"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.

It's Baroquen!

Today I will be meeting with my History group (17th Century) to start preparing our presentation this coming Thursday. This last Thursday we decided to focus on the music of this time period; however, reflecting on it, I realize I know nothing. If asked who the great composers of this era were, I am presently as likely to guess Beethoven as Bach.

That's a pity, as I like both and know they're rather different.

This will be a document sharing my explorations:

1. What is this word "Baroque" and why do we use it? Is it relevant?
2. Which composers fall under this umbrella?

Descartes - Founder of Modern Science

That's a big title.

It starts with a big name.

See, I just started reading my Very Short Introduction book on this philosopher/mathematician/scientist who lived in the 17th century.

You know what? He's really cool.

I've been interested in the sciences for a long time. One might call me a dabbler, or even a dilettante, but the fact is I think it's cool that we can predict things with math. Doing a set of calculations and seeing the same numbers show up on a lab bench is rather gratifying.

Still, I've taken this idea for granted for a long time. Why do I believe that all natural phenomena follow certain laws? Why does math show up everywhere? I personally believe these two principles apply to all of nature, and that God Himself is bound by certain laws. Duh.

But...why?!

Class Project: Government and Internet

I would like to present an idea for a final project.

Simply put, we should make an eBook fitting the title "Government and the Internet," or perhaps "The Impact of Digital Media and Culture on the Future of Government."

This stems from the discussion we had last Tuesday in class on how a variety of technologies could be used to implement a more direct democracy (we're presently a representative republic IIRC) and my gut reactions to the ideas presented.

Potential topics could include

• Ideas for using modern media for enhancing current governance
• What does not work in our current government?
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
• Language and digital progression
• Social Media: Changing Apathy to Activism (Thanks Marissa Pielstick)

Potential structures could include

• Temporal
• past - historical examples and analysis
• present - barely disruptive changes that can be effected Now (Twitter, Facebook, direct democracy
• future (speculative) - what will happen in the future as these and other changes take their natural courses over a long time
• Topical
• Politics and technology
• Culture in an Internet Age
• Machiavelli and Social Media
• Scribes to Books to Newspapers to...???
• Control, Openness, etc...

The scope would be broad and the target high: this document should drive, shape, and refine a revolution in how government is defined and conducted.

whoami

What is literacy?

Some will consider you illiterate if you have not traversed the collection of books they do consider 'literature.' Others only think of the word 'literacy' when a person has trouble translating printed words into spoken expressions. To me, it is more "Can you look at any page of text in your language and garnish meaning from it?" This is more a question of comprehension and vocabulary than merely knowing what sounds 'a' and 'b' make. Exceptions are obviously to be made for technical documents; I'm still not sure how a Wheatstone Bridge works (it is an electrical design that amplifies resistance changes), but Wheatstone is likely some place or person and this thing does some sort of bridging.

Digital literacy needs a good definition for a good discussion. It should obviously include such items as "Where's the On switch" and "What's a monitor?" Such manual skills are important fundamentals, as are application skills as discussed in class (Can you type up and print a one-page letter?), yet there is something more to 'literacy' than merely opening a book and pronouncing words correctly, or being able to state the current state of the weather.

This new skillset--well, it's not exactly a skillset. Skills fall under its auspices, but digital literacy is more the ability to get along well in a society built on computers and networks of information. How would YOU find the capital of Myanmar? What is today's news? What are all your friends up to? Do we write letters, author articles for publication, and pass notes in class, or do we send emails, publish blog posts, and send texts?

I personally consider myself to be properly computer literate. I can do just about anything technical you'd like from a text-based computer command interface, from setting up servers to doing Excel-like math on large datasets. I am good friends with Google, Facebook, Blogger, EBSCO, Gmail, Slashdot, Github, and even have a Gravatar. Given any computer program, I can usually start to figure out how to use it right away (with Google helping this process goes much faster :). I have in the past and will in the future assemble my own computer from commercially-available components (and, someday, my own not-so-commercially-available components).

Still, I'm not active on forums (anymore); I don't use Google+, Twitter, or other social media; I don't have the magical voodoo skills some acquire with such programs as Microsoft Office or Final Cut Pro or Photoshop (which still confuses me immensely; I learned on the Gimp); the Apple's interface style is unintuitive and confusing (I can argue this, though I appreciate the opposite sentiment); and I get quite frustrated with OohNewShiny web interfaces, as they run like molasses in January on most of the computers I own and ignore how I like doing things. My coworkers often speak of various technologies as The Way of The Future (in this case, Javascript+HTML5+CSS, which are used to describe web page appearance and functionality) and I scorn them--though they're probably right. I smile when I see a cruise liner's engine controls running a top-of-the-line control system using an interface from the late 80's--MWM has been around long enough and is simple enough it is stable enough for vital systems.

One interesting aspect of literacy that I have noted is the willingness and ability to educate others. I love to jump in any time and show someone how something is done, and I have noticed that most everyone I would consider "literate" is very much willing to do the same. This social/comfort aspect is perhaps one of the most important marks of literacy, as it is a quality that spans the spectrum.

In summation digital literacy includes several components (and perhaps many others):

• Familiarity and capability with the basic physical entity of a computer
• Knowing what can be done
• Knowing how to do it (or at least how to find out how)
• Accepting new things
• Learning new things

I obviously only get partial credit on these. :)