cbd

My copy of TCQ 19.1 arrived the other day, and I got a chance to read it last night. It’s a special issue on “Posthuman Rhetorics and Technical Communication”, edited by Byron Hawk and Andrew Mara. Good stuff: the articles cohere well while addressing a diverse array of topics. And it’s just what some of [...]

Reviewing 2009: family, housework, research, and travel.

For my American Antiquarian Society fellowship proposal: things American writers “made easy” in books before 1876.

My plans for sabbatical, AY2010-11: my proposal, links to grant applications, family travel, and more.

Composition Forum 20 has been published.

Peter Suber is reducing his work with Open Access News to focus on his new position.

Recent trip #1: to San Francisco for CCCC 2009. I booked a quick trip: Wed PM to Sat noon. On the one hand, I wish I’d stayed Saturday night. On the other, I didn’t want to be away from the girls any longer than I had to, and with more travel coming up, it was [...]

My CCCC presentation is short enough to share here in slightly edited form; it’s a written-out-talk intended to precede a roundtable, so it may read a little breezily. Here’s a summary:

Readymades have re-emerged on the web, displacing the “web site” with the “web presence,” in the templates and skins of much web-based software, and also in the workaday of social networks. Three patterns dominate use: collection, juxtaposition, and combination. For theories of use and usability, there are four implications:

1. Finding a single, clearly defined, easily anticipated use, as suggested by many usability practicioners, becomes more challenging;
2. We can’t always assume users are interested and motivated;
3. The nuts and bolts of use need even more attention;
4. Readymades themselves are rare; the new readymade is designed for customization and individualized use (whether or not that is realized).

Lately I’ve been traveling a lot: to San Francisco for CCCC 2009 (Mar 11-14); to Florida to visit family (Mar 16-20); to Chicago for Educause Midwest 2009 (Mar 23-25). And I’ve got more travel to come: a trip to Southern Illinois to do some hiking with my brother, his wife, and our girls, and two [...]

For some time now, I’ve wanted to write about the problems with CCC and the CCC Online Archive. But I’ve waited, out of respect to its maintainers, Collin Brooke and Derek Mueller, and also in the hopes that some clarity would emerge from NCTE/CCCC. Now quite the reverse has happened, since it’s been decided two [...]