We never encounter customer service directly, only its representatives. Every quest after customer service is a Kafkaesque ordeal, in the purest possible sense. We are all the man from the country, waiting at the threshold to customer service without ever entering. Like the guard, customer service representatives exist to wait us out, to convince us […]
via The Customer Service Representative and the Messiah — An und für sich
Virtually every time I travel to a new place, I find myself fantasizing about starting over there. Mostly the feeling sneaks up on me, as it did this summer while I walked on a coastal trail above the Pacific Ocean in Victoria, Canada. Wandering past giddy children and guitar-strumming buskers and off-leash dogs that never…
via Psychology debunks the idea that we’d be happier if we lived somewhere else — Quartz
A must read for Mountainair NM and Yuma CO. Are you paying attention?
A couple of days ago I was having a Twitter discussion with Sandra, from Nebraska. Sandra is hard-core in the ‘farm-to-school’ movement. Actually it really shouldn’t even be called a movement since it’s just common sense. She posted an article from NPR discussing the fact that revenue from farmers markets nationwide have more or less peaked and in some locals even declined. There are areas that are still seeing increases, but overall the trend is not what you’d expect considering all the publicity of the last few years.
The article detailed several of possible causes. According to Sarah Low, a USDA economist and lead author on the report; “Farmers are increasingly using middlemen to sell to restaurants, grocery stores and distributors. With an increasing share of their produce, dairy or meat going to those channels, some farmers may choose to forgo the farmers market.” Simply put, the farmers market phenomenon may just be…
View original post 1,396 more words
NYC and #walking the #city
Having recently written about some of the physical challenges I am beginning to have with walking, it seems odd, even to me, that today’s post is about walking. But this is not about walking just anywhere; its about being on the amazing High Line in the heart of the Meatpacking District of Manhattan.
The Highline is an amazing architectural accomplishment that you can read about online. It was created by two New Yorkers who had a vision for this abandoned, 30-feet-above-ground train track that once served as transport for the products of the meatpacking industry in mid-Manhattan.
For me, the Highline ranks right up there with the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and Ellis Island as a destination for those seeking the “best” of NY experiences. Created for the public, it now serves millions of visitors annually as it has become one of the most popular attractions in…
View original post 447 more words
re-blogged for the Yuma County Colorado sunset
Matt Smyrl, CCI Project Manager, announced last week that the Yuma County, CO Assessor’s office is now live on RealWare!
Thank you to Yuma County for choosing CCI and for your efforts during the converstion.
Special thanks to the CCI RW team (Jennifer, Chip, James and Maya)!
What will museums become in the future?
To explore this question the Center for the Future of Museums sponsored a story competition. Creators had to imagine what the future of education could look like, with museums playing a leading role: “Tell us a story…about a future of education in which museums play a starring role.”
(Full disclosure: I helped judge the contest)
The resulting narratives imagined diverse futures, including multiple generations using virtual reality, autonomous historical characters, a megadatabase, augmented reality gallery installation tests, a new form of robotic displays, One peered into an inbox 25 years from now. Click here to see the winners, along with all of the other creative submissions. That’s a lot of imagination and innovation at work – go explore!
ProPublica, the non-profit public interest news organization, recently did a neat little feature on Dr. Adam Grant’s (U.Penn/Wharton) new book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World (2016). Here’s the lede by Cynthia Gordy:
In his new book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, Adam Grant examines the circumstances that give rise to truly original thinkers and groundbreaking ideas. Throughout Originals, the Wharton School of Business professor shares stories from the fields of business, politics and sports, and his chapter exploring the psychology of speaking truth to power – whether it be federal whistleblowers, or a middle-level employee with an innovative idea – holds several lessons for investigative journalists and the people on which they report.
The feature includes a podcast with Dr. Grant interviewed by ProPublica reporter David Epstein. Here are some of the highlights:
View original post 363 more words
This Thursday on the Forum we have the one and only… Jim Groom.
If you don’t know Jim, he’s one of the first and longest-running edubloggers, having written at Bavatuesdays for more than a decade. There you can find his thoughts on the intersection of education and technology, with a strong helping of culture high and low. At the University of Mary Washington Jim inspired the edupunk movement, and then invented and taught the famous digital storytelling counter-MOOC DS106. He also kicked off the Domain of One’s Own movement. And now he’s moved to Italy, where he helps run the innovative and excellent Reclaim Hosting company. A brilliant man, a ferocious innovator, a generous collaborator, and a good friend.
I plan on asking him about the Domain of One’s Own idea and practice, which should lead to a discussion of Reclaim Hosting, and from that point on to…
View original post 64 more words
Portrait of Henri Bergson by J.E. Blanche 1891 to illustrate Henri Bergson article. Uploaded from http://www.marcelproust.it/gallery/bergson.htm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In November 2015, I attended the Threats to Openness conference held at Northumbria University. The conference had a specific aim “discuss the growing threats to citizens’ rights to access public archives across the digital world.” Although we did not discuss what was meant by openness, it was understood mainly to be defined by the right of access or the right to access public archives. However, this provides only a limited sense of how openness was used during the conference. Participants and speakers regularly referred to difference between access and openness noting that they were often confused. One does not always imply the other. As openness can be understood differently, the threats to it will vary with responses that can potentially conflict with efforts to help with access. What was missing…
View original post 3,541 more words
What do a medical diagnosis and education reform have in common?
Two things: (1) complex matters reduced to a few letters, and (2) failing children.
First, consider ADHD. Below are some readings to help interrogate how this diagnosis has many significant problems, misdiagnosis and over-diagnosis among them, some of which are related to the high-stakes accountability movement in education:
Next, a growing list of alphabet (toxic) soup is assaulting our schools and students under the umbrella of “state takeover” approaches, targeting mostly high-poverty and racial minority schools.
RSD, ASD, OSD, and EAA—among others—have gained political momentum built on propaganda and not results. Below is a reader addressing the failures…
View original post 98 more words
