BB's B[GI]log

Watching Dan Gillmor's interview, I was reminded of the Fearless City Mobile project going on up here in Vancouver. Gillmor's point is that computers are great, cheap media generation tools. Fearless City takes that idea even further, using mobile devices as critical citizen storytelling tools, and getting them into the hands of marginalized residents of Vancouver's Downtown East Side.

The Fearless Mobile City project is a two-way social media system for marginalized residents and artists of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES). It is an interactive communication system that uses Mobile Muse 3’s technology platform, a free wireless mesh network, distribution and training with mobile handsets, and live screens in public spaces. Participate in Fearless City at live events in and around our inner-city neighbourhood to create community generated media while confronting the digital divide.

I am realizing that my whole team will have to remember that ~52% of the population are "inactive" online as we pursue our marketing project, a website that connects citizens to their elected representatives. It's all well and good to give citizens the opportunity to connect to their reps, but at least by Rubel's calculations, we're starting with an absolute maximum market of just 48% of the population. Kind of sad. Kind of not surprising. Definitely important to keep in mind as we move forward.

Admittedly, I have been putting off finalizing the tagging exercise for myself because the tags that came up are not super comfortable for me. Lots of things came up that I have an incredibly hard time owning. But better late than never, here I am...

In the end, I'm actually paring it down to two three-word phrases: "generous, encyclopedic resource" and "sincere but sassy".

There were further tags like "whip-crackin' smarty pants" that made me laugh and smile, but aren't things I can (or probably should) own publicly. (Thank you to whomever gave me that one.) I'm hoping the "encyclopedic" part covers it...

Ok now to go implement these across my (growing) multitude of profiles...

I love this tweet from Clay Shirky. I think BGI does a great job of using this as a measure of student engagement, learning, and progress. We talk a lot about solutions, too, but always in a very open context that certainly includes identifying other problems that live in the same system. And if we change "open problems" to "challenges" or even, dare I say it, "opportunities," I think BGI does an even better job at incorporating those conversations, and even of making them the focal point of the learning process.

In what ways might other schools, workplaces, and institutions adopt the view that the ability to articulate opportunities and challenges as a key indicator of learning and engagement?

(Thanks for retweeting this, ChristopherA!)

Definition of Engagement: "an arrangement to do something or go somewhere at a fixed time" from french 'engager' meaning "to pledge"

Hmm. It seems most organizations these days are hellbent on "employee engagement". I wonder about this "pledge" referenced in the etymology of "engagement" above. If employee engagement is about a pledge from employee to employer, what would that pledge constitute?

I suppose the same question goes for online engagement. If engaging with something online is a pledge from, for lack of better terms, engager to engagee, what would that pledge constitute?

Saw this book in a bookstore just now. I suppose the fact that I'm blogging about it from my iPhone still inside the bookstore pegs me as part of the Net Gen the book is about. I wonder how much I (and my classmates) would actually relate to this book, and how much it would frustrate us. My gut wants to say, "What does some old researcher know about us?!" hmm... Has anyone read it or anything about it?

It's fascinating to read about the origins of modern backchannels in this 2003 NYT article, In the Lecture Hall, a Geek Chorus. I see the same benefits and challenges persisting today. Just this week in an Elluminate class, our guest speaker was rather overwhelmed by our constant stream of chatter in the "chat box". And that was a pretty quiet class! If only he knew about the various other conversations also happening concurrently via Skype Chat, Google Chat, etc...

One of the best, funniest, most creative uses of a backchannel I've ever seen is Rob Cottingham's self-heckling via Twitter at Northern Voice 2009, Vancouver's blogging unconference. Rob is a brilliant social media strategist who works with non-profits, mission-based businesses, etc. He also happens to be incredibly funny. His NV2009 keynote was called "Teh Funny," and throughout the presentation, he heckled himself from his own Twitter account via pre-scheduled tweets. Read more about the keynote and the entire backchannel transcript here. Not only are his self-heckling tweets themselves notable, but just how active the backchannel was about the self-heckling tweets. Genius!

I struggle with the Twitter in Plain English video. In general, I love Lee's videos, but this one is a clunker. I find it plays right into the common critiques of the service -- "I don't want to know what you had for breakfast!" I try to tell people that's NOT how I use Twitter, or how almost anyone I follow uses Twitter. Argh! I use it to share and re-tweet articles and links I find interesting, and yes, sometimes, I share interesting or funny things I'm doing or seeing, but I try to keep the mundane OUT and keep it high value.

How have other Twitter users in the class successfully explained the potential value of the service to non-users?

Last weekend at intensive, we did a journaling exercise in Creativity and Right Livelihood class. We built up through the questions, "What do I consider my personal identity?" and "What are my core competencies?" to the ultimate question of, "What is my purpose?" Yes, that general. Purpose. By the time I go to that question, I knew exactly what to write, so I quickly wrote down my response and shut my notebook.

"My purpose in life is to learn and to share."

Simple as that. Funny, though... It only occurred to me the next day that this is exactly why I love Twitter so much. It's one giant conversation, all about learning and sharing. At least it is the way I use it most of the time. I mine it for links and retweet what I find interesting. I only wish I could be more judicious about who I follow...

Fascinating and yet overwhelming.



This one is more up-to-date than others I've seen. I appreciate that they mention social networks from other parts of the world that are even MORE popular than our ubiquitous Facebook.