Saturday, July 24, 2004

Too Darn Hot to Blog - Helps one be Less Blog-Obsessed!

Since I returned home I have been trying to catch up on my blog reading. This is not working well. I have tagged a bunch of things to read/review/blog but I'm not getting through to the point of blogging. Now I'm heading out again tomorrow for a client gig through Friday. Catch up? Nope. Ain't gonna happen.

As I've done before over the past few months, I find it helpful to stop and reflect on my blogging. What is it acomplishing for me? For others? How does it fit into my life? One of my current personal persuits has been to try and work less (work=loosely defined as me sitting at my computer either doing paid client work, blogging, reading, etc.) I totally let go during vacation, and I'm VERY happy about that. So I want to keep paying attention to balance.

Here are a few observations from the now-slightly-less-obsessed-blogging-woman:


  • I think "catching up" is not productive in blog reading unless I have a ton of free time. I am going to mark all my subscriptions "read" and go from there. Let go. Ahhh...
  • I need to examine how much I want to blog others' good stuff. Other people do a good job of that. If I just blog it, without some throughful reflection or review, I'm not sure it adds value. But I'm not sure about that. Thoughts?
  • When it is 96 degrees in Seattle (VERY unusual) one should head to the basement with a cool drink and turn off the computer.

So... I'm going to save all the stuff I have blogged as a draft. If it gets up next week, fine. If not, I'll share my cool drink with you.

 

Friday, July 23, 2004

Attention Canadians Working Abroad in NGOs. Blog Opportunity!

The Civiblog Project

The Citizen Lab is organizing a new project called Civiblog that involves making available to Canadians working for NGOs abroad free blogging space. For those who don’t know, blogs (or weblogs as they are also called) are online (ie Internet-based) daily journals.

We are looking to find as many Canadians as we can who are working for NGOS abroad to write blogs that will be hosted on the Civiblog community of sites.

(One example of such a blog that we've already created is the Kandahar Chronicles, written by an MSF logistician working in Afghanistan, which can be found here: http://ngoblog.citizenlab.org/kandaharchronicles/

There will be one major "meta-site," maintained by us at the Citizen Lab, that will link together all of the participants and house a collection of constantly updated resources that participants might find useful -- things like reports on staying safe in zones of conflict, job postings, travel advisories, etc. We anticipate hundreds of Canadian-NGO bloggers creating over time a virtual community that will benefit everyone.

The site is currently under construction, but can be viewed here: http://www.civiblog.org/

Participation costs nothing. The blog space will be free. Participants can update their blogs as often or as seldom as they like and it is up to them to decide what they are able or want to write about.

We will also make available space on the blogs for digital pictures and videos to be posted for those who have the equipment.

It’s a great way to host one’s own website for free so that friends and family can keep in touch.

If you are interested or want to hear more, please contact the person in charge of the project, Graeme Bunton, at graeme@citizenlab.org

Regards,
Ron Deibert

Ronald J. Deibert
Associate Professor of Political Science
Director, the Citizen Lab
Munk Centre for International Studies
University of Toronto
1 Devonshire Place
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S-3K7
Phone: (416) 946-8916
Fax: (416) 946-8915
http://www.citizenlab.org/
r.deibert@utoronto.ca

 

Thursday, July 22, 2004

Project Harmony Armenia - Online Facilitation Train the Trainer's Guide

Online Facilitation Train the Trainer's Guide

For the last two years I have had the honor, pleasure and great learning opportunity to work with the Armenian School Connectivity Project of Project Harmony Armenia. This spring we completed the second phase of an online facilitation training project (blended online/F2F/online). As part of our work, we created a train-the-trainers resource kit which is now on the ASCP website. Here is their introduction:

Project Harmony has begun to establish a legacy of helping individuals, groups and communities use online communication to address real local needs. Through topical online events, collaborations and partnerships, Project Harmony seeks to support change through the connection of people with shared needs and interests. One way is through the Internet using online communication and community.

Moving to this new way of communicating and blending it with our more familiar face-to-face interactions asks us to try some new things and work in new ways. This guide is designed to help trainers introduce these new ideas and ways to leaders who can then support their own online initiatives. It has been created out of the materials and experiences of Project Harmony staff and Full Circle Associates from 2002 - 2004.

This guide is not meant as a precise, step-by-step set of instructions. It is a toolkit of resources. You can determine what you need and select the appropriate pieces. You can and should adapt any piece to your situation. You may discover other pieces and can contribute them back to this guide, allowing it to become a "living, breathing" resource for connectivity-based interaction in Armenia.

This guide assumes that the user has a base knowledge and familiarity with online interaction. The PowerPoint presentations, for example, do not contain all the content and information, but instead offer you a framework to organize YOUR knowledge and experience.

 

Amy Jo Kim on Conversational Interfaces

In her post Conversational Interfaces Amy Jo picks up on something that has been emerging in my work in Africa where Internet connectivity is far inferior to mobile phone connectivity. So when doing distributed collaborative activities (learning, work, play) mobile messages make up the more day-to-day "connective tissue" of the interaction while the web based discussions carry the heavier content load. What is the interface between the two? She writes:

I've been thinking lately about conversational interfaces for mobile phone apps. People use their mobiles to engage in 'extended aynchronous conversations' -- so it seems natural to use the extended conversation as an interface metaphor.

One inspiring example of conversational interface design is the work of Jellyvision, the creative minds behind the hit game You Don't Know Jack. JellyVision is kinda a one-trick pony, but it's a REALLY GOOD TRICK. Check out their ICI demos and the Jack Principles. Thought-provoking stuff.

 

An Online Environment for Democratic Deliberation:

deme-principles.pdf (application/pdf Object) (Eye yi yi... haven't had time to read, but want to pass this along...)

ABSTRACT
This paper elucidates the experience and thinking behind our new web-based environment for asynchronous group deliberation: Deme (pronounced "deem"). Deme grew out of participation in and observations of group decision making and community democracy, and is being developed within a university-community partnership to enhance civic participation and to bridge digital divides. Civic decisions in the low-income, multi-lingual community of East Palo Alto, California, have mostly occurred in face-to-face meetings. This leads to a number of problems for community engagement that are amplified in a town where many people work odd shifts, have long commutes, and do not have good sources of local information other than Internet-based ones. Deme addresses these issues with a web environment aimed at making asynchronous text communication compatible with tasks that are ordinarily performed in face-to-face meetings. It has been designed for, and in collaboration with, small to medium-sized civil society groups that currently use email or message-board systems. We describe four criteria for groupware aimed at groups that ordinarily meet face-to-face: supporting the group's overall needs, comprehensive task support, enhancing group participation, and facilitating high-quality decisions. Deme's features are described with reference to these criteria.

Keywords
Groupware, Online Deliberation, Social Software, Civil Society.

 

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

PlaNetwork Journal Launches

PlaNetwork has posted their inaugural issue of PlaNetwork Journal, "a quarterly online publication for in-depth articles by those engaged in applying new technology to benefit the public interest." I have not read anything - yet! Their description:

The influence of information technology on fields as diverse as environmental science, biology, ecological design, alternative economics, distributed democracy, social network theory, and interactive forms of art is transforming the landscape of the possible. Over the past four years, PlaNetwork conferences have been a meeting place for researchers, software designers, entrepreneurs, independent scholars, artists, and activists working at the intersection between technology and societal transformation.

PlaNetwork Journal is a place where practitioners can present their work and ideas to those outside their own field who share their concern about the challenges facing the ecosystem and democracy.
In the July 2004 issue:

"Anybody Can Be TV: How P2P Home Video will Challenge The Network News," by Drazen Pantic -To be a real-time video journalist, all you need is a blog, a camcorder, and a laptop with WiFi.

"Earth as A Lens: Global Collaboration, GeoCommunication, and The Birth of EcoSentience," by Bonnie DeVarco -How might a dynamic, collective, 3D "GeoBrowser" transform our relationship to our planet?

"Interactivity and The Open Society," by Hardin Tibbs - In the digital age, liberal society must find new, appropriate ways to measure and value freedom.

Special Section — Social Networks: Where Software Meets Citizenship

"Network-Centric Thinking: The Internet's Challenge to Ego-Centric Institutions," by Jed Miller and Rob Stuart -When advocacy groups embrace digital democracy, the reverberations shake the whole organization.

"The Social Web: Creating An Open Social Network with XDI," by Drummond Reed, Marc Le Maitre, Bill Barnhill, Owen Davis, and Fen Labalme -New open standards introduce long-term, trusted links between people, groups, and bits over the Net.

"Indymedia's Independence: From Activist Media to Free Software," by Biella Coleman -The global, decentralized, grassroots network applies open source principles to reporting the news.

"Call for A Social Networking Bill of Rights," by Duncan Work -A social software pioneer suggests how "six degrees" websites ought to treat personal information.

"The Democracy Aid '04 Campaign," by Kajsa Klein -Why shouldn't a group of Swedish activists use the Web and MoveOn to influence the U.S. elections?

"The Pavilion: Into The 21st Century A Laboratory for Social Experiment" by Randall Packer -Exploring the esthetics of interactivity, inspired by Billy Klüver's art and technology masterpiece.


 

MBA Student Suvey Project: The Blog as a Meaningful Business Tool

Matthew Lin wrote me and asked to help publicize his survey. If you leave your email addy at the end, he'll share his report. Here is his email:

Dear Nancy,

My name is Matthew Lin, an MBA candidate at University of New Brunswick at Saint John, Canada. I am currently conducting a research on how weblogs are being used as business tools, and their particular implication for small and medium enterprises. I have designed a questionnaire in order to survey individuals who publish weblogs or can describe the reasoning behind their company’s weblog. The survey will be posted online for one month, starting next week. I am seeking your assistance to promote this survey to your readers, in hope of gathering a good cross-section of business weblogs. Please spread the word!

The survey is available at: http://business.unbsj.ca/bblog/

Additional information about this project (e.g., objectives, hypotheses) are available upon request.

Thank you for your consideration. If you are aware of others who might also be
interested in posting this questionnaire URL, please feel free to forward this email to them.

Sincerely,

Matthew Lin

 

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Back from Vacation

Ahhh, mostly offline, totally playing since July 8th. That is good medicine. Now to reenter my online reality... and a new Blogger interface! Things changed while I was gone! Pictures and stories from vacation slowly getting online at http://www.fullcirc.com/weblog/travelblog.htm/