Four topics from MDay

When I teach, even guest teach, English 532, I am always finding interesting tidbits I want to share. So as not to take up too much space on your class blog, I'll list them all below. The last one leads to our topic for next week (Wednesday, April 11), usability, so skip down if you are in a rush.

Crowdsourcing

First, I wanted to follow up on something I said about crowdsourcing in last week's class. I know that we didn't spend a lot of time on it, so I wanted to share some links that would clarify what it is, how it's like user-generated documentation for software and projects, and how it's like wikiality, if that's a word worthy of spreading beyond the realm of Stephen Colbert...

At any rate, if you are interested, take a look at Wired magazine's "The Rise of Crowdsourcing," where I first read about the phenomenon. How do you think the economy of expertise will change as more organizations come to rely on crowdsourcing through electronic solicitation? Will it affect the job market for creative and design positions if more and more organizations look to the living database of content producers willing to work for free or on the cheap?

Google Translator

Second, I was amused by the announcement of yet another machine language translation program this time Google's, with the claim that it will revolutionize our ability to communicate.

"Google seeks world of instant translations"

You've all probably seen or used Babel Fish, and know how crude or completely wrong some of the translations are. This is because machines and software don't have human experience and cannot read context and ambiguity (some linguists call this the problem of multiple competing frames) in the natural language spoken by humans. It's been a problem of the Artificial Intelligence community for decades, and hasn't been solved. Do you think Google can do it? If so, how would it change the way we communicate and work online. Could it increase global cooperation, or are there too many other cultural barriers at work?

Volunteer to work on CompPile

Finally, an opportunity to get involved in an online Rhetoric and Professional Writing project: CompPile. Read on, and go there and sign up if you want to help out.

To all colleagues in post-secondary writing studies:

As you probably know, CompPile is a free, online, searchable database of scholarship in post secondary composition, rhetoric, ESL, technical writing, and discourse studies http://comppile.tamucc.edu/.

Until late last year, CompPile's bibliography has covered the years 1939-1999. Now, under Glenn Blalock's direction, it is extending its coverage from 2000-current (and beyond). The intention is to allow a one-stop search of all post-secondary writing scholarship from 1939 on,
and to keep adding records as they are published. This is more work than a couple of people can do. So we are asking members of our discipline to join in the effort.

In particular, we are asking people to choose from among three options (or some combination): (1) to update the indexing of a journal from its current status in CompPile; (2) to be responsible for maintaining a journal, indexing new issues as they appear; (3) to volunteer to add search terms where needed. On the home page of CompPile, you'll see a new link that invites you to "Volunteer @ CompPile." I have opened a space on CompPile where you can scan the lists of journals, see our "needs," and volunteer, if you choose. When you volunteer, you will receive further instructions about the process we use for indexing and for assigning search terms. The
process should be clear from there. But if it isn't, please contact Glenn(gblalock@grandecom.net).

It's worth knowing and remembering that CompPile has always been a volunteer operation. It is open-access, free of charge to the public, non-affiliated, and non-revenue generating. As such, it may be unique among scholarly fields. (Librarians tell us that all other comprehensive, discipline-wide bibliographies they know of require annual subscription or organizational membership fees.) It's also worth noting that the tasks with which we need assistance are not significantly time-consuming. Any time you can commit will be an important contribution to the ongoing success and usefulness of CompPile.

Please add your hand and help keep CompPile open-access and free, with the largest and most comprehensive coverage of post-secondary writing studies (currently at about 87,000 records).
Glenn [Blalock] and Rich [Haswell]

Usability

Related to the topic of usability in your readings for next week, but in a bit of a different direction is Bradley Dilger's "The Ideology of Ease," published in the Journal of Electronic Publishing in 2001. Although dated, it makes some interesting claims about how the "ease" of help systems and Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) divests students/users of the power to understand and take control of their computer/online writing environments. It also strips away their ability to recognize and make use of the eloquence and elegance of computer code, the "techie" side of writing for electronic media. As composers of online writing, how do we find a balance between "ease of use" and control over the way an online composition (such as a website) looks and works for users?

If you read nothing else of Dilger's article, at least skim the bulleted list near the bottom, OK?

Thanks, and see you Wednesday evening.