Weekend Reading 18 February 2011

For this installment of Weekend Reading, I present: two blogs, one journal article, and another piece by Amy Knight concerning the recent act of terrorism carried out at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport.  Good stuff all around, so enough dawdling- to the blogs!

One of the most visited set of posts here at Peasant Muse are my explorations on boardgames as complex cultural artifacts.  (Visit Part I and Part II)  Increasingly, I find myself interested in how games allow an individual to create and interpret a view of the past by constructing a narrative through play.  That's why I was excited to come across Play the Past, a collaborative blog that discusses some of the deeper issues encountered in gaming.  One example of the type of material they produce would be "Seeing Like Sim City" by Rob MacDougall, which looks at the issues of reading code and procedure in game simulations and how they produce a 'de-historicizing' effect through their operation.  A very intriguing blog worthy of your attention. 

The other blog I want to talk about is the newly debuted Russian History Blog.

via archer10

When I started Peasant Muse, there were not a lot of good examples of quality blogs covering topics related to Russian history.  I felt that this was a gross oversight by members of my profession, as more and more people are increasingly turning to online sources to acquire their knowledge of the world and its historical events.  Blogs are less stuffy than traditional academic papers or journals- you can receive instand feedback (some would debate the worth of this feature) and the ability to control not only your words, but also the media presentation elements presented, allows historians, among others, to bring their expertise to a wider audience.  In an era of budget cuts and questions on the relevancy of liberal arts education, the more exposure we as historians can bring to our profession the better.  The Russian History Blog promises to do just that, and so far they are doing very well.  Right now, there are posts up discussing 'Atrocities in East Prussia, 1914' by Joshua Sanborn (viewpoint provided by a translation of a Russian soldiers war journal) as well as 'Creating Cover Stories: A National Pastime' by Andrew Jenks, discussing  how Yuri Gagarin's historic space flight revealed a contradiction in Soviet politics in that the absolute secrecy surrounding issues of national defense, then proliferating across both the Soviet Union and the USA, often ran aground the desire to share these accomplishments to the larger world public, albeit in a way that still maintained the secrecy by creating a 'distortion zone' around the subjet in question.  A great blog that will, hopefully, spur the development of greater digital awareness by Russian historians.   

Two blogs down, one journal article and Amy Knight to go.

via Timothy Grieg

Digital Culture and Education is the journal I came across after reading Thomas Apperley's  'Gaming Rhythms: Play and Counterplay from the Situated to the Global'- he is a co-editor of the journal, which covers "the impact of digital culture on identity, education, art, society,  culture and narrative within social, political, economic, cultural and historical contexts."  The article I want to pull out from the latest edition is "Digital Publics and Participatory Education."  Here is a quote from the article:

A key part of the curricular approach, therefore, involved intentional forays into public spaces—both material and digital. While explorations of local publics were crucial to this approach (via activities such as observational note-taking in public spaces), we focus here on the ways that sociotechnical networks enabled student participation in broader digital publics—specifically through continual student engagement and conversation within Google Reader [http://reader.google.com], our collaborative course blog, 'Repurposed' [http://repurposed.posterous.com/], and backchannel interactions on the microblogging site Twitter [http://twitter.com/]. Work on our collaborative course blog was very much structured as a public writing project from the outset—all student work created in conjunction with the blog was and still is fully public and available at any time by anyone. Students were given an opportunity to choose a pseudonym for the public writing they produced, but most chose not to do so.

When I was taking a graduate course on Higher Education Pedagogical Practice, we discussed methods of getting students to participate using digital sources.  With the ubiquitous rise of 'smartphones', students of the future will want to have on-line access to course materials and assignments.  Finding ways to get students more engaged- a constant challenge- involves meeting them on ground of which they are familiar.  This article does a great job describing the digital process of having students engage in 'participatory education'.  Definitely a worthy read.

Last, but not least, is Amy Knights new article in the New York Review of Books Blog, "Why the Kremlin Cain't Fight Terrorism".

Photo by Bernt Rostad

Knight addresses the question of why Russia's security forces seem so inept at preventing terror plots from hatching across the nation.  As usual, Knight brings some much needed background to an event that many would be quick to write off as terrorism at its worst- as made clear in the article, the blame lies much more with policies of the FSB than with dedicated terror operatives.  A quote:

This alarming lack of vigilance on the part of the security services is eerily reminiscent of earlier attacks, such as the hostage taking at Moscow’s Dubrovka Theater in 2002 by a group of Chechen terrorists. No one was ever able to explain how the perpetrators, some of whom had earlier been in police custody and then released, managed to gather in Moscow for several months before the attack without attracting the attention of the security services. Similarly, in the case of the terrorist siege of the school in Beslan, North Ossetiya in September 2004, most of the large group of attackers—there were believed to be between thirty and fifty—had been living for several weeks in the woods in the neighboring republic of Ingushetiya without being detected. This, despite the fact that Ingushetiya was on high terrorist alert. The terrorists even managed to conceal a large number of weapons in the school before the attack. It is difficult to explain such incompetence, given the vast investigative and punitive powers of the security services. Whether in some cases the police or security officers are bribed by insurgents or whether they are simply negligent, they are rarely punished.

That's all for this installment of Weekend Reading- those lucky enough to have President's Day (US Holiday) off, take advantage of your three-day weekend.  Maybe by taking some time and reading what I posted above?  Now that's a productive plan.

Wednesday Videos: High Speed and DIY Scanners Edition

I want to say 'hello' to any new viewers of the Muse- I have recently been so honored as to have a link to this blog displayed on the newly debuted 'RussianHistoryBlog.org', and traffic here has spiked due to the exposure.  Welcome!  Peasant Muse does indeed talk about Russian history, but also covers subjects like the 'Digital Humanities' and the digital revolution reconfiguring the way we interact and produce knowledge at a fundamental level.  I use this blog to help articulate my ideas on these subjects, so feel free to comment if you have a critique or additional information I should read.  

On (most) Wednesdays, I post videos on a variety of topics.  Today, I've found two good examples for viewing: one uber high-speed camera footage that, run at normal speed of 30-32 fps, brings new meaning to slow motion, the other a great introduction to a DIY project that puts the means, once reserved for the expensive Google Books project, to scan titles within the reach of mere mortals.  

First, Tom Guilmette and his adventures with the new Phantom Flex in a Vegas hotel room. 



Way too cool.  The next video is Daniel Reetz showing off his DIY book scanner design at the Berkman Center at Harvard.  More info can be found at his site, diybookscanner.org - check it out if you need a fun project that will definitely impress your nerdy friends.

Weekend Reading for 4 February 2011

Friday is here, and for most of you it comes with a douse of super cold air and possible snowflakes aplenty.  Not for me mind you- there are definitely advantages to living in the Columbia Valley, one of them being fairly steady temperatures at around 40 degrees.  Yeah, it rains but not that much (generally) and it definitely makes you appreciate the sun- but it rarely goes below freezing and that is something I can get behind.  (Although the Kansan in me does occasionally miss the cold- but just occasionally)

But on to the Weekend Reading.

via Margo Conner

I really only have one source to point out, but woah it is a doozy!  Jonathan Stray, an editor for the AP who blogs about digital culture issues and journalism, recently put together a reading list for what he terms 'computational journalism'.  Here is a quote from his post, explaining the purpose of pulling together this list:

There is something extraordinarily rich in the intersection of computer science and journalism. It feels like there’s a nascent field in the making, tied to the rise of the internet. The last few years have seen calls for a new class of  “programmer journalist” and the birth of a community of hacks and hackers. Meanwhile, several schools are now offering joint degrees. But we’ll need more than competent programmers in newsrooms. What are the key problems of computational journalism? What other fields can we draw upon for ideas and theory? For that matter, what is it? 

I’d like to propose a working definition of computational journalism as the application of computer science to the problems of public information, knowledge, and belief, by practitioners who see their mission as outside of both commerce and government. This includes the journalistic mainstay of “reporting” — because information not published is information not known — but my definition is intentionally much broader than that. To succeed, this young discipline will need to draw heavily from social science, computer science, public communications, cognitive psychology and other fields, as well as the traditional values and practices of the journalism profession.

I am particularly interested in the 'Vizualization' section, as that directly concerns some of my efforts in bringing the study of Russian peasants to a larger audience through more accessible media than books or lectures.  Lots of good choices here, and definitely something worthy of any historians attention.   

Android Finally Has Blogger App

I'm typing this post on my Samsung Moment (the slow soldier) using the recently unveiled Blogger app for Android.  Seems a little strange this wasn't done sooner, given the power of cellular mobility- not a lot of options posting-wise.  No choice of font for text- you can add a photo from your mobile camera, or select one from the gallery on your phone. 
Could be cool- just have to wait and see.

Wednesday Videos 2 February 2011

Another Wednesday, another set of *very cool* videos.  By *very cool* I mean one interesting lecture and two interesting 'artsy' selections from my Vimeo account.  First, the lecture.



John Palfrey is the new Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law at Harvard, and this is his opening lecture discussing how he sees the legal practice entering a new digital age, with digital  information techniques reshaping the way the law is carried out.  Obviously, the digital revolution will reconfigure any profession that deals primarily with knowledge or the production of knowledge, and John Palfrey should be commended for his attempt to outline a path towards the future for law across this country.  

And now for something completely different.  



And for an encore, I present such a badass video using scenes from Blade Runner.