CogBlogged from ‘January, 2009’

Just stumbled across aMap, a little web app for setting up polarized discussions that can be done in a little map form, or as they say: aMap is short for ‘argument map’. The idea’s very simple – to promote the art of arguing by mapping out complex debates in a simple visual format. Sure you can do dogs vs cats, but just to follow up on the fun of my previous post, here is the hot “WordPress vs drupal” smackdown. Jump in the fray for aMap. This is Silly™ I am sure there is a more relevant use for educators. Linktribution to infosthetics

sick by cutglassdecanter posted 30 Nov ’05, 2.56am MST PST on flickr oh man did I find this here? I dont remember been there. bwwwwaaaap. There are googles of sites telling you how to blog, but I’ve not come across a secret strategy I have been hesitant to share, and I was actually mostly unaware of it until recently. This tip will not make you rich or famous, but maybe it will keep you in focus- read a blog you can’t stand. I keep tabs on (via RSS) of one or two blogs that just reading them can make me sick. Please do not ask me to reveal my sources, as (a) I won’t and (b) I won’t. That is not the point. But one of these blogs is by someone that has some prominence in the social media field, perhaps even makes a living from sharing their wisdom, and [...]

Note: This is mostly meant in jest to point out how religious we tend to get with our tools and even more so to play with the image below. Several people will react viscerally to my assertions. Please take this with a giant grain of NaCl. A does of Snark. All of this is based on my own experience. No web sites were injured in production of this blog post. I know and respect drupal enthusiasts. I know and respect WordPress enthusiasts. I myself associate with the latter, but I do use drupal for the bulk of the web presence of my day job. Have I set this one up with too many disclaimers? So take with some gross judgment that there are drupal people and WordPress people (and we love the extremists). And largely, those that are really successful in bending drupal to their whim are programmers, developers, people [...]

Rainbow over Skinnhufa by cogdogblog posted 3 Nov ’08, 2.28pm MST PST on flickr This morning’s mixed skies here in Iceland had both sun and rain… and sun and rain and sun and rain. Over the course of regularly complaining here about companies that get under my fur, it is incumbent upon me (wow, I never used that word before) to write when the opposite happens. In a relatively short turn around time (time for mail to reach from Strawberry, Arizona to Reykjavik) I have an email and a confirmed $400 refund to my credit card, that Icelandair has done the right thing (well to me) and refunded my for an unused ticket I was stuck with after delays caused me to miss a flight home November 29 (see the whole tale). I shall now write weekly praise of Icelandair (just kidding), but thank them publicly. Lesson learned- if you [...]

Carl and Bryan by cogdogblog posted 22 Jan ’09, 3.30pm MST PST on flickr I am long privileged to know and exchange ideas with Carl Berger, and am glad I did not sleep in this morning for his 8am presentation (he joked about the attendance similar to an 8am lecture) on the last day of ELI — “Publish or Perish: Online Reformation to the Rescue?” (it should be posted soon to the CARAT web site http://www.carat.umich.edu/carat/presentations). Among framing the “future” of publshing, and implications for new scholarship, Carl presented,a s usual in a fresh way, results of research the CARAT group at University of Michigan has done, and mainly in identifying a different set of attitudes towards use fo technology of what he calls “Millenial Instructors” – the combinarion of students who have some teaching roles (as TAs) and faculty who have some roles as learners (by taking classes). I [...]

Listen to the Reverend! by cogdogblog posted 22 Jan ’09, 3.29pm MST PST on flickr Jim Groom gets the crowd rolicking at our ELI session on "Not your Grandpa’s Blog" eli2009.wordpress.com This dog’s cog’s are wogged so the blogs are back logged. The EDUCAUSE/ELI conference this week continues to demonstrate it as a prime gathering for the edtech crowd, and to be less about shiny gizmos and more about shiny ideas/practices. They do a great job of adding new features like the self tags, the interwoven “Where is Professor Bluth” ARG, and just a great atmosphere. Among several highlights was co-presenting something “different” with colleagues Cole Camplese and Jim Groom. I joked that we “didn’t spend much time preparing” which is not quite true; all three of us have been prepping all these years; its just that we did not spend a lot of time (or any) prepping slides etc. [...]

Please do not give me an idea that CDB is anything of importance. To the 4 of so nice people who have written nice emails asking me to blog about their nice websites… well thanks but I don’t blog requests. I may look at them but I blog whatever I feel like. Please let me know about interesting web sites etc but don’t expect me to pitch ‘em. Stuff like this goes to my head and I am best kept humble, far down the long tail beyond the D listers. There I now have a policy– I don’t blog requests.

Got Snark by cogdogblog posted 6 Jan ’09, 11.10pm MST PST on flickr Today Amazon delivered my copy of Snark — "It’s Mean, It’s Personal, and It’s Ruining Our Conversation" Oh dear. I thought this book would be celebrating my beloved state of mind, but nooo…. In this sharp and witty polemic, New Yorker critic and bestselling author David Denby takes on the snarkers, naming the nine principles of snark — the standard techniques its practitioners use to poison their arrows. Snarkers like to think they are deploying wit, but mostly they are exposing the seethe and snarl of an unhappy country, releasing bad feeling but little laughter…. Denby has fun snarking the snarkers, expelling the bums and promoting the true wits, but he is also making a serious point: the Internet has put snark on steroids. In politics, snark means the lowest, most insinuating and insulting side can win. [...]

Black Gold Direct From Brazil by cogdogblog posted 17 Jan ’09, 9.50am MST PST on flickr What a gracious thing Carla did after leaving a comment on my breakfast photo- she offered to send me some favorite dark coffees from Brazil, and here they are on my porch in Strawberry, Arizona (better daylight for a photo). I am enjoying a luscious Saturday morning brew, looking out the window at the last remnants of snow on the Mogollon Rim, and taking in the idea that someone I know only from a photo sharing sites reached out to send me a gift from another hemisphere. If anything can help crack the dire the economy sky is falling pessimism. it’s a small act of spontaneous generosity. Carla, Seu café é muito bom! The world seems in a perilous negative state- people killing each other for reasons perhaps not more than stubborn pride of [...]

You Do What You Have to Do by cogdogblog posted 14 Jan ’09, 10.37pm MST PST on flickr Driving down to Phoenix tonight I stopped at a local Circle-K for some coffee and bottled water. I was surprised that the guy at the check out register was Dave, the guy I usually see down the street at his own store, the local dry-cleaners. This is what I am liking about being in a small town, a decrease in the sad anonymity of The City. I smiled, raised and eyebrow, and asked, "Double shifting it. eh?" He returned the smile and said quickly, "You do what you have to do… Actually the cleaner business is picking up and I was able to hire back my assistant who needs the work. I feel good about that." So here is the 2009 American Dream. Start your own business, and spend your evenings working [...]