, process, and object at a time when currents of digital literary practice meet the culture and corpus of writing online (& the imminent google waves).

**gallery of works still under construction but please explore the site.

TIMESTAMP SHIFTS
[ use this to translate into your timezone:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html ]

1. Dec. 5, 4:35pm MST: Mez Breeze

2. Dec. 5, 8:35pm MST: Ian Hatcher

3. Dec. 6, 12:35am MST: Rui Torres

4. Dec. 6, 4:35am MST: José Carlos Silvestre

5. Dec. 6, 8:35am MST: Roderick Coover

6. Dec 6, 12:35pm MST: John Cayley

To my Japanese friends you know I love you. Have a #whale of a good time.

With the historic change of government in Japan, Greenpeace is intensifying its efforts to bring whaling to an end. The new Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has already shown he is more concerned about Japan’s international reputation than his predecessors. Join over 140,000 people and send the new Prime Minister your Origami Whale, asking him to end the corrupt whaling industry once and for all.

Send your Origami Whale

Geek in Residence and the Digital Culture Fund new programs for ANAT

ANAT welcomes two Australia Council programs that are inviting digital enthusiasts to get more creative in the digital era.

Launched in October, Geek in Residence and the Digital Culture Fund will support artists and technicians in developing each other’s skills and creativity. The programs are part of the Australia Council’s strategic priority to increase the creation, distribution, preservation and enjoyment of Australian arts content across all digital platforms.

Geek in Residence brings the expertise of technically confident artists and creative technicians together with a host organisation. The pilot program will seed innovative digital arts practices by providing artists and technicians with the opportunity to share their skills, ideas and experiences.

The Digital Culture Fund is a pilot grant program available to practitioners who are experienced working creatively with digital technologies. The Australia Council is asking initially for expressions of interest from these new creators working at the frontier of digital technology. With a strong focus on the ‘live event’, the ultimate arts projects could exist in either physical or online worlds.

For more information visit the Arts content for a digital era blog, www.artsdigitalera.com

ANAT website

Nancy White in Digital Habits. Stewarding Technology for Communities. Monday 16th Nov, Melbourne

Technology has changed what it means to “be together” for teams, groups and networks. We can now connect and interact across time and space, co-create and share our creations across the globe. This also means we face a dizzying array of tools and platforms which seem to morph and change daily. We all seem to use the tools in different ways, creating gaps and friction in our groups. What’s a person to do? Consider technology stewardship, the practice of scanning for, choosing, implementing and supporting useful practices using technology in a community. Nancy White will share a few frameworks and stories, then we’ll open the conversation.

• What is community technology stewardship?
• What inherent tensions does a steward work with in a community?
• How can we explore a community’s activity orientations as a way of making decisions around technology?

Agenda

6:00-6:30 Networking with other thinking collaborators (over drinks and nibbles).
6:30-7:15 Nancy White: Digital Habitats
7:15-8:00 Informal conversation amongst the group to explore the ideas and concepts.

Venue

RMIT Graduate School of Business, 300 Queen Street. Melbourne
Lecture room 158.1.2B (Ground level – just behind reception).
Ample metered street parking nearby in Queen Street (between La Trobe and Little Lonsdale).

RSVP: by email to melbournekmlf@gmail.com

About Nancy White

Founder of Full Circle Associates, Nancy helps organisations connect through online and offline strategies. Nancy is an online interaction designer, facilitator and coach for distributed communities of practice, online learning, distributed teams and online communities. She has a special interest in the NGO/NPO sector. Nancy blogs as well as teaches, presents and writes on online facilitation and interaction, social architecture and social media. She is co-author with Etienne Wenger and John Smith of Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for communities.

Nancy confesses to online interaction, learning and chocolate addictions. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two grown sons.

More information about available workshops via KMLF – Melbourne Knowledge Management Leadership Forum go here.

Women in Games, Sydney event

AIE Sydney will be hosting a Women In Games event in November for High School girls in grades 10, 11 and 12 to find out more about the games industry. Female guest speakers from the industry will be invited to the event to talk about what the industry is like for women and why it is important for more girls to get into games. There will be networking opportunities throughout the evening and will be extremely beneficial to girls wanting to  pursue a career in the games industry.

Thursday 19th November 2009
6pm till 8pm
Level 2, Wentworth Park Grandstand
Wattle Street, Ultimo, NSW, 2007

More info: sydney@aie.edu.au

Website: women in games

Academy of Interactive Entertainment

Grit Media. Shamelessly Disabled is on the lookout for Media Mentors

GRIT MEDIA is looking for volunteers to mentor or train people with disabilities in media, design, video or radio.

Deadline: ongoing

Check out www.gritmedia.org.au and contact director@gritmedia.org.au for more information.

For those interested in the participating in the Media mentorships…

Grit Media currently offers the disabled community the opportunity to reach beyond the parameters of its own imagination. For the next six months we are offering Mentored Placements in all types of creative media environments and for varying lengths of times. These placements can range from anywhere between four hours to up to a week depending on the individuals needs and the companies idiosyncrasies.

Organizations renowned for their cutting edge supremacy will now open their own doors of perception to allow anyone from the “allability” community to sample their cerebral smorgasbord of creatively inventive delights.

If you have ever desired to examine the realms of film, television, stills photography, print media, event management, video installation and beyond, or have ever wanted to see a director, producer or sound engineer (to name a few) at work, then please download an information/application form here.

The only stipulations for eligibility are that you are over eighteen, become a member of Grit Media (its free and without strings) and dare to dream big.

Grit Media Mentoring… be a part of it and be a part of history.

A Victorian, not-for-profit organisation with the purpose of producing media with, for and by people with disabilities.

AFTRS in conjunction with the IGDA Sydney are running GameJam 09

Intense show’n’tells, pitches, discussions and lots of interaction!

An interactive event by gamers for gamers – a day of playing, learning about and making games. Come be a spectator, play to win, or get involved in the creative jam session. This free one day event features gaming competitions, seminars, networking and creative activities. The JAM starts with a gaming forum where anyone can register to be a presenter – share YOUR latest discoveries, opinions & ideas for games and virtual worlds. The JAM ends with a workshop & competition – where creative teams engage in a battle of ideas & rapid game-design, with prizes for best pitch!

Register to come along and/or participate – online at: http://www.gamejam.org.au

Show everyone YOUR latest ideas for games and virtual worlds

If you want to present for around 10-15 mins please book yourself a talk slot by checking out the GameJam wiki site

ADMISSION: Free!
LOCATION: AFTRS building at the Entertainment Quarter, 130 Bent St. Moore Park (next door to Fox Studios) Syd, AUS
WHEN: Saturday 10th October 2009
WHO: YOU’RE the stars, but we will have some cool folk like Dan Graf (Dr D Studios) & Ian Brown (Unity & CG creator)

OPEN TALKS & SCHEDULE
The talks will be about anything to do with
1 developing for or playing with console, pc games, alternate reality games, augmented reality, smart mobiles, serious games
2 offline, online games or creating and using virtual worlds
3 games, film cross-over, machinima, writing, artificial intelligence, social games
5 educational, fun or just plain ‘wtf’!.
6 The user or creator angle is fine (in otherwords talk us through one of your must play games!) – just make sure it is not too geeky or too fanzy!

Demos around the areas: big screen displays, play new games and demos.

Fake New York Post makes New Yorkers wakeup to Climate Change

This week nearly a million New Yorkers were stunned by the appearance of a “special edition” New York Post blaring headlines that their city could face deadly heat waves, extreme flooding, and other lethal effects of global warming within the next few decades. The most alarming thing about it: the news came from an official City report.

Distributed by over 2000 volunteers throughout New York City, the paper has been created by The Yes Men and a coalition of activists as a wake-up call to action on climate change.

Although the 32-page New York Post is a fake, everything in it is 100% true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and climate change experts.

“This could be, and should be, a real New York Post,” said Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men. “Climate change is the biggest threat civilization has ever faced, and it should be in the headlines of every paper, every day until we solve the problem.”

The fake Post’s cover story (“We’re Screwed”) reports the frightening conclusions of a blue-ribbon panel of scientists commissioned by the mayor’s office to determine the potential effects of climate change on the City. That report was released in February of this year, but received very little press at the time. Other lead articles describe the Pentagon’s alarmed response to global warming (“Clear & Present Disaster”), the U.S. government’s sadly minuscule response to the crisis (“Congress Cops Out on Climate”), China’s alternative energy program (“ChinaÕs Green Leap Forward Overtakes U.S.”), and how if the US doesn’t quickly pass a strong climate bill, the crucial Copenhagen climate talks this December could be a “Flopenhagen.”

The paper includes original investigative reporting as well. One article (“Carbon counter counts New Yorkers as fools”) reveals that Deutsche Bank – which erected a seven-story “carbon counter” in central Manhattan – not only invests heavily in coal-mining companies worldwide, but has recently entered the business of coal trading itself.

The paper has the world’s gloomiest weather page, covering the next 70 years rather than just 7 days. The “Around the World” section describes the disproportionate effects of climate change on poorer parts of the world, including extreme droughts, floods, famines, water shortages, mass migrations and conflicts. Developing countries will bear the brunt of climate change effects even though they have done very little to cause the problem.

To participate in civil disobedience visit http://BeyondTalk.net and pledge to risk arrest in a planned global action November 30, just before the conference in Copenhagen.

Links:

Fake New York Post: http://www.nypost-se.com/
Video News Release: http://www.nypost-se.com/video
City report on climate change: http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/pdf/2009/NPCC_CRI.pdf
Wake-up call: http://www.tcktcktck.org/wakeup