Mimbo

A cool theme: but some complexities. A post at DarrenHoyt.com gives some background to using template tags and custom fields to pull out specific highlighted posts (with an image).  The instructions on his Blog are superb – it helps someone like me know what you can do without an extensive knowledge of PHP and understanding the tags concept in wordpress.

1BlogTheme

1BlogTheme has a lot going for it: but it has not been updated for a year or so.

Topics in this blog: there are several. A diverse focus, too diverse maybe, certainly according to typical Blogging 101.  But Darren’s Mimbo theme may cope with this.  If it is set up right.  Without the custom fields, the intentional use of the tags you just get a random jumble of material on the page.  BUT: once you get the things right: the layout takes care of itself.

The next things: read the comments in the Mkimbo blog.  Lots of them.  The first few places I went to (people raving about the theme) were no longer using it.  That’s the blogosphere for you.

Sliding Doors

OK: something completely different: sliding doors.

Seven themes for the blog, easily customisable, click to view.  Hmm.  Might just work.

1. Educational Design
2. Flexible Learning/eLearning
3. Community/Leadership
4. Coffee/Whimsey (ie fun and friends)
5. My Life/Events/GTD
6. Cool Tools
7. Blogging
8. Teaching and learning

Most – by far most – of the blogs I visit are still vaguely unsatisfying,  I have to work to find what I want, there is clutter and noise.

The aim:

A sparse home page with clear links to current stuff and a range of view sof the themes in the blog.

Something will emerge out of this.

Essential Blogging Resources and Downloads. blogosquare.com/

Blog Tutorials www.blog-tutorials.com/category/design/

An aside, in one of my favourite themes: Cutline: University of Washington Academic advice blog and MP3′s Interesting University blog.

Not just about blogs

Intellectual Property is a Silly Euphamism www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/21/intellectual.property

“Intellectual property” is one of those ideologically loaded terms that can cause an argument just by being uttered. The term wasn’t in widespread use until the 1960s, when it was adopted by the World Intellectual Property Organization, a trade body that later attained exalted status as a UN agency.

WIPO’s case for using the term is easy to understand: people who’ve “had their property stolen” are a lot more sympathetic in the public imagination than “industrial entities who’ve had the contours of their regulatory monopolies violated”, the latter being the more common way of talking about infringement until the ascendancy of “intellectual property” as a term of art.

Does it matter what we call it? Property, after all, is a useful, well-understood concept in law and custom, the kind of thing that a punter can get his head around without too much thinking.

That’s entirely true – and it’s exactly why the phrase “intellectual property” is, at root, a

dangerous euphemism that leads us to all sorts of faulty reasoning about knowledge. Faulty ideas about knowledge are troublesome at the best of times, but they’re deadly to any country trying to make a transition to a “knowledge economy”.

Back to themes

From Craphound: How to be Blogged | Comments on quality themes: Free WordPress Themes |Wordpress 2.6 demo site: http://wp.chrisjohnston.org/

As I said: still very unhappy with the themes I see. Joomla has these themes clubs: http://www.rockettheme.com/ or http://www.yootheme.com/

WordPress resources: http://wordpressmodder.org/resources | Design Disease is pretty cool, I like his style of three column themes | WordPress QuickTag tip | Cool list of 46 ways to use wordpress | Spam trapping methods (with some plugins) | Another controversy over buying and selling blogs: http://www.wpdesigner.com/

I did meet a few people this week with an interest in blogging.  Some have given up.  A victim of overload, blogging stress or falling prey to expectations, sometimes self inflicted.

I’d like a theme that

1. allows more pages, more content.
2. is widget ready
3. is easy to use with e-mail subscriptions.  Too few of my friends use RSS yet.

The new editor looks great.  WordPress as an open source project is superb.

1. Write collaboratively in a wiki.  (In this case a script for a soap opera)
2. Blog (in character, in german) for a month.  [This is an interesting genre]
3.  Shoot the video and put it on YouTube.  (Complete with Bloopers)

See it here: http://seifenoper.wikispaces.com/  
Fictional Blogging.  An interesting use of blogs, a little outside of my direct experieince.  I did hear Angela Thomas in 2005:

Fictional Blogging and the Narrative Identities of Adolescent Girls – Angela Thomas -University of Sydney
Abstract: This paper explores the emergence of fictional blogging such as blog novels and the diaries of fictional characters as a new form of narrative construction. A typology of blog fiction is first presented to outline the scope of this emergent genre. The paper then introduces a case study of two fictional diaries kept by adolescent girls who use the diaries as one of the means to co-construct and add depth to their crossover and alternate universe fan fiction based on the fantasy worlds of Middle Earth and Star Wars. The case study examines the range of discursive and social practices used by the girls in their collaborative narratives using a combination of narrative theory and post-structural feminist theory. The paper also explores the ways in which these practices embedded in fiction also reflect aspects of the girls’ real identities.
From Blogtalk downuner: http://incsub.org/blogtalk/?page_id=109

Dan Randow made a passing comment last week:

Why don’t you just take on a community support role for Interact, and leave the development to others?  Just make sure you have the role of code management sorted somewhere (ie what becomes part of the codebase). . ?

This was a new thought to me.  There is one guy who has said he’s be interested in a role in working with Interact.  I actually have little idea of what the interest is out there – I think there is a need for something.

Today Marilyn Leask passed on this link: http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/home.do

 ”You can apply for your own workspace on www.communities.idea.gov.uk if you are working with a group to support local governnmet improvement ie work in schools and local authorities and communities. If you are not employed in local government then it would help to get a sponsor.

Yet another community platform, quite a nice experieince logging in, (Yet Another Username And Password @#$%).

The Darkside of Communities

On another matter: institutions have a life of their own.  Set up a project, kill off a community.  Sad.  Communities need to be “for the communities”.

We helped start a blog with an academic group last semester.  One person in particular posted some neat stuff, even with 70 posts tagged controversy.  He must have done something wrong.  The blog owner (or at least the one with admin powers) dropped by in and no iffs or buts: deleted every post.

It’s hard not to feel “What did we do wrong in our work with these guys?”  Always a danger with institutional blogs etc.

I wonder what the moral of the story is?

• unWorkshop thoughts on Professional Development
• Nancy White: Competencies for online
• Web 2.0 & Change Processes
• E-Fest. Workshop: Creative Online Facilitation.
• Memories of Setubal
• Holiday reading
• Cool Tools: Mindmapping
• Groups and Individuals
• F2F Conferences & Online

These were the posts I still have things to say about.  Maybe I’ll do something soon.  meanwhile, at UCTL, we are being restructured (or more properly described, Integrated).  The Learning Support Centre is coming to join the FLG and the ASD.  A great facilitator is helping with the process (Mark McGinn, who has nearly a zero internet footprint).  I’m hoping he will get to talk to us about a side issue “Having the difficult conversations”.  He talked to me about this last week on Thursday.  The same day Steve challenged me over the same thing.

But, change is constant. Just a pity we have so much coming at this time of year when we should be planning.

Three blogs designs I really like . . .

Eli Horne: really minimal.

Ed Merrit: dark, autumn tones, live the fonts . . .

Redoable. http://deanjrobinson.com/wordpress/redoable Cool.

To be frank: I am still a little bamboozled by options. But this theme has a few really good options on the setup page, better than having to do a little code hacking.

PS. A little later.  I’ve also managed to upgrade WP successfully.  Now 2.3.1. Only a few problems with getting redirects sorted out.

Apparently they (PLE’s) are a big fat nothing. Alex Hayes on the Connections and Conversations blog, from the first of the four Learnscope events. (Like that name!!)

A story . . . (the second for today, sorry)

The blind men and the elephant: In various versions of the tale, a group of blind men (or men in the dark) touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one touches a different part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then compare notes on what they felt, and learn they are in complete disagreement. The story is used to indicate that reality may be viewed differently depending upon one’s perspective, showing how absolute truths may be relative; the deceptive world of half-truths.

From something closer to the supposed original story:

“Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and unseeing…. In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus.”

Then the Exalted One rendered this meaning by uttering this verse of uplift

          O how they cling and wrangle, some who claim
For preacher and monk the honored name!
For, quarreling, each to his view they cling.
Such folk see only one side of a thing.

Udana 68-69

I really enjoy talking about the habits and ethics around a PLE.  For me it is a useful container to put ideas into, and I’ve had some great sessions.  I’ve been unable to really ‘define’ mine in a nice neat succinct description.  Sure I have delicious, bloglines, gmail, evernote, filing cabinet(s), 1B5′s, Firefox (plus plugins), google docs, skype (etc) . . .  but otherwise I am too shambolic.

Maybe to be continued.

Miscellaneous reflections. 

• There are a lot of little presentations on the web now.  Huge and rich resources on all sorts of things.
• Lots of conferences leave their legacy online.  Learnscope. TAFE linkups
• Amazing what is being done through the Otago Poly course.
• So much, there is just so much. . .   an ocean of ideas and I have a teaspoon.

Adapted from the BloggerCon IV Format by David Winer.

This will be an unusual conference. We generally won’t have speakers, panels or an audience.  We will have discussions and sessions, and each session will have a discussion leader.

The discussion leader
Think of the discussion leader as a reporter who is creating a story with quotes from the people in the room. So, instead of having a panel and an audience we just have contributors.  We feel this more accurately reflects what’s going on. It’s not uncommon for the audience at a conference to have more expertise collectively than the people who are speaking.

The discussion leader is also the editor, so if he or she feels that a point has been made they must move on to the next point quickly. No droning, no filibusters, no repeating an idea over and over.

The discussion leader can also call on people.

Think of it as a weblog
Think of the conference as if it were a weblog. At the beginning of each session, the leader talks between five and fifteen minutes. He or she will introduce the idea and some of the people in the room.

Then he or she will facilitate the discussion among all the contributors in the room, inviting others to comment and asking questions of others. It is hoped that everyone who would like to contribute to the discussion will be able to do so in the allotted time.

We have a limited amount of time, and a group of participants whose time is valuable. The leader’s job is to make sure the show stays interesting, even captivating. If it gets boring people will leave the
room and schmooze, or read their email, or whatever. So the leader’s job is to keep it moving. Sometimes this may mean cutting people off.

Looks really cool.