academic podcasting, course management systems, democracy, Digital Life, folkloristics, geek culture, language ideology, Moodle, online publishing, Québec, tolerance, Web 2.0, writing style

Early October Quickies

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Actually, they’re more like late September links, but still…

Is that Disparate enough for you? 😉

Beer, craft beer, culinary, food philosophy, podcasting

Beer, Food, Culinary Podcasting

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Just listened to:

Food Philosophy: Food Philosophy #21: Beer and Food Pairing

From the Culinary Podcast Network.

My comments:

Welcome to the world of beer!
Incidentally, the Craft Beer Radio podcast is the reason I went to the CPN (though it had been mentioned on Eat Feed and by Fran, over at Betumi).
As it so happens, beer is one of my passions.
The interview itself was fairly interesting (shows that you’ve done your homework). But the world of beer as a culinary item is much larger than what A-B lets out. A-B should be commended for their attempts to join up forces with the craft beer movement in North America, but there’s still a lot more to think about.
On food pairings, you might want to check out a recent episode of Basic Brewing Radio when they interviewed Randy Mosher on food pairings. Very insightful and quite surprising to some (IPA and… carrot cake!).

As craft beer people tend to say, pairing food with beer makes much more sense than pairing food with wine (with a few exceptions in Italian cuisine). And beer is really quite complex, with more than a hundred styles in several categories:
(Not to mention regional differences. There are literally hundreds of different Belgian Specialty Ales…)
A large beer category which wasn’t mentioned by A-B (because they don’t brew any) and which pairs very well with food is that of sour beers. From gueuze, Flemish Red, Oud Bruid, and Lambic to Berliner Weisse and Gose.
Some restaurants are even hiring beer sommeliers:
Actually, there really should be a feature on beer and food in Imbibe magazine.

knowledge people, leapfrog effect, sciences

Worldly Scholars

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Been quite taken by the last episode of Les années lumière, Radio-Canada’s scientific radio show. Made me think about scientists as human beings. Of course, there are several anthropologists working with scientists as groups, including Cultural Critique Michael M.J. Fischer and Maggie Paxson. My goal here is quite limited.

It’s fascinating to hear Ethiopian-born paleoanthropologist and MPI Professor Zeresenay (Zeray) Alemseged discuss his discovery of Selam, in French, for a Canadian national radio, directly from Ethiopia. People like him show the importance of the global network of scientists.

Hervé Fischer’s section on Internet penetration in Chile made clear the association between increased communication, computer literacy, knowledge management, and local empowerment. What MIT Media Lab director Nicolas Negroponte and numerous others have called the “leapfrog effect.” More than mere techno-enthusiasm, it’s a testament to knowledge’s power to cross all borders.

The feature interview of this episode was with Camille Limoges, a major figure in Quebec’s science politics. During that interview, Limoges stressed the importance of training creative people to process the growing wealth of knowledge representative of today’s world.

Altogether, a fascinating show, as is often the case.

adaptation, cultural awareness, informality, Montreal, Paris, Québec, social networking, social networks

Montreal Culture and Linkup

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Noticed an event on Montreal Linkup set up by the Linkup founder. In it, he says:

I’d like to help Montreal Linkup eventually become just as active, so I am scheduling a series of events on the Montreal site to help get things started. I will not be able to attend this event myself, but I wanted to provide this opportunity for people on Montreal Linkup to gather for dinner and get acquainted in a relaxed, comfortable setting.

(Follows: a description of the restaurant, apparently coming from a guide.)

Given my ongoing commentary on the Montreal Linkup and Quebec culture, I really had to say something.

Here’s my message to him:

Firinn,

Though you may do the same for all of the less active Linkups, I get the impression that you’re trying to get the Montreal Linkup up and running.
As a cultural anthropologist from Montreal, I feel compelled to give you my perspective on what may or may not work. I blogged specifically about this issue.

Since then, I participated in two events in Montreal with people from New York Linkup.

Obviously, you know your business very well and this is not meant as a way to “teach you your job,” but in case these comments make a difference, I wanted to send them to you.

Clearly, every Linkup has its own life, feel, “personality.” From direct contacts with members from Boston and New York City, it seems that these differences are quite consequential. My argument is that Montreal might be even “more different.” Businesses from the U.S. that have established branches here were either already well-established outside of the U.S. or went on to become quite well-established elsewhere. Chances are that your success outside of North America (Paris, London, Hong Kong, Shanghai) will bring success to the Montreal Linkup, and vice-versa.
The key here is to adapt to the culture.

So let me pinpoint some differences between Montreal and other North American cities in the hope of helping you adapt Linkup to Montreal. Similarities between Montreal and the rest of North America are quite obvious but differences are making adaptation desirable.

The first thing to realize is that, as you probably know, Francophones make up for the majority of Montreal’s population (including a significant part of the business community which seems to be your primary target). This is not to say that you alienate two-thirds of the population by having an English-only site. After all, most of us French-speakers also read and write in English fairly frequently. (Contrary to Paris, English proficiency may not necessarily correlate with business-mindedness.) Yet the sociolinguistic constitution of the city might help explain why homegrown solutions are usually preferred. Quebec portals and blogs are really quite popular and even the traditional media are controlled locally (in a unique and much-bemoaned example of vertical integration).
Even English-speaking Montrealers perceive themselves as significantly distinct from the rest of North America. This is no mere city rivalry.It’s an actual identity.

While it has little to do with Hollywood or New York City, Montreal has its own star system. Montreal celebrities aren’t necessarily well-known outside of Quebec but they have a tremendous impact on the culture and appear in most of the media. Those celebrities are perceived as very personable and people meet them regularly, as they live in specific neighborhoods and tend to “hang out” at specific cafés, bars, and restaurants (hint: not Nizza). If a Montreal celebrity were to host an event, chances of getting the word out and the ball rolling would increase tremendously. Few celebrities are truly part of the two language communities but attendees may come from both communities if they really feel compelled.

To compare with Boston, locations listed for the Montreal Linkup (Saint-Jérôme, Joliette, Granby, Drumondville) are more like Springfield than like Cambridge. Similarly, your “Paris area” sounds as if the New York area included Boston, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Bangor. A common way to divide up the Montreal region is (Island of) Montreal, South Shore, Laval, North Shore. Quebec itself is divided up in very distinct (and large) regions (the aforementioned cities are all in different regions).

Quebec culture in general tends to emphasize informality in many circumstances. One reason the Montreal Linkup appears to only be working with a specific group of entrepreneurs is that most other people are quite fond of impromptu, informal gatherings.
For an example of a homegrown network, you might want to look into the history of YulBiz, started by members of YulBlog (a blogger network).
The YulBlog rules may clash with Linkup’s “Good Hosting Guide.”

By the way, the website for Nizza is http://www.nizza.ca/.
Sorry to be blunt but the link you gave is for a restaurant in Minneapolis. It might just be that you were going through a list for all Linkup locations but it makes us think that your choice was arbitrary. There are many great restaurants in Montreal to host Linkup-type events, including way too many French restaurants. It doesn’t sound like Nizza would be a first choice for anyone to make.

Again, I hope some of this can help you understand what needs to be done to make Montreal Linkup a success.

—
Alexandre
http://enkerli.wordpress.com/

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music, musique

Peter Gabriel Remixed by Favard

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Real World Remixed | Favard’s Remix Of Shock The Monkey

You can listen to the remix, rate it, and comment upon it.

Favard‘s a Swiss duo (Denis Corboz on trumpet, Vincent Jaton on keyboards) playing an interesting style of Electro-Jazz-Chill-Lounge.

Semi-disclaimer: Vincent is a good friend of mine. But he’s also a well-rounded musician and that shows up in his playing.

Apple, cluetrain, content, iTunes, media

Disney Getting the Clue?

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Disney Sells Films Through iTunes Store: Financial News – Yahoo! Finance

“Clearly customers are saying to us they want content in multiple ways,” Iger said.

That’s a start. Still too “content”-based, and used to talk about yet another DRM system, but it’s clearly more “cluefull” than what the RIAA has been saying.

That may be because Disney understands that

selling shows online has not cannibalized sales of DVDs, nor has it hurt traditional TV viewing.

And it does seem like Apple’s iTunes/iPod/FairPlay strategy is working.

advocacy, Apple, cluetrain, DRM, iTunes, podcasting, soapbox, Web 2.0

The Big Zune Debacle

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The device isn’t out yet but it’s generating a lot of negative reaction.

Partly based on this:

Zune Insider Blog: Answers to (some) of Your Zune Questions

“I made a song. I own it. How come, when I wirelessly send it to a girl I want to impress, the song has 3 days/3 plays?” Good question. There currently isn’t a way to sniff out what you are sending, so we wrap it all up in DRM. We can’t tell if you are sending a song from a known band or your own home recording so we default to the safety of encoding. And besides, she’ll come see you three days later.

Not to blame Cesar Menendez (Robert Scoble might have done the same thing), but the answer itself really shows that there is something missing in Microsoft’s understanding of music.

This post provoked a number of comments on the same blog and elsewhere:

Medialoper » Zune’s Big Innovation: Viral DRM

Boing Boing: Microsoft Zune will violate Creative Commons licenses

 Buzz Out Loud 314 Shownotes

As a more recent post answers several questions without even paying lip-service to the issue of Digital Rights Management, Microsoft gives the impression that it’s suddenly stonewalling:

Zune Insider Blog: Introducing, and Some More Q’s Answered
Having suffered from the over-restrictive DRM of Sony’s MiniDisc recorders, I think that DRM is one of the main reasons a device might succeed or fail in the consumer marketplace. The MiniDisc had the potential to be the ideal device for those who involve themselves in music (musicians, musickers, music lovers, music researchers…). But even music you recorded yourself was tagged as restricted and required a very expensive “professional” device to transfer digitally to another device, such a computer. Sony changed this only very recently and only for recordings made with current recorders.

In the Zune case, the wireless capabilities have been dreamed of years ago. As a musician, a researcher, and a lecturer, I would be delighted to be able to distribute my own content wirelessly. Just imagine: you record your own lecture, then you transfer it wirelessly to your students. Elegant, selective, seamless, intelligent, efficient. Lecturecasts at their finest. But if that content is to be crippled with an incredibly awkward DRM system, I would much rather use the much less efficient method of posting the audio file to a central server (possibly controlled), give instructions on how to retrieve the file, and wait until the next lecture to hear the complaints.

Of course, even if the Zune did not apply over-zealous DRM on my own content, I would still have to post the file. And one (who probably never taught) might think that the three days or three times restriction is perfectly reasonable for this use. But in terms of putting a product on the marketplace, one must get more insight than this.

It just shows that people at Microsoft sees their users as mere consumers of “content” and big media companies as “owners of content.” Yet the trend now is for “user-generated content,” “social networking,” “viral marketing,” and personal interactions through electronic devices.

Despite all of its flaws, the DRM on the iTunes Store (formerly iTunes Music Store) has imposed itself as a decent enough solution for a lot of people.

fun, intellectuals, play

Do Play with Your Tongue!

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Speaking of Synecdoche, N.Y., which sounds very unique indeed, there’s something to be said about having fun with language. Yeah, it’s intellectual humour. But who said intellectuals aren’t allowed to have fun?

Found a nice page explaining some tropes and schemes in a straightforward way. Reminded me of my favourite author, who uses language in such a playful manner. It might be my lack of knowledge of English-speaking literature but I find this kind of playful language much less common in English than in French. Yet, perhaps because of my obsession for language, I care more about language and fun than about plot, narrative, or story.

A bilingual blog on disparate subjects. / Un blogue disparate bilingue.