randomosity « Vicarious Conversations

Posts Tagged ‘randomosity’

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

I’m on the cutting edge of six months ago!

Yesterday, I waffled on about versions of the web and came to the conclusion that the next *version* would be Web7.0 in which translation processes would make it easier for us to read multiple language based pages.

It seems I was right. This page is an automatic translation of a Spanish site which even gives you the ability to suggest better translations. They even provided the link to the google translator version of their page. (Okay, not entirely my version of Web7.0, but starting to get there.)

I love how there are people way more clever than me in the world!

Tags: randomosity, thoughts

Posted in Ramblings | No Comments »

Sunday, December 14th, 2008

My theory of blogging

I have this theory of blogging which I’m trying to work out. The theory is that blogging, while part of a vicarious conversation, is really a conversation with yourself. It can be reflective and thoughtful (as well as a range of other things), but really, we’re all talking to ourselves. We talk to ourselves about what’s important to us as individuals.

It needs more work.

Tags: randomosity

Posted in thoughts | 3 Comments »

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Reading, writing, arithmetic and … something else

I’ve recently finished a paper on the use of email in organisational contexts and I keep coming to a point of dis-cognition, cognitive dissonance, if you will. Most of what I do, read and research is the advanced application of literacy skills – how to read web-pages, how to negotiate email, how to function in an almost always online way. And then I come across research which talks about functional literacy at a much lower level, particularly in developing countries and I have to wonder why I am so concerned about high levels of literacy – the kind needed for advanced use of computers. It seems to be irrelevant in the face of so many obstacles elsewhere.

And then it seems like a bit of a wank to overly worry about the differences in development of various countries, because I’m located here. This is my context. The context of deeply embedded media in my life. I watch a whole heap of things on youtube, gathering ideas for lectures. I seek information from all over to add value to the lessons I give my students.

This week’s lecture uses Social Networks in Plain English, Who’s watching YOUR space?, The business of social networks, and Facebook killed the private life. I was going to use Winds of Change, but I’ll save that for the new business models lecture.

I seem to have wandered off on a tangent. It’s like following a whole heap of links and not really knowing how you got there. Which is kind of the point really. Luke and I have been coming up with ideas of how we read online (following on from the paper I’m about to submit) and I think. We flit from link to link. And it’s that notion of literacy again. I think I shall call it flitteracy – the literacy of flitting around the web.

Tags: communication, internet, randomosity

Posted in Ramblings, thoughts | 3 Comments »

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

I see a dead trend

Actually, it’s not dead. It’s alive and kicking. Mike talks about it here. We do not like to be offended. We do not like to be different. Ken talks about being different here. Yeah, but no.

I suppose we should be grown ups, as Ken suggests. I suppose we should protect the children, as Mike suggests ironically. But why is being offended so negative? It’s a part of life! And why is being youthful so negative?

Edupunk has been described as being anti-authoritarian, as DIY education (pejoratively) and people have taken offence and told us all to grow up. We need maturity to be teachers, to be in authority. But what people see as immaturity, particularly in education, I see as a joy in learning. It’s the excitement of the new and the unknown that gets us, gets our blood boiling and spurs us on to greater achievements.

So too our offendedosity (and that is a real word). It allows us to see other perspectives. That’s important. Very very important.

If we protect ourselves from offence, from being different and from new words, I think we well end up poorer, less enriched, no different, zombies in a huge melted pot of sameness. I like edupunk (now that is a real word, it’s in Wikipedia (and that’s another new word (and how many levels of parenthetical asides can I achieve?)))!

I’d like to see a reverse of this trend to attempt to get sameness. There used to be a song. Actually, there used to be many songs. But the song I’m thinking of was a call to difference, a call to be ourselves. That song? Australia, don’t become America![1] I fear we are headed in that direction, the direction of easy offence, of sameness. Reactions to this trend, our anti-trend, need to be heard more. We need more edupunks and more offence, if only to keep people thinking.

And look on the bright side. At least I didn’t call anyone a Nazi!

But I can never remember who sang it [↩]

Tags: censorship, EduPunk, learning, randomosity

Posted in EduPunk, Ramblings, thoughts | 3 Comments »

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

I think you have it wrong!

Funniest thing I’ve read all day. In amongst dealing with lots of (exactly the same) news reports about the Beijing Ticketing Scam for my paper on Online Reading (almost finished), I came across this little gem from Adrianne Pecotic, executive director of Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT):

but movie makers can’t compete with theft[1].

Firstly, that’s what shopkeepers do every day. We could quite easily take what we want from shops, but, hey, they make it easier for us to buy rather than to steal. It doesn’t take a day of faffing around (downloading), getting the right trolley and only the right trolley (piece of software or having the right piece of hardware, instead of the hardware you have), fighting to get to the checkout (fiddling and twiddling with different settings to get it to work) only to find you can’t eat (watch) what you’ve purchased.

For instance, a friend of mine recently downloaded a copy her favourite show. She did this from an online shop. She paid for it. After nearly a whole day of trying to get it to work, authorising, unauthorising, copying to different machines, trying desperately to watch her show, she gave up. She could have simply found a torrent, set it going, then come back in a few hours and hit play. But she did the right thing and missed out. So much for competing with theft, you’re not. You are actively ensuring the continuation of easy to use sources of information and the reduction in the usefulness of your product.

Secondly, I thought they were competing with ‘free’[2]. There are ample examples of music makers competing with ‘free’. There are ample examples of other sectors competing with free. Heck, I have a garden and yet I still buy vegetables.

Thirdly, these ‘cultural industries’ are not competing with free or with theft. They are competing for my dollars. Make it worth my while to see your movies, buy your music. But don’t treat me like a thief. Get those gawdawful ‘public service announcements’ about piracy’ OFF my legitimately purchased DVDs. Make it easy for me to watch them. Compete for my attention and my dollars.

But fercryinoutloud, don’t tell me you have to compete with theft. You’ll lose. It’s simple. Just make it easy, mkay?

And that’s AFACT~

ISPs join the copyright fight – web – Technology – theage.com.au [↩]
I’m not enough of an economist to fully appreciate this argument, but I get it [↩]

Tags: randomosity, stupidity

Posted in Ramblings, web | No Comments »