December 2004 Archives

For some intrepid folks, a few weeks off from classes and major responsibilities means time to read and write, curl up with the computer, and generally do the sort of work you'd like to do if you were setting the agenda - time to do "my work," as one grad student friend puts it.

Well, dear readers, I am exactly the opposite type.  I've kept good to my word and done a whole lot (and I mean a LOT) of nothing since landing at my parents' house a week ago.  I have barely touched my computer, and have only checked my email once or twice a day.  (It seems like there are other people like me, b/c I haven't gotten any mail anyway.  :))  Actually, I did at one point come across a chapter on memes in Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene (which happened to be sitting on my parents' coffee table, oddly enough), which I did read and then cross reference with a couple of other books in Barnes and Noble.  Very Interesting Stuff.  Did Dawkins coin the term "meme" (as a cultural analogy to "gene"), does anyone know?

Aside from that little foray into brain exercise, "my work" has consisted primarily of watching the first season of Smallville and reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, with occasional trips out of the house for a massage (ahhhhhhh) and some shopping.  Oh, happy holiday!

The moral of the story being, you can probably expect a lot more of nothing here for the next few days, if not slightly longer.  ;)

Seb posted a couple of graphs charting wikipedia's daily traffic versus encyclopedia britannica, for 2003 and 2004.  Wikipedia scores more hits for both years, and it appears as though the gap as widened.   The wikipedia meta-wiki cautions that they've only measured a slice of Internet users and as such the results shouldn't be taken too seriously.  Still, a heartening trend.

Over the past few days the semester has begun to blissfully trickle to an end.  I have one paper left to write, due Tuesday, and as I have an outline and an introduction written, am feeling no real urgency.  It's funny, usually the end of the semester is one of the busiest times of the school year, but compared to the craziness of this semester, four papers in two weeks in comparison is no big deal.  Which is great - I've even been able to leave my neighborhood, wander around New York a bit, and even get most of my Christmas shopping done!  In between, I'm making my way through Devil in the White City, which has turned out to be a dramatic page turner, though not great for reading alone late at night.  Ahhhhh.  Can't wait to do a whole lot more of nothing, 4 days and counting.

Live now, Brian Lehrer is talking to the NYT reporter who broke the Google university deal story yesterday.  A quote from the reporter: "There is some sense that this is a tipping point"

Official name of Google's new project: Google Print

From the FAQ: Can I read an entire book online? If the book has no copyright restrictions and is considered public domain, then you can browse through the entire book. For books still under copyright, you'll only be able to see a few pages or, in some cases, only a few sentences. In general, Google Print is designed to help you discover books, not read them from start to finish. It's like going to a bookstore and browsing – only with a Google twist.

The New York Times is reporting that Google has made a deal with several leading research libraries to make their holdings digital and searchable:

The goal is to expand the Web beyond its current valuable, if eclectic, body of material and create a digital card catalog and searchable library for the world's books, scholarly papers and special collections.

This is an ambitious undertaking, and as the article points out, is probably only the first in a wave of search engine-univeristy deals.  As more and more "scholarly" works make their way onto the web, I have to wonder if we aren't going to see more tension in the future between competing criteria for judging information.  Are we going to see the pendulum swing back towards a reliance solely on traditionally-sanctioned information sources?

Just came across this article about classroom digital backchanneling (via Slashdot via The Feature).  It's from the NYT, July 2003... which only goes to remind me that when I stumble across a new and interesting phenomena, chances are it's not new.  :)  Anyway, I'm de.lici.ous-ing the article for the moment and will read and comment when I'm not in the middle of finals. 

Speaking of which... 2 finals down, 2 to go!

1 3/4 finals down, 2 1/4 to go. Set the clock, 11 days til blast off...

Lots of good things happening this week. Here's another one, if you're in/going to be in New York City. The Teachers College Center for Multiple Languages and Literacies is sponsoring a talk by Michele Knobel of Montclair St. University on The Medium and The Message: A Sociocultural Analysis of Power, Writing, and the Blogosphere.

From the lecture series announcement:
This presentation focuses on the burgeoning phenomenon of the “weblog ” as a writing-based act of cultural production, and argues that weblogs are a truly new literacy. This discussion is grounded in an analysis of textual production, identity, and power set within the context of a knowledge and information society. I argue that issues concerning the powerfulness and effectiveness of blogs are complex, and I explore power distribution in the blogosphere, which challenges conventional (school) wisdom on what constitutes “powerful writing.” While we should think primarily about the “powerfulness” and “effectiveness” of weblogs in terms of their creators’ diverse purposes, it is clear that some purposes, effectively realized, and an absolutely tiny cohort of bloggers wield a wildly disproportionate amount of material power and influence within the blogging community. Thus, the blogosphere has significant implications for education and claims concerning “powerful writing” in schools.

Saturday, December 11
11 am
Teachers College, Columbia U.
Milbank Chapel
525 W. 120th St.

You are most welcome to attend the free, online panel discussion Open Affordances: A multi-disciplinary panel on the possibilities and impossibilities of the Internet. The panel will take place online, on December 10, 2004 from 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm,  U.S. EST, and features Stephen Downes, Ross Mayfield, and Ziauddin Sardar. My colleague Ulises is the organizer and moderator.

More info and register here.

As promised, my NRC presentation: What in the world is a weblog? A feature analysis of weblogs and websites. It's always hard to get a good idea of the implications whatnot from a bare powerpoint, so if you're interested in more info leave a comment or shoot me an email. I'm just too lazy to write more at the moment, got up at the buttcrack of dawn for a meeting.

For your perusal, I'm also making available the notes that I took at presentations on Day 1 and Day 2 of the conference. Click to download as a Word doc. Presentations include: Gunther Kress's invited presentation on multimodalities; a symposium on From the margins to the mainstream: Literacy practices in and out of school; From Pencilvania to Pixelandia: Mapping the terrain of new literacies research, Colin and Michele's invited presentation; Investigating adolescents' awareness of critical technological literacy.

I just found out (at their NRC session, currently ongoing) that two of my favorite researchers in the area of new literacies, Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear, have a blog, everyday literacies:

Explores and comments on everyday practices of producing and consuming texts of whatever kind in meatspace and cyberspace.

HIGHLY recommended.