Comments on: Cheese photos, speedcabling, laptops and whatnot

By: bigcitylib

bigcitylib — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:14:04 +0000

Weird that this story should come just when I come upon your story about using a cell-phone as digital note taker:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=533358&in_page_id=1770

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:41:31 +0000

Speaking of trolls

By: Eszter

Eszter — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:00:42 +0000

HH, since you're new to CT, I thought I'd point you to our policy on trolling.

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:58:02 +0000

hh, I've been writing a bit about the topic of videoconferencing, for example here. As others have said, an important part of blogs (or at least of CT) is that we cover lots of different things in lots of different ways. So I'd suggest you might want to be a bit more polite about the fact that the first post you read wasn't what you expected. You're welcome to a full refund if you're still dissatisfied.

By: Dan Simon

Dan Simon — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:52:33 +0000

Sorry—I can’t resist mentioning this: in my final year of high school, the school play was the musical, “Cabaret”. Nora Young—the host who interviewed you—played Sally Bowles. I was Herr Schultz.

Small world, isn’t it? I bet Henry, John, Chris and Daniel are sorry they banned me now…

By: HH

HH — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:15:41 +0000

“There have been experiments with online conferences, but they don’t yet seem to have worked very well.”

Pick a number for petroleum cost per barrel, and we will eventually get there. There are over one billion people on the public Internet. Why is it difficult to connect the dots? Speaking before small groups after traveling thousands of miles is grossly inefficient, and persists mainly as ritual. That the academics charged with discerning trends in Internet society should do so at conferences and seminars is just silly.

By: Kenny Easwaran

Kenny Easwaran — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:17:47 +0000

Re 7: I’m sure Eszter’s work can say a lot more in detail about this, but it’s clear that regardless of the possibilities of electronic communication, people still get a lot of useful communication done when they actually encounter each other in person that they wouldn’t have done otherwise. There have been experiments with online conferences, but they don’t yet seem to have worked very well.

By: laura

laura — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:05:31 +0000

re: technology and food shopping. I’ve noticed a lot of guys shopping while talking with their wives on their cell phones. The wives are directing them around the store and telling them what brands to get. My husband isn’t that helpless, but he does occasionally have to call for help.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:27:19 +0000

I just hope this sort of thing won’t lead to you eventually being mostly remembered as “the lady who thought of taking pictures of cheese labels”!

By: HH

HH — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:24:13 +0000

Is it not strange to burn jet fuel to stand in a hall showing PowerPoint slides that explain how electronic communication is changing society?

Why is it not evident that the geographic organization of academic institutions is now bloc obsolete and that global faculties, organized purely by discipline, will replace them? How long before the dinosaur’s tail moves?

By: Eszter

Eszter — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:39:03 +0000

Thanks for that. Sorry I posted about this so late. I never know the right balance about these things.

Okay, off I go to spend time with my hosts.

By: c.l. ball

c.l. ball — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:36:42 +0000

Now, if my iPhone was able to receive a live-blog I could listen in if IAS were broadcasting. “Internet in your pocket”—sure, but you can’t see anything if it’s in your pocket.

By: c.l. ball

c.l. ball — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:34:23 +0000

Re 2, CT is much admired because it blends heads-ups on major substantive issues across academic fields with quirky subjects. Hargittai’s posts—often too far between as of late—frequently link to unusual subjects that I often would not have heard about otherwise. She also does blog about relevant sociology research.

Like #1, I wish that she had posted it sooner. I would have attended, but promised my 3-year-old a trip to the Children’s Museum in St. Paul. this afternoon.

By: Eszter

Eszter — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:33:03 +0000

It’s crazy how little it takes, HH, isn’t it?

Thanks, Lisa, sorry to miss you!

By: HH

HH — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:40:17 +0000

My curiosity piqued by the inclusion of CT in a recent top 50 blogs list, I came here to find this? Is it really too much to expect a leading sociology blogger to say something substantive?

This isn’t even typing, it’s blogorrhea.