Archive for December, 2003
New features at Google
December 11th, 2003Neat way to find new music
December 11th, 2003Goombah for iTunes: another reason to switch to Mac.
You've already got access to hundreds of thousands of songs with Apple's legendary ease of use through iTunes, but you need a hassle-free way to find really great new music. Goombah from Transpose connects you to listeners who like what you like. See what they are playing, then preview, buy, and download with the iTunes Music Store.
Installation is easy, operation is automatic, and the recommendations are updated all the time to keep bringing you the newest, most interesting music.
Is [sic] recursive? No.
December 10th, 2003The husband of a co-worker referred me to Language Log. It's a weblog hosted at University of Pennsylvania. It's about language. If you've ever wondered how you are supposed to understand [sic] in a quotation of a quotation, read this entry by Geoffrey K. Pullman.
Teaching English literature
December 9th, 2003A short entry to offset the recent long ones: Showalter inspires conversation about teaching literature.
Studying for Contemporary Critical Theory
December 9th, 2003To study for my examination in English 470A, I outlined some essays that we studied this term (mostly the early ones, by the formalists and structuralists). I post these outlines and notes here for all to read. Use them at your own risk 
A vision for Feds and communication, with steps
December 9th, 2003Matt Goyer asked on his blog about Feds and communication. I often complain about Feds but don't offer
positive criticism -- that is, I don't always provide suggestions for improvement. So this blog
entry is my attempt to provide a vision of how Feds could communicate with its members and with
other stakeholders. I welcome comments.
Summary
Feds does not communicate with students or authorities at UW very well. Most of the ways in which
Feds communicates pre-date the Internet and the World Wide Web. Feds needs to acknowledge that the
Internet has introduced more effective means of communication. Furthermore, Feds needs to embrace
and employ these new methods of communication. The status quo of meetings, agenda, minutes, ads in
Imprint, broadcast web publishing, Feds TV, etc is not sufficient. Students do not talk to each
other this way. Why should they talk to Feds this way? Moreover, Feds needs to acknowledge and
embrace the diversity of languages on campus and start translating its major issue communications
into popular alternatives to English.
At this point, some readers will be rolling their eyes or asking, What about the cost? To these
readers I say: communication is part of at least four of Feds' ten corporate objects and Feds
collects more than $1,000,000 dollars from students every year. Can the things outlined in this
entry be accomplished with $400,000? I believe that the answer is yes. Is communication with
students and university authorities important? Yes; I believe they are the most important things
that Feds can do.
Ten steps to better communication:
- Create many e-mail lists. Use Mailman.
- Blackberries available to executives and councillors.
Support RIM: they hire co-op students and Lazaridis is our Chancellor. - Personal blogs for
executives and a communal blog for councillors. Use Movable Type. - Point executive e-mail
aliases to open mailing lists. Secrets are for those who have something to hide. - Visit classes
during the first week of each term, as if you were campaigning. - Identify popular alternatives
to English and translate your major issue communication into those languages. Hire part-time or
co-op students to do this. Students are good at stuff. - Conduct termly surveys of student
interests and concerns. Publish the results on feds.ca and send them to university
authorities. - Have regular, frequent meetings with university authorities.
- Ask university
authorities questions in private before you ask them in public. - Try to convince university
authorities to have meetings for decisions, not discussions. Move discussions to e-mail lists,
which are better than meetings.
» Read more: A vision for Feds and communication, with steps
Wedding site online
December 3rd, 2003As promised, a wedding page. Sign up for automatic notifications when we post wedding news. Movable Type rocks.
