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Posts Tagged ‘Technology’

Apple’s latest innovation: the iPad

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

There was much discussion (and premature, unsanctioned confirmation) about what must-have, can’t-live-without product would be revealed at this year’s Apple conference. On Wednesday, CEO Steve Jobs officially introduced Apple’s take on the tablet: the iPad.

Apple’s latest “magical and revolutionary device” was met with both oohs and ewws. Design and tech specs aside, let’s take a look at some of the reactions from publishing and branding perspectives.

Digital reading

The publishing industry continues to evolve as traditional print practices are challenged by the demand for online content. With the iPad, Apple is making sure it’s a part of that shift:

New York Times: Books on iPad Offer Publishers a Pricing Edge
Pentagram: Five Ways the iPad Will Change Magazine Design
Mashable: A First Look at the iPad for Publishers

Apple isn’t just entering the e-book reader market — it’s also challenging Amazon with its new bookstore app, iBooks. Publishers Penguin, Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Hachett have already made deals with Apple.

What’s in a name?

As for the name of the new tablet, my initial reaction to “iPad” was “iNotepad”. But the negative responses to the name choice should give Apple pause:

Fast Company: Apple’s iPad Name Not the First Choice for Women. Period.
Wall Street Journal: Apple’s ‘iPad’ Name Draws Snickers
BusinessWeek: Apple’s iPad Name May Lead to Fujitsu Trademark Feud

The tablet won’t start shipping until late-March, which gives the company time to listen, react, and hopefully improve upon people’s first impressions. What was yours?

Tags: Apple, branding, publishing, Technology
Posted in News | 1 Comment »

Great Lakes THATCamp

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Are you interested in studying, supporting, teaching, researching, creating, or otherwise shaping digital humanities? Great Lakes THATCamp (The Humanities And Technology Camp) is a user-generated “unconference” on digital humanities for those who want to show, tell, collaborate, share, and get inspired about the intersection and integration of the humanities and technology. The event will be held at Michigan State University’s Residential College of Arts & Humanities on March 20-21, 2010.

Inspired by the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University, this isn’t your typical academic conference where you read or are read to. Sessions will range from software demos to training sessions to discussions of research findings. As an “unconference”, you also won’t have to pay the average conference registration fee — $25 covers your meals (breakfast and lunch) and a THATCamp t-shirt.

Writers, academics, developers, students, designers — the list of those who should attend Great Lakes THATCamp is as broad as the field of “digital humanities” itself. If you’re interested in attending, please submit an application before February 10 — but don’t wait too long because there are only 75 openings.

For more news, announcements, discussions, and general hype about the event, follow @GLTHATCamp and the global THATcamp hashtag (#thatcamp) on Twitter or visit the event website.

To find out about THATCamp events in your area, visit thatcamp.org.

Tags: conference, digital, humanities, Michigan, Technology
Posted in Events | Comments Off

DCE call for submissions: Beyond ‘new’ literacies

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Digital Culture & Education (DCE) is now accepting submissions for a special May 2010 issue, Beyond ‘new’ literacies. Guest-edited by Dana J. Wilber, the issue will focus on the diverse roles digital literacy practices play both online and offline, asking:

How might the idea of new literacies be expanded through examinations of specific literacy practices with particular tools or technologies like social networking, digital games, and multimodal design?
How can new perspectives, practices, and theories — such as feminism, Queer, and gaming — provide additional insights around the congruencies and tensions between literacies and digital technologies across contexts?

DCE is looking for submissions from scholars, researchers, and practitioners working in areas such as literacy and education, gaming, new media, sociocultural studies of technologies, literary theory and technology, fan studies, adolescents and digital media, and media and identity. Submissions from research groups working in projects like video games research, digital storytelling, and mobile learning are encouraged.

The deadline for manuscript submission is March 1, 2010. For more information about the journal or the submission process, visit the DCE website.

Tags: digital, education, literacy, media, Technology
Posted in Rhetoric, Web | Comments Off

5 Resources for Digital Rhetoric & Writing

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

What do you think of when you hear the word “rhetoric”? Many may first associate rhetoric with politics, but what about the rhetoric of a design, or a video game? Rhetoric is about understanding how and what is communicated through language, whether oral, written, or visual. In fact, the study of rhetoric teaches students to speak and write effectively, which makes it a natural part of professional writing programs.

Today I want to share five resources for digital rhetoric and writing that are collaborative and interactive. These resources are rooted in academia, but are very accessible to anyone with an interest in rhetoric as applied to a variety of areas such as education, creative writing, new media, and technical communication.

Kairosnews: A Weblog for Discussing Rhetoric, Technology and Pedagogy

Kairosnews is a discussion community for educators interested in how rhetoric, technology, and pedagogy intersect. The community was developed for rhetoricians to publicly discuss topics such as blogging, intellectual property, and copyright that relate to academia and composition studies.

Computers and Composition Online: The Blog

Computers and Composition Online is the online companion journal to Computers and Composition: An International Journal. The blog is an online resource for scholars and teachers interested in the impact of new and emerging media upon the teaching of language and literacy, and offers features, announcements, and community resources to promote exchange of the latest and best work in the field.

Digital Culture & Education

Digital Culture & Education (DCE) is an international, peer-reviewed online journal for those interested in digital culture and education. DCE looks at the impact of digital culture on identity, education, art, society, culture, and narrative within social, political, economic, cultural, and historical contexts.

The Blogora: Rhetoric Society of America

The Blogora connects rhetoric, rhetorical methods and theories, and rhetoricians with public life. It is an initiative of the Rhetoric Society of America and is hosted by the Computer Writing and Research Lab, part of the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at The University of Texas at Austin.

Digital Humanities Now

Digital Humanities Now is a real-time publication generated from Twitter feeds of scholars that follow the journal on Twitter at @dhnow. These tweets are then processed through Twittertim.es to show articles, blogs, projects, tools, collections, and announcements that are relevant to and open to discussion by the digital humanities community.

I am always thrilled to learn about new resources, so if there is one (or several) that you use for learning about and engaging in digital rhetoric and writing, please share in the comments.

Tags: composition, digital, humanities, literacy, pedagogy, Technology
Posted in Rhetoric, Web, Writing | Comments Off

Call for proposals: Computers and Writing 2010

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Computers and Writing (C&W) is currently looking for proposals for its 2010 onsite and online conferences: “Virtual Worlds” @ Purdue.

The conferences will address the challenges of integrating new technology into writing classroom, as well as how writing technologies have pushed the boundaries of composition in virtual worlds.

C&W invites presentations that address or are based on the following:

Social Media and Writing
Gaming
Virtual Worlds
Emerging Writing Technologies
Technologies and Literacies
Digital Rhetorics and Texts
New Media

Check out the call for proposals for more information about proposal topics. The deadline for submission is Friday, October 23, 2009 by midnight EST. Registration for the conferences will open in early January.

“Virtual Worlds” @ Purdue
Online Conference: April 15-May 13, 2010*
Onsite Conference: May 20-23, 2010
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN

* Please note: For the online conference, people will be able to share and comment on work from April 15 to May 5, 2010. The “live” events for the online conference will begin May 6 and run for a week.

Tags: conference, education, gaming, Purdue, social media, Technology
Posted in Events, Rhetoric, Web, Writing | Comments Off

Using Google Maps to design portfolios

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

When I came across this on swissmiss, my first thought was: what do maps have to do with portfolios? The creative cataloging site Heavy Backpack explains:

Using an application, like CASA’s Image Cutter or the Automatic Tile Cutter, you can create your own map tiles for Google Maps. This means that you can replace image map tiles with any image tiles you like including other maps, or more importantly for designers and artist, replace them with portfolio images!

microtyp.org Portfolio
microtyp.org

This is a really interesting concept for portfolio design. It certainly speaks to the creativity that designers should have and it’s great to see “old” tools being used in new ways. But I wonder how users would react to this kind of portfolio design — if enough people are aware of how Google Maps functionality works, or even if they would realize what they need to do as a user. Only one of the featured portfolios made use of a help panel:

Stas Kulesh Portfolio
http://stas.kulesh.co.nz/

What do you think, is this a viable way to design portfolios? Or do usability concerns outweigh creativity?

Tags: portfolios, Technology, web design
Posted in Design, Trends, Web | Comments Off

Guest Blog: 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

A few weeks ago, I attended the 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference hosted by the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). You may have seen our event hashtag (#09ntc) trending on Twitter. Approximately 1,400 non-profit techies came together for three days in San Francisco, California.

A big focus of the conference was definitely social media. Nonprofits are exploring new ways of spreading their mission and deploying their message, which often involve YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites. Nonprofits are not only using social media to reach their audiences, they are also using social media for fundraising and recruitment purposes. However, nonprofits are quickly learning that in order to maximize the benefits of social networking, the communication needs to go both ways; conversations are much more effective than one-way communication blasts.

Highlights of the conference included the plenary speakers who kicked off the conference each morning.

Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, spoke about digital networking and grassroots activism. Some memorable snippets:

“The loss of control you fear is already in the past.”
“Once one person solves the problem once, the problem stays solved for everybody.”
“Don’t hire consultants. Hire your own 23-year-olds.”
“Nothing says dictatorship like arresting people for eating ice cream. The problem wasn’t the ice cream: it was the group.”

Eben Moglen, law professor at Columbia University, spoke about the ownership of software and knowledge:

“Knowledge has to be shared to be valuable.”
“In the digital world, we have escaped the constraints of scarcity but still bias against sharing.”

However, the best part of the conference was Holly Ross (Executive Director of NTEN) and her remake of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” music video. Holly’s video was a thank you to the NTEN community for donating scholarship money to help others attend 09NTC.

My favorite breakout session was entitled “Effective Online Communications.” This session, as well as many others, emphasized the need to plan and strategize before launching any new communications efforts (and to reevaluate old efforts once in a while to make sure they are still serving your original purpose!).

You can find my notes from 09NTC on my work blog. In addition, many of the breakout session materials are also available online.

Kristen Byers is the New Media Development Specialist for the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and she holds a B.A. in Professional Writing from Michigan State University. She recently attended the 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference and we invited her to share what she took away about nonprofits, social media, and professional writing.

Tags: conference, guest blog, nonprofit, social media, Technology
Posted in Career, Web | 6 Comments »

Lessig to fight Warner Music for fair use

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Lawrence Lessig, who garnered a lot of attention earlier this year with an appearance on The Colbert Report about copyright and remixing, was recently issued a Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice by Warner Music for a YouTube presentation, according to Ars Technica.

The growing volume of infringing content on YouTube has made it a major target for DMCA takedown notices. Unfortunately, the content producers that are flooding the site with takedowns are rarely taking adequate steps to ensure the validity of their claims and are indiscriminately targeting videos that fall within the boundaries of fair use.

Professor Lessig has spent most of his career focusing on the law and technology as it relates to copyright, and has already protested the takedown notice, citing fair use for the audio clips used in the presentation.

Lessig is strongly committed to educating the public, lawmakers, and the content industry about the importance of protecting fair use from DMCA abuses, so it seems likely that he will take advantage of Warner’s mistake to raise awareness of the issue. The fact that the notice was issued at all serves as yet another reminder of how easily the barrage of poorly considered DMCA takedowns can hit innocent bystanders.

This is yet another example of why professional writers need to be aware of and consider fair use, copyright, and other issues of authorship when writing for the web or when gathering clips for remix writing.

Professional writing professor Martine Rife recently testified before the Library of Congress US Copyright Office to argue in favor of expanding the DMCA to include professional writing students and their teachers, as well as any and all non-commercial use.

To learn more about the hearings and the DMCA, check out Martine’s blog, Radical Transparency, for a list of resources and links. You can also follow the process as Lessig fights the takedown notice on his blog or Twitter.

Tags: copyright, law, Lessig, Technology
Posted in News, Rhetoric | Comments Off

Professional writing professor to testify about copyright

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

On May 6-7, 2009, Martine Courant Rife, a professional writing professor at both Lansing Community College and Michigan State University, will be traveling to Washington, DC to testify at the Library of Congress US Copyright Office before the Librarian of Congress and the US Registrar of Copyrights about exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA; Section 1201[a][1] title 17, United States Code).

Every three years the US Copyright office has rulemaking proceedings in order to gather evidence about creating exemptions to the DMCA. The DMCA makes it illegal to hack into a DVD even if the purpose of that hacking is to gather clips to be used as “fair use” such as in remix writing. Specifically, the law states: “No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.”

These rulemaking proceedings have taken place three previous times. In 2006, some film professors requested an exemption and were granted that. The exemption reads as follows:

“Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university’s film or media studies department, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film professors.”

The rulemaking process includes submitting comments and responses to comments as well as requests to testify. In general, the educational community is asking for the film studies professor exemption to be expanded. In contrast, groups/companies like Time Warner and the Motion Picture Association of America do not favor such expansion. The hearings will decide this issue, and also decide whether the original film studies exemption will continue into the future.

Martine is arguing both in favor of expanding the exemption to include professional writing students and their teachers, as well as any/all non-commercial use. She’s also arguing in favor of including all DVDs, even those not owned by an institution’s library. Her request to testify can be read here (PDF).

For more information about the DMCA and the rulemaking procedures, click here. The schedule for the hearings is also available for viewing.

Martine’s research is at the intersection of intellectual property and professional writing. She has been teaching at Lansing Community College for nine years, and she recently received her PhD in Rhetoric & Writing from Michigan State University. She serves as an Affiliate Researcher for the WIDE Research Center at MSU, and is also a licensed attorney. She can be reached at martinerife@gmail.com.

Tags: audiovisual, copyright, education, Technology
Posted in News | 1 Comment »