Conversation

It is appropriate that my final assignment of my undergraduate career at UMass is a post about comment culture. My whole degree is about communication of one form or another.

The first assignment, letters to the editor, was certainly a high point, as the letter I wrote was about something I cared about, and it was published. I really feel I added to the conversation because I addressed a topic of broad interest to the readers of the Recorder. Hopefully, I convinced a few readers (besides myself) to shovel out their fire hydrant or storm drain. I think that it is interesting that I started the class with old-school, one-way conversation using a newspaper. These day, of course, even newspaper content is almost always interactive, where people post comments on all stories and letters to the editor. But the Greenfield Recorder, like many small regional newspapers, limits the content that they put on line in an effort to not give away too much content for free. One of the things they don’t have on their website is their letters section, so I didn’t have an opportunity to interact with other readers. I just put it out there and hoped people read it and took action.

Submit to the current theme

For my user generated content assignment, I submitted a picture to Pictory. Unfortunately, the topic won't close until after this class is over, so I won't be able to find out if they selected my photo or to see any feedback which is a little disappointing.

When I was looking at the different options for this assignment, when I saw Pictory for the first time I knew that was where I wanted to share my content. The site impressed me with how beautiful it is. The pictures are amazing, the stories compelling and the organization and layout of the site itself is nicely done. Clean look, easy to read and navigate, the overall experience is really enjoyable. My wife and I spent a long time looking at the Overseas and Overwhelmed and Platonic Love Stories themes. Setting up my account was as easy and fast as I could have hoped for.

Scott Simon on interactivity

Top Tips For Six-Pack Abs? Cast Your Vote.

Scott Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday had this commentary on interactive content on the web.

Yelp

The Haven was my choice for the first Yelp review. I ate there with some friends who live in the neighborhood on my way to the Pogues concert and I just loved it. I actually planned to write a Yelp review for it that week because I was so impressed, but never got around to it.

It was fun remembering the things we ordered and all of the things I liked about the place, then crafting all of that into a review that was long enough to be thorough without being too long for the medium. I'm guessing people on Yelp are not looking for The Tale of Genji. I was glad to see that my review had already been voted "funny" and "useful".

Reddit

I have found many very cool, interesting interactive places on the web this semester.

Reddit was not one of those. I found the layout confusing and uninteresting. It was as much of a jumble as 4chan, only without the pictures, just a set of links. The categories weren't much help either. I found out the "trees" category is for weed smokers, from my brief look there you would have to be high to find any of it funny.

Pictory

For my UGC, I submitted a photo and story to Pictory.
I don't have a link for it yet because I'm waiting to hear back from the editor, so I put it up on my Flickr page.

 

I was visiting my best friend Mark shortly after he and his wife lost their daughter. They had been foster parents to her with the intention of adopting, from three days old to 17 months, when the state gave her back to the meth-addicted birth mother. 
I saw the unlatched safety lock on the kitchen sink cabinet and it seemed to sum up the heartbreaking situation.

In Praise of Scribes

People who are committed to an older technology fear change. Often they are not willing to admit when the world has passed them by. This is understandable, who wants to recognize that the thing to which one has dedicated one's life is no longer useful. This is true whether you are a scribe, as described by Shirky, a video store owner, or a traditional print journalist. This is clearly where Shirky is aiming his tale.

I found it particularly funny that after Johannes Trithemius, the Abbot of Sponheim writes his impassioned defense of scribes, how does he choose to distribute it? The moveable type, of course! Scribes are too expensive and take too long. The parallel between that and Gladwell writing his attack on social media on a blog is just great. You can't make this stuff up.