Holy hell, talk about discounts! If you're a non-profit you have to check this out. TechSoup is a website that partners with software and hardware vendors to offer deep-discounted software to non-profit companies. All you have to do is register and provide proof of your status. Looking to upgrade from Adobe CS? 78 bucks! Office 10? 33 bucks!

Oh, hello Associates, it's been a while. I'll kick off my return with a little bit of self-promotion. But it'll be all fun and games, I promise. Over at the Keepin' It Real Book Club, Jen Knoch and myself have cooked up a little literary gambling project and we're looking for brave volunteers to have their bookish ideals shot all to hell with Reading Roulette, fall's funnest book recommendation game!

Whether you request a recommendation or be a recombined, Reading Roulette is all about introducing readers to books that defy everything you've come to hate in books, whether it is multiple narrators, social scifi or the dreaded epic historical novel. It is part match-making, part Vegas-style risk-taking and pure fun.

So step up, take a spin or just follow along. There's public humiliation, proving people wrong and prizes to be had. And everybody loves public humiliation, proving others wrong and prizes.

Right?! 

Now this is entertainment. And say what you will about how book critics are already overworked and underpaid, this was better than Cats. Watch below as Washington Post critic Ron Charles discusses Jonathan Franzen's Freedom. Follow Ron on Twitter @roncharles.

I'd be remiss not to shout out to Erin Balser and Jen Knoch who, together, form Book Club in 140 Seconds at The Keepin' It Real Book Club. Can you review book in 140 seconds? With the power of video, anything's possible!

I'll end with a question. As good as this is, are book critics under the same gun as authors to become entertainers? Or, have they, as some authors, always been interesting and we're only just now recognizing that charm goes a long way in influencing people's decisions to read and buy?

Addendum: Thanks to Erin Balser for pointing me to (in her comments below) In the Stacks, a whole site dedicated to librarians reviewing books.

We've all been there.  A family member or friend has become possessed by some malevolent force from beyond this realm and we need some help.

Traditional store-bought solutions prove fruitless, the last clove of garlic was used in that failed souffle, and even personalized phone messages of optimism from the likes of John Tesh aren't helping.

Luckily, there's a recent street poster campaign in Vancouver that offers some alternatives:

Oh, alright, I'm kidding about the whole demonic possession* thing, but this ad pasted to a telephone pole on Commercial Drive caught my attention earlier today.

I took the photo and uploaded it to Facebook right away. That started a conversation as people wondered WTF was going on with this.

A savvy telegenic exorcist with a street team and a twitter account?

Does that even make any sense? What dimension are we in again?

Some research into the website - ChurchofStMarks.com - reveals that it's all a part of a clever online/social media campaign in support of a brand new Lionsgate horror film called The Last Exorcism.

Thanks to my nefarious friend, Katie Kruger for doing some quick and eldritch online research and digging up this amazing Chatroulette sequence.

I don't know if the movie is any good but the social media campaign built around it certainly shows some imagination.

(I should probably go see the movie and write something more in-depth about it.)

* If you or someone you know is actually possessed by a demon or the ghost of Martin Short please contact @NicBoshart for a book deal.

by Sean Cranbury

 

Seriously, he may be a good writer, but he seems like kind of a jerk. But you know who are nice? Canadian indie writers. However I have no damn clue what super-good indie books are coming out this fall, it's kind of tough what with the only author on the internet being Jonathan Franzen. 

This video is making the rounds for good reason. Not only is this kid adorable, he's the first line of defense against people who think like don't like poetry because they're never tried reading it aloud.

Look at this little dude. Now read some poetry. Now back to the little dude. You, too, could be this cute.

 

 

Have you seen the new site called Twitter Tales? The site answers the question: "How do you use Twitter?" by showcasing user experiences. There are some great examples listed here with, hopefully, more coming. Curating uses of the social platform can provide wonderful case studies/best practices but I'd like to see more about how Twitter is about...innovation. Are there new ways of using Twitter out there? You tell me. I don't think we need to re-invent the hashtag here but I'd love to see more of how Twitter is being integrated into bigger projects rather than stand-alone Twitter sites/feeds.

Once I got my teeth into the work of Nina Paley - my previous post on The Cult of Originality - I kept following links and reading deeper into her work. 

Excitement and awesomeness at every turn.

Nina has written extensively on copyright and free content, specifically for books:

But then I started following links about an animated film that Nina created called Sita Sings the Blues.

The movie is freely available thru many digital channels including YouTube, BitTorrent and others. Nina actively encourages her fans to share the film and, as you will see below, she trusts her audiences to compensate her for her work. This can happen through merchandising, donation or other methods found on her website.

For me the shining gem of my research into Nina Paley comes in the form of this open letter to the audience for her film Sita Sings the Blues - a selection at the 2008 Tribeca Film Fest and one of the only films that I know of to receive 100% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes(!) and a review at Wired.com.

And Sita has a wiki!

Dear Audience,

I hereby give Sita Sings the Blues to you. Like all culture, it belongs to you already, but I am making it explicit with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License. Please distribute, copy, share, archive, and show Sita Sings the Blues. From the shared culture it came, and back into the shared culture it goes.

You don't need my permission to copy, share, publish, archive, show, sell, broadcast, or remix Sita Sings the Blues. Conventional wisdom urges me to demand payment for every use of the film, but then how would people without money get to see it? How widely would the film be disseminated if it were limited by permission and fees? Control offers a false sense of security. The only real security I have is trusting you, trusting culture, and trusting freedom.

That said, my colleagues and I will enforce the Share Alike License. You are not free to copy-restrict ("copyright") or attach Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) to Sita Sings the Blues or its derivative works.

Some of the songs in Sita Sings the Blues are not free, and may never be; copyright law requires you to obey their respective licenses. This is not by my choice; please see our restrictions page for more.

There is the question of how I'll get money from all this. My personal experience confirms audiences are generous and want to support artists. Surely there's a way for this to happen without centrally controlling every transaction. The old business model of coercion and extortion is failing. New models are emerging, and I'm happy to be part of that. But we're still making this up as we go along. You are free to make money with the free content of Sita Sings the Blues, and you are free to share money with me. People have been making money in Free Software for years; it's time for Free Culture to follow. I look forward to your innovations.

If you have questions, please ask each other. If you have ideas, please implement them - you don't need my permission or anyone else's (except for the copyright-restricted songs, of course).  If you see abuses, please address them, but don't get bogged down in arcane details of copyright law.  The copyright system wants you to think in terms of asking permission; I want you to think in terms of freedom. We've set up this Wiki to get things started. Feel free to improve it!

I've got to get back to my life now, and make some new art. Thanks for your support! This film wouldn't exist without you.

Love,

--Nina Paley
28 February, 2009

Here's Part One of the Sita Sings the Blues, freely available on YouTube:

Welcome to the new age of audience/creator relationships.

- Sean Cranbury, Books on the Radio.