Neo-netiquetism

Some people relativly new to the Internet are not aware of the Netiquette, but naturally seem to create their own. I was explained for example that a question ending with “?” means no answer is needed (“how are you?”), with “??” means an answer is required if not agreeing (“we meet at 5pm??”) and “???” (“how many people are coming???”) means an answer is required. The same goes with the use of “!” and the use of capital letters (yelling using capital letters is not always interpreted as so). Moreover these people are often very SMS and Chat system literate which tends to affect the way they write emails or online comments. Shortened or phoneticaly spelled words as well as a tendency to emphasise sentences with emotions (increasing use of smileys) are now common. I should start a study the evolution of the Netiquette or what I call the neo-netiquetism

Impressionism and Expressionism in Basel

Day off in Basel to visit the Kunstmuseum and the Beyeler Foundation. “Sites of Impressionism” at the Kunstmuseum featured The combination and juxtaposition of inpressionst painting and photography. The “Expressive!” exhibition at the Beyeler Foundation comprised expressionist paintings, sculptures and specimens of graphic art.

The impressionist style of painting is characterized chiefly by concentration on the general impression produced by a scene or object and the use of unmixed primary colors and small strokes to simulate actual reflected light.

Expressionism: movement in fine arts that emphasized the expression of inner experience rather than solely realistic portrayal, seeking to depict not objective reality but the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in the artist

Special exhibitions put aside, Paul Klee’s “Reicher Hafen (ein Reisebild)” stays my personal favourite in Basel

Reicher Hafen, Tinguely’s fountain, Basel’s skyline

Le concept de système dans la systèmique

En systèmique, le concept de système correspond au besoin d’un outil conceptuel nouveau, capable d’aider à résoudre ou comprendre des problèmes complexes dans des domaines divers.

Un système est un ensemble d’unités en interrelations mutuelles. Il y a la notion d’interrelation et de la totalité (composée d’éléments).

Quatres concepts fondamentaux:

Pour décrire un système, on peut adopter deux points de vues:

Seeking to Understand the Complexity of Social Software

The practice of understanding complexity can also be applied to social software.

Bill Thompson:

Geek-free Internet

As read in an excellent paper about social software “A little less conversation” by Bill Thompson for the BBC Technology News (read on nico’s mind bazar):

In fact, Bill Thompson argues that the current buzzword “social software” is anything new (there have been decades of researches into theses problems) and it is far from being at the beginning of a reorganisation of our society and our essential human nature. However he rightly points out that “it is a vital and necessary stage in the development of our thinking about the Internet, since instead of talking about it as a technology we are arguing about how we relate to other people, and the software and networks are just the ways in which we do it”.

Factors Influencing the Success of Remote Collaborations

Since I have been developping a web-based application to improve workshop preparation and organization, here is a paper to introduce me to the world of Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) and its issues. In summary:

The ability to communicate via computer may decrease the number of face-to-face interactions for individuals who are co-located and increase the number of interactions and collaborations for individuals who are remote. Technology is changing who we can communicate with and how we work. The introduction of groupware led to the increase in efficiency (more effective task perfomance) and reduction in detailed feedback (less detailed information from co-workers – trade-off between efficency and richness of information). When face-to-face interaction is not always possible technology increas interactions and collaboration with the additional benefit of providing shared information.
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A TWiki as web-based collaboration platform

I took some time to setup my own TWiki. It should be useful to do remote collaboration, build a spanish knowledge base and run my projects during my stay at Oviedo, Spain. A TWiki is a web-based collaboration platform that allow to run a project development space, a document management system, a knowledge base, an issue tracking system and other groupware application. Its features include automatic link generation, full text search, authorization based on groups, Web form handling, file attachments to Web pages and revision control of pages and attachments.

Workshop on Socio-Constructivism at ICNEE03

The TECFA Seed team orginized a workshop on “Socio-constructivist scenarios with the Internet for secondary and higher education” at ICNEE03 in Luzern. Beside the one of the TECFA Seed team, there were some interesting contribution including Brainspace, a project lead by Dr. Andreas Ninck of the Berner Fachhochschule. Brainspace is a distributed cognitive system with a socio-constructivist approach of knowledge management. It allows participants to contribute with their “intellectual capital”, share and create their knowledge via Centra and a Swiki. Interesting presentation also included the Creative Chemistry on the Internet by the ETHZ and MicroLessons of the National Institute of Education in Singapore.

Latest paper on the Seed project written by Daniel K Scheider and the TECFA Seed team:

Lovely, foggy, rainy Luzern in May

Cultural Outings around the Lake

Cool weekend by enjoying the Finnish band H.I.M (His Infernal Majesty) at the Balelec festival in Lausanne and the Canadians of Le Cirque du Soleil in Geneva.

H.I.M concert (left), Le Cirque du Soleil (right)

TTC and "morning dej" in Lyon

I went to a TTC concert at the Ninkasi in Lyon. Overall strong performance by the french rappers (Leguman!!!). Some trendsetters (or early adopters) in Lyon were wearing US truck drivers style caps. Far more sophisticated than a Sergio Tacchini outfit with Ferrari F1 caps (as observed the same day).

My new digital camera brought me to a new level of urban tourism. The Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-72 takes pictures (3.2M pixels, 3x optical zoom), sounds and videos. Tired: Taking pictures. Wired: Multimedia captures of athmospheres. Lyon is a very pleasant city. Modern public transportation, not too noisy, clean, laid back with what appears to be smart durable development policies.

Thanks for showing me Lyon around Nico!