When and Where do I play?
Anne Galloway asks. It's more a matter of when don't I play. Role-play (mimicry), combined with competition (agôn) is a major part of what I do, and it's not just acting - I find that it's playing. I make up my mind to do this or that, to be a personae, and see if I can "win" - if I can make my students, colleagues or others I want to convince accept my plan. This playfullness is both a way to get energy and motivation for things I would otherwise not be to happy about doing, but also a way to keep the competitive and manipulating aspects of my life at a distance from the rather vulnerable core of my personality. As long as I play, I can enjoy a victory, but shrug off a loss, and get on with a new, interesting plan. My life is split into different arenas on which I play: teaching, research, administration, college politics, etc.
I guess the one area where I never play is when it comes to my children. Anything that happens to them touches me, deeply, profoundly, and it cannot be abandoned at the arena of "home" when I enter the arena of "teaching" or of "research". But I also play in more common playful contexts: I love playing card-games, my father was a ruthless and competitive player, infamous for his cheating, and I have passed that on to the children. I play computer-games, preferably role-playing games or adventure games, I am more for puzzle-solving and strategy than direct competition, and ilinx - dizziness and physical involvement - only comes into play in dancing, which I love to do. I am not much for sports, but I like fishing: I guess it's a like an adventure: search and think and guess and work on the puzzle, use the right equipment and go to the right spot, and you get the reward.
(Mimicry, agôn, alea, ilinx: Roger Caillois: Man, Play and Games)
Tuesday, November 19, 2002
Monday, November 18, 2002
Email failure
Email has become the main communication device of academia. It's quick, potentially quite close to real-time, yet non-intrusive, it can contain a lot of information and carry attachments which would otherwise be a week in the mail, it can be shared and forwarded or deleted and forgotten. The problem is when email fails us. Adrian writes about his struggle to find the perfect email system, but the problem is more serious than that when emails start disappearing and don't get where they were supposed to go. One colleague has had a problem with this all of autumn, for some reason her email gets eaten, and it's absolutely random when this happens: addresses at the college or outside, students or staff - the email-monster thinks her mails are especially tasty. Today Susana sent an email asking if I had received the email she had sent weeks ago - I hadn't replied to it - and it turns out Susana has a similar problem - or perhaps I have a problem and it sorts away Susana's mail as well? (Susana, I got this mail and the reply is yes, by the way.)
It's in cases like this that the fragility of the digital infrastructure becomes obvious - and also the close relationship to magic. Like magic, it appears on your screen - or disappears, spirited away, once sent.
Email has become the main communication device of academia. It's quick, potentially quite close to real-time, yet non-intrusive, it can contain a lot of information and carry attachments which would otherwise be a week in the mail, it can be shared and forwarded or deleted and forgotten. The problem is when email fails us. Adrian writes about his struggle to find the perfect email system, but the problem is more serious than that when emails start disappearing and don't get where they were supposed to go. One colleague has had a problem with this all of autumn, for some reason her email gets eaten, and it's absolutely random when this happens: addresses at the college or outside, students or staff - the email-monster thinks her mails are especially tasty. Today Susana sent an email asking if I had received the email she had sent weeks ago - I hadn't replied to it - and it turns out Susana has a similar problem - or perhaps I have a problem and it sorts away Susana's mail as well? (Susana, I got this mail and the reply is yes, by the way.)
It's in cases like this that the fragility of the digital infrastructure becomes obvious - and also the close relationship to magic. Like magic, it appears on your screen - or disappears, spirited away, once sent.
Freedom of speach
Elisabeth Eide received the Ozzietzky Prize for outstanding effort for the freedom of speach from the Norwegian P.E.N. . She received the award for her work on bringing the lives and realities of Afghan women to the attention of Norwegian media.
To the non-norwegian readers out there: too bad you don't read Norwegian, Elisabeth is a wonderful woman, a researcher, author and journalist who has not forgotten that writing can make a difference.
Elisabeth Eide received the Ozzietzky Prize for outstanding effort for the freedom of speach from the Norwegian P.E.N. . She received the award for her work on bringing the lives and realities of Afghan women to the attention of Norwegian media.
To the non-norwegian readers out there: too bad you don't read Norwegian, Elisabeth is a wonderful woman, a researcher, author and journalist who has not forgotten that writing can make a difference.
Multimedia Technologies for Gaming
Not an area where I can contribute, but I'd still love to be present at the Special session on Multimedia Technologies for Gaming at ICME - IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo.
The person who sent me this link and asked me to please promote it on my website (I assume blog it) looks even more interesting (and not just because his baby pictures are irresistably cute): Laurent Balmelli, with a PhD from Lausanne and a researcher for IBM in NY.
Not an area where I can contribute, but I'd still love to be present at the Special session on Multimedia Technologies for Gaming at ICME - IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo.
The person who sent me this link and asked me to please promote it on my website (I assume blog it) looks even more interesting (and not just because his baby pictures are irresistably cute): Laurent Balmelli, with a PhD from Lausanne and a researcher for IBM in NY.
Sunday, November 17, 2002
Magic and computers
Arcane symbols written in certain patterns, ritual movements performed by the trained and devout, rigid discipline and a maniac attention to details, a focus that excludes the trivial for the abstractions of the art... It's quite understandable that good programmers and hackers tend to be called wizards.
When I try to explain to students what happens inside a computer of on the net, I might as well speak of magic, or perhaps magick:
The word “magick” relates to the power of the IMAGINATION - expressed through a harmonious marriage of Intellect and Intuition. Magick denotes the practical fusion of Art, Science, and Spiritual Wisdom, evoking the alchemist’s symbolic quest: to turn lead into gold, transmute the base into the noble. MAGICK is a fun word that suggests serendipity, spontaneity, creativity and productivity beyond all expectations.
Magic permeats the web, and is central to the informal metaphors with which we understand it. From wizards to codes and formulas, secret passwords and levels and tiers of security, the web-culture connects to the myths beyond science in order to make itself comprehensive to the layman. And it's perhaps the medium where we find the most public discussions of and papers on magick, not to mention the online shopping.
This might explain some of the popularity of medieval-like environments in games and chats. Pre-renaissance magic was real and expected, and it was how reality was perceived, explained and understood. The renaissance was a renewal of supposedly logical explanations and thinking, among other things the causal linearity. Medieval art as well as science was not linear and prioriticed differently, very much in the manner of a hypertext. Meaning was created through positioning, through references to other works, through proximity and distance, through similarity and absence, rather than by linearity and causality. This reminds me strongly of the nature of the world wide web, but also of the memex machine . The computer is created to promote a logic not based on causality and linearity, but on the workings of the human mind - that must magic and terrifying of all dungeons humanity have yet to explore.
Arcane symbols written in certain patterns, ritual movements performed by the trained and devout, rigid discipline and a maniac attention to details, a focus that excludes the trivial for the abstractions of the art... It's quite understandable that good programmers and hackers tend to be called wizards.
When I try to explain to students what happens inside a computer of on the net, I might as well speak of magic, or perhaps magick:
The word “magick” relates to the power of the IMAGINATION - expressed through a harmonious marriage of Intellect and Intuition. Magick denotes the practical fusion of Art, Science, and Spiritual Wisdom, evoking the alchemist’s symbolic quest: to turn lead into gold, transmute the base into the noble. MAGICK is a fun word that suggests serendipity, spontaneity, creativity and productivity beyond all expectations.
Magic permeats the web, and is central to the informal metaphors with which we understand it. From wizards to codes and formulas, secret passwords and levels and tiers of security, the web-culture connects to the myths beyond science in order to make itself comprehensive to the layman. And it's perhaps the medium where we find the most public discussions of and papers on magick, not to mention the online shopping.
This might explain some of the popularity of medieval-like environments in games and chats. Pre-renaissance magic was real and expected, and it was how reality was perceived, explained and understood. The renaissance was a renewal of supposedly logical explanations and thinking, among other things the causal linearity. Medieval art as well as science was not linear and prioriticed differently, very much in the manner of a hypertext. Meaning was created through positioning, through references to other works, through proximity and distance, through similarity and absence, rather than by linearity and causality. This reminds me strongly of the nature of the world wide web, but also of the memex machine . The computer is created to promote a logic not based on causality and linearity, but on the workings of the human mind - that must magic and terrifying of all dungeons humanity have yet to explore.
Friday, November 15, 2002
Fast Food Future?
Noah Wardrip-Fruin voices a concern for what happens to the culture of cities, and among other things he refers to Fast Food Nation. This is a very interesting book, and yes, it is relevant, but I don't think the connection is quite as obvious to Amazon.com as it might seem.
I see the disappearance of the smaller stores as a result not of mail-order shopping, but of the automobile culture. I live in a place where I can walk to the library, walk to the stores as well as to most of the social events. OK, so I need to be a little fit to reach some of the more remote parts of Volda, but it's really not a problem. There's no MacDonalds here, the fast-food joint is called "Naustet" (the boathouse) and is run by a local couple who offer some extremely local specialities right along the selection of taco-burgers and small cheese menus.... The "city" I come from has the "mall-problem" though. Despite the amazing beauty of the center of Ålesund, it's being abandoned for Moa, where the riding-school I used to visit and watch the horses and dream about riding has been sold to make space for shopping-centres.
This is a little sad, and I do feel a certain nostalgia for the bakeries and the small pretty stores in the lovely art-noveau houses. What I feel absolutely no nostalgia about is spending an hour in traffic on a distance that took me 10 minutes on a bike when I wanted to get to school in the morning. I feel no nostalgia about saturday rush, trying to get in and out of town on one narrow road serving all the people living in town and all the ones who came into town from the wide farmland about Ålesund. When the tall ships' race was in Ålesund it became quite obvious that it was a town made for boats, not cars, and 90 years ago going to Ålesund from Volda meant getting on a steamer and spending a day or two on the trip. Today we drive to the shopping-centres just outside the center in 90 minutes.
While I would like to have the small elegant stores in Bergen center here in Volda, I know that it won't happen. And I also know that there is no space in Ålesund center, a lovely center built on three islands, for all the cars that would need to get in and out if Moa didn't exist as a shopping center. If I want to have cars, which I do as a lazy air-polluting and non-renewable fuel-consuming daughter of the 20th century, I have to accept changes. We can't both have the convenience of driving where we like and the luxury of little stores within walking distance.
Noah Wardrip-Fruin voices a concern for what happens to the culture of cities, and among other things he refers to Fast Food Nation. This is a very interesting book, and yes, it is relevant, but I don't think the connection is quite as obvious to Amazon.com as it might seem.
I see the disappearance of the smaller stores as a result not of mail-order shopping, but of the automobile culture. I live in a place where I can walk to the library, walk to the stores as well as to most of the social events. OK, so I need to be a little fit to reach some of the more remote parts of Volda, but it's really not a problem. There's no MacDonalds here, the fast-food joint is called "Naustet" (the boathouse) and is run by a local couple who offer some extremely local specialities right along the selection of taco-burgers and small cheese menus.... The "city" I come from has the "mall-problem" though. Despite the amazing beauty of the center of Ålesund, it's being abandoned for Moa, where the riding-school I used to visit and watch the horses and dream about riding has been sold to make space for shopping-centres.
This is a little sad, and I do feel a certain nostalgia for the bakeries and the small pretty stores in the lovely art-noveau houses. What I feel absolutely no nostalgia about is spending an hour in traffic on a distance that took me 10 minutes on a bike when I wanted to get to school in the morning. I feel no nostalgia about saturday rush, trying to get in and out of town on one narrow road serving all the people living in town and all the ones who came into town from the wide farmland about Ålesund. When the tall ships' race was in Ålesund it became quite obvious that it was a town made for boats, not cars, and 90 years ago going to Ålesund from Volda meant getting on a steamer and spending a day or two on the trip. Today we drive to the shopping-centres just outside the center in 90 minutes.
While I would like to have the small elegant stores in Bergen center here in Volda, I know that it won't happen. And I also know that there is no space in Ålesund center, a lovely center built on three islands, for all the cars that would need to get in and out if Moa didn't exist as a shopping center. If I want to have cars, which I do as a lazy air-polluting and non-renewable fuel-consuming daughter of the 20th century, I have to accept changes. We can't both have the convenience of driving where we like and the luxury of little stores within walking distance.
Life without Amazon
Jill, Noah and Mark discuss amazon.com, bookstores and search-engines. Noah is concerned that the little bookstores which are the life-blood of our academic culture will fall due to Amazon, Mark sees it as a way to avoid Barnes & Noble monopoly, and Jill writes of her childhood when her parents let her choose freely from book catalogues.
I feel like an alien. What planet do those people come from? I grew up in a fairly large Norwegian city, with a couple of established and well-stocked bookstores, but that didn't do a thing for me. When I could get the money for the bus-ticket, my hunger for books drove me to the library. The heart-blood of Norwegian academia is there, in the library, and not in the tiny little exclusive culture-elite book-stores which I agree, yes they are cute and charming and probably really useful to the people who live close to them.
In a world where academic thought happens outside of cities such as Washington, New York, London, Paris or Amsterdam, Copenhagen or Bruxelles, cute small traditional book-stores aiming their selection at fashionably shelf-browsing scholars with more cultural than economic capital just isn't an option. To the kids who grow up with parents who use book-stores to buy christmas cards and paper plates, the little book-store in Michael Ende's Neverending Story is as much part of the fantasy world as Fantasia and the Child-Empress. Academics who work in remote little colleges in remote little countries speaking obscure little languages know perfectly well that dream and pretend all they like, they need to use other sources, other ways to search for books and papers.
Jill describes how her Cambridge-educated parents would use one particular bookstore and their catalogue to order their books. Different similar solutions is the life-blood of Norwegian academia. And I suspect more than that: it's been the reason why there is some kind of Norwegian academia. That, in conjunction with the exellent and hard-working research libraries at all universities and colleges and a wonderful system of public libraries, with book-boats and busses to the areas of Norway which are so remote they don't have their own library.
I think it would be sad if the dream of the little dusty bookstore run by the old, scholarly owner who caters to a sophisticated audience of intellectuals should become nothing but a fantasy. However, from this part of the world it doesn't belong in the daily life of academics, but on their list of important sight-seeing goals alongside galleries, museums and the Zoo.
Noah points out that there's a large difference between a and the, as in the lifeblood and a lifeblood. The alert reader who checks out links will find that Noah uses a lifeblood and that I quoted him incorrectly. Perhaps Norwegian academia is anemic because we don't have those little book-stores, just barely surviving on the transfusions we get from libraries? Interesting point for the quality reform, I'd love to see the right-wing education minister throw an other billion into the budget to support small academic bookstores close to all academic teaching/research institutions...
I feel like an alien. What planet do those people come from? I grew up in a fairly large Norwegian city, with a couple of established and well-stocked bookstores, but that didn't do a thing for me. When I could get the money for the bus-ticket, my hunger for books drove me to the library. The heart-blood of Norwegian academia is there, in the library, and not in the tiny little exclusive culture-elite book-stores which I agree, yes they are cute and charming and probably really useful to the people who live close to them.
In a world where academic thought happens outside of cities such as Washington, New York, London, Paris or Amsterdam, Copenhagen or Bruxelles, cute small traditional book-stores aiming their selection at fashionably shelf-browsing scholars with more cultural than economic capital just isn't an option. To the kids who grow up with parents who use book-stores to buy christmas cards and paper plates, the little book-store in Michael Ende's Neverending Story is as much part of the fantasy world as Fantasia and the Child-Empress. Academics who work in remote little colleges in remote little countries speaking obscure little languages know perfectly well that dream and pretend all they like, they need to use other sources, other ways to search for books and papers.
Jill describes how her Cambridge-educated parents would use one particular bookstore and their catalogue to order their books. Different similar solutions is the life-blood of Norwegian academia. And I suspect more than that: it's been the reason why there is some kind of Norwegian academia. That, in conjunction with the exellent and hard-working research libraries at all universities and colleges and a wonderful system of public libraries, with book-boats and busses to the areas of Norway which are so remote they don't have their own library.
I think it would be sad if the dream of the little dusty bookstore run by the old, scholarly owner who caters to a sophisticated audience of intellectuals should become nothing but a fantasy. However, from this part of the world it doesn't belong in the daily life of academics, but on their list of important sight-seeing goals alongside galleries, museums and the Zoo.
Noah points out that there's a large difference between a and the, as in the lifeblood and a lifeblood. The alert reader who checks out links will find that Noah uses a lifeblood and that I quoted him incorrectly. Perhaps Norwegian academia is anemic because we don't have those little book-stores, just barely surviving on the transfusions we get from libraries? Interesting point for the quality reform, I'd love to see the right-wing education minister throw an other billion into the budget to support small academic bookstores close to all academic teaching/research institutions...
Thursday, November 14, 2002
Semester ending
Every semester, we ask the students to assess the semester. While I have been doing research, this has been left to the hard-core sociologists in the department, and so the evaluation has had the shape of a surey where students got a sheet full of questions and a few options, and then a few lines in which to say what they felt about some of the points. This would be processed, presented and forgotten.
I like to do this differently. So this year the information study - which is my baby - went back to the evaluation methods I found most efficient: a qualitative evaluation in groups, where all could comment on what was said. I split the class into six groups. Each group was responsible for one topic:
And so on. Then I asked each group two questions:
I had spoken to the student representative what she felt about this before I started the process, then Monday I told all the students and gave out a list of questions. Today I put them into random groups and let them work it over in the break after a lecture and before the weekly meeting, which is a meeting where we discuss how things go, where teacher's give information to students and students give information to teachers, where they and we just get together and discuss important topics. This meeting was when we did the evaluation.
The students did a wonderful job. They are, after all, the ones who know the semester, and who can see what is good and what should be changed. They wrote their suggestions down, introduced them to the class and noted down the objections from the others. Now I have summarised their comments.
Although I asked for positive and constructive comments, they don't paint a rosy picture of the information education. There are a lot of things that can be done differently. But there are things which are good which we might never have thought to ask about. The weekly meeting for instance, was on the list of good things, and I hadn't even thought of a group to assess the teacher/student communication. Perhaps equally surprising but also good is that the students really appreciated that manner of assessing the semester. And for me the bonus is that now, instead of a lot of information about which lecturer is an idiot or which book the students haven't read, I get a list of suggestions, several of which can be easily implemented and can make the fall semester 2003 a lot easier for the next set of students.
Every semester, we ask the students to assess the semester. While I have been doing research, this has been left to the hard-core sociologists in the department, and so the evaluation has had the shape of a surey where students got a sheet full of questions and a few options, and then a few lines in which to say what they felt about some of the points. This would be processed, presented and forgotten.
I like to do this differently. So this year the information study - which is my baby - went back to the evaluation methods I found most efficient: a qualitative evaluation in groups, where all could comment on what was said. I split the class into six groups. Each group was responsible for one topic:
- practical techniques: schedule
- practical techniques: feed-back and assessment
- theory: The reading-list
- theory:the lectures
And so on. Then I asked each group two questions:
- what has worked well this semester?
- What would you suggest should be done in orderto make things work even better?
I had spoken to the student representative what she felt about this before I started the process, then Monday I told all the students and gave out a list of questions. Today I put them into random groups and let them work it over in the break after a lecture and before the weekly meeting, which is a meeting where we discuss how things go, where teacher's give information to students and students give information to teachers, where they and we just get together and discuss important topics. This meeting was when we did the evaluation.
The students did a wonderful job. They are, after all, the ones who know the semester, and who can see what is good and what should be changed. They wrote their suggestions down, introduced them to the class and noted down the objections from the others. Now I have summarised their comments.
Although I asked for positive and constructive comments, they don't paint a rosy picture of the information education. There are a lot of things that can be done differently. But there are things which are good which we might never have thought to ask about. The weekly meeting for instance, was on the list of good things, and I hadn't even thought of a group to assess the teacher/student communication. Perhaps equally surprising but also good is that the students really appreciated that manner of assessing the semester. And for me the bonus is that now, instead of a lot of information about which lecturer is an idiot or which book the students haven't read, I get a list of suggestions, several of which can be easily implemented and can make the fall semester 2003 a lot easier for the next set of students.
Living sources
I had a student in my office today, and we were trying to pinpoint the publication date of an advertisement. It was somewhere around the fifties, but we couldn't say late or early. To try and solve the puzzle I grabbed the phone and called an invaluable source of information on everyday life in Norway from 1940 and onwards - my mother. After five minutes of remembering when she had worked where, what she had sent home because of rationing in Norway while she was working in Sweden and what kind of clothes she had worn in Norway and in Sweden, we were a lot closer. We discussed briefly when eggs and flour, milk and butter became easily available in the stores, as well as female fashion: when the wide skirts came into fashion in Norway after the war - when material was abundant enough and the female profile changed to the wasp-waisted model-wife of the fifties.
The wonderful thing was that she could answer. I could get all this information easily and to the point, and in five minutes we had reduced the possible period for the advertisement from 18 years to 5. It never ceases to amaze me how much the people we take for granted know - the knowledge stored in living flesh, in vulnerable, decaying brains.
I had a student in my office today, and we were trying to pinpoint the publication date of an advertisement. It was somewhere around the fifties, but we couldn't say late or early. To try and solve the puzzle I grabbed the phone and called an invaluable source of information on everyday life in Norway from 1940 and onwards - my mother. After five minutes of remembering when she had worked where, what she had sent home because of rationing in Norway while she was working in Sweden and what kind of clothes she had worn in Norway and in Sweden, we were a lot closer. We discussed briefly when eggs and flour, milk and butter became easily available in the stores, as well as female fashion: when the wide skirts came into fashion in Norway after the war - when material was abundant enough and the female profile changed to the wasp-waisted model-wife of the fifties.
The wonderful thing was that she could answer. I could get all this information easily and to the point, and in five minutes we had reduced the possible period for the advertisement from 18 years to 5. It never ceases to amaze me how much the people we take for granted know - the knowledge stored in living flesh, in vulnerable, decaying brains.
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Deustcher spam
I am getting spammed in German. It's kind of cute, German is such a formal language, and the spam is polite, almost apolegetic. This way it becomes intimate in a manner that the more common English-language spammers don't manage.
Ich bin die Anja und wuerde mich freuen mit dir zu plaudern, flirten oder einfach nur Spass zu haben. Ich habe auch nichts gegen einen realen Treff wenn ich gefallen an dir finde und du natuerlich auch an mir.
I am getting spammed in German. It's kind of cute, German is such a formal language, and the spam is polite, almost apolegetic. This way it becomes intimate in a manner that the more common English-language spammers don't manage.
Ich bin die Anja und wuerde mich freuen mit dir zu plaudern, flirten oder einfach nur Spass zu haben. Ich habe auch nichts gegen einen realen Treff wenn ich gefallen an dir finde und du natuerlich auch an mir.
Vice City news
Perhaps I have bad taste, but I can't help it, I think these are funny:
If it's got a central nervous system, we've got it ready to go in a box to your house.
Being fat can even ruin romantic cruises.
Dog Ban upheld
from rockstargames.com
Perhaps I have bad taste, but I can't help it, I think these are funny:
If it's got a central nervous system, we've got it ready to go in a box to your house.
Being fat can even ruin romantic cruises.
Dog Ban upheld
from rockstargames.com
Stealing thoughts
Academia is a small world, as for instance Adrian Miles observes in his vlog and Elisabeth Lane Lawley of mamamusings points out. But in little Norway, academia is smaller than manywhere else in the world, and what goes around comes around rather quickly.
I am thinking of people who steal your thoughts and ideas. I am thinking of thought parasites. The ones who can't make an original link between theory and practice on their own, and prey on others, particularly younger and less established and connected subjects. And they don't steal the ideas where they can be traced, oh no, if you have published you are safe. They steal from drafts, from suggestions, from outlines and conversations. They offer to assist by commenting and reading through your suggestion, then tell you this is not worth pursuing.. and when you look at their work next time they have landed a 100 000$ grant based on your suggestion.
This is sadly a common practice, and some are more infamous for it than others. It's also the reason why many young researchers are afraid to publish prematurely, and don't like the thought of maintaining a blog. I am of the opinion that the blog doesn't make me any more vulnerable to this - it happened to me before blogs, so NOT having one did not protect me - but I can see that it's a reasonable worry. Still, obviously Academia in Norway is small enough that we're able to spot some of the parasites...
Academia is a small world, as for instance Adrian Miles observes in his vlog and Elisabeth Lane Lawley of mamamusings points out. But in little Norway, academia is smaller than manywhere else in the world, and what goes around comes around rather quickly.
I am thinking of people who steal your thoughts and ideas. I am thinking of thought parasites. The ones who can't make an original link between theory and practice on their own, and prey on others, particularly younger and less established and connected subjects. And they don't steal the ideas where they can be traced, oh no, if you have published you are safe. They steal from drafts, from suggestions, from outlines and conversations. They offer to assist by commenting and reading through your suggestion, then tell you this is not worth pursuing.. and when you look at their work next time they have landed a 100 000$ grant based on your suggestion.
This is sadly a common practice, and some are more infamous for it than others. It's also the reason why many young researchers are afraid to publish prematurely, and don't like the thought of maintaining a blog. I am of the opinion that the blog doesn't make me any more vulnerable to this - it happened to me before blogs, so NOT having one did not protect me - but I can see that it's a reasonable worry. Still, obviously Academia in Norway is small enough that we're able to spot some of the parasites...
Blog of note
A woman, a PhD student, and blog of note? No, not any of the Scandinavian cluster, but Anne Galloway's Purse Lips Square Jaw. Just looking at it is a pleasure - but the real delight is in reading of her research project. I want to talk to this woman!
A woman, a PhD student, and blog of note? No, not any of the Scandinavian cluster, but Anne Galloway's Purse Lips Square Jaw. Just looking at it is a pleasure - but the real delight is in reading of her research project. I want to talk to this woman!
Monday, November 11, 2002
Storytelling and seduction
A link to a short comment on seduction and storytelling by Steve Denning, in a website dedicated to Storytelling. I liked this: "Weakness, like storytelling, hesitates shyly, and in so doing, gains privileged access to the backdoor of the mind."
A link to a short comment on seduction and storytelling by Steve Denning, in a website dedicated to Storytelling. I liked this: "Weakness, like storytelling, hesitates shyly, and in so doing, gains privileged access to the backdoor of the mind."
Sunday, November 10, 2002
reporting on the go
while Xybernaut seems to have the solution to all the active reporter's problems, it says absolutely nothing about the software. Until they can offer GOOD editing software for the busy journalist who needs to be able to edit his/her own things either live or extremely quickly while moving, this isn't going to really reach the media industry. Whoever developes that software will have a worldwide, hungry market!
while Xybernaut seems to have the solution to all the active reporter's problems, it says absolutely nothing about the software. Until they can offer GOOD editing software for the busy journalist who needs to be able to edit his/her own things either live or extremely quickly while moving, this isn't going to really reach the media industry. Whoever developes that software will have a worldwide, hungry market!
Saturday, November 09, 2002
Sent
Sent Jill to Bergen - nobody liked to see her go. I want her to finish her thesis, so that she and I can write all the other things we outline when we are together. That inspires me to want to finish my own thesis as well. so today I did it: Stopped fretting over the stuff I haven't adjusted in the big document, and sent it off to Espen. I expect Espen to be ready wielding an axe - no razor or scalpel here - in order to chop it down to something resembling a thesis for a PhD and not an avalance of written pages.
Sent Jill to Bergen - nobody liked to see her go. I want her to finish her thesis, so that she and I can write all the other things we outline when we are together. That inspires me to want to finish my own thesis as well. so today I did it: Stopped fretting over the stuff I haven't adjusted in the big document, and sent it off to Espen. I expect Espen to be ready wielding an axe - no razor or scalpel here - in order to chop it down to something resembling a thesis for a PhD and not an avalance of written pages.
Friday, November 08, 2002
Inadvertent article
Jill arrived safely last night, she's installed in the guest room at home and an office here, and all's well. It's amusing though - after spending a short evening and an even shorter breakfast together, we had planned a new article, again on blogs, and agreed to start researching and reading up on it. We'll use blogonblog again, and see where this ends - this time we don't have a deadline or a publisher yet, so there is nothing but the pleasure we have in working together to push us onwards. Every time we meet we discover anew that our theoretical approaches and our knowledge doesn't overlap, but supplements the other, and this complementary nature of our knowledge doesn't fail to inspire. It's a rare and precious experience.
Jill arrived safely last night, she's installed in the guest room at home and an office here, and all's well. It's amusing though - after spending a short evening and an even shorter breakfast together, we had planned a new article, again on blogs, and agreed to start researching and reading up on it. We'll use blogonblog again, and see where this ends - this time we don't have a deadline or a publisher yet, so there is nothing but the pleasure we have in working together to push us onwards. Every time we meet we discover anew that our theoretical approaches and our knowledge doesn't overlap, but supplements the other, and this complementary nature of our knowledge doesn't fail to inspire. It's a rare and precious experience.
Convergence, again
I am not sure if I like this word, but at least it's better than multi-media, which used to be the hip word for what happens to media when it finds computers.
Some meanings to the word from Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language:
converge, v, -verged, -verging, 1. to tend to meet in a point or line: incline towards each other, as lines that are not paralell. 2. to tend to a common result, conclusion, etc.
convergence, n, 1. an act or instance of converging. 2. a convergent state or quality. 3. the degree or point at which lines, objects, etc., converge. 4. Physiol. a coordinated turning of the eyes to bear upon a near point.
The last is perhaps the most suitable interpretation: Convergence media in the meaning of a coordinated turning of the eyes to bear upon a near point, the near point being the computer, and with all media coming together here, the attention turning to the computer and with the attention, all eyes.
I am not sure if I like this word, but at least it's better than multi-media, which used to be the hip word for what happens to media when it finds computers.
Some meanings to the word from Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language:
converge, v, -verged, -verging, 1. to tend to meet in a point or line: incline towards each other, as lines that are not paralell. 2. to tend to a common result, conclusion, etc.
convergence, n, 1. an act or instance of converging. 2. a convergent state or quality. 3. the degree or point at which lines, objects, etc., converge. 4. Physiol. a coordinated turning of the eyes to bear upon a near point.
The last is perhaps the most suitable interpretation: Convergence media in the meaning of a coordinated turning of the eyes to bear upon a near point, the near point being the computer, and with all media coming together here, the attention turning to the computer and with the attention, all eyes.
Thursday, November 07, 2002
Oneir
Some of the players I used to MUD with once upon a time have made a Wiki about games, culture, and the ultimate game they would like to make. Not much there yet, but oneir.org is among my bookmarks!
Some of the players I used to MUD with once upon a time have made a Wiki about games, culture, and the ultimate game they would like to make. Not much there yet, but oneir.org is among my bookmarks!
Convergence Media
from Lisa Westley and Shooting Live Artists: What is convergence media?
Convergence media is a term given to the merging of digital technologies.
But what does that mean?
"You have to open your eyes, and your vision has to really encompass the whole picture. You really have to feel it; movies, television, DVD, internet. It's all the same thing, just different configurations. You are seeing this amazing combination of art and science growing and facilitating each other constantly. Nothing transcends content, but a lot of things couldn't happen if it hadn't been for the technological advances. It's an incredible landscape."
Quincy Jones
Over the last 10 years it is pretty safe to say that the internet has had a massive impact on the distribution of all forms of media; music, film, radio, news etc.
The World Wide Web - the most common path for this distribution - is only one aspect of convergence media as more applications, devices and platforms become available to receive all forms of media.
We've been promised a lot, probably too much too soon, but the era of mass broadcast through one or two platforms is over.
Convergence, an interesting looking journal on new media. It has issues back to 1995, but only abstracts of the articles are available online.
Convergence, media and marketing: Convergence defined from the user, and not from the technology, a refreshing view even if it is oriented towards marketing:
So what will this mean for marketers? First off, convergence of information means that the consumer is truly king. Twenty years ago, we witnessed a shift in the balance of power away from manufacturers and into the hands of retailers. This shift happened when overproduction became the norm and retailers maintained better connections with consumers. Now retailers have ceded control to the consumer.
From the Motion Picture and Television Industry Machine, by Mark Levey: Hollywood Meets Silicone Valley, a subjective view from the moving images production side.
from Lisa Westley and Shooting Live Artists: What is convergence media?
Convergence media is a term given to the merging of digital technologies.
But what does that mean?
"You have to open your eyes, and your vision has to really encompass the whole picture. You really have to feel it; movies, television, DVD, internet. It's all the same thing, just different configurations. You are seeing this amazing combination of art and science growing and facilitating each other constantly. Nothing transcends content, but a lot of things couldn't happen if it hadn't been for the technological advances. It's an incredible landscape."
Quincy Jones
Over the last 10 years it is pretty safe to say that the internet has had a massive impact on the distribution of all forms of media; music, film, radio, news etc.
The World Wide Web - the most common path for this distribution - is only one aspect of convergence media as more applications, devices and platforms become available to receive all forms of media.
We've been promised a lot, probably too much too soon, but the era of mass broadcast through one or two platforms is over.
Convergence, an interesting looking journal on new media. It has issues back to 1995, but only abstracts of the articles are available online.
Convergence, media and marketing: Convergence defined from the user, and not from the technology, a refreshing view even if it is oriented towards marketing:
So what will this mean for marketers? First off, convergence of information means that the consumer is truly king. Twenty years ago, we witnessed a shift in the balance of power away from manufacturers and into the hands of retailers. This shift happened when overproduction became the norm and retailers maintained better connections with consumers. Now retailers have ceded control to the consumer.
From the Motion Picture and Television Industry Machine, by Mark Levey: Hollywood Meets Silicone Valley, a subjective view from the moving images production side.
Tuesday, November 05, 2002
VG om HVO
Hvis noen lurer på om jeg er blitt mobbet av studentene mine, så vil jeg bare si ifra at det svært langt fra de uenighetene om undervisning og administrasjon jeg har med studentene, og den slags ufin oppførsel som Bård Siem beskriver i hans artikkel fra høgskolen. Heldigvis opptrer studentene ved Avdeling for Mediefag stort sett fornuftigere enn de beskrivelsene Bård Siem kommer med i Sunnmørsposten.
Hvis noen lurer på om jeg er blitt mobbet av studentene mine, så vil jeg bare si ifra at det svært langt fra de uenighetene om undervisning og administrasjon jeg har med studentene, og den slags ufin oppførsel som Bård Siem beskriver i hans artikkel fra høgskolen. Heldigvis opptrer studentene ved Avdeling for Mediefag stort sett fornuftigere enn de beskrivelsene Bård Siem kommer med i Sunnmørsposten.
More than Maths
Mortensen, more than maths - found with the generous assistance of google.com, which has put that ugly pink page in between me and Viggo Mortensen, hunter of orcs...
Mortensen, more than maths - found with the generous assistance of google.com, which has put that ugly pink page in between me and Viggo Mortensen, hunter of orcs...
Where does mistakes come from?
Mark Bernstein discusses mistakes in design, but his comment holds true for other types of mistakes in connection to planning:
Second, it's probably wrong to assume that mistakes arise only because people weren't paying attention, or didn't care, or were conceited, self-indulgent idiots. Mistakes arise because people were avoiding other mistakes, because they were trying to save your time and money, because they're human.
This semester has been more than usually rough. While I have been working on the final chapter in the PhD, I have also been redesigning the Public Information Study at Volda College to adhere to the "Quality reform", the large and very dramatic reform of the educational structure at College- and University-level in Norway. This is a process of high insecurity both for the staff and the students. The students are aware that the study they applied to might not be the same that they actually enter and have to go through with, and their insecurity and following aggression is directed towards the closest target - their teachers. We, the same teachers, are trapped between the orders to commit to the structural changes, and the structural changes themselves, which for instance includes a change in the funding.
Rather than being paid according to how many students we take into the study, we will get paid according to how many actually take an exam here. This is problematic for several reasons. Connected with the liberalisation of the asessment system, which now permits us to not use external assessors, it can influence the quality of the students we send out. But it has a more immediate effect: We won't get funding for the students we have now until a year after their exam! That means that all initiative at this end has to happen on pure idealism and faith. We can't expect to afford equipment or more staff to cover for the increased burden of administration until two years after we have started a one-year course. This means short, quickly finished courses, which is the opposite of the pedagogic goals of the quality reform. The reform idealises frequent feedback over a long period of time in order to emphasis maturity and development rather than fragmented courses and small exams.
We, the teachers, are trapped in this, between the fear and frustration of the students and the experiments of the Ministry of Education. And we make mistakes. We try to avoid one problem, so we make another. We try to protect one group of students, and so we hurt another. All our excellent intentions come to nothing, and despair is close... And we don't do these mistakes because we are idiots or deliberately evil. We make them because we are trapped, and human.
Mark Bernstein discusses mistakes in design, but his comment holds true for other types of mistakes in connection to planning:
Second, it's probably wrong to assume that mistakes arise only because people weren't paying attention, or didn't care, or were conceited, self-indulgent idiots. Mistakes arise because people were avoiding other mistakes, because they were trying to save your time and money, because they're human.
This semester has been more than usually rough. While I have been working on the final chapter in the PhD, I have also been redesigning the Public Information Study at Volda College to adhere to the "Quality reform", the large and very dramatic reform of the educational structure at College- and University-level in Norway. This is a process of high insecurity both for the staff and the students. The students are aware that the study they applied to might not be the same that they actually enter and have to go through with, and their insecurity and following aggression is directed towards the closest target - their teachers. We, the same teachers, are trapped between the orders to commit to the structural changes, and the structural changes themselves, which for instance includes a change in the funding.
Rather than being paid according to how many students we take into the study, we will get paid according to how many actually take an exam here. This is problematic for several reasons. Connected with the liberalisation of the asessment system, which now permits us to not use external assessors, it can influence the quality of the students we send out. But it has a more immediate effect: We won't get funding for the students we have now until a year after their exam! That means that all initiative at this end has to happen on pure idealism and faith. We can't expect to afford equipment or more staff to cover for the increased burden of administration until two years after we have started a one-year course. This means short, quickly finished courses, which is the opposite of the pedagogic goals of the quality reform. The reform idealises frequent feedback over a long period of time in order to emphasis maturity and development rather than fragmented courses and small exams.
We, the teachers, are trapped in this, between the fear and frustration of the students and the experiments of the Ministry of Education. And we make mistakes. We try to avoid one problem, so we make another. We try to protect one group of students, and so we hurt another. All our excellent intentions come to nothing, and despair is close... And we don't do these mistakes because we are idiots or deliberately evil. We make them because we are trapped, and human.
Monday, November 04, 2002
Computers to go
My NYC connection, the stockbroker, recommends Xybernaut. Not in possession of funds that can be invested, I still like to understand what he's talking about, so I check out xybr at the Nasdaq once in a while. Once a really hot item on the market, it dropped so low that it looked almost dead after the y2k crack. Now it's crawling back up, and my broker-friend might be right.
What fascinates me with Xybernaut has very little to do with stocks though. It's all about mobility. Today computers are like televisions: they tie you into a certain pattern of moment, and restrict you to certain environments. You need to be indoors, you need to be careful with liquids, temperatures and stress in the form of jolts and jars, you need to have a table or some sort of support for the keyboard and you need the same for the screen. With a Xybernaut computer, you can disregard these restrictions. OK, so I sound like a commercial, but really - imagine - my dyslectic son with his writing problems could with a wearable computer, a headset for a screen and a wireless keyboard either strapped to his arm or resting in his lap, have the same opportunities to take notes on a class excursion as his classmates with pens and pencils. My sister the live-action role-player could use the same equipment to quickly and unobstrusively refer to her notes while GM-ing the 70-100 people on one of her (relatively small and intimate) games. And these are just the most immediate uses I can see in my family.
I just like it for the coolness factor. I love the science-fiction aspect of wearing the computer, I can easily see myself with a small toolbelt containing the hard-drive, a screen built into my glasses, and an input device the size of my palm, where I scribble down cryptic, secret messages or perhaps call up information with sub-vocalised commands... But I also see the political problem with making computers too wearable and portable. I might for instance have to give up my nice office and move my books into some kind of accessible storage with only a small space for book perusal, while I get to work in several different types of environments depending on the type of work I do: from an auditorium to the class-room, a common work-room for peer-to-peer cooperation, a student-meeting room, a silent study room for accessing the heavier databanks or doing online editing or design. It would mean a new architecture for staff workspaces in the college. Somehow that thought thrills me and scares me. I like this little cave where I am surrounded by pictures, books and green plants. But oh yes.... I'd happily become a cyborg - if it looks cool!
My NYC connection, the stockbroker, recommends Xybernaut. Not in possession of funds that can be invested, I still like to understand what he's talking about, so I check out xybr at the Nasdaq once in a while. Once a really hot item on the market, it dropped so low that it looked almost dead after the y2k crack. Now it's crawling back up, and my broker-friend might be right.
What fascinates me with Xybernaut has very little to do with stocks though. It's all about mobility. Today computers are like televisions: they tie you into a certain pattern of moment, and restrict you to certain environments. You need to be indoors, you need to be careful with liquids, temperatures and stress in the form of jolts and jars, you need to have a table or some sort of support for the keyboard and you need the same for the screen. With a Xybernaut computer, you can disregard these restrictions. OK, so I sound like a commercial, but really - imagine - my dyslectic son with his writing problems could with a wearable computer, a headset for a screen and a wireless keyboard either strapped to his arm or resting in his lap, have the same opportunities to take notes on a class excursion as his classmates with pens and pencils. My sister the live-action role-player could use the same equipment to quickly and unobstrusively refer to her notes while GM-ing the 70-100 people on one of her (relatively small and intimate) games. And these are just the most immediate uses I can see in my family.
I just like it for the coolness factor. I love the science-fiction aspect of wearing the computer, I can easily see myself with a small toolbelt containing the hard-drive, a screen built into my glasses, and an input device the size of my palm, where I scribble down cryptic, secret messages or perhaps call up information with sub-vocalised commands... But I also see the political problem with making computers too wearable and portable. I might for instance have to give up my nice office and move my books into some kind of accessible storage with only a small space for book perusal, while I get to work in several different types of environments depending on the type of work I do: from an auditorium to the class-room, a common work-room for peer-to-peer cooperation, a student-meeting room, a silent study room for accessing the heavier databanks or doing online editing or design. It would mean a new architecture for staff workspaces in the college. Somehow that thought thrills me and scares me. I like this little cave where I am surrounded by pictures, books and green plants. But oh yes.... I'd happily become a cyborg - if it looks cool!
Internet use, anonymity and the ethics of blogs.
Jill has a couple of posts this week about children and internet use, which she ties into internet and particularly blogging ethics. In her first post she writes about teaching her daughter how to protect her anonymity, lie if she has to in order to do so, and in the second she talks about blog ethics. I find that these are two different issues, and should not be confused.
To tell children not to give out information online goes along the line of never taking candy from a stranger or never entering their cars or houses. Children need to learn how to distinguish between these different situations. We teach children to be polite, and refusing to answer a question is impolite, but we still don't want them to tell perfect strangers where they live. This is a situation where a child has to use his or her own judgement, and they ought to know that they are not comitting a horrible offense and will be yelled at at home if they don't tell that nice lady their home address and refuse to let her drive them home from school. To operate with an anonymous email address online, to sign with a nick-name and to misdirect if they are asked about home addresses or other information that can be used to track them: what school are you in, what class, what is the name of your teacher, who else are in that class, what band do you play in - the list is long - is a safety measure.
If they start a blog and publish to the net, that is a different can of worms entirely. Not that I feel all information in a blog needs to be correct. A little hint in the description of the blog that "this is my private playground, and the things I write here are things I know and things I make up" will be enough to establish the context for the mixture of fiction, dreams and misinterpretations which often comprises childrens' perception of reality. I would however insist to my children that if they start a blog, they make such things clear to the reader.
A weblog connected to my work is a different thing again. In this blog, as Jill in hers, I need to be correct. I am occasionally - well, frequently - personal about the information here, but it is still correct. If I find that I have not been correct, I have the power to edit, and I can exercize it, just as the editor of a newspaper can. First edition holds so much information - in the fifth edition the paper is totally changed. Remember the day the Swedish Prime Minister Oluf Palme was killed? I guess not that many do, it was way back in the easter of 1986. Anyway: Bergens Tidende, the largest newspaper in western Norway, came out with six different editions that day, from the first where they had a little note saying Oluf Palme had been shot, to the sixth which had pictures and several pages dedicated to the shooting. In this case several less sensational subjects were supressed for the sake of the shooting, and thrown out of the paper without mercy and with no excuses made.
A paper newspaper has different restrictions from a blog, of course, but the point I want to make is that at times we, the editors of our blogs, need to make editorial decisions. If I have been an idiot and given out false information, rather than leaving it there to be found by search-engines, to be pointed to by links and generally stay around to add to the misinformation of the world, I find it ethical to remove it. It might also be ethical to leave in its place an announcement that "in this post I had posted incorrect information about so-and-so, but having seen the error of my ways I have altered the post, and I am very sorry for the inconvenience," but misinformation is not something that needs to be kept for posterity. What might be interesting is how come this information turned out wrong, but that's if you do research on memes, in which case I suspect you have enough material anyway.
Most of all I want to make it clear that I am not a publishing house, and this is not the product of an organisation. I have made no promise to the public that I will say nothing but the truth, and I don't ask for anything in return from my readers. I don't take your money and sell you crap, I receive your attention and occasionally add something to the way people think about information, media, games - but I am not the fourth power of the state. Let's keep this in proportion - this is just a blog, I am just one human being and while I might worry about my blog archives, I don't think of them as my memorial.
Jill has a couple of posts this week about children and internet use, which she ties into internet and particularly blogging ethics. In her first post she writes about teaching her daughter how to protect her anonymity, lie if she has to in order to do so, and in the second she talks about blog ethics. I find that these are two different issues, and should not be confused.
To tell children not to give out information online goes along the line of never taking candy from a stranger or never entering their cars or houses. Children need to learn how to distinguish between these different situations. We teach children to be polite, and refusing to answer a question is impolite, but we still don't want them to tell perfect strangers where they live. This is a situation where a child has to use his or her own judgement, and they ought to know that they are not comitting a horrible offense and will be yelled at at home if they don't tell that nice lady their home address and refuse to let her drive them home from school. To operate with an anonymous email address online, to sign with a nick-name and to misdirect if they are asked about home addresses or other information that can be used to track them: what school are you in, what class, what is the name of your teacher, who else are in that class, what band do you play in - the list is long - is a safety measure.
If they start a blog and publish to the net, that is a different can of worms entirely. Not that I feel all information in a blog needs to be correct. A little hint in the description of the blog that "this is my private playground, and the things I write here are things I know and things I make up" will be enough to establish the context for the mixture of fiction, dreams and misinterpretations which often comprises childrens' perception of reality. I would however insist to my children that if they start a blog, they make such things clear to the reader.
A weblog connected to my work is a different thing again. In this blog, as Jill in hers, I need to be correct. I am occasionally - well, frequently - personal about the information here, but it is still correct. If I find that I have not been correct, I have the power to edit, and I can exercize it, just as the editor of a newspaper can. First edition holds so much information - in the fifth edition the paper is totally changed. Remember the day the Swedish Prime Minister Oluf Palme was killed? I guess not that many do, it was way back in the easter of 1986. Anyway: Bergens Tidende, the largest newspaper in western Norway, came out with six different editions that day, from the first where they had a little note saying Oluf Palme had been shot, to the sixth which had pictures and several pages dedicated to the shooting. In this case several less sensational subjects were supressed for the sake of the shooting, and thrown out of the paper without mercy and with no excuses made.
A paper newspaper has different restrictions from a blog, of course, but the point I want to make is that at times we, the editors of our blogs, need to make editorial decisions. If I have been an idiot and given out false information, rather than leaving it there to be found by search-engines, to be pointed to by links and generally stay around to add to the misinformation of the world, I find it ethical to remove it. It might also be ethical to leave in its place an announcement that "in this post I had posted incorrect information about so-and-so, but having seen the error of my ways I have altered the post, and I am very sorry for the inconvenience," but misinformation is not something that needs to be kept for posterity. What might be interesting is how come this information turned out wrong, but that's if you do research on memes, in which case I suspect you have enough material anyway.
Most of all I want to make it clear that I am not a publishing house, and this is not the product of an organisation. I have made no promise to the public that I will say nothing but the truth, and I don't ask for anything in return from my readers. I don't take your money and sell you crap, I receive your attention and occasionally add something to the way people think about information, media, games - but I am not the fourth power of the state. Let's keep this in proportion - this is just a blog, I am just one human being and while I might worry about my blog archives, I don't think of them as my memorial.
Sunday, November 03, 2002
Numb
I think I just concluded. I am not sure. I guess I can't be sure for quite a while yet - first there is a lot of beauty-errors to correct, Espen needs to read it, I have to submit it, the University has to appoint two or three readers to assess the entire 350 pages, and they have to accept it and permit me to defend it, and when the defense is over I will, hopefully, know if I managed to conclude - in a manner.
I think I just concluded. I am not sure. I guess I can't be sure for quite a while yet - first there is a lot of beauty-errors to correct, Espen needs to read it, I have to submit it, the University has to appoint two or three readers to assess the entire 350 pages, and they have to accept it and permit me to defend it, and when the defense is over I will, hopefully, know if I managed to conclude - in a manner.
Friday, November 01, 2002
Time passes...
Did you talk about 30 Lisbeth? You are such a young PhD student...
An other reason why it is - at least in Norway - common to be both 30 and 40 before you finish a PhD, is the fact that you can get a job, and even tenure, without a doctorate. I have worked at Universities and Colleges since I finished the master's degree, and been tenured since -96. The Ph.D. is more so that I can have more options than a really necessary career move for me. Although I expect the degree to change my career somewhat, in the current educational system I need the PhD to apply for jobs at the Universities or for leading projects in research and development. It will also help me to create a masters in Public Information, if I want to teach and administrate it, and it will make my education more acceptable abroad - or rather, it will be easier for foreign Academics to understand that I actually have quite a bit of independent research experience (which I had to have to get the steady position at the College, but less formally).
The odd title "amanuensis" is supposedly on its way out of the Norwegian system, there are no new positions with that title. I am one of the last dinosaurs...
Did you talk about 30 Lisbeth? You are such a young PhD student...
An other reason why it is - at least in Norway - common to be both 30 and 40 before you finish a PhD, is the fact that you can get a job, and even tenure, without a doctorate. I have worked at Universities and Colleges since I finished the master's degree, and been tenured since -96. The Ph.D. is more so that I can have more options than a really necessary career move for me. Although I expect the degree to change my career somewhat, in the current educational system I need the PhD to apply for jobs at the Universities or for leading projects in research and development. It will also help me to create a masters in Public Information, if I want to teach and administrate it, and it will make my education more acceptable abroad - or rather, it will be easier for foreign Academics to understand that I actually have quite a bit of independent research experience (which I had to have to get the steady position at the College, but less formally).
The odd title "amanuensis" is supposedly on its way out of the Norwegian system, there are no new positions with that title. I am one of the last dinosaurs...
Installation problems
The college runs windows 2000 pro on the newer machines - like my brand new one - and for some reason the drivers for the video card are not compatible with the drivers for battlefield 1942. So now I'll get to test Windows XP. And yes, the guy who does the installs has now accepted that making sure games work on my office computer is part of his job. I wonder what he'll think when I apply for money to set up a game-lab for volunteer research subjects - a LAN with connections to the net via the college server, with game-dedicated computers and a server dedicated to weblogs, discussion forums and chat-rooms in connection with the gaming?
The college runs windows 2000 pro on the newer machines - like my brand new one - and for some reason the drivers for the video card are not compatible with the drivers for battlefield 1942. So now I'll get to test Windows XP. And yes, the guy who does the installs has now accepted that making sure games work on my office computer is part of his job. I wonder what he'll think when I apply for money to set up a game-lab for volunteer research subjects - a LAN with connections to the net via the college server, with game-dedicated computers and a server dedicated to weblogs, discussion forums and chat-rooms in connection with the gaming?
Faint comfort
I got past the Amber Hulks, but now I have to kill Torgal. But before that, I will see what I can do about a few more pages to the conclusion. I have about 40% of it done. There's 7 pages between me and freedom. It's scary - having the thesis there as something to do, at all times, is somehow comforting.
I got past the Amber Hulks, but now I have to kill Torgal. But before that, I will see what I can do about a few more pages to the conclusion. I have about 40% of it done. There's 7 pages between me and freedom. It's scary - having the thesis there as something to do, at all times, is somehow comforting.
Wednesday, October 30, 2002
Students - can't live with them, can't teach without them
Not a good day. I wish I had a good fantasy novel I hadn't read yet, so I could just go home and forget all about it. Perhaps I'll see if I can get past the Amber Hulks in the dungeons in Baldur's Gate even if I skipped the part that would let me make the stew to distract them.
Not a good day. I wish I had a good fantasy novel I hadn't read yet, so I could just go home and forget all about it. Perhaps I'll see if I can get past the Amber Hulks in the dungeons in Baldur's Gate even if I skipped the part that would let me make the stew to distract them.
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
The pain of ending
I just read the conclusions to two very different PhDs by two women I admire a lot. The first used the conclusion to address all the unmentioned problems of her thesis. The other used the conclusion to conclude: a summary of all the earlier chapters. I have no idea what my model will be. No, that's not true - I have made the outline, so I have an idea. I guess it will be more the concluding part - I feel so done, I don't see where I could take this from here without starting an entire new project. I guess that is a good thing?
I just read the conclusions to two very different PhDs by two women I admire a lot. The first used the conclusion to address all the unmentioned problems of her thesis. The other used the conclusion to conclude: a summary of all the earlier chapters. I have no idea what my model will be. No, that's not true - I have made the outline, so I have an idea. I guess it will be more the concluding part - I feel so done, I don't see where I could take this from here without starting an entire new project. I guess that is a good thing?
Ah, it's a story!
Thank you Mark, that did clear things up. I was confused by your first entry on Another World:
Another World is a game. You are the Resident Administrator of a new Colony on Another World. You make the decisions. You choose what to build, and where. It's a little like SimCity. (It's loosely coupled and multiplayer; there are other colonies out there, and they can influence your colony. But they're a long way away...)
Addressing the reader: the second person address as in "Wake up! Look about you! Look at that boy over there. Yes, that exquisite elf lad, Jehann's boy. Tell me: don't you want him?" doesn't change the fact that this is a story, and told by you.
Stories and games have things in common, but one of the areas where they rarely correspond is in how they flesh out the society and makes it explicit to the users. In a story, you can indicate a past, a structure of society, the laws of nature as well as the legislation and the culture, which the reader then has to assume from your writing. In a game, particularly a role-playing game, you have to give the players this background explicitly, because a large part of the pleasure of playing means manipulating these rules.
When I say that they rarely correspond, it's because there are examples of how they do. Tolkien's Silmarillion is one such work - although that was edited and published by the son, not JRR Tolkien. It's been used as the model for how to flesh out a background for role-playing games since the first Tolkien-fans started making their own Middle-Earth characters. I would also love to see Silmarillion as an electronic hypertext, the stories linked to each other, and then linked to Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit as well. I think Silmarillion already is a hypertext... all it needs is a more efficient medium in which to be studied. And I think Tolkien might have loved the multi-linear writing spaces, such as Tinderbox.
Thank you Mark, that did clear things up. I was confused by your first entry on Another World:
Another World is a game. You are the Resident Administrator of a new Colony on Another World. You make the decisions. You choose what to build, and where. It's a little like SimCity. (It's loosely coupled and multiplayer; there are other colonies out there, and they can influence your colony. But they're a long way away...)
Addressing the reader: the second person address as in "Wake up! Look about you! Look at that boy over there. Yes, that exquisite elf lad, Jehann's boy. Tell me: don't you want him?" doesn't change the fact that this is a story, and told by you.
Stories and games have things in common, but one of the areas where they rarely correspond is in how they flesh out the society and makes it explicit to the users. In a story, you can indicate a past, a structure of society, the laws of nature as well as the legislation and the culture, which the reader then has to assume from your writing. In a game, particularly a role-playing game, you have to give the players this background explicitly, because a large part of the pleasure of playing means manipulating these rules.
When I say that they rarely correspond, it's because there are examples of how they do. Tolkien's Silmarillion is one such work - although that was edited and published by the son, not JRR Tolkien. It's been used as the model for how to flesh out a background for role-playing games since the first Tolkien-fans started making their own Middle-Earth characters. I would also love to see Silmarillion as an electronic hypertext, the stories linked to each other, and then linked to Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit as well. I think Silmarillion already is a hypertext... all it needs is a more efficient medium in which to be studied. And I think Tolkien might have loved the multi-linear writing spaces, such as Tinderbox.
Monday, October 28, 2002
Learning from blogging
Jill writes:
I've become very comfortable with expressing myself quickly and clearly, and I'm much more confident about expressing a clear opinion, tolerating its being challenged, debating it and supporting it - or dropping it and learning from criticism. Networking, building on others ideas, sharing my own and letting go of my ideas as they join up with others and are used by others. Though I suppose universities want to or should teach these things, I sure didn't learn them in seminars, lectures or writing groups. Perhaps others did.
I learned that from playing online role-playing games - from mudding. Perhaps what we learn from is being social while limited to writing?
Jill writes:
I've become very comfortable with expressing myself quickly and clearly, and I'm much more confident about expressing a clear opinion, tolerating its being challenged, debating it and supporting it - or dropping it and learning from criticism. Networking, building on others ideas, sharing my own and letting go of my ideas as they join up with others and are used by others. Though I suppose universities want to or should teach these things, I sure didn't learn them in seminars, lectures or writing groups. Perhaps others did.
I learned that from playing online role-playing games - from mudding. Perhaps what we learn from is being social while limited to writing?
linked
There are moments when I would have liked a sitemeter, such as today, when Jill has been interviewed on our paper Blogging Thoughts. Among other things I'd love to know if the Norwegian research site Forskning.no has enough trafic to make a dent from a link at the bottom of an article.
For those who read Norwegian: the interview with Jill is nice, and a cute picture too!
There are moments when I would have liked a sitemeter, such as today, when Jill has been interviewed on our paper Blogging Thoughts. Among other things I'd love to know if the Norwegian research site Forskning.no has enough trafic to make a dent from a link at the bottom of an article.
For those who read Norwegian: the interview with Jill is nice, and a cute picture too!
Porn and computer games - mixed feelings
Can there be a better mixture for big headlines? This article from the Norwegian paper VG (Verdens Gang) is about Asia Carrera, and VG uses the connection for all it's worth! Asia Carrera is introduced as a porn star, and in the Norwegian article it looks like her main contribution to the gaming community is posing for skins for avatars in Unreal Tournament. However, VG (with a strict reminder that eksternal links are not the editorial responsibility of VG) does the readers the favour of linking to the interview with Carrera in Unreal Playground.
The first question there is of course about the controversial skins. To emphasis how controversial it is that the chest of an avatar might show tits and not steel, the image is censored and has unrealplayground.com printed right over her boobs. The interview is actually rather amusing, with the questioner trying to justify the interview through an attempt to make it sound like Carrera - or megabitchgoddess (yes, I love the nickname) - actually contributes to the game in many different ways (building maps, for instance) and not just strolls around wiggling her tits. The great part of the interview is that Carrera doesn't try to live up to that. She states her limits quite clearly, explains that she doesn't have THAT much free time, and underlines the fun she has while playing.
I like the interview, megabitchgoddess is obviously a player who enjoys her game. It's quite in tune with the culture in games (and most other male-dominated arenas) that a woman has to show off her boobs to get attention. What I don't think is all that relevant is the article in VG, where it's used as an excuse to show the top-less avatar. I don't mind porn, when it's good I even like it, but the VG interview is to me a typical case of staring at Carrera's chest rather than listening to her words.
Towards the end there's a picture of her rig, and yes, it looks upgraded and includes pussy-cats. Love her shoes too, and the conveniently placed poster. But my favourite part of the interview was this:
UP: Can you recall any UT matches that stood out above the rest; either great games played or weird events during a round?
MBG: Hmmmm... nothing that would make a very good story to tell, I'm afraid. It seems like most of the amusing happenings in UT are of the 'you-had-to-be-there' variety. I do remember at least two instances of feeling like a complete ass after racing all the way home with the flag only to discover I must have dropped it somewhere along the way - thank goodness no one else can tell when that happens!! LOL!!
Can there be a better mixture for big headlines? This article from the Norwegian paper VG (Verdens Gang) is about Asia Carrera, and VG uses the connection for all it's worth! Asia Carrera is introduced as a porn star, and in the Norwegian article it looks like her main contribution to the gaming community is posing for skins for avatars in Unreal Tournament. However, VG (with a strict reminder that eksternal links are not the editorial responsibility of VG) does the readers the favour of linking to the interview with Carrera in Unreal Playground.
The first question there is of course about the controversial skins. To emphasis how controversial it is that the chest of an avatar might show tits and not steel, the image is censored and has unrealplayground.com printed right over her boobs. The interview is actually rather amusing, with the questioner trying to justify the interview through an attempt to make it sound like Carrera - or megabitchgoddess (yes, I love the nickname) - actually contributes to the game in many different ways (building maps, for instance) and not just strolls around wiggling her tits. The great part of the interview is that Carrera doesn't try to live up to that. She states her limits quite clearly, explains that she doesn't have THAT much free time, and underlines the fun she has while playing.
I like the interview, megabitchgoddess is obviously a player who enjoys her game. It's quite in tune with the culture in games (and most other male-dominated arenas) that a woman has to show off her boobs to get attention. What I don't think is all that relevant is the article in VG, where it's used as an excuse to show the top-less avatar. I don't mind porn, when it's good I even like it, but the VG interview is to me a typical case of staring at Carrera's chest rather than listening to her words.
Towards the end there's a picture of her rig, and yes, it looks upgraded and includes pussy-cats. Love her shoes too, and the conveniently placed poster. But my favourite part of the interview was this:
UP: Can you recall any UT matches that stood out above the rest; either great games played or weird events during a round?
MBG: Hmmmm... nothing that would make a very good story to tell, I'm afraid. It seems like most of the amusing happenings in UT are of the 'you-had-to-be-there' variety. I do remember at least two instances of feeling like a complete ass after racing all the way home with the flag only to discover I must have dropped it somewhere along the way - thank goodness no one else can tell when that happens!! LOL!!
Friday, October 25, 2002
Elves and changelings
Tam Lin (or Thomas Rhymer), one of the Child Ballads, is the story of a fellow who meets the Queen of Elfland on the road and spends a night dancing with her -- a night that lasts 40 years.
Yes, exactly, Mark. But wasn't Tam Lin exceptional? Those who are picked by the fey are not the everyday, common people. In Norway the equivalent would be to be taken into the mountain: Bergtatt. A human would wander off into the forest, and be lost. And if they managed to escape, they were marked. Often they were marked in advance: poets, dreamers, dancers, musicians, marked by talent or beauty to be different. Peer Gynt is a Norwegian version of Thomas Rhymer, the wild soul, the adventurer and dreamer who goes on an adventure that takes him beyond the safety of routines and off into the mountain where he dances with the daughter of King of the mountain.
And the Queen of Elfland amuses herself with her chosen poet for a brief while - one single night. But for him everything is changed afterwards, while she moves on to her next amusement...
Now the changeling concept is different, and quite cruel. That is a myth which is as much a convenient explanation of genetic randomness: the retarded, misformed child or the one who does not look like its parents. The blonde child to the dark, brown-eyed parents, or the dark child to the unfaithful wife. And so the child grows up, punished for the ignorance of adults... or perhaps punished for the convenience of adults: rather than divorce a wife and lose a partner in the daily struggle, punish the changeling child for being born...
It's also a wonderful dream for a child who does not want to really belong to his or her own parents. To imagine that the real parents are the King and Queen of Elfland, and some day they will take you away must have entertained endless hours. How many of us haven't dreamed of being adopted? I know I did. I know my kids occasionally think about it - that is until they look in the mirror and the sad truth stares out at them.
Elves as the alien - now that is interesting, and that is the point the players of the MUDs discussed. Elves were not just culturally alien, but physically and most likely alien in the hard-wiring of their brains. They would perceive different things from humans, so their thoughts and ideas would be different. I find the elves to be a fascinating concept of "the other", the strangers among us who we cannot see but in glimpses, because the worlds we move in are so different, so alien, and only touch in spots which seem to be charged with magic.
Mark, I just love this, sorry if it appears intrusive and as if I am overly critical and difficult.
Tam Lin (or Thomas Rhymer), one of the Child Ballads, is the story of a fellow who meets the Queen of Elfland on the road and spends a night dancing with her -- a night that lasts 40 years.
Yes, exactly, Mark. But wasn't Tam Lin exceptional? Those who are picked by the fey are not the everyday, common people. In Norway the equivalent would be to be taken into the mountain: Bergtatt. A human would wander off into the forest, and be lost. And if they managed to escape, they were marked. Often they were marked in advance: poets, dreamers, dancers, musicians, marked by talent or beauty to be different. Peer Gynt is a Norwegian version of Thomas Rhymer, the wild soul, the adventurer and dreamer who goes on an adventure that takes him beyond the safety of routines and off into the mountain where he dances with the daughter of King of the mountain.
And the Queen of Elfland amuses herself with her chosen poet for a brief while - one single night. But for him everything is changed afterwards, while she moves on to her next amusement...
Now the changeling concept is different, and quite cruel. That is a myth which is as much a convenient explanation of genetic randomness: the retarded, misformed child or the one who does not look like its parents. The blonde child to the dark, brown-eyed parents, or the dark child to the unfaithful wife. And so the child grows up, punished for the ignorance of adults... or perhaps punished for the convenience of adults: rather than divorce a wife and lose a partner in the daily struggle, punish the changeling child for being born...
It's also a wonderful dream for a child who does not want to really belong to his or her own parents. To imagine that the real parents are the King and Queen of Elfland, and some day they will take you away must have entertained endless hours. How many of us haven't dreamed of being adopted? I know I did. I know my kids occasionally think about it - that is until they look in the mirror and the sad truth stares out at them.
Elves as the alien - now that is interesting, and that is the point the players of the MUDs discussed. Elves were not just culturally alien, but physically and most likely alien in the hard-wiring of their brains. They would perceive different things from humans, so their thoughts and ideas would be different. I find the elves to be a fascinating concept of "the other", the strangers among us who we cannot see but in glimpses, because the worlds we move in are so different, so alien, and only touch in spots which seem to be charged with magic.
Mark, I just love this, sorry if it appears intrusive and as if I am overly critical and difficult.
Thursday, October 24, 2002
Battlefield 1942
Of course, it's important for my current and future research, and so for the department and the college. But it's also quite amusing how easy it is to get the attention of our IT department with a bug-message like this: My computer can't run Battlefield 1942 - can you check what updates I need and perhaps test the game to see if the problem can have some connection with the college network?
I love working on things that makes other people smile when they have to help me!
Of course, it's important for my current and future research, and so for the department and the college. But it's also quite amusing how easy it is to get the attention of our IT department with a bug-message like this: My computer can't run Battlefield 1942 - can you check what updates I need and perhaps test the game to see if the problem can have some connection with the college network?
I love working on things that makes other people smile when they have to help me!
Closure
It isn't easy to write the final pages of a thesis. I sit here polishing the existing pages, squirming with the cognitive dissonance every word creates when I start writing the final chapter. This is where I am supposed to say what I learned, what I meant, what I found, what the 300 preceeding pages were all about. Problem is... I have no idea. I don't know how to close this. It's a neverending story, and I would love to make a loop of it, and return to all the unanswered questions. But that is too cheap, I am not writing fantasy (I think) and I am not Michael Ende.
When I figure out how to do this, you'll all be notified. Don't hold your breath.
It isn't easy to write the final pages of a thesis. I sit here polishing the existing pages, squirming with the cognitive dissonance every word creates when I start writing the final chapter. This is where I am supposed to say what I learned, what I meant, what I found, what the 300 preceeding pages were all about. Problem is... I have no idea. I don't know how to close this. It's a neverending story, and I would love to make a loop of it, and return to all the unanswered questions. But that is too cheap, I am not writing fantasy (I think) and I am not Michael Ende.
When I figure out how to do this, you'll all be notified. Don't hold your breath.
Links out
Jill mentions the hostage situation in the Moscow theatre today. I don't have much to add except that Dagbladet.no have been using links in their articles for a while already. I noticed the first one a few days ago. I forgot to blog it though. This marks a change in Dagbladet's policy to links. According to Arne Krumsvik, their former internett editor and a colleague of mine, their official policy when we discussed this - about a year ago - was not to link out of the site, but keep the readers inside the hypertextual universe of Dagbladet.no. This has obviously changed. (This article is the current leading article on Dagbladet.no, it's about the sniper killings in Washington, and it links to Seattle Times.)
Jill mentions the hostage situation in the Moscow theatre today. I don't have much to add except that Dagbladet.no have been using links in their articles for a while already. I noticed the first one a few days ago. I forgot to blog it though. This marks a change in Dagbladet's policy to links. According to Arne Krumsvik, their former internett editor and a colleague of mine, their official policy when we discussed this - about a year ago - was not to link out of the site, but keep the readers inside the hypertextual universe of Dagbladet.no. This has obviously changed. (This article is the current leading article on Dagbladet.no, it's about the sniper killings in Washington, and it links to Seattle Times.)
Elf Reproduction
These days I am going through old logs from role-playing in Dragon Realms as well as reading the interviews with my players. Like mud from the bottom of a lake, the memories stain my attempts at seeing through my thesis and to a clear conclusion. They are rushing back to me, the days of spending most of my day-dreaming time in the imaginary body of an elf who loved a - what was he? Human? Kind of - but not quite...
And then I read Mark's "another world" description, and see the word "elf" in conjunction with "love" and "human". One of the things I spent a lot of time discussing, both on Dragon Realms and Aarinfel was if an elf would really love a human. The general consensus was that the human had to be truly spectacularly special - or the elf would have to be pretty alienated from his or her own species. What is a human life to an elf? It's so brief, it hardly registers, it's even shorter than the life of dogs and cats in our lives. The Tolkien elves are immortal - to them humans are maggots, as many and as short-lived and undistinguishable. On Dragon Realms elves had a life-span of 30 - 40 000 years, while humans could expect to be 70. That's more the occasional cute, cuddly pet version, like guinea pigs. On Aarinfel elves would live 3-400 years, and humans 50-70: there they were more like dogs: capable of being useful, occasionally good allies and companions, but not really something you mated.
My Dragon Realms character did however live with and marry a human. My character was well and truly alienated from her family and her community, an outcast, and a young and inexperienced one at that. And the human was exceptional - not really a human, but transformed by magic from a neutered serpent-folk type of person into a human male, and a powerful cleric, immortal with the powers of the deity of trickery, illusion and madness at his disposal.
My Aarinfel character was an arrogant, wealthy, powerful and scheming prince of elves, the apple of his mother's eye and soon the shadow behind the throne, the voice that was listened to, the hand which never needed to touch the poisoned dagger. He would stay exquisitely polite in front of humans: he was well aware of their potential as allies in war, as labour and sources of exploitation. But he would definitely not have them anywhere near his silk carpets or his delicate china. Leashed, they were barely acceptable.
With these different views of the relationships elves/humans in the back of my mind, I don't know what Mark really means when he writes:
For example, Jules is a beautiful, and painfully young, elf who is desperately in love with a 13-year-old human farmgirl. She loves him -- or, at any rate, she lusts for him. None of their parents would think this a desirable situation, if they knew about it. But it's a small town....
Painfully young for an elf - 500 years? 2000? Or does elves live by human time in his universe? Are there other races in the little village? Dwarves? Orcs? Trolls? Pixies? Are humans and elves even able to reproduce together? Will their pheromones exite each others? Will the offspring be fertile? Are there ghettos of half-elves, and perhaps even generations of half-elves, interbred with elves and humans until the differences are cultural rather than physical? Does humans and elves interbreed with other races? Can there be orc/human/elf/dwarf mutts?
I know, I know, these questions shatter the romantic image of human/elf love, so thoroughly branded on our minds since Aragorn and Arwen, but to me the wonderful part of playing MUDs was to get into these discussions, constructing societies from the bottom, where such details created the depth and the logic of the roles we played. Yep, I miss a good role-playing MUD!
These days I am going through old logs from role-playing in Dragon Realms as well as reading the interviews with my players. Like mud from the bottom of a lake, the memories stain my attempts at seeing through my thesis and to a clear conclusion. They are rushing back to me, the days of spending most of my day-dreaming time in the imaginary body of an elf who loved a - what was he? Human? Kind of - but not quite...
And then I read Mark's "another world" description, and see the word "elf" in conjunction with "love" and "human". One of the things I spent a lot of time discussing, both on Dragon Realms and Aarinfel was if an elf would really love a human. The general consensus was that the human had to be truly spectacularly special - or the elf would have to be pretty alienated from his or her own species. What is a human life to an elf? It's so brief, it hardly registers, it's even shorter than the life of dogs and cats in our lives. The Tolkien elves are immortal - to them humans are maggots, as many and as short-lived and undistinguishable. On Dragon Realms elves had a life-span of 30 - 40 000 years, while humans could expect to be 70. That's more the occasional cute, cuddly pet version, like guinea pigs. On Aarinfel elves would live 3-400 years, and humans 50-70: there they were more like dogs: capable of being useful, occasionally good allies and companions, but not really something you mated.
My Dragon Realms character did however live with and marry a human. My character was well and truly alienated from her family and her community, an outcast, and a young and inexperienced one at that. And the human was exceptional - not really a human, but transformed by magic from a neutered serpent-folk type of person into a human male, and a powerful cleric, immortal with the powers of the deity of trickery, illusion and madness at his disposal.
My Aarinfel character was an arrogant, wealthy, powerful and scheming prince of elves, the apple of his mother's eye and soon the shadow behind the throne, the voice that was listened to, the hand which never needed to touch the poisoned dagger. He would stay exquisitely polite in front of humans: he was well aware of their potential as allies in war, as labour and sources of exploitation. But he would definitely not have them anywhere near his silk carpets or his delicate china. Leashed, they were barely acceptable.
With these different views of the relationships elves/humans in the back of my mind, I don't know what Mark really means when he writes:
For example, Jules is a beautiful, and painfully young, elf who is desperately in love with a 13-year-old human farmgirl. She loves him -- or, at any rate, she lusts for him. None of their parents would think this a desirable situation, if they knew about it. But it's a small town....
Painfully young for an elf - 500 years? 2000? Or does elves live by human time in his universe? Are there other races in the little village? Dwarves? Orcs? Trolls? Pixies? Are humans and elves even able to reproduce together? Will their pheromones exite each others? Will the offspring be fertile? Are there ghettos of half-elves, and perhaps even generations of half-elves, interbred with elves and humans until the differences are cultural rather than physical? Does humans and elves interbreed with other races? Can there be orc/human/elf/dwarf mutts?
I know, I know, these questions shatter the romantic image of human/elf love, so thoroughly branded on our minds since Aragorn and Arwen, but to me the wonderful part of playing MUDs was to get into these discussions, constructing societies from the bottom, where such details created the depth and the logic of the roles we played. Yep, I miss a good role-playing MUD!
Tuesday, October 22, 2002
Money for blogs
Blogging network
The idea is very interesting. If it works, we may see a whole new genre. It raises a few questions though, such as editors duty. What if a blogging network writer is offensive or downright illegal - who can be sued?
by way of blogroots
Blogging network
The idea is very interesting. If it works, we may see a whole new genre. It raises a few questions though, such as editors duty. What if a blogging network writer is offensive or downright illegal - who can be sued?
by way of blogroots
Digital juggling
When I play computer games with experienced players, I feel like I am tying to catch balls thrown at me from a skilled juggler. At first I fumble and lose the balls, but if I manage to grab one and return it, it’s incorporated in the flow until the other player throws me an other ball, and another… and slowly I manage to participate and not fumble all the balls.
While I grab for metaphorical balls, I note that playing computer games is a matter of flow and control. It’s juggling or it’s skiing: to go with the flow without being taken over by it. If you strive too hard to stay in control, you can’t handle the balls the game throws at you or the bumps that get in your way – if you just go with it and don’t try to plan a little bit ahead, consider your options and stay alert, you burn your fingers when somebody throws you a flaming brand and not a ball.
When I play computer games with experienced players, I feel like I am tying to catch balls thrown at me from a skilled juggler. At first I fumble and lose the balls, but if I manage to grab one and return it, it’s incorporated in the flow until the other player throws me an other ball, and another… and slowly I manage to participate and not fumble all the balls.
While I grab for metaphorical balls, I note that playing computer games is a matter of flow and control. It’s juggling or it’s skiing: to go with the flow without being taken over by it. If you strive too hard to stay in control, you can’t handle the balls the game throws at you or the bumps that get in your way – if you just go with it and don’t try to plan a little bit ahead, consider your options and stay alert, you burn your fingers when somebody throws you a flaming brand and not a ball.
Monday, October 21, 2002
Accepted
Just learned from Espen that the paper Blogging Thoughts has been accepted as the science theory essay for both Jill and me. One less thing to do before I can deliver and be done with this.
Just learned from Espen that the paper Blogging Thoughts has been accepted as the science theory essay for both Jill and me. One less thing to do before I can deliver and be done with this.
Games and second person address
Dearly as I love Jill, I have never been too fond of her article on Games and second person address. The main reason for this is the rules for how to build a good role-playing MUD which the administrators of Dragon Realms, Aarinfel, Lu'Tamohr and Azhad worked (and work) by. Their main rule was: "Do not use the second person address."
The areas, the rooms, the descriptions of the PCs (player characters) and the NPCs (non-player characters) were considered offensive and intrusive if they used the second-person address. Even the room-echoes are not supposed to address you by telling you that you hear or see something, only by telling you that something can be seen. Not: "you admire the wonderful pink sunrise" but "The sun rises in the east, in a pink haze." To write in your description "you feel a cold touch of fear run down your spine as his cruel eyes glance over you" is to force a reaction on other players. This comes in the class of closed emotes: "Ragallion grabs the knife, and quicker than the eye can perceive he has slammed it point-first into the table, pinning your hand to the oak." This is a closed emote because Ragallion finishes the action without letting his opponent have a chance to foresee that there will be an act of aggression. What if his opponent was trained to be as swift or swifter than him? What if somebody behind him in the crowded tavern bumped into Ragallion and he missed?
A good role-playing game only permits second-person address when it's really addressed at a specific PC and not on the general public. If the PC addresses an NPC, the NPC will be programmed to respond in kind. If an NPC detects a quest-flag on a PC, the NPC may be programmed to seek the PC out and address him/her directly. The same goes for guards, police, enforcers, shopkeepers, priests, healers, all kind of NPCs who make it their business to address Player Characters with certain messages. In a well-built area of a role-playing MUD there is however not supposed to be an explicit you as Jill describes it:
Texts that have an explicit “you” can often make this seduction more visible and more self-reflexive. The tension between the safely voyeuristic pleasures of narrative desire and the presence of a “you” that draws (or forces) you into the story can be an extra source of pleasure. See how you like reading John Barth’s apostrophe to a reader: “The reader! You, dogged, uninsultable, print-oriented bastard, it’s you I’m addressing, who else, from inside this monstrous fiction.” (Barth 1988, 127)
This is my main argument against Jill's well-written article. Her analysis and her points about second-person address, how stirring it is, how well-suited to catch the player's attention, is brilliant. But among the players who role-play for the sensation of control and freedom it gives them; second-person address, exactly because it is such a good and powerful rhetoric tool, has to be used with great care.
Dearly as I love Jill, I have never been too fond of her article on Games and second person address. The main reason for this is the rules for how to build a good role-playing MUD which the administrators of Dragon Realms, Aarinfel, Lu'Tamohr and Azhad worked (and work) by. Their main rule was: "Do not use the second person address."
The areas, the rooms, the descriptions of the PCs (player characters) and the NPCs (non-player characters) were considered offensive and intrusive if they used the second-person address. Even the room-echoes are not supposed to address you by telling you that you hear or see something, only by telling you that something can be seen. Not: "you admire the wonderful pink sunrise" but "The sun rises in the east, in a pink haze." To write in your description "you feel a cold touch of fear run down your spine as his cruel eyes glance over you" is to force a reaction on other players. This comes in the class of closed emotes: "Ragallion grabs the knife, and quicker than the eye can perceive he has slammed it point-first into the table, pinning your hand to the oak." This is a closed emote because Ragallion finishes the action without letting his opponent have a chance to foresee that there will be an act of aggression. What if his opponent was trained to be as swift or swifter than him? What if somebody behind him in the crowded tavern bumped into Ragallion and he missed?
A good role-playing game only permits second-person address when it's really addressed at a specific PC and not on the general public. If the PC addresses an NPC, the NPC will be programmed to respond in kind. If an NPC detects a quest-flag on a PC, the NPC may be programmed to seek the PC out and address him/her directly. The same goes for guards, police, enforcers, shopkeepers, priests, healers, all kind of NPCs who make it their business to address Player Characters with certain messages. In a well-built area of a role-playing MUD there is however not supposed to be an explicit you as Jill describes it:
Texts that have an explicit “you” can often make this seduction more visible and more self-reflexive. The tension between the safely voyeuristic pleasures of narrative desire and the presence of a “you” that draws (or forces) you into the story can be an extra source of pleasure. See how you like reading John Barth’s apostrophe to a reader: “The reader! You, dogged, uninsultable, print-oriented bastard, it’s you I’m addressing, who else, from inside this monstrous fiction.” (Barth 1988, 127)
This is my main argument against Jill's well-written article. Her analysis and her points about second-person address, how stirring it is, how well-suited to catch the player's attention, is brilliant. But among the players who role-play for the sensation of control and freedom it gives them; second-person address, exactly because it is such a good and powerful rhetoric tool, has to be used with great care.
In another world we are all immortals
Mark Bernstein speaks of a possible game which he calls "Another world":
Another World is a game. You are the Resident Administrator of a new Colony on Another World. You make the decisions. You choose what to build, and where. It's a little like SimCity. (It's loosely coupled and multiplayer; there are other colonies out there, and they can influence your colony. But they're a long way away...)
This is immediately appealing to someone who has spent some time researching the attraction of MUDs. In my experience, the main attraction is exactly the ability to control the progress yourself. The multi-player part where people live and love and fight sounds very much like a role-playing MUD. His idea of a colony where other colonies influences it sounds vaguely in the tradition of games such as Planetarion, a real-time strategy game which has been running for several seasons (based and developed in Norway). Mark's suggestion gives more freedom to the players than Everquest and Anarchy Online, while keeping the simulation of a society, the role-playing aspect and not just agôn, the competition.
Another World is a hypertext. The most interesting thing about your Outpost is that it's filled with people. Your inbox is filled with memos, letters, and directives. You see people on the street, hear what they say, listen to their arguments and read their stories.
Another World is about ideas. It's got plenty of politics. Voices will be raised, tears may be shed, and people might take off their clothes.
This is the part which reminds me the most about being an administrator or an Immortal of a MUD. This is what they do. My question to Mark now is where is the politics supposed to come from? Is that the game AI? Who will raise their voices, who will cry and who will undress? If that part is to be run by the game AI sooner or later the options will all have been explored and the game will be done with. If it's real people, the game needs to be structured in much the same way as a good role-playing MUD, with strict rules to limit the power of immortals as well as mortals, with rules for conduct as well as for gameplay, as well as IC and OOC rules.
That's not negative - at least not in my opinion. As some might have noticed, I have this terrible weakness for good role-playing games, insane plots and otherworldly political manipulation. I have a slight preference for fantasy over science fiction though.
Mark Bernstein speaks of a possible game which he calls "Another world":
Another World is a game. You are the Resident Administrator of a new Colony on Another World. You make the decisions. You choose what to build, and where. It's a little like SimCity. (It's loosely coupled and multiplayer; there are other colonies out there, and they can influence your colony. But they're a long way away...)
This is immediately appealing to someone who has spent some time researching the attraction of MUDs. In my experience, the main attraction is exactly the ability to control the progress yourself. The multi-player part where people live and love and fight sounds very much like a role-playing MUD. His idea of a colony where other colonies influences it sounds vaguely in the tradition of games such as Planetarion, a real-time strategy game which has been running for several seasons (based and developed in Norway). Mark's suggestion gives more freedom to the players than Everquest and Anarchy Online, while keeping the simulation of a society, the role-playing aspect and not just agôn, the competition.
Another World is a hypertext. The most interesting thing about your Outpost is that it's filled with people. Your inbox is filled with memos, letters, and directives. You see people on the street, hear what they say, listen to their arguments and read their stories.
Another World is about ideas. It's got plenty of politics. Voices will be raised, tears may be shed, and people might take off their clothes.
This is the part which reminds me the most about being an administrator or an Immortal of a MUD. This is what they do. My question to Mark now is where is the politics supposed to come from? Is that the game AI? Who will raise their voices, who will cry and who will undress? If that part is to be run by the game AI sooner or later the options will all have been explored and the game will be done with. If it's real people, the game needs to be structured in much the same way as a good role-playing MUD, with strict rules to limit the power of immortals as well as mortals, with rules for conduct as well as for gameplay, as well as IC and OOC rules.
That's not negative - at least not in my opinion. As some might have noticed, I have this terrible weakness for good role-playing games, insane plots and otherworldly political manipulation. I have a slight preference for fantasy over science fiction though.
I just can't stand
winters. Yes, I know this sounds like an odd confession from a woman who lives in a place which Adrian Miles describes in this manner: "if a bit smaller volda could be a perfect location for one of those northern exposure style tv dramas." After all, the people living in those little townships are supposed to be strong, healthy from all the fresh air and rough living, and have a matter-of-fact attitude towards such minor inconveniences as snow from October to May, black-out caused by winter storms, days (if not weeks) of isolation due to a combination of wind, snow, fog and avalances, not to mention the endless nights of midwinter. People who live in places like Volda are supposed to benefit from all of this and grow into stubborn, capable survivors.
Who knows, I might actually be one. But when I balance to work on frozen slush because my rugged no-hike-is-too-long-no-backpack-too-heavy type tall blond husband thinks he doesn't need to change to winter tires just yet, hey, it's barely October! I don't feel like I am going to survive long. And I fully understand why women in this climate become shriveled angry bitches, blaming it all on their husbands and driving them off to sea (In the grand tradition of the vikings) if they (the women that is) survive 30 and their tenth childbirth - Sacroiliac pain would never ease up.
I'll ease up on the complaints now though - but don't feel too safe, there might be more later. By the look of it, this is going to be a long, painful winter.
winters. Yes, I know this sounds like an odd confession from a woman who lives in a place which Adrian Miles describes in this manner: "if a bit smaller volda could be a perfect location for one of those northern exposure style tv dramas." After all, the people living in those little townships are supposed to be strong, healthy from all the fresh air and rough living, and have a matter-of-fact attitude towards such minor inconveniences as snow from October to May, black-out caused by winter storms, days (if not weeks) of isolation due to a combination of wind, snow, fog and avalances, not to mention the endless nights of midwinter. People who live in places like Volda are supposed to benefit from all of this and grow into stubborn, capable survivors.
Who knows, I might actually be one. But when I balance to work on frozen slush because my rugged no-hike-is-too-long-no-backpack-too-heavy type tall blond husband thinks he doesn't need to change to winter tires just yet, hey, it's barely October! I don't feel like I am going to survive long. And I fully understand why women in this climate become shriveled angry bitches, blaming it all on their husbands and driving them off to sea (In the grand tradition of the vikings) if they (the women that is) survive 30 and their tenth childbirth - Sacroiliac pain would never ease up.
I'll ease up on the complaints now though - but don't feel too safe, there might be more later. By the look of it, this is going to be a long, painful winter.
Friday, October 18, 2002
Thoughts about the future - not visions yet.
Structure, system, organisation, process and distribution - these are keywords for the system I would like to develop for the students and incorporate it in the study. When I started the information study in Volda 11 years ago, I spent a lot of time explaining potential students that no, this is not a study in informatics or information science, but a study in communication and public information. I nursed the study past the childhood diseases and into acceptance, until explaining the difference between information in Volda and information science at the University in Bergen was no problem any more. These days, my baby is developing into a nerd, where organisation theory and internal information flows are linked with computer information tools and digital networks. Computer technology in this context is about structuring access and distribution in a way that makes sense to the user who is not interested in the transfer "an sich", but in what the message signifies.
I need to add some more keywords: signification, meaning, sense-making, perception/reception.
Structure, system, organisation, process and distribution - these are keywords for the system I would like to develop for the students and incorporate it in the study. When I started the information study in Volda 11 years ago, I spent a lot of time explaining potential students that no, this is not a study in informatics or information science, but a study in communication and public information. I nursed the study past the childhood diseases and into acceptance, until explaining the difference between information in Volda and information science at the University in Bergen was no problem any more. These days, my baby is developing into a nerd, where organisation theory and internal information flows are linked with computer information tools and digital networks. Computer technology in this context is about structuring access and distribution in a way that makes sense to the user who is not interested in the transfer "an sich", but in what the message signifies.
I need to add some more keywords: signification, meaning, sense-making, perception/reception.
Thursday, October 17, 2002
Have life, need direction
I have actually started thinking about what I'll do when the thesis is done. The college wants me to head a large application for a grant in the new program the Norwegian Board of Research opens, but I am not convinced. I feel like I need a little time to catch my breath. And the kind of breath I need to catch has to do with teaching. I am brought up in the classic, grand tradition of university lectures. I am an expert at being overprepared and killing the students off with quotes, stuffing each sentence with five times as much information they need, and discussing problems way beyond their comprehension. This makes my lectures into excellent sources for references when I want to write articles and grant applications... but it makes for lousy teaching.
I need to learn how to teach. I need to understand how to build a series of classes, a course or practical exercises to make the students understand where they are going and what they will get from it. I need to learn about process-based teaching, about self-evaluation and about learning by doing, and I need to teach the students how to ask questions and then find the answers, both academically and in the not-so-academic world outside the college. Taking a class at the teacher's college won't do - I might want to go and stay at an other college for a few weeks or months, just learning their routines and seeing how their schedules work, get ideas and carry it home to the students here in Volda.
And yes, I want to do it for the students... but also... I want it for myself. I am terrified before each new lecture, a nervous, shivering wreck, afraid that I won't do well enough. It's irrational and stupid but it's the sad reality, and I need to deal with it: Take on my fear, and learn how to teach!
I have actually started thinking about what I'll do when the thesis is done. The college wants me to head a large application for a grant in the new program the Norwegian Board of Research opens, but I am not convinced. I feel like I need a little time to catch my breath. And the kind of breath I need to catch has to do with teaching. I am brought up in the classic, grand tradition of university lectures. I am an expert at being overprepared and killing the students off with quotes, stuffing each sentence with five times as much information they need, and discussing problems way beyond their comprehension. This makes my lectures into excellent sources for references when I want to write articles and grant applications... but it makes for lousy teaching.
I need to learn how to teach. I need to understand how to build a series of classes, a course or practical exercises to make the students understand where they are going and what they will get from it. I need to learn about process-based teaching, about self-evaluation and about learning by doing, and I need to teach the students how to ask questions and then find the answers, both academically and in the not-so-academic world outside the college. Taking a class at the teacher's college won't do - I might want to go and stay at an other college for a few weeks or months, just learning their routines and seeing how their schedules work, get ideas and carry it home to the students here in Volda.
And yes, I want to do it for the students... but also... I want it for myself. I am terrified before each new lecture, a nervous, shivering wreck, afraid that I won't do well enough. It's irrational and stupid but it's the sad reality, and I need to deal with it: Take on my fear, and learn how to teach!
Tuesday, October 15, 2002
News media platform
We have 60 students each year, who form three different desks: radio, television and newspapers. The equipment at the college is updated and good, and the students publish newspapers and broadcast television and radio locally and regionally. This runs along smoothly, floating on more than 25 years of experience in different media. The new challenge is the net. How to make the students see beyond the old technology-imposed limitations and towards the potential of new technology.
Adrian's two posts teaching and middlecasting are both relevant to this question, and his meeting with the dean of this department was quite interesting, as they were searchign for the solutions to the same problem, only through different medium.
Today Sverre elaborated on some of the technical problems which keeps the three media seperate. There is no really good cooperation/editing/publishing tool for net publishing of convergence news. We are not talking about making video, radio and print appear on a web-page here, but about handling the three classic media as one medium from production through editing and up to publishing. Unless the same people can produce and edit sound, image, video and text through the same software, it will be very hard to make the students see that computer technology creates a fourth medium, and not just a reproduction of the classic three.
It's an interesting problem. If anybody would like to experiment on live reporters in order to develop something like that, Volda College has all the facilities needed... all we need is a brilliant software developer. Got one to spare?
We have 60 students each year, who form three different desks: radio, television and newspapers. The equipment at the college is updated and good, and the students publish newspapers and broadcast television and radio locally and regionally. This runs along smoothly, floating on more than 25 years of experience in different media. The new challenge is the net. How to make the students see beyond the old technology-imposed limitations and towards the potential of new technology.
Adrian's two posts teaching and middlecasting are both relevant to this question, and his meeting with the dean of this department was quite interesting, as they were searchign for the solutions to the same problem, only through different medium.
Today Sverre elaborated on some of the technical problems which keeps the three media seperate. There is no really good cooperation/editing/publishing tool for net publishing of convergence news. We are not talking about making video, radio and print appear on a web-page here, but about handling the three classic media as one medium from production through editing and up to publishing. Unless the same people can produce and edit sound, image, video and text through the same software, it will be very hard to make the students see that computer technology creates a fourth medium, and not just a reproduction of the classic three.
It's an interesting problem. If anybody would like to experiment on live reporters in order to develop something like that, Volda College has all the facilities needed... all we need is a brilliant software developer. Got one to spare?
Monday, October 14, 2002
Webcams and VR
I have always thought of virtual as something abstract: not fantasy but a model or an imagined object. With the virtual technology, VR comes to mean not the act of imagination but the technology which makes the model or representation possible. Sometimes that meaning makes sense to me.
Michael Naimark writes of Virtual reality - VR - and webcams in an article for ISEA 2002 in Japan this month. It's a short and easy little paper, but he makes some interesting observations about VR technology and the role of webcams, and the distinction between webcams and VR technology. While I think that he might be comparing apples and oranges, I think he finds some important qualities which can bear mentioning in both cases.
by way of netzwissenschaft.de
I have always thought of virtual as something abstract: not fantasy but a model or an imagined object. With the virtual technology, VR comes to mean not the act of imagination but the technology which makes the model or representation possible. Sometimes that meaning makes sense to me.
Michael Naimark writes of Virtual reality - VR - and webcams in an article for ISEA 2002 in Japan this month. It's a short and easy little paper, but he makes some interesting observations about VR technology and the role of webcams, and the distinction between webcams and VR technology. While I think that he might be comparing apples and oranges, I think he finds some important qualities which can bear mentioning in both cases.
by way of netzwissenschaft.de
Don't women play?
By way of Jill, I found shinyspinning.com, an interesting site about games and playing. Cindy Poremba, Monday sept 30th (no permalinks that I found) writes about women and games:
It never fails-- you bring up game play for women, and you'll find women pipe up "We don't play games. We do important things." I don't think its just a feeling any more-- there is a serious lack of play in women's culture. Somehow, where men are embracing play beyond childhood, there's a stigma against women who spend their time at play. Maybe we're still proving how responsible and intelligent we are, according to a feminist agenda. Maybe we're still clutching the lions share of the work, and feel we don't have time. Maybe we allow ourselves more unstructured interpersonal space with other women
In my experience women do play - they are just a little slow at getting to the computer games. The creative playfullness or playfull creativity is present in knitting, in cooking, in decorating. Decorating a modern house as if it was a farm house from last century is a role-playing project as serious as the recontruction/recreation works of live-action role-play gamers: hunting down the perfect pattern for the crochet lampshades in order to give the electric lights that home-spun touch, working on the store-bought furniture for days in ordr to make it look like it has been used for years, scrubbed with green soap every day and sanded twice a year for generations, camouflaging the television inside a rosepainted cabinet - and of course, she had to learn how to do rose-painting in order to decorate that cabinet after she had it rebuilt so the television set would go in there... This is a playfull make-belief, advanced games of dolls and house. Of course, to justify all the time and energy spent on such role-playing games (doesn't have to be farm house, how about lady of the manor, asian nights, japanese gardens...) women have to define their play as work, as absolutely necessary for the comfort of all.
I think they are right, too. I think this female playfullness is essential to the comfort of the family: Not because children and husbands, neighbours and relatives desperately need a crocheted doll to hide their toilet-rolls, but because they need a partner, friend, relative who expresses herself creatively in an activity which has social acceptance and gives status and satisfaction. And around here your skill of draping curtains gives you those things! (Me, I suck at lampshade camouflage and curtain draping... I play in different arenas.)
By way of Jill, I found shinyspinning.com, an interesting site about games and playing. Cindy Poremba, Monday sept 30th (no permalinks that I found) writes about women and games:
It never fails-- you bring up game play for women, and you'll find women pipe up "We don't play games. We do important things." I don't think its just a feeling any more-- there is a serious lack of play in women's culture. Somehow, where men are embracing play beyond childhood, there's a stigma against women who spend their time at play. Maybe we're still proving how responsible and intelligent we are, according to a feminist agenda. Maybe we're still clutching the lions share of the work, and feel we don't have time. Maybe we allow ourselves more unstructured interpersonal space with other women
In my experience women do play - they are just a little slow at getting to the computer games. The creative playfullness or playfull creativity is present in knitting, in cooking, in decorating. Decorating a modern house as if it was a farm house from last century is a role-playing project as serious as the recontruction/recreation works of live-action role-play gamers: hunting down the perfect pattern for the crochet lampshades in order to give the electric lights that home-spun touch, working on the store-bought furniture for days in ordr to make it look like it has been used for years, scrubbed with green soap every day and sanded twice a year for generations, camouflaging the television inside a rosepainted cabinet - and of course, she had to learn how to do rose-painting in order to decorate that cabinet after she had it rebuilt so the television set would go in there... This is a playfull make-belief, advanced games of dolls and house. Of course, to justify all the time and energy spent on such role-playing games (doesn't have to be farm house, how about lady of the manor, asian nights, japanese gardens...) women have to define their play as work, as absolutely necessary for the comfort of all.
I think they are right, too. I think this female playfullness is essential to the comfort of the family: Not because children and husbands, neighbours and relatives desperately need a crocheted doll to hide their toilet-rolls, but because they need a partner, friend, relative who expresses herself creatively in an activity which has social acceptance and gives status and satisfaction. And around here your skill of draping curtains gives you those things! (Me, I suck at lampshade camouflage and curtain draping... I play in different arenas.)
Thursday, October 10, 2002
Blog poem of today
thinking with the law of files of
time in a little Gate
and objective is less pleasing
items
if
accept Blogging
has always been able to
have forgotten.
impossible to do corporate Advertising.
posted by successive contexts. In hand in contradistinction to
sleep more than imagined: each
element defined
It said I am going through
this
in actualisation: the and becomes a
reveals
the aurora.
Still, know Although
I remember you really hard, because there are beside
one town in general:
I find that trick and
rules in a location place .
from Rob's amazing poem generator
And on march 16th 2001, I made this poem with the same generator:
Thinking with the Senators making
no Barbarians come into the bottom
of the of exerting
power and bad television, as the English speakers
I
think they
come and to the English speakers I will alter not
nice young girls and
really be a web that computer
game rather as power to take meaningful
action
or when I think
a reason for subjectifying?. To achieve with sportstape,
covered with the why is a hundred
elfin years going in this is I
had forgotten all the of your
own potential. That this is my work?
One
of the best posted by
Torill Mortensen
13:39 if you
can enjoy the year
I can I snatched this weblog. he
asked me the americans
was kidding. three days
later a sentence and desire.
thinking with the law of files of
time in a little Gate
and objective is less pleasing
items
if
accept Blogging
has always been able to
have forgotten.
impossible to do corporate Advertising.
posted by successive contexts. In hand in contradistinction to
sleep more than imagined: each
element defined
It said I am going through
this
in actualisation: the and becomes a
reveals
the aurora.
Still, know Although
I remember you really hard, because there are beside
one town in general:
I find that trick and
rules in a location place .
from Rob's amazing poem generator
And on march 16th 2001, I made this poem with the same generator:
Thinking with the Senators making
no Barbarians come into the bottom
of the of exerting
power and bad television, as the English speakers
I
think they
come and to the English speakers I will alter not
nice young girls and
really be a web that computer
game rather as power to take meaningful
action
or when I think
a reason for subjectifying?. To achieve with sportstape,
covered with the why is a hundred
elfin years going in this is I
had forgotten all the of your
own potential. That this is my work?
One
of the best posted by
Torill Mortensen
13:39 if you
can enjoy the year
I can I snatched this weblog. he
asked me the americans
was kidding. three days
later a sentence and desire.
Pause
the day before yesterday Pause and Effect by Mark S. Meadows arrived. I haven't had the time to really read it yet, because I find that I don't read the book, I fall into it. I look at the pictures, I turn the book over on the side to get all the stuff in small print, I leaf several pages on to see the skeleton assemble itself, and so I am lost, catching only glimpses of the text. But I am already in love with the book, and getting the distance to it needed for critical analysis will be really hard, because even the surface of the cover seduces me: slick and rougher areas tickling my fingertips as the generous weight of it rests in my hands. Reading and touching it is a sensous experience that overrules the analytical part of me and makes the book worth the cost no matter what's actually in it. I have paid more for less pleasing items - if the writing is good too I'll marry the book!
the day before yesterday Pause and Effect by Mark S. Meadows arrived. I haven't had the time to really read it yet, because I find that I don't read the book, I fall into it. I look at the pictures, I turn the book over on the side to get all the stuff in small print, I leaf several pages on to see the skeleton assemble itself, and so I am lost, catching only glimpses of the text. But I am already in love with the book, and getting the distance to it needed for critical analysis will be really hard, because even the surface of the cover seduces me: slick and rougher areas tickling my fingertips as the generous weight of it rests in my hands. Reading and touching it is a sensous experience that overrules the analytical part of me and makes the book worth the cost no matter what's actually in it. I have paid more for less pleasing items - if the writing is good too I'll marry the book!
Tuesday, October 08, 2002
SMS fun
One of My net-friends loves spamming the cell-phone with SMS-jokes. Most of them are disgusting... he's from the north of Norway, and their sense of humour has definitely been thwarted by the long winter nights, or perhaps by the radiation that creates the aurora. Still, it's a challenge to find jokes that fit into the 150 signs of an SMS message, manages to build suspense and has a punchline. Yesterday he sent me one that brightened a long day of labour:
It's important to find a man that cooks and cleans, a man that makes good money, a man that loves to have sex. It is important that these three men never meet!
One of My net-friends loves spamming the cell-phone with SMS-jokes. Most of them are disgusting... he's from the north of Norway, and their sense of humour has definitely been thwarted by the long winter nights, or perhaps by the radiation that creates the aurora. Still, it's a challenge to find jokes that fit into the 150 signs of an SMS message, manages to build suspense and has a punchline. Yesterday he sent me one that brightened a long day of labour:
It's important to find a man that cooks and cleans, a man that makes good money, a man that loves to have sex. It is important that these three men never meet!
Monday, October 07, 2002
Games, space and social practice
Espen Aarseth writes of space in games as symbolic and rule-based. His example of teleportation in MUDs fall on the fact that he refers to MOOs, not MUDS. Play MUDs tend to have restrictions on teleportation, something which makes sense when it comes to mapping a MUD. The experience of moving through an area, the time of travel was overcome in Dragon Realms through speedwalks: series of orders that would save the player the effort of typing n, s, w or e for every move, but not entirely, since only immortals and soem chosen players had a skill which permitted instant transportation.
The discussion of space as representation stops short here, as he claims that space in MOOs does not matter, and he continues into a discussion of the symbolic space of games as automatic rules. I would have liked to see him take Lefebvre one step further:
(Social) space is not a thing among other things, nor a product among other products: rather, it subsumes things produced, and encompasses their interrelationships in their coexistence and simultaneity - their (relative) order and/or (relative) disorder. It is the outcome of a sequence and set of operations, and thus cannot be reduced to the rank of a simple object.
Henri Lefebvre: The Production of Space, page 73.
What is rules but a way to organise a sequence and a set of operations? Operations controlled, limited and ordered, forcing the player of the game or the human moving among places, in space, to execute operations in certain sequences. Perhaps I am being taken with the too obvious, too easy comparison between the space of games and the social space, but I already know I will return to this relationship between space and rules - so close only insecurity and guilt keeps me from declaring the problem of game-space solved.
Espen Aarseth writes of space in games as symbolic and rule-based. His example of teleportation in MUDs fall on the fact that he refers to MOOs, not MUDS. Play MUDs tend to have restrictions on teleportation, something which makes sense when it comes to mapping a MUD. The experience of moving through an area, the time of travel was overcome in Dragon Realms through speedwalks: series of orders that would save the player the effort of typing n, s, w or e for every move, but not entirely, since only immortals and soem chosen players had a skill which permitted instant transportation.
The discussion of space as representation stops short here, as he claims that space in MOOs does not matter, and he continues into a discussion of the symbolic space of games as automatic rules. I would have liked to see him take Lefebvre one step further:
(Social) space is not a thing among other things, nor a product among other products: rather, it subsumes things produced, and encompasses their interrelationships in their coexistence and simultaneity - their (relative) order and/or (relative) disorder. It is the outcome of a sequence and set of operations, and thus cannot be reduced to the rank of a simple object.
Henri Lefebvre: The Production of Space, page 73.
What is rules but a way to organise a sequence and a set of operations? Operations controlled, limited and ordered, forcing the player of the game or the human moving among places, in space, to execute operations in certain sequences. Perhaps I am being taken with the too obvious, too easy comparison between the space of games and the social space, but I already know I will return to this relationship between space and rules - so close only insecurity and guilt keeps me from declaring the problem of game-space solved.
Spaces and places
At the outset, I shall make the distinction between space (espace) and place (lieu) that delimits a field. A place (lieu) is the order (of whatever kind) in accord with which elements are distributed in relationships of coexistence. It thus excludes the possibility of two things being in the same location (place). The law of the "proper" rules in the place: the elements taken into consideration are beside one another, each situated in its own "proper" and distinct location, a location it defines. A place is thus an instantaneous configuration of positions. It implies and indication of stability.
A space exists when one takes into consideration vectors of direction, velocities and time variables. Thus space is composed of intersections of mobile elements. It is in a sense actuated by the ensemble of movements deployed within it. Space occurs as the effect produced by the operations that orient it, situate it, temporalize it, and make it function in a polyvalent unity of conflictual programs or contractual proximities. On this view, in relation to place, space is like the word when it's spoken, that is when it's caught in the ambiguity of an actualisation, transformed into a term dependent upon many different conventions, situated as the act of a present (or of a time), and modified by the transformations caused by successive contexts. In contradistinction to the place, it has thus none of the univocity or stability of a "proper."
Michel de Certeau:The Practice of Everyday Life.
If there is such a thing as Cyberspace, where, then, is Cyberplace? Where is the place in Cyber, where everything is aligned to everything else in a stable and proper manner, each element defined in relation to the others, each location distinct and defined? It is perhaps closer than imagined: each accessible item on the net defined in relation to every other through protocol. Protocol is exactly that, a definition of that which is proper, a structuring of elements in relation to other elements. Cyberplace then rests in the protocol of files and archives, of folders and domains, while Cyberspace is the movement through these places: the protocol in actualisation: the word spoken.
At the outset, I shall make the distinction between space (espace) and place (lieu) that delimits a field. A place (lieu) is the order (of whatever kind) in accord with which elements are distributed in relationships of coexistence. It thus excludes the possibility of two things being in the same location (place). The law of the "proper" rules in the place: the elements taken into consideration are beside one another, each situated in its own "proper" and distinct location, a location it defines. A place is thus an instantaneous configuration of positions. It implies and indication of stability.
A space exists when one takes into consideration vectors of direction, velocities and time variables. Thus space is composed of intersections of mobile elements. It is in a sense actuated by the ensemble of movements deployed within it. Space occurs as the effect produced by the operations that orient it, situate it, temporalize it, and make it function in a polyvalent unity of conflictual programs or contractual proximities. On this view, in relation to place, space is like the word when it's spoken, that is when it's caught in the ambiguity of an actualisation, transformed into a term dependent upon many different conventions, situated as the act of a present (or of a time), and modified by the transformations caused by successive contexts. In contradistinction to the place, it has thus none of the univocity or stability of a "proper."
Michel de Certeau:The Practice of Everyday Life.
If there is such a thing as Cyberspace, where, then, is Cyberplace? Where is the place in Cyber, where everything is aligned to everything else in a stable and proper manner, each element defined in relation to the others, each location distinct and defined? It is perhaps closer than imagined: each accessible item on the net defined in relation to every other through protocol. Protocol is exactly that, a definition of that which is proper, a structuring of elements in relation to other elements. Cyberplace then rests in the protocol of files and archives, of folders and domains, while Cyberspace is the movement through these places: the protocol in actualisation: the word spoken.
Maxed out
I am maxed out on stress. It doesn't register on any scale of mind or body any more. There's nothing I can do but toil continously, finish the most immediate tasks as they arrive, and try to deal with the rest in the little windows of time in between. No more slack - lunchbreaks are used to talk to students, and when I go to sleep I wake up at the middle of the night and write down something I have forgotten. It's impossible to sleep more than six hours, even when I plan to sleep in. But somehow it doesn't concern me - I go from task to task as if nothing matters any more. Perhaps the brain produces some kind of drug, related to endorphins, that kick in and protect people who are under continous stress for too long? Or perhaps I have just somehow learned to deal with stress? When I tried the Stress Centre questionnaire it said I am only moderately stressed. I don't trust that test though, because when I take a cup of tea, close my eyes and listen closely, I can hear the dulled screams of panic from the darkest corners of my brain.
I am maxed out on stress. It doesn't register on any scale of mind or body any more. There's nothing I can do but toil continously, finish the most immediate tasks as they arrive, and try to deal with the rest in the little windows of time in between. No more slack - lunchbreaks are used to talk to students, and when I go to sleep I wake up at the middle of the night and write down something I have forgotten. It's impossible to sleep more than six hours, even when I plan to sleep in. But somehow it doesn't concern me - I go from task to task as if nothing matters any more. Perhaps the brain produces some kind of drug, related to endorphins, that kick in and protect people who are under continous stress for too long? Or perhaps I have just somehow learned to deal with stress? When I tried the Stress Centre questionnaire it said I am only moderately stressed. I don't trust that test though, because when I take a cup of tea, close my eyes and listen closely, I can hear the dulled screams of panic from the darkest corners of my brain.
Saturday, October 05, 2002
Propaganda
No, I am not about to write about President Bush and the rather clumsy manner in which he handles foreign politics, turning the opinion in Europe against USA to the point that the polls show that more than half the population of such an America-friendly country as little faithful NATO member Norway thinks that American Foreign politics does not benefit Norway.
Actually, I find it a little odd that we are not going to talk about President Bush and the pro-war propaganda which flows out of the United States these days, because I am about to talk about propaganda. To be precise, Aaron Delwiche's site named Propaganda.
Aaron Delwiche wrote me a very nice letter - media professor to media professor - and asked if I could please mention this in my blog. According to him
Propaganda Critic (http://www.propagandacritic.com) is a not-for-profit educational site inspired by the pioneering work of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis. The site has been revamped to include updated examples, streaming video clips, and fresh artwork by Carol Lay.
Thank you Aaron, I am flattered that you want me to mention you, that you think being blogged by me will get you more readers, and yes, it is the kind of site that I might blog. It is pretty, deals with an extremely interesting topic, and is thoughtfully set up. However...
The project of this website is as old-fashioned as the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA). In media theory the belief that propaganda skews the mind of those listening, to the point that words are dangerous and need to be restricted, belongs to the injection-theory branch of media studies. Studying propaganda outside of context treats humans as helpless receptors, blank pages upon which the manipulating press-secretary writes his evil opinion in ink that will never be erased. This view is as old as Leni Riefenstahl, but much less charming. The two-step hypothesis, the uses and gratifications theory and more recent theories of human reception and the creation of meaning, as well as both cultural studies and postmodern theory, reveals that it's not that simple.
Propaganda is useless drivel unless it is motivated by some social need. Hitler spoke to the poor in a Germany in crisis, and promised them wealth, work and power. If he had not had real power in Germany at the time and been able to give his followers benefits, the amazing works of Leni Riefenstahl would have been pointless - and even more important, never even considered for production. Aaron Delwiche's example of anti-American propaganda in Afghanistan totally overlooks the life the Afghani live, the promises they had been given while occupied by Soviet and their desperate need for some kind of change. One piece of paper does not create an army of child soldiers. Hunger, fear and desperation does.
This is where I'd have expected to see some examples of Bush' recent pro-war propaganda. It is as blatant as any flowery speeches from the Arab countries, and Aaron Delwiche would be familiar with the cultural context into which they are delivered and thus able to discuss and criticise them in context. His examples carefully exclude current American political propaganda. The closest thing to current criticism is an article about the Office of Strategic Information, but even this is angled to claim that Americans are critical to public propaganda, by criticising their blatant attempt at winning a war of words with Iraq over Kuwait.
One of my main problems with propaganda criticism goes hand in hand with my problems with some other concepts: objectivity and truth. Too often critics of propaganda think of themselves as objective, and from that standpoint they attempt to distinguish a lie from a truth. The dilemma for a social scientist is that truth is a matter of faith. "Do you believe that I tell you the truth?" Truth is socially constructed, depends on the acceptance of authorithy, and is vulnerable to change. This doesn't mean that I think it's impossible to study or to criticise propaganda; because there are times when rhetoric stops building on facts and becomes a network of interconnected make-belief, and emotional effect takes precedence over rational argument. But inherent in the study of propaganda is a problematic methodical issue: who decides what is true? The word "propaganda" is in itself problematic if it's left undefined, because who decides what is propaganda? During the exchange that's always done by the opposition, and by the winner after the conflict is ended.
However: Propaganda Criticism has a few examples which should not be offensive to anyone, it links to a period of media studies which is historically quite interesting in its instrumental and behaviouristic approach, and it might develop into something interesting down the road.
No, I am not about to write about President Bush and the rather clumsy manner in which he handles foreign politics, turning the opinion in Europe against USA to the point that the polls show that more than half the population of such an America-friendly country as little faithful NATO member Norway thinks that American Foreign politics does not benefit Norway.
Actually, I find it a little odd that we are not going to talk about President Bush and the pro-war propaganda which flows out of the United States these days, because I am about to talk about propaganda. To be precise, Aaron Delwiche's site named Propaganda.
Aaron Delwiche wrote me a very nice letter - media professor to media professor - and asked if I could please mention this in my blog. According to him
Propaganda Critic (http://www.propagandacritic.com) is a not-for-profit educational site inspired by the pioneering work of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis. The site has been revamped to include updated examples, streaming video clips, and fresh artwork by Carol Lay.
Thank you Aaron, I am flattered that you want me to mention you, that you think being blogged by me will get you more readers, and yes, it is the kind of site that I might blog. It is pretty, deals with an extremely interesting topic, and is thoughtfully set up. However...
The project of this website is as old-fashioned as the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA). In media theory the belief that propaganda skews the mind of those listening, to the point that words are dangerous and need to be restricted, belongs to the injection-theory branch of media studies. Studying propaganda outside of context treats humans as helpless receptors, blank pages upon which the manipulating press-secretary writes his evil opinion in ink that will never be erased. This view is as old as Leni Riefenstahl, but much less charming. The two-step hypothesis, the uses and gratifications theory and more recent theories of human reception and the creation of meaning, as well as both cultural studies and postmodern theory, reveals that it's not that simple.
Propaganda is useless drivel unless it is motivated by some social need. Hitler spoke to the poor in a Germany in crisis, and promised them wealth, work and power. If he had not had real power in Germany at the time and been able to give his followers benefits, the amazing works of Leni Riefenstahl would have been pointless - and even more important, never even considered for production. Aaron Delwiche's example of anti-American propaganda in Afghanistan totally overlooks the life the Afghani live, the promises they had been given while occupied by Soviet and their desperate need for some kind of change. One piece of paper does not create an army of child soldiers. Hunger, fear and desperation does.
This is where I'd have expected to see some examples of Bush' recent pro-war propaganda. It is as blatant as any flowery speeches from the Arab countries, and Aaron Delwiche would be familiar with the cultural context into which they are delivered and thus able to discuss and criticise them in context. His examples carefully exclude current American political propaganda. The closest thing to current criticism is an article about the Office of Strategic Information, but even this is angled to claim that Americans are critical to public propaganda, by criticising their blatant attempt at winning a war of words with Iraq over Kuwait.
One of my main problems with propaganda criticism goes hand in hand with my problems with some other concepts: objectivity and truth. Too often critics of propaganda think of themselves as objective, and from that standpoint they attempt to distinguish a lie from a truth. The dilemma for a social scientist is that truth is a matter of faith. "Do you believe that I tell you the truth?" Truth is socially constructed, depends on the acceptance of authorithy, and is vulnerable to change. This doesn't mean that I think it's impossible to study or to criticise propaganda; because there are times when rhetoric stops building on facts and becomes a network of interconnected make-belief, and emotional effect takes precedence over rational argument. But inherent in the study of propaganda is a problematic methodical issue: who decides what is true? The word "propaganda" is in itself problematic if it's left undefined, because who decides what is propaganda? During the exchange that's always done by the opposition, and by the winner after the conflict is ended.
However: Propaganda Criticism has a few examples which should not be offensive to anyone, it links to a period of media studies which is historically quite interesting in its instrumental and behaviouristic approach, and it might develop into something interesting down the road.
Friday, October 04, 2002
Experienced idiot user
Normally, I feel fairly competent when surfing the net, but I tried to make the bookmark jill suggested to notify the world when I make a spectacular update... and nothing. I just can't figure it out, and I suspect that what I can't figure out is Internet Explorer. Not quite sure though.. and that does not make it any better!
Normally, I feel fairly competent when surfing the net, but I tried to make the bookmark jill suggested to notify the world when I make a spectacular update... and nothing. I just can't figure it out, and I suspect that what I can't figure out is Internet Explorer. Not quite sure though.. and that does not make it any better!
Non-Place places
A review of Marc Augé's Non-Places.
Research on Place; Non-Places by Bruce B. Janz.
The Modern Nomad enters the non-places.
Non-Places and the Enfeeblement of Rhetoric in Supermodernity. by Grant Boswell.
Out of Nowhere by Catharina Gabrielsson.
The loss of time and space from The telemodernisation project.
And while searching for Marc Augé and non-places, I found Representing Space, which is part of a larger work by Bob Goldman and Steve Papson: Landscapes of Capital: Representing Time, Space, & Globalization in Corporate Advertising. This seems like a very interesting project:
How do corporate television commercials portray a world defined by global capitalism? Drawing on a dataset of over 800 TV commercials sponsored by corporate firms from 1995 to the present, we seek to 'map' the landscapes and narratives of Capital, Technology and Globalization set forth in corporate television advertising.
A review of Marc Augé's Non-Places.
Research on Place; Non-Places by Bruce B. Janz.
The Modern Nomad enters the non-places.
Non-Places and the Enfeeblement of Rhetoric in Supermodernity. by Grant Boswell.
Out of Nowhere by Catharina Gabrielsson.
The loss of time and space from The telemodernisation project.
And while searching for Marc Augé and non-places, I found Representing Space, which is part of a larger work by Bob Goldman and Steve Papson: Landscapes of Capital: Representing Time, Space, & Globalization in Corporate Advertising. This seems like a very interesting project:
How do corporate television commercials portray a world defined by global capitalism? Drawing on a dataset of over 800 TV commercials sponsored by corporate firms from 1995 to the present, we seek to 'map' the landscapes and narratives of Capital, Technology and Globalization set forth in corporate television advertising.
Thursday, October 03, 2002
Running Thoughts
Blogging has always been a kind of surplus activity: Thoughts which didn't belong in the thesis and still might be interesting have leaked into this blog over the last year. I have never had to take time to update the blog, it's happened naturally as a part of the process of writing. Writing and reading has generated more writing and reading.
Now that I have started teaching, and more and more of my job is teaching and administration, I find that blogging has become complicated. I think while I run, these days, not while I write. The "research" I do these days has nothing at all to do with MUDs or Media Theory, it's all about technicalities within the college, administrative routines and digging for a free room with computers that have the capacity my students need. Boring. But it makes my adrenaline flow, when I have to run across campus and drag the head of the IT-department into a small room where he'll have to listen to me, or when I engage in a yelling match (I am a woman, we don't do pissing contests) over who needs which resources first. Trivial, silly - but vital to the students I care for. And now I'll run off and do some more of that.
Blogging has always been a kind of surplus activity: Thoughts which didn't belong in the thesis and still might be interesting have leaked into this blog over the last year. I have never had to take time to update the blog, it's happened naturally as a part of the process of writing. Writing and reading has generated more writing and reading.
Now that I have started teaching, and more and more of my job is teaching and administration, I find that blogging has become complicated. I think while I run, these days, not while I write. The "research" I do these days has nothing at all to do with MUDs or Media Theory, it's all about technicalities within the college, administrative routines and digging for a free room with computers that have the capacity my students need. Boring. But it makes my adrenaline flow, when I have to run across campus and drag the head of the IT-department into a small room where he'll have to listen to me, or when I engage in a yelling match (I am a woman, we don't do pissing contests) over who needs which resources first. Trivial, silly - but vital to the students I care for. And now I'll run off and do some more of that.
Wednesday, October 02, 2002
Communication
A friend of mine comes to visit from London, and we are both in a slight, but in a good way, shock over the suddeness of it. However, getting from London to Volda is not as simple as it might seem. The first problem was to find a travel agency that was aware of more than one town in Norway. Oslo seemed to be the only option. Finally, one agency also knew about Bergen, but, sadly, that doesn't really help. Much running back and forth in London searching for cheap tickets - Ryan Air has some ridiculously cheap flights between London and Oslo - but it seemed like it might all strand somewhere in the mountains between Volda, Oslo and Bergen.
That's when we both remembered the internet. So, for those who might want to go to Volda, these are the options, all available through this wonderful communications technology. Go to Wideroe's website, and keep a dictionary handy. Remember, you aren't really travelling to Volda, because that will land you in Vologda, Russia, you are going to Ørsta-Volda, or just Ørsta. If you can't get a ticket to Volda, you have to check out SAS and look for a ticket to Ålesund. In Ålesund you get the airport bus to the main station, and then you look for a bus to Volda. This will take you in and out and across a couple of fjords, and then you'll be here. If all those options fail, and you're stranded at Gardermoen, the much-criticised but beautiful main airport in Norway, there are still more busses. The name of the company? Nor Way, or course!
A friend of mine comes to visit from London, and we are both in a slight, but in a good way, shock over the suddeness of it. However, getting from London to Volda is not as simple as it might seem. The first problem was to find a travel agency that was aware of more than one town in Norway. Oslo seemed to be the only option. Finally, one agency also knew about Bergen, but, sadly, that doesn't really help. Much running back and forth in London searching for cheap tickets - Ryan Air has some ridiculously cheap flights between London and Oslo - but it seemed like it might all strand somewhere in the mountains between Volda, Oslo and Bergen.
That's when we both remembered the internet. So, for those who might want to go to Volda, these are the options, all available through this wonderful communications technology. Go to Wideroe's website, and keep a dictionary handy. Remember, you aren't really travelling to Volda, because that will land you in Vologda, Russia, you are going to Ørsta-Volda, or just Ørsta. If you can't get a ticket to Volda, you have to check out SAS and look for a ticket to Ålesund. In Ålesund you get the airport bus to the main station, and then you look for a bus to Volda. This will take you in and out and across a couple of fjords, and then you'll be here. If all those options fail, and you're stranded at Gardermoen, the much-criticised but beautiful main airport in Norway, there are still more busses. The name of the company? Nor Way, or course!
Tuesday, October 01, 2002
Membrane of opinions
My colleague Jon Peder Vestad writes about the membrane of opinions in journalism (in a very elegant new Norwegian, so that link is scandinavian-language readers only). In one of the most level-headed criticism I have seen of journalism for quite a while, he isolates "the blood-fog" and "the membrane of opinions", two functions that skew journalistic judgement. The blood-fog is the frenzy journalists get into when they consider a single case to be more important than anything else, and take shortcuts disregarding rules, ethics and morals in their battle to break the news.
The membrane of opinions is a filter that is less dramatic, but perhaps more problematic. It's a shared filter which journalists are socialised into: he is a good source, she is a bad source, we like that politician and hate that politician, we write about these cases and ignore those cases. Surveys mapping the readers of Dagbladet, one of the larger newspapers in Norway, shows that the paper doesn't deliver what their readers want or expect.
That's a dilemma, because normally numbers of sold papers is the measuring stick for whether a paper writes what the public wants. However, due to the membrane of opinions, what the number of sold papers measure isn't really if the papers give people what they want, but whether any of the material which is filtered through this membrane might also be of some interest to the public. It's like looking for a restaurant in Norway: you can't really pick and choose, so you take what comes close to something you want.
While the blood-fog leads to noticeable rashness for which the journalists and their papers can be reprimanded or punished, the membrane of opinions is much more subtle abuse of the power of publishing. It is probably one of the reasons why the public have less confidence in journalists than in most other professions. The reality of the news is too different from the experienced reality, and people do reality-checks once in a while. Such a subtle mis-representation also leads to frustration and a feeling of estrangement to the important political matters on the public agenda. As long as the news don't correspond with the public reality, the public experience is that any attempt to get through to politicians or anybody else is futile.
My colleague Jon Peder Vestad writes about the membrane of opinions in journalism (in a very elegant new Norwegian, so that link is scandinavian-language readers only). In one of the most level-headed criticism I have seen of journalism for quite a while, he isolates "the blood-fog" and "the membrane of opinions", two functions that skew journalistic judgement. The blood-fog is the frenzy journalists get into when they consider a single case to be more important than anything else, and take shortcuts disregarding rules, ethics and morals in their battle to break the news.
The membrane of opinions is a filter that is less dramatic, but perhaps more problematic. It's a shared filter which journalists are socialised into: he is a good source, she is a bad source, we like that politician and hate that politician, we write about these cases and ignore those cases. Surveys mapping the readers of Dagbladet, one of the larger newspapers in Norway, shows that the paper doesn't deliver what their readers want or expect.
That's a dilemma, because normally numbers of sold papers is the measuring stick for whether a paper writes what the public wants. However, due to the membrane of opinions, what the number of sold papers measure isn't really if the papers give people what they want, but whether any of the material which is filtered through this membrane might also be of some interest to the public. It's like looking for a restaurant in Norway: you can't really pick and choose, so you take what comes close to something you want.
While the blood-fog leads to noticeable rashness for which the journalists and their papers can be reprimanded or punished, the membrane of opinions is much more subtle abuse of the power of publishing. It is probably one of the reasons why the public have less confidence in journalists than in most other professions. The reality of the news is too different from the experienced reality, and people do reality-checks once in a while. Such a subtle mis-representation also leads to frustration and a feeling of estrangement to the important political matters on the public agenda. As long as the news don't correspond with the public reality, the public experience is that any attempt to get through to politicians or anybody else is futile.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
