There is a difference between something that is not a social norm, and something that is not a primary consideration OR an option - until it's too late!
Website and web service users seem very much open to trying new systems; and even letting people, typically friends, view their information. That's no big surprise, and predates websites like Facebook.
On the other hand, websites like Facebook are increasingly opening users' data to the world - reacting to the data on their systems! - and providing users with limited opportunities to change that fact. Isn't it the case that Facebook recently added new "features", such as extended friend network update viewing, and then responded to privacy outcries by building-in limited mechanisms to control the privacy of information?
Furthermore, users are keen to try services without really understanding the possibility that their information ISN'T private -- until it's too late. For example, the user who is rejected from a job application because of his/her photos and/or writing on Facebook is likely to restrict access in the future, as a response to the openness of their personal life.
So: I reject Zuckerburg's notion that privacy is changing, and instead suggest that the nature in which private information is treated as private information, by companies that offer users services, is changing! Changing for the better of their wallets, without a doubt.
Hey there,
Thank you kindly for the comment, and for your show of support! Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about what we're doing - the more enthusiasm, the better, and it's great fun to discuss.
In the meantime, please consider joining our FB group or mailing list to keep in touch.
The catch with our mailing list is that with each new mailing, we'd like to be announcing a new educational tool - one is forthcoming this quarter, and hopefully several, Q2.
Cheers,
--Dave
Technologies are only part of the solution - not at all the entirety!
However, to avoid digressing from the topic of your question, my answers are several:
First, there is simply not the same incentive to create educational technologies as there is to create faster processors or larger hard drives. The benefit of a faster computer is clear and immediately actionable. The results of improved educational opportunities don't become clear for quite some time - 20 years or more.
Second, and more importantly, the comparison of Moore's law to education is inherently incorrect. Would your supposition be that the human cognition must double its... processing capability?... every few years, guided by increasingly powerful educational technologies?
If there is an opportunity, it's the opportunity that we're trying to capitalize upon: that armed with an understanding of how people learn, and coupled with the low costs of producing high-quality educational technologies, we can begin to make a difference.
The most important thing, in making that difference, is that technologies are used in such a way that they add something valuable to the experience of learning - whether it be visualizations with an explanation beyond what a teacher can reasonably provide; or equity; etc. Otherwise, the time required to set computers up, train teachers to use, develop lessons, etc., simply detracts from the educational potential of schools.
If anyone here - LAMP volunteers, especially - would like to become involved in making that happen, please let us know! But, in the meantime, please don't use Moore's law as a point of comparison.
Unfortunately, here's yet another reason to MOVE MY PHONES AWAY FROM VERIZON. Recently, we found out that Verizon was charging for data (1mb of data transfer) when I accidentally hit the "Get it now" key that is hard-coded, pre-programmed, into my phone - without any labeling and without any option to repurpose the keystroke.
This seems to come on top of everything else as yet another reason to choose another vendor - Google, hopefully! - and not Verizon.
Yes -- and pizza is all the better. It's great to know that the challenge is being shared, IF it's a healthy, collaborative effort.
OTOH, if it's an over-the-shoulder kind of assistance, that's rather frustrating. Not so generative, and it's simple enough to know the difference...
From a developing Drupal user
on
Drupal Multimedia
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Hey there,
I've put together a couple sites in Drupal and DotNetNuke recently, and Joomla beforehand, and must state that Drupal is far more useable and powerful than either of the other two CMSs. Here are the general differences:
Drupal is a little more challenging to learn, but far more flexible. I can easily create data types and taxonomies, and relate information across modules and locations in the site. Its theming is relatively simple, and it's not a pain to incorporate social / profile elements in a standard way, across the site. Theming login modules and other user elements is simple enough. Its code is pretty good - very good, in many cases.
On the other hand, DotNetNuke is like legacy software stacked upon legacy software upon legacy software. It has been nothing but trouble. Its modules don't communicate easily with one another and, unless you want to recompile the entire clunky thing, its code is a pain to change around. I definitely don't recommend it for a big-time site, no matter what they state on their homepage. Otherwise, it's somewhat easy to change *content* on pages - but again, not as powerful as Drupal.
Finally Joomla is somewhere in the middle. Very easy to use, but on the other hand, not as powerful. It's fine for a beginning site, but probably not the tool/base I'd choose for a very advanced site with multiple social features and custom needs.
Cheers!
--Dave
The Moon needs a NSS Grotto Chapter?
on
Caves of the Moon
·
· Score: 1
Most cities have Grottos - chapters of the National Speleological Society (I'm in the Boston Grotto which, predictably enough, is in Boston. Others have less predictable names). I wonder if the NSS will ever establish a Grotto on the moon?
--Dave
p.s. in response to a couple questions, yes, please, come one, come all - just send a note through the contact form on http://www.plml.org/ and I'll get back to you with some next steps. Thanks & cheers,
--Dave
Would you like to help develop the project? It's PHP and CodeIgnitor - and needs some interested people to help start it back up!
We had created a lot of connections to mine as supports once it's minimally supported...
--Dave, http://www.plml.org/
Hey there,
We created Codekindness, http://www.codekindness.org/ a site that links volunteer programmers and other techs with nonprofit organizations. Interestingly, the project itself needs some support, and so if you (or anyone else) who reads this would like to take it over, please contact me (through the contact form on http://www.plml.org./
The site has been successful in the past, but there simply isn't a time to run it now - despite that the need is greater than ever. Want to make a difference? It's an open project!
Cheers,
--Dave
We're doing a lot of social outreach, and measured by metrics like how many new members join through our outreach. We're still searching for the best metric to measure our progress in this realm.
To that extent, we had to develop our own tool (!), available for free to others at http://www.sociafyq.com/ .
Cheers,
--Dave
Many sites rely on Google in ways that aren't immediately evident - for instance, during the outage, Google Analytics connections were lagged, which meant that all our our sites that incorporate Analytics were ALSO lagged.
What's amazing is the extent to which an outage on a single entity can bring down ALL of the other entities that surround it -- not just those who rely more visibly, e.g., Google Docs., on their services.
This makes a lot of sense. The healthcare bills, and the societal cost, for caring for the health challenges associated with obesity are enormous.
However, the imposition of a tax will require a significant cultural shift. Entire isles of grocery stores are dedicated to sweet, often unhealthy, foods. Television programs, and even youth culture, promotes candy. Heck, when I was young, I loved candy (and still do!)
And, not only do people love sweet things, companies make a hefty profit on their foods. So the switch is both an individual, and a profit-motive, switch that needs to occur.
In that sense, it challenges our culture -- and I'm curious to explore how that's navigated (as it has been, for instance, at some schools).
Thoughts? How does one roll a change like this through the political process?
An agreement such as this likely covers two areas: first, badmouthing the company on social sites (it wants to protect itself) and second, using social sites for personal reasons, rather than for work-related reasoning.
If anything is the case, sooner or later, workplaces will have to accept that social media blurs the lines between work and life even further. I'm on Facebook Causes for my workplaces, although my personal account is linked to the Facebook Causes.
Social media policies are the knee-jerk reaction put in place by individuals who don't yet see that blurred line, nor understand how to work with, rather than against, social media services. It's still something that's being figured out, anyway, so there's an excuse (so they say).
Depending on your affiliation and social interests, you might check out the nonprofit sector. While "nonprofit" seems at first to imply that you "don't make any money", that's not always the case.
Some nonprofits, for instance, are near the cutting-edge of social technologies and outreach and/or graphic design.
Others, for instance, are building and maintaining robust and impressive virtual communities with expansive software packages that need development.
In all cases, instead of feeding a corporate machine, you're supporting a cause - either directly (by working with people) or indirectly (by programming a piece of software, for instance, or maintaining servers). These causes really, really need support from CIS-capable individuals.
But there are other ways, too, to get a foot in the door - check out Idealist and Craigslist for job listings at most major nonprofits -- and the best of luck!
--Dave / CK
Of course this makes great sense. Design and efficiency in computing are the next big thing, and MSFT seems to do lots of research but no integration.
On the other hand, Apple and others have created very nice, simple and streamlined applications that seem to be driven less by research than by practical testing and design.
Which means that, in the future, Apple and others will continue to gain ground... unless... the new windows... nah...
Oh, definitely -- there are some tremendous articles on this same subject.
See: "Education and the Brain: A Bridge Too Far" for another example ( http://www.jsmf.org/about/j/education_and_brain.htm ) that's fantastic.
Cheers,
--Dave
Without having read the study, my contribution is that it's still early to concede that any particular part of the brain is the center of creativity, or that psychology actually has a specific definition for creativity.
My own work focused on a different squiggly piece of cortex, called the Prefrontal Cortex, that is implicated in a range of abstract thinking processes, including those that don't seem to emerge until later adolescence.
The good Doctor does seem to have an important insight in his work, which is that the locus of creativity (probably) starts much earlier than a thought present in our conscious mind.
One possible idea is that our brain is constantly combining and recombining disparate data stored in memories; the presence of a creative thought is a novel combination that, when applied to a specific problem, results in a novel and perhaps workable solution.
And, in finishing, I would agree that short-term training is unlikely to produce creativity, unless a) the training is extremely specific and b) the test is extremely specific, in which case I would wonder whether we're measuring creativity.
Overall, however, scientific processes (MRI, etc) are so rough that it will be quite some time before we're able to actually "explore" and "find" the center of whatever creativity really is, and identify how it differs from other, more pedestrian thought processes.
Slashdot Mirror
Elaborated response: http://www.plml.org/node/93
There is a difference between something that is not a social norm, and something that is not a primary consideration OR an option - until it's too late!
Website and web service users seem very much open to trying new systems; and even letting people, typically friends, view their information. That's no big surprise, and predates websites like Facebook.
On the other hand, websites like Facebook are increasingly opening users' data to the world - reacting to the data on their systems! - and providing users with limited opportunities to change that fact. Isn't it the case that Facebook recently added new "features", such as extended friend network update viewing, and then responded to privacy outcries by building-in limited mechanisms to control the privacy of information?
Furthermore, users are keen to try services without really understanding the possibility that their information ISN'T private -- until it's too late. For example, the user who is rejected from a job application because of his/her photos and/or writing on Facebook is likely to restrict access in the future, as a response to the openness of their personal life.
So: I reject Zuckerburg's notion that privacy is changing, and instead suggest that the nature in which private information is treated as private information, by companies that offer users services, is changing! Changing for the better of their wallets, without a doubt.
Cheers,
--Dave
Hey there, Thank you kindly for the comment, and for your show of support! Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about what we're doing - the more enthusiasm, the better, and it's great fun to discuss. In the meantime, please consider joining our FB group or mailing list to keep in touch. The catch with our mailing list is that with each new mailing, we'd like to be announcing a new educational tool - one is forthcoming this quarter, and hopefully several, Q2. Cheers, --Dave
Technologies are only part of the solution - not at all the entirety!
However, to avoid digressing from the topic of your question, my answers are several:
First, there is simply not the same incentive to create educational technologies as there is to create faster processors or larger hard drives. The benefit of a faster computer is clear and immediately actionable. The results of improved educational opportunities don't become clear for quite some time - 20 years or more.
Second, and more importantly, the comparison of Moore's law to education is inherently incorrect. Would your supposition be that the human cognition must double its... processing capability?... every few years, guided by increasingly powerful educational technologies?
If there is an opportunity, it's the opportunity that we're trying to capitalize upon: that armed with an understanding of how people learn, and coupled with the low costs of producing high-quality educational technologies, we can begin to make a difference.
The most important thing, in making that difference, is that technologies are used in such a way that they add something valuable to the experience of learning - whether it be visualizations with an explanation beyond what a teacher can reasonably provide; or equity; etc. Otherwise, the time required to set computers up, train teachers to use, develop lessons, etc., simply detracts from the educational potential of schools.
If anyone here - LAMP volunteers, especially - would like to become involved in making that happen, please let us know! But, in the meantime, please don't use Moore's law as a point of comparison.
Cheers,
--Dave
... to hire their new Open Source Community Engagement Expert, to run it? Can't find the link, but it was /.'d a few days ago...
now only if I could change it to say something more erudite...
first post!
Unfortunately, here's yet another reason to MOVE MY PHONES AWAY FROM VERIZON. Recently, we found out that Verizon was charging for data (1mb of data transfer) when I accidentally hit the "Get it now" key that is hard-coded, pre-programmed, into my phone - without any labeling and without any option to repurpose the keystroke.
This seems to come on top of everything else as yet another reason to choose another vendor - Google, hopefully! - and not Verizon.
Yes -- and pizza is all the better. It's great to know that the challenge is being shared, IF it's a healthy, collaborative effort.
OTOH, if it's an over-the-shoulder kind of assistance, that's rather frustrating. Not so generative, and it's simple enough to know the difference...
Hey there, I've put together a couple sites in Drupal and DotNetNuke recently, and Joomla beforehand, and must state that Drupal is far more useable and powerful than either of the other two CMSs. Here are the general differences: Drupal is a little more challenging to learn, but far more flexible. I can easily create data types and taxonomies, and relate information across modules and locations in the site. Its theming is relatively simple, and it's not a pain to incorporate social / profile elements in a standard way, across the site. Theming login modules and other user elements is simple enough. Its code is pretty good - very good, in many cases. On the other hand, DotNetNuke is like legacy software stacked upon legacy software upon legacy software. It has been nothing but trouble. Its modules don't communicate easily with one another and, unless you want to recompile the entire clunky thing, its code is a pain to change around. I definitely don't recommend it for a big-time site, no matter what they state on their homepage. Otherwise, it's somewhat easy to change *content* on pages - but again, not as powerful as Drupal. Finally Joomla is somewhere in the middle. Very easy to use, but on the other hand, not as powerful. It's fine for a beginning site, but probably not the tool/base I'd choose for a very advanced site with multiple social features and custom needs. Cheers! --Dave
Most cities have Grottos - chapters of the National Speleological Society (I'm in the Boston Grotto which, predictably enough, is in Boston. Others have less predictable names). I wonder if the NSS will ever establish a Grotto on the moon? --Dave
p.s. in response to a couple questions, yes, please, come one, come all - just send a note through the contact form on http://www.plml.org/ and I'll get back to you with some next steps. Thanks & cheers, --Dave
Would you like to help develop the project? It's PHP and CodeIgnitor - and needs some interested people to help start it back up! We had created a lot of connections to mine as supports once it's minimally supported... --Dave, http://www.plml.org/
Hey there, We created Codekindness, http://www.codekindness.org/ a site that links volunteer programmers and other techs with nonprofit organizations. Interestingly, the project itself needs some support, and so if you (or anyone else) who reads this would like to take it over, please contact me (through the contact form on http://www.plml.org./ The site has been successful in the past, but there simply isn't a time to run it now - despite that the need is greater than ever. Want to make a difference? It's an open project! Cheers, --Dave
We're doing a lot of social outreach, and measured by metrics like how many new members join through our outreach. We're still searching for the best metric to measure our progress in this realm. To that extent, we had to develop our own tool (!), available for free to others at http://www.sociafyq.com/ . Cheers, --Dave
Many sites rely on Google in ways that aren't immediately evident - for instance, during the outage, Google Analytics connections were lagged, which meant that all our our sites that incorporate Analytics were ALSO lagged.
What's amazing is the extent to which an outage on a single entity can bring down ALL of the other entities that surround it -- not just those who rely more visibly, e.g., Google Docs., on their services.
Yikes!
--Dave
This makes a lot of sense. The healthcare bills, and the societal cost, for caring for the health challenges associated with obesity are enormous.
However, the imposition of a tax will require a significant cultural shift. Entire isles of grocery stores are dedicated to sweet, often unhealthy, foods. Television programs, and even youth culture, promotes candy. Heck, when I was young, I loved candy (and still do!)
And, not only do people love sweet things, companies make a hefty profit on their foods. So the switch is both an individual, and a profit-motive, switch that needs to occur.
In that sense, it challenges our culture -- and I'm curious to explore how that's navigated (as it has been, for instance, at some schools).
Thoughts? How does one roll a change like this through the political process?
--Dave
An agreement such as this likely covers two areas: first, badmouthing the company on social sites (it wants to protect itself) and second, using social sites for personal reasons, rather than for work-related reasoning.
If anything is the case, sooner or later, workplaces will have to accept that social media blurs the lines between work and life even further. I'm on Facebook Causes for my workplaces, although my personal account is linked to the Facebook Causes.
Social media policies are the knee-jerk reaction put in place by individuals who don't yet see that blurred line, nor understand how to work with, rather than against, social media services. It's still something that's being figured out, anyway, so there's an excuse (so they say).
Cheers,
--Dave
woohoo!
Didn't Apple release System7 about two decades ago? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_7 So... Microsoft is a bit behind the times, huh?
... such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMurdo_Station McMurdo Station, or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerguelen_Islands the Kerguelen Islands, both of which need CS people for interesting scientific opportunities (and are way, way out of the way). Check out the employment pages of both for more info on their jobs.
Some nonprofits, for instance, are near the cutting-edge of social technologies and outreach and/or graphic design.
Others, for instance, are building and maintaining robust and impressive virtual communities with expansive software packages that need development.
In all cases, instead of feeding a corporate machine, you're supporting a cause - either directly (by working with people) or indirectly (by programming a piece of software, for instance, or maintaining servers). These causes really, really need support from CIS-capable individuals.
We see a lot of every kind of organization - one way to get involved in a small way is to take on volunteer projects we have listed at http://www.codekindness.org./ Just now, for instance, NPR listed some help they need - http://www.codekindness.org/index.php/projects/details/87 .
But there are other ways, too, to get a foot in the door - check out Idealist and Craigslist for job listings at most major nonprofits -- and the best of luck! --Dave / CK
Of course this makes great sense. Design and efficiency in computing are the next big thing, and MSFT seems to do lots of research but no integration.
On the other hand, Apple and others have created very nice, simple and streamlined applications that seem to be driven less by research than by practical testing and design.
Which means that, in the future, Apple and others will continue to gain ground... unless... the new windows... nah...
Oh, definitely -- there are some tremendous articles on this same subject. See: "Education and the Brain: A Bridge Too Far" for another example ( http://www.jsmf.org/about/j/education_and_brain.htm ) that's fantastic. Cheers, --Dave
Without having read the study, my contribution is that it's still early to concede that any particular part of the brain is the center of creativity, or that psychology actually has a specific definition for creativity.
My own work focused on a different squiggly piece of cortex, called the Prefrontal Cortex, that is implicated in a range of abstract thinking processes, including those that don't seem to emerge until later adolescence.
The good Doctor does seem to have an important insight in his work, which is that the locus of creativity (probably) starts much earlier than a thought present in our conscious mind.
One possible idea is that our brain is constantly combining and recombining disparate data stored in memories; the presence of a creative thought is a novel combination that, when applied to a specific problem, results in a novel and perhaps workable solution.
And, in finishing, I would agree that short-term training is unlikely to produce creativity, unless a) the training is extremely specific and b) the test is extremely specific, in which case I would wonder whether we're measuring creativity.
Overall, however, scientific processes (MRI, etc) are so rough that it will be quite some time before we're able to actually "explore" and "find" the center of whatever creativity really is, and identify how it differs from other, more pedestrian thought processes.
Cheers,
--Dave