Two interesting things in my inbox today:
Urban Word of the Day
www.urbandictionary.com
August 08, 2006:
wikiality
Reality as decided on by majority rule.
Based off [wikipedia]'s 'majority rule' fact.
Featured on [The Colbert Report] July 31, 2006.
Wikiality refers to the changing of reality or truth via a Wikipedia-like system, allowing the public to change facts as long as there are others that agree.
and
The international news agency Reuters has withdrawn a photo of Beirut following an air attack after American bloggers pointed out "blatant evidence of manipulation." Reuters admitted that the photo had been doctored to make it appear that the city was more damaged than it actually was. You can click here to see the picture ...
I'm fascinated by all things related to citizen journalism, blogging, and the democratization of information... because it relates directly to truth, perceptions, and reality. I mean, isn't it crazy-interesting that truth is becoming such a fluid concept? Maybe it always has been. And do we need to protect it? Can we?
Maybe if I go to grad school someday I will study this. If I had to say what I'm most passionate about, it's probably helping people around the world have a better quality of life through art and technology. That's why I get as excited about people blogging their experience and interpretation of events as I do about kids doing competitive ballroom dancing or learning to play an instrument or sing. They're all vehicles to hope, I think, and there's real life along the way.
Showing posts with label citizen journalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label citizen journalism. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
BC, BCE, AD, and CE
Wow. It seems Wikipedia users have officially transitioned from using "BC" and "AD." It's now always BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era).
I don't care if they take down the 10 Commandments and ban prayer from schools and stuff like that. I don't care if they take "In God We Trust" off the money (what do God and money have to do with each other?). But this does make me a little sad. lol Seriously though. Actually it makes me feel old more than anything. Education has made some big changes just since I was in the system a few years ago!
But I do understand why they changed it. I mean, it's kinda strange to profess faith in the Messiah just by referencing a particular year in history.
Speaking of calendars, apparently our western, solar Gregorian calendar is not very great. The whole leap year thing should tell us that. According to my Dad, the Mayan Calendar is where it's at. He thinks if we used that, not only would the calendar be much more simple, but we'd have a much better rhythm to our lives. Faaaascinating. :)
I don't care if they take down the 10 Commandments and ban prayer from schools and stuff like that. I don't care if they take "In God We Trust" off the money (what do God and money have to do with each other?). But this does make me a little sad. lol Seriously though. Actually it makes me feel old more than anything. Education has made some big changes just since I was in the system a few years ago!
But I do understand why they changed it. I mean, it's kinda strange to profess faith in the Messiah just by referencing a particular year in history.
Speaking of calendars, apparently our western, solar Gregorian calendar is not very great. The whole leap year thing should tell us that. According to my Dad, the Mayan Calendar is where it's at. He thinks if we used that, not only would the calendar be much more simple, but we'd have a much better rhythm to our lives. Faaaascinating. :)
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Raleigh Bloggers
So tonight I went to a serendipitous little gathering of the Raleigh Bloggers. Well, it really wasn't serendipitous at all, it was quite planned, but it was funny how I heard about it. I can't remember why but I came across Josh Staiger's site and started commenting like crazy and then even IMing him out of nowhere (HA) and decided this would be a fun thing to attend... and it was!
We talked about all kinds of technological things. They are very smart and you can ask them questions like "what's the best X" or "why hasn't Bill Gates developed X" and they will give you insightful and funny answers. :)
No but really.. they also inspired me to maybe make my blog more of a real writing enterprise rather than just a personal (and quite random) diary. (Not that they said anything about that, but just the meeting itself inspired me that way.) But I love the whole diary thing because I'm obsessed with the freedom to do whatever I want. I don't want to get too serious with this thing, and I certainly don't want to write about certain things and not other things because of what anyone expects. But maybe I could slightly invest more of myself in real punctuation rather than the ever-popular "..." and such. Actually none of you care about this (why are you reading this paragraph!) but yeah. I'm thinking of renaming this thing "sloppy stream of consciousness" because that would be more accurate. I really don't stop to think before I type but hey. It's the internet, and everyone's complaining about alienation and loneliness and stuff. I'm just tryin to keep it real!
Jasmin, I am going to try to recruit you for this group because it was a 4:1 male to female ratio. And you know you love blogging, and you love Raleigh! Admit it!! :) Wow I think you may be the only other girl blogger I really know... since my cousin Julia dropped off the face of the planet with her Xanga (yo what happened?) and Susan never got too into it (though she did quote me directly in her top banner which is funny and great). What are the statistics on gender and blogging?! Has any research been done on this?
Micah, are you gonna start your blog before... well, before Thursday I guess? Are you guys going to have internet access down there in Greenbo?
We talked about all kinds of technological things. They are very smart and you can ask them questions like "what's the best X" or "why hasn't Bill Gates developed X" and they will give you insightful and funny answers. :)
No but really.. they also inspired me to maybe make my blog more of a real writing enterprise rather than just a personal (and quite random) diary. (Not that they said anything about that, but just the meeting itself inspired me that way.) But I love the whole diary thing because I'm obsessed with the freedom to do whatever I want. I don't want to get too serious with this thing, and I certainly don't want to write about certain things and not other things because of what anyone expects. But maybe I could slightly invest more of myself in real punctuation rather than the ever-popular "..." and such. Actually none of you care about this (why are you reading this paragraph!) but yeah. I'm thinking of renaming this thing "sloppy stream of consciousness" because that would be more accurate. I really don't stop to think before I type but hey. It's the internet, and everyone's complaining about alienation and loneliness and stuff. I'm just tryin to keep it real!
Jasmin, I am going to try to recruit you for this group because it was a 4:1 male to female ratio. And you know you love blogging, and you love Raleigh! Admit it!! :) Wow I think you may be the only other girl blogger I really know... since my cousin Julia dropped off the face of the planet with her Xanga (yo what happened?) and Susan never got too into it (though she did quote me directly in her top banner which is funny and great). What are the statistics on gender and blogging?! Has any research been done on this?
Micah, are you gonna start your blog before... well, before Thursday I guess? Are you guys going to have internet access down there in Greenbo?
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