Projects and Publications
So I'm starting to gain some experience and accumulate a few publications worth noting. Here's what's been trouncing around in my world lately:
Digital Divide 2.0: African American Communities and Library Resoures in Illinois
07.23.08 @ 1:10 PM
The second revision of a still yet evolving project, this paper is a foray into Library and Information Science with an emphasis on Community Informatics. I hope to expand this study to include more than just small town/city and rural libraries in future classes, but for now you can get a glimpse of my theory and methods.
Abstract
In the information era inequality is increasingly dictated by a myriad of issues related to both access and use of computer and internet technologies. Mere access to the web is an indisputably insufficient claim to equity; attention must also be paid to issues such as autonomy, skill, purposes, and perceptions related to technological access and participation in cyberspace. The final—and still yet emerging—barrier to equality is termed here as Digital Consciousness, a state of being which most digitally disadvantaged populations have little opportunity to develop. This is understandably so as the recipe for such an understanding includes socialization, digital literacy, and a realization of self and structure in the modern web. All of these factors are dependent upon both access and use. To develop a Digital Consciousness a person must have avenues and contexts available that provide these ingredients. The library is one potential space for this, but it is unclear to what extent contemporary libraries effectively facilitate this process.
The inequalities that African American communities have endured historically have been harsh, and digital inequality is no exception. To truly remedy the digital inequality for the African American people and other disadvantaged populations we must call for extensive change; a social movement situated within the context of the information revolution. This movement must embody cyberdemocracy, collective intelligence, and information freedom, each of which is dependent upon Digital Consciousness.
This report assesses the computing and internet resources present in numerous Illinois public libraries that serve African American populations. Library outlets are evaluated for their capacity to enable patrons to develop Digital Consciousness. The study finds that while libraries do a moderately good job providing basic resources for connectivity, creation, and the reception and production of knowledge, they do not live up to the potential that they could be. The paper concludes with discussion about how to best address challenges and start crafting sustainable and effective solutions.
Keywords
Digital divide, libraries, black communities, digital content, authorship, digitization, Illinois
The Facebook Project
03.18.08 @ 10:08 PM
The Facebook Project now has a new mission! The site has been expanded to serve students, researchers, librarians, and educators as a resource on (about) Facebook. The effort is a collaborative project spread amongst a multi-disciplinary collective intellect.
My personal work with the project is a on-going, multi-stage research study on the impacts of Facebook on the University of Illinois undergraduate population. So far the project has included surveys, content analysis and interviews. Some of the topics and areas of interest included in the overall project are:
- Information acquisition, communication, and social capital
- Expression, sharing and construction of identity; privacy
- Social movements (epidemics)
- Meaning and purpose in everyday life
- Use as an educational and research tool
- Race, ethnicity, identity, and interface
- Discursive and discriminatory groups
To find out more, I invite you to read more.
Web design seems to be the intersection of many of my interests - artistic expression, programming skills, content design, and manifestations of everything I do - research, academics, activism, community building, collaboration and learning, and so much more. Thus I always have a few web sites in process at any given time. See the latest here. Alternatively you can visit my web portfolio to see the full scope of what I do.
List Updated
08.19.08 @ 11:48 AM
- Academic Sites
- Community Informatics Media Archive (CIMA) - A collection of multimedia related to community informatics (CI). Designed with the intention of being both and archive and also a showcase for all of the various projects of CI at UIUC.
- Facebook Project - My research website on Facebook and social networking services, which has now opened up to become a resource for intrested parties as well as a collaborative research tool.
- Organization Sites
- Sunset Stallion the band - A rather talented band based out of Champaign involving two vocalists, bass, drums, guitar and piano. My first time using a purchased template, turned out to be spectacular!
- What People Do! - Still in motion, a website with a two fold purpose: advertising What People Do, a documentary dedicated to a cross-country trip by a dozen cyclists to fight cancer and also a resource for people interested in joining in the battle to fight cancer.
- Personal Sites
- Vibes - My Audio-Video Portfolio, in construction stages.
- Web Portfolios - Which has been continually updated.
- Duenos - A blog that I help to co-author on all kinds of 'interestingness.'
- Back to Top
Occasionally I find time to pretend to be an artist.
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List Updated
12.28.07 @ 12:58 AM
Personal Art
I try to always have one art project on hand that I will take me a year to finish. Not out of complexity of the project, but out of sheer lack of time to work on it. The contemporary endeavor is usually a work discovered through its process.
A Collaborative Drawing
It came to us one night just for fun. I got a big sheet of drawing paper, and everyone in the apartment started drawing things on it. Since then I've kept it in my family room and let people keep adding and adding more to it - building on other's drawings or making their own. At the end of the year I'll put it up as a collection of art of all who've visited my apartment!
And Picturing Chaos and Order
Just a simple piece designed with the fragments of pictures I had around my apartment. Kind of gives a cool flow from one end to the other.
The Photo Mosaic
This one is going to take some time... check back here and there to see little updates. As of 08.19.2008 I've actually begun to glue in more peices. It's really just a backburner project.
Upon decorating my basement this summer I stumbled upon an old poster made with an opaque projection in 7th grade. Realizing I currently own an LCD projector I found a computer graphic of a mosaic flower and blasted it onto the wall, tracing the individual shapes on to Bristol board. I have now painstakingly begun cutting out each little piece of tile to create a sort of lattice that I'll flip over to be the frame of my art. Each tile will then be colored based on a photograph pulled for color and texture - and cut up. So the mosaic will be a giant poster made up of pieces of pictures. I have yet to finish cutting out the tile pieces, but those are nearly done - I'm excited to try to figure out what pictures to use and see what kind of flow I can create with color and texture!
Photography
The most recent to be added to the photography portfolio is a picture of Humphry, Jimmy's turtle.
This will remain unfinished until I get JAG85.com Vibes off the ground.
I do audio and video editing and production as a hobby and as such try to always be working on some cool project or another. Like my personal art they usually take longer than I would like but always are worth while. The total collection of my work can be found in my Audio-Video portfolio. The latest:
I record with several groups including individuals, bands, and even a couple of a cappella groups around UIUC. Hear the latest below.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to get Vibes up yet so you can poke around my old music site to hear at least a few cool snippets.
More coming with Vibes I swear. Check the new Puffin'Snuff on the home page.
Everything I've done for my Masters can be found on The Facebook Project website. I will be adding more here as I move along in my PhD. My new work in CI can be found at the Community Informatics Projects Sandbox.
