What I am hoping do to is collect video clips from researchers and academics all across the world and blend them together to answer the question “Why do you research?” The final product will be a feature video pulling from all of the responses, as well as a website featuring the entire collection of videos as well as some infographics based on the responses that are submitted.

This project was motivated by my own personal interest in learning about what drives many of the faculty I work with, as well as the great project I Learned to Program that was built by Ben Chun.

As a young graduate student, I’m still figuring out why I research, but for now it’s because it helps me make sense of the world that I live in.

If you want to submit a video about why you research, email me at behzod.sirjani@gmail.com and I will send you the FTP information to upload the video. Feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, concerns, or feedback you might have. Have a great day!

About me: I am currently finishing up my MS in Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. My research focuses on how members of communities engage with each other both in physical and digital space, as well as how those interactions influence each other. For an only slightly longer bio, visit http://behzodsirjani.com.

We met up at Glazer’s in Seattle since he was picking up some film developer, then quickly headed down to the market to find some interesting characters to shoot. While Greg will likely have a whole roll of film of unique individuals, I was mostly enjoying the sun and watching Greg work. After we walked around for a bit, we headed to the Seattle Art Museum to hang out with Geo since the Blue Scholars were playing at SAM’s “Teen Night Out,” an event that happens three times a year and exposes students from the greater Seattle area to a range of arts. It was awesome to see high school students so excited about art and asking great questions of Geo and others about the significance of different art pieces and periods of art history. Below are some photos from the walk with Greg, as well as two gif’s I made from my photos of Geo getting the crowd excited during their short performance at the end of the night.

Note: For larger photos, check out Flickr.

I caught Greg right after he snapped off a photo of the lovely tiger blanket.

We visited a number of my friends during our walk, stopping here at Zebraclub downtown to visit Shakir.

While walking around the market, I looked up to see the light fading behind the market’s sign.

A few of Greg’s beautiful toys – a Canon 5D and a Leica M2.

Greggles leaving the market.

Greg crossing 1st street and catching tons of glow off the setting sun.

Greg caught a picture of me with my camera before we headed into the SAM.

Greg shooting Geo shooting the teens walking into the meet and greet.

Geo telling the crowd to bounce with him.

Geo imitating the teens’ dance moves.

This past Thursday, my sister and I were fortunate to be invited over to spend thanksgiving with a close friend of mine and his family, since our own parents are down in Florida. While this family has been very welcoming to me since graduation and my semi-orphanhood in Seattle, conversing with them over dinner made me realize that they didn’t know much about my parents. My sister ended up sharing a lot about our upbringing and diverse family situation, and in listening to her, I realized that we have a very similar perspective about how our parents influenced our lives, both emotionally and intellectually. It was also clear (to me at least) that both of our parents have a teaching background and often guide or mentor us through our experiences rather than just give us information that we need. This new insight helped me realize why I find myself so drawn to many of my teachers, as they help me in the same ways that I get help at home.

Aside from my parents, I have been quite blessed with the teachers and mentors that I have had throughout my life, from the elementary school teachers that helped other students pronounce my name correctly, to my Willamette family, many of whom invited me into their own families for holidays and celebrations. All of these people have been willing to walk alongside me in my journey, allowing me to fall with the understanding they would be right there to help me get myself back up. They were the ones always ready to take my questions, often answering them with a series of questions to help me reason my way to an answer, or at least find the path to where I needed to go. They were the the ones who, in those dire situations, helped re-orient me. This has been true in my academic life, in my years of drumming, in photography, and in any sport I have played. The human connection and compassion that helps us lead others in the right direction is incredibly powerful.

Every day that I step into my own classroom, I reflect on the role that my mentors have played in my life and the way I turn to them when I most need something. Recently, when I was explaining the connection I have with my parents and mentors to a friend, I told him that they were like Google for me – they help me filter away the less important stuff and bring only what is most relevant or useful to the surface.

Thank you to everyone who has walked with me on my journey, especially when neither of us knew where we were going.

My van, all packed up for the trip.

My first stop, outside Big Giant in Portland.

The inside of BG.

Tasty stop #1 – Olympic Provisions with Cece.

Cece nabbed a picture after she finished looking at her food.

Me, pretending to be Cece at her desk. (She constantly tweets pictures of similar views).

When I finally got down to Salem, I asked Siri what the meaning of life was. This was the response…

Later that night, I was caught skipping down the street.

On Friday, Lauren and stopped at an Apple Store on our way to Portland to pick up her iPhone. This was her excited face.

The first stop in Portland was the Solestruck store, to pick up some Lita’s for Lo and visit the Bridge and Burn pop up shop. We also got to see Tina, who took a picture of me trying on jeans when we visited the Woodlands, next door.

After the Woodlands, we visited Tanner Goods (pictured) as well as Blackbird‘s Portland location.

Tasty Spot #2 – Dinner at Serratto, where Lo was enjoying the quality of her camera on the iPhone 4s (as well as the pork shoulder.)

The next morning, I had a tough boot decision to make.

Tasty Spot #3 – When I resolved my boot decision, I found my way to a tasty breakfast at Word of Mouth, one of the best breakfasts in Oregon (alongside Tasty N Sons).

When I got home I was welcomed to reality by a bunch of unread mail.

Just the getaway I needed.

Day 1
Jetlag. Oh my word. We took a direct flight from Seattle to Paris, which sounded nice in theory, but we ended up behind two very tall travelers who leaned back their chairs so far neither of us could open our laptops. Thanks to a bit of coffee and a lot of determination, Arrizu and I both accomplished a significant amount of work, though uncomfortably, and enjoyed a movie on the ride over. We left Seattle around 2pm and arrived in Paris at 8:30 in the morning, so our lack of sleep was even worse given that we had a whole day ahead of us. After finding our hostel, Arrizu and I went to her school, the Alliance Francais, for her to take her placement test, then came back and crashed… around Noon. We woke up super late, found a couple grocery stores around the hostel for a snack, and then slept again.

Day 2
We woke up semi-early (9am) and went downstairs to eat before heading out to see Notre Dame and get lost in the city. Since Arrizu’s been to Paris before, she was a pretty helpful tour guide, and I wandered aimlessly in her wake, soaking up the sights and sounds.

Since the line looked like it was 3 hours long, we opted not to check out the inside (again, Zu’s already been there) but rather walked around the outside and gardens instead, which was still quite pretty. In our wanderings we came across Shakespeare and Company, a famous bookstore/library that had many intellectual patrons, eventually semi-inspiring Hemmingway’s A Moveable Feast. Any major literary work or piece of philosophy I could have possibly wanted to read was inside, which was incredible. Just next door was a fantastic cafe where an artist was hand-painting the menu boards (below) and where I had quite possibly the best pizza in my life, as well as a honey-drizzled brie with thyme (also below).

After that adventure, Zu and I were quite tuckered out and headed back to the hostel for some rest. I couldn’t really sleep, so I headed out for the nearest APC Magasin (store), visiting which was my one real goal of being in Paris. After a brisk 2 mile walk, I was victorious. The shop workers were quite friendly and knowledgeable, so I tried some clothes on and told them I’d come back that evening with Arrizu.

A.P.C. MEN & WOMEN, MAGASIN GENERAL 5, RUE DE MARSEILLE 75010, PARIS

APC New Cure after one wear. (Image mostly for Robin & the ABC Denim crew)

Arrizu and I walked around the district a bit more, then headed home around 10 to get up early the next day and find the Eiffel Tower.

Day 3
Rain. After a few days of 70+ weather, most of Friday hovered around 60 degrees with heavy clouds overhead and a breeze. We woke up early and headed to the hotel that Arrizu would be staying at for the duration of her time in Paris, in order to survey the area and figure out train routes. Then we headed back to her school to find the closest bank and get a cell phone. While those errands were only moderately successful, we decided we were close enough to the Eiffel Tower to walk to it. The walk wasn’t exactly short, but it was pretty cool getting closer and closer to the Eiffel Tower, which looks pretty from afar but downright beautiful up close.

Getting closer…

I made it! Thanks Arrizu!

After we walked down the Seine for a bit, we decided it looked like it was going to storm and caught a number of trains to get home. Again, we took naps, then headed to a grocer that evening for a snack and a walk around the channel.

Day 4
THE LOUVRE!

I am seriously incapable of taking a serious picture. Thank you Arrizu for putting up with me.

Arrizu happily instagram-ing me.

Although we woke up later than expected (I am horrible at getting up in the mornings without Saosin as my alarm) we still got into the Louvre around 11:00am with minimal line. We explored a number of the wings, seeing Iranian art, French Paintings, and of course, that iconic thing pictured below. It was a really interesting experience, although given my taste in art, I appreciated it more as an archive than as an art lesson. (I think MOMA is the best art museum ever because you can watch the transition from Monet – Today’s art). But, I still had a great time, and when we finished we took a walk down Champs-Elysses to close out the afternoon. Now it’s time to catch up on emails and figure out what to do for dinner tonight. Mmm vacation.

Mona Lisa madness!!!

Arrizu making another lovely instagram face!

Bonus points if you read this far and/or understand the reference in the title.

In regards to Nacho’s photography, you can find his images on his main website or on his Flickr page. Also, Michelle (his wife) set up a blog where they have been posting news and links about how you can help their family. While this has been a tremendously emotional time for me, especially since Nacho’s passing fell on the two year anniversary of when I lost my best friend Ryan, it has been very powerful to feel so much love and support from my community. While I’ve already written a bit about Nacho’s passing, I wanted to post what I shared at the service, since it reflects a slightly different side of him. You can see them below:

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Everyday before I walk into my classroom I think about Nacho. I reflect on how he used to walk into the room, beaming, often in conversation with a student. He would put various objects on the table: his phone and keys, sometimes a camera or the day’s hat, and often a toy or two, and then look up at us and smile. He had no visible agenda, he was just there for us, each and every moment.

That mindfulness was what made his photography so powerful. Nacho’s stillness allowed him to see more than what the rest of us did. He transitioned seamlessly from viewing the whole scene to isolating specific details, and all of this was done with finesse. His varied interests and open definition of beauty allowed him to create images that transcended the context or place they were taken from.

One of the first conversations I ever had with Nacho involved cameras. I entered his office as an inquisitive and semi-shy first year student, in hopes of joining the rhetoric department. I knocked on his door, and received the same warm invitation of “come in” that would become so familiar over the next three years. I entered and was greeted by a myriad of colors, images and smells, and as I rounded the corner to face where the noise was coming from and I was welcomed by a camera flash and the sound of a shutter. “Gotcha!” he announced, smiling.

Nacho’s desire to constantly capture and explore his surroundings would become much more normal for me as the years progressed. It became normal to see him carrying a camera or camera bag, or in more recent years, walking around with his iPhone in front of him, gaze fixated on the screen.

It was never that Nacho was unaware of what was going on around him, in fact it was quite the opposite. He was far more aware of what beauty lay in his surroundings that he took the time to savor it, capture it, and often share it with the rest of us. When someone would ask him why he was taking a picture of an object as “boring” as a rusty nail, he would turn back on them and ask, is it really just a nail?

The way that Nacho could look at an image and see the story is one of the greatest treasures that he shared with me. I spent many afternoons in his office, dissecting images from recent protests, his trips to puerto rico, or even my time abroad. We explored the wrinkles in a figure’s face, the positioning of the body, the way their lips were pursed or open, all to create and communicate the narrative that we saw in the images. Nacho paid attention to these details in his own work, where every image was not so much a frozen moment of time as it was an invitation into a story. For Nacho, photography was a way of speaking, and he spoke eloquently.

As students, we often claim that hanging out with our professors is awkward or weird, given that they are in a such different place in their lives, yet the moments I shared with Nacho and his beautiful family are some of my most cherished memories. A few years ago, Nacho invited me to come with his family to the First Nations’ celebration of Oregon’s 150th birthday. I had no idea what to expect, but I grabbed my camera and came along willingly. When we arrived, I was completely overwhelmed by the culture and colors that were before me, but Nacho, fearless, walked straight toward the stage where the ceremony was being narrated from. Following in his wake, I ended up with a front row seat to one of the most beautiful celebrations I had ever witnessed. Nacho was not only fearless in his pursuit of photography though, he was fearless in his life. He lived fearlessly and loved fearlessly, exuding compassion in every interaction.

Nacho’s compassion and his time were gifts that he gave as if they were as available as water, and we, his students and colleagues, drank of it whenever we could. In the time that has passed since I heard the news, which seems both like an eternity ago and just a blink of the eye, I have been overwhelmed with the love and beautiful stories that many of you have shared, both on his blog, on your Facebook walls, and in texts and emails we have exchanged. It has moved me to see that the Nacho I knew, the loving and compassionate individual who no matter how busy, had time to help me in my life, is the same Nacho that you all knew.

In these conversations, a friend shared with me a piece of wisdom that was shared with her in a recent hard time: “death is so limited.” she told me. It cannot cripple love. It cannot suppress memories. It cannot invade the soul, nor can it conquer the spirit. To me, that seemed so simple and so true. Nacho may not physically be with us any longer, but that does not stop us from remembering how he lived. It does not stop us from remembering how he loved. It cannot erase his smile from our memory, or the way that we were greeted when we saw him. I will forever remember the way that Nacho began his classes, and I will always remember the serenity of sitting in his office.

Looking out at all of you today I am so inspired, because I can see that he touched your life the way that he touched mine. Now it is our turn to live as he did and see as he saw. We must take what Nacho has taught us, and go out into the world and teach others. We must give freely of our time and our compassion to those around us as Nacho gave freely of his time and his compassion. We must be mindful of how we live and love and move in this world just as he was, and encourage others to look beyond the surface and find the beauty as he did so well in his photography and his life. We are here today to remember and honor Nacho, and I hope that as we leave here today, we can continue to remember and honor him, in every interaction that we have.

If we define a friend as Emerson does, as “someone before whom we may think aloud,” then by all measures, Nacho was everyone’s friend. He was always present and always willing to listen, no matter if you wanted to talk about technology, social movements, or how unfair it was that rhetoric comprehensive exams cut into your winter break. While time with him may have seemed scarce, the moments I spent in his office felt endless. A conversation would stretch on for what seemed like days, and often take place in only an hour.

Nacho truly could manipulate time.  He was someone that was constantly moving and constantly involved with others, but not in a selfish way. His time was divided between his family, his peers, and his students, and not once in the time that I knew him did I ever feel rushed. If Nacho was selfish, I never knew it.

As a Professor, his job was to help guide and shape those in both the classroom and the community he was a part of, and Nacho took that job very seriously. His classroom was always a place of learning, of the honest interrogation of ideas and truths, even if those ideas were not a part of the day’s plan. Nacho rarely shied away from a topic, and spoke with the same reverence to those who agreed with him and who were challenging him, for to him, all people deserved our kindness and our attention.

Nacho was not only an active member of the rhetoric department, but he was active in the Willamette community at large, serving on a number of boards and committees during his tenure there. His influence was visible in the way that his students and peers interacted, engaging with each other positively, always hoping to see the best in others. While he played these different roles and held various titles, he was always Nacho – always caring, always open, always present.

His passing is something that I have had significant trouble grappling with. My heart goes out to Michelle, Terra and Phoenix, for there is a hole in their lives that no one will be able to fill. I mourn for the Willamette community, for those who knew him and experienced his guidance, as we will never again be greeted with that smile or perspective.

But this moment also has allowed me some happiness, for I rejoice in seeing the kind and beautiful words of those whose lives he touched. I am moved by the classmates I knew, for I see that the kind and compassionate Nacho I experienced was something shared by many. I see that in this moment of tremendous pain, we have come together to honor and give praise for one of the greatest gifts any of us have thus experienced in our lives.

I often told Nacho he was like a father to me, not because he was there to scold me, but because he constantly pushed me to be a better person. He was always a voice of hope and love in my life, encouraging me to live beyond my own experiences and show compassion to others, whoever they were.  He reminded me that although we communicate with each other through words, there are too few words for the human experience, and that life is meant to be experienced, not explained.

Nacho may not be with us as he once was, but he lives on in all of us. A piece of him resides in each of us that knew him, for he touched all of our lives and that imprint will last forever. In this time of loss, those pieces of Nacho are bringing us all together, so that we may remind each other what Nacho taught us, and we may in turn teach others.

Nacho was a father, a husband, a lover, a professor, a friend, and many other things, because Nacho was whoever we needed him to be. If we want to truly honor him, we will look outside of ourselves and ask how we may show others the compassion and love that Nacho has shown all of us.

While there aren’t many photos up yet, but there will be soon. I’ve listed some sets below that haven’t had images migrated over.

Spring 2009

Fall 2009

Spring 2010

This past quarter, I was enrolled in HCDE 511 – Visual Communication, taught by Sean Bolan, a visual designer and design thinker who had us visualize complex data for our final project, with the deliverable being something similar to an infographic. Learning about this in January, I decided that a dataset I would be interested in visualizing was my own coffee consumption, since I often joke that coffee is my blood. I decided to keep track of each cup of coffee I drank, noting the time, quantity, type of drink, type of coffee, variety of coffee bean, location it was purchased at, cost and an image of the cup. This data was tracked in a blog I set up, aptly named “Is This Too Much Coffee.”

Given that I wanted to come up with as organic of results as possible, I tried not to adjust my habits at all – making sure not to bias the data. After 28 days, I moved all the information into Excel and started thinking about various ways to show how much coffee I drink. This process was done via sketches in class and rough infographics, with peer feedback given throughout the process. My final results were quite shocking and extremely valuable to me as a consumer of coffee.

A clip from the introduction page, noting the total amount of money spent and cups of coffee consumed.

The final result includes six different visualizations, ranging from hourly consumption data to a visual break up of the types of coffee beverages I had organized by size. While the final deliverable was definitely informative in the aspect of coffee consumption, I also created the entire project in InDesign, learning a number of print design principles along the way. Working with personal data definitely helped motivate me to create interesting graphics to not only help me understand what my habits looked like, but to allow others entry in to the discussion.

Part of the map of where I consumed coffee most frequently in the Seattle area.

As I said in the beginning, my habits have changed significantly since doing this project, with my typical consumption down to 1-2 cups of coffee per day, and only about 2 cups of coffee not home-brewed each week. It’s saving me money, probably better for my health, and a much more sustainable solution moving forward. Thanks for checking this out and I would love to hear any feedback you have about the project.

To view the final product, click here.

An idea is like a parasite. Resilient, highly contagious, and once an idea has taken hold of the brain, it’s almost impossible to eradicate.”

This quote from Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in the movie Inception is something that has rang true with me for most of my life. Ideas often start as seeds, planted somewhere amidst a conversation, and over time, they grow, finally budding. Often we don’t know when those seeds are planted, but later we can identify what it was that sparked the idea.

Each week gives me more reasons to be thankful for my current position at UW’s HCDE program, and this morning presented me with another moment to be truly thankful for. One of the projects I am currently working on within HCDE focuses on online calendaring practices and relationship typologies, specifically examining Google Calendar use. Professor Charlotte Lee oversees the group, and also meets weekly with students who participate in her research to discuss what it meant to be a “scholar.” As one of those students, I couldn’t be more thankful for her time.

After a couple housekeeping items, Charlotte spent a significant amount of time during today’s meeting discussing her relationship with Phil Agre, her dissertation advisor at UCLA. She describes Phil as a pure scholar – someone dedicated to the sharing and discussion of ideas, focusing on how the scholar’s job is to shine a light on ignorance and present knowledge, rather than worry about the trappings of the job, such as paper awards, grants, tenure etc.

The way that she talked about Phil, with not only an intellectual appreciation but also genuine reverence and thanks, reminded me so much of the feelings that were stirring within me this weekend while I was in Salem, Oregon, visiting friends at Willamette University. Charlotte’s description of Phil sounded similar to the way that I describe my own advisor, Nacho Cordova, someone who shares a pure passion for learning and ideas.

When I came to Willamette, I had an idea of what it was that moved me, excited me, and kept me engaged, but it was quite difficult for me to articulate at the time. Through many meetings in Nacho’s office, cups of coffee, and class discussions later, I feel like I’ve made significant strides toward becoming an active and engaged scholar, but I largely credit him for helping tease out the passion inside me. In our conversation today, Charlotte mentioned that many students become “intellectual children” of their advisors, and I totally agree with her on that. In my case, I worked closely with someone who was tremendously interested in the role that media and technology have in shaping personal relationships and discourse.

After my experiences with Nacho, I am carrying on in a similar direction, asking similar questions – though more clearly-articulated – about the role that media and technology have in shaping my life and the life of those around me, not for any sort of personal recognition, but because I am genuinely interested in the way that technology functions in our lives. I am so proud to have been able to work with someone who has not only made me more aware of myself, but of others, my position in relation to them, and the opportunities that I have as a scholar to spread knowledge and share ideas.

I count myself quite fortunate again to be in such good company in HCDE, and specifically in Charlotte’s lab, as I am again finding myself in an environment that welcomes my curiosity, encourages my thinking, and seems to genuinely care about me and my ideas. I am sure that I will continue to look back on email conversations between Nacho and I, finding seeds of current and future ideas, and smiling.

Nacho Cordova, carefully capturing the moment with his iPhone.

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Do you use Google Calendar to share your calendar with other individuals?

Do you use Google Calendar to look at the calendars of other individuals?

If you are 18 or older and answered yes to either of these questions, we would like to talk to you!

We invite you to participate in a research study investigating online calendar sharing practices. Please review the information sheet at the following URL for full study details (https://depts.washington.edu/csclab/study-information-sheet). We are looking for people who share calendars with 1 or more other individuals.

Participants in this study will fill out a short questionnaire and participate in at least one audio-taped interview. The interview would take place at our lab at the University of Washington in Sieg Hall or at a quiet, mutually agreeable location that has Internet access. The interview will take no more than 1 hour. We may request 1 additional half-hour interview at a later date, which you may decline. During the interview we will ask you to show us your online calendar(s) and talk about your usageParticipation in this study is strictly voluntary. There is no cost to you for participating. You will not be paid for your participation in this research. Interviews will begin February 14th.

If you are interested in participating or have any questions about this study, please contact Behzod Sirjani. Contact information is below. We cannot ensure the confidentiality of any information sent by e-mail.

Behzod Sirjani, MS Student
Email: behzod@uw.edu
Lab Phone: (206) 685-1514 (no voice mail)

Computer Supported Collaboration (CSC) Laboratory
Department of Human Centered Design &
Engineering
University of Washington

I consider myself fortunate to be surrounded by the people I am and with the opportunities I have. 2010 was a year of huge growth for me, continuously supported friends and by the Internet. So, I’ve laid out two TOP 10s of 2010 – exploring the great accomplishments of those around me and some of the most interesting places I hang out online. After you read these, I encourage you to think about what made 2010 special for you, and thank the people that are helping make life special for you each and every day.
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ONE: Ten Coolest Things My Friends Have Accomplished
1. Best Friend and Ex-Bandmate/Hockey Teammate Andy Jalali was offered a position in the Navy. Andy has a lifelong dream of getting into space, and flying for the Navy is one big step to accomplishing that dream.

2. Creative Genius Darick Dang was hired as an Art Director at HMH in Portland. Darick has to be one of the most creative and inspiring people I know. His always brings something new to the table and works tirelessly to make his visions reality.

3. Best Friend and Ex-Bandmate (and current housemate) Kevin Hanaford is playing rhythm guitar in the Tony Bridges Band. Kevin and I have been playing music together since we were 13, so to see him on stage with other great musicians doing what they love is a true joy for me and all of our friends.

4. Ian Clark was accepted to the MFA program at University of Oregon and filmed Supwitchugirl’s video “I Love My Ducks” which recieved over 1 million Youtube hits. I met Ian through my work on a video project two summers ago. We spent three weeks on the road together, sleeping in tents and riding in the back of trucks, and I couldn’t have asked for a more engaging and fun person to be around. Ian, like Darick, has a unique perspective that always adds new dimensions to projects. I hope to be working with him again soon.

5. Alexis Hope (and her research team at the University of Washington) won a Gates Foundation Grant to develop a portable ultrasound for midwives in Uganda. Alexis is an HCDE colleague of mine whom I share an office with. Throughout the quarter, I’ve learned a tremendous about her and am very excited to see where things go with this project, as she, as well as those she works with, are all quite motivated to make the world a better place.

6. Allon Freiman launched Homecourt Hoops to a successful first season in Ghana. Allon came to me in early 2010 with an idea of bringing basketball to Ghanaian youth. He wanted to build “Homecourts” all around the country to help spread the game and engage young children in team sports to cultivate their sense of community. A year later, we have one court finished and a second in progress.

7. Artist/architect Milan Heger released his semi-autobiographical work “The Art of Freedom.” Milan is a close friend of mine, as the father of my best friend Robert Heger. He is a designer in the fullest sense of the word, making art, furniture, buildings, and now novels. “The Art of Freedom” is a great read, especially for those artists looking for inspiration.

8. Sam Kuhn built a sailboat by hand. While I’m constantly impressed by the work Sam has done with a camera, his choice to begin constructing a sailboat this summer came as a minor shock. However, knowing Sam, I had lots of hope for the boat, and just a few weeks ago I visited him to see the final touches being put on. Check out his journey at Let’s hope it floats!

9. Willamette University alumnus Bryce Clemmer launched his brainchild DuroCast to a public beta. Along with Elliot Swan and Matthew Polzin, Bryce has been working on building an internet hub for local radio stations, allowing users to listen to any radio station in the country, from anywhere. In order to do that, the DuroCast team compiled the internet’s largest terrestrial radio station database, and created a social site that allowed users to tag and favorite radio stations they wanted to listen to. I use DuroCast far more often than Pandora, especially since I’ve found some great jazz stations on the East Coast. Plus, it solves the problem of having to suffer through poor local stations when you travel.

10. Shelby White (aka Wanken) launched Designspiration. I saved this one for last because DSPN kicks off my list of Websites you need to visit. Shelby is not only a talented photographer and designer, but he is a great sharer. Hence, Designspiration was born – a place for creative people to show and share their creative inspirations.
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TWO: Ten Websites That You Should Visit
1. DPSN // Designspiration is the brainchild of Shelby White and has already gained permanent residency among my Chrome bookmarks (and usually is open in a tab). The site is fed by a wide variety of creative people and is constantly updated, making any visit to DSPN an inspiring experience. To learn more check out Shelby’s behind-the-scenes look or visit http://ds.pn

2. TED // If you are reading this, you’ve likely seen my TED Tuesday series, where I highlight different TED talks that I find inspirational of educational. I made watching TED Talks a regular weekly activity in 2010, and I would encourage you to do so for 2011.

3. GOOD // GOOD first caught my attention with one of its quarterly reviews that I picked up in a Chicago bookstore. Every page of the magazine (just like all of its articles online) was full of thought-provoking content. Whether you are interested in education, public affairs, the economy or sustainability, GOOD has something for you.

4. The Economist // I am a believer in a variety of opinions making for better discussions, so I frequently check out The Economist to read news from a perspective that comes from outside of our borders. Even though England is our ally, they can also be our strongest critic.

5. Information is Beautiful // Let’s agree on something, information is everywhere, and there is way too much of it for us to digest it all. However, we are more prone to paying attention if that information comes in beautiful infographics. Enter IiB – your best source for, well, beautiful information.

6. Twitter // This follows up #5 really well, since Twitter is NOT a social network, it is an INFORMATION network. It is where information is shared, re-shared, commented on and passed along. So check it out. You don’t have to tweet, but I bet there are plenty of interesting people you’d like to follow.

7. Engadget // Technology is cool, technology is helpful, and technology is here to stay. Engadget is the best place to keep up on the latest news about technology, whether you want help finding a new information appliance (what some people call “smartphones”) or you want to know when the next Apple product is coming out.

8. Flickr // The world is a beautiful place, and a good portion of it is catalogued on Flickr. Browsing around is like doing a Google Image search, only with better images. Next time you want to find a picture of something, give it a try.

9. Unpluggd // Unplggd is a part of the Apartment Therapy network, a group dedicated to “helping people make their homes more beautiful, organized and healthy by connecting them to a wealth of resources, ideas and community online.” Unplggd’s tagline is “smarter homes, fewer wires” and they definitely have some great resources to make that happen.

10. Your own homepage // No seriously. You should make one, then visit it, and then make it better. The Internet isn’t going anywhere, and if people want to find you, chances are that it’s the first place they look.
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When you visit the website, you see the follow pledge bar (taken at 2pm):

While I can definitely agree that meetings can be a waste of time, I want to spend a moment acknowledging the value they have, which is primarily at the start and end of tasks, in my experience.

The Beginning
Let’s be honest – there have probably been a number of times when you started a project, task, etc., where you had no idea what was going on until you were briefed on it. Luckily, at the meeting, you were able to ask questions to the person presenting the information, which hopefully was someone knowledgeable enough to answer the questions. In this instance, a chain of emails and phone calls back and forth would have been a much larger waste of time than a meeting was, especially when you multiply those interactions out to cover each person in the meeting.

The End
When projects are done, it is helpful to reflect on it as well as share information with others about how to move forward. Meetings and group discussion are also helpful tools for this, especially since many groups I have worked with would have benefitted from a longer reflection period about our work before we moved forward into a new project (both about the project and about our group interaction).

But what about when meetings are “real work”
For some people (such as project managers, principal researchers, team leaders, etc) meetings are real work, in contrast to what Friend and 37signals are arguing below the pledge bar. There are many people I know who need to meet with others in order to start or end projects. For these people, boycotting meetings would be a detrimental blow to their work. So perhaps what Fried should have done was create “Boycott Unnecessary Meeting Day” acknowledging that even he (like when he presented at TED) spends time in meetings.

Fried’s talk hits home with an idea that many people can probably relate to; there are far too many distractions at work to allow real work to get done. As Fried puts it, “the door to the office is like a CusinArt, shredding your day into a million bits.” He points out that time spent on Facebook and Twitter today are the equivalent of the 15 minute smoking breaks in the 50s, and that it isn’t these distractions that are causing problems at work. Rather, the problems are M&Ms: managers and meetings.

The real distractions at work come from how your day gets fragmented into face-to-face interactions that remove you from your working environment. While this can seem productive at first, work, like sleep, happens in stages, where you have to progress through the early ones to get through the deep ones. If you are interrupted in those early stages, you don’t make it to the deeper, more productive ones. Fried’s talk is quite provocative, and he ultimately suggests a few strategies to make workplaces better.

Check out the full post for 16 minutes of great quotations like: “You can hide instant messages; you can’t hide your manager.”

In my opinion, this white paper is a fantastic compliment to the New Media Literacies white paper that was authored by Henry Jenkins, Ravi Purushatma, Katherine Clinton, Margaret Weigel, and Alice J. Robinson earlier this year. While the NML paper has a micro focus, examining what skills are necessary in a mediated society and media education, the EIU/NMC paper focuses on how technology itself is affecting the course of education, reconstructing disciplinary boundaries, and allowing for innovation in and out of the classroom. I would highly suggest reading the NML paper if you haven’t yet, especially in tandem to this.

About the survey
According to the report, the research drew on two main initiatives conducted in July and August 2008: a global online executive survey and in-depth interviews. Of the 289 executives responding to the survey, 189 participants came from higher education and 100 came from corporate settings. The US accounted for slightly over one-half (154) of all respondents, with the remainder distributed through Europe (69), Asia-Pacific (43) and the rest of the world (23). Of this total, board members and C-level respondents made up 43% of private-sector respondents, while professors, deans and other faculty members accounted for 86% of those surveyed from academic institutions.

Findings
The first thing that resonated with me (as it echoes my own feelings rather closely) is the notion that schools and educators are seeing a shift in their roles. Sam Scalise, CIO of Sonoma State University stated:

The professor’s role is evolving from instructor to mentor. Homework, quizzes and projects will have to be designed in such a way as to require genuine thoughtfulness on the part of the student. That paradigm shift offers enormous potential for advancing educational quality.

This quote was located right below the results to the question “How is technology most likely to affect academic course and degree offerings in your country? (pictured below)

The results above closely support Mr. Scalise’s statement, as the over 50% of the respondents believe that the quantity of interdisciplinary majors will be rising in the next five years. This is a trend I have seen in my own education, as I currently am studying within an extremely interdisciplinary department. In such places, professors frequently must step outside of their traditional boundaries and help students weave together theories and scholarship from different perspectives, rather than just help them understand a specific set of paradigms. In my program specifically, technology as an artifact of study is best viewed from multiple disciplines together, as they each contribute to our understanding of the roles technology can play. By allowing for students and faculty from these diverse perspectives to come together, we will allow for greater technological innovation due to richer and more robust perspectives for analysis.

Another valuable takeaway from the results of this question is that 54% of the respondents believe that universities and corporations will partner, leading students to seek more specialized degrees. Some people may see this as a reverse move from interdisciplinary study, but I see it as a result of just that. As educators partner together to create stronger frameworks for analysis, many traditional disciplines will have to create more specialized tracks that accommodate such areas of study. Similarly, as partnerships between industry and education grow, programs will specialize in their research and the degree should indicate that.

Also asked in the survey was “Over the next five years, how important do you think the availability of new technologies will be to students as they choose a university to attend?” 73% of the respondents said “very important” with 25% choosing “somewhat important” and only 2% selecting “minimally important.” This, too, mirrors my own beliefs, especially in regards to corporate partnerships. The current generation of primary and secondary school students are engaging with technology to a much greater degree than the generations before them and thus will have greater expectations about technology in university settings, though these expectations could range from a power outlet for each student to the newest robot. Regardless, I know that many of my peers had their college decisions influenced by campus visits, where they were able to see firsthand how technology was being utilized in classrooms and on campus. I’m glad that a large majority of those surveyed see this as a crucial issue for universities, especially as multimedia literacies become more common in the student population.

Conclusion
The report ends by asking a great question, one that we should all reflect on as we move forward (in academia or otherwise): What it will mean to be an educated person in the 21st century? Technology constantly shapes the way that we act and live, and our current information age is dramatically shifting education. We must be looking for ways to engage each other and then, in turn, be reflective of that engagement. Technology is a tool, and we want to leverage that tool successfully.

I encourage you to read both white papers and would love to hear any thoughts you have.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrates the fight for civil rights of all individuals in our country.
St. Valentine’s Day celebrates the beauty of love.
Earth Day celebrates the resources our planet offers and encourages us to be mindful of how we use them.
Mother’s + Father’s Days celebrate the people who brought us in to this world & (often) helped shape us into who we are.
Thanksgiving Day is perhaps one of the most controversial holidays, though it was started to celebrate how the Native American people helped the pilgrims survive through their first year here.

So as you gather with others on this Thanksgiving, take time to be mindful of how the people in your life (not just the ones around you) help you to survive each day. Then, remember that nothing is stopping you from being thankful for them each day of the year, or better yet, letting them know.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Let’s celebrate our holidays more often.

A special thanks to those of you who help me to survive each day.

In your recent HASTAC post, “Facebook’s Messages may not be the right answer but it is the right question,” you bring to light a very important issue that plagues millions of people in today’s world: what is a better system [than email] for communicating with one another in the digital age? While you point at Facebook’s Messages as a system asking that question (and perhaps I’ll agree with you a bit there), I must respectfully disagree with a number of the points you make.

First off, you call email “a disaster,” and then label it as a “transitional invention” that we will “look back on and laugh.” While I do occasionally laugh about emails, I do not think email is anywhere near a disaster. The electronic mail system that we have created and supported is a fantastic method of sending messages across the world. While the norms that have grown and developed with this system may be frustrating, while there may be a lack of genre conventions (as you point out later) in various circles, email is not “a disaster.” You point out that:

[It's] just crazy to think that people who have been trained for the last 150 years by the Industrial Age’s mandate of separating the functions of work, home, leisure, play, business, religion, family, sexuality, social life, entertainment, and so forth would be happy with an email system that merges all of those together in one undifferentiated inbox again.

I’m not sure about you, but no one I know has a life that is so fragmented. I accept that I’ve only been alive for 14% of the timespan that you mention, but even in my life, I can’t imagine a person who has compartmentalized their actual existence into such boxes. The people who come close often become frustrated because they stop being real and they simply play roles. When you are always playing roles, you lose authenticity and humanity. Humans are messy. Life is messy. While we have certain protocols, norms, genres, expected actions and what not, many of those categories you mentioned do (and should) overlap.

For the people who really do want to compartmentalize their inbox, there are a number of solutions. The easiest solution is to use labels. Many different email services provide labeling in their inbox. I currently use Gmail and it works FANTASTIC. When I decide I don’t want to use filters, I create a second email address. Regardless of whether I want to do this or not, my hosting university usually forces one upon me anyway (which many of my peers run through their primary email accounts anyway). A second way to keep your inbox clean is don’t give out your email. If you don’t want Aunt Emma to send you recipes, don’t let her know your email address. If you don’t want her to send recipes to your work email, have them sent somewhere else.

What Facebook did right a long time ago (and continues to do with Messages) is impart on the public the notion that when you are online, people will know if you are a dog. There is no longer this split between who you are online and who you are offline. Social media (and by that I mean the extension of our social networks over the Internet) have made people more visible. You are now accessible 24/7, which means you need to start being yourself 24/7. Facebook has contributed to the authenticity that the Internet is starting to require. Messages is continuing that. I am willing to bet that most people (51% or more) who use messages attempt to integrate their external emails at one point. Why? Because Facebook is the hub of online social interaction for many people. Such integration is not going to make email cleaner. It’s not going to make communication that much different. It is going to centralize it a little bit more for the people who trust Facebook enough to give it access to their other email addresses.

Perhaps I misunderstood your article. I could very easily be off-base here, but it just seems as though you are making criticisms based upon how we use email, and in that regard, I don’t think Facebook Messages will change anything. It will continue to confuse the genre conventions that you have already lamented by making the act of sending messages even more casual.

I welcome any and all feedback on this issue.

Best Regards,
Behzod Sirjani