bryan alexander and homemade chili

a digital literacy first: davies scholar blake cooked a homemade meal for all people attending bryan alexander's talk. homemade chili, pita chips, baguettes, and a fruit platter = very delicious. with a single meal, blake raised the bar on davies forum refreshments.


davies scholars amber and lulu:


davies scholars lis, steven, and sara:


davies scholar kelly was out of town.

bryan alexander!




for more pics of the davies forum, see www.flickr.com/photos/tags/daviesforum/

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new reviews in cyberculture studies (march 2008)

each month, the resource center for cyberculture studies (RCCS) publishes a set of book reviews and author responses. books of the month for march 2008 include:

Cybersounds: Essays on Virtual Music Culture
Editor: Michael D. Ayers
Publisher: Peter Lang, 2006
Review 1: Lori Landay
Review 2: Shintaro Miyazaki
Review 3: Marc W.D. Tyrrell
Editor Response: Michael D. Ayers

Cyberspace Romance: The Psychology of Online Relationships
Authors: Monica Whitty, Adrian Carr
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006
Review 1: Rhiannon Bury
Review 2: Michele Hammers

Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays
Editors: Karen Hellekson, Kristina Busse
Publisher: McFarland & Co., 2006
Review 1: Lan Xuan Le
Author Response: Karen Hellekson & Kristina Busse

The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft
Author: Anne Friedberg
Publisher: MIT Press, 2006
Review 1: Christy Dena
Author Response: Anne Friedberg

enjoy. there's more where that came from.

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davies forum speaker series: bryan alexander

the davies forum on digital literacy continues its speaker series this thursday evening with bryan alexander. first the facts:

who? bryan alexander, director of research, NITLE
what? a semester-long speaker series devoted to literacy in a digital age
where? maier hall, fromm hall, university of san francisco
when? thursday, february 28, at 6:30 pm
price? free and open to the public

bryan will discuss the implications of web 2.0 for the academy, along with the emergent field of web 2.0 storytelling.


as with the rest of the davies forum speakers series, this event is free and open to the public. in preparation for the talk, you are welcome and encouraged to read the following:

Christy Dena, "Online Augmentation to Emerging Participatory Culture Practices: Player-Created Tiers in Alternate Reality Games," Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies (Feb 2008); Steve Himmer, "The Labyrinth Unbound: Weblogs as Literature," in Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs, eds. Laura J. Gurak, Smiljana Antonijevic, Laurie Johnson, Clancy Ratliff, and Jessica Reyman (June 2004); Clay Shirky, "Ontology is Overrated: Categories, Links, and Tags" (spring 2005); and Sean Stacey (aka SpaceBass), "Undefining ARG," posted article to Unfiction (November 10th, 2006)

see you there.

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davies forum speaker series: brewster kahle

the davies forum on digital literacy continues its speaker series this thursday evening with brewster kahle. first the facts:

who? brewster kahle, founder and digital librarian, internet archive
what? a semester-long speaker series devoted to literacy in a digital age
where? 113 cowell (note room change for this week only!), university of san francisco
when? thursday, february 21, at 6:30 pm
price? free and open to the public


(brewster is the guy on the right!)

as with the rest of the davies forum speakers series, this event is free and open to the public. in preparation for the talk, you are welcome and encouraged to read the following:

Andrew Richard Albanese, "Scan This Book: An Interview with Open Content Alliance's Brewster Kahle,” Library Journal (August 2007); Kevin Kelly, "Scan this Book!" New York Times Magazine (May 14, 2006); Siva Vaidhyanathan, portions of The Googlization of Everything

hope to see you there.

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the first drops of wellness

i've been sick for six days.

six days.

i've been able to make strategic appearances - ivan chew's awesome talk in our davies forum on digital literacy, dinner near clement with ivan, si wei, and sarah, a faculty meeting, a meeting with the deans - but other than that i've been at home, inside, for six days.

throughout the span, nene's been camping out near the door to our deck, giving me this look that says, "what's your problem?!? it's blue and beautiful outside, let's get going!"

and she gets confused when she hears my response: ack! cough! weeze!


the worst part of the sickness was that i had to cancel one class of digital journalism - the class when students were going to present their blogs in class. arg. the second worst part of the sickness was that i missed out exploring the city with ivan, si wei, and sarah.

but: the best part of the sickness is that today, for the first time in six days, i feel the first drops of wellness.

new blog on campus - gleeson gleanings

there's a new blog on campus and it's called gleeson gleanings.

collectively written by various USF librarians, including debbie benrubi, jessica lu, debbie malone, and kelci baughman mcdowell, gleeson gleanings is off to an excellent start and promises to present "news and factual nourishment from the library’s collections and services."


the blog's scope appears to be as diverse as its authors' interests. it includes announcementy entries on topics like library hours, scheduled power outages, and job openings ("Part-Time Library Assistant IV for Digital Projects"). it includes resource information on projects like the AJCU digital repository. And it includes instructions for students on checking out DVDs and videos and instructions for faculty on ordering new journal subscriptions.


gleeson gleanings also gives us a lot of reasons to go - physically - to the library. after all, in gleeson library's thacher art gallery there's between the lines, featuring paintings, prints, photography, sculpture, installation works, and architectural and graphic design from USF faculty. there's the USF book club, which meets this coming tuesday on the second floor to discuss gabriel garcía márquez's masterpiece love in the time of cholera. and on the third floor, in the donohue rare book room, there's books (?) by poets (!), an exhibit of books made by the students in jaime robles’ MFA workshop. gleeson gleanings reminds us that the heart of campus is the library.

welcome to the blogosphere gleeson library!

davies forum speaker series: ivan chew

the davies forum on digital literacy continues its speaker series this thursday evening with ivan chew. first the facts:

who? ivan chew, adult & young people's services librarian, national library board, singapore
what? a semester-long speaker series devoted to literacy in a digital age
where? maier room, fromm hall, university of san francisco
when? thursday, february 14, at 6:30 pm
price? free and open to the public


Ivan Chew is a trained librarian and received his MSc (Information Studies) from Nanyang Technology University. In his years working for the National Library Board (Singapore), he has been a Public Services librarian at a community library, a Web Project Manager for a website targeting at students, a manager of a shopping mall library, and a regional library manager. He currently heads the Adult & Young People's Services (Public Libraries), working with a team of librarians in delivering services to schools and organizations island-wide.

When he's off work, Ivan draws, paints, blogs, runs a mailing list for librarians, and works on original songs for a collaborative online music album.


(to get an idea of what ivan will be talking about, please visit his blog post about the event. also, if there is a topic you wish ivan to address, please add a comment to his blog post.)

as with the rest of the davies forum speakers series, this event is free and open to the public. in preparation for the talk, you are welcome and encouraged to read the following:

Times of My Life, "My Old Katong Final Pt.- Other Lost Landmarks"; Lam Chun See, "What Prompted Me To Start This Blog"; Ivan Chew, "My father, Basketball, and the late President Chiang Kai-shek"; and Taking Up The Challenge, "Talk On Blogging For Seniors."

hope to see you there.

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davies forum speaker series: mary madden

part of this spring's davies forum on digital literacy is an exciting speaker series on thursday evenings. the talks begin at 6:30 pm and take place on the university of san francisco campus. all events are free and open to the public.

our first speaker will be mary madden this coming thursday. please join us!

who? mary madden, senior research specialist, pew internet and american life project
what? a semester-long speaker series devoted to literacy in a digital age
where? maier room, fromm hall, university of san francisco
when? thursday, february 7, at 6:30 pm.
price? free


Mary Madden is Senior Research Specialist at the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Her research areas include music and the internet, intellectual property issues online, teens and communication technology, college students and the internet, online communities, and demographic trends in online pursuits. She is the lead author of many Pew reports, including "Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency" and "Artists, Musicians and the Internet," a report that examines artists' experiences with the internet and their attitudes towards copyright issues online. Mary holds an M.A. in Communication, Culture and Technology from Georgetown University and a B.A. in English from The University of Florida. Her interest in the digital music debate is fueled by her graduate research and her prior experiences working in music promotion and concert production.

for more information, see our facebook event page. hope to see you there.

a new classroom on campus

three days ago, the organic garden on USF's campus looked like this:


today, it looks like this:


and like this:


a new classroom is growing on campus.

the missing connection

is it me or does john mccain look like cotton hill?