Week 4 -- expertise on the web

How do you judge the value of expertise on the Web? Does it differ from your notion of expertise in face-to-face settings? Why or why not?

Expertise is a ticklish concept -- for me, it's content, presentation, grammar, references -- whether face-to-face or on the web. Face-to-face is more visual -- look 'em in the eyes -- and more physical -- firm handshake. But web has its equivalence -- still looking for strong content with good presentation.

Expertise is revealed through knowing a subject well and having a reservoir of knowledge beyond the presentation. This depth facilitates question and answer periods and enables presenter to cite additional sources for further study.

Week 4 -- last call

The last call site is a frustration with many other tyrannies this week. It turns out Website Tonight comes with "hosting" services, so you do not need to purchase hosting as well. If you do both hosting and Website tonight, you will get conflicting hosts with resulting no-go.

Now that hosting has been resolved, still have 1000+ perpetual decisions -- design, pics, links, forum, tags... sigh. Bit off considerably more than I can chew and gagging here.

HEIMLICH ANYONE?

Week 4 -- more produsage

On Facebook this week, posted the Produsage coming soon note. Another medic then posted "overheard" in the back of the truck, pithy patient remarks.

Week 3 -- Produsage & Cognitive Overload

Another exceptionally busy week.

Travel last weekend (end of week 2) and travel this weekend (end of week 3). This weekend I was presenting in San Diego -- travel Friday, 8 hour training Saturday, travel Sunday. Interspersed with Web 2.0 -- researching existing sites similar to proposed EMS site, learning platforms, reading ALL of Bruns (new stuff to me, so pretty stimulating), and then backtracking, backtracking to get Produsage up and running -- also had tyranny of the urgent with project for Dr. Shute and end-of-term assignment pile up for Stats. All this with weekly commute, flat tire, family crises, interesting interactions with IRS, and extra (unanticipated) EMS shift Thursday 2P to midnight.

CALGON -- take me away!

I'd like to see more open-ended discussion board. Although blogs are potentially interactive, I find that they are more monologues. I'd like more interaction with the "shared" knowledge base -- the assigned literature. Although outside references are always welcome, I am overwhelmed by links without discussion. That is, if a outside reference is linked, I'd like to see a summary/overview, lessons learned, take home message from the poster. Otherwise, it just falls in the pile of "more work for me" without any frame of reference to filter.

And we all know how important "filtering" is in this course. I am concerned that "filter" is just a euphemism for ignore, skip, scan and/or forget it. While filtering is absolutely essential for time-management and sanity, there needs to be some shared point of reference to really benefit from class interaction. Otherwise, we may as well have taken the course directed-study. It does feel this way at times with everyone running in different directions and few points of intersection. I do long to feel connected and learn from the multitude of perspectives and experiences here. Chasing them all down however is cumbersome. Just another symptom of the Web 2.0 experience?

PREVIEW: evaluating expertise, first impressions?

Week 3 -- Produsage & EMS site

What uses might a collaborative wiki or blog have in your chosen (current or desired) work environment? How would they support learning and/or performance? What would be the design and implementation challenges if management tried to do this? What would be the design and implementation challenges of a user-initiated effort?

From last blog, wiki is spatially organized and great for editing. Blog is chronologically organized and great for diary or temporal sequencing.

My produsage project is creating a framework for an EMS community of practice, specifically a forum for sharing lessons learned from specific calls. The forum, therefore, must be like a blog -- each participant telling a story and sharing lessons learned, and like a wiki -- spatially organized for ease of reference. Ideally, each lesson learned will be tagged for searchability.

The challenges imagined were social -- developing the community, providing specific and brief guidance for posting, searching, commenting. Social issues include building trust and rapport, equipotentiality, heterarchial structure, communal ownership, individual reward -- without ever using these words. I wanted to create a culture where everyone felt ownership of the site and sensed value in participation.

The immediate challenges, however, are technical. Only the most naive of users (me) would jump to the psycho-social challenges! First, and foremost, you need a site. A site involves a domain name. Although freebies exist, all of the ones I visited were dominated by spam or pornographic posting. Sooo, on the advice of a friend (thanks Bryan!), I went to GoDaddy.

Then, I had to choose a domain name and pray it wasn't used. Then, I had to select what services I wanted. I actually went several times. Each visit was over an hour -- what does it mean to "host"? what is a picture gallery? to blog or not to blog? certify? privacy? Each visit, I perused more help pages, tutorials, demonstrations, counsel for domain names. Each visit was cut short prior to finalizing purchase due to 1) time for class, 2) time to board, 3) connection lost. Now, that I have finally settled on name and services, I have to wait 24-48 hours for web page access. Soooo, web page will not be up in time for Produsage assignment submission. By the way, you have to have a host!

Sooo, though I am planning to proceed with site (already have links, pics, initial posts, potential community), I will launch with Twitter and Facebook and keep you updated as web page goes live.

Design and implementation challenges if administration tried to do this are issues of trust, reprisal, and ownership. Morale in our service is at an all time low, so most medics would be loathe to contribute voluntarily (off clock) to administrative mandate. Potential participants would also suspect administrative motive -- is administration looking to mark posters as incompetent (if you "learned a lesson," why didn't you already know? -- are you incompetent?). Finally, participants would want to know who owns the content. If administration prompted participation, the project would have the appearance of a service limited scope and proprietary content.

User-initiated content needs to address all of these issues and assure community ownership, authorship, absence of reprisal, voluntary participation to share and learn and grow professionally.

But FIRST, ya gotta have a site!

--Barbara

Week 3 -- feet wet & hands dirty

Very busy week this week learning about platforms for communities. I sent my first tweet and am trying to figure who to "follow" and how to find them. I will look at integrating Twitter and Facebook and use the one community to inform the other.

I also started Diigo. I'm a little worried about having my references spread out in too many sources (RefWorks, Aladdin, my own files by topic). Also when I downloaded Diigo (and added the toolbar), I was quickly frustrated by my web searches being limited to Diigo (I love Google and Google Scholar!) I tried to get around this and finally uninstalled Diigo -- THREE times! It would not go away. Now, each time I uninstalled, Diigo asked for a message for "why" and I answered losing my Google search. I've since learned (in my determination to use google) that Diigo has just been added as search engine -- I can choose my search engine (magnifying glass top right corner). Now, I'm thankful I don't have to reinstall Diigo. I have the best of all possible worlds (to date).

I've been reading and doing tutorials for PHPbb3 and trying to find the best platform for my produsage project. I envisioned a community forum where contributors could post original offering and others could comment (like a discussion board) but where threads could be archived and searchable by tags.

I first considered a blog -- blogs, however, are organized temporally -- in a chronology or time-based logic. This is well aligned with a journal or diary, but not well suited for topics. I envision the community as a combination of citizen journalism -- news of the day -- and reference for past stories. I wouldn't want to search topics by date -- I would want to retrieve topically, regardless of date. Would TAGS serve this purpose? I'm not convinced. I want the page to be user-friendly and intuitive with minimal guidance.

I then considered a wiki -- wikis are arranged by space. Wikis are great for editing and revising (Wikipedia). My vision, however, is sharing personal/professional stories. Since the stories are personal narratives, it seems inappropriate to edit or change someone else's story. The knowledge building in this community comes from sharing and interacting, not from altering the original experience.

I am therefore attracted to Joomla and the discussion board format with search capabilities. The technical skills to launch (just the description of requirements alone was filled with unfamiliar terms) are beyond my present capability. PHPbb3 looks like a novice friendly place to start, but I need a domain. Argh! So many steps before the first step!

So, then I started the BigDaddy process. Again, although BigDaddy caters to those with no technical, programming or html skills whatsoever, it still asked questions I didn't know how to answer. And it never asked if I wanted a discussion board -- which I do!!! I think if I remove the blog feature, I may get my discussion board. Hard to say. BigDaddy wants to know if I want to allow blogs (is that webspeak for discussion posts?), photo gallery (if I say no, am I unable to upload pics?), and # of pages (err, uhh, does that count archives?).

If I don't get my discussion board, I plan to integrate PHPbb3 into my BigDaddy address.

I figure this course is all about getting my feet wet and hands dirty. Feet wet --exploring tentatively different tools; hands dirty -- actively using the tool (blogging). Once I have my feet wet and hands dirty, I can really start playing in the mud. Hopefully after my mudfest, I can clean up my site for perpetuity. Or, perhaps the gritty realism will be an attractive feature???

Produsage: unfinished artefacts, continuing process, evolution, gradual improvement

PREVIEW: work environment learning & performance

Week 2 -- Produsage wrap up

Busy week here --

Reading, Reading, Reading

• Bruns chapters 1-3
• every post on the discussion board (filter, filter, filter -- just hate to miss anything -- even on a buffet, I'd want a taste of everything I'd never had before!)
• outside links, sources, rabbit trails on Anderson, Bruns, Bauwens, Raymond, Roderbeck, Scholz & Hartzog, and related (non-class) blogs on same

Discussion board Posts

• long posts are probably not conducive to "discussion"
• I write this way because it is how I synthesize what I read.
• Weick asks, How will I know what I think unless I see what I say?
• Coming to conclusion that such writing is probably more appropriate to blog -- not used to so many forums!

Authentic versus simulated

• Would love for Produsage assignment to be authentic and live beyond the course
• Working to develop consensus, vision, community to serve as foundation for authentic community
• it just feels like time is too short, task too large, too many obstacles
• for now, just git 'er done!
• compromise is to do EMS community on instructive calls -- community exists, I can unilaterally build framework, already have access to experts -- no such site exists to catalog calls for sharing and learning through vicarious experience

Organizing

• class blogs -- selected a precious few (16!) to follow
• set up favorites -- cannot find specific blogs in friend feed
• trying to set up template for tackling everything systematically!

Playing and learning

• signed up for twitter

Synthesizing

• thinking about Produsage Project due next week, Monday 20 JUL 09!
• experiencing a confluence of ideas from many different areas of theory: social, learning, organizational, economic, political, motivation, self-efficacy, community
• seeing how tools may be used to establish and maintain relationships

Busy Personal Week

• travel to Texas
• dropped cell phone in cup of coffee
• LCD screen went out on laptop
• 40 Therapeutic Misconception papers to grade
• 40 media projects to review -- using wiki to help student with project
• Reiser Trends & Issues paper due Tuesday, 14 JUL 09

Loose Ends

• Will get back to Michael Jackson -- lots of intersections here

PREVIEW: using wikis and blogs for EMS, GWU, ACRP

Week 2 -- Produsage & Plagiarism

Produsage -- the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement (Bruns, 2008, p. 21).

Lots of related concepts intertwined here -- community, collaboration, content -- along with
"Generation C" themes of "creativity, causal collapse, control and celebrity" (Bruns, 2008, p. 5).

With a paradigm shift from individual to communal, commercial to free, product to process, and push to pull, important questions arise about intellectual property and plagiarism. With ubiquitously accessible information and a publish then filter mentality, is it possible that Generation C has abandoned as outdated notions of academic integrity and plagiarism?

This week, I encountered the most egregious case of academic dishonesty of my nearly 30 history in academia. A graduate student submitted a paper that was 96% (SafeAssign score) matched to published material without any attribution. The student had lifted excerpts and abstracts (without accessing the full source) verbatim and dropped these "cut and paste" sections into her submission. Save a few lines that were minimally paraphrased (substituting a single word in a long passage), the paper was 100% the published work of other authors. Her reference list included references cited by the original source. In other words, lifting from Dennen, if Dennen said, "Davis (2008) reports ...." then the student cited Davis, not Dennen.

The student did not believe that she had violated the Code of Academic Integrity. Perhaps, she believes the arrangement of the five sources was her granular creative contribution and therefore she shared ownership of the final product.

I think this begs the question of substantive contribution. Moore Moore v. Regents of the University of California is a landmark case that deals with body part property rights. In a nutshell, Dr. David Godle had developed a commercial cell line for cancer research utilizing tissue samples from Mr. John Moore. Mr. Moore claimed a right to share in the profits from the cell line since his (discarded) body parts were instrumental in developing the line. This is but one example from many in clinical research where pharma develops a product with a mega-billion dollar profit from samples provided by volunteer participants.

What is value each contribution -- tissue versus intellectual property of developing a cell line?

Is there a qualitative difference between writing content and arranging content? Does equipotentiality, granularity and shared (not owned) content necessarily result in a causal collapse of recognition and protection of intellectual property and an erosion of academic integrity?

Week 2 -- Produsage -- 1

How might the concept of produsage be applied in your life (personal and/or professional) as it stands today? Are you already a produser? If yes, what do you do? If no, why not?

Sigh -- so very tired -- don't feel like a producer or a user at this red-hot moment! Fatigue will prevent me from discussing Brun's Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage (2008) but I do have lots of thoughts to share in subsequent posts:

• Michael Jackson & Shirky's insularity of fame -- more is different!
• Produsage and Plagiarism
• Paradigm shift Confluence of Weisbord's "community, dignity and meaning"; Weick's emphasis on spaces, feedback loops and sensemaking; Barnard's non-monetary rewards; and Taylor's compartmentalization

So, to address the question directly -- how might produsage be applied, am I a produser? Well, first of all, produsage is content that is produced by users. OR content that is adapted by users. OR content that is communal property, developed by community and under continuous refinement and adaptation. Produsage is generally non-commercial -- a labor of love.

How produsage may be applied will be saved for a subsequent post. Sufficient for the day is the question, am I a produser? In a formal sense, I'd have to say, no. But in a philosophical sense, I'd say yes. I produce tools for students and faculty, presentations and training sessions for clinical research professionals -- all of which are then adopted, adapted, and used as needed -- rarely with attribution.

More later...

Week 1 -- expectations

discuss what you hope to get out of this class

Hmmmm. Already getting more than I bargained for! So many tools, so little time. So many powerful examples, so very much to learn.

What I hope to get out of the course is exposure to new tools, new life (2nd Life?), new civilizations, courage and confidence to boldly go where I have never gone before.... (any Trekkies in attendance? The new Star Trek movie is phenomenal! I went in quite skeptical and just loved it!) [Gina -- aren't you proud of me?!? Learning and applying here!]

I think this course will greatly exceed my expectations and aspirations.

While I am beginning to appreciate the simple stuff of ordinary life, I am also sensitive to vulnerability and transparency. While I am primarily interested in applications for professional use, I see enormous potential for personal connections. I'm still sorting out how the two personas merge in these very public private interactions. I suppose I'm still sorting out if there even are separate personas -- or merely different conventions for socially acceptable behaviors.

Is it a question of how to be all things to all people or a commitment to thine ownself be true?

Next week: concept of produsage
PREVIEW: Whassat?

Week 1 -- leader or follower or something else?

Do you consider yourself a leader or follower in this realm, or something else altogether? Why?

Short answer: something else altogether.

Since my prior experiences are limited, I do not consider myself a leader here. But generally speaking, I am not a follower. I am more of a trailblazer. I do not feel constrained by convention and generally see possibilities and implications where others see potential to extend the status quo.

As a novice, I must learn the tools of the medium in order to exploit full application. So, first and foremost, I am a learner. In the context of learning, I am an adventurer.

My background has consistently challenged the status quo. I am excited about the potential of web 2.o applications for learning -- in the context of 19th century educator Charlotte Mason's twaddle-free learning; early 20th century educator Eduard Lindeman's vision of education liberated from the from stifling ritual, formalism and institutionalism and revivified as an adventurous exercise in intelligence, power, self-expression, freedom, creativity, appreciation, enjoyment and fellowship; mid-to-late 20th century reformers John Holt, Ivan Illich, and John Taylor Gatto who sought to encourage the best qualities of youthfulness-curiosity, adventure, resilience, and capacities for insight -by encouraging autonomy and access to educational objects, skill exchanges, peer matching, and experts-at-large in the context of authentic tasks -- real work, real charity, real adventures.

There is no faculty within the soul which can be spared in the great work of education; but then every faculty, or rather power, works to the one end if we make the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake the object of our educational efforts (Mason, 1896, Volume 6, p. 93).

Evolving personalities follow the path of learning in an attempt to adjust themselves to a world in which knowledge leads to power, power leads to self-expression, freedom and creativity, creative freedom leads to enjoyable experience … These qualities which are enhanced by intellectual effort become meaningful only when seen in social contexts. Intelligence, like freedom, is relative, not merely to ignorance or to bondage, but also to intelligence and freedom in other human beings. Education proceeds by means of communication, and all forms of communication are social products (Lindeman, 1926, p. 94).

My perspective of Web 2.0 is that vision has met opportunity.

next post to address what do I hope to get out of this class
PREVIEW: tools, practice, experience, a glimpse of a world of opportunity

Week 1 -- experience with Web 2.0

What have been your prior experiences with Web 2.0 technologies? Do you consider yourself a leader or follower in this realm, or something else altogether? Why? Also, discuss what you hope to get out of this class.

Sigh. I've had a devil of a time just formatting the blog. Frustrated that name and location were wrapped around pic. Looked up some basic html code from Keller's 5601 and then found great site for code -- http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/quicklist.html

Sooo, to solve my first problem, I eliminated the pic and added it as a "gadget" -- who'd of thunk of a pic as a gadget -- maybe Maxwell Smart or Inspector Gadget. Not me, but it worked. Then, I didn't have to fiddle with the text anymore.

The other formatting problem was bio stuff all run together. I tried the paragraph code but it wasn't accepted. FYI the line break symbol used twice in a row works well. The break code is [too funny -- I typed in the code here and after publishing realized that the post doesn't SHOW the code, it performs the function -- so you just got a break and no code -- guess the code is top secret and cannot be posted -- check out the link instead]. Again -- I obviously don't even know the lingo -- symbol, code -- whatever -- it worked. Just a word to the less wise than me.

Sooo, prior experience, eh? Well, depends on how you define web 2.0. I've did go to college with an electric typewriter, took notes with a ball point -- just a little past the quill and ink generation. We did have a color TV before I finished grade school. And yes, I've been working on a computer since the early '80s -- post bachelor's degree.

By the time I returned for my master's, I enrolled in an online program and became quickly adept at opening multiple windows and tabs, doing online literature searches, negotiating Blackboard and even the FDA web labyrinth. As an instructor in distance courses, I've learned to record video and audio, compress files and multi-task. My PhD courses introduced me to synchronous web conferencing. In my work, I've participated in webinars.

As for the recent buzz -- blogs, wikis, tweets, rss feeds, and ... (best stop while I'm still treading water) -- I have next to zippo experience. (Did use a wiki for Merrill's class -- thank you Christie!) I'm trying to experiment and see what the fuss is about. I do have a Facebook account (you're all welcome to join -- I just don't know how to invite you!). I have yet to add an original comment. Still mesmerized by the "gotta go" comments as in "BRB -- gotta pee." I am adding to my Linked-In network and can see some possibilities there.

Long ago and far away, dinosaur era, I joined a few communities of practice discussion groups. Would love to revisit, but for now, my community of students is pretty large and I invest a good bit of my time there.

next blog will address leader or follower or something else .... PREVIEW: something else!