Group items tagged

I read this article detailing why e-books are better for the environment, cheaper, easier for eyes to read, convenient... My question is if anyone has an e-book reader and how they like it. I'm considering one of my own.

I have a Kindle and I LOVE it. I will admit that I hate that I cannot share my books with my friends as this is something that I used to do all the time. The Nook has that capability and there are rumors that Amazon will push through software that will allow this capability and I really hope they do. The Kindle has done amazing things for my book shelves and I think my husband is thrilled that we no longer have to keep adding. It is a dedicated ereader so it is limited to what I can do compared to an iPad but when I just want to read something the Kindle (or ereader) cannot be beat. While you are reading the iPad you are looking a computer monitor and that really strains my eyes. The Kindle is exactly like reading a book and there is no eye strain. Plus, the Kindle is a lot lighter than a book so it is much more comfortable to hold for long periods of time. It is great when I travel because I have a ton of books loaded onto my Kindle and I am set to go and I do not have to worry about their weight or carrying them around. Dessi mentioned that she liked having the old-fashioned paper in her hands and I thought I was going to be that way as well but I got over it real quick! I will admit that I do not like it for my school text books because I like to be able to visually see my books and I place notes all over the place with post-its and an old-fashioned book is just better for me in that respect.

They all seem to have advantages and disadvantges... I agree one problem with the ipad is the screen - it's better than a typical computer screen, but not as easy on the eyes as a dedicated e-reader. I am still attached to the physical experience of reading and writing, but that's cool that has really worked for Heather. One of the reasons why it might have not worked for scholarly reading is that the tools still seem limited for engaged reading, marking up texts, highlighting, etc. I am hoping there will be good apps for this with the ipad (i just got it and haven't had a chance to look). Beestel, you have to read through the details of each device to find out what is best for you and your reading needs.

Many of the ideas that we are discussing are not so new and even predate the Internet. Marshall McLuhan made a name for himself dealing with these issues in the 1950's and 60's. Although some of his ideas have perhaps not proved true his basic concepts were on the money. From a CBC broadcast May 18, 1960.

This is fantastic! Worth watching. I want to read up more on McLuhan's work. Which of McLuhan's works do you recommend?

My favorite is "The Mechanical Bride" - a great critique of new (at the time) electronic media, consumerism, marketing and how they could affect the way we perceive ourselves. "The Media is the Massage" is a fun and relatively quick read and covers many of McLuhan's key concepts.

I am getting interested in online mediated learning and apparently a lot of tutoring is being conducted via online video/chat programs, such as Skype.

Has anyone read this? I think I will have to get this book. His lecture in the early weeks stuck with me and I keep poking around on his "kk.org" site.

No I havent read it but am thinking of dowloading it if it is available.

I am really skeptical of Kevin Kelly even since we viewed that TED lecture, but I have been going to his blog weekly anyway. He had a post earlier this week about the price of e-books - he thinks they will inevitably fall to $0.99 per book and nick carr responded and tore apart his logic.

"The Atavist has captured new ways to present long-form content for the digital age, mixing multimedia presentations and deep, engrossing articles." Article written by David Carr, although Nick Carr might like this because it understands that "The Web is good at creating short and snappy bits of information, but not so much when it comes to long-form, edited, fact-and-spell-checked work."

reminder to everyone - today the NYTimes goes behind a paywall, and you will only be able to read 20 articles a month for free. But if you click on this article through diigo, it shouldn't count against your 20. I've heard conflicting reports whether NYTimes digital will remain free for students, or if they will get discount on the $15/month rate. I can't find anything official on the web right now. Has anyone else heard anything?

People used to use the Internet to try on personalities and express themselves freely. Now it may be a corporate trap. Social robots sometimes supplant people. The author comments on "the banalities of electronic interaction" and how we don't interact in meaningful ways. However, some studies have shown than facebook users, for instance, have greater social capital.

we're actually going to read a bunch of Turkle's stuff - I really like her work

Adam Gopnik wrote on overview on many of the issues we are discussing this week in last Monday's New Yorker. I haven't read the article as closely as I would like yet, but I noticed many familiar names.

This site is the best I've found so far in my search process. It provides tons of links to Social Informatics Highlights, Blogs, Associations, Sources, and Related Fields.

There is a lot of information on this site and it is very helpful.

i've come across this site before in an earlier iteration. I still am up in the air about the perspective and resources. I'll have to give it a more careful read.

nothing like ICT related article hot off the press!

I found a similar article from the UN sharing how cell phones and texting was used during a recent election in Kenya to limit riots and other unsafe activities. Though not used for either candidate the initiative did save lives and destruction of public areas by quickening the response times of police.

The internet being cut off in Egypt is just unprecedented. What are people reading and what sources are they following? Here's an interesting article about how it was turned off: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/01/egypts-internet-blackout-unprecedented.html also, it's interesting how one small company is still providing service and how people with international calling plans can use foreign dial-up providers. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/01/despite-severed-connections-egyptians-get-back-online/70479/

This site documents the public response to internet phenomena (e.g., smiling dogs, phrases, viral videos).

This is fascinating to me. Some years ago I have read Richard Dawkin's The selfish gene (http://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Gene-Anniversary----Introduction/dp/0199291152/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296232952&sr=1-3) and the Idea of Memes, using us, humans, to reproduce and evolve was quite amazing. I would also recommend Susan Blackmore's The meme machine (http://www.amazon.com/Meme-Machine-Popular-Science/dp/019286212X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296232884&sr=8-1), it was interesting for me. Yes, it falls under the "popular science" category, and her pseudo)scientific style could be a bit irritating; but overall there were some interesting ideas. P.S. I did not get the hyper-linking to work for me. I would appreciate some clues :-)

scientismic - a new term?

I read this article last week, but thought I'd post it to the group after watching the Kevin Kelley talk.

This brief article about social networking in religious communities contains links to Neo-Pagan, Interfaith, Jewish, Christian, Muslim social networks and further resources to read.

fascinating.

Transliteracy is defined by Sue Thomas, a professor of new media at De Monfort University, as "the capacity to read, write, and interact across a range of platforms, tools, and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio, and film, to digital social networks."

I discovered this center from reading this blogger ( http://www.michaeltyworth.com/blog/social-informatics/ ) Sounds pretty neat though I can't pretend to understand most of this I did like the approach - "We have all this incredible amount of information, but we don't have knowledge. What we're trying to do is focus on the problem of transforming energy-sensor and other information-into knowledge."

This refers to how less restrained people feel on the internet v. real life. This might seem more related to internet identity, but it can have huge effects on civil community on the internet too. I thought of this when I read "One important social rule was built into the software that the WELL lives inside: Nobody is anonymous. Everybody is required to attach their real userid to their postings" (Rheingold, Chapter 1).

And here's the report itself. I look forward to reading this with a critical eye.

Started looking at this after reading Andrew's post earlier. Yours, mine, ours thinking. (What is the opposite? Independent anti-consumerism? )

This Newsweek cover story from March 7 gets into how information overload is hindering our ability to make clear decisions.

While attempting to read this article, I found myself constantly distracted, not by interruptions, but by the completely goofy banner ads on the right side of the page and bottom. Maybe someone could invent and app for that? Or in the meantime I should use a piece of cardboard to cover the nonsense on the screen. A low budget app!

Did anyone else notice this link from the previous week? Left wing gad about Douglas Rushkoff starts to question the unintended consequences for the user of social media. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc. may have created exciting new ways for us to interact "virtually", but we pay for it, even when it's free.

I really like that he advocates that students (& all people) learn to program. People resisted learning to type too! And while it is harder, no harder than learning to read or write.

This NPR story shows how an etextbook can be more contextual than a standard 2-D book. Imagine being able to watch an example of cell division and not just read about it?