Colin Kloecker from Works Progress has described ThoughtMesh as a “Tool for a Healthy Commons,” arguing that “a healthy commons needs tools that facilitate, connect, and nurture its inhabitants.” Colin’s post was in preparation for the kickoff event of the Walker Art Center’s “Open Field” initiative, which invites members of the online and local community to program the green space adjoining the museum.

ThoughtMesh is a tool for publishing online that began to materialize when Jon [Ippolito] and Craig Dietrich started thinking about what their ideal publishing software would look like, if they could build it from the ground up. What they came up with is a tool that allows published articles to live socially on the web, articles can be distributed and published on any website online. At the same time, every essay, article, and document are connected to each other. And of course, it’s easy to use, easy to share, and works as a non-linear presentation tool to boot!

Colin and his collaborator Shanai Matteson liked ThoughtMesh enough that they used it to organize the online version of the presenter’s talks.

Click on one of the keywords in the tag cloud to see which blog posts have been tagged similarly. If you click on “excerpts out,” you’re still searching with the same keywords, but now you’re searching through every single document in the ThoughtMesh database. This is a great way to connect to other articles and essays you might be interested in.

You can find more about the Walker’s Open Field initiative–over 100 events and counting–here.

We’re excited to relay the launch of Precision Targets, a sequel to Caren Kaplans’s 2007 Vectors commission Dead Reckoning.  In Precision Targets, Kaplan teams with Vectors Creative Director Erik Loyer and illustrator Ezra Claytan Daniels to extend research into birds-eye views and targets. Constructing an innovative 3-dimensional sequential art immersive space, the project juxtaposes GPS use by the military,  law enforcement and general public.

For more information, please visit http://precisiontargets.com

We’re pleased to simulcast this announcement for a job opportunity at the Mukurtu Project. The project, directed by Vectors Fellow alum Kim Christen (Digital Dynamics Across Cultures), is developing an open-source archive software based on Aboriginal cultural protocols.

–
Developer II Position Description

MUKURTU PROJECT
The Developer II position will act as the primary developer on an open source, grant-funded, Humanities-based digital archive project. The project seeks to create a robust digital archiving and content management tool for the specific needs of Indigenous communities globally (this is phase three of an existing project). The Developer II position will develop in object-oriented PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, and XML, and assist in deployment of an open source software package for both online and standalone (offline) computers. The Developer II position will work closely with the project manager and the lead software development manager on the primary application and implementation of additional media features, templates, customizable administration pages, xml export functions, robust installer package, and integration of image, video, and audio media into the system.

Applicant would have knowledge of and experience working with:

• PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, XHTML, XML, PHP and Flash/Actionscript
• Eclipse IDE (or similar shared workspace)
• Media management using Flash/Actionscript

Applicant must also have:

• Experience as a developer on multiple innovative multimedia projects
• Ability to collaborate well with others and to meet deadlines
• Ability to manage projects successfully with minimal supervision
• Enthusiasm for the humanities and academia in general
• A desire to work in a self-regulated manner with clients who are collaborators more than executive producers
• A desire to work with ideas and concepts that move way beyond branding, causal pleasure, communication graphics, and marketing strategies

Seven-month project time line beginning May 1, 2010 with possibility of additional work. $40/hour, 15 hours/week.

Contact:

Send CV and cover letter to:
Dr. Kimberly Christen @ kim.christen (at) gmail.com

Specify MUKURTU PROJECT in subject line

Deadline: April 23, 2010 (or until filled)

Forging the Future, an alliance of museums, archives, and other organizations devoted to new strategies and tools for preserving new media, has just launched its own Mesh–a set of documents linked by ThoughtMesh software–on the topic of variable media and preservation. In addition to standalone documents, the Mesh includes seventeen essays from the book Permanence Through Change: The Variable Media Approach, making this acclaimed publication accessible to even more readers, and automatically linking it to other texts on preservation published across the Web.

A co-publication of the Langlois Foundation and Guggenheim Museum, Permanence Through Change: The Variable Media Approach is one of the first comprehensive books on the challenge of preserving artworks produced in the wide variety of media birthed in the last half-century. The book features a variety of perspectives, from former Guggenheim curator John Hanhart to emulation expert Jeff Rothenberg to science-fiction author Bruce Sterling, as well as case studies involving Web sites, film performances, and candy spills.

Permanence Through Change also introduced many artists and arts professionals to the variable media paradigm. Now all the contributions to Permanence Through Change have been republished in a richly connective way. Because they are part of a Mesh, Permanence Through Change can be navigated via keywords that relate each essay to others in the same volume or outside on the Web at large.