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...and on that note, technology and people are getting even cozier these days. I used to think it was impressive how quickly cell phones got smaller and smarter and how quickly internet went wireless and made sharing easier. Now, inventions like this wrist control system and the idea of "smart buildings" seems to shadow earlier technology, and make us wonder if there is anything we won't try to give a technology interface-lift to.

This is an article that discusses the views of professional historians regarding wikipedia. I think it makes a number of interesting claims both regarding the management or historical data and wikipedia's role in promoting a particular historical paradigm.

I really need to try out Pinterest. I have heard great things about it! PS. Maybe these people do not lead the lives of grad students? So perhaps they have more time? haha

Martina, I did not understand Pinterest for a long time - had an account and never used it! Then a friend took 2 minutes to show me how it works - and I've been hooked ever since. Regardless of anything any critic or fan says of Pinterest, it's a pretty fantastically brilliant website. (And a lot fun!)

I'm absolutely addicted to Pinterest, much more so than Facebook! Pinterest and Diigo seem to have operate on a similar premises: social bookmarking with an attractive user interface.

Of the different online accounts I have, Tumblr is one account I don't have and after reading O'Reilly and looking at the site I have to admit I'm a little fascinated by it. It seem like in many ways it's taken the parts of Myspace, facebook, and twitter that work and pasted them all together at once. In some senses this seems overwhelming, but just from the sample pages, what I see doesn't look entirely unlike what I'm creating for this class. I intentionally linked to the about page since I think there is a great deal of interesting info that feels like it came almost came straight out of O'Reilly's book especially in regard to building communities and allowing for participation, customization, and interaction. The home page also has some useful pieces worth exploring I think.

An interesting article on educating parents, teachers, and kids on digital citizenship and safety - and integrating better digital practices and training in schools.

This is the social networking homepage of a online gaming website, IGN. I wanted to share this because it seems to overtly combine the gaming and social elements of social media. It also, similar to the AXE site, allows users to follow certain products and claim an identity based on what products the user owns in comparison to other members of the community. Within the site itself members have some level of gaining badges and competing by listing and comparing their games and interacting with each other. Also, on the level of competition, there are prizes available for different interactions on this site which further invokes the sense of gaming and competition.

I don't have much experience with video games (I still rock out with Sonic on my Sega Genesis), but this could be a gateway game for me. I love the concept of adapting and crossing lines of genres and mediums, but it's interesting to note some of the dramatic differences and losses that must take place in translation. In this example there are some real game changers (I'm not sorry for the pun) involving plot and narrative. It's as if Dante has suddenly been inspired by Mario and must save the princess from the castle. I wonder what the equivalent of Yoshi would look like in the 7th ring of Hell...

Finally (and what will appear first), all this talk about digital technology and web design pulls up an equal impulse in me to talk about other skill sets that get undervalued in an information economy. I read this a bit ago and enjoyed it. There also seems to be a trend currently that is leading us toward a sort of steam punk utopia where we will have a mixture of high and low technology. For more on the philosophical argument being put forward in this article, I highly recommend Shop Class as Soulcraft and The Mind at Work. To see some indications of the trend I'm talking about watch How It's Made (which tends to skew toward human components of the production process and is based in a tactile fetish of understanding modes of production since you do not learn how to make things ... or really how things are made) and check out all the books on craft skills, cooking, and carpentry that are exploding all over Amazon with noticeably nostalgic titles. Speaking of which, did the knitting craze end or am I just not around 50 people that have recently taken up knitting anymore?

Oh! Also add to the "evidence" list farming/gardening and the back to earth books ... and psychologically the zombie and (to a lesser extent) virus craze in movies, books, games, etc.

Since Mikenna bookmarked a New York Times article about Pinterest, I've been thinking about what makes that site different (and, in my opinion, more successful) than other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. According to this Huffington Post article, "What sets Pinterest apart and makes it so appealing is its focus on who we want to be -- not on what we're doing, where we've gone, how important we are or how beloved. While much of the content shared on existing social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare screams, 'Look at me,' Pinterest posts urge, 'Look at this.'" While I agree with that idea to some extent, I wonder if we can ever engage in social media/social networking without an air of "look at me." This made me think of Goldsmith's idea of Internet identity: "On the Internet, these tendencies move in different directions, with identity running the gamut from authenticity to total fabrication" (84). So, maybe Pinterest allows its users to create a more authentic identity for themselves while Facebook and Twitter promote more fabricated identities.

This probably seems ridiculous that I'm sharing this, but this directly relates to a paper I wrote last semester about the rhetoric employed by AXE and now I think they're making a move that applies to this class. Here we have some combination of McLuhan's idea of media being an extension of man and we see elements of IF as people actively contribute the making of a graphic novel and then are characterized by the creators for their input all the while fusing their digital selves to some sort of global and digital AXE alliance. Imagine how difficult it would be to by a different product once you become part of their story and your digital self participates (to channel the ideas of Barry Brummett) in this particular reality.

A list of the heavy open-source hitters for audio playback and editing.

Sound cloud looks really interesting, but they host all of the content and you just send out links to share it. In order to play content on your page, you need a mess of java script commands and I have no idea how to link that to your content... Guess that's why all the bands pay big bucks to have someone build their site for them.

Alright. Thanks, Ben.

McLuhan and Bogart would probably enjoy this article because it involves procedural rhetoric. It examines how "gamification strategies"--using games to change behavior in real life--can promote energy efficiency. Companies like SimpleEnergy are creating apps that let users track their energy usage, find ways to improve, and compete with friends and neighbors for spots on a leaderboard. Gamification succeeds because apparently social pressure can motivate people even more than monetary incentives, and these initiatives combine both types of incentives: An energy usage competition at the University of Hawaii led to some dorms cutting energy usage by up to 20 percent. This specific method also allows users to save money and conserve energy without "radical infrastructure changes" or the corruption and waste that often results from government subsidies to politically-connected "green" companies like Solyndra and possibly Sapphire Energy. In addition, the apps provide large-scale energy usage data that researchers can use to measure both change over time and the impact of energy usage on other variables.

I'm posting this article because the author and this website are referenced in our book and I think this is also relevant to the ideas presented in O'Reilly's book. We often see discussions about knowing the audience and bringing them to certain and specific actions which brings into question the kind of rhetorical situations we react to online.

I know I talked a little in class about how facebook has had an affect on dating and people's perceptions of flirtation, so I thought I'd share this short article that discusses some of the potentially negative affects of dating through facebook. I'm not propagating that idea (my finance and I just looked through our very first facebook messages yesterday and it was heart warming) but it's interesting to see how others view the potential friendships and heartbreaks of this particular digital social sphere.

Red Hat, the world's largest, most successful open source software company and one I'd like to work for in the very near future, submitted this blog post last month about SOPA and PIPA. It explains how such bills could devastate online collaboration, innovation, and the sharing of ideas and technology.

Grant given to Oxford and Vatican libraries to start digitizing ancient texts including: scan of original Gutenberg bible, ancient Hebrew texts, and Greek philosophy texts.

So this isn't directly related to computer technology, but the review is reminiscent of McLuhan and how the medium is the message. The quality and style of the actual film seems to be on par with the ground breaking trilogy that precede it, but the look of the movie on screen is having some negative effects on viewers' reactions. With the move towards HD and now 3-D, it seems higher resolution doesn't always guarantee a better viewing experience.

Another mind-blowing example of technology seeping into every aspect of our lives. I'm not sure whether to say it's cool or creepy, but expect "iPavement" would be wonderful material for a SNL skit. The article suggests some practical and helpful uses intended with this innovation, such as emergency alerts and updates. But it may also quickly slip down the slope to push advertisements and break privacy barriers ever farther.

Another shrouding tactic is to use the search engine DuckDuckGo, which distinguishes itself with a "We do not track or bubble you!" policy. Bubbling is the filtering of search results based on your search history. (Bubbling also means you are less likely to see opposing points of view or be exposed to something fresh and new.) *I don't particularly care about my privacy (nothing to hide and honestly don't care whose watching), but I do care about the information being fed to me through search engines. I pride myself on doing all the research I can before supporting or criticizing a position. If google is simply feeding me what I want to hear, how do I know I have the full story? This seems like a particularly nefarious form of censorship--one that makes sense in an age of "truthiness" and pandering to ignorance. Bad google. No bubbles.

Our reading this week touched upon the idea of "sock puppets," or fake users "often created for the purpose of talking up or praising a product" (Crumlish and Malone 305). This article explains how a company that creates and sells a program for learning and mastering guitar was fined a quarter of a million dollars for fabricating online reviews.