Comments for Todd Presner http://www.toddpresner.com Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:06:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Comment on HyperCities wins Google Digital Humanities Grant for “Geo-Scribe” by meg http://www.toddpresner.com/?p=134&cpage=1#comment-363 meg Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:06:19 +0000 http://www.toddpresner.com/?p=134#comment-363 Dude, that's awesome! Congratulations! Dude, that’s awesome! Congratulations!

]]> Comment on The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age, or Why this Professor Loves Wikipedia by Ewan Branda http://www.toddpresner.com/?p=102&cpage=1#comment-10 Ewan Branda Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:43:14 +0000 http://www.toddpresner.com/?p=102#comment-10 To mitigate the standard warnings on Wikipedia that instructors are obliged to issue to students I always stress that we don't have to look as far as these kinds of radical differences from traditional book-scholarship to find its virtues. To me it succeeds where its critics claim it fails: reliability. The more print-based "scholarly" sources I read the more mistakes I am surprised to find. Under the eyes of hundreds (often more) stakeholders a Wikipedia article has good odds of being accurate (sometimes). Not surprisingly I have found that the best articles are neither on very common topics (too many uninformed opinions) nor on very obscure ones (too few critical readers) but on topics obscure to the Wikipedia user base as a whole but commonplace to a narrow expert community.. To mitigate the standard warnings on Wikipedia that instructors are obliged to issue to students I always stress that we don’t have to look as far as these kinds of radical differences from traditional book-scholarship to find its virtues. To me it succeeds where its critics claim it fails: reliability. The more print-based “scholarly” sources I read the more mistakes I am surprised to find. Under the eyes of hundreds (often more) stakeholders a Wikipedia article has good odds of being accurate (sometimes). Not surprisingly I have found that the best articles are neither on very common topics (too many uninformed opinions) nor on very obscure ones (too few critical readers) but on topics obscure to the Wikipedia user base as a whole but commonplace to a narrow expert community..

]]> Comment on The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age, or Why this Professor Loves Wikipedia by Todd Presner http://www.toddpresner.com/?p=102&cpage=1#comment-9 Todd Presner Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:53:51 +0000 http://www.toddpresner.com/?p=102#comment-9 Agreed, Meg. We're having this discussion (and need to keep having it) because things have barely started to change. How many institutions are even recognizing blog publishing as part of the review process for tenure/promotion? We are still fixated on print media (academic articles and books) and the culture of authority that this medium has slowly calcified over several hundred years. Beyond that, how have institutions themselves changed -- I mean, a serious and radical rethinking of accreditation, degrees, disciplines, departments, expertise, knowledge production and dissemination, pedagogy, and community/civic engagement through digital tools and technologies? Wikipedia is in some ways a lone example -- but it's compelling because it isn't part of university or traditional knowledge community (library, archive, museum, etc). And it's wrongly dismissed over and over again as anti-intellectual or sophomoric. It's so much more about the process -- what it enables -- than the specific content. Alas, there is, as you point out (sadly), more work to be done... Agreed, Meg. We’re having this discussion (and need to keep having it) because things have barely started to change. How many institutions are even recognizing blog publishing as part of the review process for tenure/promotion? We are still fixated on print media (academic articles and books) and the culture of authority that this medium has slowly calcified over several hundred years. Beyond that, how have institutions themselves changed — I mean, a serious and radical rethinking of accreditation, degrees, disciplines, departments, expertise, knowledge production and dissemination, pedagogy, and community/civic engagement through digital tools and technologies? Wikipedia is in some ways a lone example — but it’s compelling because it isn’t part of university or traditional knowledge community (library, archive, museum, etc). And it’s wrongly dismissed over and over again as anti-intellectual or sophomoric. It’s so much more about the process — what it enables — than the specific content. Alas, there is, as you point out (sadly), more work to be done…

]]> Comment on The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age, or Why this Professor Loves Wikipedia by meg http://www.toddpresner.com/?p=102&cpage=1#comment-8 meg Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:55:31 +0000 http://www.toddpresner.com/?p=102#comment-8 Call me naive, but I still cannot get over the fact that we're *having* this discussion. I'm not dismissing the point by any means; I'm just sad that it needs to be made -- and in 2009, for that matter. Gah. Call me naive, but I still cannot get over the fact that we’re *having* this discussion. I’m not dismissing the point by any means; I’m just sad that it needs to be made — and in 2009, for that matter. Gah.

]]> Comment on Digital Humanities Manifesto 2.0 Launched by Cathy Davidson http://www.toddpresner.com/?p=7&cpage=1#comment-5 Cathy Davidson Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:11:44 +0000 http://www.toddpresner.com/?p=7#comment-5 Todd and Jeff, you've done a fabulous job with this. It is smart and sexy too. Congratulations! We've blogged about it a few times and also tweeted. Let us know what else we can do to get out the word. Bravo! Todd and Jeff, you’ve done a fabulous job with this. It is smart and sexy too. Congratulations! We’ve blogged about it a few times and also tweeted. Let us know what else we can do to get out the word. Bravo!

]]> Comment on Digital Humanities Manifesto 2.0 Launched by Mary http://www.toddpresner.com/?p=7&cpage=1#comment-4 Mary Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:29:11 +0000 http://www.toddpresner.com/?p=7#comment-4 Pretty cool post. I just found your site and wanted to say that I've really liked browsing your posts. In any case I'll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon! Pretty cool post. I just found your site and wanted to say
that I’ve really liked browsing your posts. In any case
I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!

]]> Comment on Personal by Tee http://www.toddpresner.com/?page_id=91&cpage=1#comment-3 Tee Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:01:44 +0000 http://www.toddpresner.com/?page_id=91#comment-3 Hey Todd, The Hypercity tool that allows us to travel through time in Berlin is really amazing. Besides letting us see the history of and present of Berlin (I can show it to my neighbor's grandchildren and let them 'travel'). It also honors the cultures lived there through time and like you mentioned in the interview for the UCLA Magazine it is a great way to archive and find any historic facts and architecture. WOW! Tee Hey Todd,

The Hypercity tool that allows us to travel through time in Berlin is really amazing. Besides letting us see the history of and present of Berlin (I can show it to my neighbor’s grandchildren and let them ‘travel’). It also honors the cultures lived there through time and like you mentioned in the interview for the UCLA Magazine it is a great way to archive and find any historic facts and architecture. WOW!

Tee

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