Let me offer another scenario for academia’s future. As is usual with the scenario forecasting methodology, this is based on extrapolating from several present-day trends – here, several trends around open.
In the past I’ve called this “The Fall of the Silos.” It’s a sign of our urban- and suburban-centric era that this rural metaphor doesn’t get a lot of traction. It’s also possible that contemporary American politics leads many to embrace silos. So I’ve renamed the scenario “The Triumph of Open.”
tl;dr version – In this future the open paradigm has succeeded in shaping the way we use and access most digital information, with powerful implications for higher education.
Category: Read
👓 Lego Wants to Completely Remake Its Toy Bricks (Without Anyone Noticing) | New York Times
The Danish toymaker has relied on oil-based plastics for over 50 years. It wants to give them up by 2030. Finding alternatives is a vast project.
👓 The Narrow Passage of Gortahig | Dan Cohen
You don’t see it until you’re right there, and even then, you remain confused. Did you miss a turn in the road, or misread the map? You are now driving through someone’s yard, or maybe even their house. You slow to a stop.
On rural road R575, also known as the Ring of Beara and more recently rebranded as part of the Wild Atlantic Way, you are making your way along the northern coast of the Beara Peninsula in far southwestern Ireland. You are in the hamlet of Gortahig, between Eyeries, a multicolored strip of connected houses on the bay, and Allihies, where the copper mines once flourished. The road, like the landscape, is raw, and it is disconcertingly narrow, often too narrow for two cars to pass one another.
An interesting example of how small local decisions can have complex and interesting ramifications in the future.
👓 About | UnboundEQ
Equity Unbound is an emergent, collaborative curriculum which aims to create equity-focused, open, connected, intercultural learning experiences across classes, countries and contexts. Equity Unbound was initiated by Maha Bali @bali_maha (American University in Cairo, Egypt), Catherine Cronin @cat...
This looks intriguing.
👓 When the Social Silos Fall | Kicks Condor
Kicks Condor (kickscondor.com)The silos did help mainstream users form communities. This is still useful—carriers of rare diseases can organize on Facebook, stuff like the ‘TomNod’ group that coordinates to scan satellite photos. On Twitter, humor and art (pixel art, for instance) communities formed that can be casually ob...
👓 When the Social Silos Fall | Brad Enslen
Brad Enslen (Brad Enslen)I hear a lot of people wanting the social network silos (mainly Facebook and Twitter) to go away. I too want them to go. Eventually. But before they do, I want to examine some things in this little essay. Some Good Things that the Silos Did Searc...
👓 Logged off: meet the teens who refuse to use social media | The Guardian
Generation Z has grown up online – so why are a surprising number suddenly turning their backs on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat?
👓 Burying Cool | thefirstand15th.substack.com
Generations and The Inevitable Death of Soul I imagined our time on the First and 15th as a geek out session. We do not have a lot of space anymore for earnest appreciation. We have to protect our backstages on social media and actively shape our front stages for all of life. It is difficult to drop the affect of cool when there are so many attendant rewards for being cool. But, I would like to drop it anyway, for a bit.
What is smark?
Wrestling fans use “smark” to mean one who can enjoy professional U.S. wrestling while also knowing that it is fake. First of all, wrestling is not fake. So there.
I use smark to mean: smart+snark. We can take serious things seriously without losing our appreciation for the absurd.
👓 Teachers Are Moonlighting As Instagram Influencers To Make Ends Meet | BuzzFeed
One teacher in Texas told BuzzFeed News she makes a $50,000 a year, but made over $200,000 in a year through Instagram.
👓 Farewell Megan, but not goodbye | Dries Buytaert
It's sad to see Megan go, both professionally and personally, but I'm grateful for the impact she has had on the Drupal project.
👓 Holly Krieger | Cambridge
Born and raised near Chicago, Dr Holly Krieger completed the undergraduate mathematics honors program at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She went on to a master's degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, with initial research interests during graduate school were primarily in arithmetic and Diophantine geometry. Under the guidance of Laura DeMarco and Ramin Takloo-Bighash, her thesis work focused on the emerging field of arithmetic dynamics, which studies the relationship between dynamics of one complex variable and the arithmetic geometry of abelian varieties.
👓 ‘ER’ Actress Vanessa Marquez Shot, Killed By L.A. Authorities | Hollywood Reporter
Police responded to her residence on a welfare check before the shooting took place.
👓 University issues statement on textbook pricing | Louisiana.edu
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette issued the following statement regarding the pricing of textbook and software materials needed for Accounting 201 and 202. It can be attributed to Dr. Jaimie Hebert, the University’s provost. “We want to make it very clear to our students and the public that the University of Louisiana at Lafayette makes every effort to ensure that the materials required for courses are affordable. “We welcome the opportunity to clarify some confusion that resulted from the pricing of materials for Accounting 201 and 202.
👓 Hello world! | Michael Dunne
I think it is traditional to start a new blog with a declaration of intent. The trouble is I have been here before, with many blogs and Web sites began with the best of intentions and then allowed to languish owing to lack of inspiration or deleted in frustration. So if I say that this blog may touch on many things but principally photography then you can take that with a large pinch of salt, but I hope this time it will be different.
Welcome to the indie web Michael!
What was that famous quote from the Zuzu in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life? “Every time a blog starts, an Angel gets its wings?” Yes, I’m sure that’s it!
There my be no better honor than to be mentioned on the first page of a new personal website, and I certainly am. I’m tickled to serve as an example, particularly when mentioned in the same breath as Dan Cohen.
I don’t aim to emulate them just yet (I’m not terribly technically minded), but I get the importance of owning my own data, and I like the idea of having my own little space on the Web.
You’re completely right Michael, don’t simply copy what anyone is doing, but focus on the bits and pieces you find the most valuable to you personally. Given your penchant, perhaps looking into the IndieWeb wiki pages for Flickr and Instagram might give you some inspiration? I’ll note that over time I’ve become much more technically proficient, but I suspect you’re not too far behind me, so don’t let anything stop you.
If you need any help or guidance as you travel along, feel free to reach out. There are many of us around to help.
You might also find a local group to work with as well. If you have the travel time available I know there’s an upcoming IndieWebCamp in Oxford that I suspect you’d have fun attending.
Good luck!
👓 Lego built a drivable Bugatti Chiron with over 1 million pieces | The Verge
5.3 horsepower and a "theoretical" top speed of 18 miles per hour