"Social Proof"?

You can't do math proofs that way! 'Tisn't Rigorous.

I, for one, have been mystified by the Professor Burton's use of the phrase "Social Proof." (Not befuddled, confused, or annoyed...ok, fine, a little annoyed, but mostly just mystified.)

Broken? Consume, Create, Connect

Every once in a while this class reminds me to go back to the basics. One of the presentations last week pointed out that, for a person to be “digitally literate,” they should be able to

• Consume content,
• Create content, and
• Connect to other people.

I recently took this to heart and started reorganizing my aPod Touch's desktops with these themes in mind.

After being invited to the closed beta of Connect.me, a reputation-based social network, I found myself preoccupied with social media. I started my categorizing with "Connect."

After putting Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ next to each other, I swiped a few desktops over and came up short with my GMail app. What on earth is e-mail???

When I open an email client, I expect to perform all three of these activities. I consume emails produced by others, I create documents I expect others to read, and I expect many emails to have some sort of personal connection to myself. (Wow, email suddenly sounds so much like...omphaloskepsis.)

Once I was thinking about this, I started looking around...

• Amazon App Store: Vaguely consuming (reviews and prices); mostly purchasing. Where does commercial activity fall?
• Z-Device Test: I really like staring at the constellation of GPS satellites overhead, or playing with the frenetic readouts from the phone's internal accelerometer. Is the device producing content, or is the readout produced content? Most would just brush it aside as technical readouts. Is the Droid letting me consume the app, or is the app letting me consume the Droid?
• American Airlines: it's not consuming much more than a few logistical details, it's creating content at all, and it's not at all social.

Is this class mantra an overarching structure everything should be pidgeonholed into, or is it a narrow set of topics in an untold universe of perspectives and divisions? 

It just felt...broken. Too much of a box--but without boxes, we'd never move. Hmm.

Dear Kindle, Permit Libraries

Dear Amazon,

The Kindle family of products provide a powerful medium for presenting traditionally printed material in a less-expensive manner.

I am taking a civilization class at BYU called Digital Civilization. We have about two dozen texts. Each student is only assigned two of them, but may want to refer to several of the others as we cover a broad set of topics. The class could perhaps purchase enough copies for the students to pass around, but this is cumbersome and doesn't meet the goals of the class.

Namely, I propose the formation of localized (and perhaps general) libraries at private donors' expense. Modern libraries--a legacy, in part, of Rockefeller--permit the free sharing of a limited number of copies of print books. This is primarily because of the durability and scarcity of physical volumes.

I see a Kindle library as supporting the following workflow:

1. Fifteen copies of "Descartes: A Very Short Introduction" are purchased for "The Kunkee Monkey Library" (named for its benefactor, of course ;).
2. I permit fifty students access to my library.
3. Ten are assigned this book and check it out. It is delivered to their Kindle account provisionally. Perhaps a time limit is assigned, with a semester limit for assigned students and week limits for reference copies.
4. Fifteen students are able to check out the other five copies when they need them. Each is able to make notes, bookmarks, and progress that is preserved across checkouts and purchases.
5. At the due date, the copy is 
1. locked/deleted (returned)
2. renewed
3. or purchased (advertising! :)

The librarian could be charged with some function of maximum subscribers per year and actual traffic. ( I propose Subscriber Cap x (Checkouts / Total Volumes) x Finagle's Commercial Nonconstant - Expected Subtle Advertising Revenue )

This preserves the current controls on traditional libraries while spreading their benefits to the digital realm.