Today’s beings with a quick post. I’m leaving for Cornell within the hour to start my PhD. I’ll be posting and tweeting on it all day. I’m excited and more than a bit nervious about what the future holds.
research and writings at the crossroads of journalism, cultural anthropology, technology, and reading.
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Suddenly, and seemingly without warning, I find myself in my last official week as a professor. My time as a visiting professor is coming to a close — though you wouldn’t guess it looking at my desk, and the long list of students I have to meet with.
Honestly I’m too busy right now to really adjust to the idea that this is almost over. More to come on all of this.
It’s difficult for me to believe that we just finished week 6 at RIT. This has been the most intense quarter yet. In part that’s because it’s my last. Teaching one class for only the second time has contributed as well. But most of that time has been taken up trying to come up with ways to bring sustainable change to the School of Print.
Coming up with ideas has not been hard. It’s the doing and nurturing parts that take all the time.
One effort we’ve undertaken is to start a blog for the School. SPMEtcetera soft-launched earlier in the quarter. Our hope is to create a destination where the industry, alumni, and prospective and current students can discover all the neat things that are going on at SPM. The great part, from a sustainability perspective, is that all the writing is being done by student employees. We’ll make an official announcement about the blog later this week.
The other big project is the Open Publishing Lab. There will be a lot more about that soon. The good news is that over two years of planning will (hopefully) be coming to fruition in less than 14 days. We just need our teams to make it to May 3 and the innovation festival and then we’ll have a lot to talk about and show.
Julian Dibbell is going to be speaking at RIT this Wednesday. Julian, an associate editor at Wired, is an awesome guy and someone whose been involved in, and writing about, cyberculture for years. His latest work, Play Money, is an exploration of the various economic systems that have developed in various virtual spaces. At RIT he’ll be speaking on “Ludocapitalism – A few ways of making real money from a virtual economy, and what they mean.”
I first met while at the University of Chicago. Julian’s input was really helpful for me while writing my thesis. We touched base again late last year at the American Anthropological Association Conference. Again, I got a lot out of the conversation. So if you’ve got the chance, come out and hear him speak.
Here are the official details:
- Topic: Ludocapitalism – A few ways of making real money from a virtual economy, and what they mean
- Time: 7:30pm (the talk will be followed by open q&a time from 8:30-9)
- Location: Liberal Arts (Bld 6), Room A205
Julian Dibbell
So I haven’t been able to update the site on any consistent base in a while. Life’s been really busy. Unfortunately, as of late, it seems like I only have time to blog around major, and often tragic, events. So, quickly (with RIT’s quarter drawing to its close, I have a mountain of grading to do) here’s some good things:
- My presentation at the American Anthropological Association’s national conference went well. It looks like I’ll get a journal publication out of it.
- The quarter itself has gone pretty well, in particular a lot of strides have been made at setting up a publishing research lab here at the school. More on that soon.
- Our (boy) cat Lewis, has made a full recovery after having two toes amputated because of a cancerous growth.
- I got a new phone/pocket pc, which has helped me get organized.
- I was a judge in a national variable data print competition.
- The blog helped me reconnect with an old friend.
- Dre and I are succeeding in getting out (and traveling) to see friends and family. At this rate, who knows, we might actually go on our Honeymoon this year.
- I was awarded my teaching rank (black sash) in Kung Fu.
I’m sure there’s more, but my timer is going off, reminding me that it’s time to get back to grading.