One of the blogs that I try to read every week is New Media Musings: Charting the rise of open, democratic, grassroots media. The author of that blog, J.D. Lasica was recently interviewed by La Nación. Not only does Lasica write a great blog about digital media but, more importantly, he is the co-founder and executive director of Ourmedia.

Ourmedia is a really exciting and, I think, important development in sustaining access to informative digital video created by ordinary people. From the Ourmedia FAQ:

What kinds of media will be part of Ourmedia?

Almost any kind of digital media. Ourmedia will consist of video (blog video, music videos, television-style reports, documentaries, underground films, grassroots political ads, animation, machinima), audio (interviews with authors, oral family histories, readings of properly licensed book chapters), original music, photographs, ebooks, games, software and more. You decide what goes up on the site.

Unlike YouTube, Ourmedia pays attention to copyright and intellectual property.

From the La Nación interview with Lasica:

Do you think that viral video sharing is a new headache for established media?

Viral video sharing is just the first wave of an important new trend: an increasing appetite by the public for home-grown voices and original programming. Viral video is a crude early manifestation of this. People will create more polished, sophisticated programming in the years ahead.

(I know that I keep intending to do more with the digital video that I have accumulated in my time during Buenos Aires.)

Since you’re reading a blog, you must have some interest in new media. So, go read the La Nación interview with Lasica, check out his blog, and Ourmedia, too. Lasica has made an English translation of the interview available on his blog.

Just a few blocks down the street from me is Parque Lezama. During the week I often wander down there for a stroll or to sit on a bench under the shade and admire the Russian Orthodox Church across the street, though I do think that there is just a little too much cyan on the domes of that church. One can usually find men playing chess at one of the tables nearby.

On weekends Parque Lezama gets full of families. On Sundays in Parque Lezama I have heard some fairly good local rock bands performing. They just setup their equipment on the grass and play. Mostly, though, I try to avoid Parque Lezama on the weekends because of the crowd and the vendors selling not crafts but socks, underwear, and other things. More sellers have emerged onto Parque Lezama in the past year. The booths now line almost all the streets surrounding the park. I’m not really complaining, though some people in the neighborhood have done so. I’m able to enjoy the park on other days and there are always plenty of things to do in Buenos Aires on the weekend that I have no difficulty finding an alternative.

If you haven’t visited Parque Lezama on a weekday afternoon then it’s certainly worth the visit. It actually has the potential to be one of the nicest parks in the city if the city would do a little more maintenance of it. There are some really wonderful trees and the historical museum nearby.

Sure, La Boca is to the south and that scares some people. But wander around the side streets to the west of the park, such as Caseros or Uspallata, and you’ll find a nice, little neighborhood.

Google Earth is a fun way to waste time or to explore the world. It’s fun to do a flyover of your neighborhood and spot your house and all sorts of things. I noticed yesterday on Google Earth Hacks that someone posted an overlay of the subway system, street maps, and even some 3D buildings of Buenos Aires:

BA-google-earth-3d Hosted on Zooomr

Provided by GEC member, “ezegalottiarg25″:
His words on the file:
“This is the entire Federal district of Buenos Aires with complete highway system, the main roads (with minor corrections from the previous “buenos aires main roads) and all of the remainding roads in the city. This file includes a large 3d portion of the downtown area and main buildings in Buenos aires. It also includes the entire subway system of buenos aires (current subway plus future plans and building of subway). This also includes the division of neiborhoods in Buenos aires. This file has alot of 3d buildings with rich characteristics created with google earth polygons and also has some of the buildings and structures that are currently in construction in the downtown area.”

I’m not yet a big fan of 3D buildings in Google Earth and I usually just turn off that option but it’s something to monitor. I certainly don’t think that the new buildings in Puerto Madero represent the best architecture in Buenos Aires. Anyway, it’s a start in the 3D modeling of Buenos Aires for Google Earth. I suspect there will be more of this in the future.