The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Eighteen - Trust, Perception and Reality

The metaphysical nature of the arts is about as nebulous as discussion of the spirit itself, but here NDK will attempt to explain his viewpoint on such things as trust, perception and reality, our plaything.

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Electronic Life - Dude! You’ve Just Been Google-Mapped!

A delightful parody of the Google mapping project is available on YouTube. Concern over possible invasiveness of the Google mapping project has resulted in a lot of talk and something even more stirring: a YouTube video!

The video uses comedy to examine how much data storage is enough. The European Union is looking at data retention techniques and has noticed some unsettling tendencies. Read the Red Tape Chronicles article at MSNBC about how the EU wants to change things. Maybe Big Brother will have to get some blinders!

The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Seventeen - The Viewpoints of Others

Code Point Article 17 looks at viewpoint from…what else? Another viewpoint.

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Your Electronic Life - The Birds are A-’Twitter’-in’

It looks like I am gong to have to expand my communication lines again! A recent article in C|NET News by Charles Cooper seems to indicate that I am still not connected enough.

The Coop’s Corner article reviewed Twitter and how it can be an incredibly useful tool for PR and news types and for those of us who are just trying to be technically proficient and plugged in to an ever-changing (and the rate of change is accelerating!) industry.

For a truly shocking look at how fast a company’s PR can go bad, read the Jeff Jarvis “Dell Hell” saga listed in the Coop’s Corner article (click on the link, read Jeff’s letter to Dell and then go to where he lists his entire travail through Purgatory in the “here and here” in the third paragraph of his letter - and then read the comments below the letter). Ohmigod!

So I guess I need to be even more plugged in to see what problems people are having with their electronics by reading Twitter, etc. Aaah - I just knew that time between midnight and 6AM was being wasted!

Free Articulator has its ISSN

It’s been a long time coming, but the Free Articulator has finally achieved a new level of professional status and obtained its ISSN. You can see our new ISSN in the Header near the Comments and RSS subscription button in the top right of the homepage.

A small, apparently insignificant, number that is loaded with a great deal more meaning and usefulness than one may at first realize.

So what’s an ISSN?

Wikipedia has an excellent article on this which you can read here. It’s essentially an 8-digit number that provides a unique identifier. It also means that a publication is archived.

What use is it?

Well, the fact that it is archived puts a publication into an historical context meaning that every article published is archived in the national library of the country in which the publication is registered. Articles published are placed into a searchable database. Nice way to backup the hard work that goes into a publication and preserve it for posterity.

These databases are used by universities, institutions, media and scholars for education and research of various types.

Why have one?

A publication with an ISSN achieves another level of professionalism, responsibility, credibility and reputation. More importantly, for Allforart and the Free Articulator, this means we are now helping establish Featured Artists, Movers & Shakers, New Product Releases, and artworks as part of the historical record in national, and potentially international, archives.

In the electronic age this means that what is published in the Free Articulator, having been archived by a national library is now available through research libraries that are interconnected around the world. This increases the potential for legitimate exposure.

What about copyright?

Authors who may be concerned about their intellectual property being archived by a national library should not be concerned. Organizations that utilize such resources are bound by intellectual property laws, conventions and treaties in their use of such materials and this does not affect any author’s copyright in material ways. ISSN registration and publication filing are bound by these laws and treaties too.

Archiving means that publication in the Free Articulator now has the potential to reach a much larger audience. This includes crossing the digital divide for those who use library and other public computers to access the internet.

For more information about ISSN do read the manual provided by the international organization based in France.

There are more actions Allforart and the Free Articulator will be taking in the near (and not-so-near) future to expand our reach and support of the remarkable talents of creative individuals and industry events that have come to our attention around the world. We’ll let you know as they occur.

Apologies for Duplicate Postings

Since upgrading to the new version of WordPress late last month, we have been experiencing some technical glitches resulting in the re-publication of previously published articles. This is most annoying when you’re learning a new interface. Apparently there is “something screwy in the date-a-base.”

Our apologies for any inconvenience, we are looking into why this is occurring, while we’re in the middle of a reorganization, and hope to have it resolved in the next week or two. In the meantime, we trust you’ll continue to enjoy a fresh new series of articles from Branwen, Doc Don Sturgiss, Marie, NDK and other contributors and editors.

Of course if you’re not at all inconvenienced and love reading our posts over again then don’t forget that you don’t have to wait until “we republish” you can access the archives (see the side bar), or use the search function (top of the page) to find something you’d like to read again.

The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Sixteen - Help each other

NDK considers how Creative Artists can work together to help each other and one of the attitudes that sometimes hinders our advance. Read more