The unconference

this one is interesting; don't you think?


THAT Camp!
May 31 - June 1, 2008
The Center for History and New Media
George Mason University

The Humanities And Technology Camp is a BarCamp-style, user-generated “unconference” on digital humanities. THATCamp is organized and hosted by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is created and managed by the participants (generally day-by-day during the course of the event) rather than by one or more organizers in advance of the event. The term is primarily used in the geek community. Open Space Technology, however, is an unconference process that has been around since 1985 and is now in widespread use. Open Space Technology is an energizing and emergent way to organize an agenda for a conference. Those coming to the event can post on a wiki ahead of time topics they want to present about or hope others will present about. The wiki can also be used as an attendee list.

There are parallels with science-fiction fandom, in which a low-key convention with less structure is called a Relaxacon.

By any other name the recent rise of unstructured learning and occupational socializing is a sign of the times. There appears to be rise in Educational Techno-Anarchism in America. My instinct tells me it's the equal and opposite reaction to No Child Left Behind. I once heard it referred to as No Bureaucrat Left Behind; made me chuckle and want to cry at the same time. Paulo Freire has been trying to tells us for decades to release our grip on the teacher-student dichotomy and begin to understand the how we learn in all environments. It's tough being ahead of your time; the results of your work become apparent to the following generations rather than your own.



that's my sense

scooby snacks

The dangers inherit in sharing a domicile with a hippy are numerous.
Some daze they are a little scary.

Tuesday evening I returned to the house, where my landlord/roommate's brother (Nathan) is staying with us for a couple of weeks until he returns to Lewis & Clark College in Portland.

There was a frantic aspect about him.

When I walked in the door,

Nathan, "Something is wrong with Sweetie."
(Sweetie's the 10lb dog in the house.)
"What do you mean?"
"She's falling down and acting strange."

I checked her out and she had little, if any, muscle control and kept falling over, whenever she tried to move. My roommate was out of touch, so we took her to the emergency room. After my roommate, Fern, arrived, I went home.

Next day, she informs me that Sweetie got into a box of chocolate truffles. Oh yeah, they happen to be medicinal truffles too.

Medicinal - A term coined in California to indicate the presence of large quantities of THC in your food.

Nothing like getting your dog baked!

Ahh, the literary opportunities provided by living in Fairfax, California.

Mayberry on Acid

Peace Out

we need to talk

She said so, during a phone call on Monday.

The night suckled my soul;
by morning the feeding had ceased.


Is it age truncating this sorrow
or
is it experience?

I know. No need to say so.
These digital monologues are the quintessential rhetorical question.
At least my writers aren't on strike.

Reluctance

OUT through the fields and the woods
And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
And looked at the world, and descended;
I have come by the highway home,
And lo, it is ended.

The leaves are all dead on the ground,
Save those that the oak is keeping
To ravel them one by one
And let them go scraping and creeping
Out over the crusted snow,
When others are sleeping.

And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,
No longer blown hither and thither;
The last lone aster is gone;
The flowers of the witch-hazel wither;
The heart is still aching to seek,
But the feet question 'Whither?'

Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?

-Frost

Spermbots! - I swear; there's no way I could make this shit up

Scientists look to sperm to power nanobots

MSNBC, Jan. 2, 2007

A tiny assembly line using ATP, which powers the whip-like tail of sperm, could be harnessed to propel future nanobots or other tiny medical devices inside the human body, Cornell University scientists report.


For their research, the scientists used mouse sperm proteins as templates so the proteins stuck to the surface of a tiny gold chip covered with nickel ions.



If circumstances go awry, this could get messy. It's all fun and games until someone's eye gets...well, you know.

A Society of Authorship: Blissfully Leaping he Divide

Are we taking back control? Did we ever have it to begin with? The latter is a question for another day; let’s stick with the first for now. A bipartisan group of former –well, mostly former- politicians are producing ripples across the surface ofstatus quo’s idyllic setting.

Their immodest goal: To end divisive partisan polarization, create bipartisanship and bring the country together after the 2008 election.

Leading the charge are David Boren, Oklahoma University president and a former U.S. senator, along with former Democratic Sens. Sam Nunn of Georgia, Charles Robb of Virginia and Gary Hart of Colorado, also a former presidential candidate.

Republican sponsors include former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, former Sens. Bill Brock of Tennessee and John Danforth of Missouri, and Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

And yes, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be there, but he's not running for president.


Other formers expected to participate include Bill Cohen, former secretary of defense, and former U.S. Sens. Alan Dixon of Illinois and Bob Graham of Florida. Also, Jim Leach, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa, and Edward Perkins, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
(kathleen parker, San Francisco Chronicle, 1/4/2008)

Political activism has taken a similar form in Tallahassee, Fl. The Village Square , where a local group is attempting to soften the deafening roar emanating from the of the talking heads who dominate the airwaves, is offering the shocking alternative of respectful discourse.



Meanwhile back in wet NorCal, the City, Earthlink, and Google were unable to establish a wi-fi network to serve the citizenry. Enter a small company with an audacious vision. Meraki is stepping into the void to test its low-cost, community-powered system in this little techcentric village we call home. Since March, Free the Net has been employing a mesh system supported by solar-powered, wireless repeaters installed on rooftops in select neighborhoods throughout the city.

As of this article, up to 15,000 antennae are planned for encompassing the remainder of the city. The resulting non-linear web has great potential. Meraki’s mesh draws a comparison to Google’s use of multiple digital platforms to create expanding, self-modifying, clouds of infobots.

These three examples, covering the national political culture, local discourse, and digital access, serve as prime examples of the ongoing collaborative revolution and its ability to fundamentally change how and for whom our societies function. The web is rapidly transforming in an attempt to attain a semblance of human parallel cognitive structure; both information retrieval clouds and wireless mesh technologies are simple, early adaptations of an evolving cognitive digital matrix.

Each peace(sic) of information accessed empowers us all. Every query for controlled information undermines an oblivious, but deeply entrenched power structure. On the headstone we shall write

And while the they remained blissfully unaware...

their network was compromised.


Can I get an Amen from my brothers and sisters?

Truth Out