The Long Road: Comments

Comment on "Zotero, the iPad and Summer Research"

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 07:58:18 -0500

Have you looked into using zotfile and zotfile reader with dropbox on the ipad. It can push and pull annotated files out of dropbox. Works like a charm on the iPad. Currently trying to figure out how to use it with the Zotero Standalone.

- Terry Elliott

Comment on "Integrating Mendeley into the Research Circle"

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 05:46:01 -0500

And GoodReader's PDF reading features are lightyears better than Dropbox's, so immediate integration with GoodReader would be great (although GoodReader can download files from Dropbox??

- Nintendo Wii Remote

Comment on "Making Google Smarter"

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:18:34 -0500

maybe the computers can help us with our bugs:
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/14/137552517/brain-bugs-cognitive-flaws-that-shape-our-lives

- dirkusa

Comment on "Making Google Smarter"

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:17:10 -0500

Your comments about Vic Gundotra (and, of course, his comments to TechCrunch) are especially important. Google has adopted a new stance on social interactions. I'm not sure that Google+ is the perfect representation of their new view, but it is well positioned to grow into that ideal.

I think one of our most enduring social experiences is what we can call the town square model. For centuries, humans gathered to talk publicly and privately in some culturally acceptable location. This is represented in every era from the Romans (the Forum) to today (the small town coffee shops where locals gather, for one example). We use this imagery in our political communication frequently - for good reason - because we can all identify with it. There are microcosms all over (at University Park, it's the HUB; in my office, it's a certain part of the cafeteria/lunchroom). How we translate that social experience into one that can endure longer and reach a greater number of people - through the internet - is a great concern.

Networks have attempted to create parallels to this social experience. This is not likely to succeed over the long term. MySpace attempted to build its social experience around tools (the gadgets, applications, add-ons, etc). Facebook got closer by attempting to build its experience around information (what books do you like? what events are you attending?). They saw the successful model of the town square and wanted to create a new one that they thought would be more appropriate for the internet age. MySpace did not succeed. I suspect Facebook (even without Google+) is a finite entity as well.

On the other hand, I think Google saw the town square and decided to do their best to translate that to the internet. Each Circle is a different conversation; each Huddle a different soapbox; each Sparks a different public lecture. The beauty of this approach is that it's wide open. The metaphor of the town square makes sense: Google+ is (for now) a wide open arena where we, the human users, can adapt it to our needs. It's not a new system; it's an old system - that works - placed online. I find that tremendously appealing.

Thank you for your post - I think your review is precise. I agree with your analyses of the features.

- Sam Loewner

Comment on "Making Google Smarter"

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:42:16 -0500

Excellent review.

Understanding human interactions and needs is critical to a (or the next) successful social media site. As I was reading this I thought about a recent TED talk by Rebecca MacKinnon. A finely tuned social system or human centric system may raise issues with over-sight and control by industry and government. I don't want to follow the path of a conspiracy theorist to far, and theses issues would exist with other social sites regardless of the engineering design philosophy, but does a more inviting and responsive environment make us more susceptible to the dangers mentioned in your post? Could we loose site of how we may be being manipulated? I guess it may be up to us to expand or narrow our perspective.

On a more direct note I have been looking for an environment in which it is easy to manage multiple identities. It seems Google+ is close. The circles allow for more fluid control. It would be nice to be able to establish profiles & feeds for various circles. I think it would benefit the audiences rather than the user. For example my professional circles probably don't care what my kids ate for dinner, but my family circle might. It would be nice to easily control the flow of updates, so the audiences are getting information that would be the most useful to them without cluttering their stream. I guess that is why I have kept Facebook and Twitter somewhat separate.

The hangout feature seems to have great potential. Thanks for the post and insights on education and technology.

- WAYNE E ANDERSON

Comment on "Learning the Art of Relaxation"

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:18:50 -0500

it's always something to see how many folks who write expertly about say embodiment,mindfulness, or heideggerian moods never come to practice these kinds of related disciplines, surely one of the most important ways for the humanities, esp. philo, to be relevant to the lives of the public is to offer ways of living beyond ways of reading/writing. enjoy your moral holiday

- dirkusa

Comment on "Learning the Art of Relaxation"

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:41:07 -0500

Nice post. Hey, can I call you in Stone Harbor? I have a question about our meeting on Monday.

JUST KIDDING!

- dhawhee

Comment on "Closing the Digital Research Circle"

Thu, 26 May 2011 21:11:17 -0500

I did not know about Mendeley, but I've tried it upon your suggestion. It is a great tool! I would say that Mendeley is a combination of Zotero and PDF Reader, which are good for reference management plus annotation. Also, I found that Mendeley is great for sharing documents among a private group. As far as I know, Zotero does not allow a group to share actual files. Although I heavily rely on Zotero, I see myself using Mendeley for group projects.

I believe that using NVivo is a different story as it is a serious qualitative research tool. Like your reaction, I would not use NVivo to review and annotate a small number of documents as it involves multiple steps. However, if you need to analyze and synthesize approximately 10 or more articles or scripts, perhaps NVivo would be the most effective tool. I know that the developer (QSR) of NVivo is trying to make this process simpler.

- Hyung Joon Yoon

Comment on "Closing the Digital Research Circle"

Wed, 25 May 2011 21:20:06 -0500

Yikes, Hyung, that seems like a lot of steps to go through to do some annotating. I think things are getting easier as Dropbox and the iPad are playing well together. Also, Mendeley does a nice job of handling the renaming of PDF files if you tell it how you want to format the names.

- Christopher P. Long

Comment on "Closing the Digital Research Circle"

Wed, 25 May 2011 18:19:24 -0500

Here are what I am doing:
1) Use Zotero to keep all references and PDF files on my main laptop (needs FF)
2)Change the PDF file names using the "Rename file from Parent Metadata" function
3)Convert selected PDF files into Word documents using ABBYY FineReader or ABBYY PDF Transformer. (These ABBYY products are amazing in converting PDFs to Word docs.)
4)Import all the documents to NVivo, which is an excellent qualitative research tool
5)Log on to the the main laptop from anywhere by using any device that has a remote desktop feature (I know that iPad also has several apps that allow you to do this)
6)Start annotating, categorizing, and classifying the content.

--> You can keep everything on one computer and annotate documents using NVivo. Your synthesis work becomes a lot easier this way, although it requires some conversion work.

- Hyung Joon Yoon

Comment on "Summer Research in Digital"

Tue, 24 May 2011 19:42:48 -0500

http://www.garyhall.info/about/

- dirkusa

Comment on "Summer Research in Digital"

Fri, 20 May 2011 16:56:48 -0500

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-it-phenomenology/

- dirkusa

Comment on "Chloe at the Philadelphia Museum of Art"

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 08:40:41 -0500

This was really cool! You should take her back there in a year or so(hopefully the obsession of art persists) and ask her to make new sketches. It would be a great idea for a digital scrapbook. Showing her sketches, year by year, next to the original in a digital scrapbook would be such a great memory for the future.

- Digital Scrapbooking

Comment on "Chloe at the Philadelphia Museum of Art"

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 08:37:06 -0500

- Digital Scrapbooking

Comment on "Evolving Digital Research Ecosystem"

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 14:28:01 -0500

You need devonthink and Sente in your life. Just saying.

- Andy

Comment on "Cultivating New Ecological Habits"

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:19:20 -0500

I find the ecological vision presented by those who are politically "left-of-center" increasingly disturbing. It's like a "Green" version of abstentionism. The Left, especially the Marxist Left, looked to a future of increased prosperity and abundance. Today's environmentalist Left looks forward to a world of scarcity and self-sacrifice.

So recently I wrote a blog entry offering a Marxist critique of the ideology of “Green” environmentalism, deep ecology, eco-feminism, and lifestyle politics in general (veganism, “dumpster diving,” “buying organic,” "locavorism," etc.). I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter and any responses you might have to its criticisms.

- Ross Wolfe

Comment on "Beginning in Wonder"

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 14:22:03 -0500

Earliest wonderings are the most profound! Do profound answers often require dangerous leaps of faith? If so, I believe that the most dangerous is faith that becomes dogma.

- John D. Pfeiffer

Comment on "Beginning in Wonder"

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:19:11 -0500

For you, Sam, I will try to negotiate her down. But I can't make any promises.

- Christopher P. Long

Comment on "Beginning in Wonder"

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:07:22 -0500

Can she give a guest lecture in my class? What's her fee?

- Sam Richards

Comment on "Beginning in Wonder"

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 09:22:37 -0500

Great idea, I will check her availability.

- Christopher P. Long