Academic Commons News

This week the Commons joined several online sites and communities in raising awareness about SOPA/PIPA.  This enormous effort on the part of the internet community effectively shelved both versions of this bill and demonstrated the collective might of the internet.  Later in the week, MPAA President and former senator Chris Dodd warned the President that:

“Candidly, those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake.  Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.”

Sidestepping the issue of whether or not the motion picture industry’s business model is simply obsolete, Mr. Dodd has assumed that those in the industry he represents find their profession and sense of duty as citizens inextricably bound to one another.  You forget this is not the case when you only have lunch and dinner with lobbyist for a lifetime.  It was a particularly phenomenal temple rubbing moment in a series of mindboggling steps.  Watching congress try to figure this thing out is almost as much fun as finding out your surgeon had to cancel but sent his cousin the plumber instead.  The disconnect between lawmakers and technology (and technological culture) grows wider by the day.  While I’m relieved that SOPA/PIPA has been punted to another date we still have things like ACTA looming in the background.  Also let’s not forget the insidiously named ‘Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers’ bill that has little to do with predators and much to do with dismantling the internet and the process of true probable cause. If we’ve learned anything though, we’ve learned that the internet moves fast – so at least there’s that.

Normally I try not to plug the “official” blogs on the site but the Commons team has been super busy on the blogs this week.  Wiki Wrangler Scott Voth was blogging like crazy over at ‘Help Wanted.‘  If you haven’t visited the blog in a while (or ever) you should run over there.  Scott’s hunted down a ton of great jobs, internships and other opportunities around CUNY and NYC.  We all know that friend who has a girlfriend who could really use a job – this is your chance to save the day!

In a moment of meta I’m going to round-up myself.  The community team has started posting on a blog called ‘Break Stuff’ wherein we try to break the Commons by pushing random buttons.  I kid, mostly.  It’s not haphazard button pushing but it is a fun help blog for learning your way around the Commons and WordPress’ more arcane features.  This week I finished writing about some of the features of the new toolbar in the blog function and it looks like Sarah Morgano has some posts headed out soon as well.

Michael Smith has been killing it over at ‘Pictures of CUNY.’ It’s a beautiful photoblog capturing moments across the CUNY campuses.  This week Michael’s tapped into a vein of photos from late 60′s CUNY and they’re a pleasure to go through.  Be sure to check out our Flickr stream and contribute your photos as well.

Well folks, after this we’re back in classes.  I look forward to reading about everything going on around the university as we barrel through the semester!

Till next week.

This might be the first Footenotes to come to you live from inside the comforter fortress.  I feel like my heater saw the thermometer and just gave up the ghost.  I mean I get it, it’s the middle of January, it’s not like I have a reasonable claim to warmth.  There are rabbits and caribou out there having a legitimately tough night.  Still though, I’m overly grateful for the periodic warm exhaust from my laptop.  I know, I know, the weather…but there really isn’t too much else to talk about for the week anyways.  Go Giants. Teebow (am I spelling it right?). Newt and Mitt are mad at each other. Oh hey, how about this: A new law passed in Arizona makes at least one educator’s class on Mexican-American history illegal.  Before you crawl back up to your desk also note that the high school teacher in question, Mr. Curtis Acosta, is teaching Chela Sandoval’s Methodology of the Oppressed to his students.  His high school students.  If had been reading Methodology of the Oppressed in high school I would have been so ahead of the game.  Can you imagine the college apps these kids are going to write?  The guy doesn’t need his program shut down – he needs funding.

On the Commons the blogs were starting to pick back up as everyone returns from their post-New Years glory daze.  The week opened with The New York Times mentioning that Dungeons and Dragons is releasing their next installation of the game after a many year hiatus.  Leah Potter over at the CUNY Games Network mentioned that the folks behind D&D were crowd-sourcing the rules and suggested that CUNY folks look at ways to integrate the game into teaching. There is something oddly satisfying about the title Dungeon Master, especially if you’ve ever taught in the B-Level classrooms at Hunter.

Amanda Licastro reported in from MLA 2012 over at Digitocentrism.  It sounds like more than a few CUNYites were in Seattle for the week.  Amanda graciously posted the text of presentation on using web 2.0 in the classroom and I hope everyone get’s a chance to have a look.  Thanks so much for bringing us along!

I think a good post to put next Amanda’s is Aaron Knoll this week on the limits of Open Source.  It was a thoughtful post about balancing the open source ethos against the demands of the profession and I think Aaron made all the right points.  I hope this post grows into a more robust conversation because I’d like to see what the push back is.  I suppose you could argue that creating a wave of SPSS or Photoshop users only feeds the machine but that’s a stretch.

Suzanne Tamang pretty much took the words out of everyone’s mouth after it broke that Dr. Dipak Das published a bunch of bogus research that’s going to result in hundreds of thousand (if not millions in the long run) of dollars being wasted.  Not only in terms of research funds going to bs, but in library fees to carry the articles and their research, the staff, the testing, the legal fees, students tuitions expecting to learn, and the actual damage done to human life.  Fake research impacts subsequent work, and for someone in his position to do so as director of the cardiac program at UCONN is unbelievable.  This is a good real-life case study for talking to students about plagiarism and false research and its implications beyond the F.

Alright, I don’t want to end on such a harsh note so here – take your pick: A cat talking to a crow or a crow bobsledding on a roof. 

Speaking of sock puppets - the inspiration for Footenotes.

Hello Commons!

Ages ago when Twitter became a thing I totally missed the boat on it.  I didn’t get it.  I lived in San Francisco at the crest of the dot-com boom and when I first heard about Twitter it sounded like something right out of 1999.  Give it two months and a few overpaid “Experience Gurus” or “Good Vibes Shamans” or whatever cutesy dot-com title they’d cook up and Twitter was going to be right there in the rubbish bin next to that sock puppet for Pets.com.   Lo and behold though it’s become a thoroughly entrenched part of modern online life and so I resolved (yet again) this year to hang out there more.  Not a week into my resolution and I find a gem from our own Matt Gold.  Matt tweeted about an outstanding blog talking about the Commons from Lawrence Hanley out at SFSU; Babylon is Burning.  It’s a ‘run don’t walk’ kind of blog – this guy gets us!  I’m always on the hunt for good education blogs so if you’ve got a few bookmarked yourself please send them my way.

Meanwhile on the Commons – To start the week (and year) off you’re going to have to indulge me as I flagrantly abuse my power and call-out one of my other blogs.  If you missed it we’ve revamped Ground Control and now it’s packed with posts from most of the Commons team.  Watch out for new sets of posts each month as we discuss the Commons and other projects and ideas that share our open-source and community focused ethos.

By now you probably heard that Mitt Romney took Iowa with Rick “Google Problem” Santorum coming in a close second.  Tony Picciano was all over it during the election and afterwards as Mitt stood atop of the pile of contenders.  That image is mostly absurd because it’s impossible to picture Mitt Romney climbing on top of anything.  The guy is so starched and stiff an unexpected gale would knock him over and then Ron Paul would be back in play.  Where was the 2012 Campaign set on this? I know the semester is over but we need you guys.

Elsewhere newcomer blog Copywrite & Fair Use had a handful of posts up.  My favorite was an awesome resource for using photographs in your books.  I hope the team at Copywrite & Fair Use will head over to the Wiki part of the site and set up some resources for us.  Speaking of books, our own Christopher Bonastia @CBonastia blogged this week that his new book Southern Stalemate is available.  Congrats Christopher.

To wrap up the week there was some action on the bird spotting front.  The Commons’ own birdwatching community checked in and reported back to us.  From the sounds of it the Mountain Bluebird is tough to catch.  Keep us posted on Montauk.

Till next week.

Photo courtesy of Dietrich../..(flickr)

Back in June I made my last post for Ground Control celebrating our 2000th member on the Commons.  It was an exciting time for us on the site as we watched our community nearly triple in size since the Community Team was officially formed.  Since then so much has happened; many on the team have become parents, some of us have moved into new positions, sister projects have sprouted up at various campuses, and wrapping up an already successful year was the big news about the Commons partnering with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to develop the Commons in a Box.  From the beginning Ground Control was designed to be an ambitious blog of many hats.  It was part behind the scenes look at how we, the Commons team, managed the site and tried to steer it while also being a soapbox for issues that were dear to us.  With a new year upon us and so much momentum at our backs this seemed like the perfect time to revisit the mission of Ground Control and share the process of the Commons team with a new set of community members who are with us now.

If you’re a long time reader the first thing you probably noticed was the makeover.  In order to better share the Commons team experience with you I’ve invited a number of new voices to pitch in each month.  With new faces to the blog comes a better format to accommodate everyone and grow the site in new directions.  Going forward we’re going to feature multiple articles on a variety of topics relating to the site, its administration, and its every evolving mission.  I’d also like to reach out to you in the community and get your thoughts on what the site means for you and your own work.  In the future look forward to interviews with staff members, highlights of community projects and in-depth discussions about what’s up next for the Commons and open source culture at CUNY.

To kick off the new year and a new life for Ground Control I’ve asked the team to write about the things they’re looking forward to in 2012.  Our Project Director Matt Gold @admin shares his vision for the upcoming ‘Commons-in-a-Box’ and what it means for CUNY, education, and the open source movement.  Our User Experience Designer Chris Stein @CStein checks in with the community to tell us about some of the challenges involved in keeping the Commons experience user friendly.  Our Wiki Wrangler Scott Voth @scottvoth talks about the intersection of the Commons with Open Access and our Outreach Coordinator Michael Smith @MSmith makes his plea for a Commons tour bus.  Finally, don’t miss Sarah Morgano’s post on expanding your learning network.

Watching this site and the CUNY community grow over the last two years has been a privilege.  It’s so exciting to watch the energy build here and I’m looking forward to bringing the Commons team to you each month here at Ground Control and seeing what we can build together.

-Brian M. Foote

Community Facilitator

courtesy of saxcubano/flickr

Hello Commons!

I can’t believe 2011 is over!  While you were putting on the party dresses I was here sifting through a year’s worth of blogs looking for the 5 best moments in 2011 on Commons.  There was the Arab Spring, the earthquake in Japan, bin Laden, Gaddafi, Occupy, and so on.  I’m sure you’ve been through your share of ‘Year in Review’ blogs so we needn’t pick over the meal but you must admit this was quite the year.  And of course that’s just the world news.  There was so much to remember here on the Commons as well as our little community grew by leaps and bounds.  I always get a little sentimental for New Years so before I move on to the second glass of wine and get extra sappy I’ll just say that I hope that 2012 is filled with marvelous gifts for all of us.  It’s always a pleasure to read everyone’s thoughts and stories and I’m especially lucky to work with such a talented and amazing team here on the Commons.  You folks are the best.

So without further ado here are the five best moments on the blogs this year:

5.  The Kitchen Sink – Back in February when 2011 was just getting its sea legs Joseph Ugoretz threw his name in the hat for outstanding Commonser by posting an exhaustive list of online resources.  The community took note, suggesting other resources in the comments and the whole project was moved to its own wiki page where it took on a life of its own.  This whole event was really outstanding to me because it was one of those moments where the community and the tools available on the Commons intersected in such a way that everyone on the team just sat back and thought, “Hey, it works!”  Thank you Joseph and everyone who contributed (and is still contributing) to this amazing resource.

4. The Chess is a Lie! – Tim Wilson is without a doubt one of our most prolific bloggers.  He’s had so many mentions on Footenotes I wouldn’t know where to start really.  In tribute I’d like to point towards the infamous Wells Fargo Chess Ad FAIL post.  I can totally see how it happened.  Some ad firm pitched a story about a grandfather and his granddaughter playing chess, no doubt imparting to his legacy the wisdom of opening a Wells Fargo checking account, over a friendly game of chess.  The Wells Fargo suits loved it and threw a suitcase full of money at the ad firm and they let the photographer and crew go to work.  No one was counting on people who actually play chess to look at the ad and realize the game was failed from the beginning.  Tim Wilson was there to count the ways.  I loved the post not only for what I learned about chess but because it’s amazing to learn what kind of knowledge and talent is here in the Commons community waiting to be tapped into.  Thanks for all of your blogging Tim!

3. Zines Live!  I wasn’t even a tiny bit bashful about announcing my undivided love for this blog the moment I saw it.  Zines at Brooklyn College Library crawled out the basement of a Kinko’s and headed to the Commons back in May and has been awesome ever since.  There was ‘International Zine Library Day‘ and the trip to the New York Public Library.  There were the blogs where the interns left and the good news that the collection is still growing!  If this blog doesn’t make you want to by an X-Acto knife and some rubber cement I don’t know what to tell you.  I can’t wait to see what 2012 holds for the Zine crew.

2. Aaron Knoll Called It – If there’s one thing the Commons hates it’s Facebook.  Look, that’s not true – we’re actually a bunch of nice people who don’t really hate Facebook at all.  In the early days we used to cringe when someone would compare us to them.  It irked us.  So maybe secretly in our hearts, just a little, we were kind of excited when Google announced that it was launching Google+ and it was going to be amazing and awesome and make Facebook the new Friendster.  Aaron Knoll had some doubts.  Aaron’s blog has always been a must read for those of us interested in social media and adventures in technology ethics, so it was nice to see (so far) his instincts prove true on Google+…even if it means we still have to field a few Facebook comparisons now and then.

1. The Commons Goes to Washington – Well, not exactly, but this was the year where we saw our members use the Commons to help make a difference at CUNY and the academy at large.  Maura Smale posted about making the pledge to make open access a priority in education.  She blogged about why it’s important for us as scholars and as an institution to work towards a better system for the transference of knowledge than our current structure of subscription based journals that often charged exorbitant fees to university libraries.  In a digital age it’s time to reconsider such a platform as we work to expand the limits of human knowledge.  Towards that effort the Open Access group was all over CUNY this year and helped get  a motion of support from the University Faculty Senate.  Likewise the year is wrapping up with Adam Wandt’s inspiring proposal for eBooks at CUNY to help students shoulder the costs of text books (and the weight).  There’s already a ton of action in the comments and if the success of the Open Access group is any standard there’s no telling where eBooks at CUNY could go.

It’s a real gift to be able to follow the blogs each week and many thanks to all of you for keeping at it.  I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings for the Commons and have a wonderful and safe New Year’s Eve.

Till next year.

It’s actually worse when Christmas falls on a Sunday.  You feel a little cheated when a holiday is on the weekend because it didn’t get the chance wreak havoc on your work schedule.  Oh wait…we’re academics.  Everything between now late January is a kind of a hazy wasteland.  There are some books you should probably read, you might want to grade those finals, you should probably touch up that last draft of your article before you dally too long and miss the cutoff.  Whatever.  It’s an equally good time to rewatch The Sopranos.

Yeah, that’s it.

Here on the Commons the diehards were still posting.  Tony Picciano had some great posts up.  First was the news about Cornell winning the bid for the new science college on Roosevelt Island.  I remember reading in CUNY Matters that we had teamed up with Stanford so the news was a bit of a bummer for CUNY.  On the bright side it’s interesting to learn from a commenter on Tony’s blog that a 350 million dollar gift from Charles Feeney tipped the scales.  Either way it’s a great thing for the city.  We didn’t need it anyways – we got our hands full with our own new college.

Helldriver made it in just under the wire for a great finish to 2011.  I felt my knuckles tense up when he started to call The Pianist a musical and had to push myself away from the desk to do some box breathing.  It’s ok – in a universe where I have come to accept Dancer in the Dark as a true musical there’s room for The Pianist too.  The genre is so anemic these days we’ll take everything we can get.

While my blood pressure was still up it seemed like a good time to take a look at Nestor Montilla Seniors’ ‘Redistricting in the United States’ blog.  This week was about redistricting follies in New York and New Jersey.  It’s a well researched and thorough post about the back door politics of redistricting and deserves a look.  I’m hoping the bullpen over at the Campaign 2012 blog heads over to the comments.  Speaking of comments; last week I mentioned Adam Wandt’s ebook proposal for CUNY and there’s been a huge discussion there in the comments.  Head over and check it out.

To wrap up the week Chris Stein taught the Commons that there’s actually a word for those little round dots of light in photos.  Meanwhile, our own Michael Smith is heading up a new photography blog that gives us a picture a day around CUNY.

There’s your week.  Stay tuned for a big end of the year round up soon!

I came home from dinner to see that Kim Jong Il died of “exhaustion” yesteday.  It feels weird that he should pass away on the heels on the United States’ exit from Iraq earlier in the week.  Were it the Bush years I’d say that our service members were probably now just making a layover in the US en route to the other side of the globe.  But with Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin-Laden and Kim Jong Il all gone I suppose that leaves only Ahmadinejad haunting Bush’s quiet exile down in Texas.  Despite how you feel about SOPA and the draconian NDAA, we’re still a long ways off from referring to sovereign nations as an ‘Axis of Evil’ on live television and, one hopes, the attendant hawkish military policy.  Of course it’s not as if we’re really leaving Iraq so perhaps cutting the doves loose would be a little premature. While it was a poignant and thoughtful week in world news we were celebrating the culmination of a lot of hard work on the Commons.  Commons 1.3 was released with a ton of new features.  If you haven’t had a chance to check out the additions to the site be sure and read through Sarah’s post and take the new version out for a spin.

The blogs we’re exciting this week as well.  Lee Hachadoorian over at ‘Free City’ shared his experience using the Kindle DX for PDFs.  I’m glad we’re talking about Kindles and eReaders on the Commons.  Earlier in the month Matt Gold and I were trying to figure where we fell on Kindles.  I hate the idea of going digital when it comes to books.  I like underlining and dogearing and reading other people’s notes on used copies of old books.  Matt was no less romantic about it but much more pragmatic in terms of the big picture.  Lee’s emphasis on PDFs bears some consideration though.  I might be needlessly exposing a weak spot in my own research but I don’t always read articles with the same adore that I do books.  Something like a Kindle might be the perfect instrument for articles where only parts of the research or data is relevant.  Great…now I have to buy a Kindle and hope that none of the staff at Word sees me with it in the neighborhood.

Speaking of eBooks – Adam Wandt had a great post up asking the community to take a moment and think through how we can use eBooks to help CUNY students.  It’s already sparked a wonderful conversation in the comments and I hope the Commons community can take a few minutes to check out Adam’s video and share their thoughts on how we can all help.  I think this is something our community here is really ideally suited to address and play a part in.

Some other highlights from the week include Maura Smale’s presentation and slides for her ongoing research on undergraduate study habits and Florian Lengyel’s awesome Occupy/Math post.

Till next week!