Humanities Computing

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.

... and some more themes. Places you could pay to get the theme, but also you could look at it for ideas and the design it yourself.

... and my text became a hyperlink.

Google is offering a Chromebook and cash prizes totaling $1 million for anyone who can hack its Chrome browser at the CanSecWest security conference next week: $40,000 for "partial Chrome exploit" and $60,000 for "full Chrome exploit." This event illustrates a concept from this week's readings: community collaboration can increase a service's effectiveness and bolster a company's success. The Google Chrome Security Team even stated that the contest provides "a big learning opportunity" and ultimately enables them to better protect users by revealing bugs and providing information about hacking techniques.

It is like at the start of Sneakers when they are paid to break into banks and show the various security issues. Also, it would be pretty sweet to log $40,000-$60,000 in that short a period of time. I suspect there would also be a job offer that came along with it.

This is a pretty straightforward, simplistic article (it is How Stuff Works ... I mean, come on) that deals with tracking computer use in the workplace. While not directly related to the Kirschenbaum, I thought it connected enough to post. It seemed like a potential point to launch into discussions on the permanence of data, and it reminded me of a year or two ago when Michelle sent out an e-mail asking people to stop using the resource room computers to look at porn. 

Going back to an older discussion, I thought some might be interested in this article. It puts forward ideas for how copyright issues could be addressed. The website in full might also be interesting to some.

A Tumblr page that has updates with information on design, editing, typography, etc.

A humorous breakdown of the uses of social media.

Some website design ideas ...

This article examines how Red Hat transitioned from free open source software to a system they sell through a subscription with updates, patches, and bug fixes. Red Hat still provides free code, though; a community project called Fedora provides "a testing ground for the enterprise features delivered to Red Hat's paying customers," allowing both the company and the users to benefit from collaboration. This article shows the balance of sustainability between free and paid access. It also echoes Kenneth Goldman's claims in Uncreative Writing because the CEO says, "If you believe in the concept of modular innovation where a lot of different people add to works that came before them, patents clearly slow that down."

Moving closer to the Matrix? A Spanish research center called Barcelona Digital is coordinating a three-year initiative called the BrainAble project to develop technologies that will improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. By developing advanced brain-computer interface (BCI) systems, ambient intelligence (AmI), and virtual reality (VR), researchers enable users to operate a robot, interact in virtual environments, communicate more easily, and remotely control lighting, heating and other devices in their homes. Plus, this technology could also benefit the eldery and people in rehabilitation, as well as allow the remote monitoring of people with neurological disorders.

another plug for e-texts

While I'm not a fan of reading online/on a computer screen-yet-I am interested in this transition from paper to digital texts (textbooks). There seems to be several advantages, such as constantly updating and affordable ($49 for a science textbook?!).

Short, interesting article on the progress "Project Recollection" has made since 2008, now titled "Project Viewshare"

Sustainability factors listed in preparation for the Library of Congress Collections.

This was interesting trying to turn off (or "pause") my web history! This kind of stuff creeps me out-how much "web people" know about us and our personal lives.

Interesting article about book preservation using captcha technology. 

Argument (with some decent solutions/suggestions) for making the transition from paper to electronic publications.

Fast track to being a billionaire. (And a Facebook timeline.)

This article talks about an alternative to SOPA and PIPA written by Reddit users. There's a link to the Reddit community and Google document they're working on. Although it's difficult for me to see how this document could impact/influence any actual legislation, redditors have had some success making waves in the past. After GoDaddy announced its support for SOPA, Reddit users staged a boycott. GoDaddy ultimately changed its position.

A number of companies are working together to create mobile web standards. Standardization is becoming an important issue as many of us (myself included) increasingly access the web through our smart phones.