GoBinder

This morning I downloaded a cool looking new program that has potential to be a great management tool for courses. GoBinder has organization potential for both students and faculty members. While it looks very good for any computer user, I think it's best qualities are for tablet users. Check it out if you are interested there is a 30-day trial version. p.s. It has Blackboard integration potential which would be very cool if my campus used that product.

Posted by prolurkr at 10:50 AM | TrackBack

Don't say there is no renumeration for blogging

WOW, don't tell me there is no capital gain in blogging. I won money. LOL Life is good.

Lois: As promised in a recent post, to commemorate my 1000th inbound blog I selected at random one of the 1066 bloggers currently linking to me, and it happened to be you. Accordingly, I have a small prize for you. The prize is a set of 2004 uncirculated Canadian coins, up to the $2 'twoney'. I can send it to you in its envelope, but to do so I need a physical address to send it to. If I just send it to you c/o Indiana U, Indianapolis, will it find its way to you?

I was fascinated to read your thoughts on adolescent bloggers -- the invisible majority. This is a topic worthy of lots more discussion.
--
/-/ Dave

Meeting of Minds
AHA! The Discovery & Learning Centre
Author, Natural Enterprise
How to Save the World weblog

Posted by prolurkr at 01:04 AM | TrackBack

My Picasso

From Working Notes, a cool site to make your own Mr. Picasso Head. This is me on a very bad hair day when I've also lost my glasses. LOL

Posted by prolurkr at 02:09 PM | TrackBack

Wikipedia, one of many voices but not the only voice to which you should listen

Free Range Librarian has posted a spot on post, in my humble opinion, about Wikipedia.

Librarians are very open to all kinds of information, but when librarians recommend books, databases, websites, or other resources to patrons who are looking for specific information, we look for information we can trust. Because of this, our gardens need tending (gatekeeping, if you will). Librarians go through book collections routinely to get rid of books on, for example, East Germany, and at the website I manage, we ruthlessly purge one website for every three we add. I consider it the highest praise when a user complains about a site to say "it's not up to our usual standards." That means not only do we internally think we have standards, but our users do too.

I concur with the points made in the post, and I recommend you read the original.

Wikipedia is definitely a source I use, but I use it with open eyes. I use it because my research is often ahead of printed encyclopedias, even specialized ones. So I use Wikipedia to ground my definition of terms that are likely new to my audience. However invariably the terms are not new to me, and that is an important point. I don't use Wikipedia for totally new information so I become part of the vetting process. AND I archive every time I use the citation so I have a copy of the text I envisioned when I choice to make the reference. I also include the date of access with the citation so it's as clear as I can make it to which version I am referring. If need be I can always include the relevant sections of the definition in a note to further add to the stability of the reference. Therefore I become the editor on some levels.

I have been surprised by the struggle surrounding the concept of the "editor." In my world editors are neither good or bad, they just exist. Having one does often increases the consistency of the entries across a volume - tone, language use, tense, etc. - be it an edited book or a journal or newspaper or an encyclopedia. But having an editor doesn't necessarily mean the information is more accurate; the biggest newspaper/magazine debacles where stories were falsified have happened with editors and when we moved in our house contained an old edition of Encyclopedia Britannica that listed the county seat of my county incorrectly and that too had editors.

Likewise not having an editor doesn't "improve" the quality of the information. Yes an editor can impose a personal frame on information but if removing the editor improves that than the writer would have to be bias-free to begin with and that just isn't how the world works. We all have biases, we just hope that many of us are on the look out for our own and try to find neutral territory before we write.

Of course academic research on Wikipedia has shown that some features of their "free" entries mirror their paper-based relatives. See:

Emigh, W., and Herring, S. C. (2005). Collaborative authoring on the Web: A genre analysis of online encyclopedias. Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-38). Los Alamitos: IEEE Press. http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~herring/wiki.pdf

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a genre analysis of two web-based collaborative authoring environments, Wikipedia and Everything2, both of which are intended as repositories of encyclopedic knowledge and are open to contributions from the public. Using corpus linguistic methods and factor analysis of word counts for features of formality and informality, we show that the greater the degree of post-production editorial control afforded by the system, the more formal and standardized the language of the collaboratively-authored documents becomes, analogous to that found in traditional print encyclopedias. Paradoxically, users who faithfully appropriate such systems create homogeneous entries, at odds with the goal of open-access authoring environments to create diverse content. The findings shed light on how users, acting through mechanisms provided by the system, can shape (or not) features of content in particular ways. We conclude by identifying sub-genres of webbased collaborative authoring environments based on their technical affordances.

I expect I will continue to turn to Wikipedia for information but only in conjunction with other sources. Of course that is what we want anyway isn't it...multiple sources compared and contrasted?

Posted by prolurkr at 08:40 AM | TrackBack

Blogging at ICA

Is anyone blogging the International Communication Association Conference in New York?

Posted by prolurkr at 06:56 PM | TrackBack

New Joss Whedon Movie

I am an unabashed Joss Whedon fan. And believe me this surprises no one more then me. You see when the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie was released in 1992 I saw the promos and thought "just what we need a comedy horror movie that parodies stupid high school movies and adds vampires." p.s. the movie was mostly billed as a Luke Perry film which made the whole thing even weirder. Needless to say I have never seen the film.

Then when the TV show of the same name premiered I thought, "Gezzz TV sucks." Boy was I wrong. Sometime in the second season I actually watched the show and totally fell in love. The writing is amazing...quick, quirky, believable, and entertaining. So I watched the series, when I could since it was on WB and UPN which are not always available, until it ended in 2003.

And I also watched Angel from the beginning of the series until to was canceled. I watched it too for the writing.

So today I decided to do a little internet searching and see what Whedon is writing now. So of course I am reminded of the series Firefly which I have never seen since it was not broadcast on a channel my non-cable house can't receive. And now I see there is to be a Firefly movie, Serenity out this fall. This is a big budget movie from Universal. Should be interesting to see what Whedon can do with a big budget and a, at least partially, ready made fan base. Check out the trailer and the movie site, click on the film name above. Oh and mark your calendar for September. If Whedon wrote it it is bound to be a fun time at the movies.

Posted by prolurkr at 01:14 PM | TrackBack

Danica Patrick could win the Indy 500, but oh what they say about her

Today is the running of the 89th Indianapolis 500 and today for the first time a women, Danica Patrick, has a really serious chance of winning. I think it would be marvelous if she won, my fingers are certainly crossed for her. However I will warn you that if she does win the OM and blogs are going to be taking about the following for the next few days. Danica, a tiny [girl/women] attractive [women/girl], will be in the lead of many story.

Sadly even her own "official website," danicaracing.com opens with the words:

danica patrick, this attractive 5-foot-1, 100-pound woman, battles in a man's world with amazing success, and shows the determination to become one of the nation's brightest sports stars.

Come on is this a beauty contest or a wheels & muscle race? Of course you can go too far the other direction as well. I wonder where is the happy median? Check out Tough, Winding Road Prepared Patrick For Indy 500 Debut and the quote below to see a version of going to far the other way.

While most teen-age girls spent their adolescence kibitzing with their girlfriends over clothes, cosmetics and each other while scheming to get attention from the boys, Danica has been going the opposite direction: trying to fit in as one of the boys, just a racer like them, under her driver's helmet.

I do hope she wins she has worked hard for it and acknowledges that she is standing on the shoulders of the three amazing women who came before her - Janet Guthrie (who drove to her best finish at Indy with a broken wrist she hid from everyone - which means she basically drove one-armed), Lyn St. James, and Sarah Fisher (who dealt with the same kind of looks/ability hype that now surrounds Patrick).

I know that the first female winner will have a long road to trudge dealing with the "women race driver" vs. "race driver" concept. I wish that women well and will be pulling for her. But I have to admit that I am waiting for the day when the field is leveled and we talk about abilities more then looks for either sex. I sure hope I live to see it.

Patrick finished fourth. The highest finish ever by a female race driver at Indy. EXCELLENT! You go girl!

Posted by prolurkr at 11:27 AM | TrackBack

May Advisory Committee Report

Another month rolls to an end so another Advisory Committee Report is prepared.

Posted by prolurkr at 10:33 AM | TrackBack

Bursty blog bubbles floating free

USA Today has an interesting story on the future of blogging. Read the whole thing before you make up your mind on the author's motives. There is some good stuff buried in this tongue-in-cheek rant. Check out Once blogs 'change everything,' fascination with them will chill

These days, the hype about blogs is off the charts.

And you know what that usually means: Run for cover, because a bubble is going to burst and make a big mess.

Just about everybody is either celebrating blogs or worrying about blogs, which are essentially online journals.

A couple of weeks ago, BusinessWeek ran a cover story titled, "Blogs will change your business," in which the magazine likened blogs to the invention of the printing press.

About the same time, Europeans flocked to a conference called Les Blogs, which took place in Paris, where the people who write blogs are known as blogeurs.

Have I not heard of the Les Blogs Conference only because I don't speak french? Maybe, maybe not. Did anyone out there "flock" to this conference?

Personally my favorite part is the parody of Monty Python, a PC choice since the Broadway show based on their work is sure to win a few Tony's this weekend.

Man: Well, what've you got?

Waitress: Well, there's egg and blogs; egg, bacon and blogs; blogs, blogs, egg, blogs, blogs, bacon and blogs; blogs, sausage, blogs, blogs, bacon, blogs, tomato and blogs ...

Wife: Have you got anything without blogs?

Wife: I don't want ANY blogs!

Man: Why can't she have blogs, bacon, blogs and sausage?

Man: Shh, dear, don't cause a fuss. I'll have your blogs. I love them. I'm having blogs blogs blogs blogs blogs blogs blogs baked beans blogs blogs blogs and blogs!

Vikings (singing): Blogs blogs blogs blogs. Lovely blogs! Wonderful blogs!

Posted by prolurkr at 10:33 AM | TrackBack

BlogTalks 2003

I've spent the last couple of days reading and taking notes on the first BlogTalks book. Now I get to enter all my notes and the abstracts, for chapters that have them, into Reference Manager. I'm planning on doing updates for the bibliographies next month, assuming everything works out it takes time to clean the data and format it for upload.

But in case you don't have it here are the chapter citations for the 2003 book.

Avram, Gabriela (2003). DIGLIT - a k-log for documenting a project on digital literacy. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 239-246). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Blood, Rebecca (2003). Waging peace: Using our powers for good. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 12-19). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Burg, Thomas N. (2003a). Introduction and definition. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 9-11). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Burg, Thomas N. (2003c). Preface. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 7-8). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Burg, Thomas N. (2003b). MonsterMedia - monstrosity in the face of weblogs. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 83-100). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Cattoire, Gilbert (2003). From co-existence to conviviality: A leap into direct reality. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 247-248). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Cayzer, Steve & Shabajee, Paul (2003). Semantic blogging and bibliography management. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 101-108). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Copeland, Harry (2003). Blogging's unique advertising metrics: Passion and hubness. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 20-31). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Cywinska-Milonas, Maria (2003). Polish blogs are C-logs. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 149-157). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Efimova, Lilia (2003). Blogs: The stickiness factor. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 109-125). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Eismann, Ethan & Hodder, Mary (2003). Topic weblogs and sustainable knowledge production: Learning from the blPlog. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 126-148). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Fiedler, Sebastian (2003). Personal webpublishing as a reflective conversational tool for self-organized learning. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 190-216). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Hayes, John (2003). Analysing weblog generational knowledge. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 51-59). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Jerz, Dennis G. (2003). (Meme)X marks the spot: Theorizing metablogging via "Meme". In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 67-82). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Kulikauskas, Andrius (2003). The algebra of copyright. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 60-66). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Orihuela, Jose Luis (2003). Blogging and the eCommunication paradigms: 10 principles of the new media scenario. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 255-262). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Roll, Martin (2003). Business weblogs - A pragmatic approach to introducing weblogs in medium and large Enterprises. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 32-50). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Tricas, Fernando, Ruiz, Victor, & Merelo, Juan J. (2003). Do we live in a small world? Measuring the Spanish-speaking blogosphere. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 158-173). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Tscherteu, Gernot & Langreiter, Christian (2003). The BlogosphereMap. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 174-189). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

van Stipriaan, Ulrich (2003). In and Out - Communicating the needs of civil engineers. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 249-254). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Wrede, Oliver (2003). Weblogs and discourse - weblogs as a transformational technology for higher education and academic research. In Thomas N. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks: First European Conference on Weblogs (pp. 217-238). Vienna: Zentrum fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Posted by prolurkr at 06:24 PM | TrackBack

CFP - Perspectives on Childhood in Illustration and Imagery

Open to View: Popular Fiction and Visual Narrative. 19th-20th November 2005.
Association for Research in Popular Fictions (ARPF). Dean Walters Building, Liverpool John Moores University.

Papers are welcome, for this strand of the conference, on perspectives of childhood in illustration and imagery, or illustrated texts for children and young adults.

All papers on the topic of childhood (for example, girlhood, boyhood, young adulthood) will be considered. However, papers addressing the following themes and issues will be especially welcome.

Texts about children and young adults, for example:

The child in advertising, TV, film, fine art, photography.
              Concepts and constructions of the child (e.g. the Romantic Child, violence and the child,
              nostalgia, ethnicity, diversity)
              Historical viewpoints on childhood
              Common themes surrounding childhood e.g. the family, school, peers, the child's
              relationship with the media

Texts produced and marketed for (or appropriated by) children and young adults, for example:
              Picture books, video games, toys, information books, comics and graphic novels
              Ideologies surrounding the child
                  Message and medium
                  How texts work (eg interplay between words and pictures in picture books)
                Perspectives on the implied child reader

Issues to do with teaching and learning: challenges and issues when teaching
Childhood in illustration and Imagery to students at undergraduate level, for example:

              Teaching visual literacy to non-specialists
              Introducing students to historical representations of childhood
              Helping students to perceive varying views of the child
              Supporting students in interdisciplinary study

Abstracts of 250 words should be sent to Dr. Mel Gibson at:
mel.gibson@unn.ac.uk or by post to Dr. Mel Gibson, Northumbria University,
Childhood and Family Studies, Coach Lane campus (East), Coach Lane, Benton,
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE7 7XA by 1st September 2005.

Posted by prolurkr at 11:56 AM | TrackBack

Are Bloggers Setting the Agenda? It Depends on the Scandal

Interesting article in the New York Times Technology section, Are Bloggers Setting the Agenda? It Depends on the Scandal [registration required try Bug Me Not to "Bypass Compulsory Web Registration"]. The article comments on the recent PEW Internet and American Life Report The Internet and Campaign 2004. I think this an important study to read particularly since some sites online have been diss-ing the report for its blog sample size and methodology.

In the spring of 1712, the British essayist Joseph Addison rambled from pub to parlor seeking the pulse of his countrymen regarding rumors (false, it turned out) that the king of France, Louis XIV, had died. The St. James coffeehouse, Addison reported in The Spectator, was "in a Buzz of Politics."

In the 18th century, "buzz" was part of what social theorists called the emerging - and powerful - bourgeois public sphere. In the 21st century, the buzz is in the blogosphere.

Or at least, that's the popular mythology. As a result of their influence in incidents like the "60 Minutes" episode in which CBS was duped by forged documents related to the president's National Guard service, bloggers have taken on the role of agenda-setters - citizen scribe-warriors wresting power from a mainstream media grown fat and lazy.

But according to a preliminary study - the first rigorous look at the influence wielded by political blogs during the 2004 presidential campaign - bloggers are not always the kingmakers that pundits sometimes credit them with being. They can, it seems, exert a tremendous amount of influence - generate buzz, that is - but only under certain circumstances.

Posted by prolurkr at 05:21 PM | TrackBack

Information Overload

I have entirely to many newsfeeds on my RSS reader. When I am greeted on a daily basis with over 400 unread posts it is clear that I need to do some spring cleaning. Last week I brought the sidebar up to date and in the next couple of weeks I will be going through my reader and deleting feeds that aren't as useful that they once were or as I thought they would be.  Then I will be weeding the sidebar to match my readers list.

If your blog is removed believe me it is nothing personal, I'm just trying to hold the load to reading roughly 200 posts per day. That's enough. Especially since I will have two classes worth of blogs to read this fall semester.

Posted by prolurkr at 04:54 PM | TrackBack

AoIR Graduate Student Representative

Ok well it's Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Officer election time again. In 2001 I nominated myself for Graduate Student Representative and then didn't follow through with a "position statement" and I figured that lack would remove me from the ballot. I was wrong. LOL Wrong but unelected, which of course was a good thing. In 2003 I nominated myself and followed through on all of the discussion posted on the Election Forum, and was not elected. LOL They voted for the one that talked the least. Go figure.

So I had decided that two runs for an office was enough for me. Particularly since I am working on quals, have the fellowship next year, and I can see dissertation ahead. LOL But this year someone nominated me, I have an idea who and I sincerely hope they out themselves during the forum discussion.

When Matt Allen sent me the email asking me if I would accept the nomination I took a couple of days to think about it before I answered. What I found was the negatives are still the negative...I'm very busy, and I still think it's potentially pathetic to run three times in succession for the same office. But a few things have changed in the last two year: 1) I feel much more confident in my abilities then I did 2 years ago (getting outside the School with publications and presentations has helped greatly), 2) someone else thinks I would be a good choice for the position, and 3) I still have ideas for things that could be done as Graduate Student Representative that have not been done - real things, good things, things I think would be cool.

In short I agreed to run. I may have taken leave of my senses but then again there is significant precedent for that as well. LOL So if you are an AoIR member, and if you read this blog you should be, I'm asking for your vote in the upcoming election. If you aren't an AoIR member fork over your $30 bucks (Student Membership) and join, because I want you to be a member of one of the best professional organizations for academic researchers I have run across and want I your vote.

You can watch the discussion leading up to the elections at the Graduate Student Forum. Also check out the other election discussions at the 2005 Elections Forums.

Oh and remember to vote early and often. LOL

Posted by prolurkr at 08:15 AM | TrackBack

Ultimate Blogger

My goal for the contest had been to make it into the final six, I missed it by one. Two of us were supposed to be eliminated today but the system is down so I can't be sure who the other was - my email mentioned only my name. I have a strong suspicion that Medya may have joined me on the outcast list but will have to wait for confirmation on that one.

I have lots of observations about the contest as a whole and the participants but I will save those for later as I have no desire to impact the out come of their game.

Posted by prolurkr at 07:38 AM | TrackBack

Reprocessing Star Wars

Hubby and I went to see the new Star Wars flick Revenge of the Sith last night. Then I spent a couple of hours this morning writing a brilliant rant about the differences between the world of 1977 when I, at 18 and on my own for the first time, saw the original and the 2005 world I now inhabit. AND THEN my computer locked up and I lost it all. Some days technology just sucks...pure unadulterated suckiness. *sigh*

Posted by prolurkr at 10:13 AM | TrackBack

CFP: Race and Kids Culture (7/1/05; journal issue)

Essays are sought for a special issue of Cultural Studies<=>Critical Methodologies on Race and Kids Culture. The special issue will speak to a set of shared concerns. As corporations increasingly structure and media almost entirely saturate the lives of children, scholars and social critics have rightly begun to explore the articulations of power, culture, and identity. Inspired particularly by the emergent field of cultural studies and informed by the post-marxist, feminist, and post-structural frameworks, they have interpreted the ways in which toys, games, movies, television, music, and literature educate, imprint, and otherwise interpolate them to embrace normative values and institutions. Surprisingly, race has received relatively little attention. In fact, outside of studies of schools, the racial identities and ideologies animating kids culture have been granted limited attention. This special issue seeks to redress this oversight.

Specifically, it examines the production of race in kids (popular) culture. Each contribution unpacks the entanglements of racialization and socialization in and through critical readings of popular texts. Presently, participants examine a range of topics including children's books on the internment of Japanese Americans, Bratz Dolls and the browning of America, the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality in recent animated films, video games as (post)modern minsterly, and white nationalist websites aimed at children.

Completed essays would be due to me early next year, running ideally 20-30 pages in length.

Interested individuals should send either an abstract or complete manuscript along with a brief cv to C. Richard King crking@wsu.edu no later than 1 July 2005.

C. Richard King
Associate Professor
Comparative Ethnic Studies
Washington State University

Posted by prolurkr at 12:47 PM | TrackBack

What U.S. city is best for you?

A meme for your consideration. This one is rolling around and I have seen it several places in the last 24 hours. Thought it might be interesting for this decidedly non-city girl to take the test. Good thing it at least got the best state right. LOL Though left to my own devices I wouldn't head for Honolulu as a place to live...to visit from another island yes but not to live there. Give me Hawi or the Hilo area any day.

Posted by prolurkr at 05:05 PM | TrackBack

blo.gs finalizing the sale

Looks like blo.gs found a buyer. blo.gs to be sold, user data to be transferred (entry dated May 14 2:55pm). This is not a persistent post.

i am in the final stages of completing a sale of blo.gs to a new owner, and expect to hand over the site, along with the user data, sometime on or after june 13, 2005. so as spelled out in the blo.gs privacy policy, this is your opportunity to have your account deleted before this transfer happens. you can delete your account by going to http://blo.gs/quit.php, or by sending an email to delete@blo.gs. i'm sorry i can't yet say who it is that will be acquiring blo.gs, but i can pass on the assurance that there will be no change in the privacy policy when they acquire the service and registered users will be given the opportunity to consent to any future change. they plan to continue providing the same features that exist now, and will be working on making blo.gs even better. the new owners will be in touch shortly after they've taken over the service next month.

Should be interesting.

Posted by prolurkr at 11:03 AM | TrackBack

Sidebar changes

I did some work on the sidebar this morning. New blogs, music, and academic paper links were added.  I also deleted a few old blogs that are dead or that I have lost interest in.

Posted by prolurkr at 10:43 AM | TrackBack

This has been an insanely busy week

This week has been crazy and I think after this afternoon's meeting I'm going to hit the wall for a day or two. Well hit and just stick there I guess while I write, write, write; since sleep is out of the question.

Here's the overview:

• Sunday May 5 - Slept in a little, very little. Drove back from Illinois - yes I still have to post about the conference. Since it was Mother's Day, everywhere I stopped the restaurants were full with long lines even the drive-thru's had long lines. So I finally got lunch at 3:00 pm at a place within 30 minutes of the house. Good thing too, I was about to resort to one of those egg salad sandwiches from the Buy Food and Get Gas places. Can you say salmonella poisoning to-go?
• Monday May 9 - Was one of those wonderful fun filled errands sort of day. Started off with tooth-cleaning at the dentist and ended with a 3.5 hour board meeting with LOTS of discussion. Read too much talking, too tiring.
• Tuesday May 10 - Drive to Bloomington and back for a meeting with my Advisory Committee, well two members of my committee - Susan Herring and John Paolillo. These meetings are always good gatherings, helpful, and supportive; but they are also stressful since there is a ream of paperwork to prepare in advance which will have modifications up until the meeting. Invariably some new requirement, or clarification of an old requirement, will be announced by the front office within days of the due date - just something else to pull together and something else to add stress to the process.
• Wednesday May 11 - Drive to Illinois and back for a face-to-face meeting with Norman Denzin. Norman is a member of my Advisory Committee. We had tried to get together during the conference but we unable to make it work out while I was there. Since we had not meet face-to-face since 2003, our regular monthly communication has been via email ever since, so I wanted to do this one face-to-face before I defend my quals later this year. I will meet face-to-face with Gary Ingersoll, the remaining member of my committee, later this summer for much the same reasons.
• Thursday May 12 - Drive to Bloomington and back for a meeting with my collaborators. Also had a meeting on campus to fill out paperwork. Paperwork paperwork everywhere EVERYWHERE. LOL While I was in town I also sat down with Pete Welsch and did an interview that became my most recent Ultimate Blogger entry.
• Friday May 13 - Take the car to the dealership and wait for them to replace my catalytic converter...they said it was a 30 minute job. Turns out that my hybrid car has two catalytic converters and the replacement of both takes two hours. Which made me late for my scheduled phone call with Eric Peterson to discuss life as we know it, and our NCA panel, among other things. Picture me in jeans shorts and an old HangLoose t-shirt, talking on the cell phone, and pacing next to my car under a tree in a Baptist Church parking lot. LOL There was no way to get home in time to call from a land line. But Eric has a great sense of humor so I'm sure he would have adapted had the cops shown up during our call.
• Saturday May 14 - Drive to Bloomington and back for a meeting with my collaborators. Can you tell we have submissions to go out shortly. LOL Research and writing never end...though I really need to get back to my writing tomorrow. My invited book chapter it due at the end of the month, and quals is looming ever larger. Oh and then there are the syllabi to complete for fall semester. *sigh*

Next week is much quieter so I sincerely hope to get my chapter edited and to get notes, etc. posted from the conference. *crossing my fingers* Let's hope.

Posted by prolurkr at 11:30 AM | TrackBack

Wikipedia the 2nd most visited reference page on the web...WOW

From ClickZ Stats, Wikipedia's Popularity and Traffic Soar:

Open source Wikipedia has become the second-most visited reference site on the Web. That's according to data compiled by Hitwise.

Research conducted in mid-April finds Wikipedia hitting traffic rates of 3.84 percent, trailing closely behind the top traffic earner, Dictionary.com, with 4.46 percent market share. Wordsmith Merriam-Webster Online maintains a steady 1.35 percent and Free Translation hovers at just below one percent.

Wikipedia edged out About.com to claim the highest market share among encyclopedia sites. Answers.com came in at 1.9 percent; Encarta wavered to 1.81 percent.

Hitwise watched Wikipedia's market share climb an astonishing 618 percent over the past year. Hitwise now also identifies the site as a news resource. Wikipedia can be freely updated by readers by means of a wiki (define).

"We have been keeping an eye on Wikipedia because it looks like a way for consumers to get news and reference on the Web," Bill Tancer, vice president of research for Hitwise, told ClickZ Stats. "Wikipedia [traffic] was up there with big news organizations during the tsunami."

Wikipedia contains 536,246 ongoing articles spanning 1,540,695 pages, all maintained by the site's users. Hitwise found Wikipedia's audience evenly split between male and females. Young adults age 18 to 24 are 50 percent more likely to visit the site.

Wonder how many times Wikipedia has been cited in academic articles? I know I see is used quite a lot. That might be an interesting bibliometric analysis...if one is into webometrics that is.

The actual article page has a cool graphic with distinct upward trends, check out the page to take a look.

Posted by prolurkr at 06:55 PM | TrackBack