I’m going off to Saratoga Springs to a martial arts conference. Right now I have a lot of ideas perculating. Some are an extension/refinement of the “craft v. automation” thread from a few days ago. Others are in regards to Google Print and the monitization of knowledge. I also have some thoughts about two teired marketing in the print industry. Finally, the Blogjects thing will happen. Its great to have all of this rattlin’ around inside my noggin’. Now I just have to carve out time to write.

On the plus side, classes are going really well. I’ve finally hitting something of a groove.

Part of my goal for this blog is to begin to get more and more of my research work up here as an early review system. So while I still will be writing about my daily goings on (and including the occaisional photo or two), there will be a bit of a shift towards longer, more scholarly posts. My hope is to take advantage of the categories feature and present different views of the blog based on the content that you are interested in.

In the meantime, let me tell you that trying to import word documents into Wordpress sucks. It took me more than an hour yesterday to get the post rendering correctly. That’s mainly due to Microsoft’s wonky specialized HTML tags. Bleh. Any suggestions on streamlining that process are greatly appreciated.

I believe in the power of print media. I also believe in its longevity. Despite some futurist’s assertions, I do not think we are nearing a print or paperless future.[1] That said, I do not know if I believe in the viability of the Printing Industry as it currently exists. American Printer and industry experts tell us that we are in a time of transition. The question is:

What does the future of printing look like? What will be the next instantiation of the Print industry be? Are we rapidly approaching a time of new industries that use print, but are not necessarily printers?

What will follow in the days, weeks, and months to come is a meditation on these questions. I do not want to present what I write as a definite or final view of the future. These writing are simply a dialog with myself, with the industry as I observe it, and with anyone else who chooses to contribute to these posts. (Click on the More below for the full article)

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As promised, here are a few pictures I took yesterday:

Professor Lessig presenting in Ingle Auditorium.
This was taken during an animated Q&A session.

Ralph Nader in Web Auditorium.
Note how he towers over the interpreter:

Like I said, a very tall man.
Yes, I realize he’s slightly upstage.
Still, there’s a pretty big height difference –
especially considering that he’s sorta slouching.

Today was full of lectures at RIT. Lawrence Lessig rocked my friggin’ world. — he???s a brilliant man and a phenomenal speaker. I have a lot of thoughts on the lecture, but I???m reserving them for the moment as they need more time to peculate. Ralph Nader was on campus too. I poked my head in for a moment, but opted not to stay. So all I can say about Nader is that he is a very tall individual (and it looked like he had slept in his suit).

In addition to all of that, I also sat in on a large group discussion on new forms of writing and how various new media affect the pedagogical process and two panel discussions. The latter one, on Intellectual Property and Authorship, was quite interesting. Especially since it brought up questions about who owns characters created in online games (a question I find quite interesting). The prior one, on Pornography, sucked (that really wasn???t intended as a pun). The positions taken were pretty simplistic and just not satisfying (again, no pun). I had hoped the speakers would problematize the relationship between pornography and the development of various communications mediums (from the Printing Press to the Internet). Instead they retread the simplistic ???objectification argument??? without dealing with the more complex problems inherent in that argument (in particular, if you are saying that pornography is bad because it reduces participants to performance objects ??? which are commoditized based on their physical features ??? then you need to acknowledge all of the other aspects of the culture/entertainment industry ??? professional sports being the best example ??? that engage in exactly the same behavior). Don???t get me wrong, I???m not all ???rah-rah, go porn!??? I???m simply saying that I think that is a much more complex situation, especially on the college campuses of today.

One thing that I???ve been thinking about recently is the space where digital distribution and publicly accessible sharing communities meet campus regulations in the age of the facebook and myspace. In particular I???m thinking about this in terms of party pictures.

During my time at RIT (back in the stone age of film) I was known to imbue the occasional adult beverage at printing social events. This was before RIT became a ???dry??? campus (though the ???wetness??? at the time didn???t really negate the fact that most of us were underage ??? sorry mom, it was bound to come out sooner or later). And there are definitely pictures of me doing so, along with other members of a certain professional group I was involved in. However, the circulation of those pictures (4×6 color glossies) was handled using quaint mano-to-mano technology. We???d pick them up from the developer and then pass them around at meetings, in labs, and, more often than not, at parties (while consuming more illicit adult beverages ??? oh the terrible cycle).

Fast forward a decade. Today???s students are more often than not equipped with digital cameras and sharing party pictures through various digital means. Among the possibilities for this circulation are social networking sites like afore mentioned facebook and myspace. Choosing these methods of distribution also means that those pictures are potentially available to a larger audience. And that audience may include not only peers but also administrators at the institutions that these students frequent.

So can students be busted for throwing a party after the fact if photographic evidence surfaces online? Existing precedent definitely suggest this is the case. There are currently investigations into LA nightclubs that allow underage stars to drink. And a star of the Harry Potter movies stirred up a bit of controversy when pictures of her apparently drinking a Corona surfaced online.

So while technology may facilitate rapid sharing of pictures from parties, social (or perhaps structural controls) enter into the equation.

Today went smoothly. I taught a lab where I tackled both a new peice of software and conditional logic (if … then … else). Tonight I’m hoping to get ahead on research and take a pass at finally writing my Bleecker response (which will be hosted both here and on Conduit — an interdisiplinary web publication at RIT).

The title makes more sense if you sing it to the refrain of the Bangle’s Manic Monday. Wednesday continues to throw me for a bit of a loop. But today is filled with good news as I just found out that Tina and Chuck’s daughter came home from the hospital yesterday!

Sorry for the pain. Much to the chagrin of all involved, I can never resist a pun. I spent most of my weekend at a Sportsman’s show. Not necessarily by choice, mind you. Rather I was helping Drea with an emergency involving the non-profit she volunteers at. Anyway, this display was directly opposite where we were presenting.

Countless deer heads with dead eyes now haunt my dreams.

Ok, after seeing this on Julia’s Blog I had to quickly take this test. Well, I’m more of a nerd thank I thought (I sorta considered myself Geeky up until this point). The other jaw dropper I just discovered is that Julian Bleecker, author of the Blogject Manifesto, just posted here that he’s looking forward to reading my response. Which means that I have to finish writing it.

(And I probably shouldn’t have used the phrase “U-Chicago Style Beat Down.” Julian, if you’re reading this, I’m looking forward to a discussion on this subject (and I hope you don’t take my tounge-firmly-planted-in-cheek-blog-chest-pounding to seriously).)
Here’s the nerd thing…