Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Molly's picture

Playing to your audience

 I really didn't enjoy the "Geeky Mom" blog, but it wasn't because I thought the blog itself was bad.  The problem was that Geeky Mom discussed things that were really not topics of interest for me.  I'm not saying that she should have--Geeky Mom obviously just has her own interests and I have mine.  One example of this: I have a younger brother who enjoys video games, so I've heard of some of them, but it just isn't anything I would ever look to read about, so Geeky Mom's WoW Wednesday entries were not really my thing.  "Geeky Mom" is a blog written for an audience that isn't me, so that's why I didn't enjoy it.

rmeyers's picture

Speaking of which... topics and blogs

The "Geeky Mom" blog presents a wide range of subjects, from parenting to university politics. The blog itself is not only a platform of thought, but also a daily diary. "Geeky Mom" regales us with stories of daily life, being a working mother, etc. The comments flow from the same river, not making discussion, but affirming or asking questions based on the post.

Paul Grobstein's picture

Cultures of ability

"Culture as Disability," a 1995 essay by Ray McDermott and Hervé Varenne has been on my mind for more than a decade.  In it, McDermott and Varenne argue compellingly (for me at least) that human cultures have interrelated bright and dark sides.  By promulgating stories about what individuals in a given culture should aspire to, cultures provide individuals with a sense of motivation and achievement,  The same stories, however, also "disable" other individuals, by setting standards of achievement which they, for one reason or another, can't adequately satisfy.
 

jrlewis's picture

Revisiting an Issue

An important theme in our course discussions is the relationship between authorship and identity.  We have talked about how the internet allows a sense of anonymity for the author.  However, there are many examples of the "outing" an online personna by connecting an blog author to biographical details about a life.  There is a secondary sort of "outing" connecting a blogger's description of a character to an actual person.  A LiveJournal rant about an ex-girlfriend created an enormous amount of drama in my group of friends when they realized her identity.  Our class questioned a previous visitor about her decision to include someone in her travel blog and post pictures without informing the woman.  So I guess I'm raising these questions again...

jrlewis's picture

A Couple of Questions

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/world/europe/12germany.html?em

Great NY Times article about copyright, remixing, plagiarism, new genres and new media. 

Why is she selling her book? Has she copyrighted it? Isn’t that hypocritical considering her literary methods and ideology?

Will she get that literary prize? What is the committee considering? Who will lose to her if she wins?

Were there copyrights on her sources? Did she violate any copyright law or is she exploring a gray area?

How are the works that she used as sources fairing, are they popular? Have they benefited from her fame? From people connecting the their work to hers?
 

spleenfiend's picture

voyeurism and video games

Like teal, I was amused that both Tim Burke and Geeky Mom talk a lot about video games.  Personally, I find video games hopelessly boring because I just don't care about fighting, completing tasks, or really doing anything in a game.  Then again, I also find card games and board games boring, so that may just be me.  Either way, the mentions of gaming in both blogs were endearing to me.  I remember Anne mentioning at the beginning of the semester that video games could be a "genre" to explore, and I wonder if maybe these blogs make it look like blogging and gaming go hand-in-hand or something.  Well, I do think games have a lot of imaginative potential; I just can't get into them.

Syndicate content