A car-crash world

Seems like the world is getting crazier and crazier (although Doug asks, "How much of this will really matter at this time next year?"). The problem is, it should matter. It should matter that during the tragedy at Virginia Tech we were glued to the television, listening to the inanities the newsreaders spewed. One actually…

Conservatively thinking

I spent some time the other day with a colleague - we were taking the train to NYC together, and had time for a good "gossip" about work. I mentioned that one of the students had been telling me about the various people at MPOW that had profiles on an internet dating service. Now, leaving…

MySpace/YourSpace

I'm sitting in the OCLC Symposium about social spaces (for a precis, go here or here) . The thing I kept coming back to is: what is happening to privacy? More specifically, who owns "me"? There was a discussion about this on LM_NET: is it ok to resend messages from an e-list to others (let's…

Year End Musings

Time Magazine decided that the "Man" of the year was... me. At least, that's what the hype said. But really? Not so much. Chris went off on a rant because See, for me, Facebook is forbidden. Second Life is shut down. Amazon reviews are avoided. Podcasts are against policy. Blogs are…well…banned just might not be…

Link Responsibly

One of the things we librarians do is link to sites that are helpful to our communities. We also like to teach people how to find information that is valid, useful, authoratative. However, as Chris Harris points out, that linking can help create a so-called Google bomb: Page Rank technology weighs quite heavily the incoming…

Reinventing the wheel

According to Alan November, empathy is the most important trait for the CEOs of tomorrow. Hasn't he ever heard of, or read, Carol Gilligan's Making Connections? We knew this stuff ages ago: the ethic of care is critical to a healthy society.

Electronic Personae

Doug Johnson issued Dad's Computer Rules, and his son apparently survived. Michael Stephens says "We need to focus on TRUST too! (Teaching Responsible Use of Social Technology)" I wonder whether these will even be mentioned at the upcoming NYSAIS Conference. I know I will be talking about them.

Edubiblioblogorant

Did any one else read this column in the NYTimes and get upset? I'M 24 years old, have a good job, friends. But like many of my generation, I consistently trade actual human contact for the more reliable emotional high of smiles on MySpace, winks on Match.com and pokes on Facebook. I live for Friendster…

And if he were a student?

Yet another plagiarism case. Not Opal Mehta, but a college president. Hamilton College had a similar case a few years ago. At Wesley College, however, things are a tad different. The faculty can't decide if it has confidence in President Miller, or not. How absurd. Apparently this isn't the first time he's "done it." I'm…

My dilemma

I've been pondering this post for a couple of days now. In one of those synchronous moments, this post appeared in my Bloglines, news of Kate Bush's new album was released and Hallowe'en happened. Ok, I know you were with me until that last occurrence. Well, at MPOW, during Hallowe'en the head of the food…