Scriptocentrism and the Freedom to Think
As a comment on my previous blogpost on books, a friend sent me (through Facebook) a link to a blogpost about a petition to Amazon with the following statement: The freedom to read is tantamount to the...
View ArticleActively Reading: Organic Ideas for Startups
Been using Diigo as a way to annotate online texts. In this case, I was as interested in the tone as in the text itself. At the same time, I kept thinking about things which seem to be missing from...
View ArticleJazz and Identity: Comment on Lydon's Iyer Interview
Radio Open Source » Blog Archive » Vijay Iyer’s Life in Music: “Striving is the Back Story…”. Sounds like it will be a while before the United States becomes a truly post-racial society. Iyer can...
View ArticleWhat Not to Tweet
Here’s a list I tweeted earlier. Twenty Things You Should Never, Ever Tweet for Fear of Retaliation from the Tweet Police Lists. Too difficult to follow. Do’s and don’ts. Who died and made you...
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Academics and Their Publics
Misunderstood by Raffi Asdourian Academics are misunderstood. Almost by definition. Pretty much any academic eventually feels that s/he is misunderstood. Misunderstandings about some core notions in...
View ArticleIntimacy, Network Effect, Hype
Is “intimacy” a mere correlate of the network effect? Can we use the network effect to explain what has been happening with Quora? Is the Quora hype related to network effect? I really don’t feel a...
View ArticleReply to Alex Gagnon’s Google Paradox
[Tried adding a comment directly on Alex Gagnon's Posterous blog, but it kept stalling. So I'll post this here, which may make for a different kind of interaction. Besides, I'd like to blog a bit...
View Article“Booth Babe” Controversy
I posted the following to the class forums for my two sections of SOCI203 “Introduction to Society”. This might be a useful context to discuss journalism, gender issues, feminism as equality between...
View ArticleYoga and Community in Contemporary North America
Last night, Matthew Remski’s chapter on yoga “culture” served as the basis for a conversation on yoga and communities. Roseanne Harvey had invited some panelists and like-minded people to join her at...
View ArticleTwenty Years Online
This month marks the 20th anniversary of my first Internet account. I don’t remember the exact date but I know it was in late summer 1993, right before what became known as “Eternal September”. The...
View ArticleLogging Language Attitudes
Language Log is one of my favourite blogs. Often thought-provoking, always thoughtful. It’s both academic and informal, diverse and unified. Some recent posts caught my interest and they all have to do...
View ArticleÉloge de la courtoisie en-ligne
Nous y voilà! Après avoir terminé mon billet sur le contact social, j’ai reçu quelques commentaires et eu d’autres occasions de réfléchir à la question. Ce billet faisait suite à une interaction...
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Why Is PRI's The World Having Social Media Issues?
Some raw notes on why PRI’S The World (especially “The World Tech Podcast” or WTP) is having issues with social media. It may sound bad, for many reasons. But I won’t adapt the tone. No offense...
View ArticleApologies and Social Media: A Follow-Up on PRI's WTP
I did it! I did exactly what I’m usually trying to avoid. And I feel rather good about the outcome despite some potentially “ruffled feathers” («égos froissés»?). While writing a post about PRI’s The...
View ArticleOmnivoring Conspiracies
Yup, I occasionally like to jump on bandwagons. Especially when they’re full of food and is being mentioned in a video presenting a cool local event in which I happen to take part. Alejna put the final...
View ArticleInaccessible American Anthropology
Alex Golub describes in positive terms the recent announcement, by the main anthropological association in the United States (AAA), that some older articles from a newsletter (AN) and an academic...
View ArticleIntello-Bullying
A topic which I’ll revisit, to be sure. But while I’m at it… I tend to react rather strongly to a behaviour which I consider the intellectual equivalent of schoolyard bullying. Notice that I don’t...
View ArticleIntello
C’est un billet un peu difficile à écrire, mais je crois que c’est important pour moi de le laisser sortir. La difficulté provient du fait que mon ton va probablement sonner opiniâtre. Pire, je risque...
View ArticleI Am Not a Guru
“Nor do I play one online!” The “I am not a ” phrase is often used as a disclaimer when one is giving advice. Especially in online contexts having to do with law, in which case the IANAL acronym can be...
View ArticleMy Problem With Journalism
I hate having an axe to grind. Really, I do. “It’s unlike me.” When I notice that I catch myself grinding an axe, I “get on my own case.” I can be quite harsh with my own self. But I’ve been trained to...
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