Blogs and support of inquiry.

Nurul Asyikin:

[...] It was horrible – the night before my proposal presentation I was desperately trying to find a way to convey the potential I saw in blogs as a new tool for community building to a roomful of disbelievers. For some reason, none of my web searches last year returned any academic papers on blogging, so you can imagine how completely alone I felt.

A couple months later, things have changed. I've found a multitude of papers (I'm listed there, even), blogs and websites, all devoted to the various possibilities presented by weblogs. I've no idea why I couldn't find them last year, when I felt so alone.

It could very well be because of this blog. Since I set this page up, I've received a bunch of emails offering help and support in writing this thesis. It's heartwarming, and somehow knowing that other bloggers care really does a lot for my confidence in doing this research. It's nice to know that blogs mean as much to other people.

[Seb's Open Research]

interesting info here, there should be quite a few blog related research things happening this year, conferences and such. as we all know that once a subject becomes academicized, it becomes boring….:) well maybe not…

BuddySpace.
Now that the notion of presence is beginning to infuse our electronic communication, an inevitable next question is: presence where? Marc Eisenstadt, chief scientist at the Knowledge Media Institute of the Open University in the UK, wrote to show me a Jabber-based system called BuddySpace that locates presence indicators on maps. In the map shown here, Marc (top row, third photo from right) is present in the office, but idle. Martin Dzbor (bottom row, far right), KMI's “chief presence architect,” is present and active. And that little dot on the US map, in New England, is me, present and active.
… [Jon's Radio]\

ooo this looks cool. I'm not a big fan of presence theory, thinking that presence is more or less a fiction based on various assumptions which have yet to be really shown to my satisfaction, yet lots of people seem to think that pictures and video help form a 'presence' for others and spend lots of money showing that and using that… such is life

Fascist Websites For Children!. Fascist Websites for Children! Concerned that your children might not be getting the guidance that they need in their quest to grow up to be healthy and productive citizens of the Homeland? Worry no more! Hint, it's funny! (via sixdifferentways). [MetaFilter]

See this is the sort of thing NoIndoctrination.org should be looking at, but No-ooo, they are interested in the least likely time for any change in a persons life ideologically, yes, there are studies that show that people are unlikely to change fundamentally in college, though they do tend to polarize left or right. but children learn their politics fairly well, fairly early…

Robot aide for elderly unveiled by Mitsubishi [bOing bOing]

not sure if this is cool, but it has been in development for a while.

CHEST – VLE Comparison Grid. Quote: “Blackboard Learning System** (Blackboard) learning environment (FD Learning Ltd) LearnWise** (Granada Learning) Virtual Campus* (Teknical Ltd) WebCT Campus Edition Pilot** (WebCT, Inc)” [Serious Instructional Technology]

very helpful, i wish more people were doing analyses like this, only including free and open source software

Ah, the Memories. Passing along a forward from an old high school friend. Yes, I'm a small town girl. Actually, we never even… [Inside Gretchen's Head]

oh yeah, i've been there….

Abstract Deadline, Feb. 14, 2003

http://www.ssc.msu.edu/~dc2001/DC2003.htm
Digital Communities 2003
Organizing in a Networked World
Workshop: Goteborg, Sweden June 12-14
Conference: Stockholm, June 15-18

Digital Communities 2003 will be held in Stockholm and will be hosted by KTH -
Royal Institute of Technology. The program has been designed to facilitate the
presentation of research in an interdisciplinary setting; to encourage the
development of networks of scholars sharing an interest in the social and
geographic impact of information technologies; and to introduce participants to
new IT related developments in and around Stockholm.

Suggested Themes:
Constructing and Maintaining Digital Communities
Visualizing the Digital and Digitalizing the Visual
Work and Leisure in the Digital Economy

Please ignore the painting behind the curtain.. Please ignore the painting behind the curtain. In a move that mirrors the covering of the bare-breasted Spirit of Justice statue at the Justice Department last January, the U.N. installed a curtain to hide Picasso's anti-war masterpiece Guernica last week. [MetaFilter]

bad u.n., bad. ever wonder who makes these decisions?