CogBlogged from ‘November, 2009’

cc licensed flickr photo shared by Fenchurch! November was a month of taking on more of the “do something every day” type projects, and I think the madness needs to stop. I’ll stop every day. This of course, is not a promise I intend to keep. I find these challenges very rewarding, especially the ones that you convince yourself that you can’t do before you try. How common is it we defeat our efforts from the start? For a recap… 2009/365 Photos I’m in the second year of the informal group that spring up over the idea of trying to take photographs every day, and posting our best to flickr, sharing in the 365 Photos pool. This is one of many things I file under the strategy of Do What D’Arcy Does. In 2007, this idea was a solo project of D’Arcy Norman; I chimed in 2008, and we started [...]

I stand near the front of the line of people who think that the news and publishing business is perched on the edge of looming change that will undermine them as much (or more) than the recording and film industry have faced. This is hardly “news”. But there is this ramping eagerness to be the “first” to report news, that it might be better to be first to report a story rather than the first to report a “good” (or even “correct”) story. An isolated incident; ut of some weird curiosity, because I rarely rush to news stories, I noticed that Dean Shareski had retweeted a story that Tiger Woods was seriously injured in a car crash. BULLETIN — REPORT: FAMED GOLFER TIGER WOODS SERIOUSLY INJURED AFTER CRASH NEAR FLORIDA HOME. I am not a golf fan, but I was more curious about the account reporting this story, BreakingNews. A [...]

cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Now that she knows all about twitter, is Mom trying to pull an Evan Ratliff disappearing act? She grabbed my new issue of Wired before I could even read it myself, and was quite absorbed in the cover article. Lest I blog the wrong impression that Mom and I have this fabulous Hollywood scripted movie relationship, let me fill you in that she still can annoy the hell out of me (she gets pleasure at “pushing my buttons”) and she can manage to frustrate me into a fit that flashes me back to age 16. On the other hand, for her having gone through the whole birthing process and raising/supporting me to reach adulthood, I give her a lot of slack. Everyone has a mom. I do love mine, but one is more than enough!

cc licensed flickr photo shared by lynchseattle I’ve read and pondered some of my colleagues concerns when they find some creepy account or nefarious avatar follows them on twitter. They have to deal with blocking or reporting or just feeling slimy. My own approach is quite simple, but I’d never presume to suggest it is the best strategy for others. I have no idea who follows me. None. cc licensed flickr photo shared by abbey*christine You see, I turn off email notification of new followers, so there is no time wasted looking at their profile, trying to figure out who the person is or whether they are creepy or wonderful. It does me no harm if some spammer, scam artist, weirdo, or just stalker is listening to me tweets. I don;t see ‘em or hear ‘em. And I don’t choose in turn whom I follow based on some expected reciprocity [...]

cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog My mom is visiting me for the next 2 weeks. This morning, she said, “Can you explain this ‘twitter’ thing to me over lunch?’. I could not resist rushing out to tweet it ;-) which got some interesting responses, including one from Dean Shareski, who asked me to record the conversation. So at lunch time, I sent out a repeat request, and first sat Mom down at the computer to watch the Common Craft Twitter in Plain English video cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog and then turned on the recorder to capture our conversation (it was great because tweets were coming in as we were talking) Here’s what twitter can accumulate for the related tweets: http://search.twitter.com/search?ands=mom&ref=cogdog Here is our conversation Telling Mom About Twitter (15.8 Mb mp3)

cc licensed flickr photo shared by jamesjyu We had a disturbing new phase on the NMC web site a few weeks back. Over a weekend, our office reported a flurry of about 200 accounts created. What we found was that real humans (because they got past a captcha) with real email addresses (because we send passwords to an email address) were logging into their NMC web site accounts, and editing their profiles to include links to the usual steaming pile of spam web sites, again seeking google page link. Some of them were using actual photos to make their account look more “real” (the links they put in profiles were dead give aways). There were all kinds of emails used (a lot of gmail but many others) and the IP addresses I could trace were random. Our spam heroine in the office began deleting the accounts as they were created, [...]

Harvard Law prof Jonathan Zittrain deals with big scary issues, like encroachment of first amendment rights online and the invasions of privacy from bad software. His recent book paints a possible dark future for the internet. So it was a wonderful surprise when on last week’s plane travel I watched his TED Talk on The Web as random acts of kindness Zittrain here gives a brilliant, upbeat talk, and actually explains how the internet works (no tubes) – as he does so by comparing the movement of packets to how a beer gets passed down the row to someone at the ball game. More than that, the picture he paints that the mechanisms and bits that make the whole machine hum along, the vehicle that propels Wikipedia, has to do with a small number of people volunteering to do collective acts of good deeds, kind of Amazing Story like things [...]

cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog I’ve been home a few days now following a 2 week travel route that included the last week in Doha, Qatar to participate in the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE). It was an unusual meeting/trip/experience on several fronts, and I’m baffled trying to find a coherent thread to pull together, so lacking that, I am winging it. The event itself, was usual and unusual, and mostly what I can say the event happening itself was the real result. It was an audacious undertaking, daring, many said, for Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, an extremely articulate woman leader in a place where woman don’t often lead, to convene 1000 educators/business people/press/publishers/activists/one cogdog to focus on making education, on a global skill, a vital/necessary goal. Some said the aim was to make WISE the “Davos of Education”. I did not really see much [...]

cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog I arrived in Doha, Qatar, after the 4+ hour trans USA flight, and then another long 13 hour hop on Qatar Airways- which I have to say for even in coach class, had amazing service on the giant 747- everything from hot towels to cold beer to meals like shrimp paella, on demand movies at your seat. This trip came as one of those invites that you may first glance at and think is just spam, but it is for real- an invite from Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned– for the World Innovation Summit on Education has invited 1000 international educators to Doha, Qatar: The WISE multidisciplinary platform and cross-sectoral summit that will bring together an audience of 1,000 opinion leaders and stakeholders from 120 countries, including academics, political leaders, representatives of international organizations, NGO members and private sector executives. [...]

cc licensed flickr photo shared by Darren Larson I’m feeling many parallels between my current training to run a half marathon and trying to crank out 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo. Obviously a regimen is needed, the goals are both things I question (or have questioned) whether I can do, falling behind the schedule– puts you behind the schedule, sometimes in a spiral of self-criticism. I’m not saying I Hate Writing, but it is damn hard, especially when there is little time to be un-inpsired. Just when you think you’ve done a good run, the damn clock on a treadmill or the NaNoWriMo chart, sets you in a head down grunt up hill. I am not climbing the right hill! Tomorrow is mid-way in the month, and to be on pace, I should be at 25,000 words, and thus am about 7000 behind. It’s easy to get obsessed with the count, [...]