Ignore This - Just trying to fix my feedster feed

No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster

My Email Woes

Well some spammer is spoofing my email address to send spam and all the bounce backs are hitting my email. 4000 yesterday, and we are getting past that today. It is bringing me to my email knees. The cost of changing my email address in terms of my network is painful. I'm considering some of those obnoxious filters that ask people who email me to log on to a website so I can approve them. YUCK!

Has anyone experienced this and found a reasonable solution? HELP!

News from Everywhere - Another Perspective

My friend Bev pointed me to News from Everywhere, produced by Rhys Evans. Evans believes that having multiple perspectives on issues is a good thing... especially in education. This week he wrote about the "The 'know-do' gap."

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said this week that academic research into cures for diseases which affect millions of people world-wide is not enough to make them work in practice. It claims that time and money is spent on work in laboratories, discovering new drugs, inventing new machines and tests, at the cost of finding ways in which this vitally important new knowledge can be brought to the people who need it.

73 billion dollars are spent every year on health and medical research, and 95% of that goes on laboratories, research and the people carrying it out. Much more needs to be spent on the sick people themselves, on developing public health policies in the countries concerned and on putting them into practice. As things are, the enormous progress that has been made in medicine in recent years has quite often not reached the areas where they are most needed. There is what is called a 'know-do' gap, a gap between what people know (knowledge) and what they actually do (action).

Good public health systems mean hospitals which are well equipped and function efficiently; having enough doctors and medical staff; making health care affordable to the people. There has to be good information and communication, so that the health of the whole population can be monitored; good training, and money to pay salaries to the health professionals involved. This aspect of medical research, says the WHO, not only is less well funded but for young students is seen as less glamorous than academic work. Systems need to be researched to help governments target more money at strengthening their health care practice. In Tanzania, for example, malaria caused 30% of deaths amongst children in 1996-7. As a result, more money was then spent on ways of preventing malaria, such as making sure children slept under mosquito nets, and child deaths from malaria dropped by 40% in the following years. How do you think that the know-do gap can be closed, and the millennium target of achieving better health for all can be reached?

[Source: Inter Press Service]"

I wonder if he'd ever consider doing this as a blog. I'd add it to my newsreader in a flash.

OK, time to stop blogging and time to go get my teeth cleaned. Which do you think I'd rather be doing?

Lee Felsenstein at ETech '05

Tech That Helps the World is the title of Lee Felsenstein's (Co-founder, Fonly Institute) presentation next spring at the O Reilly ETech conference. I don't go to these conference much due to cost/time and the primarily business focus of the events. This is the only discernable NPO/NGO offering, but it looks juicy:

Widespread perceptions that the technologies embraced by industrialized countries do not help--and in some ways--hurt the large number of people in underdeveloped countries presents a fundamental source of danger in the form of terrorism. The events of 9/11 have brought this point to the world's attention.

Industrialized nations therefore have a self-interest in fielding technological systems which perceptibly improve life at the grassroots level in underdeveloped countries, inhibit or reverse migration from rural to urban areas, and raise the level of education and literacy, particularly among women. The challenge is to build an industry whose products enhance individual and community life in a sustainable, locally-controllable way, primarily through communications.

Pilot projects are under way in various locations which combine low-cost computers, telecommunication, wireless, and alternative energy technologies to meet expressed needs of people on the margins of the global economy.

We will discuss several of these projects in this session, including the Jhai PC System (or 'Pedal-powered Internet'), the 'Motoman' project linking five Cambodian schools to the Internet through mobile access points carried on motorcycles, the Ecopartners projects in the Dominican Republilc, as well as others.

Systems of this sort combine low-cost, high-reliability hardware with open-source software and high-volume, low-cost wireless equipment. They must be designed to be operated by members of the local community and require substatntial community buy-in and understanding of choices.

We will discuss the design process, particular problems presented by the environment, and the opportunities presented for growth of a self-sustaining industry which serves this vast potential market.

theSpoke

This has to be one of the more unique CV's I've ever, um, experienced. If I'm reading Alexandre's blog, theSpoke, correctly, he's had over 200 fan mails and 30 job propositions.

The internet can connect, eh?

EPIC 2014: Imagine Media in 2014

EPIC 2014 offers an 8 minute future scape. Find out what EPIC is. Worth 8 minutes. Liberating and scary at the same time. Work of the Museum of Media History.

[via judi]

AOK_K-Net Discussion on Online Community

Online communities! Of course, one of my favorite topics on Jerry Ash's AOK list. Last week and this, the AOK guests are Joe Cothrel and Jenny Ambrozek. Lots of meaty posts and I think we are moving past the definition stage of the conversation. Cool folks, thought provoking conversations. Check it out. You have to join (free). AOK_K-Net

Ourmedia: Online Storage for the World

Working with folks in the two-thirds world where bandwidth is limited, many folks don't own their own computer (think internet cafes and schools) and hotmail and yahoomail are the mail services of choice, finding a way to store and share files is a big deal. Have great music or photos to share? No way with hotmail. So it was a kick to read about Ourmedia, a collaboration of folks from "the creative community, technologists, educators, librarians and others interested in spreading digital culture are backing the ourmedia project. Leading the effort are Marc Canter, a well-known technologist and open standards evangelist who co-founded the company that became software giant Macromedia, and J.D. Lasica, a veteran journalist, editor with the Online Journalism Review, and evangelist for participatory media."

From ourmedia Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): "What's the big idea here?

The idea is pretty simple: People who create video, music, photos, audio clips and other personal media can store their stuff for free on ourmedia's servers forever, as long as they're willing to share their works with a global audience.

Backed by the Internet Archive, ourmedia's goal is to expose, advance and preserve digital creativity at the grassroots level. The site will serve as a central gathering spot where professionals and amateurs come together to share works, offer tips and tutorials, and interact in a combination community space and virtual library that will preserve these works for future generations. And we want to enable people anywhere in the world to tap into this rich repository of media and create image albums, movie and music jukeboxes and more."

[via my SON!]

Sorry Everybody (I love this site)

Sorry Everybody is a prime example of the power of visuals. Text and faces. Settings. Scroll through some of these pictures -- a collection of apologies from US folk to the world post-Bush election and the acceptance of the apology from our friends across the world.

Very human. Very warm. Very electronic.

More on Successfull Computer Supported Collaboration

This one seems sort of "no duh" to me -- of course a team performs better when there is shared understanding of goals, plans, challenges and resources. This is true for all types of teams. What is interesting here is the concept map approach: how do we keep these things on our radar as we move through the work. What amused me was that the test subjects were 6-8th graders. In my more cynical moments, this seems a perfect simulation of adult workers. Smirk.

"Shared awareness key to successful computer-supported collaboration:
Tuesday, November 9, 2004

Chicago, Ill. -- Team members can collaborate more successfully and create better solutions to complex, ill-defined problems by using software tools that support members' shared understanding of long-term goals, plans, challenges and allocation of resources, say Penn State information sciences and technology researchers.

In a paper titled 'Evaluating Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: Models and Frameworks,' John M. Carroll, Mary Beth Rosson and Dennis Neale propose an assessment framework for computer-supported collaborative systems based on 'activity awareness.' The three also have developed a variety of tools-a timeline for document histories, deadlines and project status as well as a concept-map interface-to enhance activity awareness.

In the researchers' model, activity awareness includes such variables as context, communication, coordination and whether the structure of the work is tightly coupled-dependent on frequent communication-or loosely coupled-less need for frequent communication.

[snip]

While researchers have well-established models and procedures to evaluate single-user systems, there is no well-articulated framework for assessing multi-user, computer-supported cooperative systems, Carroll said. To fill that vacuum, he and the other researchers are proposing 'activity awareness.'

'Awareness is both a process and a product,' the researchers wrote. 'The more aware people are, the less there is a need to coordinate activities.'

The researchers studied sixth and eighth-grade students in two Virginia middle schools during 2002-03 and 2003-04. Both years, the students collaborated on science projects with peers from the other school. The project used a Java-based system called Classroom BRIDGE with features including a real-time interaction editor and an integrated chat tool. In addition to studying how activity awareness influenced collaboration, the researchers also introduced new system features in 2003-04 to support improved awareness.

Observation, interviews and questionnaires revealed that in the first year, students had difficulty collaborating with their remote partners. That breakdown occurred largely because important information known by one group of students wasn't shared with the remote partners. Planned activities were disrupted; schedules weren't followed; and ability of the teams to work together was compromised.

'In the second year, we had better and more stable software that included the timeline version and concept-map interface, and those gave the students a better awareness of what their collaborators were doing,' Carroll said.

Zephyr Teachout and the Internet's Unlit Fuse for Political Action

GREAT article, linked around tons of blogs (yes!). Come Together, Right Now: The Internet's Unlit Fuse

Time for a Group Hub

To call this “bottom-up” isn’t exactly right, because what I’m talking about is a productive tension between leaders and end users. Just as Ebay is better than a thousand separate auction sites, and each auctioneer on Ebay is happy that Ebay advertises and improves its user interface and sets good rules for all to follow, the most powerful political network needs a center and something of an ideology. But if it’s built right, the imagination, language, and work can all come from the edges. Not just individuals on the edges, but groups and communities on the edges.

All powerful networks have hubs. In the best case, the hub is responsive, but even in the worst case, an evangelist at the core allows for networks to grow and coordinate -- and the individuals in the network to know each other and feel powerful.

I believe the collective-action solving power of the Internet can transform politics, in the best way, creating possibilities for localized but connected political communities, but I don't think it's a sure thing. Simply put, we face a battle between three interests--corporate interests, radical theological interests, and the interests in building civil society. Arguably, whichever group can best use the Internet to create new channels of power and community may well define the next couple hundred years. So this is mildly terrifying, but it creates a tremendous opportunity. We can seize the opportunity to transform public life --international and national -- in a civic, deliberative, democratic way.

Gumption: Representations of Identity: Digital and Physical

Joe McCarthy writes about a cool session at CSCW 2004! I love that the session broke from session convention. Gumption: Representations of Identity: Digital and Physical

CSCW 2004 was a great conference on multiple dimensions (for me); personal highlights include participating in a great workshop, exploring Chicago, co-presenting a paper, co-organizing a panel and being inspired by the closing plenary. I'm going to post separate entries for each of these, starting with the workshop.

The workshop was on 'Representations of Digital Identity', in which we explored a range of issues relating to how people represent themselves in the digital world and the physical world. The organizers -- danah boyd, Michele Chang and Liz Goodman -- used a number of innovative approaches to facilitate the discussion at the workshop that I think made it a particularly engaging experience, and were rather well-suited to the topic(s) we addressed.

We started out randomly selecting handicaps from a handicap bag (danah's hat) to influence our initial presentations of selves (introductions), e.g., blindfolding, plugging ears, no use of pronouns ... I had the unenviable distinction of picking the 'You've been bad. Go stand in the corner while you introduce yourself' handicap. Our intros included name & affiliation, and an instance of when we experienced some disconnect between our perception of a person's digital identity and our perception of their physical identity.

We then were invited to bridge the gap between our own digital and physical representations of selves by writing our email address, domain name or mobile phone number on our foreheads, and study the reactions to these temporary tattoos by those in the room (other workshop participants) and those outside the room (participants of other workshops whom we might encounter during breaks) and even those outside the hotel. "

Work groups perform best when expertise is judged from task-relevant cues

Catching up with some good links. No time for comments! Sigh!Work groups perform best when expertise is judged from task-relevant cues

Bunderson's study shows that people rely on these social cues as well as specific, task-relevant characteristics such as experience and education — which are much more valid — in inferring the expertise of fellow group members.

"People are more likely to rely on valid cues when the group has been together longer and when the group has a more democratic decision-making style," Bunderson said, based on his study findings. "And my work confirms that groups perform better when they rely on valid cues."

The study also looked at the issue of influence and power within work groups. Bunderson found no evidence that status cues have any affect on influence within the groups except through perceived expertise. "This finding raises important questions about the nature of influence in task groups," the study states. The results support two routes to influence in task groups: influence through recognized expertise, and influence through legitimate authority, signaled by a formal leadership role assignment.

"Why is this important?" Bunderson said. "In an increasingly knowledge-intensive economy, organizations are becoming more and more likely to rely on groups of specialized experts to perform complex knowledge work. These groups simply can't be effective unless they can identify and utilize the expertise of their members."

"If we are going to crack this nut, we need to understand how and when different member characteristics will lead to expertise attributions," Bunderson said.

Bunderson's paper suggests several future research topics, including whether the hypotheses apply to homogenous groups such as same-sex teams or groups of one ethnicity, or to virtual teams where there is no opportunity to observe social cues.

"More work in this vein should yield important insights into the management of expertise in groups of knowledge workers," Bunderson said

Operating Manual for Social Tools

Stowe Boyd, danah boyd, and David Weinberger have teamed up for a blog that looks HOT! Here are a few snippets:

David's comment today hits home:

"the fundamental units of an artificial social network are not users and perhaps not even people, but are groups? A design that makes groups happy will make people and users happy, but if a design makes individuals happy but not groups, then the ASN has failed."

danah:

"The ways in which tools for mediated sociability are conceptualized and analyzed must shift. No longer can we simply study how the user interacts with the tool, but instead we must consider how people interact with each other and how the tool plays a part in that interaction. Note: people, not users. The tool is not a primary actor in sociability, but a tool that mediates. People should not be framed in terms of the tool, but the tool framed in terms of their use.

This means focusing first on the types of social interaction desired and THEN on the technology necessary to instrument that interaction. A technology first approach is a crap-shoot. It can work simply because people may find a way to repurpose the tool to meet their needs. But without an understanding of the social behaviors that should be supported, one should not expect the technology to be valued simply because it is good technology."

Here's the site's premise:

Operating Manual for Social Tools: About The Project: "The Operating Manual for Social Tools project is sponsored by ZeroDegrees, an online service that enables individuals to leverage their relationship connections with other individuals and organizations for business, career, and personal success.

ZeroDegrees has agreed to sponsor this site for the next four months to provide a forum for the discussion of rules and expectations for online social networks that will make social networks more useful while respecting the needs and privacy of their members. ZeroDegrees has agreed to exercise zero influence over the content of the discussions. The paid contributors are working for a fixed, non-renewable term. ZeroDegrees has further agreed that if the contributors feel ZeroDegrees has tried to influence them in any way, they can resign from the project but will still be paid.