Spark 131 - December 19 & 22, 2010 | Spark with Nora Young

Spark 131 - December 19 & 22, 2010

Friday, December 17, 2010 | Categories: Blog, Episodes |

On this episode of Spark: Digi-minimalism, Telepresence, and Twinfluence. Download the MP3 (runs 54:00).

Numbers & Influence on Twitter (Twinfluence!)

So you'd think that prolific celebrity tweeters like Ashton Kutcher or Alyssa Milano would have the power to make change. Surely, if they tweeted something about a book they read or a cause they supported, sales or donations would see a spike, right? Not necessarily so. Nora spoke to our favourite high profile blogger Anil Dash about the relationship between numbers and influence in social media. And his Twitter following is not too shabby either. (Runs 11:16)

Being There, Without You Know, Being There

Photo by Meg Wilcox

Doom, the Sims, or even a flight simulator-- many of us have maneuvered through a computer-animated 3D environment before. But what if that environment used actual images of a place that really exists -- and was so realistic looking, it's like you're there? That's exactly what a team of professors and students at the University of Ottawa is trying to do. Nora spoke with freelance journalist Meg Wilcox about the project. (Runs 10:44)

The Man With A Third Eye

Photograph by Brad Farwell, courtesy of the artist Wafaa Bilal

Ok so we all have that friend that is constantly snapping pictures on her smart phone. Or that parent that has a camera in his hand at all times, ready to take a snapshot of every new expression his newborn baby makes. You may find their behaviour extreme, but what if there was a way to have a photo taken every minute of your every day for an entire year? Meet Wafaa Bilal. He's a visual artist, and a photography professor at New York University. And recently, he had a small digital camera implanted in the back of his head. Really. Nora spoke with him to find out why. (Runs 9:02)

Digi-minimalism (Or, How I Learned To Get Rid Of My Stuff)

Photo by Gunnar Hafdal

Stuff. We've got a lot of it. And the holiday season means we're going to get a whole lot more. What would happen if you got rid of most of your stuff, really paired down to the essentials, and put everything you could on your digital devices? Nora spoke with Kelly Sutton, a man with a spartan lifestyle that depends on digital storage. In the other corner, Nora spoke with Spark contributor Cathi Bond about the joys of tangible media.(Runs 9:05)

Get Your Head Out Of The Cloud!

Photo by Kables

Many more of us are saying yes to the idea of streamlining and digi-minimizing, but along with that comes storage issues. That's why the big buzz word of the moment is CLOUD. Cloud computing has been around a long time, but the idea of having this global hard drive that stores all your data so you don't have to worry about it on your own devices...well that's got people really excited. The new Google Chrome OS even depends entirely on the concept. But some caution that what you gain in ease and simplicity, you lose in control, and security. Nora spoke with Eyal deLara, an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto about the pros and cons of the cloud. (Runs 8:00)