" /> Silence and Voice: January 2007 Archives

« December 2006 | Main | February 2007 »

January 31, 2007

Time and Date

Time and DateTime and Date is one of the most useful and practical websites I have used again and again, and recently I have seen a great feature it offers being more widely used. Yes, I do get excited about a website that, you got it, gives the time and date for different cities around the world.

With more blogging and utilization of social media regardless of location and timezone, the Fixed Time option is wonderful for scheduling meetings. Just today I got a link from George Siemens about the Connectivism Online Conference that begins next week, and he fixed the time so participants from the 40+ countries that are attending the conference can be clear what time it is for them. Such a little step, but what confusion and needless time wasting it solves. Thanks for the example, George!

Northern Voice Travel Bursary Proposal

Northern Voice 2007I have already posted how I am planning to attend Northern Voice, and since I take an evidence-based research approach to my work and studies, I am applying for one of their travel bursaries.

I am applying for this not just because I am traveling to Vancouver from New York (by way of Houston and Seattle where I transfer planes with a 12 hour total flight on the first day to get there), nor is it because I (as a working graduate student) am always short of funds. Rather, it is because I believe the contribution I can make to the conference through a research project I am proposing will begin to fill a gap in the literature that may be helpful for others to know more about. Lots of people write about why and how people blog, while fewer people do this in a formalized research manner to ultimately publish and present their findings in an academic, peer-reviewed milieu.

I am proposing, along with my colleague Robin, a qualitative research project to investigate something we can not readily locate in the literature--blogger motivation. We are planning to ask if people self-identify themselves as bloggers or individuals who actively participate in social media. If so, and they consent to participate, they will be asked how they remain motivated to maintain and actively post to their blog. As a closet researcher who believes in following accepted research practices, this project will be submitted for formal IRB (institutional review board) approval at my university, the participants at the conference will be anonymous, the responses will be coded, and findings will be shared with the Northern Voice community, with the larger research community, and with and anybody else who is interested in learning more about this topic.

We believe there has been some discussion about this, but we have not found any research (following formal processes and procedures) that helps us to understand the phenomena. The community that makes up the Northern Voice experience will be offered an opportunity to expand the knowledge of the blogging experience. I hope the bursary award committee agrees with the value in this project and offers to support and participate in it.

 

SnagIt Protects Web Images

Find out how you can use SnagIt to edit, capture, and share your screenshotsI saw this great article on the SnagIt blog that pointed to Dian's posting about how to protect web images using watermarks and the like. I have been a fan and user of SnagIt for many years now, even before being an instructional designer, and while I do not usually do this last step for my images, others may find this particularly useful.

How is this for empowering and protecting your hard work?

 

January 29, 2007

Robert Scoble and Google

Seems Robert Scoble has a different interpretation of the Google power and do no evil message than I do. As I mentioned in my reply to his post, #42, perhaps doing no evil is open to interpretation, and what is clear to me is not that way to others.

I hope it is the other way around, at least when people judge my own work!

 

January 28, 2007

New York Times & Microsoft Chart Confusion

This image was on the cover of the Business section of today's New York Times. As a daily Times reader, I get a lot of my information in paper form since I like to write on the paper, clip out sections, and most importantly read it while commuting to and from work.

I am surprised with this chart from today, since I do not understand what it is trying to say. How should I read this chart? Click to see it full-size, and let me know if it makes sense. For All the News That's Fit to Print, this is a bit confusing, especially for the business section.

 

 

Censoring China, #2

Now that I am thinking more about my Google post, I am thinking about Brin's regret. If that choice was "a net negative," why not change their own policy?

Sergey Brin and Google's Censoring China

It seems Sergey Brin over at Google now regrets his company's involvement of censoring in China. The Guardian reports that the Google motto "Don't be evil" seems somewhat problematic regarding this situation. Brin is quoted as saying: "On a business level, that decision to censor... was a net negative."

So, censoring is negative for business, but it is still acceptable according to Google's Code of Conduct? This states (with the text in bold being my emphasis of their actual words):

Google image from Slate http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/123097/2112546/2114193/050303_Google.jpgOur informal corporate motto is "Don't be evil." We Googlers generally relate those words to the way we serve our users – as well we should. But being "a different kind of company" means more than the products we make and the business we're building; it means making sure that our core values inform our conduct in all aspects of our lives as Google employees.

The Google Code of Conduct is the code by which we put those values into practice. This document is meant for public consumption, but its most important audience is within our own walls. This code isn't merely a set of rules for specific circumstances but an intentionally expansive statement of principles meant to inform all our actions; we expect all our employees, temporary workers, consultants, contractors, officers and directors to study these principles and do their best to apply them to any and all circumstances which may arise.

The core message is simple: Being Googlers means striving toward the highest possible standard of ethical business conduct. This is a matter as much practical as ethical; we hire great people who work hard to build great products, but our most important asset by far is our reputation as a company that warrants our users' faith and trust. That trust is the foundation upon which our success and prosperity rests, and it must be re-earned every day, in every way, by every one of us.

So please do read this code, and then read it again, and remember that as our company evolves, The Google Code of Conduct will evolve as well. Our core principles won't change, but the specifics might, so a year from now, please read it a third time. And always bear in mind that each of us has a personal responsibility to do everything we can to incorporate these principles into our work, and our lives.

While business is business and revolves around increasing value for stockholders, I am still bothered by how they are interpreting this with their censorship. How is a statement of principles, even one which they rightly acknowledge evolves over time, aimed at one set of users (Chinese authorities) while the end-users (those who use the Google services themselves) are manipulated by finding changed results from the searches? 

Google claims, in Serving Our Users:

Google has always flourished by serving the interests of our users first and foremost. Our goal is to build products that organize the world's information and make it accessible to our users.

I suppose Google is selective in providing which information to which users. With Google dominating Web searches, at least in the US, I am increasingly concerned that Google will begin tampering with their censorship here as well for causes or sites or concerns or issues they want to promote. After all, their service is to use, so they do not technically owe end-users anything. They are free to organize "the world's information" in any way they choose. This has interesting implications for maintaining the power they now have, especially for those to whom they choose should benefit from it.

What is to stop them, as they now have a track record?

January 25, 2007

First 4

 

I was weighed today and lost 4 pounds after my first week on Weight Watchers. That is the most I have lost in a week in several years. Hey, I have to start someplace and am happy I am following through with this decision. At least with the new Weight Watchers program, I am not hungry as I was in previous weight-loss efforts! 

January 24, 2007

Posey now

Here is Posey now. While 5 years old now, she is still my little baby!

 

Posey 2007

 

January 23, 2007

Happy Birthday, Posey!

Today is Posey's birthday! She is five, so it is a nice time to look back when she was a baby, at only 3 months old here. I will upload a birthday picture tonight when she and her brother have a birthday cupcake.

Posey at 3 months

Posey at 3 months, again

Posey at 3 months with her bone

gapingvoid's Random Notes on Blogging; hmm . . .

I really liked gapingvoid's post here, and have spent quite a bit of time over the past week considering Hugh MacLeod's list of 41 Random Notes on Blogging.

talktalk48.jpg

There are a few of his list that really struck a nerve with me:

3. Blogging is an art, same as any other method of self-expression. Some are better at it than others.

4. Stay as honest as you can, for as long as you can. Once you cross the line it’s hard to go back.

23. Another way to know you’ve arrived: When you realize that every business relationship you’ve established in the last twelve months was a direct result of blogging.

27. The best way to raise you profile in the blogosphere [besides writing good stuff] is to attend the various conferences; the more, the merrier. I am [at least] fifty times more likely to link to you if I’ve already met you in real life. The other good way is to attend the geek dinners.

There are a few others as well, but these four resonate with me. I think I will have to explore them over the next few weeks here.

January 22, 2007

Dilbert's Knowledge Transfer

After watching 24 this evening and hoping our global situation does not worsen after tomorrow's State of the Union Address, I thought I needed something a little lighter as I finish tweaking my lesson plans for tomorrow night's class, so I turned to my friend Dilbert.

Today's Dilbert is the story of my work over the last five year. Click to see it full-size.

 

 

Hillary Clinton's First Webcast

hillary012207.jpg

Tonight was Hillary Clinton's first live web discussion. Pretty great use of technology. The logon worked well, the streaming was smooth and clear, and the color and lighting was professional. She certainly raises the bar for the other candidates and for the government itself.

This makes me wonder where are the other candidates? Wikipedia (as of today) listed the following candidates or potential / possible candidates

Democratic Party

Official candidates who have filed with the FEC for the Democratic Party:

  • Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut
  • Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina
  • Former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska
  • Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio
  • Former Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa

Candidates who have formed exploratory committees:

  • Senator Joe Biden of Delaware (Unite Our States PAC)
  • Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York
  • Senator Barack Obama of Illinois
  • Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico

Candidates who have expressed serious interest:

  • Retired General Wesley Clark of Arkansas (WesPAC - Securing America)
  • Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts (Keeping America's Promise)
  • Reverend Al Sharpton of New York

Republican Party

Official candidates who have filed with the FEC for the Republican Party:

  • Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas
  • John H. Cox of Illinois
  • Michael Charles Smith of Oregon

Candidates who have formed exploratory committees:

  • Former Governor Jim Gilmore of Virginia
  • Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York
  • Representative Duncan Hunter of California
  • Senator John McCain of Arizona
  • Representative Ron Paul of Texas
  • Former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts
  • Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado
  • Former Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin

Candidates who have expressed serious interest:

  • Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia (Winning the Future)
  • Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska (Sandhills PAC)
  • Former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas (Hope for America PAC)
  • Former Governor George Pataki of New York (21st Century Freedom PAC)

Third parties

Constitution Party

  • James Gilchrist of California

Green Party

  • Nan Garrett of Georgia
  • Kat Swift of Texas

Libertarian Party

  • Steve Kubby of California
  • George Phillies of Massachusetts
  • Christine Smith of Colorado

Announced candidates:

  • Doug Stanhope of Arizona

Actively pursuing or interested in candidacy:

  • Robert Milnes of New Jersey

Prohibition Party

  • Gene Amondson of Washington

Independents

Actively pursuing or interested in candidacy

  • Steve Adams of Kentucky
  • New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York
  • Bob W. Hargis of Oklahoma
  • Daniel Imperato of Florida
  • David A. Koch of Utah and Ken Goldstein of California
  • Charles T. Maxham of New Jersey

*     *     *     * 

These people all have websites, which is a step in the right direction. However, after what I saw this evening, the rest of this group is still a step behind already. Senator Clinton has scored one for contemporary communication, and while she has never been my favorite candidate, I do feel she is more in-touch with our modern world than any of the others.

This will be an interesting election.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama

Two different senators with the same job prospects. I love the picture of them the New York Times captured:

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama

For equal time, here are their websites (in their order in the photo): Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Hillary Clinton Enters 2008 Presidential Race

So, Senator Clinton has finally admitted she is running for President. While she has never impressed while being my senator, I am happy with her technology plans she listed on her website website. I went there and signed up to attend her first live video webcast.

I signed up for this, though I am not sure why I was asked to do it, I noticed there was not a privacy statement anyplace, nor anything to opt-out from future promotions. 

While I applaud Mrs. Clinton's technological outreach by having a "true national conversation," I hope I will now not get inundated with contribution and support requests.

hillaryclintonwebsite.jpg

 

January 21, 2007

Value in Edublogging

Thanks to Scott McLeod in his post, The Results Are In. There was a survey of edubloggers (I did not participate), that received around 160 responses, and in Scott's representation of the results, the slide below struck me:

education_blogosphere_survey.jpg

I felt I was reading about why I started to blog, after many failed attempts, with more regularity. The reflection and voice results are particularly close to my own interests, and while community and learning and the rest are all important to me as well, blogging allows a reflective voice, to a greater or lesser degree, more than most media today IMHO. Perhaps that is why reflective practice and its sibling, the gap between research and practice, are so engaging of my energy.

January 20, 2007

Trackback test to Clipping coupons

This is a trackback test for Toronto Delivers on the post "Clipping coupons."

Test of trackback to this blog with NY Mag.

This is a test of a trackback to the New York Magazine

Robert Scoble's new car, a bloggable event

I am simply in awe of how our postmodern society shares and receives information. We can even create knowledge and share it when and how we want with the world. How good is real-time freedom of expression? That is, unless of course profits would be damaged (cf. Google in China)or with human rights violations (cf. Yahoo's identifying dissidents in China).

Here is Robert Scoble who blogs about his positive experiences with buying a Saturn. Savvy salesperson to invite him to test drive the car after he blogged about his colleague's reaction with one. In sharing this experience, many people around the world now have a good stamp pf approval by a respected man o'media. Of course, if there are problems with said car, guess who will also tell about them?

I wonder how much power the well-trafficed bloggers wield? I wonder if it can be quantified or qualified? That smells of a nifty research project . . .

January 19, 2007

Northern Voice Mascot

monte1.jpg

 

I love the new Monte character created for Northern Voice. Strange that I can relate so well with him; hopefully Weight Watchers will make a difference within the next four weeks before the conference!

January 18, 2007

Social Media Club

I just stumbled across the link for the Social Media Club while looking for something else, and it just goes to show how the web can be used as a wonderful social activity, connecting people near and far. Looked pretty interesting, especially when I noticed a name that is strangely familiar - Howard Greenstein. Turns out he is one of the co-founders of this organization that just happens to have a meeting space here in New York. I know him as my director at New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. Small world, especially since neither of us knew about the techie interests of the other.

Wonder if Howard knows I am traveling to Northern Voice especially to have spaghetti with Lee LeFever (among other things at the conference), as my Foundations of Training I class will be completed by then?

January 17, 2007

Omnipresent PowerPoint-culture in search for its philosophical potential

I saw this link on Presentation Zen today for a wonderfully postmodern film, Le Grand Content. This short film offers an interesting perspective and commentary on meaning-making and thinking along with the ubiquity of PowerPoint.

According to the authors:

Le Grand Content examines the omnipresent Powerpoint-culture in search for its philosophical potential. Intersections and diagrams are assembled to form a grand 'association-chain-massacre'. which challenges itself to answer all questions of the universe and some more. Of course, it totally fails this assignment, but in its failure it still manages to produce some magical nuance and shades between the great topics death, cable tv, emotions and hamsters.

Le Grand Content

 

January 16, 2007

Neglected Classics

The January issue of Out Magazine had an article on nine neglected classics, books selected by today's literati, as "queer reads." As a qualitative researcher, I wonder what criteria were used for this list, not to mention why these people were asked to select them.

Regardless, they are:

  1. The Inheritors by William Golding
  2. Nebraska by George Whitmore
  3. The Story of Harold by Terry Andrews
  4. Fadeout by Joseph Hansen
  5. The Last Puritan by George Santayana
  6. The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault
  7. The Salt Ecstasies by James L. White
  8. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
  9. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

Willa Cather - Death Comes for the Archbishop

Well, seems this list gives me an interesting selection of books to read, especially since I do not read many books identified as being gay (though the Out article did not qualify what this may mean in this case).

I have always been fond of the work of Willa Cather, and often think about her when I pass 5 Bank Street in New York's Greenwich Village, where she lived while she wrote her classic work listed above. I hope she smiles down on me as I walk by, as I have spent many a time reading the plaque in her honor in that very location.

 

January 15, 2007

New York Rabbi Finds Friends in Iran and Enemies at Home

Did anybody else see this article in Monday's New York Times - New York Rabbi Finds Friends in Iran and Enemies at Home. The rabbi attended a recent conference in Iran that, among other things, debated the Holocaust. His group believes the Holocaust has been exploited to justify the existence of Israel. It is about Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, who is the spokesperson for a small anti-Zionist group, Neturei Karta, in the New York area.

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss and Iranian President Mahmoud AhmadinejadI found this story fascinating, since I never heard about Orthodox Jews (complete with hats, beards, dressed in black, etc.) who were anti-Zionists. That just goes to show that today, on the celebration of Martin Luther King, civil rights still take many forms by many different people. I suppose that injustice can happen even within communities that, on the outside, appear so homogenous.

Happy MLK Day, as it reminds us that things are often so much more complicated then they seem on face value. I suppose both silence and voice can go both ways.

 

January 10, 2007

The First Emperor

Last night I saw The First Emperor, a new opera at The Metropolitan Opera by Tan Dun starring Placido Domingo. While the opera had a somewhat slow First Act, the music held enough promise to keep me for the Second Act, one with one of the more memorable choruses I can recall. It was eerily mesmerizing, with the sadness and emotion common to most operas I have attended. For an opera in English (with a little Chinese as well), the chorus piece was astounding.

January 9, 2007

NY gas smell sends 19 to hospital

NY gas smell sends 19 to hospital NEW YORK (Reuters) - A powerful, mysterious smell of gas wafted through much of Manhattan and parts of New Jersey on Monday, forcing building evacuations and a temporary suspension of commuter train service before dissipating by mid-afternoon.

Here we are, more than 12 hours later, and there is still no clear answer as to what caused the smell of gas. When I got to work I had to wait two hours to get in, since my office building was evacuated. With such a strong smell of gas in Manhatten, the boroughs of New York, and even New Jersey, it is amazing to me that there is still no idea what caused this smell. I usually have a great deal of confidence in our Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, but his claim that the gas was not harmful and of unknown origin just does not sit well with me. Why can't I help thinking there is some cover-up of something? Gas cannot just appear, be smelled by millions of people (literally), and be of unknown cause. Hmmm.

January 5, 2007

Movable Type Plugin Survey

Do you use Movable Type as your blogging software? Do you want your feedback to count and influence how Six Apart works with the growing world of plug-ins? If so, you may want to take the new Movable Type Plugin Survey where they are trying to learn about the plug-ins people use on their MT blogs.

Now is the chance to help the development community make a better product, especially if they know what we want (before we leave for the free, open-source WordPress!).

January 4, 2007

Northern Voice

I just registered for Northern Voice, the two-day, non-profit personal blogging conference that's being held at the UBC main campus in Vancouver on February 23-24, 2007. Glad Nancy at Full Circle Online Interaction Blog recommended it recently.

 

I remember reading about last year's conference and wished I could attend, so this year will not miss it!

The Science of Evil

Did anybody see this and have the eerie feeling people can be worse than we want to believe? I recall reading about Stanley Milgram's controversial Yale experiments and both a sick feeling in my stomach as well as a feeling that perhaps entire groups of people who have done horrible crimes against humanity, while claiming they were "just following order," are really no different from most people.

Last night's recreation was worth seeing and causing me to be disturbed again. 'Primetime' Re-Creates a Famous Experiment to Understand How Ordinary People Can Perform Unthinkable Acts.

January 2, 2007

Eliot

So, Eliot Spitzer is our new governor here in New York. While there are no shortage of jobs I prefer to never have, this is certainly one of them. After all, with his campaign pledge of "Day 1, Everything Changes," he has made a similar group of promises that are echoed by many politicians seeking to address the ills that their predecessors have struggled with and sometimes caused. Yes, Spitzer has a track record of hard work and has earned the respect of many, but politics in New York is a world unto itself is is notoriously slow at change. I wish him the best for his task and hope these promises, whatever they mean, make for a better place to live and work.

January 1, 2007

Saddam

So, Saddam Hussein has now been put to death, which ends a violent chapter in the history of the people of Iraq. While convicted of crimes against humanity and having undoubtedly done horrible things to some of his people, he also had (at one time) the support of the United States and was able to create a secular Islamic nation that did not have the fundamentalist anger so rampant in the Middle East. I wonder who or what will take his place and if the three groups of people in Iraq, cultures that are seemingly independent and never clearly saw themselves as part of a united Iraq, can indeed form a single nation.

I think of these people here on New Year's, and wish them and us the best for 2007. Let us work toward making it more peaceful than the previous year.