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.

It's Not Ink on Paper

This business of writing for electronic media becomes more interesting each day!

Badger mentioned some differences between diary writing and blogging, which reminded me that I never felt comfortable writing in a diary. The very chance that my words would be exposed and out of my control was petrifying. (I think I've mentioned before that I come from a very private family.) So, why is it not as frightening to consider blogging my personal thoughts and sharing my digital images over the World Wide Web? Is it because I can change my entries or create new sites in real time and somehow feel that what I wrote before has been erased (even though an original copy may be in cyberspace forever thanks to Wayback Machine)? Do I feel a false sense of control because of password protections and domain rights?

Electronic writing seems different because it is not forever inked on paper. What is written for the Web can be altered at any time. I'm not saying that's a good thing, but would it be helpful to understand why some people are more prone to write online than on paper?

Maybe it's just me...

or maybe I've been reading too many blogs that are photo dependent lately, but some of this discussion about the addition of images in blogs seems -- well, to be missing the point. A computer is not just a typewriter writ large. It is both a textual and a visual medium. Heck, text itself is a visual medim -- the typeface used, the size of the font, how much space in between the words -- all visual. You don't believe me? Well, that's ok -- these guys understood it.

Many bloggers use this feature to add to their text, or to even have a reason to share text. For those who are creating blogs about their visual/tactile/etc. pursuits a description is not enough. One of my favorite bloggers is also a fabric designer. I can't imagine reading her site with only a textual description of her work. The same goes for another favorite. So are we really focusing on the fact that this whole blogging thing does not necessarily fit with the print based world most of us have grown accustomed to -- that of the novel and written word -- and meanwhile forgetting that, in fact, that world is itself a false representation?

And just for fun and because I do believe in using photos a reminder that spring was actually here before today's snows.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Pictures can be worth a thousand words, and they can also prime users for good content. Since blogging is rapidly becoming one of the hottest mediums for electronic communication, visual images can help authors capture a reader’s attention, especially when a reader does not have the time or desire to read each blog entry. I think visual images often convey the sensory information that visual learners tend get in face-to-face environments. For years, editors of newspaper and magazine articles have been including images in conjunction with headlines to attract and sustain readers’ attention. However, a writer’s main goal is to have readers digest the content of his/her article, and it is never his/her goal to have readers become mesmerized by an image. Efficient bloggers understand that appetizers (images) are a small part of the entire meal (blog entry), and it is the main course (content) that sustains people until the next meal (blog entry).

MLA Style; Visuals are not that great

Tira asked about MLA style and capitalization. MLA style has never reflected the capitalization used in the actual piece. Some print media have long used headlines that capitalize only the first word, but all of the words are capitalized in MLA bib entries, regardless of how they appear in the actual print piece. I can't imagine that different approach would be adopted to accommodate Web sites.

Visuals can definitely enhance communication providing they are tied to the communication in some significant way. Visuals that are added just to be flashy and/or pretty are irritating and distracting.

One of the problems with the emphasis that visuals have assumed is that it further discourages people from learning how to communicate verbally, particularly in writing. Studies have indicated that, because of early and constant exposure, young people can now aborb and interpret visual stimuli faster than people had been able to in the past. That's a very good thing. Unfortunately, it has been accompanied by a decrease in the ability to interpret verbal signals -- particularly written signals -- as quickly or, more importantly, as accurately.

There is also the problem that visuals are becoming less reliable at the same time that they are becoming more significant. Photo manipulation and digital imaging have made it so that seeing is NOT believing. Of course, that was always true for professional work. I edited horticultural catalogs, and we sold a "blue" lilac. There were no pictures of it because it doesn't actually exist; it's actually a white lilac with a SLIGHTLY bluish tint. But for the catalog, the production department did something called "color correction," and we had a beautiful picture of a lilac that looked more or less bright tourquoise. It was false advertising, of course, but such things are not policed, and no one was going to file a lawsuit over a $3.95 lilac bush. This type of visual manipulation can be done to a greater extent, more quickly, and by virtually anyone now. Just think; a student who resents a poor grade could, if he or she were digitally savvy, download a porn photo, put your head on it, and post it to Google with your name. You think such things don't happen? I once had a Yahoo briefcase site that students could post to and had the password for. In the days before things like Blackboard and WebBoard, it was the best way to allow students to collaborate online. Someone got distressed with me and replaced the home page with a page of pics and links to kiddie porn sites. I could have been arrested for that. It only takes one incident of something like that happening to you to make you VERY leery of the Web. As for tracing the ISP, a student who is that computer savvy knows (and in my case DID know) enough to use a public computer like a library computer to post such materials.

We live in a society where people can publish anything about anyone and depict anyone doing anything they please. We need to be aware of that, although I'm not sure there's anything we can do about it. It's just one more way that self-efficacy is depleted by the spread of technology.

Visual Context

I think the most interesting aspect of Badger's piece is the reference of images to words. Who hasn't heard "A picture is worth a thousand words" before? The difference here is that we do not even need the words. What if we created a blog made up entirely of images? Examples given in the article such as Heather Champ's have visual dialogs, but they are always accompanied by the blogger's own text. What I think would be great would be to have nothing but images and to allow visitors to add their own text along side, but with no written input from the author of the blog. Though I can see where Badger makes a point with the negative sides of this issue, I can only see visual literacy as becoming more and more important, even for teachers. Not all students are great writers, but this does not mean they do not have ideas...

The Hocks Piece

I found the Hocks piece to be pretty disappointing. The title sounded exciting, but as it turned out to focus on the analysis of existing sites and pedagogical applications, the information seemed very basic and (does it sound condescending if I say) elementary. The sites were interesting (especially the Xena site), but the author failed, in my opinion, to extract any overarching concepts that would have made me actually highlight something within her text. Perhaps I am being unnecessarily hard on the piece. What did you guys think?

Graphics, exhibitionism, style, and technical problems

It looks like I’ll be the first to post a blog here with a graphic. So, here it (the graphic) is – a picture of my dog, "Greta". This blog site won't let you adjust image sizes. She’s a miniature Schnauzer. That’s about as much exhibitionism as I can muster today. Hope this doesn’t come back to haunt me next time I’m applying for a job or going to a new school.

On the subject of dogs, here’s one of the dogs in my website project. The whole project is about dogs. Bridie is a Briard. There isn’t much choice of typefaces or other style elements here, but in my website, my client wants the thing done in a new typeface, Sherwood. In this blog site, looks like the logical choice is either Verdana or Georgia, according to the WSG. Or is it? Later, he says it's Times New Roman. How about these paragraph separations? But, the style reading doesn’t cover what to do when you have to please the customer. My website client wants it in Sherwood to match his other sites. He even supplied the font. So, I’m looking for comments here, both about the pictures and the style. Oops! Can't get the image (Bridie, the other dog). It won't even paste. When all this stuff works, it's great. But, when something goes wrong or it's beyond your expertise, your time gets spent fast. We have to be pseudo-techies as well as practice our real craft of writing or teaching.

As for the picture of Bridie - you'll see it in the presentation of my web project. Hope you don't think I was flaming or anything because I didn't mean to.

p.s. That failure to include the second picture wasn't planned.

Monitoring Order

I went to the Kairos website to get a closer look at the article written by Anne Frances Wysocki mentioned by Mary E. Hocks. As a side note, their embedded Google search engine doesn't seem to be working--"Wysocki" nor "Monitoring Order" proved to be useful search terms. But thanks to regular Google, I was able to track down her article.

You'll find I've linked you to the abstract page--you'll actually have to scroll down to access the hypertext version--which is not found. Huh.

Fortunately, I was able to locate it by browsing through her personal website, but I just think this is an interesting illustration of how problematic writing for the web can be. Here we have a site judged worthy of scholarly attention, but somewhat difficult to access because links become broken, servers change, etc. Here's the real abstract, which will actually let you read her work. It's worth a look, by the way.

Seeing is believing (or at least it's doubting less)

The Badger article makes perfect sense to me. Early in the semester, I admitted that one of my complaints with the increase in Internet-based communication and the seemingly inevitable decrease in more personal communication was the lack of non-verbal cues in the former. I can't even stand to talk on the phone for more than a few minutes for this same reason, but at least on the phone I can hear tone of voice. The use of visuals in blogging seems to add some of that missing ingredient back into the pot. The challenge for visitors of these blogs, then, is to determine the function of the images being used. Are they accurate representations of the author and his or her life? Are they more cryptic, intended as some puzzle for the visitors to solve? Are they random, as many seem to be, or is there a larger pattern to be discovered? I would guess that regular visitors to visual blogs have the opportunity to learn the authors' tendencies in image usage, and this would subsequently make the overall messages more "truthful" (or at least meaningful) for these viewers.

See you Wednesday,

Jake

Just a question...

I haven't gotten to the really exciting reading yet (I presume), but I do have a question from WSG -- if anyone can help. The authors recommend "downstyle typing," which is a term that is new to me. This is where in Web sites, the headlines, subheads, etc. have only the first word capitalized, unless there is a common noun. It seems to me that many times, these headlines are used as the site title or page title. And many times, I have seen "article" titles with only the first word capitalized now. Look at headline on USA Today's site. So, on a Works Cited or bib page, how does one present these? Do we write up the title as it appears on the web page, with only the first word capitalized? Or do we fix it as a reference should appear? Just wondering if anyone has a clue.