On this episode of Spark: Too much information, digital pack rats, and Wikipedia’s digital blind spots. Click to listen (runs 54:00):
Play audio:
- Gabriella Coleman explains why ebook piracy may be poised to shake up the publishing business (full interview)
- Tim Pridie and Rob Hyndman on digital pack rats
- Daemon Fairless’s iPod changed his relationship with music
- Nora and Sue Foley rock out with ThinkGeek’s Electronic Rock Guitar Shirt (video)
- Nora mentions Ontario’s new green license plates
- Cyrus Farivar surfs the Halal web
- Mark Graham maps Wikipedia’s digital blind spots (full interview)
- Clay Shirky on how we shape tools and tools shape us (full interview)
- Nora mentions Spark’s holiday remote access toolkit
This episode features Creative Commons music and sound effects:
- Music from “Music for Air Travel / Long Distance Love” by Podington Bear
- “Wadidyusay?” by Zap Mama
- Music from “Music for a Rainy Day” by Podington Bear
- “The Two Little Squirrels” (1941) by Louis Jordan & His Tympani 5
- “Proliferate,” “Curious Process,” and “Pink Blossoms” by Chad Crouch
- “Eye Heart Knot” by General Fuzz
- “Rest (For A While) (Demo)” by The Orchestral Movement of 1932
- “I Want To Learn To Speak Hawaiian” by Andy Iona’s Novelty Four
You can download this episode as an MP3, or receive Spark automatically by subscribing to any of our totally free podcast feeds:
- Free weekly podcast (Subscribe in iTunes)
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For more information (and instructions) visit cbc.ca/podcasting
[Original image by jblyberg]
I can't find the Arrgh website! Where is it?
As Gabriella Coleman pointed out in another reply, you can find them on Twitter here . Follow the links.
I just heard your show this afternoon. Other than the fascinating topics on the show the, one thing I love about it is the interlude music between episodes. Too bad it is not available on an album or for download. Keep up the good work!
OOPS! Sorry! My bad! I just noticed the music section where to sample the artists' music was. It's all good!
I make sure to post information about all the music we use on Spark in the weekly show notes. Glad you found what you were looking for!
As a frequent listener to your show, I was rather touched by the topic of digital pack rats today. One of your guests made a reference to a friend that has 3TB of information saved up, and another guest had a whopping 700GB of music.
Although I understand what kind of feat it is to store this kind of information, I must say that I have them all beat hands down. My current digital media hoarding has me at nearly 50TB and growing at about 250GB a month.
Although I have attempted to curb my obsession for information, I have been unable to do so. With the advent of HD quality TV, Movies and music, it just makes the space requirements more essential to the digital pack rat and no pack rats alike.
As storage becomes cheaper and cheaper as the years go by, I do not think I will be able to stop any time soon. Instead, I am turning it into a new goal. To attain an entire PB of information stored.
Thanks for such a great show! Mayhaps one day I can be a guest.
I'm curious, Alfa. Were you a collector of physical media too? Did you have a large book or cd collection, or is this something unique to the digital format?
I was a physical pack rat of anything electronic for many years. Although I have been slowly cleaning out my collection of physical property, you are correct that I have also amassed other media.
My library exceeds 1000 books to date, and is growing every month. I have ceased the collection of CDs, DVDs, VHS etc. thanks to the advent of widespread internet file sharing. (ie. torrent).
I would be really interested to learn what search software your guest was referring to. I rely heavily on Windows Explorer–which undoubtedly marks me as a Luddite. I'm not eager to have anything web-based gaining access to my computer, so I'm hoping this software would be resident on a PC.
You can try the google desktop software. It is a great way to keep track of all your files of any format. It finds and organizes all your files in a very convenient way.
Although there is no be all end all software available, you can also sort your movies, pictures and music the programs such a itunes.
There is a multitude of software available that helps keep track of all your digital stockpiles and can be chosen depending on what you are amassing. (ie books, movies, music, pictures, word documents, etc).
If all else fails, mayhaps commissioning a programmer is in order to customize some software for you that fits your needs.
In Mac OSX, there's a system-wide search called Spotlight. In recent versions of Windows, the system search function has been improved over previous versions.
Personally, I'm a fan of the Google desktop software, and Google's QSB (quick search box), which indexes content stored on my computer, and on the web.
Interesting on the pack-ratism and podcast overload – I had so many unheard podcasts, I decided to prioritise: the ones I would like to keep, were subscribed in iTunes, while the others go to Stitcher, which streams playlists to my iPhone.
The result is I can keep a clear conscience that I'm working through the little blue-dot podcasts, and so happily catch the other programmes as an easier, less demanding listen.
I got a great email from a guy who got so addicted to podcasts, he lost 20 lbs by increasing his walking in order to listen to more podcasts!
Great show this week, and stirred a couple of thoughts about the idea of information overload.
When it comes to podcasts, RSS feeds and other subscription style sources of new content, we often feel like we have an obligation to 'eat all we take' after we 'take all we want'. This seems to be an errant transfer of properties from the world of physical scarcity, like a feeling of guilt for not making full use of something and in doing so being wasteful. The 'mark all as read/listened to' needs to be a guilt-free action, and the software needs to better account for what we bypass in our subscriptions so that we don't have that nagging sense that we might be missing something just because we let it go by.
The second thought is that information overload in general may well be a momentary problem. We're not going to somehow decrease the amount of information available short of catastrophic change. Instead of talking about how to psychologically cope with more information than can be digested whole, the conversation should be more about what tools we can use to triage that information, how we're supported in choosing what is worth our attention.
For help with that we naturally turn to our social networks, with tools like Twitter harnessing the eyes and ears and judgement of those we trust to tune us towards what we'd find interesting or useful. An example is the RSS reader Fever, which has a Hot category that is automatically populated with articles that are popular across all the feeds I subscribe to. It's not always right for my personal tastes, but it does help me distinguish quickly what is of interest across all the feeds I subscribe to. When software works harder to help us differentiate the signal from the noise in daily life, we'll find ourselves swimming with the tide rather than just barely treading water.
Again, great episode; keep it up!
I love that expression: 'triage information'!
listened with interest to the piece on ebook piracy. overall very interesting. A bit of a let-down that Gabriella Coleman stated up front that she would not reveal the names of the more popular sites. She claimed that the sites are a "word of mouth" thing. Oh please! Why so precious. How about the people who are not in the loop but would like to explore these sites on their own. Seems a little clubby to me. Is there anyone who would like to fill in the blanks and so enlighten the rest of us who may not ever catch the word of mouth nodd.
ps_ LOVE the show.
had to comment, just got around to the podcast and
i am one of those digital pack rats refered to at "a diamond mine" in the NWT, and yes there are a number of us who are in the multi TB range. why you ask. Much of what we collect is old and out of use. 50's movies, 60's tv series, stuff that isn't makign anybody any money anymore.
For me it is a way of connecting to the past, watching old tv that takes you back to a time of memories, both good and bad.
I have to say that i do not download what is current (mostly anyways).
Am i a pack rat in other areas, you bet…
the real reason why, sooner or later i believe that technology to block will catch up to the downloaders and better to get it now, than wonder why it can't be gotten in the future
now i've got to go an have a chat with "tim"…
cheers
I can relate to one of your listeners who mentioned how he listens to less music now because he prefers to load his mp3 player with interesting podcasts. I do the same thing and listen to them while cooking, resting or working out. One suggestion I would have for the spark show is to include more music within the podcast. It’s fairly easy to do and makes a good podcast so much more interesting to listen.
One good example is the French CBC podcast Euromag. They throw in 3 to 5 tunes (without vocals) in each of their episodes. Not only is it pleasant to listen but it also lets the listener reflect on what was just said, before jumping to a new topic.
Love your show. Keep up the good work!