Friday, May 11, 2007

Grist for the minds' mills

Yesterday afternoon and evening we (wife, kid, moi) atended Countries, Cultures, Communication: Digital Innovation at UCLA, where students, faculty and allied friends demonstrated a large roomful of amazing examples of digital humanities, a field with which I was barely familar but I quickly discovered could hardly be more important.

Most or all of the projects on this page here were on display by those working on them. I wish I'd had more time to spend with more of them.

The closing keynote by Willard McCarty was just outstanding. Go down to "What's going on?". Plenary lecture, "Countries, Cultures, Communication: Digital Innovation at UCLA" [X], Institute for Digital Research and Education, University of California at Los Angeles, 10 May [X], [X]. ... and download the last two items. Those are his text and the slides that go with them. I don't know how many times he said "There is work to be done", but it was a lot — and it wasn't enough.

Stronger medicine

Helen is one of the strongest, wittiest and hard-hitting writers I've run across. I will strive not to manufacture an identity solely from the cultural items and/or hard goods I consume — is one quotable line amongst many.

I'm told that she did this too.

Quote du jour

Leland Maschmeyer: Let’s shift (oh let’s say ~25% of our postings) from “what we’re thinking about” to “what we’re doing about it.” Let’s talk a little less about “what should/could work,” and a little more about “why it did/didn’t work.” Let’s learn from each other’s successes and failures in implementing our thinking.

Virtual is free. Being there costs ya.

Alex Pham in the LA Times: Local news reporting outsourced to India. Actually, one of the reporters in India, reporting on Pasadena, is a former Berkeley J-school student:

"A lot of the routine stuff we do can be done by really talented people in another time zone at much lower wages," said Macpherson, 51, who used to run a clothing business with manufacturing help from Vietnam and India.

So, on the Indian version of Craigslist, he posted an ad that said in part, "We do not believe that geographic distance between California and India will present unsurmountable problems, and that working together with you will result in your development of a keen working knowledge of this city's affairs."

Dozens replied. One of the two chosen had attended the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Rob Gunnison, the director of school affairs there, is dismayed. "It just seems so fundamental to journalism to be there," Gunnison said. "I still can't quite believe it's not a hoax."