Writing Digitally vs Digital Writing

I have been reading a fair amount lately about "digital writing," and what it is supposed to be. From what I understand, it is supposed to be writing for a digital medium- not just using technology to create writing. Digital writing must take into account all the facets of technology- audience, medium on which it will be viewed/read, download speed, etc.

Here is an article which professes to be about digital writing. The author proposes that "good writing is a lost art, but doesn't have to be if you use the tools that come with your processing software." I take a lot of exception with this article. The author is implying that simply using the tools that come with Word (or whatever you use)- spell checker, grammar checker, the thesaurus- will make a person a better writer. Although it is, of course, important to pay attention to mechanics when you are writing, it is impossible for these tool to make you a better writer. To me, that phrase is all about the content, the meaning, the skilled turn of a phrase. No matter how important the author thinks these tools are, they will never be able to help an author hone natural or learned writing talent.

Web 2.0 Certificate

In my mailbox today I found a course catalog from St. Paul College. Typically I don't spend much time looking at catalogs from tech schools, but this one caught my eye. They are offering a new certificate (16 credits) called "Web 2.0 Development Technologies." Even though I have just spent the last 5 years in school, I just may have to extend that time a bit and go for this certificate. It only consists of 4 courses- Web 2.0 Architecture, Web 2.0 Multimedia Tools, Open Source Software Foundations, and Web 2.0 Programming and Software Tools.

If anyone is interested, click on the graphic below to go to St. Paul College's page describing the certificate and any prerequisites. Based on the cover picture, this could be a pretty fun program. Apparently students get to spend a fair amount of time in Second Life.

Digital Writing

I was recently doing some digging on the Internet on the subject of digital writing. I started thinking about this subject after doing some research for a project on effective blogging techniques. During my search, I found some interesting articles on instructors' reluctance to teach digital writing, which led me to kairos.rhetoric.net. I had discovered this site while taking a Rhetorical Theory class. The purpose of kairos is to "push boundaries in academic publishing at the same time (striving) to bridge the gap between print and digital publishing cultures."

They have an interesting article posted about why it is important for writing instructors to teaching digital writing (not writing using a computer, but writing which will be published on a digital medium) along with traditional print writing. There is a great section in which the authors have posted some typical reasons instructors give in resistance to teaching digital writing, and their responses to those reasons.

Second Life and Dwight Schrute

I am a huge fan of "The Office" and had to laugh when I was watching the show a couple of weeks ago. We have been talking about social web sites in class, and coincidentally, on an episode of The Office called "Local Ad", Dwight was playing Second Life all day at work. The character he had created looked exactly like him, lived in a house identical to his in real life, and was a paper salesman. The only difference in Dwight's Second Life character was that he could fly.

Pretty hysterical concept that someone would spend hours in cyberspace creating a character that was exactly like himself.

Social Internet Sites

I must admit, before taking the Electronic Publishing class I am currently enrolled in, I hadn't really given a lot of thought to social sites. In fact, I really had no idea how many social or Web 2.0 sites existed out in cyberspace. If someone had asked me to name some, I probably would only have come up with Wikipedia, MySpace, and YouTube. Since doing some digging, however, I realize just how many have appeared and in how little of time it took for the phenomenon to happen.

I couldn't really see the motivation for me to join in, however. I have not been one to share my photos, so didn't use sites like Flicker or Photobucket. I thought blogs were mainly places for angst-ridden teenagers to gripe about their parents and their friends. And I thought YouTube was just full of mindless drivel- people behaving badly. You don't have to search very much at all in YouTube to find examples like this- what I would call complete time wasters:




Since doing some research, however, I have come to realize that many of these social sites can be very useful and informative. As I mentioned in an earlier post, during my research I discovered a great site that has put together a directory of Web 2.0 sites. I literally spent hours clicking on each link, and bookmarked several that I would like to take a closer look at.

Another interesting thing I found during my research is that some people actually make money by uploading content to various sites. I found this site which lists ways users can make money from social sites. Coincidentally enough, when I logged into Blogger to post this, I noticed that they had this announcement on the dashboard page:

AdSense recently introduced a feature called video units, that lets you include relevant YouTube video on your blog, and make money from ads on it. Here’s what they have to say about it:
"We're excited about the launch of video units -- a new way to enrich your blog with quality, relevant video content in an embedded, customizable player. Simply embed a snippet of code and have relevant YouTube partner content streamed to your blog. You can choose categories of video to target to your site, select content from individual YouTube partners, or have video automatically targeted to your blog's content. Companion and text overlay ads are relevant and non-intrusive. To further blend the YouTube player into your blog, you can also customize the color scheme and layout as well as choose from three different player sizes."AdSense Help has some more information about video units. Once you’ve created the code for a video unit, you can easily add it to your blog’s template using an HTML/JavaScript page element.

So, the upshot of all this musing is that I need to rethink my assessment of social web sites. Many of them do have value, and provide ways for families and friends to keep in touch. In fact, my daughter and I jumped in with both feet the past few weeks. We both created blogs that allow us to update each other on our goings-on while she is in Japan, and she will regularly be sharing her pics on Photobucket. These sites will allow her to instantaneously keep her family up-to-date on her adventure, and also allow us communicate often and for free- something which would have not been possible 10 or 15 years ago.

Japan and the Search for an Open Wireless Network

Well, my daughter left for Japan 4 days ago, and has yet to find an open wireless internet connection. The place where she is staying advertised free WiFi connections, but for some reason she is having trouble connecting. So for all our careful planning and plotting-- downloading and testing Skype, creating blogs in which we update each other-- we are reduced to communicating the old-fashioned way: by telephone. I supplied her with an international calling card before she left, hoping it would only have to be used in emergencies. Her cell phone is too old to accept the sim card that makes it work overseas, so we have to rely on land lines.
The upshot of all this technology disappointment is that I have only been able to talk to her for a couple of minutes, and unless she can get hooked to the internet, the fun blog she created for her Japan postings will go unused. All this tech stuff can be great, but equally as frustrating at times.