The Bourne Blog

Instagram has introduced what we all thought might be coming: a video taking feature. With Vine still being a relatively new addition to the mobile app family the new "videogram" feature will likely pose some serious competition. 

Instagram is still leaps and bounds beyond Vine in terms of numbers and usage, giving it automatic advantage. Now that Instagram offers video, users might not feel the need to fill up their data with Vine especially since its more likely that most of their friends already follow them on Instagram, not requiring much work to generate new followers. 

Instagram's video feature boasts a whopping 15 second maximum recording time which is leaps and bounds beyond Vine's 6 second limit. Sure, some creativity might be compromised with a lengthy recording time but in reality, how much of what is on Vine is actually creative? Instagram could be a great outlet for the people who aren't looking for an against-the-clock challenge. 

I particularly like that Instagram still enables filters for video recordings. Videos of rainy days can be given a moody black and white lighting, videos taken on a sunny day can use the bright Toaster filter, you get the picture. Just as the previous Instagram was an ideal spot for amateur photographers to play around a bit with composition and lighting, the new Instagram video feature lets us amateur videographers do the same.

Hannah Hart, aka YouTube sensation/bubbly hostess of My Drunk Kitchen, came through Denver today for her Hello Harto tour across the country. 

The tour, which was funded through an Indiegogo campaign that earned nearly four times the amount originally requested, focuses around three components:

1. Fan meet and greets across the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. 

2. Episodes of My Drunk Kitchen filmed in fans homes'

3. Organized charity events such as food drives and volunteerism at local food banks that encourage fans to come out and do some good for their community. 

I absolutely love that Hannah has harnessed her influence as a role model/entertainer/all around likable person to do some serious social good on a level larger than many people could achieve on their own.

It brings about the strange realization that comes with encountering people whom you only knew through a computer screen. And in the case of YouTube, it is a mostly one sided relationship. When we meet these "virtual" people (like Hannah) in reality and you look around only to be surrounded by so many other "virtual" individuals (the commentators and thumb-uppers on YouTube), you suddenly realize that a real, tangible community has been built. 

The DDB Blog recently posted this amazing speech done by Gideon Amichay at TEDx Jerusalem a couple of months ago--

Gideon, a former CCO and cartoonist, opens the talk with a story about his persistent desire to have his cartoons published in The New Yorker magazine. He spent years working on his drawings, bringing in new ones every single Wednesday for review, and was always turned down. However, in 1995, his first cartoon was published in The New Yorker even after the countless "no"s. 

Gideon's message in this story is that "no" does not mean anything concrete or definite. Rather, it means "keep trying" or "almost there". When we are told "no", we are given an invitation to push ourselves to accomplish something we never would have gotten to otherwise. 

I'm done with classes and some pre-work summer free time is in full effect. In an attempt to keep my brain alive, I've been watching a lot of TED talks lately, hence the ongoing theme...

A talk that I recently watched and particularly enjoyed was John McWhorter's "Txtng is Killing Language. JK!!!". In his talk, he addresses the debate surrounding the rise of texting as being the fall of the English language. 

Texting and tweeting need to be given more credit. These modes of communication aren't language-murderers. In fact, they have introduced a brand new mode of communication- a new frontier for linguists, if you will. It has generated brand new words and phrases that have as much legitimacy in terms of communicating as any other language in the past has had. It's something that has come with the merge of new technologies; a brand new language that is influenced by English, but must be considered separately from English itself. 

I suppose it could be metaphorically related to African communities that are referred to as "primitive". Primitive infers that they are stuck back in time, like they haven't advanced to the standards of Western culture. But time is not stagnant; their culture has experienced just as much transition and change as ours has, but because it is unfamiliar to us and less technologically connected, we deem it as primitive. They live in a legitimate society which holds as much worth in studying on it's own, not in comparison to the way we live here. 

Texting and tweeting are not "primitive" forms of the English language and shouldn't be discredited because of that belief. It's a new and fascinating language of its own that holds an entirely new set of implications.

There is no real reason to feel embarrassed the next time you use "LOL" or "TTYL"- you are the vehicle for a brand new language that is making it's way into culture! 

A couple of months ago, I watched Steven Johnson's TED Talk, "Where do ideas come from?" and immediately latched onto his statement about outside networks in our environments mimicking our internal, neurological networks that occur when a new idea sparks. In other words, when we have a new idea, our mind formulates this idea in our mind like a network; making new connections. In a space that facilitates collaboration with people coming from different backgrounds, we experience a similar thing where an idea can stretch it's legs in the same way it does in our individual brains. 

I particularly like this reasoning as it helps to explain why I cannot for the life of me get ANYTHING worth sharing done when I am boxed up in my apartment, all alone. Sure, when I throw my laptop into a backpack and take it to my local coffee shop to sit on my own with my headphones in, it is physically the same thing that I would be doing at home.

However, there is something fantastical that happens when I am amongst other people, all drinking coffee from behind our own laptops, scribbling down thoughts in a notebook. Simply being around other people who are similarly seeking to connect with other humans even on unspoken levels makes for a unique space for innovation. Enter the co-working space. 

Co-working spaces are starting to pop up all over the place, providing a space for freelancers, small businesses, and the self-employed to work together, alone. Spaces like NYC's Fueled Collection ("it's not an office, it's a collective", provide monthly guests 24 hour access, free ice cream, ping pong tables, and parties; all of which encourage people to collaborate and create, like a real-life LinkedIn but better. 

This ultra chic East Village apartment may only cost you $150 per night but if the neighbors complain about your presence, you might need to change that number to something closer to $2000. 

Airbnb, the upscale Couchsurfer-esque startup that allows home/apartment owners to rent out their place to travelers, has gotten in a bit of trouble recently with the NYC city government. 

As an NYC judge pointed out, renting an entire apartment with Airbnb is illegal- a ruling that runs alongside the 2011 law that says that landlords cannot rent property for less than a month. 

The "good" news for NYC renters who use Airbnb for extra income is that they won't likely get in trouble unless there is a case of complaint. The catch: if they DO get caught, they could pay well over a couple thousand big ones. 

As a massive fan of Airbnb (the apartment I once rented out made my horrible experience in Barcelona significantly less horrible), I support them in everything they do. The service runs parellel with my general libertarian perspective in regards to personal property and it benefits both the weary traveler looking for a more personal experience than a hotel as well as the struggling artist-type East Villager who could use some cash for new paintbrushes. Or whatever it is they need. 

However, I also agree with the argument of the city; there needs to be a line drawn that separates casual 1-3 night passer bys from situations where the renter is playing landlord without the necessary prerequisites to be turning their place into a de facto hotel. 

In short, there need to be tighter guidelines put into implementation that will allow Airbnb-ers to continue doing their thing without fear of getting fined while keeping things from turning into people running a full on hotel out of their loft. 

Really creative video from PJ Liguori- perfectly encompasses that feeling you get in between being awake and dreaming. 

Buzzfeed recently put out a list of the 23 Funniest Vines and while I agree with most of the list, especially "Ryan Gosling Won't Eat His Cereal" , I was saddened to see a lack of Nicholas Megalis: my favorite Viner. 

His vines are incredibly simple, almost to a point of being complicated. Let me walk you through it:

Some Good Ol' Fashioned Body Humor:

Freestyle Rap From an Extremely Unflattering Angle

Uncanny Celebrity Impressions

Make Viewers Feel as Uncomfortable as Possible

Harass Innocent Bystanders

Sing What You See

Generally Make No Sense Whatsoever: 

As if it's not already obvious enough, Tumblr is the cool guy at school these days. All the kids want to sit with Tumblr during lunchtime, they want to do the same after school sports as Tumblr, and if they're lucky, Tumblr will ask them to slow dance at homecoming. 

Yahoo, on the other hand, is that awkward kid who attempts to make jokes that are no longer relevant and smells like some kind of canned vegetable. 

What happens when Yahoo turns out to be mega rich and wants to buy Tumblr's cool-ness? 

The word on the street these days is that Yahoo does in fact have Tumblr on their radar for potential start-up acquisition. If you're asking me, I'm going to give you two reasons why David Karp should just say no:

1) Yahoo is kind of like the land of start-up corpses: they can't really boast a strong history of boosting anyone's impressions. I don't think I would ever forgive Yahoo if anything bad happened to my dear Tumblr. 

2) Tumblr is it's own thing; it doesn't need a wingman and it certainly doesn't need it's mother telling him what to do. When you have created a social space that is made up entirely of consumer generated content and is still overwhelmingly successful, you've done something right. As a multi-media site, Tumblr is pretty much whatever you want to make of it. Heck, I even used it as a search engine for an image the other day. #cantbetamed

Abercrombie & Fitch CEO, Mike Jeffries:

"In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong (in our clothes), and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."

While I can appreciate a person who speaks the truth, even if it is somewhat hurtful, one cannot just say that they are being purposefully discriminatory and expect everyone to let it slide without backlash. 

As a rebuttal against the company's non-inclusive stance, writer, Greg Karber, launched a campaign that encourages ex-Abercrombie customers to give their A&F clothing to the homeless as a mode of rebranding the company.

Using the hashtag, #FitchtheHomeless, Karber is calling on the nation to donate their clothes and then share what they've done on social media. 

Karber's ultimate goal is to make the clothing brand "the world's number one brand of homeless apparel". 

While I have a deep dislike for Abercrombie and Fitch as much as any other 20-something who grew up wasting hard earned money on a t-shirt just because it said "FITCH" across the chest, I have a bone to pick with Karber's campaign. 

Karber says himself that he is not looking to exploit the homeless but when looking at the motives of the campaign in a critical light, it is undeniably exploitative of the homeless community as a whole. When you push aside the warm fuzzies of seeing people in need getting new clothing alongside an alluring rebellion against "the Man" that is discriminative corporate clothing brands, you see some more problematic themes running through the campaign.

Karber wants homeless people to become the new face of the clothing brand, which means he wants Abercrombie & Fitch to be associated with homelessness as a form of "punishment" for the brand. This reinstates society's generally negative perspective of the homeless as being dirty, undesirable, and a highly stigmatized people that can rightfully be associated with what society naturally wants to repel; corporate injustice.

The true injustice to me is that Karber places a label on the homeless community; a label that reads this group as one of docile bodies that can be defined in whatever way us "privileged" folk want, all as a leverage of rebellion.