apocablog - blog #12 - you can't rip pages out of ebooks to blow your nose

So I’ve been thinking about wikis quite a bit lately; more than I would like to given other demands on my time, but at least those thoughts will make posting this week’s blog a little easier.

For my group’s wiki project one of the requested features has been hard to completely deliver on. Our client wanted to remove post-it note clutter from the reference desk while maintaining the timely and time-saving advice that such a note can have as shifts change over the course of the day. Thus, we designed the homepage to reflect this request. However, harnessing the chaos of clutter is proving to be a difficult task. What I’ve learned from this is that someone will need to manage the content regardless of the medium. In other words, it’s easy to put something on a wiki and appoint someone to manage it, but in this situation the value comes from someone managing the content, not the fact that it’s on a wiki. If we/I could figure out how to make content disappear after say four weeks, then our homepage would really be adding something.

Also, on my mind pertaining to the topic of wikis is the issue of a wiki as a public space and the ironical stability of electronic information. I was thinking about bulletin boards yesterday. Papers overlapped, sarcastic remarks in the margins of advertisements, slips with phone numbers on them for guitar lessons…you get the picture. Conceivably anyone could post a piece of paper on a bulletin board. Conceivably anyone could grab a library book off the shelf and rip out a few pages for his/her own discretionary use. Is such malfeasance possible in the realm of electronic information? Not really. A library website would need to be hacked to be altered, and an ebook could fall prey to the vagaries of electronic file storage. But the fact remains that you won’t be seeing Joe Patron using the last page of the Great Gatsby to blow his nose if that last page is on his PC monitor. At least that’s how I imagine my DISCARDED copy getting “edited.” I digress. So electronic information though it is dynamic and rapidly changing does not accumulate the marginalia of the print medium—It’s impervious to the nonchalant wear and tear that marks our favorite stories and our fleeting impulses (in the case of the bulletin board). The wiki as a public space is a move to the middle of the spectrum that I’ve tried to illustrate. I don’t know if it’s better or worse, but does seem a bit more human.

bloggin on empty, in which sam student is introduced

Sometimes its easiest to just follow a routine, a set of directions, a script...you get the idea...rather than think or act with a mind for originality or innovation. This is where I find myself right now. I'm wondering how in the world I can blog about technology again. I mean I've been blogging for my own enjoyment for about three years now, and I've blogged about many topics more than 11 times. This technology thing has become the proverbial dead horse. I've approached just about every way I know how creatively, philosophically, pragmatically, deeply, shallowly, humorously, seriously... But today the task remains, even after an entire paragraph of text, in front of me to blog about technology. So I'm going to put into practice today a genre of writing that my Basic Writing students are particularly fond of: the definition paper. In my Basic Writing class, I teach structure, structure, structure and the definition essay can meet this criteria a little more easily than other more challenging genres. So, without further ado:

According to Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, technology is "the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area." Technology affects my life in many ways. As a matter of fact, it's hard to think of an aspect of my life that technology doesn't affect. From eating to sleeping to studying to writing, technology's impact is all around me, but I'd have to say that I largely take it for granted. As a matter of I only really notice technology when either something is broken or when something amazes me. For example, in chapel the other day the Student Life people got up to show a funny video about dodgeball, and the video wouldn't run right. Everyone was bummed out because usually Student Life videos are hilarious. I remember thinking how if they had just thought up a funny skit, everything would have been fine. I guess unless the microphones weren't working! An example of a time that I noticed technology because it amazed me is when I went to see The Matrix. I know that this movie may not be as impressive when it comes to special effects as something like Sparta, but I guess my point here is that dazzling special effects make me notice technology. Also, I notice technology when a cell phone rings in class. Some of those ring tones are hilarious, especially in awkward situations. One time, my professor's cell went off to the tune of "TNT" by ACDC. We all busted up. In conclusion, technology, defined as "the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area," is all around us, and we usually don't even notice it.

the search search

so i just spent a bunch of time trying to install some sort of search feature into my group's wiki. not fun. First I tried to insert the html on the page, no dice. Then I tried the insert code feature, same result. The code just appeared on the page, which made me laugh because if you’re actually writing html code, you have to do some very specific things to make that happen. Let’s call that laugh a wiki laugh because it is free for you to edit what this laugh sounds like to you in your own mind. Consider your request to join that wikispace approved. I skipped a step or rather this story unfolds more like a series of simultaneous events than a step by step process. The image to keep in mind here is a firefox browser stuffed to the Gils with open tabs. As I was trying to figure out how to get the code on the wiki, I poked around for some html to plug in once I figured out where and how to do so. This was the easy part. Askdavetaylor.com was helpful. Once I realized that it would take some finesse to get my code where it needed to be, I looked more at the wikispaces widgets for something suitable, not thrilled by the options there. But I did find a place to plop my askdavetaylor html code. I put it in and voila my wildest dreams came true—until I tried to use it to search my site specifically. Didn’t work. Might have to scrap it.

If technology is so great, why can't it write blog number nine for me?

If technology is so great, why can't it write blog number nine for me?

Maybe it can...(seriously if you don't follow this link this post won't make any sense)

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“Vic, write my blog for me,” I told Vic this morning.

“Ok.” Vic says. “Library persecutes a subsidiary clearance. Technology shapes the initiate trace beside the accomplished noun. Will Technology speculate above the fortunate magic? A pleasing analyst stares below Library. The container collapses before the chance. The silicon barks past the bell! Library constrains Technology. Technology offers a doom over the mum. Library migrates around Technology. Library attends Technology under the socket. The wonder schools an equilibrium. Technology excepts Library against an operator. Technology splits with the inaccessible clue. Why won't a dictatorship flash outside Library? Technology views Library without a scant idea.”

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If I let Vic write this blog, this is the sort of stuff you'd be stuck reading. Vic, you may remember, represents technology. So while it may be convenient to assign Vic this writing task by plugging "Library" and "Technology" into a word and syntax generator, it ultimately makes for terrible, though occasionally interesting, prose. I actually use the Random Word (Plus) feature of this site to help me fill in blank spots on vocabulary quizzes that I give in a class of mine. I select the part of speech and vocab level, and Vic supplies me with an appropriate word. He is well-suited for such tasks.

I'd involve Gil, but he'd want to say something about how reading Vic's prose is an accurate metaphor for the struggle to wrestle meaning from our observations of the world. He could on and on about this, but that wouldn't help Joe Patron very much. On the issue of technology doing stuff for us, Joe Patron and I have a lot in common. We want technology to do it for us. We find ourselves squawking, “Isn't there a computer program that could do this?” And, “This must be on the internet somewhere.” We could go on and on about this, but the point is that the mouse has been given a cookie and now it wants its glass of milk. The bar of user expectations has been set and its up to libraries, like it or not, to follow through as well as possible.

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“Nice job actually making a direct point of application to Librarianship, Joel.”

“Thanks, Gil.”

blog about technology for the eighth time

so i just got done working on the wiki for the class project, and i'm ready to reflect a little bit about new technology. before this project i've never done anything with wikis and my experience with wikis has come to confirm what i've always thought about new technology: spend time with it, be willing to struggle a little at first, and you'll be ok. the trouble spot is the initial experience. it is upon this first meeting between joe patron and new technology that mr. patron decides whether the initial effort and struggle is worth it. No one can decide whether the technology is worth the trouble for joe other than joe. Sounds obvious but i wonder how much this is considered when new technologies are put out there. I have an actual real-life example of this situation. At Bethel we have a large number of commuter students who live off campus. A lot would go into figuring out whether it would be worth it for the Writing Center to offer tutoring using whiteboard technology and part of my struggle with this situation is trying to figure if this technology were to be utilized, tutors trained, and students infomed, whether it would actually be used. In other words would that initial struggle to get used to the new technology be worth it. One interesting issue associated with tutoring in writing with this technology is the fact that it the communication between student and tutor would in most situations probably be mediated with writing. In other words in a one-on-one meeting student and tutor communicate orally which can really help people who struggle with writing. This technology would provide a new set of struggles for already struggling writer. technology has its downsides, some of which are less apparent than others.

blog post the seventh, in which no new characters are introduced, gil is ignored much to his chagrin, and i get a little trippy with causal claims.

i'm going to pick up where i left off last time with my exploration of the philosophical ramifications of information seeking behavior and the use of technology.

a summary of claims made thus far:

1. copies are good enough
2. the prevalence of copies is made possible due to technology
3. the prevalence of copies encourages this attitude

the philosophical connections i made:

1. satisfaction with the copy is a decidedly Continental position
2. using technology to obtain information is operating on Platonic assumptions

there is some conclusionary hay to be made here. But its going to be messy considering I've never made hay like this before, or at all for that matter.

I stopped this philosophical investigation off at the paradox last time. in part because I guess my main conclusion is that its just kind of funny that we behave both Platonically and Continentally. No judgment is implied for either side of the equation. In other words, I'm not saying we should gather information more Continentally or that we should treat our information more Platonically, though there is some precedent for both. I can't entirely envision what Continental information-seeking behavior might look like (it look something like considering what an operations diagram might look like if the perspective of the book is considered), but insofar as information is also artifact we treat it Platonically (i.e. the increased value given to a first edition of a major novel, the first draft of a novel in an author's handwriting). In the case of the Platonic treatment of information, the original source is more highly valued, though I should mention that to Plato a first edition or even an author's own writing is too far removed from the eidos to be of any significant value anyway. being bemused by the paradox of contradictory assumptions is, to me, an end in itself. but i'll do some more work to wrap this deal up.

astute reader that you are, you've probably noticed that #3 above does not have a corollary in the philosophical connections section. i'm going to go ahead with it but you should know that my corollary to #3 is a bit trippy, as if this whole enterprise isn't. philosophical connection #3 states that using technology (i.e. acting as a Platonist might with respect to technology) leads us to consider the product of technology in a Continental light. This is trippy because its a direct causal claim that links two disparate schools of thought. i'm probably inclined to such philosophical trippiness due to my preference for historical explanations over philosophical ones. anyways, despite the bold and trippy philosophical connection #3, which remember states that using technology Platonically leads us to consider the product of technology Continentally, the paradox remains, which quite honestly leaves me satisfied.

next time maybe i'll talk about that slim sliver of human experience that occurs when Joe Patron encounters new technology. i'll magnify it.

Blog posting #6, in which Gil plays a minor role and Joe Patron is introduced, or tech - knowledge - me, or 1/2 Derrida and 1/2 Plato

so i'm supposed to blog about technology again, so i'm going to address this topic indirectly by discussing the assumptions of the western (platonic) metaphysical tradition. i'm inspired to do so because just the other day a friend of mine said, "Joel, I'm not a platonist." He was happy to announce this fact, but I'm not entirely sure what he meant. Ok, so i do know, but Gil thinks that for this blog post to work in an aesthetic literary, not the actual manual labor sense of the word, I should replicate the steps that Joe Patron might encounter were here to overhear that juicy bit of dialog my friend laid on me. (Cast of character up until this point: Joel, Gil, Vic, my friend, Joe Patron)

Joe patron wants to know what a "platonist" is. He goes to google, enters his search term "platonist" and hits I'm feeling lucky. Turns out Joe Patron is lucky indeed as the first line of text on the webpage he is sent to contains "A 'Platonist' is a follower of the Greek philosopher Plato (428-348 B.C.). Joe Patron is satisfied with this answer because he doesn't really know me or my friend, and he doesn't care about Philosophy. What he really cares about is whether the episode of Coach that has been in his head all morning is available in some form on the internet. It's not. He wants so badly to hear the goofy little song that is played on this episode: "You're a winner. A free dinner! You're a winner at Mr. Putts!"

Stop the narrative; make the indirect connection to the established theme. I wonder why Joe Patron's appetite for a goofy little song that he hasn't heard in at least ten years has led him to the internet. I wonder why a sitcom about tender-hearted ex-jocks occupies a higher place on his list of concerns than Plato. I'll let Gil, an ardent Platonist, take over now. The continental philosophers are all wrong! Thanks, Gil, but we're looking for something a little more constructive:

In what remains, Derrida makes some important general points about imitation: "a perfect imitation is never an imitation," he states, adding that imitation "is only good insofar as it is not good" (139). To process this one, consider the fact that a truly perfect imitation of me would be, and could only be, me. So, for an imitator to be an imitator, she would have to not be me. --- Tim Spurgin

so while the literary value of an episode of Coach is debatable, the ontological value--if we posit that Derrida is correct--is on the same level as reading about Plato. thus, the episode of Coach with the goofy song that Joe Patron was secretly hoping to find on Youtube, if it is a perfect imitation of the original, is the Real deal. Sidenote: In some situations online information and print information be ontologically equal even according to Plato. For the purposes of my argument here, I'm interested in the exceptions to these situations.

Stop the indirect connection-making; start getting explicit. A paradox arises. Well, will arise. Information retrieval behavior seems to assume what Derrida argued for philosophically. Namely that a copy is good enough. We act as if information available online is no worse than that in a book, and though other qualitative standards of the information retrieved are up for debate, the desire to get closer to the source is most often trumped by the desire for convenient access to information. The advent of widespread electronic information was not met, at least to my knowledge, with deep-seated concerns that we, as librarians and as information consumers, were somehow walking further away from the Truth. Off the cuff, it would seem that this is because we were already accustomed to the copy, and indeed the copy itself is what made our profession in the first place--the printing press. To us electronic information is just another type of copy. So, information-gathering behavior and the printing press seem to confirm that we are by virtue of our actions and behavior not platonists in this regard.

But even when we are acting like the non-Platonic disciples of Derrida, we aren't acting like the non-Platonic disciples of Derrida--this is the paradox that has arisen. Let's magnify it. Technology makes the abundance of copies possible--the printing press. Technology is the virtual embodiment (how's that for an oxymoron) of the Western Metaphysical Tradition according to the Continental philosophers that Gil says are all wrong.

According to Heidegger, today's metaphysics, in the form of technology and calculative thinking related to it, becomes so pervasive that there is no realm of life that is not subjected to its dominance. It imposes on man its technological - scientific - industrial character and makes it the sole criterion of his sojourn on the earth...In modern technology there speaks the today's claim of being. It masters and dominates beings in various ways. ---W. J. Korab-Karpowicz

I guess one conclusion I would like to draw from this blog posting is that there is a certain irony at play. In the LIS world, the use of technology leads us to some ontological Continental assumptions even as use of technology exhibits opposing assumptions. Such a paradox, I might add, is very continental. Maybe next time, I(Joel)'ll record this interaction between platonic man (Gil) and technology (Vic) in fiction using technology.