CogBlogged from ‘October, 2008’

Just got word via the tweetvine from Dave Lester that the first ever WordCamp Ed (WordCamp Education) is happening in Washington, DC, on November 22 at George Mason University. WordCamp Ed is a WordCamp focused entirely on educational uses WordPress — in schools and universities. The inaugural WordCamp Ed will be held at George Mason University on Saturday, November 22nd featuring a morning of pre-planned speakers, and a barcamp-style afternoon breaking into smaller discussions and sessions. Oh I am envious of those in the area that can show up. I will be a bit too far away, even farther than Arizona. But I really like that Dave is doing this- I got to meet him only briefly at WordCamp in August in San Francisco — but he is doing some very cool stuff with ScholarPress- plugins for WordPress that are of use to educators. I had a great time at [...]

photo credit: jespis (a.k.a. Friends Friends Friend) Like Leigh and many others (apparently “a hundred thousand” people), I got a Dear John letter from Eyespot announcing their departure from the video editing/publishing service. It’s not all that surprising; what is surprising that there are not more Web 2.0 dead sites, at least ones that will let you know they are tanking. It’s a useful reminder for anyone who puts all their assets into one bin (if there are such people) as well as the transient nature of the fun web cloud; like the economy it may just collapse on you leaving you to cry, WHY WHY WHY? (or WTF? WTF WTF?). I am thinking it is the beginning of some Darwinian evolution of only the ______-iest will survive (help me out with what the blank means… Bankrollediest? Funniest? Bought by Googliest?). The honesty of the first bits of the letter [...]

Asia Express by cogdogblog posted 8 Oct ’08, 2.31am MDT PST on flickr This is what the three previous weeks seemed like with my jaunt to Shangai, Hong Kong, and Japan. One tired dog. That worked out to be approximately photos per day. I’ve plopped them into a single flickr slideshow. Well, depending how how want to count Hong Kong, perhaps it is 2.5 countries- it is China and then it is not. That is another discussion. And for some reason… … I am sitting in an airport less then 24 hours after returning ro Strawberry, heading to Indianapolis for a meeting for a new NMC project. Road dog. Air dog. Must sleep. And must take more photos ;-)

That’s My Photo!! by cogdogblog posted 8 Oct ’08, 2.33am MDT PST on flickr A new round of self back-patting! One of my flickr photos is part of a museum exhibit… I got a flickr email request a few weeks back from a designer who asked to use one of my photos in part of a new exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences. For one of our interactive exhibits we’re looking for photos that show the different ‘personalities’ of water (salt or fresh, fast or slow, cold and warm etc…) and we’re trying to use Creative Commons licensed photos as backgrounds to our display. My original photo: www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/2208407738/ was actually looking through some clear water in Fossil Creek, AZ at the round pebbles. The display screen was fascinating- it was oblong shaped like a giant guitar pick shape, and the images changed as you waved your hands over the [...]

I did not discover the barfing flickr panda just followe dlinks in my gReader from sites like Mashable. The panda provides a different way to Explore flickr, the 500 most “interesting” photos as identified by the magical algorithm. The Panda just seems to be a new way to vew them; just sit and watch as new photos are upchucked: There is a bit more information, but no explanation, in Of Pandas and Rainbows. To some people, Explore is the ultimate beauty contest. It’s the pinnacle of Flickr, the achievement of achievements. They fret and conspire and worry, and actually get angry and frustrated, when their perfectly fine photos, never “get into” Explore. Except it’s basically random. No matter how artificially “interesting” you try to make your photos (Explore photos are selected via Flickr’s “Interestingness Algorithm”, affectionately known as the “Magic Donkey”), Explore is still only 500+ images each day. And [...]

Familar Photo in Flickr Search Results by cogdogblog posted 7 Oct ’08, 4.39pm MDT PST on flickr How weird it is to be in search of a flickr image for a post, and seeing your own photo show up? I have been using compfight for my cc image search, and a recent search on "microphone" brought up my own image of my old iRiver MP3 recorder- 3rd row, 5th from left- (why it is relevant is beyond me). I did not use it. This brings me to a different topic that perhaps deserves a more thought out blog post. There is some art, magic, and luck with getting good flickr search results. Just plain keywords matching what you are looking for does not always hit the mark. The image I was looking for was to go with my post on Paging @KathySierra – search on the word “paging” really brough [...]

cc licensed flickr photo by laffy4k Dear @KathySierra, I realize that you are, like, a big internet A-list star with lots to do and horses to tend, but am a bit saddened my twitter direct message to you has not generated a reply. We are really, really, really interested in enticing you to keynote at the 2009 NMC Summer Conference, which will be in Monterey Bay. With some guesswork and my fuzzy California geography sense, this ought to be a short commute for you. In August, when I was at WordCamp 2008, Matt Mullenweg shared with me that he had made all the arrangements with you to speak at that event over twitter direct messages– how cool is that? I thought it was worth a try. But hey, I know people are busy, so this is my second effort, yes a bit tacky I admit. You gotta try. I was [...]

A bit late, but right before boarding my plane form Osaka, I uploaded as an annotated flickr set the slides I used for my “10 Minute TED style” talk at Learning 2.008 The premise is we all know the Internet is “big” but forget how dwarfing a scale it is to an individual, drawing the parallel to the sense of scale one gets when standing art the edge of the Grand Canyon. Rather than throwing stats and charts, I instead use some stories of my own experiences that aim to show how incomprehensible the sale is. Yes, this is some recycled material from my Being There talks, but I think its still a necessary message. Or fun to fo. There is a ustream recording of all the great opening talks from the Learning 2.008 conference.

Community Weed Picking by cogdogblog posted 5 Oct ’08, 1.11am MDT PST on flickr As I was waiting for the airport shuttle van, my friend and host here in Japan, Bert, pointed out one more item of Japanese culture- posted in the notice board of his apartment is a flyer letting him know when he has to show up with the rest of the building residents to participate in weed picking. This odd sense of collective duty is pretty foreign to an American, but I am not making fun of it. It is just a different way, and as we talked about it, we thought about the creation of more "ownership" or our shared environment, of the social networking and community building that happens when you pick weeds with your neighbors. At home, we stay behind our fenced in yards or inside our air conditioned boxes glued to a TV. [...]

Traditional Korean Food by savagecorp posted 20 Jun ’05, 9.40pm MDT PST on flickr Main Soup Dish and 23 sides to nibble on. Sometime later this month will mark the 15th year I have been on the web. Every since sly Jim Walters at phoenix College handed my a floppy disk (showing my age right there) labeled “Mosaic”; the web has course through my being as to become a way to see the world. I keep forgetting that many people don’t operate like that, and the thought of the web becomes a side dish, where for me, it is the main course, the utensils, the music in the restaurant. In my years at Maricopa, I just accepted this, as it was there the web to the world went from techie gadget to central to many things, both work and social. I strove to make sure all actions my organization did, [...]