Monday, April 28, 2003

My O'Reilly talk #

I've just uploaded the final version of my talk at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference.  (For those who were dying to see them -- I apologize for my tardiness -- but getting back from Santa Clara on Friday and getting to DC on Saturday was more tiring than I imagined.  But I'm now I'm re-energized by the inspired talk by J. C. Herz, the wonderful and unusual DC weather, a great time with friends and families.) Let me add some reflections on the talk -- I'll post my thoughts on the conference as a whole later.  I was pleased with my talk and was thrilled to give it.  I was slightly disappointed that we didn't get to talk about the technology behind my talk.  In retrospect, I didn't write up my blurb to sound techie enough to emphasize the technical aspects.    Posted by Raymond Yee on 4/28/03; 11:43:01 AM from the Web Technology dept. Discuss

CNI Keynote 1: JC Herz #

The opening keynote for the CNI Spring 2003 Forum by J.C. Herz is about to start.  (She looks very familiar to me -- I think that she was at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference.) She is speaking about what we can learn from online gaming in our educational/scholarly work.  I don't need to be convinced by her overall message:  knowledge is constructed through social processes.  Much knowledge will never be made explicit but remains in the implicit world -- that's why metadata will only be a small part of the picture.  (It's not "garbage" as she said in a humorous play to the audience....but it's often overrated.) Herz just mentioned "social software", software "that supports social interaction" (a phrase that she might have picked up from Clay Shirky from his ET keynote).  She is now describing weblogs and wikis -- a nice intro to the topic for this audience. Herz makes the point that this social software makes clear what knowledge is "accreted". She mentioned wikipedia -- yes, it's promising, but it's not there yet.  Look at the article to my favorite composer, J. S. Bach. (Of course, one can point out that I can go in and fix it -- and I have.  But I haven't had enough energy to rewrite the piece.) Some good points: Information comes so quickly -- "post and then correct", which is a tough cultural shift to make.  [This made me think about how I wasn't blogging the ETCon but others were -- but by the time I writeup my reflections, the party has moved on....] Herz mentions that the authority structure has changed because weblogs are changing the way authority would be recognized. Do "dead trees" matter?  Of course they do -- they are the still rocks around which the water flows. OK -- I feel moved to put more effort into my own weblog and use it as a primary vehicle for my work.  That's the personal take-away lesson. But what about for the institutions of higher learning and the libraries.  I must congratulate J. C. Herz for having done a great job in introducing blogs/wikis to this world.  (One closing thought:  I was hoping that she would say more about games in particular -- that's the area I know little about.)   Posted by Raymond Yee on 4/28/03; 10:27:59 AM from the Web Technology dept. Discuss