0 Sample Collaboration Agreement for Group Research Projects

Image from wlibrary

I like to assign a significant, primary-research-based, multi-media, group research project in my classes. I suppose my attachment to primary research and group work stems from my personal experiences.

My own commitment to primary source research as a compelling learning tool stems from an experience I had when I was eight years old. It involved a librarian and a 135 year-old map showing my family's new home. My mother sent to the local library me on a fool's errand to find out whether the house my family had moved into was originally part of the church or the horse farm it was sandwiched between. The kind and forward-thinking librarian on duty that day took my inquiries with the utmost seriousness and led my into the basement where historic town plats were housed. There we read the maps and formulated an interpretation of my house and neighborhood. The librarian captured my historical imagination in a way that would drive my academic studies for the rest of my life.

My pledge to group work is rooted in less sentimental. As a history student, I found little opportunity work in team, yet the career-track museum jobs I landed both out of college and out of grad school routinely required collaboration with other organizations and close team work with colleagues. Very little in school prepared me for such work after school. Therefore, I made a personal commitment to my students to introduce to them to--and hopefully prepare them for--working in teams in the workplace.

The following assignment is the first step in that process:

View Sample Collaboration Agreement Directions

1 Free Music on the Internet

I've started doing video interviews on my other blog and am getting ready to podcast. I recently find myself on the hunt for background music to use.

I pretty much have the CC and fair-use thing under control. By and large, as a blogger, I can comment on or remix images to create something original--an original idea, a unique combination of images, or what have you. Basically, as long as I cite my source and link back to them, I am good. I also have a disclaimer stating that if I have used something inappropriately, I will take it down if they email me.

But music is a different beast. A few sites I have found a few sites, such as Jamendo and Owl through CreativeCommons.org, but Owl is confusing to use. I'm never sure what is free and what is not. On Jamendo, I find the pickin's oft times slim. Or rather, I just don't have time to wade through the garbage. So I am routinely doing Google searches for "free music."

I have recently found two new music sites that look promising PublicDomain2ten, and LastFM.com.

The new model seems to mix free with pay. I'm totally ok with that; I think provides a sustainable business model that keeps sites operational.

Caveat Emptor, however. Let the buyer beware! Free is great. Free gives artists exposure, and allows blokes like me to push out fairly polished products for little money. However, it is the users responsibility to search out and read the fine print. May sure you know what the limits of use are before you use someone else's work. And to CYA, make sure you have some sort of disclaimer stating that you will immediately take down any work if you get a "cease and desist order" from an artist.

By way of example, here is a video clip I did for the other blog using CC work I found on Jamendo .


Southern Cakes Explained from Hindsight Bride on Vimeo.

2 Boo Hiss Google Maps

A Big Boo Hiss To Google Maps! 
I have been trying to create a "wish tour" on Google Maps for days. While I finally figured out how to add the points of interest I want, and delete those mistakenly added points, I cannot for the life of me wrangle the "draw a line" feature in to submission.

The idea is great. As soon as I watched the intro video for creating tours, I decided to create a tour of my dog's travels across country.




The video made it look easy enough. But then the trouble started. It took me forever to figure out how to fix and delete points. In hindsight it seems easy enough: simply type in a location you want to find; click on it; choose "save to" and select the map you want to save it to. Simple.

But I was trying to manually enter points at first. I also ran into trouble with some points being inaccurate, as in my Well Traveled Dog Map. I wanted to tear out my hair trying to figure out how to place the points in some sort of chronological order, hence the word "tour."

Below is the first map I attempted. I found it exceedingly difficult to place lines along roads. It took several hours to get the this exceedingly inaccurate map to look as it does.





View The Well Travelled Dog in a larger map


I decided that perhaps the problem lay in the cross-country distances with the dog map. So I set out to create a tour of my favorite consignment shops in western North Carolina. Google's how-to video used a walking tour in San Francisco as an example. I figured if I stayed in a smaller area, I would have better luck. Nope, it was worse. Part of the problem is that mine is a driving tour. The walking tour example used straight lines on relatively straight street blocks, and a relatively short distance.

Mine is a driving tour, and the feature that sets a line along roads would be ideal if it worked. The platform seems buggy.  The directions say, "click to start drawing a line along the roads." But that only works some of the time. If there is a point of interest in the way, the tool will toggle from "draw" to "grab."

The few times that I got the line to start, I couldn't get it to stop, even though I followed the "double click to set and end point" instructions.




View Consignment Shop Tour in a larger map

I have poured hours into these two inaccurate and incomplete maps and have drawn the following lessons from them. 1) They are not easy enough for me to enjoy using them for individual projects 2) I was initially excited about the prospect of chambers of commerce or historical societies being able to create tours in and easy-to-use WYSIWYG environment. Wrong! If I were a business with my heart set on creating a tour, I would be in and even bigger rage than I am right now.

4 Geo-tagging and The Collective

Flickr's geo-tagging feature is fairly straight forward to use. It's drag-and-drop design allows a user to simply drag an image to the map and Flickr will automatically enter the associated coordinates.

This is fun, and interesting. After geo-tagging my own images from my "Saturday morning with D." I had a fine time telling our morning story with maps and well as images. When I did a quick search for fellow classmates' ASUweb20 tag, I found that my images did not show up even though I tagged them. I have been spinning my wheels for the better part of two hours trying to figure this out. Exhausted, I needed to destress, so I searched for what I now consider home, Mammoth Lakes. It seems that Mammoth's pro photogs have really availed themselves of the power of Flickr.

So there is is. A bit of ho-hum for you. Flickr geo-tagging is nice.

But wait! There's more. And it comes from...drum roll...Ted of course!

So geo-tagging is actually not just about marketing your photography services or creating your own little vanity pageant online. It is a way to tap into a collective knowledge base. A "metaverse" of information.

Of note,  is the demonstration of a 3-D rendering of the Notre Dame Cathedral using Photosynth. Basically, one can take a detailed, user navigated 3-D tour, in ridiculous detail. Developer Blaise Aguera y Arcas spoke it best when he said, the punch line behind the Photosynth technology... is [the] reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral was done entirely--computationally-- from images scraped from Flickr."

The implications for museums and the humanities is extraordinary. We digital humanists are increasingly able to aggregate and present ever greater amounts of data. We can know more for less and less money and resources. Think of it. How many grant dollars would it take to send a team to Notre Dame Cathedral to take pictures of every nook and cranny for a history or museum tour online?

Now we can just "scrape images from Flickr!?" Amaaaaazing!

1 Not so SURL-iously

OK, not a huge fan of Second Life. Full stop.

I was reminded of this while attending a Second Life Educators (SLED) meet-and-greet this evening. It wasn't much of an event. While the four other attendees promised that they typically dance, chat, and drink, and drink (yep, I said "and drink" twice because they said "and drink" twice. Apparently virtual drinking is a big deal. Seriously?) there wasn't much going on last night.

OK, clearly I went to the wrong event (for me). I figured it would be a good way to get my feet wet. But perhaps I should have attended one of the science-oriented, or research-oriented functions. I'm an all-business kind of girl in SL. I want a lecture, or presentation, or conference. Something focused. No dancing or drinking. More chatting and sharing ideas.

So there it is. My big gripe. And part of the problem was I picked the wrong event--a social event.

I am no stranger to SL. The few events I have attended in the past have largely been on my home University's Catamount Island. I have helped Neil (who largely built the Island) to demonstrate basic functionality and telecommuting. I have watched instructors teach, and have toured classrooms and educational facilities on Catamount Island.

But I am really not a huge fan. When I arrived at the SLED meet and greet, the vibe was akin to a pack of dogs pissing on posts and sniffing each others assholes. The group of four ladies clearly knew each other and had a code (or shorthand if you will) for their largely text-based conversation. Lots of "slash glare" comments were exchanged between these ladies. I don't know what that means. I assumed it meant, "hey noob, we are a part of a clique--lol."

I introduced myself, and after the requisite "hellos" and "welcomes," it was pointed out that I'm "two years old, and no profile information." Then, one SLED lady started making weird, sort of provokative gestures. Another started dancing and then flying around the room like she was Trinity from the freaking Matrix. It was bizarre--not in a good and wholesome way. So do people do that in their business meetings, or is that behavior simply a function of the more casual atmosphere of the meet-and-greet. What ever it is, it made my feel itchy inside. Perhaps if the conversation weren;t so inane... 

So there it is. I am part of this problem. In the two years I have been a sometimes SL citizen, I have not bothered to change my clothes, update my profile information, or leave Catamount Island if I can help it. It just doesn't capture my imagination.

That doesn't mean that SL os not a game changer for education. It simply means it is not a game-changer for my digital life. I will likely go back to skulking about Catamount Island on occasion, leaving the SLED meet-and-greeters to their dancing, chatting, and drinking, and drinking.

4 From Virtual Life to Real Life with Twitter

I recently won flowers on Twitter!

I won a beautiful $50 professionally arranged vase of flowers.  I did not know the florist before hand, but had been following her on Twitter for a few weeks.

I have thought long and hard about whether or not this "counts" for the assignment. The arrangement was concluded via email, and the assignment rules specifically state "Don't cheat by just using email or phone call- this should use one or more of the tools you've got." However,  I think that it is important to point out that this was a wholly organic bridge between virtual and real worlds.

Let me explain...

As a part of my blogging strategy I follow numerous people on twitter, both local and national people. Generally, the only relationship I have with fellow bloggers is through Twitter and blog comments. Nonetheless, the relationships I have developed through these two channels has become rich in many instances, and has resulted in email exchanges. As a matter of fact, if I do ever email someone in my blogging industry, it is generally after establishing a solid relationship through Twitter, online discussion forums, and commenting on blogs. I never email someone out of the blue. It just seems weird, like cold calling on the phone.

Anyway, I started following @EnchantedFlorst and re-tweeting her tweets. She followed me back. Here's how it went down the day I made real life contact...

I was in the midst of bantering with the Yellow Pages marketing folks and @EnchantedFlorst via Twitter about old media verses new media marketing.

I stepped away from my desk, and when I came back I saw that @enchantedflorst was giving away flowers again. I had seen this before and had re-tweeted it. This time, I decided to participate.

From @Enchantedflorst:

As per her instructions, I emailed her seventeen minutes after her tweet asking if I was too late. I then
re-tweeted her free flower offer so my own followers would be exposed to her.

And then...I WON! Woohoo!

From @Enchantedflorst:

And then...I re-tweeted once again to thank @enchantedflorst and give her additional exposure.

From Me (hindsighbride):

Furthermore, there were some emailing SNAFUs that Twitter helped remedy. A few emails didn't get through to my email box. Janet from @enchantedflorst direct messaged me on Twitter instead.

While Janet offered to deliver them that evening, I asked if I could drive out to Asheville and interview her for my blog. She suggested we meet at Lady Luck Flower Farm.

I ended up writing a blog post as well as interviewing both Janet from Enchanted Florist and Katie from Lady Luck Flower Farm. Both interviews will be published on my blog in the next few weeks.

So in some ways I "cheated" by emailing. I did not blog about this immediately because of the email clause. However, the more I looked for opportunities to "get the assignment done," the more those opportunities seemed false.

I had a real, organic web 2.0 experience that connected the virtual and real worlds. Janet was using Twitter and her free flowers to gain exposure. I am using Twitter to gain exposure and meet people to interview. We both met our goals through Twitter and have developed a good working relationship since then. Janet comments on my blog and I re-tweet a lot of her tweets. It is a mutually beneficial relationship that started on Twitter, not through email or phone--though we have used both since.

I have also recently made contact with the organizers for a major blogging conference through Twitter. I believe they found me because I was #hashtagging their name and commenting about this year's conference. This is super exciting because some of the bloggers I admire the most are involved with this.

 Incidentally, I also found a number of posts about the "underground blogosphere" and email. It seems that email is a great complement to web 2.0, especially as relationships mature.


However, the point is, Twitter is a great way to foster and strengthen community among bloggers and businesses. How else could I possibly meet these people? 

0 Reaching New Markets with Web 2.0

Lately, I have heard more than a few people talk about the "marketing power" of web 2.0. I have become increasingly offended by this and similar statements about gaining "market share"through Twitter, or developing "product awareness" using FaceBook.

What!? Or in the parlance of Internet cussing WTF!?

Now don't get me wrong, I believe that the Internet can be a powerful tool for businesses and professionals. However, I think that the old-school marketing strategies of finding your "target audience" and pitching your product to them doesn't work. People are primarily looking for two things on the Internet: information and community.

If you are a business looking to FAIL at social media, treat your social media platforms like press-release forums. Only Tweet and FaceBook about your products and events. Only blog about your products. Never comment on another person's blog, tweet, or FaceBook comment. In short, be self-centered and only allow information to travel one way--out from you.

If you want to SUCCEED at social media, treat it for what it is: a vehicle for exchanging information and ideas. I am a blogger so I will discuss this in terms of blogging (not this, but another blog that I run).

I of course want my blog to succeed. I want lots of readers, and eventually, I would like to offer limited advertising of businesses I trust and whose service I think would appeal to my readers. So yes, being able to write for money is a goal of mine. However, it is not the be-all-end-all for my blogging life.

The real reason I started blogging is I have something I think is important to say. Note that I did not start blogging because everyone else was doing it, or I thought I could make money doing it. Rather, I feel I have experiences and expertise that will benefit my readers. I want people to benefit from my ideas and suggestions. I am also well aware that a blogger needs other people and ideas to survive. I need a larger community of people that I both tap into and contribute to to keep my ideas fresh. In addition to blogging, I have a personal relationship with local businesses that I blog about. I tweet about other blogs, useful links, as well as more personal things. I participate fully in several large discussion and networking forums in my field, and I comment on other peoples blogs.

In short, I am an active member of my chosen niche community. I do not constantly push links to my blog in emails, comments or discussion forums. I am not constantly referring to myself, my blog, or my product. Rather I participate in online conversations in a similar way that I would in person. After all, you wouldn't think of going to a professional event and constantly try to sell a product would you?

The Internet is the same nowadays. The days of hard sell e-commerce are a gone, or at least largely ineffective. Today the internet is about conversations, communitiy, and sharing ideas.

Don't believe me? Just look at the ubiquity of comments in blogs, online stores, and everywhere you turn. People no longer want to be on the recieving end of a hard-sell marketing campaign. Rather, they want to be part of a conversation.

That does not mean that "marketing" is dead. Lord knows that I am constantly trying to up my Google ranking, attract more readers, and generally raise awareness about my own blog. I even have business cards I hand out. However, I also know that I am a part of a larger conversation, and I embrace my role as an active a contributing member of a larger online community.

0 Appalachian State Featured on Smashing Mag's Showcase

Well, WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/03/19/showcase-of-academic-and-higher-education-websites/

3 Surf's Up on the World Wild Web...

... And by "surfing" in mean couch surfing.
This week has been an interesting week. I've been introduced to two websites that I would never have thought to exist. One is a dating site for married people who want to commit adultery. {Call me a prude, but I'm just not going to glorify it with a link} The other, is CouchSurfing.org.

 Perhaps you remember when you were college age, or thereabouts, and you visited your young and poor buddies in their cramped postage-stamp sized efficiency in the city. Where did you sleep? On their couch of course. Or, if they slept on your own couch, you may have slept on the floor. Perhaps a similar situation played itself out with a "friend-of-a-friend."

This is called couch surfing. And it should come as no surprise... {should being the operative word, because both sites shocked the hell out of me}...it should come as no surprise that couch surfing has become organized on a global scale through the magic of web 2.0 and the lure of social networking in cyber space.

Ok, ok, I hear you. BFD you might be thinking. This type of user-generated content and social networking IS the web. What's the big woop?

The big woop is this: couch surfing links the virtual with the real world. While arguably other sites such as CraigsList and Match.com do the same. Couch surfing is different. Barring the one-night-stand ads on CraigsList, CouchSurfing.org is unique in that you are inviting people you've met online into your most intimate space--your home.

My initial reaction: I'll get raped! So of course I googled "couchsurfing" and "rape," and guess what? A Hong Kong woman was raped last year in the UK. So there you go. There is a danger that a woman CouchSurfing to travel alone will get raped. Yup.

But searching further and digging deeper, the rape seems to be more the exception than the rule. It's hard to say why exactly this is. It could be a matter of self-selection among members. CouchSurfing seems to attract young and alternative crowds. It could be that there are thousands, not millions of members.

I could also be the safety mechanisms CouchSurfing.org has incorporated into its culture and policies. For example, the second questions in the FAQ section, which is part of the introductory reading for new members, is, "is it safe?" The first is, "is it really free." As outlined on their Safety Page, the folks at CouchSurfing are committed to promoting a safe environment for it's members. To this end they have employed a verification system which requires a credit card, which in turn requires a real name and address. There is also a fairly extensive and partially anonymous referral system. Given these options, a member can mitigate their risk by only surfing with or offering a couch for verified members with references.

So the final verdict for me?
Well I am holding off on my own verification process for now, and I currently do not have a couch available. But I have spent a great deal of time working on my profile and searching through member groups for like-minded people. Soooo, it looks like I will stay a while to check things out more.

Oh, yeah, and this morning, I casually mentioned the site to my husband. While I made no promises, and he had the same skeptical response as I did at first, we are trying to keep our minds and hearts open about the project.

It's just such a good idea. Question is: Is it a good idea for poeple our age, in their thirties? Or is this just a young person's thing. I hope it's not just for the young. I really like the idea of a foreign/regional travel exchange for adults.

3 WikaWhat? A look at WikiQuote and WikiBooks

Photo From The Heart of the Alleghanies; Or Western North Carolina
Available at GoogleBooks

I am a historian. A working one to boot. I teach, write, and work in a history museum. I am routinely on the lookout for old historic books and archaic ideas. Specifically, my research interests include turn of the twentieth century Appalachia. Not necessarily the hillbilly Appalachia but rather a more dynamic Fin de Siècle Appalachia. I have relied upon GoogleBooks more than once to read a hard-to-find, out-of-print 19th century book on Appalachia. I spend a lot of time on GoogleBooks.

However, GoogleBooks is not perfect. And there is a lot of debate about how their digitization project fits into copyright and intellectual property laws, especially among academics (See NY Times article, Google's Pnan for Out of Print Books is Challenged.) While most of the books I look for are in the public domain, as I expand my research to include the interwar years and even LBJ's Great Society, it becomes clear whether or not Google will continue to be useful to me.

To make a short story tediously long (as we historians love to do,) and am frequently on the look out for new sources of historical evidence. To this end, WikiQuote and WikiBooks seemed promising enough.

"There are no facts, only interpretations."
~Friedrich Nietzsche, Notebooks, (Summer 1886 – Fall 1887), Available on WikiQuote

WikiQuote is exactly was is sounds like. It's a wiki full of quotes. What makes Wiki Quote different from other quote archives and databases such as BrainyQuote and ThinkExist is WikiQuote's commitment to accuracy and provenance. Basically,when you search for a quote in WikiQuote, not only do you get the author and text of the quote, you get the date, publication from which it came, and associated links to WikiPedia and other Wiki projects. WikiQuote offers extensive coverage of films, books, TV shows, religious texts. Basically, when you find a quote you like, you have available to you a preponderance of information.

The downside of WikiQuote for a mountain historian? Well, keyword searches for Appalachia, Mountaineer, and moonshine did not yield any better results than competitor sites. Which is to say, not a lot.  Still, if you find a topic that is better covered, WikiQuote is the best quote database out there as far as I can tell.

 A plate of Risotto. Photo taken by Kobako

Published here under a Creative Commons License

WikiBooks was not as useful for my own research as I had hoped. Keep in mind that I am not giving a blanket thumbs up or thimbs down, but rather evaluating both projects according to mine own and any reader who may be interested in a "MtnHistory" blog.

Unlike GoogleBooks, WikiBooks is a textbook repository meant to dovetail with WikiVersity. This means that, rather than hard to find, out-of-print, and public domain books, WikiBooks only features textbooks. A perusal through the history section yielded precious little for 19th century American history, and nothing at all in 20th and 21st century histories. Nary a book could be found on Appalachia.

However, non-historical texts that caught my eye included the WikiJunior project, particularly the Solar System book. Also Cookbook seemed decent. While it does not offer the eye candy one can find on the web and in foodie blogs, it does offer solid instruction on proper techniques as well as international and historical perspectives on food. If you are interested in a topic that WikiBooks covers, you are free to download copies of books to your local machine for offline reading.

2 Are "We" Dumb? Or Just Plain Ignorant?

What is important for an individual to know when they graduate from elementary school? middle school? high school? college? It is a simple question that regularly fuels debate over curriculum, standardized testing, and assessment.

 Public Domain Photo from WikiCommons

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is concerned that neither middle school kids in South Boston, nor Harvard graduates know what causes the earth's seasons or the phases of the moon. Their documentary "A Private Universe,"examines why students, even science majors at Harvard, have a difficult time answering these supposedly easy questions. (Incidentally, I did not know what caused the earths phases of the moon. I have long thought/assumed that the phases of the moon were caused by the earths shadow. Um, right, that's not it. The moon's phases are caused by the sun reflecting off of it vis-a-vis its position to the earth.)

 Photo Courtesy of MoonConnections.com

My first reaction to A Private Universe was this: WTF? Who cares? Why is it important for me--a historian, a project coordinator, a museum worker-- to answer questions about the causes of the seasons and the phases of the moon? I am more interested in the historical roots of the persistence of racial, regional, gender and socio-economic stereotypes in a post Civil Rights America. Can the astro-physicists tell me what Supreme Court Law legally ended racial segregation? (Brown Vs The Board of Education of the City of Topeka, Kansas) Can they tell me the year? (1954) Can they tell me the Supreme Court Case that Brown Challenged? (Plessy vs Ferguson) Can they tell me the detaols and significance of those cases? Really? Gee, not only do these cases make up the cornerstones of understanding historic race relations in America, they generally common knowledge among American historians and are taught at both the high school and college levels. How about Title IX? Does everyone know the significance of Title IX to gender history? OK, I'll stop.

The point is, as we move forward in our educational journeys, we continue to specialize. Scientists focus their attentions on science and historians on history...

But wait...

After mulling over this a few days, I realized that the point of the documentary has little to do with mastering content. It has to to with leaving school (elementary school , middle school, high school, college, graduate school) with our assumptions and prejudices about the world/universe fully intact. Let me say that again: The problem with the current state of American education is students routinely leave school with their assumptions and prejudices about the world/universe fully intact. 

This is a problem for all educators. A big problem. A Private Universe chronicles a middle school unit plan about seasonal changes and the phases of the moon. Highlighting a particularly bright student's struggle to reconcile her long held assumptions about direct light with the information she is learning in the classroom, we see the student's reluctance to let go of her erroneous assumptions about indirect sunlight.

As a historian, my heart sinks when I think of what happens when students cannot or will let go of their assumptions about race, class, and gender. Nonetheless, this has been an illuminating week. I feel like I have a bit of clarity regarding the persistence of sexism, racism, heterosexism, and cultural and religious intolerance--to name but a few.

 Photo Courtesy dewfall's Flickr Photostream

So what do we do about it? Well, I am not a big fan of our present standardized testing fetish. I believe such testing only promotes rote learning. Instead, I think the solution lies in teaching students how to think. This means teaching them how to ask questions, hard questions. From a history instructor's stand point, it means teaching them how to be deeply reflective and empathetic. To get away from incessent self reference. I see A Private Universe as a rallying cry. To be vigilant of my own assumptions; to acknowledge that they exist; to reevaluate them and ask questions about them regularly; to assess their accuracy; to make informed decisions based on available knowledge; and to inspire my students to do the same.

2 A Commentary on Embedding media...

Disclaimer: As I soar higher into the blogosphere, my posts are taking on a how-to, blogging basics format mixed with my own preferences and reflections. In part, I am interested in blogging and how to do it effectively. In part, I believe that one learns best by teaching. Therefore this blog is turning into a teaching/learning platform for me. It is a way for me to explore how things work, synthesize information, and organize my thoughts.  If you are already a seasoned blogger, I welcome your input and tips!


It is SO COOL to embed photos:
It can be so much easier to embed media than to upload it onto your site or blog. You don't have to worry about optimizing media for the web; it's already done for you. You don't have to worry about bandwidth or storage; your media lives in a different place. Related to this last point, you don;t have to worry about slow page loads due to huge files.

Embedding is also handy if you are on a platform that does not allow uploading certain media, such as Yola, which relies exclusively on 3rd party platforms to deliver media.

Best of all, it puts your media in multiple places, increasing the chances that people will find you.

AudioBoo:
{disclaimer}While short and sweet, my Boo is not all that interesting or relevant to anything else. Sorry.

I am not sure what the best way to use AudioBoo is. I suppose you could do something akin to guerrilla podcasting. For example, a Sydney, Austrailia based food blogger, The Food Pornographer, has been using audio Boo to record her visits to restaurants and cafes. I suppose this lends authenticity and interest to her food blog. She also transcribes her Boo for those who are not interested in listening (and, I suspect, for the search engines.) Her post on Curry Tiger Pie  is also in Audio Boo. She is currently listed under "Popular Boos."




I HEART Prezi

Now Prezi is something I do know how to use. As a matter of fact, the embedding presentation is one I am working on for an upcoming workshop finding historic images for DigitalHeritage.org/ I can also imagine how bloggers can use Prezi to deliver how-to information. Or perhaps design bloggers can show off their inspiration using a Prezi. Companies could create an "about us" or "our mission" Prezi that wold be much more interesting than a block of text.

Prezi is a new way to make slideshow presentations. Part mind map and part presentation, Prezi allows you to brainstorm and create your presentation on one online platform. I do wish that Prezi allowed video and audio uploads as well as images, but perhaps that is in the works as I write...

Publishing on the DHP on Prezi

YouTube
I use both YouTube and Vimeo. I am not sure I have a favorite yet. Vimeo is a bit more structured and is for original videos. YouTube is a bit less structured. I like them both. I guess, in my mind, I am interested in uploading more polished videos, such as Digital Heritage videos and oral history clips to Vimeo where as I save how-to videos, montages, and miscellany for YouTube. But that's just me. I do not think there are any hard and fast rules.

I do know this. When I wanted to post my wedding video montage, YouTube would not except it because the song is copyrighted. ("Send Me On My Way," by Rusted Root) Vimeo did not seem to care, so the video not resides on Vimeo.

Below is a short how-to video about resizing images in Picasa.



Picasa
I feel the same way about Picasa and Flickr as I do about YouTube and Vimeo. Choosing a platform is somewhat arbitrary for straight photo sharing. If you do not already have photo editing software on your computer, or you don't like the photo editing software you have, Picasa has the added benefit of also being a straight-forward, easy to use photo editing application. I mostly use Flickr because it links with my iPhoto. However, if you use something like GIMP or Aviary's image editor, it does not matter if you choose Picasa or Flickr.

From Tourism

When Not to Embed
There may be some cases when you do not want to embed. Photography professionals come to mind (see previous post, "Love in a time of Copyright and Creative Commons"). Or if you want your controls to display a certain way. One scenario that comes to mind is when I want to image galleries or FlipBooks in my WordPress blog I will use a plugin and upload all of my media rather than embedding. Also, if you want to use images from someone else's site or blog you will need to download the image and re-upload it to your own site. As always, be sure to cite and link back to the original post, and if necessary, ask for permission to to the media, and whatever you do, don't hotlink!

3 Love in the time of Creative Commons and Copyright

This may be as good a time as ever to post about my love for creative commons. While a have lagged with posting this past week, I assure you Creative Commons and copyright has been at the forefront of my thoughts. Why? Because I am a blogger. A very specific type of blogger who is trying to promote local businesses. I am a wedding blogger. Weddings are big industry, and we are in the midst of a recession. More brides are going the budget and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) route, which is where I come in. I blog from the budget-DIY angle. Still, in the interest of supporting the local economy, I try to use images and write posts about local businesses and wedding vendors. And this evening, I was told by a local vendor that if I wanted to post images or get any advice or tips from them, I would have to pay for it. What!?

But let me begin at the very beginning, when I first got into digital media, social media, and the world wide web. I was first introduced to the concept of creative commons few years ago, when I started "getting into" the internet, web 2.0, and web development. Now I am not talking about the license mind you. Not yet anyway. Rather, I was introduced to the concept.

You see, I very quickly realized that, in the exponentially expanding world wide web, the old adage, "if your build it they will come" is no longer true (if it ever was.) So the question becomes, in the midst of billions of websites--thousands in your niche--how will people find YOU? Well, through linking of course. This is how blogs survive and get the word out. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) currently favors the link-and-link-alike model.


Link and Link Alike:
So the name of the game becomes this: I set up a website. I sign up for social networking accounts such as Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube, and Vimeo, or what have you. I also set up a corresponding blog. I begin to produce quality content that readers likely want. Now here is where it gets tricky. Good content is essential, but it's not enough. I need other people to vouch for me, and to recommend me. They do that by linking to my site/blog/social-media-account-of-choice.

• So, what do I do? I link to other people's blogs under a link-and-link-alike convention. 
• What else do I do? I post comments on other blogs and on FaceBook Walls, retweet and reply on Twitter, comment on photo and video sharing sites, and comment on networks.

Bottom line: being a blogger (or a business with a web presence) is about relationships. Creative Commons allows those relationships to flourish without cumbersome contracts. In my case, Creative Commons allows bloggers to get content and provide free marketing for businesses. I am so bummed that the vendor I queried is not on the same page. All I want to do is provide free marketing for local vendors.

The other side of the coin:
Another local vendor--a photographer--who graciously allows me to use his images, wants to vet all my posts using his images, and me to run a script that will prevent right click downloading of images. We will call him Joe. At first I was feeling a bit prickly about this with a WTF-I'm-providing-free-advertising attitude. Then Joe explained that in the past he had his images ripped off by another photographer who pawned them as their own in portfolios. OMG! I have not considered that! Joe makes a living off of his images and his reputation as a talented photographer. If someone uses his images to masquerade as a fine photographer, it literally takes money out of Joe's pocket.

So What License is the Best? 
Well, that depends on my profession. If I don't make an exclusive living off of my digital work--be it photos, videos, or software--then I think a simple attribution license through creative commons will suffice and will make it easy and attractive for people to use my work, attribute it to me, and (of course) link back to my site. This makes sense in my current position as a Digital Heritage Project Coordinator. Similarly, if my primary goal is to get the word out about my project, blog, or business, I would start with a Creative Commons attribution license. However, if I were a wedding or any other type of photographer, I would have to figure out how to walk that line between getting the word out and protecting my livelihood.

Incidentally, I have not had a photographer refuse to provide images yet. They simply retain full copyright over their work, which means I need to plan ahead and ask them for specific images to support specific posts.I will not say which vendors seem to be the most tight-fisted with information. Nonetheless, as I work with real businesses who are trying to make real money, my heart goes out to them and I respect their decisions.

While I disagree with some who refuse to allow their work, ideas, or advice leave their immediate control, and I disagree over whether or not the benefits of freely sharing information outweigh losses, I must respect their wishes. In the meantime, I am forced to take my time, and plan my blog posts out sometimes weeks or months in advance so I can get proper permissions. This may not be such a bad thing for me, as it forces me to think about my audience and the scope of the project.

1 I am really back...

 ...in grad school this semester. That's what I say to my husband, "I am really back in grad school this semester." Which means I am working my ass off at breakneck speed. And it's hard 'cause I now have a big fat full time job and a new spouse and a billion and one projects and business ideas I want to start...

...riffing off of Karyn's blog comment about personality types, I'll say this I am an ENFP--the ADHD (my diagnosis not theirs) of personality types. I flit from one thing to the next, one idea to the next, and one half-baked startup project to the next. This course is just getting better and better for me...

...yup, I bitched and bitched with the rest of you about structure and excessive emails. No joke, I really don't like all of the emails, still. And I need structure so I don't explode... I am spastic on the internet. It takes me forever to do something online because I have no attention span in the virtual world. For instance, it occurred to me that I installed the Digg Plugin for FireFox but had not installed it. So I dropped everything to  do that. It's funny because I still can sit down an read a book in an afternoon. I think it's the format that trips me up, but I digress...

Like, um, really, really, digressed. I just checked back with the assignment and realized I am not supposed to be babbling...but wait, I need to select an image for this post so...OK, got it; now onto the real work...see what I mean? Check out this video I am making made...another distraction that will take about 15-30 minutes 3 hours of my time before I actually get around to writing what I am supposed to...





So what did you just see? You saw me:

1. Start blogging  
2. start feeling distracted and wanting to check my email
3. decide I should record my actions instead
4. blog some more
5. remember that I did not install my most recent Firefox plugins with my Digg feature
6. install new plugings
7. check back with the class assignment to make sure I'm on task
8. decide I needed a pitcure
9. look for and insert an image
10. blog some more

What you didn't see in the 6 hours it took for me to write this post:

1. exporting the video to something iMovie would recongize
2. learning how to speed up video in iMovie (this required Google searches and watching a video on YouTube)
3. editing the video in iMovie
4. getting a -34 error when I tried to export to YouTube
5. Googling "-34 error iMovie" to search for the problem
6. finding out I ran out of HD space
7. combing through my HD looking for files to delete
8. freeing up enough space to make the video
9. Exporting it to my HD (while I was waiting for this, I went over to my other computer and checked the analytics on my blog and uploaded more DIT cake images to the Flickr account linked to my blog.)
10. Uploaded video to YouTube
11. Decided to write out my "real reflection" on paper to make it easier to organize my ideas and not ramble so much or get distracted...

So the point of the story is this: It takes forever for me to do the work in this class. In part because we are going through a lot of material and in part because I get really into exploring. And in part because the internet is no longer a text-based medium. I don't always want to express myself with text alone. OK, so point proven. On to...

The "Real" Reflection 
I will take a cue from my fellow blogger, Rick Foster, and do a run down of the good the bad and the ugly.

THE GOOD:  

I have a little secret. I tend to stick with tools that work. While I am highly curious, once I find something I like, that's it. I am the type of person who orders the same thing every time I go out to eat. This class has been great for giving me an excuse to explore more. For example, I love WordPress, but I have had an opportunity to compare it with Blogger in this class. I also love Yola for quick website building, but have also explored CMSimple. Lastly, I never would have had the courage to become a wiki editor without the assignments this past week.  So in a nutshell, one of the biggest strengths of this class is the opportunity to try new things.

I also like the community. This is the first time I have had more than a handful of students in a class. Boy does it make a difference. There was hardly any per-to-peer interaction in those classes. There were just too few people. Now, I feel like I am a member of a vibrant community. Most of us have complementary skills, and it tickles me to see members of my cohort grow and gain mad skills (I'm thinking of you Shelly!)


Related to this, I have learned so much from my classmates. I so appreciate getting tips in my feedback. I am thinking specifically of Krysti's feedback about my logo and matching colors and Lucy's feedback about defining ambient in my ambient intimacy glossary word. I like being able to try new things in a relatively safe and supportive place.
 

THE BAD:
I still hate the emails, but I foolishly refuse to unsubscribe to them for fear of missing something. This is no one's fault but my own. So I will move along.

While I am happy for the weekly structure that forces me to explore new web 2.0 platforms and forums, I am still confused as to how it all fits together. This may represent failing on my part, but, I am not sure what the overall goal or product of the class is. The syllabus has a lot of vague language unconnected to any clear and measurable goals. For example, several comment have been floated around about our CMSimple site being a portfolio site. But we don't seem to be fully committed to that each week. IDK, like I said, this may be more a failing on my part than anything else. Comments are welcome in this regard.

I'm not a big fan of  CMSimple, full stop. While I appreciate the opportunity to try new things, and I understand D.I. realy really likes CMSimple and thinks its easy, I much prefer Yola for ease and WordPress for flexibility and expandability. Now I don't think everyone has to agree with me on these matters. But if I am required to build a portfolio, I would like to do it on a platform that makes sense to me, that I can expand, and that I have full control over in terms of templates and URLs. The way I see it, I am at D.I.'s mercy regarding my CMSimple site. I cannot control whether it stays up or comes down; I may or may not be able to modify the template; and if I scrape out my content and migrate it elsewhere, the duplicate content may screw up my SEO efforts.

THE UGLY
This is more a self assessment than anything else. 

I just can't spend enough time on this course to yield results  I am completely happy with. I am basically unavailable Tuesday-Friday, leaving three days to cram my work in. Don't get me wrong, I read the "Monday-Monday assignments and poke around on the internet, mulling the assignments over, but you will notice little activity from me during the week. I am convinced that D.I. and everyone else thinks I am a hack and a slacker. I've contemplating dropping because of this.


I guess the root of the problem is I am working out side of my field. Or, this field is new to me. For example, I spent six years studying American history, with a focus on the turn of the twentieth century. I can read a historical monograph in a day and grease out a five page critique about it in three hours. Why? Because in grad school I was responsible for three monographs and three papers each week. I got really really good at reading and writing quickly. And I did it well enough to fetch A's. 

I say this not to be a jerk or to brag, but to illustrate how unfamiliar I am with being out of my comfort zone. This class is hard because I am new to digital media and have not mastered it enough to do the assignments quickly and well. I am simply doing them quickly. I feel that most of my work is mediocre at best. If I were grading myself I would give myself a B. I need to mention here that I hate Bs. An A- would make me cry in grad school.


Sooooo, re-reading the above paragraph makes me realize that I have some baggage to work through. I mean really, I am an adult. As long as I am learning and meeting my own learning goals, what difference does it make if I get and A or not, sheesh! Still, I think I can try to be more consistent with my postings. I will try to build in at least an hour each evening to read posts and look at student work during the week.


THE AVERAGE
Everything else is fine... 

Collaboration image provided by:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fncll/ / CC BY 2.0

 

1 Digging Delicious just a bit more...

Here is another instance where I made an account I never used. (See my first blog post) Weeeeeellllllll, I have been a Digg member since 2008. No Diggs, no friends, no profile info...nothing. What a surprise, LOL.

OK, sooooo time to start digging in earnest, but before I launch into that story, I might add that I am an avid delicious user. I manage and keep fairly up-to-date three accounts: my work account digitalheritage; my personal account whatCLOknows; and wedding blogger account hindsightbride. I use delicious frequently throughout the day, but more on that later.

Digging the Internet:

Since I am fairly familiar with Delicious, and I am generally up for a challenge (read: creating more work for myself) I decided to give Digg a whirl. Of course my Digg user name is mtnhistory, like the blog you're reading.

First Moments on Digg

I was immediately impressed that I could see the trends in any given topic. Essentially Digg is a giant internet voting machine. Want to know what people are looking at right now? in the past 24 hours? past week? past year? You can see what others were digging. I can see this as particularly useful for following tech and education news. It is also a great way to keep up on popular internet culture.

After clicking around a bit and digging a few things, I set up my profile page. I like that I can link back to my delicious accounts. I like that I can friend people to see what they are doing. Unfortunately, none of my "friends" are active :( Is this another Gex X thing?)

Digg: What works; what doesn't
WORKS:

• great for watching trends
• helpful for promoting sites
• very social; I can see what my friends are Digging...this may even spur a real life, real time conversation!

FAILS:

• no user tagging feature (that I am aware of) Please correct me if I am wrong here, but I don't see a way to organize my links in a way that will allow me to find them again once I have "dugg" a bazillion pages.
• I'll say it again: no way to effectively organize "dugg" pages, or if there is, it is not very intuitive
• Not every site has a digg this icon. If I want to Digg something, and I am not a Firefox user, I have to toggle between the page and my Digg account (Firefox has a Digg plugin)
• there don't seem to be as many people in my fields (education, technology, ed tech, photography) on digg. It's more trends and mimes.

Why I Like Delicious Better

• Easily tag, organize and reorganize delicious pages
•  Does not sacrifice the utility of bookmarking for the social side of things: I love love love that I can access all of my bookmarks from any computer. I love that I can easily import and export entire accounts. I love that I can import my local bookmarks.
• I can find an follow users (if I so desire, which I typically don't)
• I can watch trends on the delicious home page (if I so desire, which I typically don't)
• I can key word search and both my bookmarks come up as well as others bookmarks with the same tags. Often times this yields much much better results than a mere Google search
• Can feed delicious updates to my twitter, FaceBook, or blog accounts

The final low down
I'm sticking with Delicious as my primary social bookmarking workhorse. It functions more as a tool for me. To be frank, I just don't need another social (emphasis on social) networking anything right now. I am not deeply interested in making my internet vote count. I am already social enough through FaceBook and Twitter and the numerous forums and discussion networks I belong too. I don't need more social. I need more information and tools that work. Delicious works.

0 Wikipedia and Partial-Gen-X-Paralysis

Oh don;t I feel on top of the world this morning. It has been 14 hours since posting a new paragraph on a wikipedia article and no one has changed it, deleted it, or said "Yankee! Where do you get off writing anything about the south?

In my heart, I feel that this is wrong thinking. What makes globally collaborative environment work is change, and discussion, and disagreement. So why am I so attached to having my contributions remain intact and unscathed? Is it my generation--Generation X?

The Pew Research Center shows that my generation "is the most likely group to bank, shop and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online."

But look at how many blogs we create. On the whole Gen Xers are online consumers rather than producers. We are mostly lurkers and shoppers. Are there exceptions? Sure. I am convinced that most of the historians on Wikipedia are older. Most of the blogs I follow are written by Gex Xers. However, most of the Gen X bloggers are doing so as professionals for work rather than out of some internal need to share their knowledge and worldview with the globe.

Still, I fear that I will make a mistake online, be publicly ridiculed, and have a permanent record of the whole episode for everyone to Google in perpetuity. There, I said it. So is this a generational thing too?

Apparently not. A quick Google search on "Gen X and Gen Y," or "Gen X and Gen Y workplace" will yeild all sorts of Generation Wars articles. But it is also unmistakable that there are key words to describe Gen X, and collaborative and open are not among them. Gex Xers have been identified as competitive, distrustful, and overall non-collaborative. We are loners at work and lurkers online. The generation wars foot soldiers in the blogosphere do not disagree on descriptive words. They disagree on their values. For example, is collaboration or competition better?

So what does this have to do with me. Well, it offers perspective. I love web 2.0 stuff. Over the past 2 years I have become I am a regular blogger; I have a vibrant FaceBook life. I tweet, bookmark, and upload videos and pictures to social media sites. I like to think I am a hip Gex Xer (though the fact that I use the word hip gives me away.) Still, I am worried about the implications of putting so much personal information online. And I certainly don't want to look like a fool.

But instead of berating myself about it, I simply acknowledge that the cultural context of my upbringing affects my behaviors today. With that, I simply muster my courage and sally forth, making my mark in the virtual world.

References:

• Triangle Direct Media Update of Internet Usage by Generation
• Pew Research Centers Generations Online in 2009
• L'Atelier Gen Y is Web 2.0, Gen X Web 1.2?
• Read Write Web Forget Gen Y: Gex X is MakingReal Change
• Generation Y, The Millennial Generation 
• Uptown Uncorked Working with Gen Y, Gen X and Boomers

1 SL

My Second Life name is Twist Merryman. Like Neil Torda, I first logged into SL in 2007. That was when Neil was building Catamount Island for Western Carolina University faculty and students.

To date, I don't hang out in SL much. I think it had been about three months or so since I had logged in. (I couldn't make our class meeting, but I logged in the following morning to see if anyone was around). I had logged in looking for Neil. I could not reach him by text, cell, or iChat. Before that, it may have been 8 months or so between logins.

You see, I don't really know what to do in Second Life. Or rather,  Second Life doesn't really appeal to me. Don't get me wrong, I like to attend professional events and meet faculty and students on Catamount island, but I not so sure about the rest of the virtual world. I'm just not that into it yet. In fact, the outfit I wear in SL is the stock outfit my Avitar came with. I have done precious little customization.

This might surprise some that know me in Real Life. I am generally outspoken, outgoing, and dare I say loud and opinionated at times. Online, it's a whole different story. With "the world watching," I am constantly considering my career goals and how my actions would be interpreted by a boss or potential employer. I do not cuss on Facebook, I do not air my emotional dirty laundry on Twitter, and it was not until this semester that I started loosening up a bit with YouTube and blogging. I reglarly Google myself to see what comes up. When it comes to virtual environments I am much more private than I am in real life. That's why I'm ambivalent about gallivanting around SL for fun. If it's not a professional event or meeting, I'm just not that into it.

Basically, I don't know anyone who uses SL regularly; therefore I don't. Don't get me wrong. I see the potential. Watching IBM workers forging strong working relationships on Digital Nation thrilled me. The implications for distance learning are fast becoming a reality as classrooms and labs are being built across SecondLife. But it takes more than one person to build a world and to make education in a virtual world work. I guess I just haven't found my tribe yet...

0 Diigo Annotations for Weblogg-ed

I'm testing out integrating my Diigo account with my blog...
:-)

• Weblogg-ed » Morning at RSS-Blog-Furl High School Redux

  tags: web 2.0, teaching, RSS

  • - post by mtnhistory
  • New York Times headlines that are displayed on his homepage
  • He clicks the link, reads about the new version on the site, and then clicks on a different �Post to Scuttle� button that uses an account set up for all of his department colleagues to share. When the form comes up, he writes a couple of lines of description about how it might benefit the department, and then tags it �Technology� which automatically archives it to the tech page of the English Department Weblog.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

2 CXC: Communicating Across the Curriculum

Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/whiteafrican/ / CC BY 2.0

	"It's not just about writing anymore... Communication these days involves digital media of all kinds..."                  ~ Dr. Lillian Bridwell-Bowels                 Director, CXC at LSU

I love love love it when leaders model the behavior and communication styles they seek to see in their student bodies.And when Universities organize themselves in ways that maximize student learning and link what they learn in the classroom to life beyond college, regardless of one's major.

It seems clear that digital media is not a fad and is certainly not the sole province of the young. Twitter and Facebook accounts are everywhere in corporate America. Everything from Morning shows to department stores encourage their markets to "follow them on twitter" or "find us on FaceBook." YouTube is also a major platform for corporate advertising and marketing a new type of marketing and PR is emerging that harnesses Web 2.0 technologies.

One university that remains on the cutting edge of preparing it's students for this new style of communicating is Louisiana State University (LSU) with their Communication Across the Curriculum (CXC) program. Launched in 2005 and designed to expand the writing across the curriculum programs that have become standard in higher ed, the CXC program has a useful video that explains this innovative, university-wide program, and peer-reviewed article/webpage was published based on the nuts and bolts of CXC.

Just like the writing across the curriculum programs, CXC emphasizes honing students' communication skills. As LSU's Vice Provost of Academic Affairs aptly puts it,

"Whether your in science or the arts, you really need to be able to communicate if you're going to be at the top of your field."

Blogging is one example of the ways in which mutimedia and social networking meld to advance carreers and build knowledge. Indeed, many folks at the top of their field are bloggers. Blogging is fast becoming a legitimate way to further your career, whether academic or otherwise. Blogging (well at least good blogging) of course requires strong written and research skills. But blogging standards also suggest that images, video, and other multi-meida elements are helpful for getting information across effectively. That and comments are a crucial aspect of blogging.

The CXC program is built upon solid, university-wide policies, including encouraging faculty to incorporate 2 out of 4 modes of communication (writing, speaking, visual and technological) in assignments.  The goal is to have students leave LSU with a portfolio that showcases real, transferable communication skills to grad schools and potential employers.


CXC fundamentally impacted the way I assign research assignments. I have a digital media requirement in my historical research projects. Now only does it develop different communication skills, it also fosters more creativity than traditional written assignments. However, It occurs to me that an entire university must mobilize to make these programs truly effective.