It’s difficult for me to believe that we just finished week 6 at RIT. This has been the most intense quarter yet. In part that’s because it’s my last. Teaching one class for only the second time has contributed as well. But most of that time has been taken up trying to come up with ways to bring sustainable change to the School of Print.

Coming up with ideas has not been hard. It’s the doing and nurturing parts that take all the time.

One effort we’ve undertaken is to start a blog for the School. SPMEtcetera soft-launched earlier in the quarter. Our hope is to create a destination where the industry, alumni, and prospective and current students can discover all the neat things that are going on at SPM. The great part, from a sustainability perspective, is that all the writing is being done by student employees. We’ll make an official announcement about the blog later this week.

The other big project is the Open Publishing Lab. There will be a lot more about that soon. The good news is that over two years of planning will (hopefully) be coming to fruition in less than 14 days. We just need our teams to make it to May 3 and the innovation festival and then we’ll have a lot to talk about and show.

Julian Dibbell is going to be speaking at RIT this Wednesday. Julian, an associate editor at Wired, is an awesome guy and someone whose been involved in, and writing about, cyberculture for years. His latest work, Play Money, is an exploration of the various economic systems that have developed in various virtual spaces. At RIT he’ll be speaking on “Ludocapitalism – A few ways of making real money from a virtual economy, and what they mean.”

I first met while at the University of Chicago. Julian’s input was really helpful for me while writing my thesis. We touched base again late last year at the American Anthropological Association Conference. Again, I got a lot out of the conversation. So if you’ve got the chance, come out and hear him speak.

Here are the official details:

Julian Dibbell

• Topic: Ludocapitalism – A few ways of making real money from a virtual economy, and what they mean
• Time: 7:30pm (the talk will be followed by open q&a time from 8:30-9)
• Location: Liberal Arts (Bld 6), Room A205

So I haven’t been able to update the site on any consistent base in a while. Life’s been really busy. Unfortunately, as of late, it seems like I only have time to blog around major, and often tragic, events. So, quickly (with RIT’s quarter drawing to its close, I have a mountain of grading to do) here’s some good things:

• My presentation at the American Anthropological Association’s national conference went well. It looks like I’ll get a journal publication out of it.
• The quarter itself has gone pretty well, in particular a lot of strides have been made at setting up a publishing research lab here at the school. More on that soon.
• Our (boy) cat Lewis, has made a full recovery after having two toes amputated because of a cancerous growth.
• I got a new phone/pocket pc, which has helped me get organized.
• I was a judge in a national variable data print competition.
• The blog helped me reconnect with an old friend.
• Dre and I are succeeding in getting out (and traveling) to see friends and family. At this rate, who knows, we might actually go on our Honeymoon this year.
• I was awarded my teaching rank (black sash) in Kung Fu.

I’m sure there’s more, but my timer is going off, reminding me that it’s time to get back to grading.

After a lot of deep soul searching, I suspended this semesters studies at Cornell. It wasn’t an easy decision. But for the last few weeks I’ve felt stretched to the maximum. The eight hours of commuting time was an absolute killer. I was also *just barely* keeping up with the reading. Add onto that trying to do a good job at RIT and being able to support Drea — well something just had to give. And Cornell was that something.

It was a difficult decision. The right decision, but difficult none the less.

I’m going to try to keep on my reading schedule. I mean, I bought the books! And I’ll be reading them next year. So I might as well get on it and start my immersion in those texts. Especially since I’m hoping to continue researching throughout this year.

The first week of classes at RIT has been a blur. In part that’s because my only day to get out of class business done is Wednesday. I teach effectively 6 straight hours Monday and Friday (its two different sections of the same class). Tuesdays and Thursdays are spent in Ithaca (today I calculated that I spend over eight hours a week driving to an from Cornell — that’s a whole business day).

What is a bit awkward is that the lab component of my course is on Mondays. The lecture is on Fridays. So students are getting the so-called “hands on experience” before we cover theory. Or at least that was what I had to work on this week. I think I’ve managed to come up with a plan that takes care of that for future weeks.

Ok, ’nuff typing, time to read anthro stuff.

I’m back from vacation, and sitting in my office trying to get used to my new Mac laptop. Our short vacation was great. And Dre and I have passed the one-year marriage milestone with no frying pans being embedded into my skull. Good times!

Here are some photos from today at RIT:

Tomorrow I’m at Cornell to start classes there.

Just got the e-mail confirmation that I’ll be presenting at the American Anthropological Association (AAA isn’t just for cars) National Convention this fall on my U of C bot’s research. This is awesome news on multiple counts! So DC here I come (at least in October … make that December).

I just wrapped a three hour workshop on Variable Data Printing for the International Graphic Arts Education Association (IGAEA)’s 2007 National Conference currently being held at RIT. It’s a teach the teacher type event. I spent most of the weekend preparing my material, and, of course, once I got on the ground, I scrapped about half of it.

Variable Data Prints are print products that are customized by pulling information out of a database. The primary use is direct advertisements (what some folks outside the biz commonly refer to as junk mail). The workshop, based on the class I’ve been teaching for the last year or so, presented a method for introducing students to the marketing, technology, and visual aspects of creating VDP.

Or at least that was the plan. As usual, once you begin to execute things change. The lecture part stayed mainly the same. But I changed the exercises pretty significantly. Things definitely need to be more “tactical.” Next time I’ll use more step-by-step hand outs. I think I avoided them because I wasn’t sure if they would limit the need to have an instructor - the concern of going too far down the path of a self taught workshop.

It’s been a lot of movement as of late. Last week I was all over God’s green earth lecturing: Tuesday was Cornell, Wednesday I spoke at a conference here at RIT, Friday brought me to the suburbs of Cleveland. Yesterday, I had a late night drive to Buffalo to pick Dre up from the airport after her flight to Rochester was cancelled (she had been visiting a friend in the DC area).

All that hustle and bustle has left me a little burned out. Getting back into doing all the real important teaching tasks (lesson prep, grading) was giving me some problems. But a brief exchange with a student just changed all that.

Walking out of Java Wally’s, our on campus coffee shop, I ran into a student whose taking my Principles of Printing course this quarter. She had just gotten back from a weekend, out of town, job interview. Just before she left, I recommended some “tactical readings” to help prep her for questioning.

Not only did the interview go really well, the readings, and my class in general really helped her prepare for it. She went out of her way to thank me for helping her prepare and told me about how she was able use what she had learned in class discussions to ask good questions.

I don’t think students appreciate how important those moments are for us (teachers). I left Java’s completely recharged and ready to tackle the pile of grading waiting for me in my office.

Sorry for the delay in this announcement, there have been many mitigating circumstances.

The computer was smart. I have been offered a position in Cornell’s Anthropology PhD Program with funding.

Some of you already knew this. Others guessed it. For a variety of reasons I needed to keep it under wraps until I had the chance to talk with some key people. I’m really excited! Blown away in fact. I’ll be working on Citizen Journalism in the US. I’ve already been back and forth a few times to Ithaca and this really seems to be the program for me.

As to why not much blogging has gone on, there’s always a balance. With good comes bad. Dre’s had another lupus flare and spent time in Rochester General Hospital. We keep learning more about this disease and with that comes a lot of frustrations. Today we found out that things are a little more complex than we had thought. And right now that’s weighing a bit on my mind.

We’re both really excited about the future and there’s lots more to come over the next few weeks.