Summing it up

Glenn Greenwald:

There is no better phrase to describe the animating feature of the modern Limbaugh/Kristol/Fox News conservative faction than "threatened tribalism." The belief that they are good and pure, yet subjected to unprecedented systematic unfairness and threatened by some lurking Evil Other against whom war must be waged (the Muslim, the Immigrant, the Terrorist, the Communist, the Liberal, the Welfare Queen) is the centerpiece of their ugly worldview.

I would imagine sociologists and anthropologists everywhere are writing books on the phenomenon.

What? They're not?

Crap.

The Value of Inefficiency in Social Networking Technology

I have to say that Danah Boyd is rapidly becoming a must-read for me, if for no other reason than the fact that she's addressing things no one else is.

Boyd (who writes under them name zephoria at her blog apophenia):

In the physical world, architects and city planners often build inefficiencies into the system for a reason. I remember a talk by Manuel Castells where he spoke of forcing people to stand on line at regular intervals in public places, even when the activity could be made more efficient through technology. He viewed these kinds of inefficiencies as critical to the well-being of society because they provided a context for people to interact with strangers and, thus, build connections that glued the city together. This worked especially well when people could collectively complain about the people in charge - it provided a reason for social solidarity. (Think about the social solidarity built in NY when there's a brownout or a transit strike.) Physical architects must constantly struggle with maximizing efficiency versus providing room for inefficiencies because of the social good that comes from them.

I have a sneaking suspicion that tech architects never even think about the possibility of creating inefficiencies to enhance social good, but I'm not sure. Since many of you mysterious readers are passionate about social technology, let me ask you. What examples of intentional (or unintentional) inefficiencies do you see in social tech? How do users respond to these?

One of the commenters on the post gets at something good:

the inefficeincy is the social contact.

That suggests that our metric - efficiency - is insufficient for what we're trying to use it for, that it cannot take into account certain things (in this case social contact). I think this is right. It's another example of starting to measure too many things with the measuring stick of technology.

Jay Matthews' Top Ten Concerns About Education

Found somewhere (don't remember where anymore turns out it was here), this interview with longtime Washington Post education reporter Jay Matthews. I was particularly interested in the seventh question:

7) What do you see as the top ten concerns in education? What are the biggest concerns in the Washington Circle?

My concerns or Washington's? I will go with mine:

1. Low standards and expectations in low-income schools.

2. Very inadequate teacher training in our education schools.

3. Failure to challenge average students in nearly all high
schools with AP and IB courses.

4. Corrupt and change-adverse bureaucracies in big city districts.

5. A tendency to judge schools by how many low income kids they
have, the more there are the worse the school in the public
mind.

6. A widespread feeling on the part of teachers, because of their
inherent humanity, that it is wrong to put a child in a
challenging situation where they may fail, when that risk of
failure is just what they need to learn and grow.

7. The widespread belief among middle class parents that their
child must get into a well known college or they won't be as
successful in life.

8. A failure to realize that inner city and rural schools need to
give students more time to learn, and should have longer school
days and school years.

9. A failure to realize that the best schools--like the KIPP
charter schools in the inner cities---are small and run by
well-recruited and trained principals who have the power to
hire all their teachers, and quickly fire the ones that do not
work out.

10. The resistance to the expansion of charter schools in most
school district offices.

How many apply to Lebanon?

Offhand, I'd say 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8.

Any takers?

Can We Knock It Off With The "All Your Generation Belong to Us" Yet?

From the DH, apparently a couple of folks gave a talk at LBCC on the so-called "Millenials," those Krazy Kids that were born after 1982:

Millennials are people who were born since 1982. They have been sheltered and protected even before their first breath of fresh air, [author Neil] Howe said.

Their parents drove minivans with bumper stickers that read “Baby on Board.” Their Generation X and late Baby Boomer parents have surrounded them with rules and regulations to keep them safe from the outside world. They couldn’t ride a bicycle without a helmet. They couldn’t play alone at the city park for fear of abduction.

To reduce the risk of being affected by bad influences, their daily lives have been rigorously scheduled since kindergarten. They have been told that they are “special” and “good kids” — and in fact, statistics indicate they are.

“They are a generation that expects to work as a team,” Howe said. “They like to work and succeed in groups. They are not individualists like Baby Boomers.”

This might have been innovative and fresh in the year 2000, but now it just feels stale. I've actually heard and ranted about this point before, but that was practically before the advent of the Internet. I'm actually sort of of hoping "their latest book" was actually published at least five years ago.

Plus, I always hate it when anyone makes a generalized prediction about an entire generation. There's no basis for it. Ever.

Oh, and it does not describe the experience of pretty much anyone I know. It might be true for people who are just now in high school, or maybe even about to enter college, but older than that? Not in the circles I travel in.

Finally, I really, really dislike the fact that people are going to read this and then proceed to treat the supposed subjects as if they are automatically like the composite provided by the article.