Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Dec 10, 2009, 09:31 AM

Choice, in our Webby world, may be one click away.   Representative, elected democratic policy-enactment is a far clunkier, compromised, and beset process.  Pundits in early America worried that the novel would make readers "unrealistic" in their expectations for government.   Should we be wondering about those issues now, too?

Submitted by etussey on Sep 13, 2009, 11:47 AM

In my first blog post for the HASTAC community I have offered my analysis of the interactive audience measurement game, RewardTV.

Submitted by jeremydouglass on Sep 11, 2009, 02:13 PM

Collaborating around platforms that some call "accessible", others "retro", others just "old"

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Jul 09, 2009, 06:00 PM

It has felt good today, so many HASTAC friends logging onto the site, uploading content, fleshing out profiles, and testing the site on different browsers, using different platforms, and giving us the feedback we need to make this the best site it can be. We even had some very proficient Drupal programmers say, intended as the ultimate compliment, "It doesn't look like a Drupal site."

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Jul 02, 2009, 11:08 AM

Beth Canter, the social media networking consultant, is a blogger who not only writes smart things but has a talent for finding other smart bloggers and reblogging them.  What I love about her work (including the re-work) is that she is a pro.  As in p-r-o.  She has experience and so she doesn't just invent things (i.e. (i.e. the wheel) and assume that no one else has, no one else knows what it will do, and no one else knows how it works.  No, as with all forms of media, new media also operate by certain kinds of tacit community rules, expectations, and norms.   And people like Beth have huge first-hand experience assessing those needs.  She doesn't just make it up.  This is a breath of fresh air in the world of new media insights, which come fast and furious and often don't hold any water or have any traction or whatever metaphor you want to use:  they just don't do it.

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on May 27, 2009, 05:29 AM

Just yesterday, at a HASTAC staff meeting, we saw a tweet fly by where someone noted the prevalence and success of Citizen Scientists and then someone immediately tweeted that there weren't any or enough or good enough (something negative) Citizen Humanists. I disagree. Look at Wikipedia! The wealth of humanistic knowledge that has been contributed there is inestimable. Similarly with genealogical and other kinds of project of general, mass interest. If the point of entry is as easy as GalaxyZoo, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's public interface that allows any Geek Like Me (I'm an addict!) to spend a few minutes identifying and classifying celestial objects that professional scientists then use to revise and expand theories of the universe, then you can count on the public to contribute. But you need that kind of public point of entry, ease, and interest level. Fan sites for classic literary texts are all over the web. Citizen Humanism is alive and well.

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Jan 02, 2009, 10:39 AM
This is a continuation of ?Digital Media and Learning and Twitter at MLA? (http://www.hastac.org/node/1866 and http://www.hastac.org/node/1867). In the first two postings, I wrote about the Twitter/Microblogging session and my presentation on HASTAC and on the MacArthur Foundation?s Digital Media and Learning Initiative at the session entitled ?Humanities 2.0: Participatory Learning in an Age of Technology? that featured three winners of the MacArthur Foundation Competition in Digital Media and Learning. The session was chaired by Zita Nunes and featured Howard Rheingold (Social Media Classroom), Todd Presner (Hypercities), Greg Niemeyer and Antero Garcia (Black Cloud). You can chart the progress of these and all of the Digital Media and Learning Competition projects on the Winners Hub at http://hub.dmlcompetition.net/.

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Nov 18, 2008, 09:20 AM
Here is a message from our friend Ian Bogost about a new project he is engaged in on Journalism and Videogames.  Tune in at
http://jag.lcc.gatech.edu/blog/

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Jun 01, 2008, 05:41 PM
What do we really mean by "community" when we think about virtual participation? We know from many studies that far more people "lurk" than respond . . . are lurkers part of a community?