Lee and Sachi created the best intro to RSS I have seen. Amazingly, they even did it in a relatively low-tech way using simple video without spending a fortune on bells and whistles that look nice but add nothing. They have taught and engaged without any waste or want, which is nice from a technologist and instructional design and social media perspective (look at the comments about this!).

Click To Play

There are two types of Internet users, those that use RSS and those that don't. This video is for the people who could save time using RSS, but don't know where to start. Nice job, CommonCraft!

I just read Beth's blog post on NetSquared about Stop Cyberbullying Day, a concept that was created by Andy Carvin. Given what happened this week with Kathy Sierra, I think this is a great way of making a statement.

I like Scott McLeod's graphics he created for this:

While this hurts, bandages only help us heal and do not confront the cause of the injury. That is what standing up for what we believe in is all about. Bullying does not stop until a bully loses power. When he or she is no longer effective at intimidation.

Don't allow bullies to silence you, Kathy. And Robert Scoble, that goes for you too — consider using your voice and your following to help affect change. I am not sure what strategic benefit being silent has, which may make a bully perceive he or she has won. While this is not a wished for or hoped for challenge, be strong and show them that you will not change your life because of others and their threats.

I know, this is easy for me to say when I am not the one who has been threatened.

I thought today's article on the BBC about Kathy Sierra and her threats that led to her being (for the time being) silenced, was quite good. I am glad the word has gotten around the blogosphere so quickly, especially with so many words of support and encouragement.

In this light, I think Josh Bernoff's post on his Forrester Research blog (shared with Charlene Li), where he is doing an "unscientific sample" to explore the question "how big is this problem?" is a step in the right direction by asking people to share their experiences and answer a few simple questions. I only wish he would have tried to explicitly state what the problem is that he is investigating.

Perhaps the problem itself is the real problem? Is this a free-speech issue? Is it bullying? Slander? Intimidation? Virtual or real violence? Sexism? Theatening? Name-calling? Regardless of how we researchers quantify or qualify data to try to get the pulse of the online community, what happened to Kathy was wrong and horrible.

I hope we can discuss and explore what exactly is the problem, for only then can we consider our options for how to address it. 

I just received a post from Ron E. who created this nifty logo in support of Kathy Sierra who posted about her threats in her blog, Creating Passionate Users. I think this is a good step toward soldarity. If we do not take a stand in the blogosphere, it will become just like our F2F world. 

The current Chronicle Review has an interesting article by Cathy Davidson entitled "We Can't Ignore the Influence of Digital Technologies" (that is unfortunately not available, even with a direct permalink, without logging onto their site with an account). While it discusses the Middlebury College History Department banning Wikipedia, her article begins with a very interesting critical analysis of the language used l, so I am quoting the very first paragraph:

When I read the other day that the history department at Middlebury College had "banned Wikipedia," I immediately wrote to the college's president, Ronald D. Kibitz, to express my concern that such a decision would lead to a national trend, one that would not be good for higher education. "Banning" has connotations of evil or heresy. Is Wikipedia really that bad?

I think that is quite interesting — the use of the term "banning" as being equivalent with being "evil." How that sounds like the common approach to anything new, even ironically for an institute of higher education. It is often easier to suppress ideas rather than allow them to challenge us. As I am slowly becoming more liberal in my thinking, I still know that having my ideas challenged tends to make me defensive. What can challenge ideas more than an encyclopedia for and by the masses? I wonder if (when?) Wikipedia itself will eventually become more conservative in protecting its own way of approaching knowledge.

I wonder if what goes around, comes around as liberal and openness lead to power and the desire to conserve it?

I have been thinking more about my changing blog focus, and the more I read of some of the ProBloggers out there and the edubloggers, not to mention those who also discuss organizational power and research and reflective practice (and theoretical and philosophical foundations under all of it!), the more I think I may be trying to bring together interests that defy easy classification.

How postmodern. Ahh Lyotard, Foucault, and Derrida, where have you all gone?  How else can I make sense of:

I wonder how or if other people sometimes feel their interests and abilities do not fit within the standard groupings that other people expect to see? Strange, how such a richness can at times seem so isolating.

I just read Philip's 101 Great Posting Ideas That Will Make Your Blog Sizzle and got some good ieas about creating blog posts. I know that my intentions about why I blog have changed since I started to blog more seriously back in December, so this list and some of the other great idea-farms out there (such as Chris Garrett, who showed me this link in the first place).

I started to blog because I am interested in power issues and how they are manifest within organizations. As an:

• instructional designer
• educator, and
• student

I am also interested in those issues. I also like:

• social media
• online community development
• communications
• qualitative research (especially autoethnography)
• philosophical and theoretical foundations of
• adult education
• social and political philosophy
• aesthetics
• edublogging
• reflective practice
• coaching

to name just a few. While my interests are slowly moving their way into my blog writing, perhaps I may want to review my writing to see what themes are developing. Perhaps I may also want to reframe the categories I use here, as well as the tags I use. This is certainly an interesting endeavor! 

Kathy Sierra really captured and expressed a nagging feeling I have been having about why my experience at Northern Voice was so important for me. While online tools and a Very Real Virtual Community (VRVC) are important for me, I feel completely energized when I meet live those who I read and correspond with online. I really like meeting people whose work I have read for years, as then it gives a new dimension to the community and sense of relationship. Rather than my just repeating what she said, take a look at her post. Thank you, Beth, for pointing it out!

Perhaps this explains why many online degree programs require some F2F time and why blended learning is considered a better learning solution than simple e-learning alone?

There, I said it. Vagina. 

Did anybody see the interesting article in today's New York Times about three female high school students who were suspended for saying the word Vagina? I did not know this word was so bad or demeaning or cause of the corruption of youth, nor did I know that the book it was taken from, The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler, was so controversial that a single word in it should be censored. As an educator, I bristle when learning is closed in the very place it should be safe to be explored.

No, I never read the book. As a gay male, the topic of a vagina does not ordinarily arise in my conversations, but I hate censorship. I hate being told what I can and cannot say. I hate when my voice is silenced, and whatever the three girls did or did not do, I have great trouble seeing how this will somehow make for a better world. Censorship closes minds because it means that some things cannot be discussed or even considered. I wonder who or what feels so threatened that this was worthy of suspension? At least it reminds us the world is not as open as we may wish or suppose.