prod & ponder

Hi folks. I haven’t forgotten about the dcblogs411 skills & knowledge sharing project, nor the idea of exploring what we could do with shared DC-community blog tags.

This is the first week of the Fall semester, and I’ve been swamped with my course prep work and whatnot at U. Balt. There’s still been progress–the dcblogs411 domain is registered, the server is up, and I have a preliminary installation of WordPress ready to go–but I’m going to have to put off doing more until early next week.

Thanks for being patient and for all the support, feedback, and ideas you’ve offered. For those of you who were particularly interested in the skills & knowledge sharing ideas, I hope you’ll consider joining me as one of the editors of dcblogs411. I’m hoping we can have guest contributions by an enormous variety of DC bloggers, and I also think it would be nice to have the blog itself co-edited and admined by more than one person, so I’m hoping a few (3-4?) folks might also volunteer to admin the site with me.

If you’re interested, but you’re are nervous because you’ve never used WordPress, well don’t let that stop you from jumping in. It’s as easy as any other blogging software, and besides… learning new blogging skills is part of the point of the project

p.s. And oh yes, pictures… this blog, after all, is supposed to have more photography. Don’t worry, I’ve got a whole new city to explore with my camera, so that should pick up again in very short order.

This evening I attended a DC “blogger summit” organized by the Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive. The Post folks offered that they were not going to be reporting on the details of the event and requested bloggers consider doing the same. The idea was for open discussion, not a PR-fest. I think it was as sensible motive, and I’m going to respect the request. So no details, but let me at least offer some general praise that the Post deserves:
* I’m not naming names, but it’s worth noting that high-level WaPo folks were at the discussion. This is something the Post appears to be taking seriously.
* Bloggers were treated with respect, and Post folks seemed to be listening and genuinely curious about understanding and exploring how blogs and the Post relate to one another and where there might be opportunities for collaboration.
* They did a good job of gathering together a large and diverse set of local bloggers.

Ok, so there’s my very vague non-report and praise. I suspect other bloggers who were there will write more. After all, “off the record”—no matter what the motive—doesn’t mesh easily with blogging sensibilities.

Now, here are my two modest proposal:
1. We should have a community blogging skill share. There’s a fantastic amount of knowledge and skills in the DC blogger community, and it would be great if that could get shared. Obviously, new bloggers have lots of questions when getting started, and even experienced bloggers can find themselves thinking, “hey, what you did on your blog was really cool… how can I do something like that on mine?” We should have something to help.

I think it would be swell if the Post would sponsor an in-person skill share event (I’d be happy to volunteer a workshop or two), but it also would make sense to start a blog so that there’s a more permanent and accessible place to find the information and help. While lots of the questions and topics raised won’t be specific to DC blogging, for all sorts of pedagogical and philosophical reasons I’m a big fan of community-rooted learning.

Toward that, I just registered the domain dcblogs411.com, which should be coming online late Friday or Saturday. I’d like it to be a true community blog, with entries by a wide mix of local bloggers. Just to toss some potential topics out there:
Blogging sites and scripts; CSS tips and tricks for [insert blog software here]; Tagging: what is it and how can I use it?; Copyright law and your blog; Defamation and your blog; How to get press credentials in DC; Photography for the web; Adding video to your blog; Podcasting for bloggers; Getting connected to the DC blog community; Blogging for profit; Self & blog: issues to consider in your online identity– and… what your ideas? Again, the idea is for this to be driven by our own blogging community’s knowledge and curiosity. I’lll post a note here when the dcblogs411 domain becomes active. Please start considering what topic you think would be helpful and which topics you could contribute an entry about.

2. My second modest proposal (and this one is something totally out of my hands): maybe we should start a local set of shared community tags for our postings. This would make it easier to locate and integrate material from bloggers in our local community. Moreover, if the Post wants to go down this road, it would also be a nice way (with some additional checks) to locate and share content to and from the paper.

If you want an example of the power and simplicity of this, think of the “dcist” tag we started on flickr for photos that (a) are of the DC region, (b) are by DC photogs, and (c) that have the implied permission for publication on DCist. It’s become wildly popular, with a huge amount of daily contributions (and that’s even with a self-imposed throttle on daily submissions by individuals). What if we had similar shared and unique tags for more types and topics of DC blogger-generated content.

It would takes some coordination to generate a common list of tags. Personally, I think this would be a swell place for the Post to start playing a constructive role in the DC blogging community. I wouldn’t recommend any grand scheme or taxonomy of local DC content tags. Start small and simple and build support. The Post is already trying to look through local blogs for content, and many local blogs would like the exposure of being mentioned. So let’s make it easier for all involved and pick some tags that bloggers can use for material that we think the Post might be interested in. Just WaPo or the like perhaps?

Slowly, we might build up some more detailed tags. e.g.: dcCommunityPetworth, dcCommunityShaw etc. for community news stories in those areas; dcSportBaseball, etc. for sports… you get the idea.

The idea is to build a common list of tags that we can use, and that are unique in being community-defined and directed.

Ok, there you have it… my two modest proposals.

While I’m mentioning covers I enjoy:

Can’t Help Falling in Love… covered by the Eels
Blackbird… covered by Brad Mehldau
The Joker… covered by Fatboy Slim
I’ll Be Your Mirror… covered by Clem Snide
Sweet Jane… covered by Cowboy Junkies
Iko Iko (”Jock-A-Mo”)… covered by Cyndi Lauper
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps… covered by Cake
Ring of Fire… covered by Earl Scruggs and Billy Bob Thorton
Uncle John’s Band… covered by Indigo Girls

I’ve always had a weak spot for covers, particularly covers that take a wildly new angle on a song and make me reconsider it. With that in mind, while I don’t ultimately like this cover of Outkast’s “Hey Ya,” I’m glad I listened to it.

How could you not rent this film? The film’s blurb:
“Do you like cows? I mean, REALLY like cows? This ambient meditative video tape consists entirely of footage of cows. They stare at you, you stare a them. It’s tranquil, it’s relaxing…. it’s just cows.”

I was feeling pretty smug with my fancy dSLR, but then Sophie went old school with Playskool. I suspect she got the better shot. The setting is fitting: Sophie’s Cosmic Cafe.

The last of my book orders went in today. If you’re curious, here are the texts I’ll be teaching this Fall…

Approaches to Conflict
Isenhart, MW & Spangle, M. (2000). Collaborative approaches to resolving conflict. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Mayer, D. (2004). Beyond neutrality. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Stone, D., Patton, B., Heen, S., & Fisher, R. (2000). Difficult Conversations: How to discuss what matters most. New York: Penguin.

Research Methods
Robson, C. (2002). Real world research: A resource for social scientists and practitioner-researchers (2nd ed.). Madden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers.

Ethnic & Identity Conflict
Rothman, J. (1997). Resolving identity-based conflict in nations, organizations, and communities. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Stover, E., & Weinstein, H. M. (2004). My neighbor, my enemy: Justice and community in the aftermath of mass atrocity. Cambridge University Press.
Glenny, M. (1996). The fall of Yugoslavia: The third Balkan war. New York: Penguin.
Keane, F. (1996). Season of blood: A Rwandan journey. New York: Penguin Books.
Inside 9-11: What really happened. (2002). New York: St. Martin’s Press.

I packed light for the Vancouver trip. No tripod or flash, no bag full of lenses. Just my 5D camera and a 50mm lens. The usual rule of thumb for travel photography is to at least carry a wide zoom lens for flexibility, but for whatever reasons I just enjoy the paradox that restrictions breed creativity. Plus, a small prime lens is less weight to trek around with, and people are less self-conscious when you aren’t pointing a big lens in their face.

Of course, that’s about exactly the setup you don’t want for nature photography. A zoom lens, tripod, and shutter release cable would have made the above shot much easier. But then I wouldn’t have had the fun of scrambling across rocks to get close, pushing and contorting myself against a ledge, cold clear water rushing underneath, to brace the camera for a long exposure shot. It would have been easier with the proper tools for the shot, but it wouldn’t have been as fun. And good travel, after all, is all about having great experiences.