PhIxDA Automagically

Listening to the radio on the way to work, I heard a story about Classical music on youtube.com. It makes sense. Everything else is on youtube why not classical music…

chticng chting chting the sound of the brain monkey’s cymbals drown out the chatter on the radio and the I switch the controls of the car to autopilot. I like to listen to classical music but I don’t really know anything about it. I can maybe come up with some big names and I might recognize a tune from an old bugs bunny cartoon or a midi cell phone ring tone, but that is about the extent of it. If I could get to youtube at work I would watch the clips. What I really think is amazing is the wealth of knowledge of the people that contribute content - the videos the comments the tags. I haven’t been able to watch any of the clips yet (no youtube at work grrrrrr) but I have romanticized their sources. I imagine tapes of all sizes and qualities - old films! 8mm! Super 8! VHS! Beta! Cd! DVD! boxes kept in cool dry places - reels and cassettes kept on dusty top selves in closets and behind entertainment center sliding doors - reels and reels spinning and becoming unraveled - wires and converter boxes - inputs and outputs. images and sounds being transferred to computers - .mpeg .avi .mov .flv being uploaded to servers - musicians and music lovers sharing ideas and treasures.

I’m really getting carried away.

People are not alone when they sit in front of their commuters. People are sharing and learning from each other. People are organizing information. This isn’t new, but I was glad that NPR and the monkey in my brain  reminded me of it. Glad too because it reminds me why I am interested in developing and using tools, systems, websites, blogs, wikis and social whatevers. I worry about what else is at risk of being lost? Family memories? Old college notes? I wonder about e-learning? Are there good systems that encourage students to add content? What kind of tools are there that help, aid and encourage students to create and share content?

The Brain Monkey leaves me with more questions than answers…