I've Seen Fire and I've Seen Rock

Mike Gravel is a candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 2008. By all measures his is a campaign long on hope and short on prominence, he is polling in the 1% range in a crowded field that includes heavy hitters Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Otis faculty members, Matt Mayes and Guston Sondin-Klausner are two of Gravel's supporters and they believed in him enough to produce two videos for his campaign. The twin pieces "Rock" and "Fire" were posted to YouTube last month and enjoyed some immediate buzz for their unusual content. Things really took off a few days ago when John Stewart featured the Rock video in a segment of The Daily Show. Rock has now been viewed over 100,000 times and Fire is closing in on 50,000 views.

Following the Daily Show appearance, the story of the videos has been picked up by CNN, whose reporter Jeanne Moos did a profile, The New York Times blog, The Chicago Tribune blog, The Washington Post blog and MSNBC.com to name a few. Even some of the responses are garnering their own buzz.

Senator Gravel seems very pleased with the videos and with the resulting attention. Will it make a difference for his campaign? Who knows, but at a minimum it is a great example of the power of mass collaboration at work.

Otis is the First Art School to be Honored by the NMC

Otis was honored at the 2007 New Media Consortium (NMC) summer conference as one of three recipients of the Center of Excellence Award. The College was recognized for "their creative, technical, and artistic support of the campus community"

It was the first time the NMC honored a professional school of Art and Design with such distinction. In addition to fellow 2007 honorees- The University of British Columbia and The University of Wisconsin, Madison other recipients have included- the California State University System, Johns Hopkins University and University of California, Berkely.

NMC CEO Larry Johnson noted that- “The NMC organizations recognized this year represent the best of our field, and each has had a tremendous history of accomplishment.” Lev Gonick, NMC Board of Directors Chair further noted that all three of the 2007 recipients "...exemplify the highest values of the NMC, and each has compiled a history of accomplishment that has helped set the standards in the application of new media forms to teaching, learning, and creative expression."

Gama-Go Gets the Green for Otis

The Underwire, one of Wired Magazine's blogs had a nice plug for Gama-Go's event last night at 111 Minna Gallery. In addition to launching their new limited edition book, the "GG" folks also held a silent auction to raise scholarship money for Otis.

Nice deeds and good fun all at the same time, not a bad way for folks to spend an evening...

Eye on iTunes

iTunes, the predominant site for downloading music and video debuted its "iTunes U" recently to much acclaim. Otis was one of only 16 colleges in the country to be included by Apple as a "launch" school and the only professional school of art and design. Visitors to the site can download lectures, features on world culture and current events and lots of "how to" pieces including a whole series by Otis faculty and staff on everything from drawing fundamentals to how to attend a National Portfolio Day.

The launch has been covered by several media outlets including The Chronicle of Higher Education, Technorati and The Daily Galaxy.

So have a look for yourself! If you have iTunes, just open it up and look for the iTunes U section. If you need to get iTunes first, just start here.

Like what you see? Let me know! Have a request for Otis content, tell me what it is.