I woke to read in the local paper that the “Global Language Monitor” (imagine!) had declared that Web 2.0 was now officially the English language’s one millionth word……and to add to it, this monitor is based in Austin TX!! Arg…..since when does the expression “Web 2.0″ constitute one word? And how in the Dickens do these people count anyhow? Expressing my horror to colleagues revealed that most people did not share my disquiet or at least could conceal it better. Fortunately, linguists came to the rescue in the form of confirmation from Geoffrey Nunberg who declared authoritatively that the Monitor’s claim was ” bushwa, fraud, hokum,”. Phew…. Now I have to ask, is “bushwa” another claimant or is it a demonstratively fulsome example of BS? or is it Bing? No doubt, the Monitor is on it!! Ah Ludwig, meaning is in use!
Nice ads…lots of money on terms and marketing (what’s new?) but my quick search using Bing showed nothing very different from a Google search. But then Google just gives us lots of answers, Bing gives us the means of a decision. Semantics never were so sweet….let’s pray MS has some substance behind the BS.
It’s been a curious week. I’ve been interviewed twice already by local media and suddenly an entry on user-centered design from ages back in this blog has spiked in views for reasons that elude me. The Daily Texan called me to comment on the new Kindle and asked me why people were so resistant to e-books. The resulting story sheds little light on that and even less on what I actually said, which was that the uptake is slow but progressing and results less from any major technical breakthrough than the steady accretion of knowledge about how we read and how we can design tools to help rather than just compete with traditional forms. In this regard the new Kindle is less a killer app than a solid progression in the right direction, but that doesn’t ring so well in the news.
Fox News affiliated TV here in Austin sent in a team to ask me about CraigsList. I assumed, incorrectly, they wanted a comment on the recent murder link from Boston but no, it was actually a more general session talking about why it is successful and if it is a fad. I suggested it was not since human societies had set up spaces throughout history to enable barter and exchange, Craigs just offering this in a basic digital form that enabled anyone to use it. As a design, it speaks to the triumph of simplicity over visual aesthetics and with just 23 employees, you can understand why Google bought a stake in it. This one won’t air until next week but I am sure the 20 mins of tape will be boiled down to 10 seconds of commentary, so who knows what I will say!
Seems there is an insatiable appetite for information about new technologies, their whys and wherefores, who does and does not use them, and what their adoption means for society. Too bad that the intellectual disciplines that deal with such topics seem so unable to shed light in a form that others can understand. I guess user-centered design knowledge is in need of its own design makeover.
The secret to academic infamy and citation is to find some evidence (I use the term loosely) that any new technology either enables or disables its users. Facebook, fresh from causing cancer, as if that were not enough, is now apparently the cause of poor grades. Leading researchers (well, at least a doctoral student at Ohio State) reported data from a sample of 200+ students that suggests Facebook users average GPA is in the range 3.0-3.5 compared to Non-Facebook users whose average GPA was in the range 3.5.-4.0. How could this possibly be? Well, the next data point might help explain this: Facebook users typically spent 1-5 hours a week studying; non-users, 11-15 hours per week. Ah, so the truth is if you spend more time studying you might actually get a better GPA……who would have known? I bet Facebook will issue a denial any year now……
In fairness to poor Dr. (to be) Karpinski, she has tried to put these caveats into her reporting but who wants to hear the mundane truth when sensationalism is just, well,..more sensational. Among the more tangible nuggets in her survey we learn that 75% of those who said they used the social networking site reported that it did not impact their grades or study habits. So, the poor suffering students who can’t be motivated to study more than a couple of hours would probably do anything but study, even use social media, so why blame Facebook? The group most likely to use Facebook? Those majoring in science, technology, math, engineering and business. Conclusion: maybe you get higher GPA by studying the humanities…
(no, nobody has claimed that list bit to be the case….yet)
post script — News 8 Austin asked me for a comment on this and ran this story
I just finished reading an account of the long battle faced by Abraham Morganteler, a clinical professor at Harvard, to convince others in the medical community that testosterone treatment did not increase risk of prostrate cancer. Turns out that despite decades of teaching otherwise, the ‘basis’ for this claim was a pair of old studies, one flawed, another poorly reported, that most doctors had never read. When conference audiences and publishers gave Morgantaler’s initial contrary results a dismissive but not unscientific response, arguing that his sample was small (true), he gathered more data until this objection could no longer be levied. But the real breakthrough came when he visited the HMS library and in it’s darker recesses pulled out the original papers which had established the original recommendations of the medical profession. Surprise, surprise, the original 1941 piece was built on a sample of three, and two of these were confounded, leaving it to provide but a single data point. The second, a 1980s study, presented what appeared to be solid evidence in the summary which actually was not supported by a closer reading of the full text. And you thought medicine was a science, right? Of course, in many fields there exist ‘classic’ findings which become standard fodder for text books and which students and subsequently professionals never read in the original - such is the price of the explosion in publications. So while it would pay us all to check our sources, what we really need is a tool to help us mine the scientific record intelligently. In the absence of this, we might want to remind people of the importance of records, archives and the academic library.
And in this continuing series, the latest CRA Taulbee Survey on enrollments in CS depts shows a 6.2% rise over the last year. This is the first increase in computer science programs in six years. Before you get too carried away though, the data reveal a couple of related glitches. Batchelor’s degree production is down 10%, while PhD production is up 5.7%. Of course, the gender issues will not change quickly, less than 12% of batchelor’s degrees were awarded to women. The picture is a little more optimistic at the doctoral level where 20% of new PhD’s are female, In sum, current enrollment is comparable to the numbers seen in 1999, after the large spike in the early years of this century. The report suggests we may be at the peak of PhD production this year and should anticipate a decline in the years ahead.
A new feature of this year’s report is the inclusion of data from some of the iSchools. There are some interesting differences between CS and I schools in the data set, eg, iSchools with undergrad programs seem to have twice as many black or African-American students as CS programs. At the masters level, iSchools seem fairly evenly balanced between males and females, while CS and CE programs are typically only 21% female. Given the numbers involved and the differing emphases between CS and iSchools at the Masters level, firm conclusions are difficult to draw. The report itself ends confidently, reporting that CS is now in a position of strength, as long as you don’t consider diversity. Oh well then…..
I confess to feeling a little sorry for the much maligned CiscoFatty who seemingly (does anyone have the facts?) lost her job op at Cisco by issuing the following Tweet:
Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.
Not only did a senior Cisco person receive the tweet and respond, asking her ‘who is the hiring manager?’ but the whole story has hit the blogosphere and mainstream media with such force one wonders just what the real problem is here. First, one might read CiscoFatty’s comment in several ways, not just as a dismissive note about Cisco and the dangers of selling one’s soul for corporate reward. It might be a statement about the conflicting nature of the decision to be made, as in, “I have to determine the importance of money over possible job dissatisfaction”, but who wants to give the benefit of the doubt anymore? Second, just what was that Cisco employee doing replying to a tweet when he might have been doing something more productive with his time? I don’t see Cisco as holding any moral high ground here.
The nature of Twitter throws into relief a distinction I sometimes make between communication and information. We all communicate, and most of our communications are meant to be transient and targeted, gone as soon as the recipient’s memory fades. This is the interaction signal of life. Communications become information when they are recorded in a form that makes them reproducible. Twitter sits at that interface, taking the intentionally temporary and rendering it artificially permanent. Soon, there will be need for new apps or new information professionals, the Tweet-curator. I may have to decide if I want to do that for a fatty fee…….not.
While ACM trawls for attendees at its various conferences by offering cost reductions to registrants (a first?), and other conference organizers worry about attendee numbers, the annual SXSW bash here in Austin seems to be flourishing. SXSW is not your typical conference. In fact, it’s three conferences in one really, if you want to spend the week here but many people pick and choose. Attendance for the interactive and film components are up 20% and today the music part kicks off with more than 2000 bands arriving. As one long-time attendee remarked to a colleague in line at one of the events, ‘today the geeks leave and the freaks arrive’. Take that, SIGCHI. Sadly, few academics seem to have discovered this event, not helped I suppose by it’s occurrence every year during Spring Break, but hey, it’s 80f here in Austin and the town is practically student-free for the week - better than any beach right now.
Well not quite, but yesterday in the English Carling Cup Final (yes, they really did name the cup after the current sponsor, a maker of dubious lager beer), the match went to penalties and during the few minutes it took both teams to prepare for sudden-death, the Manchester United goalkeeper watched video highlights on a iPod of his opponents’ penalty taking habits. Think this might overload a man at such a time of stress? Seems not. One of the highlights showed a specific player’s preference for shooting to the right and when the same player stepped up to take his kick, that’s where the goalie anticipated and dived, making a crucial save. Who knew Steve Jobs was a Red?