youtube video

fair use arguement

Sex, Drugs and Rock and roll. These three things are often all tied up together very simply in one thing Pop-Culture. Children’s role models are often musicians or actors who have defined pop culture or who’s lives revolve heavily around sex, drugs and music. Pop culture is re-creating our lives today and we are constantly re-writing culture through remixes and fusing pieces of our past culture together. We are creating things to say in different terms giving a better example. I am teaching people or teens through comedy behind the mouths of two famous women in the 1970s and 1990s rock. Stevie Nicks and Courtney Love have both had drug struggles that affected their music and careers as artists. My hopes behind remixing these many interviews is for an educational purpose that the people that watch them find A.) The Humor Behind them and B.) Good reasons to not do drugs.

My video uses Fair Use because I am using satire with the influence of Courtney Love. Who in the music industry is/was a joke because of her drug use, along with everything that revolves around her and Kurt. As far as this being an educational video Stevie Nicks has long made her drug use public and she has made it clear she wants to encourage other people to not use drugs and not fall down the same path that she did. Also she is a symbol in the industry of fleetwood mac and is often called the “goddess of rock”. These two individuals were huge in the late 1970s and early 1990s. I grew up listening to Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks and Courtney Love was a huge joke in my mind. However two individuals who had similar problems in an industry that I one day hope to enter into is a wake up for me and the other musicians out their.

In remixing these videos and throughout the course of this class we have learned about Fair Use as well as Creative Commons. Both of these are legal methods of allowing you to re-mix things and use them for teaching, researching, short summaries of an address or article, use of a parody. Essentially as long as you can argue for your creative right to remix things you can use them. And that is exactly what I am doing. I am citing Fair Use for my remix Drugs: Why Stevie says not to use them. Larry Lessig the main lawyer for the “net” and huge advocate for Fair Use and Creative Commons. Lessig has said that digital technology is going to spread and celebrate “am mature culture”, people who produce things because they love it. Also it reflects the point of how much of a value or generation places on freedom. We want to free and being free is an important essential art of cultural ecology says Lessig. This is how we as a younger generation can become introduce to new things or ideas to our current culture of pop culture.

remix argument

Sex, drugs and rock and roll. These three things are often all tied up together very simply in one thing Pop-Culture. Pop culture is re-creating our lives today and we are constanly re-writing culture through remixes and fusing pieces of our past culture together. We are creating things to say in different terms giving a better example. I am teaching people or teens through comedy behind the mouths of two famous women in the 1970s and 1990s. Stevie Nicks and Courtney Love have both had drug struggles that affected their music and careers as artists. My hopes behind remixing these many interviews is for an educational purpose that the people that watch them find A.) The Humor Behind them and B.) Good reasons to not do drugs.

In remixing these videos and throughout the course of this class we have learned about Fair Use as well as Creative Commons. Both of these are legal methods of allowing you to re-mix things and use them for teaching, researching, short summaries of an address or article, use of a paradoy. Essentially as long as you can argue for your creative right to remix things you can use them. And that is exactly what I am doing. I am citing Fair Use for my remix Sex Drugs & Rock and Roll: Courtney and Stevie.

Larry Lessig the main lawyer for the “net” and huge advocate for Fair Use and Creative Commons. Lessig has said that digital technology is going to spread and celebrate “ammature culture”, people who produce things because they love it. It is how we as a younger generation can become introduce to new things or ideas.

xbox comic!

remix baby

I have been thinking about this remix project, and I have decided that I'm probably going to use a jazz standard that was written pre 1927, such as After You've Gone, or If i could be with you, or The Man I love. There are a ton of standards that were written pre 1927 and I intend to learn the song and do my own version of the song singing and perhaps mix it with a horn players version of the song. Im not sure yet what I'm going to do for a visual part. I also kind of want to do something related to cats.. who knows. keeping my mind open. But A jazz standard is defitinely in order :)

digital remixx ideas

My definition of originality is something new that you create. I would personally prefer if your going to call yourself a musican that you know what the different keys are and you understand what you are doing musically; beecause the people before you who actually wrote that stuff at least understood it enough to play it on an instrument.

In this film the definition of originality is similar to mine; they take old things and reinvent them in a totally different way. This is nice, but still you have to have some people in the world who know how to create without reusing someone else's melody line and chord progression together. Not to say that I won't use a similar chord progression to another musicians but there are only 12 keys in the universe so things are gonna get reused but I will change it based on my theoretical knowledge or how it sounds to my ear.

2. I do belive that creativity is limited without access to technological tools. If I didn't have sibelius on my computer I would have a harder time getting my muscial ideas down. It would take a lot longer and without the tools I am use to it would not be as good. Because although I do have the option of playing it myself... I'm not a robot there fore I am not perfect and if I hear something differently they the rhytm actually is and I write it a certain way then the way it hear it in my head, I won't realize that if i keep playing it the wrong way. Saying from experience as I have written by hand and with computers. Computers and libraries have changes the way our creative outlets work. We have more oportunities to be really creative with the internet..

revised little brother shizzz ***.5

You’ve read 1984 right? I’m sure it was awhile ago for you..I recall it’s required in most high school classes. But that was about 6 years ago for me, and I needed a refreshers course on how the government could screw us over. With the “War on Terror” constantly being fought ever since 9/11, trackers in iphones and the government authorizing phone taps on innocent civilians. We need a reminder about “if you give an inch to a horse, he’ll take a mile. And when it comes to violating our privacy technology’s our biggest enemy out there. Cory Doctrow’s Little Brother reminds of us just that.

Set in the near future in San Francisco California, this novel emulates the Department of Homeland Securities actions in pretext with the technological advances that are in place with the world today. It is a fight for our right to privacy, told thru the eyes of seventeen year old Marcus aka WIn5sOn. Marcus feels his privacy has been violated following a terrorist attack on the SF Bart where he is detained and mistreated. He fights back by starting the X-net to get around the privacy violations that are happening. This is his own online network that teens all around the city start to use through a gaming system similar to Xbox.

Through the X-net they launch a technological revolution. Jamming the security censors so that the DHS catch and search the wrong people. People without warnings are held up and searched..(Its as if the TSA are on your train to work ,forcing you to do a body scan upon exit and entry.) These new laws and rules force Marcus and his friends to rebel. In the hopes of overthrowing the DHS and setting his captured friends free. Along the way he falls in love and loses close friends to the fear of the “man”. All in all it’s teen friendly with a geeky technological side that might inspire some and make others more paranoid

This is a good piece of young adult fiction for the technically savvy generation to read. It’s quick and a reminder of what can happen if we don’t pay attention. Also It’s available for free! Download the pdf from google and rethink your take on today’s over-publication of our lives. I was reminded of the rights I have as a human being living in the United States. My right to freedom, my right to privacy and my rights to read whatever I damn well please.

amazon reviewww little brother

I am going to write one review for my amazon project. I feel that i know what type of audience I want to address; as well as what I want to say in this review. I am taking this approach as opposed to writng more because I already know how I want to approch my review. So their is no point for me to write a second one if I fully understand what I am undertaking. I'm going to try to scare the reader into wanting to read this book. This will benifit me as a writter because I will be able to fully state my view on this as opposed to trying to create another view point that I don't fullly support.

You’ve read 1984 right? I’m sure it was awhile ago for you. Because I recall it’s required in high school classes. That was about 6 years ago for me and I needed a refreshers course on how the government could screw us over. With the “War on Terror” constantly being fought ever since 9/11, trackers in our iphones and the government authorizing phone taps on innocent civilians we need a refresher course on what it means to violate our privacy.

As a society we need to be a tad bit more paranoid. Technology’s invading every second and people need to be more aware. This book can do that! Spread it, it’s available in ebook format in fact you can download it right now. {hyperlink}. If you have children, grandchildren or your an adult you should read this book. It’s this generations 1984.

Set in the near future in San Francisco California, this novel emulates the Department of Homeland Securities actions in pretext with the technological advances that are in place with the world today. It is a fight for our right to privacy, told thru the eyes of seventeen year old Marcus aka WIn5sOn and Mlk3y.

Marcus feels his privacy has been violated following a terrorist attack on the SF Bart where he is detained and mistreated. He fights back by starting the X-net to get around the privacy violations that are happening. This is his own online network that teens all around the city start to use through a gaming system similar to Xbox.

Through this they launch a technological revolution. Jamming the security censors so that the DHS (government) catch the wrong people. People without warnings are held up and searched... (Imagine having to have a body scan from the tsa before work daily).

These new laws and rules force Marcus and his friends to rebel. In the hopes of overthrowing the DHS and setting his captured friends free. Along the way he falls in love and loses close friends to the fear of the “man”.

Needless to say this is a good novel for the technically savvy generation to read. It reminded me of the rights I have as a human being living in the United States. My right to freedom and my right to privacy.

dear malcolm gladwell

Dear Malcolm Gladwell,

I am very sure that you are aware by now about the revolution that took place in Egypt? Most of it was feed by social networking.. I am sure that you are also aware that “Governments have always worried about the flow and control of information, and the current period is not the first to be strongly affected by dramatic changes in information technology”. This is why the Great Firewall exists in China.

You sited examples from the 1960s quite often in your piece and how these protests are different then what is going on today with the digital revolution. Yes they are different, social media is a tool that is designed keep us connected. With these connections we can tell our peers how we feel about certain issues. It’s all online you might say. But being online is what today’s world is all about. We want to get things done faster and more efficiently. So we use digital media to spread the message.

My sophmore year of high school I was on a traveling volleyball team that mostly consisted of girls of color. I and the two or three other white players were confused when one day all the girls came to practice talking about how they had been protesting down at city hall all day for the migrant farm workers. When we asked them what they were talking about and how they got their information they simply said “myspace”. Times had been posted of where to protest and for the four days it went on word spread so fast via digital media. The local newspaper The Fresno Bee was behind on the news most days. However myspace kept me and my teammates up to date. So we knew that everyone was safe.

You might say that my generation does not know how to protest. I disagree! If I were to create an event on facebook inviting everyone of my friends in any city they happened to be in at the time to protest something. I could guarantee that about half of them would do that. Now maybe your going to ask well how many friends do you have 1,000? I would respond with no about 400 and I constantly go thru deleting people I don’t know as well as I think should be my friends on facebook. Next your going to say you don’t know that many people.. ahh But I went to two different high schools with about 700 students each and guaranteed mostly everyone knew who I was at SJM because I was extremely involved! And at the local public school I graduated from a lot of people knew me as well because I tend to make my opinions known and I was the new girl..Needless to say, I’ve got friends who will jump behind me; and then their friends will follow and their friends friends..

So Malcolm if you want a revolution 1960’s style; we could give you one. Guaranteed we’ll have more people their too just because we have the capability to network socially better before then any other generation.

start of amazon project

Community

Purpose

Content/Subject

Structure

Style Language

The Review of Little Brother by a Patrick Shepherd was very well structured. As someone who has read the book it gives away just enough to intrigue the reader into wanting to read it. He hints at the major themes of national security and the technology that is used in the novel. Patrick wrote this review in 2008 when the book had first come out. His goal of writing it I'm sure was to get young adults to read it. However the langugae he uses and how he appeals also suggests that perhaps a parent will read the review and suggest it to his/her son or daughter. He talks about how this book has the major themes of a young adult anda is designed for that age group. (pointing out the situations marcus goes thru)

Enders Game reviews

I chose to look at two reviews that were written about Enders Game b/c in my opinion the novel deals with similar issues and themes in terms of adults. The first review I read was written by Orson Scot Card (the author). I"ll admit I was a little shocked to see he actually reviewed his own book.. although it makes sense. "in my fiction I describe only as much as is asbsolutely necessary in order to understand what is going on; the rest, the readers create in their own imagination,. As an author he is able to speak to his audience of readers from another source opposed to his webcite. He looked at earlier reviews and commented on them addressing what he felt was necessary to defend his work.

"I thank those of you who have given your hearts to my story of Ender Wiggin; I also thank those who, while you did not like the book, wrote your negative views with dignity and with reasonable respect for others - including, I might add, the author, who, while he might have written a bad book, did not thereby commit a crime or unnatural act. If America can forgive Bill Clinton, surely there's room for a bit of forgiveness for the imperfections of a few bad writers now and then."-orson scott card

I also looked at another review of Enders Game that was much less hostile. This reviewer felt the book was approperate for younger audiences however that they might not understan it as much as an older audience. Again the discussion of having the government control everything is shocking. Too how many children can be born to your rights online.

little brother

This book makes me thing so much about the future and where we are heading as a society. Over the weekend I downloaded google maps on my cell phone and it helped me get great directions... But still in the back of my mind I couldnt' help but think is someone tracking me? In the future will the goverment violate my privacy more???

When I was home last time in California picking up my medicine at the medical marijuana pharmacy the Cops, DEA and Sherrifs showed up to bust that dispencery for unlaw profits and they were such assholes. Violating my patient rights by photographing us and making snide remarks about how I didn't know much about my co-op. I do understand that their are other substances that people abuse and in Little Brother when they talk about busting drug dealers I felt bad.. Many people do need their weed and although it is illegal under federal law Alcohol is much more dangerous then a plant that helps people who are suffering with chronic pain, cancer, PTSD, migraines, gird. The list goes on and on and I know there are many other themes in this novel but my privacy when I'm medicating is very important to me.

profile on daniel bosch right version!

Wine is considered to be one of the most social beverages, therefore social and digital media take wine drinking to the next level. With over 400 iphone apps, 1300 wine tasting related blogs, 7,000 wine related tweets a day, 700 Wineries with facebook fan pages and the 700,000 people who will watch a wine related video on youtube this month; its apparent the digital drinking revolution is here. With all the technological digital media advances and the advances is viniculture the wine community has come a long way. I sat down to talk to my Uncle Daniel Bosch the Senior Viticulturist at Constellation Wines US about how digital media and technology has affected the wine industry.

Consellation Wines US (CWUS) is the largest wine company in the United States. This is based upon their sale dollar value, and the fact that they are the leading premium wine supplier in the US. They own nineteen wineries in the United States alone, twenty wineries plus Distilleries in Canada, and twenty other Vineyards and Distilleries in Australia, Europe, South Africa and New Zealand. Needless to say Daniel’s job is a big one; and one that he deals with a rich sense of humor, an excellent pallet and by being extremely technologically savvy.

When sitting down to interview him on the phone, it was stran He’s informs me straight off that he is driving and using his bluetooth and blackberry. He is currently on his way back from Monteray Bay to his home in Fairview Ca, about a twenty minute drive to his work in Napa.Daniels career started off after graduating from UC Davis in () where he was a researcher. Following that he worked for Crop Care which is a vineyard consulting firm. His career took off though when he started working for Robert Mondavi. At the end of 2004 he was the only employe that Constellation brought over to their company when they bought Mondavi.

Today his job could not be done nearly as efficiently without his technological resources. Going back to the beginning (or middle) Daniel said that he first started noticing the shift in technical surges in the industry: “in the early to mid 1990‘s was when it most of it began. Email was starting to become much more common and we started to work with NASA”. This answer brought me back to big laptops and clunky (fat) computer screens and large mobile phones.

The first work Mondavi did with NASA was in the mid 1990s. Together they developed satellite images or vintners that showed where the best grapes of the crop was located in the vineyards. Along with showing the vintners the health of their overall crop the photos were shot from 400 miles in space. They were then used to monitor water irrigation patterns, leaf sizes and any green variable in between. After doing some digging on goggle for old articles on the Mondavi-Nasa project I found a photo of my uncle in the vineyard and a quote from the Los Angeles Times. "There were portions of the vineyard that were previously not used for our higher quality wine," says Daniel Bosch, Mondavi vineyards technical manager. "But now the wine from some of those same blocks will be used in our reserve program. That's a big step for us."

Back in the present via email I questioned Daniel if they were currently working with Nasa on anything new and he responded with “ We are still working with NASA but on a different project. This project uses satellite imagery and a model to predict irrigation amounts. They are also working with other crops. The USGS recently made the satellite imagery free to the public, so they are now developing additional uses for it.” The work done with NASA even though it was awhile ago has changed the way growers all over the world harvest the 20 millions acres that make up the world’s grape supply and the 10,000 different kinds of grape vines!

In the harvesting industry today most growers use mechanical pickers and more machine related tools as opposed to digital ones. However this does not mean that the wine industry hasn’t been affected by the digital revolution. The last count for the number of wine apps available was 452. The top ten are : Snooth Wine pro, AG Wine, Hello Vine, Pair it, Dynnc Wine Pro, Wine Events, Wine Wherever, Wine Notes, Wine Enthusiast Guide, and Cor.kz. These apps range from a price of free to $4.99. Cor.kz is by far most popular and well known among the public.

When Daniel and I spoke about the “app-peal” of the app world he said that in fact his company is getting ready to launch a luxury wine app! “I feel that this app is definitely for the wine connoisseur, it will have maps photos and distributors of where to find the wine or which vineries are near if you happen to be in California.” This new technology that companies such as 94 wines and Cellar Key are using is called Context Sensitive Marketing (CSM or QE codes). You scan the digital barcode on the bottle using apps such as Cor.kz and Snooth Wine pro to get you all the information on the bottle. From year to over 2,000,000 notes and ratings from experts. As well as ratings from CellarTracker’s community of wine drinkers. Apps such as these can even take you to the winery’s facebook page or direct you to a related blog.

Blog. This word has shaped a generation. As of February 16, 2011 there were over 156 million public blogs in existence. Bosch says that although their are many wine related blogs most are tasting related. As opposed to viniculturist blogs devoted to growing. Acording to Cellarer’s list of the top 100 wine related blogs Snooth has the highest valuation of $215,859. No wonder there are so many jobs out there devoted to digital marketing.

Most social media networking is now done online. Just typing vineyards or wineries into facebook and thousands of “likes” and “check ins” pop up. With all of this digital media being thrown in our faces Daniel and I discussed if he felt that digital media had changed the publics preference for certain wines? His response was that he doesn’t think people’s preferences for their favorite bottle could be changed by a blog. But by pallet, and depending on how good the wine actually is. After I informed him that according to my research Chardonnays were the most popular he let out a hardy laugh saying “some things never change”. According to online surveys Chardonnays are the most popular followed by Merlot, Pinot Noir Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel finishing last. It is said that 78 percent of consumers trust their peers much more then companies or adds and the top twenty wine bloggers have larger audiences then wine spectator online. In addition to the online audience Bosch has the eyes and ears of growers in his daily life.

Often times Bosch does presentations in front of growers in the industry showing them online resources and he says that most of the time his presentations are in some digital media form or another. With all of the software advances a lot of meetings are held online. Most of the time Bosch uses a camera but at times if it’s just a conference call it can be a tad bit distracting. You don’t often know if people are multitasking or if they are giving you their full attention. “It’s nice to have a connection with people in person; not only do you know that people are paying attention but I feel that training done in person is much more effective then with online programs” Today most companies in the wine industry are using online programs for their sexual harassment training and IT training.In addition to online programs the newest thing for wine consumers is Tastoria!

Tastoria is titled as “A Fresh Approach to Discovering Wine” and they describe themselves as a unique media company that produces and broadcasts live online wine tasting events and they disperse wine related videos over the internet. Different members can signs up to host the virtual sessions and share their knowledge. For those who want to taste more when they go out to restaurants and bars the new tool, which goes hand in hand with the ipad is SmartCellar! SmartCellar operates wirelessly on a secure intranet installed through an onsite server that allows customers to browse a restaurants wine selection. Customers can browse wines by name, region, varietal and price; the device also includes premium liquors, beers, specialty cocktails, food pairings, and not to mention menu items. Which saves trees as well as apparently makes it easier on your waiter and waitress.

While the world is going digital Bosch is happy doing his job with the help of technology. He staying busy this summer enjoying time with his loving wife Jane his three grown kids and friends. Trips to Yosemite and backpacking gives him a break from the technical world and a chance to unwind with a fine bottle of wine. “I do think you’ll see better wine as this technology tends to be used more and more. But you’re never going to take the art out of winemaking”.-Daniel Bosch.

revised profile 6-30-11

Wine is considers to be one of the most social beverages, therefore social and digital media take wine drinking to the next level. With over 400 iphone apps, 1300 wine-tasting related blogs, 7,000 wine related tweets a day, 700 Wineries have a facebook page with an average of 703 fans and lets not forget that over 700,000 people watch wine related videos a month on youtube. Between the technological digital media advances along with viniculture advances the wine community has come a long way since the first written account that we have of it: the Bible. I sat down to talk to my Uncle Daniel Bosch the Senior Viticulturist at Constellation Wines US about how digital media and technology has affected the wine industry.

Consellation Wines US (CWUS) is the largest wine company in the United States. This is based upon sale dollar value, and the leading premium wine supplier in the US. They own nineteen wineries in the United States alone, twenty wineries along with Distilleries in Canada, and twenty other Vineyards and Distilleries in Australia, Europe, South Africa and New Zealand. Needless to say Daniel’s job is a big one; and one that he deals with a rich sense of humor, an excellent pallet and by being extremely technologically savvy.

When I sat down to talk to him on the phone it was strange to not be sitting across the table from him with glasses of Chardonnay in our hands; surrounded by family and friends. He is as busy as he ever was with Beth his daughter who just graduated from UCLA Law, Jimmie his oldest son receiving his Phd from UC Davis and going off to teach at Princeton in the fall and Nick his middle son finishing up Medical School in New York. He’s driving and using his bluetooth and blackberry on his way back from Monteray Bay to his home in Fairview Ca about a twenty minute drive to his work in Napa. I started off asking him when he first started noticing the shift in technical surges in the industry, and his answer took me back to big laptops and large mobile phones “In the early to mid 1990’s was when most of it began. Email was starting to become much more common”.

The first work Mondavi did with Nasa was in the mid 1990s. They developed satellite images or vintners that showed where the best grapes of their crop where located in the vineyards. Along with showing the vintners the health of their overall crop the photos are shot from 400 miles in space. These were used to monitor water irrigation patterns, leaf sizes and any green variable in between. I did some digging on goggle for old articles on the Mondavi-Nasa project and found a photo of my uncle in the vineyard and a quote from the Los Angeles Times. "There were portions of the vineyard that were previously not used for our higher quality wine," says Daniel Bosch, Mondavi vineyards technical manager. "But now the wine from some of those same blocks will be used in our reserve program. That's a big step for us."

Back in 2011 I asked Daniel if they were currently working with Nasa on anything new and he responded with “ We are still working with NASA but on a different project. This project uses satellite imagery and a model to predict irrigation amounts. They are also working with other crops. The USGS recently made the satellite imagery free to the public, so they are now developing additional uses for it.” The work done with NASA even though it was awhile ago has changed the way growers all over the world harvest the 20 millions acres that make up the world’s wine and the 10,000 different kinds of grape vines!

In the harvesting industry today most growers use mechanical pickers and more machine related tools as opposed to digital ones. However this does not mean that the wine industry hasn’t been affected by the digital revolution. The last count for the number of wine apps available was 452. The top ten are : Snooth Wine pro, AG Wine, Hello Vine, Pair it, Dynnc Wine Pro, Wine Events, Wine Wherever, Wine Notes, Wine Enthusiast Guide, and Cor.kz. These apps range from the price of free to $4.99. Cor.kz is the most popular, or well known among the public.

When I spoke to Daniel about the “app-peal” of the app world he said that in fact his company is getting ready to launch a luxury wine app! I feel that this app is definitely for the wine connoisseur, it will have maps photos and distributors of where to find the wine or which vineries are near if you happen to be in California. This new technology that companies such as 94 wines and Cellar Key are using is called Context Sensitive Marketing (CSM or QE codes). You scan the digital barcode and some apps such as Cor.kz and Snooth Wine pro to get you all the information on the bottle, plus take you to a winery’s facebook or event page.

When I asked Daniel if he had taken a look at the wine blogging side of the industry he old me that most blogs you find are tasting related as opposed to viniculturist blogs devoted to growing. Most social media networking is now done online. Just typing vineyards or wineries into facebook thousands of “likes” and “check ins” pop up. With all of this digital media Daniel and I got into a discussion if he felt that digital media had changed the publics prefernece for certain wines? He responded by saying that he doesn’t think people’s preferences for their favorite bottle can be changed by a blog but by pallet and depending on how good the wine actually is. After I told him that acording to my research that Chardonnays were the most popular he laughed and when I finished the listed order of what wines followed he said somethings never change. (Chardonnays are the most popular followed by Merlot, Pinot Noir Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel finishing last.) It is said that 78 percent of consumers trust their peers much more then companies or adds and the top twenty wine bloggers have larger audiences then wine spectator online.

suggested revisions

The girls suggested that I make a more definitive ending paragraph with stating my opinion on the digital media/ technological advances in the industry. Weither I agree with it or what.

I was also having a hard time deciding how to deal with the interview/ profile parts. At the moment I'm kinda making it more essay format, & talking about the industry background first.

A few people suggested questions in paragraph form so.. I'm gonna think about that and play around with it a little bit more.

I talked to my uncle again as well and got a (small) snippet of information about the current project with nasa which I will add in. But honeslty I felt really strong with my draft except for the ending; I'm proud of the effort and research I put in and I feel like all thats left is a little tweaking :)

wine profile

Wine is considers to be one of the most social beverages, therefore social and digital media take wine drinking to the next level. With over 400 iphone apps, 1300 wine-tasting related blogs, 7,000 wine related tweets a day, 700 Wineries have a facebook page with an average of 703 fans and lets not forget that over 700,000 people watch wine related videos a month on youtube. Between the technological digital media advances along with viniculture advances the wine community has come a long way since the first written account that we have of it: the Bible. I sat down to talk to Daniel Bosch the Senior Viticulturist at Constellation Wines US about how digital media and technology has affected the wine industry.

Consellation Wines US (CWUS) is the largest wine company in the United States based upon sale dollar value, and the leading premium wine supplier in the US. They own nineteen wineries in the United States alone, twenty wineries along with Distilleries in Canada, and twenty other Vineyards and Distelleries in Austraila, Europe, South Africa and New Zealand. Needless to say Daniel Bosch's job is a big one.

When we sat down to talk on the phone it was clear he was busy as ever, driving in the car using his bluetooth and blackberry. After twenty-eight years of experience in the industry when did you first start noticing a shift in the technical/digital media surge in the industry? “ Around the early to mid 1990’s was when most of it began. Email was much more common and Mondavi started working with NASA.

“For the Mondavi project, NASA used a digital camera flown on an airplane about 14,000 feet over Napa and Sonoma counties to create a special “vegetation index” using information from the visible and near infrared parts of electromagnetic spectrum.”

In 1993 the images from the space agency helped Mondavi growers detect an infestation of phylloxera- a plant louse that attacks the root of grapevines; plaguing the California wine industry a year before the symptoms would have become obvious in standard air photos. With the remote sensing images you can see what parts of the plant have similar density or vigor. The fields now can be divided in designated areas that can be sampled on the ground for maturity, then harvested separately.

“In the past, Mondavi had harvested an entire vineyard block at once based on an estimate of general ripeness, but some grapes would be over-ripe when harvested and others under-ripe. Remote sensing lets us know when to harvest which segments of the fields at different times to correspond with optimal ripeness.” What about today? are winearies still using this technology in partnership with NASA?

In todays harvesting industry the equipment growers are using according to Bosch is mostly mechanical and less digital. However that does not mean that the wine industry hasn’t been affected by technological advances. Bosch says that because of many software advances a lot of meetings are held online. Most of the time we use Cameras but it can be a bit distracting at times if it is just a conference call. You don’t often know if people are multitasking or if they have given you your full on attention.

Often times Bosch does presentations in front of growers in the industry showing them online resources and he says that most of the time his presentations are in some digital media form or another. “It’s nice to have a connection with people in person; not only do you know that people are paying attention but I feel that training done in person is much more effective then with online programs. Which is what most of the companies in the wine industry are using or their sexual harassment training and IT training.

Today if you go online to wine blogs you find that there are more tasting blogs then vineyard blogs, most social media networking is done online. Just typing vineyards or wineries into facebook thousands of “likes” and “check ins” pop up. When I asked Bosch if he thought the digital media has changed the publics view on certain wines due to popular online discussion he said no. And then laughed when I told him Chardonnays were the most popular followed by Merlot, Pinot Noir Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel finishing last. It’s said that 78 percent of consumers trust their peers much more then companies or adds and the top twenty wine bloggers have larger audiences then wine spectator online.

This makes sense though if I want to find luxury wine along with higher end maps, photos and distributors; I’ll use the one Daniel’s company is getting ready to launch as opposed to reaching for a website or magazine. This new technology which companies such as 94Wines and Cellar Key are using is known as Context Sensitive Marketing (CSM or QR codes). With just a little digital barcode it can give you all the information on the bottle, plus take you to the winery’s facebook or event promotion! This I approve of minus the fact that I know how to pick out good wine. However I don’t believe in virtual wine tasting.

But the folks at Tastoria do! Tastoria is titled as “A Fresh Approach to Discovering Wine” and they describe themselves as a unique media company that produces and broadcasts live online wine tasting events and they disperse wine related videos over the internet. Different members can signs up to host the virtual sessions and share their knowledge. In my opinion this is a bit over rated; get your butt to the vineyard and take in the smell of the soil and the beauty of the vines. For those of us who want to taste more when we go out to restaurants and bars the new tool, which goes hand in hand with the ipad is SmartCellar! SmartCellar operates wirelessly on a secure intranet installed through an onsite server that allows customers to browse a restaurants wine selection. You can browse wines by name, region, varietal and price; the device can also include premium liquors, beers, specialty cocktails, food pairings, and not to mention menu items. This saves trees as well as apparently makes it easier on your waiter and waitress.

In addition to restaurants going digital in the wine industry there are quite a number of companies working to increase the wine industries reach digitally. Vin Tank is one of these such companies with such an idea. They define themselves on there website as “a digital think tank for the wine industry and a group of restlessly intelligent individuals with a dream to bring wine closer to technology in order to score new opportunities for marketing and selling wine in a digital world”.

Wine Techs?

“I do think you'll see better wine as this technology tends to be used more and more. But you're never going to take the art out of winemaking".- Daniel Bosch

As I put my feet up on my coffee table lean back into my couch and sip on a 2009 California Chardonay I'm caught up in thoughts about the wine industry. As a child my father grew grapes on our property and I helped with the crush, picking and bottling process. The first time I went wine tasting I was 16; now going tasting with my parents and family is expected when they visit.

My Uncle Daniel Bosch is the Director, Senior Viticulturalist at CWUS. He as worked in teh industry for 30 years. Working for Mondavi winery in Napa valley for most of his career until a company merger. At Thanksgiving he brings the wine everyyear and when my father askes "Dan how much for a case?" his response is normally along the lines of "well its around 200$ a case Mike". But between his busy job and family with three college graduates he stays extremely connected with technology. He and I are the "crackberry" users along with Macbooks and ipads and ipods staying as up todate as he possibly can.

Today wine consumers are able to access more then 1 million user-generated reviews from winery's on www.cellartracker.com or pull out an application that can scan a wine bottle's bar code to provide instant reviews. With an industry that is hugely based on agriculture developments how is digital technology changing the face of wine making and the wine industry as a whole? What sorts of technology other then apple friendly ones are out there to help? A recent article from the Press Democrat reported that "

"At Jordan Winery, the use of technoloy has become ubiquitous. Winemakers can control the temperatre of fermentation tanks from their iPhones, or host Skype Video chats with Oenophiles in Atlanda of Little Rock, and every employee conducts daily business fram an iPad"

But other then the daily business of running a 1500 acre vineyard that happens to be one of Napa's most prestigious how much has technological and digital media changed the face of winemaking? Esspeciall in a business that use to be complety based on soil and aggriculture hands manually taming the grapes.

Pencils to PIxels

From Thoreau to Plato many highly thought of scholars have hated new ideas. Plato rejected the idea of writing things down because he felt that it would weaken our memories. Thoreau said the telegraph was worthless and Samuel F. B. Morse rejected the telephone. Great men with great ideas who at the begining of a new time in history couldn't accept the new inventions.

Spoken language will always be the easiest thing for us to accept as humans. Just look at our legal system: you need someone to attest whethere or not a crime was commited. This is why people sometimes doubt the facts online. Although often it is the most up todate source. However the same problem them arrises that people were dealing with when writing first became a part of human life. People prefered to have human witnesses that were interactive; written documents do not respond to questions and therefore where not interactive enough for people to put their faith in them.

Since the invention of the computer there has also been skepticism; people often wondered " what are we going to do with these calculating machines". Since our world now revolves around computers we have learned to trust writing that leaves a paper trail. When people ask if librarys will become non existant I respond with a HELL NO!

Libraries are sources of history, learning and librarians have research skills many people have no idea even exist. Growing up with a librarian has always taught me to check my sources and when in doubt go to the library. There will always be people who can't accept change and we as the now generation have to keep ourselves in check with learning and keeping up as well as using the immense knowledge we learn from digital media resoucres for a better world.

Culture Conforms

The American Culture of reading and writing has transformed into a read only culture. Many citizens sit around watching tv constantly, ( my own retired father is one of them). The media has captured us and put us into this pandoras box, which only they have the key to release us from yet they won't.

Thankfully their are a few type A people left in the technological world, who want to make a difference and use digital technology to help humanity for the better. My mother a librarian for 39 years has activily held this stance with me since I was a child. Which is probalby why I have read so many books yet I am movie deprived until... Netflix, Hulu and the persuasion of my friends that I watch more television and movies. However as a musician I do a good deal of research online today when finding: sheet music, albums, and information about the music I am performing. The new technologys that have been created such as Sound Cloud to share music and help all the artists out there looking for ways to promote themselves is incredible.

The music community has been on the cutting edge of technology and digital promotion for qutie sometime. From Itunes to Wikaphonia and the millions of other sights that are out there to help you expand your career as fast as possible. Even so I have always been a creator and that is why this new age of digital creation is so exciting. With the changes that are constantly happening in todays world there are so many options for how we can expand our education systems as well as public domain materails and just the sources that are available online.

Clay Shirky described the digital technology media as a race emphasizing that it should really be a triathalon where people produce, share and view the information. I feel that we are now on our way to accepting the new things technology can teach us and help us with more so esspecially with our children because they are the future.