Latest Thinking
My current mind waves related to JAG-wire. Find all of them at JAG-wire.blogspot.com.
Musings with Tom Fairbank
06.25.2009 @ 2:37 AM
I recently asked one of my best friends where he gets his drive from - his unrelenting passion to work for himself and others.
He replied that he focuses a great deal on those who have done more than him - role models, both in history and in the contemporary, which leads him to set high expectations and found inspiration. He's managed to get into the habit of asking himself what he could do better, which makes it a cycle.
Doesn't seem too outstanding if you just read it like that, but if you knew him, you'd know why I asked. The guy sleeps for a mere two hours a night, works in a downtrodden school full of kids getting screwed over by our education/class/governmental system and will not hesitate to care intensely about anyone at any moment, homeless person or family member, if they ask. And even sometimes if they don't. I have never met a more compassionate and driven human being.
In contrast, I find that I'm I'm some blend of my own expectations and those that others hold for me, which are necessarily intertwined. Further, most of my role models and would-be mentors don't have any time... for me or anyone else, which is probably a bad sign :)
My friend pointed out that it may not matter if what you know about them is real or an exact 'truth,' the perception of it can sometimes be motivating enough. That is if I create a hero out of someone that might still be viable inspiration, even if I barely know them. And I do this often. Unfortunately I have the bad habit of getting to know them and then watching my hope and positivity be brutally murdered in front of me. If you read about someone in a book though, this is at least less likely to happen.
Anyway what this led me to a really neat question. If we asked all of the outrageously driven people we know what makes them go - what commonalities would we find?
Previous Posts
- A Plan for Mentoring in Community Informatics: Cohorts
- Meandering Thoughts (Facebook was easy)
- Connectors, Revisited (Malcolm Gladwell style)
- Bloglets (Babies in the Doc Study, Urban Prairie Archeology, My Digital Literacy)
- You are Missed...
- Shotgun Blast (assertiveness, TV, introversion and ICT's, value in creation, election information)
- Excitement Refresh (Facebook ruins romance)
- Facebook Friends, False Connections and Social Norms
Recent Projects and Publications
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I toss up the footprints of my most recent activities here on the home page for easy tracking.
Puffin'Snuff Returns!
We're now filming the third Puffin'Snuff!
I figured it was about time for the yearly Puffin'Snuff update! Not only is this one about about three times as long it's had a full production crew and some high-flying theatrics! The film (picture) techniques were considerably improved and we even added a new character...
- YouTube (low quality)
- Flash Video (high quality)
- Download HD (1080, avi)
Introducing : the Community Informatics Projects Sandbox
I finally found the time to put up my new website for community informatics! Community informatics is an area of library and information science that's about helping communities (especially disadvantaged ones) achieve their needs with information technology (or information processes). I wasn't really sure how to organize all of the different things that would go there so I really just structured it literally around what I do with CI: website development (it's a handy non-University testing platform and I can host community resources freely there), publications and research, and the CI club. The site will feel a little bit like JAG-wire in that it reports on all of my latest activities - but just those related to CI.
Much Amuck on the World-Wide-Wibley
I've actually been spending a lot of time on websites for community informatics and personal projects. See some of the latest below:
- Duke and the Duck
- The Joseph Center (homeless services)
- Community Informatics Initiative [concept designs]
- Community Informatics Multimedia Archive [concept designs]
- Youth Community Informatics
- Prairienet2
- Community Informatics Club
- Vibes (coming)
- JAG85.com Redux (coming)
Bust out the Facebook Project
For the latest updates on the Facebook Project you should probably go visit the site. I will say that I had the privilege of giving a presentation on Facebook and ubiquitous learning at the HASTAC conference at UIUC this past spring. You can see the PowerPoint or better yet read the paper (starts on page 7). I've also added a section to the wiki listing most of the researchers I've come in contact with that have something to do with Facebook. This is a great place to link up with fellow researchers. In the same vein, Jenny Ryan now has a Webnographers wiki, dedicated to organizating the literature, journals, academic programs, people and other online resources that provide, in effect, a cyberanthropologist's toolkit. This is helpful for anyone interested in digital ethnography.
Inside of Me Lurks an Artist...
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A Collaborative Drawing, part II!
The second in a series of collaborative art pieces planned, assembled, modified and otherwise created in my apartment. Essentially we took a large sheet of bristol board and laid it out as a canvas, inviting every visitor to leave their mark in the form of a drawing or alteration to someone else's work. It was much the same as the first one except this time we expanded to add color and new mediums (pencil, pen, marker, crayon). The result is hanging on our wall!
A Wallflower
I've been doing these on my walls for years, but this one will get to stay for a while. Still unfinished, we will see the flower bloom... probably around the next time I'm seeing someone. We dream in images...
Legos in Graduate School
'Nuff said, coming soon.
