Let Jing Show You How

Visit my desktop and learn how to install the del.icio.us buttons.

Photo of our lovely kitchen from Mariel Antonia.

Obsolete Grandfather

From Philadelphia's own Andy Rementer. Just beautiful.

Ubuntu @ the Library

Jessamyn West will learn to screen cast one of these days. Until then, her library will be running on FOSS Ubuntu.

Slow Reading

Slow readers get sensual with their information.
Slow reading is an art form.
Slow reading is a community event.
Slow reading is part of the larger Slow Movement
Slow readers support local libraries.
Slow reading is an act of resistance!

From John Meidema's essay, Slow Reading: A Third Way of Reading

"There are many different kinds of reading, both fast and slow. Fast reading is greatly facilitated by digital technology. For a time, we thought that digital technology would replace books altogether. We were wrong about that. Print and books are more prevalent than ever. We are in the middle of a cultural shift that is still learning the proper place of digital technology. Fast information is terrific when we need a quick, rough answer, but like fast food it often leaves one hungering for something more substantial. Digital technology is terrific for finding information and reading short snippets, but print and books lend themselves to slow reading, a form of reading that is more pleasant and often is the only way to really understand a concept."

World of World of Warcraft

'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

Inside Sugar Labs

Created by Walter Bender, former executive director of the MIT Media Lab, Sugar is the interface originally designed for One Laptop Per Child. As I mentioned previously, OLPC is now offering a Microsoft operation system.

"Sugar reinvents how computers can be used for education. It promotes sharing and collaborative learning and gives children the opportunity to use their laptops on their own terms. Children — and their teachers — have the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and reapply their software, and content. Sugar is a community project; it is based on GNU/Linux, a free and open-source operating system."

Blogger Arrests on the Rise

According to the latest World Information Access Report, 64 citizens have been arrested for their blogging activities since 2003. The BBC reports that bloggers were arrested for criticizing public policies and politicians, and exposing corruption in government, abuse of human rights and suppression of protests.

Three people were arrested from the United States. One person for "violating cultural norms," and two for "other" or "no reason given." The report said arrests increased during times of political uncertainty. The WIA expects blogger arrests to grow in 2008 as more people are able to observe and report human rights violations.

"What Happens if You Put Electricity in This Thing?"

Oh that David Rees kills me.

Watch Out! That Information is Alive!

Libraries are more than simple repositories for books. A library is an extension of a community--a living entity that is in constant flux. A good library connects people with information packages and services that reflect that their most basic needs and wildest desires. An exceptional library cares for and exhibits its collection like a world-class museum. The British Library is an exceptional library. The library's new exhibition of sacred texts employs cutting-edge technology to unlock the contemporary relevance of ancient objects. Viewers can gaze upon the beauty of ancient Bibles and Korans, and then ask a scholar, an educator or an atheist philosopher a question about the books. This encourages people to move beyond basic aesthetic appreciation and encounter opposing theories. The experts attempt to answer heavy questions like What is sacred, and Is there truth in the text? I am just jazzed about this.

Wikis in Plain English

Nice and simple.

Scaling the Digital Divide

One Laptop Per Child, the organization that created a $100 computer for children in developing countries, has been redesigned. The new computer now looks like an e-book and costs $75 per device. The old design ran on free, open-source Linux, which gave children "the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and reapply their software, hardware, and content." But after pressure from Intel and potential buyers, OLPC ditched the open source software like they ditched the rubber, spill and dust-safe keyboard, in favor of a Microsoft Windows operating system.

Walter Bender, president of OLPC Software and Content until his resignation in April 08, stresses that these laptops are just the first steps in the effort to close the digital divide:

"None of us have been so naïve to think that a connected laptop is in itself a cure to the problems of poverty and ignorance; it is an agency through which children, their teachers, their families, and their communities can manufacture a cure. Computers are tools with which to think, sufficiently inexpensive to be used for work and play, drawing, writing, measuring, composing, editing, mathematical thinking, programming, communication, and sustainable economic development."

He advocates for the use of free and open software as a way to get closer to a constructionist learning model.

"Constructionism is a theory of learning pioneered by Seymour Papert. Papert first started developing the theory as a student of Piaget in the early 1960s. Over the course of more than 40 years of research and practice, Papert and his students found that children learn best when they are in the "active role of the designer and constructor" and that this happens best in a context where the child is "consciously engaged in constructing a public entity" - something "truly meaningful" for the learner. Further, the creation process and the end product must be shared with others in order for the full effects to take root."

It is frightening to think that a benevolent project with such potential for social change could be pressured to revert to becoming simply distributors of PowerPoint. I know, I know, that's not really fair on my part. Let's hope that the potential for children to become creators and to understand how their machines work will not be lost.

Folksonomic Letters

Try it!

Hard To Tell If Wikipedia Entry On Dada Has Been Vandalized Or Not

From the Onion:
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND—The Wikipedia entry on Dada—the World War I–era "anti-art" movement characterized by random nonsense words, bizarre photocollage, and the repurposing of pre-existing material to strange and disturbing effect—may or may not have been severely vandalized, sources said Monday.

"This is either totally messed up or completely accurate," said Reed College art history major Ted Brendon. "There's a mustache drawn on the photo of Marcel Duchamp, the font size keeps changing, and halfway through, the type starts going in a circle. Also, the majority of the actual entry is made up of Krazy Kat cartoons with abstract poetry written in the dialogue balloons."

The fact that the web page continually reverts to a "normal" state, observers say, is either evidence that ongoing vandalization is being deleted through vigilant updating, or a deliberate statement on the impermanence of superficial petit-bourgeois culture in the age of modernity.

You Say Dystopia, I Say Utopia!

Dystopia! Utopia! Dystopia! Utopia! Let's call the whole thing off!

Epic 2015 is a speculative look at a near future where all information is aggregated, personalized and owned by an amalgamation of Google and Amazon. The story started as hard science fiction--a preachy cautionary tale. Now it pretty accurately reflects the state of the web today. Googlezon is already here, and here, and here, and here and here.

But is it really so horrible to have a customized information feed? What about a media monopoly? How will Google change us?

"What does the world look like through the lens of Google?; How is Google's ubiquity affecting the production and dissemination of knowledge?; and how has the corporation altered the rules and practices that govern other companies, institutions, and states?"

Siva Vaidhyanathan is exploring these questions and more in his upcoming book, The Googlization of Everything: How One Company is Disrupting Culture, Commerce and Community...and Why We Should Worry. I worry a bit about Google's far-reaching arm - in particular the fact that it has saved all of my email correspondence since 2005. I think it's imperative that we look critically at how the participatory web is changing us and continue to learn to hack the system.

art by Randy Siegel