For some time now, I had been planning on submitting a proposal for a special issue of Technical Communication Quarterly on distributed work. However, due to the fact that I'm neck-deep in dissertation work, I have to prepare for CCCC and other talks/engagements, and the fact that I couldn't decide on a topic in time, I'm just not going to be able to do it. It's probably for the best. It would have been impractical to write a draft of a manuscript in April, May, and June that has nothing to do with my dissertation topic AND finish what are currently mighty ugly and sorta stinky drafts of chapters 3 and 5. I'm hearing Dana Carvey as George H.W. Bush in my mind: "Not gonna do it! Not...gonna...doit."

I had a lot of ideas, as I said, and if I could have just decided on one, I could have developed it into something, but again, it's best to focus on my dissertation and publications that could come out of it (one would hope). This is the idea I ended up deciding on that never fully baked, or even half-baked, but maybe someday I can come back to it. I was going to address this question from the CFP:

How do we teach technical communicators who expect to go into the support economy? What are our political-ethical responsibilities and our logistical challenges? What changes do we need to make to pedagogical theory?

I had the idea that the standard technical communication course, with its focus on genre, could be revised to reflect the collaborative, peer-productive practices that Web 2.0 technologies embody. This course would emphasize a dynamic relationship between author and audience, like The Cluetrain Manifesto advocates, as well as networked communication rather than discrete pieces of writing like the memo and feasibility report. Here are the notes I put together for the proposal; in reading this, you'll see how I write to myself when I'm planning a project:

The standard technical communication survey class generally consists of students from a variety of majors, most of whom intend to pursue careers in industry. Because the course serves students in diverse fields of study, the assignments often reflect a focus on genre, with content as interchangeable: resume, cover letter, memo, proposal, progress report, feasibility report.

But is the standard TC course, in fact, designed this way? If so, why? Are there TC scholars and pedagogical theorists who have explicitly recommended that it should be taught this way? I have a suspicion that part of the rationale behind the design of the courses has to do with administrative expediency. What I mean is, the course has to serve lots of students from different majors and has an instrumental purpose for many of them, so students should be able to customize it for their needs; student satisfaction is higher if they can integrate TC with their other courses/internships, etc. Not that scholarship/pedagogy and administration are mutually exclusive here – the principles of flexibility and customization are sound pedagogical principles for student-centered course design – but as with any course, there are administrative factors to consider such as the course’s objectives, place in the curriculum, and enrollment trends.

The subject matter that students write about could still be malleable in a TC course that builds in distributed work patterns facilitated by Web 2.0 technologies, but how would such a TC course be designed? Maybe the focus would just be more attentive to processes, organization, information/knowledge management, and collaborative strategies than to genre. But to be sure, genre isn't going away, and it needs to be taught too.

Right now I'm worried about a few things:

1. Making a case that most TC courses are designed this way (A very smart person suggested looking at the sample syllabi in TC textbooks, but I'm not sure which textbooks are the most widely used and influential, or how to find out.)

2. Making a case that distributed work/Web 2.0 work processes accurately represent what students will actually be doing when they enter the workplace (with students' diverse fields of study and career choices, I fear this one will be impossible to argue persuasively)

3. (As it follows from #2) Making a case that revising the standard TC survey course to integrate Web 2.0 technologies and distributed work principles would better prepare students to write in the workplace than the generic approach does

4. Theory (what theory to use, how to use it, etc. I have a feeling that there might be a theory that would help me sidestep the empirical question implied in #2, but don't know what it is)

I'm not sure how to approach this paper without confronting those BIG claims/problems in 1, 2, and 3. It would be more manageable if I could refine the claims somehow.

...and there was the impasse. Maybe these notes will help someone with a project, at least.

Technorati tag: academy2.0

• Internet That Was: Are there any great things you remember from the web that aren't available anymore? Some of these aren't necessarily great, but I harbor nostalgia for them nonetheless, such as Cartoon Over-Analyzations. The proprietor of the site knew that "analyzations" wasn't a word but used it anyway, and it was filled with off-the-wall interpretations of the Smurfs, Scooby-Doo, etc. Another is the Burn Maker. Gah, I weep for that thing; it was so wonderful. The third and final one I can think of is from 1997, on the AOL discussion boards. It was a poem that was intended to be a tribute to the recently deceased John Denver. I was over at a friend's house and we were perusing the boards. Someone had written this poem that went on and on and on for what would have been pages and pages had we printed the poem out. It was sad, but we were laughing at the earnestness and epic quality of it. The poem had the refrain: "O where have you gone, beautiful singer of songs?"
• Terrible TV: Did anyone else watch the series premiere of Free Ride on Fox? It's a shameless ripoff of Arrested Development: painful to watch.
• French in Action: Sometimes I think about Robert and Mireille.

  

  Ah yes, in this scene they're having le troisième kir. They should do some kind of reunion series.

Thanks to Pi for the title.

• Today, on the way to do some catsitting, I heard "She Loves You" on the radio, and I immediately thought of Jamie Bérubé.
• The blogosphere is talking about dreams lately. Both of these dreams feature a dirty toilet, and others have mentioned having the "unusable toilet" dream too. Apparently it's as common as the naked in public dream and the teeth falling out dream. I'd never heard of it or had it before. The latter dream, flea's feminist anxiety dream, has been eliciting some varied emotional reactions. I'm on the side of those who laughed. Flea points out that the dream has special significance for anyone who has worked for a feminist nonprofit. I found that my past experience participating on feminist bulletin boards helped me to understand it, too. Which leads me to the next matter:
• I'm really interested in reading some comparisons of the experience of blogging vs. posting on bulletin boards. Not studies, but nonacademic narratives. A lot of the same people who are blogging have posted on BBs and Usenet, and I'm curious about the range of opinions on the similarities and differences between people's perception of blogging and BBs/Usenet. I used to be a BB junkie, and I find them to be different from blogs in that with BBs, more thread-hijacking and trolling went on and there could be a good bit of infighting and drama. You're writing for a more specific audience with BBs, and everyone knows everyone else's hobbyhorses and buttons to push. I found it restrictive sometimes. Huh, I may have more to say about this later, but for now I'm going to leave it.
• An announcement about a new web project:
  

  Heather Corinna of Scarleteen.com and I are spearheading a young feminist project, the All Girl Army (http://allgirlarmy.org). Right now, we are looking for feminists between the ages of 10 and 23 to get involved, and we are also seeking older women for web design (desperately needed), outreach, editorial, community management, future planning, and other committees. Please spread the word far and wide about this, and if you're interested in joining a committee, email myself (jenny@allgirlarmy.org) and the group at large (enlist@allgirlarmy.org). We believe this project is going to offer an amazing and unprecedented space for young feminist community and organizing, and we would love to have you all involved.

  Peace,
  Jenny

  All Girl Army/ The Young Feminists Project is looking for a few good women to create, nurture and enjoy a women's community targeted to young women internationally, who identify as feminist, between the ages of 10 and 23.

  We expect to debut the site in May of this year, and it will include:

  * 29 featured blogs by young, feminist women and one overarching blog, collectively edited and compiled.
  * An active, moderated discussion board primarily serving, and intended to benefit, young women with a limited area for those of all genders, as well as a limited area for women over 23.
  * Cooperative ownership and management of the site.
  * Collective, dynamic projects driven by young women.
  * A myriad of current resources for young feminists: books, magazines, film, music, art, events and symposiums, other websites, scholarship funds and organizations.

  What's our goal?

  * To increase visibility and self-representation of young women: of your lives, your ideas, your goals, your achievements and your struggles: to counteract lookism and the media's representation of young women with your real voices, unscripted words and real lives.
  * To help foster a supportive, creative and proactive women's community, and nurture relationships and discussion among women of all ages; to help young women develop their feminism and their autonomy via women's community, and discover that other women are allies, not competition.
  * To create and sustain a collective board of feminist women of all ages to manage the site, with a majority vote in decisions given to women under 23; to provide experience for young women in creating, organizing and managing community, advocacy and support for women.
  * To provide mentorship for young women to learn skills you're interested in.
  * To provide a visible exploration and examination of feminism, of growing up female, by and for young women.
  * To show the world the hearts and minds of a whole lot of seriously awesome young women, and to give others, young and old, the chance to be as inspired by all of you as we are.

  Our board and founders are an evolving and eclectic group of women of all ages, from all walks of life. We are everything from a mother of ten to a sexuality educator; from an IT professional to an advocate for battered women; from a women's studies student to a sculptural jeweler, all of us feminist, all of us dedicated to women.

  One woman said that what we're trying to do is "like the radical Girl Scouts!" That sounds pretty good to us. Namely, we want to pass the torch in the best ways we know how, because we feel that all of you are going to redefine feminism as we know it, and have the capacity to make an incredible mark on the world. We feel the internet is an optimal place to do so because it gives us the ability to work internationally and dynamically.

Today is my parents' wedding anniversary. I believe it's been 33 years now! Congratulations, Mom and Dad.

All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down -- Hank Williams Jr. [Yee-haw!]
Go Your Own Way -- Fleetwood Mac
Numb -- U2
The Girls Say -- Tralala
It Takes Two -- Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock [I can't believe this song won the poll. "Joy and Pain" is clearly the superior song.]
Gett Off -- Prince [Diamonds and Pearls was a high school classic.]
Heartbreaker -- Pat Benatar [I should do this song karaoke sometime.]
Mean Old Bed Bug Blues -- Bessie Smith
Gypsy -- Fleetwood Mac [It looks like I have a lot more Fleetwood Mac songs than I do.]
Someone -- Air Supply [sigh. Leaving the awful ones in builds character, right? It was part of an Ultimate Air Supply CD I got for the in-private guilty singalong pleasure -- "Making Love Out of Nothing at All," etc.]

A minute ago, I took a look at the blogs that Ms. started up after Christine Cupaiuolo stopped blogging for them. It doesn't look like there's much going on at The Smeal Report or A New Leif, and I think that's too bad. What Ms. should have done, and could still do, is recruit someone who's already been blogging for a long time, someone the blogosphere knows who already has an audience, and get her to blog for Ms. Some obvious choices would be Lauren (I know she retired, but perhaps she could be brought back in if it paid), Tiffany, Echidne, anyone from Feministing, Twisty, etc. etc.

Out in front of the elevator on the third floor of my apartment building: a box of clothes with a sign stuck on the wall above it reading "Free!" That's a common area for people to stick stuff they're getting rid of, and usually I don't take a second glance at it. This time, though, I snatched the box and brought it back to my apartment for review.

I went through the box, and many of the garments were surprisingly nice and looked like they had barely been worn at all. (What's the catch? Is there asbestos all up in 'em?) I ended up with thirteen absolutely free sweaters, mostly Liz Claiborne Villager brand, almost all turtlenecks. Can't beat that, huh? Comfortable, 100% cotton, free sweaters in my size. I couldn't help but observe, though, that this was a person who liked something and bought it in every color and style.

7:42: We've hit the high point of the show already? It would seem so, because I can't imagine anything being better than that phenomenal performance by Dolly Parton. Wow! And am I the only person who was really happy to see Matt Dillon nominated for an Oscar, even though he didn't win?

7:46: Full disclosure: I haven't seen a single one of the movies nominated for anything this year, sigh. Also, sort of off-topic, but does anyone else look at all those Brokeback Mountain parodies all over the web and see them as "caricatures of containment," as some have referred to the cartoons of Andrea Dworkin in those flesh mags? Or is Brokeback Mountain helping to open everyone's eyes to sublimated homoeroticism in all kinds of films, as in that great montage they showed of clips from old Westerns? Cue The Celluloid Closet!

7:58: Re the biopic montage: I was a little surprised that Pollock wasn't in there; at least I didn't see it if it was.

9:27: I apparently don't think very much here warrants comment. That exchange between Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep introducing Robert Altman was just flawless, though. Two old pros.

10:27: Overall, no real surprises...except Best Picture! Whoa! I don't think anyone predicted that one, not that I read.