I started this blog almost two years ago in an attempt to learn more about blogging. So, it seems relevant to ask – Did I Learn Anything? The answer is yes, absolutely yes, I learned a great deal more than I could possibly explain. However, for the sake of economy I will pare it all down to five major lessons.
1) Blogging is good even if nobody reads it – it is writing practice and it becomes part of the historical record. People used to write letters to each other and save them in the attic. Historians pour through these personal correspondences to get a ground level view of a period from the perspective of people living during that period. In the future, historians may consult any records you may have created. Further, blogs are both easier to search and easier to read than personal letters. So Blogs, like letters and diaries become a rough draft of history.
2) Blogs can be used to great advantage as public research notebooks or even public journals. Maybe you don’t want to wait for historians. Maybe you have something to say today and would like to share it with others who have similar interests. You don’t have to be an academic or professional researcher. You can be a movie or music critic. You can provide opinions on beers or single malt whiskies. Maybe you have a special interest in your family history or the history of your home town. Anything that captures your interest probably captures the interest of somebody else as well. So you blog become the focal point of a shared conversation on a topic of interest to you and others.
3) Using a technology like blogging changes the way you look at the world. Your view of the world probably solidified sometime between your 18th and 25th birthdays. But the world continued to change. The longer you go without an update the farther out of touch you become. Blogging can help you keep up to date in two important ways. First, just reading the blogs of others will keep you up with the way people are thinking at the moment. Blogger are more likely to live in the present than people who don’t blog. Second, there is always a culture surrounding a new technology. They are more likely to buy certain products such as Smart Phones and more likely to watch certain shows like The IT Crowd or The Guild. Exposure to this sort of thing keeps you current in your thinking.
4) The only way to really understand blogging is to blog. Like so many things you can’t learn how to blog by reading, talking or planning. You have to try it. If you have nothing to say, your muse is probably asleep from lack of use. Write you first post on not having anything to say. Write your next one on how hard it is to choose a topic. Just start writing. Eventually, as in conversation, the words will begin to flow.
5) If you start blogging you will start doing other things. No, blogging does not lead to crack cocaine. But, if you blog, you might start posting message to a forum, or sending emails through “Contact Us” pages. You might start emailing more or IM’ing more or texting more. You might join a chat room or a Facebook group. You might even create an alter ego in Second Life. Just take that first step and other steps will likely follow.
And with those observations, I close my first blog. It is now part of the historical record and I am on to other things.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Another Academic Year Begins
How many jobs are there where you get a fresh start twice a year. You get to start over again, fix your mistakes and put more effort into the things that worked. Well, there are not many jobs like that but being an academic is one of them. We get two fresh starts every year. We call them semesters. This really is one of the best things about being an academic. Every time a semester ends you can review it and see what did not work out as well as you would have liked. And every time a semester begins you have a chance to try again.
Fortunately, I am happy to say, most of the things I am working on are working well. I have three major classes which are my teaching focus and they are all advancing nicely. I used to teach way more classes and did not do nearly as good of a job. But, I am pleased to say that my classes are going well.
My research is not going as well as it has in the past. But, there are several reasons for that which are not really important enough to get into here. But, with my new interest in imagination I will be slowly getting that back on track again.
I have invested heavily, time wise, over the past five years in virtual worlds. Sadly, all that effort did not pay off as well as I thought it would. There are many reasons for that and they are probably not important enough to elaborate on. This is also one of the reasons why my research lagged. I was hoping for some productive new veins of research in virtual worlds. That did not come about.
However, I am turning my attention from virtual worlds to social interaction technologies. Hopefully, this will pan out a little better.
A new semester begins to today. And with it begins new initiatives, new ideas, new hopes and new directions. What more could one ask for?
Fortunately, I am happy to say, most of the things I am working on are working well. I have three major classes which are my teaching focus and they are all advancing nicely. I used to teach way more classes and did not do nearly as good of a job. But, I am pleased to say that my classes are going well.
My research is not going as well as it has in the past. But, there are several reasons for that which are not really important enough to get into here. But, with my new interest in imagination I will be slowly getting that back on track again.
I have invested heavily, time wise, over the past five years in virtual worlds. Sadly, all that effort did not pay off as well as I thought it would. There are many reasons for that and they are probably not important enough to elaborate on. This is also one of the reasons why my research lagged. I was hoping for some productive new veins of research in virtual worlds. That did not come about.
However, I am turning my attention from virtual worlds to social interaction technologies. Hopefully, this will pan out a little better.
A new semester begins to today. And with it begins new initiatives, new ideas, new hopes and new directions. What more could one ask for?
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
A Progression of Ideals
It may come as a surprise to most people but scientists do not study the things in the world, they study idealizations of them. This is a very Platonic approach and even more surprising when one considered the fact that modern scientists probably see themselves more as the children of Aristotle than as the children of Plato.
Galileo introduced the idea of studying idealizations into physics. If you take an introductory class in physics you will learn about ideal springs, frictionless inclined planes, and free fall in a vacuum. These are all idealizations.
Max Weber introduced the concept of ideal types into social science. He said there is no such thing as a bureaucracy, but we study this idealization because it has greater value in advancing our knowledge.
In information in particular and areas of technology in general, we are concerned not with idealizations of physical phenomena, nor with idealizations of social phenomena. We are concerned with idealizations of artifacts that will exist in the future. And studying artifacts that exist in the future requires imagination.
Galileo introduced the idea of studying idealizations into physics. If you take an introductory class in physics you will learn about ideal springs, frictionless inclined planes, and free fall in a vacuum. These are all idealizations.
Max Weber introduced the concept of ideal types into social science. He said there is no such thing as a bureaucracy, but we study this idealization because it has greater value in advancing our knowledge.
In information in particular and areas of technology in general, we are concerned not with idealizations of physical phenomena, nor with idealizations of social phenomena. We are concerned with idealizations of artifacts that will exist in the future. And studying artifacts that exist in the future requires imagination.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
The Role of Imagination in Information Systems Research
I like being propelled along in my research by the pursuit of compelling new ideas. New ideas are exciting and often provide the energy needed to make progress on older ideas once they have lost their luster. I have discussed a number of new ideas in this blog. Most new ideas don't really go anywhere of significance but some do seem to last over time. For example, it was over fifteen years ago that I started exploring the role of stories in computer ethics. And I am still working on that very rich vein of research.
I have latched on to a new idea that I will be pursuing this year and hopefully for many years to come and that is the role of imagination in information systems research. This idea did not just occur to me. Rather it coalesced out of a lot of other ideas I was working on.
Certainly the role of imagination in writing stories is a big part of the work I am doing in writing stories to explore the ethics of technology. In that course, I have been increasingly emphasizing the use of the imagination. It is the imagination that allows us to consider, compare and choose between possible worlds. And choosing between possible worlds is at the heart of the ethics of technology.
As part of the justification for development of the imagination, I began to develop arguments for the importance of imagination as a business skill. My students are, after all, business students. And success in business is a thing they care about. As I worked on these arguments, I began to realize that most business skills can be considered as analytical skills or imaginative skills. For example, to understand why a thing is happening you need analysis. But to figure out what you should do requires imagination.
My interest in the imagination began to creep into other area that I was work on until, one day, it dawned on me that imagination is vastly more important than analysis in information systems research. I will develop that theme over the next few posts.
I have latched on to a new idea that I will be pursuing this year and hopefully for many years to come and that is the role of imagination in information systems research. This idea did not just occur to me. Rather it coalesced out of a lot of other ideas I was working on.
Certainly the role of imagination in writing stories is a big part of the work I am doing in writing stories to explore the ethics of technology. In that course, I have been increasingly emphasizing the use of the imagination. It is the imagination that allows us to consider, compare and choose between possible worlds. And choosing between possible worlds is at the heart of the ethics of technology.
As part of the justification for development of the imagination, I began to develop arguments for the importance of imagination as a business skill. My students are, after all, business students. And success in business is a thing they care about. As I worked on these arguments, I began to realize that most business skills can be considered as analytical skills or imaginative skills. For example, to understand why a thing is happening you need analysis. But to figure out what you should do requires imagination.
My interest in the imagination began to creep into other area that I was work on until, one day, it dawned on me that imagination is vastly more important than analysis in information systems research. I will develop that theme over the next few posts.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
The Travails of Writing and Publishing
I love to write. In fact, I can't help writing. I write everyday and some days have quite an impressive output to show for it. Writing is a way to organize your ideas and express your creativity. It feels good to write. And if I go a day without writing it is like a day without exercising or a day disrupted by an ad hoc event or a power outage. It just knocks me out of my groove.
You would think that writing and publishing go hand in hand. You write a clever piece and a publisher gets it to market for you. But, it is nothing like that. Publishing is a business and publishers care about sales. Even academic publishers have similar concerns. They are less heavy handed to be sure. They care about readership and citations and reputation. But all of that translates, ultimately, into sales. If a publisher cannot get people to pay for reading their publications they cannot survive.
This, in turn, translates into a wide variety of seemingly odd behaviors. Recently, there was a discussion on a listserv that I subscribe to over whether or not it is appropriate for a journal editor to ask authors to cite papers from the target journal. Presumably, the editor did not want the author to miss an important paper on the topic of submitted paper. While that is possible, it is more likely that the editor was concerned about exposure for the journal's offerings or even, cynically, the citation index.
I have sent book proposals to publishers only to have them rejected because they did not match the publishers 'list'. That is, they want books of a particular kind and that is the primary concern. This does not make sense if you believe the publisher's first concern is quality publications. However, if you realize that similar publications will be attractive to their customer base hence making marketing much easier, it does make sense.
I once submitted a proposal to a publisher for a book that I expected to be around 60,000 words. It was almost finished and that seemed like a nice round number once I had completed the revisions. The publisher said they could not sell a book unless it was 100,000 words. They encouraged me to extend the book in question to that length. I could not do it. I had said what I had to say in 60,000 words and to stretch it to 100,000 words would require a lot of filler. Next time you are wading through a book with a lot of pointless junk in it, remember that you are probably wading through filler that the publisher requested in order to accept the book for publication.
Due to my passion for writing, I have numerous books in various stages of completion. Realizing my innate inability to accept the terms of publishers I have decided to put them on my website and give them away for free. If you would like to see what I have, go to my webpage and click on Books in Progress. This is not as crazy of an idea as it may first seem. As an academic I write to achieve recognition for my ideas. Giving the manuscripts away for free will maximize exposure. Granted, I won't make any money on them, but few academics actually make much money on their books. And if they do make money, it usually involves some sort of compromise - it is a text book really written by a committee or it is a popular press book which is a little thin on academic substance.
The only serious drawback is that of recognition within my own institution. If I can claim to have a book published by an academic press, that carries academic prestige. If I say I put my book on my website for free download, there is substantially less prestige accorded. However, I have never been one to care much about prestige. So, putting my book on my website for free works well for me. Now, if nobody cares enough to download them even for free, well then I do have a problem.
You would think that writing and publishing go hand in hand. You write a clever piece and a publisher gets it to market for you. But, it is nothing like that. Publishing is a business and publishers care about sales. Even academic publishers have similar concerns. They are less heavy handed to be sure. They care about readership and citations and reputation. But all of that translates, ultimately, into sales. If a publisher cannot get people to pay for reading their publications they cannot survive.
This, in turn, translates into a wide variety of seemingly odd behaviors. Recently, there was a discussion on a listserv that I subscribe to over whether or not it is appropriate for a journal editor to ask authors to cite papers from the target journal. Presumably, the editor did not want the author to miss an important paper on the topic of submitted paper. While that is possible, it is more likely that the editor was concerned about exposure for the journal's offerings or even, cynically, the citation index.
I have sent book proposals to publishers only to have them rejected because they did not match the publishers 'list'. That is, they want books of a particular kind and that is the primary concern. This does not make sense if you believe the publisher's first concern is quality publications. However, if you realize that similar publications will be attractive to their customer base hence making marketing much easier, it does make sense.
I once submitted a proposal to a publisher for a book that I expected to be around 60,000 words. It was almost finished and that seemed like a nice round number once I had completed the revisions. The publisher said they could not sell a book unless it was 100,000 words. They encouraged me to extend the book in question to that length. I could not do it. I had said what I had to say in 60,000 words and to stretch it to 100,000 words would require a lot of filler. Next time you are wading through a book with a lot of pointless junk in it, remember that you are probably wading through filler that the publisher requested in order to accept the book for publication.
Due to my passion for writing, I have numerous books in various stages of completion. Realizing my innate inability to accept the terms of publishers I have decided to put them on my website and give them away for free. If you would like to see what I have, go to my webpage and click on Books in Progress. This is not as crazy of an idea as it may first seem. As an academic I write to achieve recognition for my ideas. Giving the manuscripts away for free will maximize exposure. Granted, I won't make any money on them, but few academics actually make much money on their books. And if they do make money, it usually involves some sort of compromise - it is a text book really written by a committee or it is a popular press book which is a little thin on academic substance.
The only serious drawback is that of recognition within my own institution. If I can claim to have a book published by an academic press, that carries academic prestige. If I say I put my book on my website for free download, there is substantially less prestige accorded. However, I have never been one to care much about prestige. So, putting my book on my website for free works well for me. Now, if nobody cares enough to download them even for free, well then I do have a problem.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Looking Ahead to AY 2010-2011
When I started this blog, one of the things I intended to do was to give people a glimpse of what academic life is like. So, I thought I would shift gears for the month of August and talk a little bit about what I am thinking about for the upcoming academic year.It is now August and that means two things. Summer classes are over and I have to start working on my classes for the Fall.
There is a caricature of an old professor teaching from yellowing, faded notes that he developed when he was a newly minted PhD and hasn't updated since. If you ever find that guy, let me know. I'd like to get a few tips from him. I post my teaching materials on a website for students to download. For years I have been attempting to get them set up so I can just copy the materials from one semester to the next. I have yet to achieve that. I am always tinkering, trying out new ideas, polishing bits that didn't work as well as I would have liked, experimenting with new techniques and assignments. So, every semester I review and revise my notes and syllabus before uploading them once again. A chunk of August will be devoted to that. I like to begin the school year with all my teaching materials completed because things will get crazy as the year gets underway and I will not have time to get back to my notes later in the semester.
I will also be doing some writing. Two of the classes I teach do not have appropriate books available for them. This is because I cooked up the ideas for the classes rather than just following somebody else's work. I write a lot but since my ideas are not mainstream I have not had a great deal of luck with publishers. So, I decided to make them available as a free download at my website. More about that later.
I am also planning to take on a new research project this coming year. It is an outgrowth of my work in other areas. I want to examine the role of imagination in information systems research. Talk about outside the mainstream. No wonder I have trouble finding publishers.
We will also taking some new directions with the school beginning this year. We moved into a new building a couple years ago. And we have a new Dean, whom I have not yet met, beginning in September. The school is primed for change. It will be interesting to see which way it goes.
There is a caricature of an old professor teaching from yellowing, faded notes that he developed when he was a newly minted PhD and hasn't updated since. If you ever find that guy, let me know. I'd like to get a few tips from him. I post my teaching materials on a website for students to download. For years I have been attempting to get them set up so I can just copy the materials from one semester to the next. I have yet to achieve that. I am always tinkering, trying out new ideas, polishing bits that didn't work as well as I would have liked, experimenting with new techniques and assignments. So, every semester I review and revise my notes and syllabus before uploading them once again. A chunk of August will be devoted to that. I like to begin the school year with all my teaching materials completed because things will get crazy as the year gets underway and I will not have time to get back to my notes later in the semester.
I will also be doing some writing. Two of the classes I teach do not have appropriate books available for them. This is because I cooked up the ideas for the classes rather than just following somebody else's work. I write a lot but since my ideas are not mainstream I have not had a great deal of luck with publishers. So, I decided to make them available as a free download at my website. More about that later.
I am also planning to take on a new research project this coming year. It is an outgrowth of my work in other areas. I want to examine the role of imagination in information systems research. Talk about outside the mainstream. No wonder I have trouble finding publishers.
We will also taking some new directions with the school beginning this year. We moved into a new building a couple years ago. And we have a new Dean, whom I have not yet met, beginning in September. The school is primed for change. It will be interesting to see which way it goes.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Role Play and Roles
The roles that I discussed in the last post can be thought of as roles defined in a bottom up fashion. That is, you do something which indicates a role preference and then get suggestions for other things that maybe be suitable to someone who enjoys that role. But, bottom up role definition has some problems.
Let's say that you are a creative, artistic, imaginative person who has for some reason been steered away from being who you are naturally. Let's say further that you have adopted a serious person complete with a set of interests that are appropriate for that serious persona but not really suitable to who you are. If your serious person reads only nonfiction then it is likely that bottom up approach will only reinforce this mismatch. You order dull books on history and the algorithms suggest more history books. How do you break this cycle?
I think one answer may be virtual world role play. I run into endless people in Second Life who are there because they can behave in ways that feel much more natural and yet would not be acceptable for some reason in real life.
Several months back, I wrote a few posts on a concept called StrengthsFinders which was developed by the Gallup Corporation. The premise of StrengthsFinders is that there are certain things that you are hard wired to do and doing those things are virtually effortless for you. I think this idea can be extended beyond business strengths to roles in general. There are things you can do that are virtually effortless and feel natural. If you do those things life is easier and more satisfying. However, for any number of reasons people often get steered away from roles that are natural for them and into roles that are not natural. Role playing in a virtual world allows you to explore different roles and possibly find roles that are more satisfying for you.
Let's say that you are a creative, artistic, imaginative person who has for some reason been steered away from being who you are naturally. Let's say further that you have adopted a serious person complete with a set of interests that are appropriate for that serious persona but not really suitable to who you are. If your serious person reads only nonfiction then it is likely that bottom up approach will only reinforce this mismatch. You order dull books on history and the algorithms suggest more history books. How do you break this cycle?
I think one answer may be virtual world role play. I run into endless people in Second Life who are there because they can behave in ways that feel much more natural and yet would not be acceptable for some reason in real life.
Several months back, I wrote a few posts on a concept called StrengthsFinders which was developed by the Gallup Corporation. The premise of StrengthsFinders is that there are certain things that you are hard wired to do and doing those things are virtually effortless for you. I think this idea can be extended beyond business strengths to roles in general. There are things you can do that are virtually effortless and feel natural. If you do those things life is easier and more satisfying. However, for any number of reasons people often get steered away from roles that are natural for them and into roles that are not natural. Role playing in a virtual world allows you to explore different roles and possibly find roles that are more satisfying for you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)