apophenia :: reflections & rants

March 26, 2008

me in comic form

Marc Scheff, digital artist extraordinaire, penned this trippy comic version of me that I thought y'all would get a kick out of. ::giggle::

PS: Congrats to Marc and Chloe for their recent engagement! W00t!

Category: reflections & rants

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March 15, 2008

limited email March 16-25

I'm headed to Hong Kong with my partner for Eastover (what happens when Passover needs to be celebrated during Easter because that's when people have vacation). I will be checking my email sporadically, but don't expect much in the way of communication - In addition to family time, I'm also using this time to focus on some writing without the internet nearby. ::smoooch::

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March 5, 2008

enough already!

Last night, I turned off NPR in a state of complete disgust. It wasn't just the ongoing hellish pledge drive that drives me away from NPR for months at a time. (I _want_ to give to NPR, but the pledge drives tend to make me turn my back on NPR instead.) No, it was the framing of the election results. It was the way the story has been and continues to be framed. And it wasn't just NPR, but Fox News, CNN, and NYTimes have all made me blazingly angry this week. And it wasn't just about winners or losers, but about how the story is framed dramatically to get people to tune in.

I was really excited about this election. A variety of factors in my life motivated me to get really engaged, to research candidates, to persuade other people into engaging. I started reading and watching MSM again rather than waiting for it to be filtered through Stewart/Colbert or the blogosphere. But in doing so, I watched an ugly pattern emerge. The moment that one candidate was seen as pulling ahead, MSM started dredging up crap on them... or creating stories from nothing. My favorite story was the one the NYTimes wrote on how they couldn't find anyone to prove for certain that Obama did drugs. They published this the night before Virginia/Maryland/DC. The last two weeks, the NYTimes has done some of the worst reporting possible. The whole McCain story made me really sympathize with him personally (even though, politically, he scares the shit out of me). And then this week, they started reporting on how people are saying Clinton should step down if Obama wins in Texas and Ohio. Both of these articles seemed set up to do one thing: keep the election cycle going by amplifying the competition by any means necessary, but primarily by making the front-runner look dreadful.

I'm disgusted. In the back of my mind, I've always known that MSM is all about creating drama to sell more papers. As an infrastructure, MSM are not really partisan (although individuals are)... it's that the infrastructure of MSM feeds off of people being engaged. And there's nothing more emotionally engaging (and exhausting) than conflict and fear mongering. The MSM doesn't create an accurate picture of what's going on because the Corporation behind the MSM doesn't feel a responsibility to, even if individual reporters are well-intentioned. Journalists, by and large, are extremely well-intentioned but they're caught up in a system. They are pressured to write stories that create conflict and while senior folks can step back and take a higher stance, they can't become senior if they don't meet the needs of the Corporation for a while. Uphold hegemony and then maybe you get some wiggle room... but by then, you are the institution. Besides, even if you want to speak truth to power, good luck - your article is not likely to sell well or be widely read.

Many journalists are idealists. But they aren't independent and what's "newsworthy" is inevitably what's dramatic. Whatever stance they take on those dramatic incidents, their small part of the pie feeds into a much larger structure whose incentives are to keep the wheels turning.

I've been avoiding reporters a lot lately. They always tell me that I should talk to them "to tell the other side." But we both know that's not what really happens. They use me to tell the story that they need to tell but they have to at least give nods to "the other side" for appearances. There's no story in reality. Reality is boring. It's not made for 24/7 news. Fear sells. Conflict sells. Making someone else's life miserable sells. Reality doesn't. The incentives are all screwed up and it's just downright disgusting.

People always ask me what it will take to get teens to listen to news. Why should they? What do they gain by being sent on an information roller-coaster for the news industry to turn a buck? Does consuming news really make you more informed or ready to engage? Have you watched MSM on TV lately?

The more I try to engage, the more my passion and desire to make change is destroyed. Years ago, after a different egregious move by the NYTimes, I cancelled my subscription. I can't cancel it again, but I would if I could. More than anything, what I'm realizing is that I need to check out of the news again. It doesn't make me more well-informed; it simply makes me more angry and depressed. It's good timing... one less thing I can do while procrastinating writing.

As for the election, I've become pretty apathetic once again. At this point, I don't care. No matter what, I don't think that it will be fair or representative or in the best interests of the people. Everyone likes to complain about how the candidates don't give real opinions, but we all know the reason why they don't: the media would destroy them. Paying attention to their efforts to dance cautiously with the media gets me nowhere. There's no way to know the candidates, no way to actually get a sense of how they will navigate the nasty waters of the media, industry lobbyists, political pressures, and really complicated decisions. It's all guess work so all we do is vote on charisma and guesswork about who will handle which parts of the puzzle best. I still believe in Obama, but I've lost faith in the system. All I know is that come November, I will vote against the Republican party. McCain is only one small fraction of that party and actually the least of my concerns. I want that whole corrupting, demeaning, destructive party out of control now. I wish I could say that I would be voting for the Democrats, but I'm not sure that's true. I just don't think that they'll screw it up as badly. And the fact that at the end of the day I resort to that logic is depressing.

I wish I could find the energy to care, but I've completely lost it once again. I really had hope. I was so excited to see so many people energized and believing that they could make change by engaging. I was really excited to see conversations occur that were not previously occurring. But things have gone stale and at the end of the day, I realize that the media and other powerful people are once again controlling the election. And it's hard to sustain hope when that's what plays out.

In the meantime, I wonder if it's possible to change the incentive structure around MSM? (And no, I don't think that bloggers are the answer.)

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January 28, 2008

the absurdities of Davos

When I went to Cannes last year, I thought nothing could be more absurd. I was wrong; Davos is much much much more absurd.

Much to my shock, I was invited to speak at the World Economic Forum this year, all because of a talk that I gave at AAAS. Even though I was on travel ban, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go. Given how many folks have asked me about it, I also figured I should do a trip report. This is that. In very brief high-level form.

Structure

Getting to Zurich was surprisingly easy, thanks to a direct flight from LAX. From Zurich, I hopped a bus with a bunch of other attendees. Imagine SF-Tahoe, complete with the traffic jams and snow piles everywhere as you go up into the mountains... only the bus is full of brilliant people that you admire deeply.

When I got to my hotel, I was a bit surprised to find that my $350+/night hotel room was crappier than the $39.99 ones that I mastered in rural America. There wasn't even working internet and the lobby smelled foul. Le sigh. That's what I get for going for the "cheap" option. The funny thing that I learned as the week went by is that many of the hotels are shite. There was something utterly absurd about realizing that the world's leaders pay obscene prices to stay in crappy hotels (except for those lucky enough to have connections to get an apartment in town or those unfortunate enough to have to get a place outside of town and commute in because the crappy hotels are filled).

Security is omg overwhelming and everpresent. There are police officers at every door, street corner, and lining every hotel. Probably 1 police to every 2 people. Metal detectors and bag scanners are everywhere (along with coat checks and badge scanners). Not all of the events take place in the same building so every 2-3 hours, you end up going through a new set of security/coat check, making regular trips to the airport seem like cake. Oddly, by the second day, it just seems normal.

Content

There are different kinds of sessions: big lecture sessions, workshops, breakfast/lunch/dinner discussions, and private events. Most sessions have a cap so you have to wake up at 7.30AM to sign up for sessions for the next day using kiosks that are everywhere (in hotels, in the lobby). You can print out your schedule on the kiosks too.

The big lectures are rather boring, but this is where many of the big politicians speak. I only went to a few of these after I realized that they were boring and that politicians couldn't afford to say anything that they wouldn't say on TV. Seeing Condoleezza Rice speak was dreadfully painful - I hadn't think it was possible for my opinion of her to sink any lower. She spent the entire lecture telling Davos about why America was stable and on the right path. I walked out. The best lecture that I attended was a discussion between Al Gore and Bono about their respective activist projects - finding commonalities and connections between global warming and poverty. Twas neat. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was also pretty rad. There was also a panel featuring six youth from around the world which was super great to see, especially since these kids are at the absolute opposite end of the spectrum to the teens I normally interact with. These young folks were full-blown activists, entrepreneurs, and philosophers. Intense!

Workshops are the bomb. They are topically oriented and everyone works in small groups solve a problem. I attended two of these - one on technology and development and one on status. At the tech & development one, we were to imagine how to address the problems of a fictional village (called Tupointo... 2.0). We were split into groups - villagers, government, NGOs, funders, and tech companies. Not surprisingly, I was assigned to be a villager. After working out our needs as villagers, we all compared our goals and then had to split up with reps from other groups to negotiate. Our villager group rocked, but when we had to compromise, I nearly killed one of the guys from the tech sector for not understanding villagers. Turns out he's a pretty powerful tech guy in RL... oops.

The second workshop on status was structured as a game where we were given gems that we had to trade to work our way up the status latter. It quickly became clear that some were born wealthier than others. I was a member of the poverty class. Realizing we would never win by getting money and realizing that whenever a member of our group did well, they were shipped off to another group, our group decided to aim for bottom, maximize happiness and conversation, and laugh at the other groups going crazy. The wealthier classes were much more invested in succeeding and one of the members from the upper-middle class nearly went ballistic over how the game was rigged and she wasn't able to win. Gotta love a room full of Type A personalities. Anyhow, this provoked a fun conversation and my table got to talking about the status structures of badges (not unlike those at tech companies where there are permanents and contractors and temps and whatnot).

I attended two dinners and one lunch (in addition to the dinner that I helped moderate). These sessions are structured around tables where a moderator leads a discussion and then, at dessert time, everything switches to more lecture-style. Both these and the workshops are really great to get to know folks who are also interested in the topic, even if that's not what they actually do. At the one on technology and education, I sat at Negroponte's table. At one on spreadable chronic diseases, I sat with a guy from Kaiser Permanente. At the cultural leaders dinner, I sat with Yo-Yo Ma and Homi Bhabha. Each sessions proved to be utterly fascinating and a great opportunity to get to see issues from a different perspective. I was completely blown away by some of the amazing people at these sessions, both at my table and those moderating other tables. At the cultural leaders dinner, Emma Thompson showed a new short movie on sex trafficking which really blew me away. (Her PSA called I Am Elana is also mind-opening.)

Of the private events I went to, the best was a small discussion with Yo-Yo Ma where he talked about how successful people have fears and how challenging it is to be so successful so young. This was for the Young Global Leaders and so it turned into a fantastic discussion about issues related to being young and successful. I've decided that Yo-Yo Ma is a god - he is extremely playful and equally present and engaged. I found talking to him to be soul-enhancing.

On top of these structured events, there were also all sorts of different kinds of schmooze receptions and parties. I found that I was dreadful at these. I'm not so good about wandering around schmoozing people, although it was astonishing to watch some people who were tremendously good at it. I did OK at the parties where I knew folks (and there were a decent number of tech folks there), but otherwise... eventually I decided that I would be better off focusing on the small things involving intimate interactions with new people or friends of friends. I got to attend two non-structured dinners which were really great for getting to know new people and diving deep. Because Davos is cold and slippery, there are all of these shuttle buses that go everywhere. I found that I had many fun conversations sitting in those shuttle buses. This was much more up my style than the schmooze affairs so I decided to do some extra rounds on the buses a couple of nights.

At Davos, I was not a VIP by any stretch of one's imagination. In fact, I was pretty close to the bottom of the attendee pecking order. It was pretty entertaining to see how people's eyes would gaze over when they looked at my tag - politicians and heads of very important companies are significant; researchers.. not so much. Those who did want to engage me on my work usually wanted to get advice about their kids; I did a lot of parent therapy at Davos which was fine by me. But it really was weird to watch the hierarchies operate there. All the same, folks were relatively down-to-earth.

Another thing about Davos was that it became painfully clear that most business people are unaware of their role in the system. The conversations of the conference were heavily focused on environmentalism, inequality, terrorism, and doing good to solve the world's problems. What I found was that many powerful people desperately want to help solve these problems but they seem unaware of their role in perpetuating some of the ills. It was weird... I couldn't tell if such folks were clueless or delusional. I still need to chew on this a bit more. But it was fascinating to see that most businesspeople at Davos genuinely believed that they could help the world.

Many people at Davos wanted to know who I was going to vote for - our election is extremely interesting to non-US folks and I was completely shocked to find that most non-US business people that I met at Davos strongly preferred Barack to Hillary. I wasn't expecting that. As for the U.S. Republicans... they too preferred Barack if they had to choose a Dem. Even though we weren't in the U.S., the U.S. was overly present there. Our economy, our elections, our politics... all of these were front and central from the global audience. Very strange.

All and all, I got little sleep but had a fantastic time meeting interesting people and talking about ideas and watching how some of the most powerful people in the world network. It really was just downright absurd and I still can't get it through my head that they allowed me in. ::laugh:: Now I must process what to do with what I learned there.

Category: reflections & rants

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December 10, 2007

giving back

As those who have followed this blog for a long time know, December is the month where I contribute 10% of my salary to worthwhile charities and encourage you to do the same. This is my modification of the traditional tithing practice, but I prefer to give to the charities of my choice instead of to the church. This year, I chose to give to a wide variety of organizations based on advice from my friends, but I would like to highlight a few that mean something to me personally in case you're looking for a good cause to support. My personal emphasis this year is on women's issues and education.

	V-Day. Most known for their productions of The Vagina Monologues, V-Day works to end violence against women and girls worldwide, addressing issues like rape, domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, and rape as a systematic tactic of war. This is V-Day's 10th anniversary and I've had the honor of volunteering and working for V-Day since 1998. I've always been super proud of what we've been able to accomplish.
	Planned Parenthood. Much to my horror, 2007 has involved numerous judicial and legislative setbacks to women's rights, particularly around their right to choose. The upholding of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act doesn't even allow women to choose an abortion if they've been raped or are likely to die if they carry the baby to term. Aside from the amazing work that they do on the ground, helping young women get sex ed information (in a culture of abstinence education), PP also is one of the few lobbying organizations that has the power to push back at both federal and local levels. We're going to desperately need them in the upcoming years, regardless of who is elected.
	Wikimedia Foundation. As the foundation behind Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation helps make information broadly accessible to the public. My favorite aspect of Wikipedia is that it is completely transparent. You can learn who created what information, understand their biases, and challenge what content they produce. For me, this project is essential to the future of education; it is the cornerstone of media literacy. We need to help educate people to think critically about how content is produced, regardless of medium. In the meantime, we have to help Wikipedia grow.
	Goma Student Fund. Started by one of my friends, Goma Student Fund is dedicated to providing quality education to children who are growing up in wartorn Congo. Personally, I think that education is the path to stopping war and I think that it is dangerous to not educate children who are growing up in wartorn environments. I love this modest but doable project as a result.
	Central Asia Institute. A slightly bigger project, the Central Asia Institute focuses on community based education for girls throughout Central Asia (think Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other areas ripe for education-based corruption). This is the project that is documented in Three Cups of Tea.

In addition to these great women's rights and education organizations, don't forget EFF, Creative Commons, and ACLU - three worthy groups trying to project our freedoms online and off.

Finally, if you are like me, you detest receiving snail mail from organizations after you've donated. For this reason, I'm a big fan of donating anonymously through Network for Good - it's a good way to make certain you never receive mail of any kind while still giving you the tax credit.

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December 8, 2007

hiking in LA (and The Golden Compass)

Having not left the house or gotten out of my PJs all week (except for one short scavenging of food a few blocks away), G decided that I needed a change of scenery before embarking on another week of head-down data analysis. After breakfast on the beach, we went up to Topanga for a nice hike. One of my favorite things about LA is that there is so much hiking really close by. At the same time, I kinda suspect that I don't know all of the good spots. What are other good trails in LA and the neighboring counties?

Oh, and post-hike, we decided to go see The Golden Compass which was surprisingly good. (I was terrified of the potential for a dreadful adaptation.) I wanted to make sure that I saw it opening weekend since the Catholic church is urging people to boycott it. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Pullman's Dark Materials series. I love the fact that the protagonist is a young girl and I love that the whole series questions the relationship between science in religion (which is, of course, the reason that the Catholic church hates it). Having grown up on loads of super-Christian texts (Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Wrinkle In Time, etc.), I'm stoked to see young reader's texts that have a more critical view of religion.

Category: reflections & rants

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November 30, 2007

vacation was glorious

I'm baaaaack. OMG, it was sooo lovely to relax on the beach with friends. Fiction was read (i *really* loved The Glass Castle), Mayan ruins were visited, fishies were viewed through snorkel gear, food was eaten, and there was a lot of hammocking. Glorious glorious be vacation. And now I'm 30 (and :P to all of you who pointed out that this means I entered my 31st year).

More photos can be found here and here.

We ended up staying at a little house north of Tulum called Casa Rosa. Aside from the decorator's obsession with Pier 1, it was the most glorious place ever. If anyone wants a getaway with a group of friends, I strongly strongly recommend staying at Casa Rosa. I'm sooo going back. Yay for perfect affordable getaway house on the beach.

I strongly recommend against AeroMexico. One of my friends who was supposed to go on the adventure showed up at the airport to find that they had oversold her flight and they didn't promise they'd get her there for the holiday weekend. They wouldn't even check her in. No voluntary giving up of seats - they simply denied her access. Bad AeroMexico - that's totally unacceptable. I will never fly with them as a result. It was complete bullshit and she ended up not being able to get to the vacation at all. Bleh.

The Tulum ruins were pretty, but I really got a kick out of the Chichen Itza ballcourt, although I still don't understand the game that the Mayans were playing. And was it the winners who were sacrificed or the losers?

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Tags: vacation tulum mexico

   

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November 18, 2007

a burfday on da beach

The time has come where I must say goodbye to my 20s. To celebrate the beginning of my 30th year on this earth, I've decided to run away with a few friends and ponder the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. I'm headed to Tulum to play on the beach and wander through the ruins of ancient Mayan civilizations. More importantly, I'm about to embark on 10 days without Internet or email or phone contact. See you in December!

(Pic by zanzibar)

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November 15, 2007

who has a cute new car? me!!!

::giggle:: Guess who came home from the car dealer with a new gadget? A big one with monthly installments and lots of legal paperwork? ::bounce:: Isn't he cute??

Thanks to everyone for your input! You really helped me with my research process and I super appreciate it. I decided to go with a Scion xD because it was the right combination of small, cheap, quirky, practical, and dependable. I feel a little guilty because it's painfully clear that Scion is targeted directly at people like me and I hate ending up fitting into a stereotype, but, well... it is nice to have an iPod jack built in standard and have a design aesthetic meant for hipster 20-30somethings. Plus, I have to admit that I loved the non-sleazyness of the Santa Monica Scion/Toyota people who knew how to handle young people who didn't want to be dicked around. I really am a sucker for non-corporate corporateness.

Now, it's just time to name him. (Somehow, in my world, cars always get boy pronouns... kinda like dogs=male and cats=female.) My first car was an old Saab 900 named Cody after the Kerouac character who was always going somewhere but no one could ever figure out where. My second car, a Hyundai Elantra, was originally Cody Jr. but then got nicknamed Pierre on a roadtrip after it was clear that his horn was awfully nasal-y and French. We also decided that Pierre was gay because he was always getting attacked by mean people who didn't seem to understand him (for example, thieves broke into his trunk one night and took a Cribbage game that was housed in a CD-like case). OK... I'm going to stop there because it's probably clear that I'm feeling a little loopy and some might find my personification of my cars a little strange...

Category: reflections & rants

Tags: cars scion purchase

   

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November 13, 2007

my long lost handwriting

I tried to write a letter this week. As in I tried to pick up a pen and form letters through odd wrist motions rather than click-clicking my expression. I wasn't even going for cursive, but I was going for legibility so I tried to form the letters carefully. My first attempt failed so I grabbed a new piece of paper and tried again. After the second sentence, my wrists hurt and my garbled sentence was barely readable and I wanted to go back and delete one of the words. I gave up. I wrote an email.

At breakfast this morning, I was reading about the costs of teachers' failure to teach penmanship to children. Failure to write often results in reduced math and literacy skills, yet teachers are spending fewer and fewer hours per week teaching penmanship.

I can't help but wonder about this. I did learn how to write and, given the number of diaries I found last week, I wrote plenty... until college. I learned to type in high school and by college, I went completely digital for everything except problem sets. My college diaries were digital and my assignments were typed and printed out. I can't remember the last time that I wrote a letter by hand. The only thing that I know how to do with a pen these days is underline sentences in books, add 20% tips to credit card receipts, and scrawl my illegible signature. Once in a while, I write a few words on a stick-it and post it to my fridge as a reminder of something. But seriously, I don't write.

My handwriting skills have decayed. My ability to communicate without editing has decayed. My patience for creating text at a rate slower than I think has decayed. Typing is fast, handwriting is slow. So is handwriting all that important? Maybe the key is to learn to write while learning to read and then happily forget how to write? Or maybe my brain has turned to all sorts of mush without me even knowing it...

(On a related note, I wonder if Brown still makes students handwrite their college applications? Boy was that a bitch. Then again, I always wondered how many students had their parents do it...)

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Tags: penmanship handwriting

   

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October 27, 2007

shopping, shopping

I'm back in LA. No more traveling, no more conferences. It is now time to sit down and write that dissertation. Of course, that requires getting the ducks lined up. I did 6 months worth of bills yesterday. Today, i started doing some comparison shopping. What I'm realizing is that I'm a bad shopper. I hate choice and I hate making decisions. It's bad enough with clothes (which I don't buy) and it's much worse with gadgets.

My Sidekick is dying. Do I get the new Sidekick or do I switch to a Helio Ocean? Or ?? All I want is a damn good keyboard with a fantabulous interface for AIM and a relatively cheap plan that is data friendly. (Pah to the iPhone.)

I need a new car. Do I go for cute and get a Mini, go for the environment and get a Prius, go for practical and get a Hyundai Accent, Toyota Yaris, or Scion? Or is there something else that I should get if I want: small, fuel efficient, relatively cheap, and sunroof?

How on earth do people make these decisions? I started websurfing and it was like entering an infinite loop of information with opinions in every which direction. I went to the car lots and stores and it was just overwhelming because I don't like when people try to sell stuff to me (tis why I walk out of most clothing stores). How do people make decisions about what to buy? Oh right... friends. Shit. So, yo opinionated/knowledgeable friends: What car should I get? What phone should I get? Help me consume so that I can hibernate in LA and write. Tehehe.

Category: reflections & rants

Tags: advice car phone shopping

   

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October 2, 2007

read those contracts!

Much to my chagrin, most people do not seem to read the contracts that they sign. More horrifyingly, I'm watching as corporate lawyers increasingly introduce clauses that are manipulative at best, legal gag orders more often. I realize that most people don't read click-through agreements, but I would strongly encourage everyone to at least read employment contracts and NDAs, even the ones that look like click-throughs when you show up at a company to visit a friend for lunch.

A few weeks ago, I was asked to be an advisor to a project at a company that I will not name. The company is a large, public, profitable company with hundreds (maybe thousands) of employees, many assets, and way too many lawyers. The project sounded quite interesting so I read the contract. I would be obliged to attend regular meetings (?at my own expense - it wasn't clear?). There would be no cash or stock compensation. Yet, the kicker was this clause:

"In order to protect Company's Proprietary Information, Board Member agrees that Board Member shall not, while serving as a Board Member, perform any consulting or other services substantially similar to the Services for any company whose business or proposed business in any way involves products or services which could reasonably be determined to be competitive with the products or services or proposed products or services of Company. In the event Board Member has any question about whether a particular project would violate this provision, before undertaking the project Board Member shall seek a determination in writing from Company, which shall be binding."

In other words, they want me to work for free and agree to not consult for or advise any other company that is any way competitive with them in any aspect of their business. Given this company's assets, that would basically mean that I could not consult with any company whatsoever. You have got to be kidding me.

So, I wrote them a polite note asking for clarification on this clause. Perhaps they just meant that they didn't want me to do work in any way that would conflict with just that specific project? They told me that I should seek private legal counsel to analyze the contract because they cannot give legal advice. So now they want me to pay a lawyer to interpret a contract so that I can work for free as an advisor while not being able to work for anyone else in the industry? Needless to say, I said no thank you.

My other favorite contract moment came when I was on a panel with Cory (the master of contract rebuttal). The contract was insidious. Amongst many other problems with that contract, they claimed rights over any IP that I would introduce during my talk and made us legally and financially liable for all sorts of things. Needless to say, Cory and I both refused to do the event until they amended the contract. Their response was that no speaker had ever refused that contract before. ::jaw on floor::

We have become an immensely litigious society. As a result, lawyers shove contracts down our throats left right and center. Most people are not trained to interpret these so they are expected to hire lawyers to do so. (Not so bad for the legal profession, eh?) This really upsets me. Are there ways that average people can learn to interpret contracts and push back at them? I've gotten better at it after having read so many of them, but I don't think most people know. I also think it's important that people learn to reject contracts. I reject most NDAs. I won't sign them because they are usually so broad that they put me at risk in every direction. I can't imagine journalists sign them, do they?

I vote that there should be a "stupid contracts" equivalent of Chilling Effects because I think that these contracts are also chilling participation of all sorts.

In the meantime, I'd like to encourage everyone to read those nasty contracts. And stand up for your rights. Don't just sign them. And don't just assume that they won't actually enforce them. That's not a good standard to set. This is particularly critical for academics and others who subsist on freelance work and the intellectual output they produce. And if you're a company, think about the nasty contracts you're imposing on people. Does your legal team need to be that psycho? My hope is that if people start reading and refusing, companies will rethink their policies. But it all starts with reading the damn thing.

Category: reflections & rants

Tags: contracts law policy corporations

   

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September 20, 2007

travel schedule from hell, bright white light at the end

I'm about to embark on what can politely be called the travel month from hell: 12 cities, 3 countries, 13 different talks (with far too little overlap). I can bitch and moan, but there is a beautiful white light at the end of this horrid tunnel: hibernation. That's right, the moment we've all been waiting for... (or at least the one that I have): Starting November 1, I will go into hibernation to write my dissertation. From thenceforth, only personal travel (weddings, burfdays, Xmas), no conferences, only 1 paid gig per month. I've been practicing the word "No" lately and am getting kinda good at it. And I need to be because I think that I will be in hibernation for a good 6-9 months. Crazy, eh?

Thus, this upcoming month of conferencing is bound to be a nice little social hurrah before I disappear into the world of dissertation. As usual, I don't schedule anything during conferences but I'm always hanging around the conference or in the hallways and love adhoc socialization and food outtings. So, if it's your thing, hopefully we can play at any of these public events:

• PICNIC - Sept 25-29, Amsterdam
• MoCollywood - Oct 2, London
• Connecticut Forum - Oct 3, Hartford
• 4S - Oct 11-13, Montreal
• AOIR - Oct 17-20, Vancouver
• ASIST - Oct 21-23, Milwaukee

(Oh, and to pre-empt the question that I'm getting frequently these days and am bound to get at all the academic conferences, the answer is: no, I'm not going on the academic job market this year. I'll explain why a little later.)

Category: reflections & rants

Tags: travel conferences

   

Posted by zephoria at 7:15 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

August 29, 2007

i'm off!

I'm going to the desert. Last minute decision, like always. Gonna do it old skool style: beef jerky, water, and a tent. Be back Tuesday.

(photo by John Curley)

Category: reflections & rants

   

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August 26, 2007

my favorite books

Lately, quite a few folks have written me asking for booklists for this that or the other - course syllabi, lit reviews, summer vacation reading, etc. I decided that I should probably put together a list of my favorite books. I'm sure that there are things that I've forgotten, but this probably paints a decent picture of where I'm coming from. So if this is of any use to you, enjoy!

my favorite books

Full disclosure: I get a small kick-back for the links to Amazon. What I make from Amazon does not even cover the costs of server space for this blog, but it does help, especially since I've chosen to keep this blog ads-free.

Category: reflections & rants

Tags: books

   

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August 22, 2007

Australian Education.AU seminar talks

Earlier this month, I had the great fortune to go to Australia as a seminar speaker for Education.AU. Everyone warned me that it was winter and would be frigid, but to my delight, the weather in Melbourne and Brisbane was not any colder than a San Francisco summer day. I didn't get to see much of Australia (saving the 'roos for next time), but I did have a fantastic time. The people were wonderful, the food was delicious (go Melbourne), and it was just so great to be around so many folks invested in education who were not afraid of technology.

To my delight, there are recordings of my talks available for those of you who couldn't make it. There are lots of recordings cuz there was a LOT of me. In fact, I think I talked continuously for four days... many hours of which are on tape for your viewing/listening pleasure. The general topic was "Generation MySpace" and I was talking about social network sites, education, and learning. I did two keynotes, two sets of questions and answers, two panels, and a fireside chat (on top of lots of press and more 1-1 and small group conversations). Here are links of some of those pieces:

Video:
- Keynote, Day 2, Melbourne

Audio:
- Keynote, Day 1, Brisbane, Part 1
- Keynote, Day 1, Brisbane, Part 2
- Keynote, Day 1, Brisbane, Part 3
- Q&A, Day 1, Brisbane, Part 1
- Q&A, Day 1, Brisbane, Part 2
- Q&A, Day 1, Brisbane, Part 3
- Panel, Day 1, Brisbane, Part 1
- Panel, Day 1, Brisbane, Part 2
- Panel, Day 1, Brisbane, Part 3
- Keynote, Day 2, Melbourne, Part 1
- Keynote, Day 2, Melbourne, Part 2
- Panel, Day 2, Melbourne
- Fireside Chat with Mark Pesce, Day 2, Melbourne

Personally, I liked my Day 2 keynote better (cuz I thought I was funnier) but your mileage may vary.

[More will come when I find all of the links.]

Category: reflections & rants

Tags: education.au talks danah podcast australia

   

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August 13, 2007

memorial for Peter Lyman

In July, my beloved advisor passed away after a long battle with brain cancer. When I posted about his death, I was moved to learn that many of you knew him and loved him so I thought you might want to know about the memorial service that will be held next month in his honor. Please pass this along to anyone else you know who knew and loved Peter. If you are inclined, a fellowship has been set up in his name.

UC BERKELEY MEMORIAL FOR PETER LYMAN TO BE HELD ON SEPT. 11, 2007

A UC Berkeley campus memorial to honor Peter Lyman, former University Librarian and Professor in the Information School, will take place between 5 and 7 pm on Tuesday, September 11, at the Morrison Room in Doe Library.

Peter Lyman died of brain cancer, peacefully and at home, on July 2. Those wanting to honor his memory are invited to contribute to the newly established Peter Lyman Graduate Fellowship in New Media; checks addressed to the UC Berkeley Foundation can be sent to the UC Center for New Media, 390 Wurster Hall, # 1066, Berkeley CA 94720.

Category: reflections & rants

Tags: peterlyman memorial

   

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August 10, 2007

loss of context for me on Facebook

Le sigh. I lost control over my Facebook tonight. Or rather, the context got destroyed. For months, I've been ignoring most friend requests. Tonight, I gave up and accepted most of them. I have been facing the precise dilemma that I write about in my articles: what constitutes a "friend"? Where's the line? For Facebook, I had been only accepting friend requests from people that I went to school with and folks who have socialized at my house. But what about people that I enjoy talking with at conferences? What about people who so kindly read and comment on this blog? What about people I respect? What about people who appreciate my research but whom I have not yet met? I started feeling guilty as people poked me and emailed me to ask why I hadn't accepted their friend request. My personal boundaries didn't matter - my act of ignorance was deemed rude by those that didn't share my social expectations.

I lost control over my MySpace ages ago. I have long since given up responding to private messages on most SNSes. I had to quit LinkedIn after I got lambasted for refusing to forward requests from people that I didn't know to people who are so stretched thin that I am more interested in hugging them than requesting something of them. I don't know how to be "me" on Twitter because I can't figure out how to manage so many different contexts. I find it funny when journalists ask me what SNS I use. I'm on most of the English ones, but they always grow to push me away. Each had an initial context for me, but each one grew and lost that context.

I realize that I'm in an odd position. In some sense, I'm a "public figure"... at least in the world of social network sites. People see my name in the press and they friend request me and it's rude of me to say no. I should be grateful that so many people are so kind to me, offering feedback and ideas, allowing me to get my work out far and wide. And I am truly grateful, but I'm also depressed that I've lost the ability to participate in social network sites as a semi-private person. I do miss the days when I could goof around digitally and not be taken out of context by people who only know me as this strong-headed, confident public voice. Some days, I'm just not that together. Some days, I just want to bitch without being called a bitch. Some days, I just want to talk to people who couldn't give a hoot about social media.

When Facebook became the IT girl for the tech industry, I knew that I'd one day lose it as a space where I talked to my friends from college. I'm going to try out the Limited Profile thing, just to see if I can have at least a partial channel for my college world. If we didn't go to college together, please don't take it personally if you can only see the Limited Profile. That said, I can't even tell what's visible and what's not (lists aren't good for me) so I probably will just refrain from doing much on Facebook, just like I refrain from doing much on MySpace.

They say that social scientists study aspects of human behavior that elude them. I used to giggle at this, but I think I've backed myself into a corner. I'm not so good at managing multiple contexts and, here I am, studying precisely that.

Anyhow, I know folks are still going wheeeeee about Facebook. And I know people generally believe that growth is nothing but candy-coated goodness. And while I hate using myself as an example (cuz I ain't representative), I do feel the need to point out that context management is still unfun, especially for early adopters, just as it has been on every other social network site. It sucks for teens trying to balance mom and friends. It sucks for college students trying to have a social life and not piss off their profs. It sucks for 20-somethings trying to date and balance their boss's presence. And it sucks for me.

I can't help but wonder if Facebook will have the same passionate college user base next school year now that it's the hip adult thing. I don't honestly know. But so far, American social network sites haven't supported multiple social contexts tremendously well. Maybe the limited profile and privacy settings help, but I'm not so sure. Especially when profs are there to hang out with their friends, not just spy on their students. I'm wondering how prepared students are to see their profs' Walls filled with notes from their friends. Hmmm...

Category: reflections & rants

Tags: facebook context

   

Posted by zephoria at 10:29 PM | Comments (40) | TrackBack (0)

July 22, 2007

Education.AU = me + Australia

For the Aussies out there, I will be making my first trip to Australia in August. I will be offering two seminars as part of Education.au's series. On August 6, I will be in Brisbane and on August 8, I will be in Melbourne. At each seminar, I will be lecturing for at least an hour, answering questions for a while after that, and participating in a panel with youth. There will also be workshops and other activities where I will help those present think through how to leverage what's going on in relation to education, policy, technology, parenting, and social work. They should be pretty in-depth days and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to dive deep on issues related to youth and technology with a group of interested folks.

My understanding is that there is still space available if any of y'all are interested. You just need to register here. I should note that this is not a free event (getting me to Australia isn't exactly cheap), but I think that it will be worth it. Deep dives on these issues usually are. So come! Bring questions! Let's explore these topics together!

(My advance apologies to those in Australia who aren't attending these events. My time is pretty heavily scheduled and so I won't be able to meet up. Press is being handled by the folks at Education.au - feel free to contact them.)

Category: reflections & rants

Tags: speaking event australia

   

Posted by zephoria at 9:57 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

processing Harry Potter

I just finished reading Book 7 and am now back online.

Like many other Harry Potter fans, I've avoided the Internet like the plague since the book leaked two days before the release. I added mail filters to prevent anything related to Harry Potter from reaching my inbox temporarily. I restrained myself from visiting websites that allowed open content and resisted from doing searches. I simply did not want to know the ending.

For the final book launch, I decided to stay in Boston since I knew so many fans that lived there. Besides, I absolutely love the independent Harvard Book Store and figured that the excuse to support them would be just wonderful. It was a good decision because there was so much enthusiasm in Harvard Square. "Harry and the Potters" played Harvard's lawn and thousands of costumed children wandered about. They shut down the streets and there was HP music everywhere. The excitement was just overwhelming. And I couldn't help but repeat over and over again, "all of this is for a book???" The little geeky fangirl in me was having a field day. As we stood smooshed in the crowd to pick up our copies, my friend was astonished by the number of college-aged boys willingly dressed like adolescents. He kept chuckling and repeating things that were being said further back in the line. My favorite? "How many people do you think have hard-ons here?"

Some of my friends were too afraid of spoilers and chose not to go out and celebrate on the eve of the book launch. The mere existence of people who find such joy in ruining others' pleasure irritates me and so I was trying not to explode as friends were texting me with the antics of mean-spirited folks. One friend kept promising me that there was a most insidious place in hell for such folks. The spoiler who took the cake in the reports I got? The asswipe who had the gall to rent a plane and fly it over San Francisco/Berkeley with spoilers.

When I got to the airport on Saturday morning, I was giddy with joy