Herding Cats: Friday Funnies

Herding Cats Ad
The first time I saw this ad it made me think of my first experience teaching faculty. This is a great ad!

Josh Leo, vlogger

Josh Leo's Vlogiversary Video
Josh Leo is a wonderfully gifted filmaker, story teller and vlogger. Here is his two year anniversary vlog post. Prepare to be inspired, I am!

Technorati Tags: Josh Leo, JoshLeo, Blogging, vlogging, vlogs, ssloansjca

Blograge; Harassment

Blograge: The darkness among us
I do not go to many conferences. This is because it is hard for me to get time off work and I usually have to pay for the conferences out of my own pocket. One of the conferences I have and am willing to pay to go to and take vacation time to attend is the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference a.k.a Etech. This year Etech and CATS2007 was scheduled at the same time. That and the fact that my employer paid me to go to CATS caused me to miss Etech this year.

Prominent female blogger getting death threats
Kathy Sierra writes the popular blog, Creating Passionate Users. She was scheduled to present a workshop at Etech this year. She did not go and canceled her presentation due to death threats she has been getting from within the blogging community. These threats have been in the form of both comments in her blog as well as hateful posts on other blogs. The sexual harassment nature of these has been so personal and so outrageous she is now afraid to go outside her house. She is not the only prominent female blogger who has been harassed. Prominent male bloggers have been trolled and harassed as well.

Scoble and other bloggers react
A-list blogger, podcaster and SJSU Alum Robert Scoble said, "I’m physically ill after reading what happened to Kathy Sierra. Maryam and several others here at PodTech asked me about it and are concerned since the same sites that are attacking Kathy also mentioned me and Maryam. Maryam is really freaked out about it. So am I." He said, "I’m going to stop blogging in support of Kathy, who I consider a friend and someone who’s voice would be dearly missed here. I’ll be back Monday."

What do we do about it?
As Sierra said, "death threats against bloggers are NOT 'protected speech.'" This is not the first time Scoble has taken time off due to harassment. He has been the target himself of vicious trolling. As Scoble said, "We have to fix this culture." There has been talk of a blogger code of conduct. If we don't find a way to fix this we could loose this. Harassment is not free speech and we cannot allow it to continue.

Technorati Tags: Robert Scoble, Scoble, Kathy Sierra, Blogging, Blograge, Free Speech, ssloansjca

Podcasting Meetup

The Silicon Valley Podcasting Meetup Group has an event in two weeks!

What: The Silicon Valley Podcasting April Meetup
When: Thursday, April 12 at 7:00PM

Where: Bennigans
4150 Great America Pkwy
Santa Clara CA 95054

Event Description:

February's meetup was a great success! Let's keep the vibe going.
The March Meetup will focus on Wordpress, and how it can help us as podcasters. Who should use it, and why. Followed by a question and answer session.

Then we'll have a good ol fashioned meet and greet, so you can get to know your fellow podcasters.

If you are interested in using Wordpress, or want to know what this great blogging/podcasting platform is, and how it can help you, this is the meeting to attend. If you already use Wordpress, come out and help the organizer answer any questions the group might have.

For more information on this checkout meetup.com.

For more information about Wordpress, go to http://wordpress.org.

We are currently looking for a new venue to host the event. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Paul Puri

Strike dates for SJSU

April 18 & 19, From CFA:
By now most of you know that a 94% vote to authorize rolling strikes has brought the CSU administration back to the bargaining table. Your participation in the strike vote helped make this happen. We have extended the contract by 10 days to see if we can negotiate a fair contract based on the very favorable fact-finder's report.

As all of CFA's leadership has said, we are cautiously optimistic that a deal can be achieved. While somewhat hopeful, we have been disappointed before and we believe that it is only prudent for us to continue to prepare for a strike should the administration waver in its commitment to settle. For nearly two years we have been pushing this rock up a very steep hill; we are now just 10 feet from the top. If we stop pushing now we could find ourselves back at the bottom of the hill with no momentum and no leverage.

If the administration wavers, we must be prepared to shut the campuses down. And if thousands of faculty sign up for picket duty, that also will stop any wavering by the administration.

Should we fail to achieve a settlement by the end of the 10 day contract extension, our campus will be going out on strike on Wednesday and Thursday, April 18 and 19.

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, Strikes, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca

Desert Sunset

Desert Sunset from the top of Tunnel Two
Less than a week ago I watched the sunset from this hill in the high desert. It is a place I have come to many times. It is a hill pierced by a railroad tunnel. Slow heavy trains growl under your feet here. From this hill you can see the desert mountains. It is a place where lizards and and the animals of the desert mingle.

It's a desert because
Because it's a desert

-Rickie Lee Jones, Flying Cowboys

I have been coming to this same desert, this same hill and have watched many sunsets here. I have come here to look into the desert, to take pictures and to smell the desert wind. I have come here with friends and loved ones who are now gone. I have come here with my babies. But mostly, I have come here alone. Mostly it is a place of solitude, a place for looking into the face of the desert.

But the world is turning faster
Than it did when I was young

- ibid

When I am gone, you can leave what is left of me here. Here in the open where the desert zephyr can pick me up and I will disappear and become the desert and I will be in many photographs.

Last CATS day

Joshua is one sharp guy
Joshua Archer, from the CSU Center for Distributed Education is presenting again. This is the last day of CATS and I am presenting in about 40 minutes. I have enjoyed all the presentations Joshua has given at this conference. Unfortunately the most exciting of his sessions is at the same time as mine. If I had a choice I would go to his rather than mine.

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, CATS, CATS2007, Fullerton, CSU Fullerton, California State University, San Jose, Joshua Archer, ssloansjca

Net-generation Instructor

Carl Berger keynote session
The Net-generation Instructor is the topic of the presentation that Berger is giving at CATS2007. Berger is an engaging speaker and is talking about issues affecting faculty adoption of Web 2.0 technology. He opened with an exercise in cognitive dissonance, he had everybody count back from 100 by sixes as he whistled. He presented some very interesting statistics on new media literacy among students and faculty and attitudes toward new technology adoption and the Net-Gen Instructor. This session is available on Elluminate.

Characteristics of a Net-Gen Instructor:

• Younger, but not exclusively
• Perception that their expertise is strong in all areas
• Preference in how to learn, they prefer to learn by experimentation and consulting with friends.

How do we guide them?

• Get out of their way
• Meet their special needs
• Recognize their efforts (in RTP)

His Presentation is Here [Power Point]

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, CATS, CATS2007, Fullerton, CSU Fullerton, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca

Things managers can do for IT workers

A list of things CSU managers could and should do. These suggestions do not cost any budget dollars and encourage productivity:

• Encourage Staff Mentoring. Provide mentoring opportunities for staff with other staff. Encourage staff to find mentors. If a staff member wants a mentor and does not find a mentor managers should make it their job to find a mentor for the staff member.
  
• Build a sense of career rather than just providing a job. Reward and encourage upward mobility. Let your staff members know their careers matter. Encourage upward career development, offer such opportunities to staff. Make this part of counseling of staff.
  
• Recognize Human Limitations. Don't task staff with impossible missions and especially do not punish staff for their inability to perform them.
  
• Make professional development a part of change management. Do not task staff with rolling out a technology they are not trained in supporting. Training costs but ignorance costs a lot more than training. You pay for training once. You pay for ignorance on an ongoing basis every time a task is not performed efficiently or correctly.
  

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, CATS, CATS2007, Fullerton, CSU Fullerton, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca

Open Source Session

Another Great CATS Session (Updated 3-26-07, 19:00)
Joshua Archer, from the CSU Center for Distributed Education, led this great session. Also speaking was Kevin Kelly from SFSU. They talked about the state of Open Source technology in the CSU system. SFSU is moving to Moodle, an open source alternative to Blackboard and WebCT. Still, there is a reluctance to adopt open source solutions in the CSU system.

The focus of the conversation seemed to be on back end, server side, open source solutions, but discussions also included desktop software like Audacity and Open Office. It was decided to create a Google Group for CATS members who wish to keep abreast and share resources of Open Source projects in the CSU system.

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, CATS, CATS2007, Fullerton, CSU Fullerton, California State University, San Jose, Joshua Archer, ssloansjca