NunatsiaqOnline 2011-02-08: NEWS: Could iPad save the Inuit language?

NunatsiaqOnline 2011-02-08: NEWS: Could iPad save the Inuit language?:

Recommended Reading: Good Faith Collaboration: How Wikipedia works

Good Faith Collaboration: How Wikipedia works: "

Joseph Reagle Jr's Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia is exactly what a popular, scholarly work should be: serious but not slow, intelligent but not dull, and esoteric but not obscure. It's practically a textbook example on how to adapt a dissertation as a trade book -- dropping the literature review, moderating the stuff that's meant to prove you've done your homework, and diving straight into the argument.

Reagle, an avid wikipedian himself, nevertheless takes up an objective distance and tries to suss out how it is that Wikipedia works as well as it does (I'm always amazed by critics who characterize Wikipedia as a hopeless quagmire of argument -- there's certainly a lot of argument there, but hopeless? If it's so hopeless, how did those millions of articles get written and edited?). His thesis: Wikipedia works because it has a distinctive culture of assumed good faith; that is, there is a powerful (though not universal) norm of assuming that the person on the other side of the argument is every bit as committed as you are to getting high quality, accurate encyclopedic entries written and maintained.

Reagle makes an excellent case that this assumption of good faith is particularly powerful when it comes to dealing with those who lack good faith -- it creates positive outcomes for arguments with everyone from neo-Nazis to political hacks who're whitewashing their boss's entries. It's also the force counteracts the natural contentiousness of assembling an encyclopedia (let alone one that the public may edit!) and keeps the project from flying apart into millions of angry pieces.

Reagle offers fascinating evidence for this hypothesis starting with the founding of Wikipedia as an offshoot of the defunct Nupedia project, on through the many challenges and growing pains suffered by the site, and uses it to carefully counter Wikipedia's detractors who, by turns, accuse it of being too elitist, too populist, unserious, too serious, collectivist and marred by individualism.

Ultimately, Reagle offers a compelling case that Wikipedia's most fascinating and unprecedented aspect isn't the encyclopedia itself -- rather, it's the collaborative culture that underpins it: brawling, self-reflexive, funny, serious, and full-tilt committed to the project, even if it means setting aside personal differences. Reagle's position as a scholar and a member of the community makes him uniquely situated to describe this culture.

Reagle is a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, whose fellows have produced such notable Internet books as Lessig's Code, Zittrain's The Future of the Internet, Benkler's Wealth of Networks and David Weinberger's Small Pieces, Loosely Joined -- Reagle's book is a worthy addition to that canon.

Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia

Reposted from Boing Boing, Good Faith Collaboration: How Wikipedia works

"

 

Pasch Dissertation Published by ProQuest

ProQuest® Dissertations & Theses The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Learn more...

Inuktitut online in Nunavik: Mixed-methods Web-based strategies for preserving Aboriginal and minority languages

by Pasch, Timothy James, Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, 2008, 311 pages; 3345576

Abstract: The Canadian Arctic, long considered an isolated frontier, has become an area of contention and amplified media attention. The recent unblocking of the Northwest Passage shipping routes for the first time in human memory has created a global movement toward appropriation of the Arctic. In order to ensure the environmental health and sustainable economic profitability of this environment while avoiding its destruction through misuse, it is essential that the knowledge of those who know it best, the Inuit, be communicated in the strongest manner possible. Nevertheless, the opinions and voices of the Inuit are too-often overlooked when International policy creation is considered. During this tumultuous period when the voices of the Inuit need to be stronger, more focused, and more united than ever before, the traditional language and culture is eroding in response to foreign language media influx into the area. During the 5 years preceding this research, the Internet has arrived in the Canadian North and the Inuit of Nunavik are actively participating in social networking, linking the communities together more closely than previously possible. Many of these online communities, however, are designed in English and optimized for English users. Inuktitut online is additionally fragmented through disconnects in fonts, software optimization, and hardware design. This research focuses on technological means for the creation of networks and tools designed to encourage Inuktitut use, preserve traditional knowledge, and more strongly connect a new generation of Inuit for the purpose of resistance to global pressures for unsustainable appropriation of the land and resources. Based on a Mixed-Method Case Study design, this research incorporates a survey given while living in the community of lnukjuaq, Nunavik, in addition to Content Analysis, direct observation, and interviews. Research questions focus on the use of social networking in the Arctic, language use online, and the potentiality for increased use of Inuktitut on the Internet. Data was analyzed using SPSS and atlas.ti software and triangulates results for validity and reliability. Results demonstrate the extent of problems and hindrances regarding Inuktitut online and the research proposes nine policy recommendations.		Advisor: Chan, Anthony B. School: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON Source: DAI-A 70/01, p. , Jul 2009 Source Type: Ph.D. Subjects: Canadian studies; Mass communications;Information science Publication Number: 3345576

Access the complete dissertation: »Find an electronic copy at your library. Use the link below to access a full citation record of this graduate work: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl%3furl_ver=Z39.88-2004%26res_dat=xri:pqdiss%26rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation%26rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3345576 If your library subscribes to the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database, you may be entitled to a free electronic version of this graduate work. If not, you will have the option to purchase one, and access a 24 page preview for free (if available).

About ProQuest Dissertations & Theses With over 2.3 million records, the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database is the most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses in the world. It is the database of record for graduate research. The database includes citations of graduate works ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in 1861, to those accepted as recently as last semester. Of the 2.3 million graduate works included in the database, ProQuest offers more than 1.9 million in full text formats. Of those, over 860,000 are available in PDF format. More than 60,000 dissertations and theses are added to the database each year. If you have questions, please feel free to visit the ProQuest Web site - http://www.il.proquest.com - or call ProQuest Hotline Customer Support at 1-800-521-3042.

Copyright © 2007 ProQuest. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions

UW Title VI Report mentions Pasch

A University of Washington report on $17.2 million in Title VI (foreign languages and international affairs) grant renewals from the U.S. Department of Education focuses on UND Assistant Professor of Communication Timothy Pasch’s Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship in the Canadian Arctic.

http://uwnews.org/uweek/article.aspx?id=60709

Oct. 7, 2010
New grants keep UW at top of schools receiving Title VI funding

By Catherine O'Donnell News and Information

Tim Pasch, who studied the Inuit people of northern Quebec while a doctoral student at the UW, poses with an inukshuk, a stone landmark made by the grandfather of his Inuit foster brother.

 

 

Grants totaling $17.2 million will fund all eight Title VI National Resource centers in the Jackson School of International Studies for another four years. The money comes from the U.S. Department of Education, which in May also awarded $1.57 million to the Foster School of Business to continue its Global Business Center.

 

According to Resat Kasaba, who became director of the Jackson School in August, the National Resource awards put the UW ahead of 43 other institutions in number of centers per school. The UW is tied with the University of Wisconsin in number of centers, and is second only to that school in dollar amount awarded.

 

Title VI money supports learning of foreign languages and international affairs. As many as 500 graduate and undergraduate students will receive full scholarships to study a foreign language.

 

Tim Pasch, who obtained a doctorate at the UW and is now an assistant professor of communication at the University of North Dakota, had a Title VI fellowship to study the language and culture of the Inuit people of northern Quebec. "My academic program has been enriched beyond my expectations," he said.

 

Other uses for the funds include public lectures, seminars for K-12 teachers and specialized courses.

 

The two oldest Jackson School centers -- the East Asia Center and the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies -- are each 100 years old. The newest one, the Center for West European Studies, was founded in 1994. Other centers are Canadian Studies, Global Studies, Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

 

"The UW's success in this round of Title VI competition is testament to the University's deep expertise and leading national and international role in global studies," said Steve Hanson, vice provost for global affairs.

 

The Global Business Center, one of 33 federally funded centers at business schools around the country, makes possible such things as MBA study tours, exchange programs and the Certificate of International Studies in Business.

 

The new money from the Department of Education will also help fund 32 new Business Center initiatives particularly important to the Pacific Northwest. They include a workshop for small and medium-size companies on doing business in China and a series of conferences on energy-based economies.

 

About 30 percent of Foster School undergraduates study abroad each year. The center aims to increase the number to 50 percent by 2014.

 

"Global Business education is critical to the future success of our students and to U.S. competitiveness," said James Jiambalvo, dean of the Foster School.

Site Updated

The site timpasch.com has been significantly updated as of today, December 04, 2010.
This corresponds in part with the end of a particularly eventful year.
Now employed at the University of North Dakota, my activities can be found on the Curriculum Vitae embedded on the site, along with Professional Statement.
As always, I can be contacted via the contact page on this site, or via email at
timothy.pasch@und.edu

Timothy J. Pasch, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communication
University of North Dakota
Merrifield Hall Room 218
276 Centennial Drive Stop 7209
Grand Forks, ND  58202-8380 
timothy.pasch@und.edu
206-391-0890 cellular
701-777-2128 office/fax 

Working on a writing workflow

I'm working on a book chapter. I'm still trying to organize my writing workflow so that it's streamlined, fast and stable. Unfortunately, although there are lots of software packages available for writing and research, they don't always play well together.

Endnote has been a thorn in my side for some time. Their upgrades are very expensive and it crashes Word 2008 (Mac) on a semi-regular basis. It's much better on the Windows side (Word 2007). I've tried using my Windows 7 Vmware Fusion guest for word processing (for those who haven't tried it, it's great to run both Windows and Mac at the same time!) but it's still clunky and slow for me to move files between the two OSes.

The most exciting tool for my writing lately is called Scrivener. It's a fantastic writing tool that's something like Ableton Live for Audio, you can easily drag and drop sections of your manuscript to create a more cohesive narrative. I find this flexible writing system very powerful and it allows a much more forgiving style of organization than Word.

Word, in general, while still looking very slick, is such a behemoth of a program, takes a while to load and crashes far too often for my liking. I prefer light and fast applications. Bean is another great option, but doesn't offer reference tool integration.

I've been experimenting with Bookends which apparently plays very well with Scrivener. This seems to be an excellent solution. Some of the power users are exporting from Scrivener to LaTeX and rendering there, but I don't think I'll go that route for now as I've seen how complex TeX can get at times. This week I'll keep writing in Scrivener and experiment with inserting references using Bookends.

The last thing I want to mention is the program Papers, it's a fantastic tool for grabbing journal articles but it's been frustrating me a great deal lately due to its clunky browsing system. It's impossible for me to add new tabs even though the developers say that it should be possible! I may have to reinstall it and see what happens...

All in all I would very much like to see more integration between these tools, with easy drag and drop reference management between programs. I want my citations to appear correctly no matter what program I use them in, with stable and light Word Processors providing backup. I hope that the Papers/Scrivener/Bookends system will work out well. The final export will probably be to Word but we'll see.

As always, any suggestions/comments very much appreciated!
Tim

Teaching a Class today

Today I'm teaching a class that I'm excited about, it's called
"Hacking your Mac for Academic Research".
I've been looking forward to this one, it's focusing on Word 2008 for Mac and Endnote integration, the new program called "Papers" for finding research on the web, and a lot of other tips and tricks I've learned while conducting research. All together we'll focus on:

Word 2008
Endnote X1
Iclip
Copypaste Pro
Papers
Skitch
DevonAgent

I've got a Powerpoint, I'll throw it in the downloads section.
I've been busy but as soon as I finish a big project this week I'll start with the video screencast tutorials of some of these great apps!

Until next time :)