The Pitts/Stripling Research Model (PSRM) is a ten-step process. The first two processes are rudimental steps, but critical for any writing and research project. My current DTC 475 (Digital Diversity) capstone project topic is about the Semantic Web. I was introduced to the topic in another class, DTC 356 (Research and Rhetoric), and have spent nearly two months with the topic. So steps one and two of the PSRM, choosing a topic/get an overview, were well underway once I committed to this project. Steps three and four of PSRM inspired the medium we chose to use, a video documentary, and the capstone project began to develop. A submitted proposal fulfilled steps three and four. My partner and I had to focus are topic and the proposal became our working thesis.

Steps five and six of PSRM, formulating questions/plan for research, helped us vet out relevant information. Our proposal, a working thesis, acted as a filter. As we encountered pertinent information we wanted to use in our documentary we ran it through a filter—our thesis. This process reassured us the information we were encountering and considering to use related to our original proposal/thesis. The project is twenty minutes of narrative and video production. Without relatable narrative, our video would fail to make sense. Our narrative relied solely on asking questions and vetting research material. The best way to go about this was to filter the information back through our working thesis.

Once a substantial amount of credible and applicable research was established we used steps seven and eight of the PSRM, finding/analyzing/evaluating evidence. Thorough research helps facilitate good writing. When the process of writing relevant narrative began, which was my responsibility, I found it was possible to write with a focus. I had integrated, concluded, and conceptualized my research. I produced the needed twenty minutes of narrative and helped storyboard the information with my partner, who was in charge of producing video. Together we evaluated and analyzed the narrative I produced. At this point, we discovered a transformation and synthesis of all the information we had encountered while researching for this project. I had managed to create an original narrative based on thorough research, analysis, and evaluation of evidence.

When the narrative was established, by process of steps one through eight of the PSRM, the last two steps could take place. The most exciting steps of the PSRM, steps nine and ten establishing conclusions/create and present final product, are currently under way. My partner and I are reaping the rewards of all the hard work we put into researching, writing, and producing our video documentary. We are producing some of the best work we have ever created at WSUV.

Without knowing it, I have been using the PSRM while writing and researching at WSUV. But seeing the model and writing about my recent experience with it will help immensely in the future. I plan to continue researching and writing once I have completed my degree at WSUV. My work will need to reflect transformation and synthesis of information. In doing so I can earn the respect of scholars and publishers and perhaps be rewarded financially—a true measure of success.    

Work Cited

Information Age Inquiry. 2006. Danny Callison, Ed.D, and Annette Lamb,

Ph.D. 28 Nov. 2008. http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/stripling.htm.

Intellectual property rights have been an issue of controversy for several hundred years. Out of ignorance, I assumed this was only a problem that developed in the 20th century when mass global communication and easier access to information became so common-place. Ironically, written publication which was met with controversy when Gutenburg first created the printing press is now the center of the argument over intellectual property today. Despite all of the technological advancements since Gutenburg, it is simply the published written word that once again is in question. 

This article goes a little too in-depth for me in regards to the issue of intellectual property. However, the article does demonstrate how immensely complicated the issue is. Especially when both sides of the argument are diametrically opposed. I am someone who is sitting on the sidelines, along with most information consumers and producers, and find it hard to take sides about the issue of intellectual property. Nonetheless, I do feel that one person in particular in this article sums up the issue succinctly. Ann Wells Branscomb states, “if we as a society do not make sure that providers are compensated for their efforts, the information age may turn out to be a short-lived footnote to history.”

I may be naive in my thinking but isn’t the crux of the issue over intellectual property this: people simply need to be compensated for their copy written and published efforts. If something is published and has a copyright then the creator, author, artist, or whoever needs to be paid or asked permission if their intellectual property is to be reused, presented, or republished in a format for public consumption.

The organizations fighting over this issue are presenting their sides with so much doom and gloom possibilities. I find it hard to believe that the future of publishing, as stated in this article, will become:

“apocalyptic” or “a hemorrhage of lost profits” or the “creative industries will collapse”

Obviously, both sides are concerned with the future of copyright and intellectual property. Two major factors are definitely a cause for concern. One reason is money. Publishing companies, authors, and other producers of intellectual properties have a lot to lose if there is an information-free-for-all taking place. Another reason are the individuals who passionately defend the free flow of information amongst the masses. They are questioning what information is and can it only be obtained with money. Unfortunately, both sides believe they are defending truth and freedom which further complicates the issue of copyright and intellectual property.

Is Google making us stupid? I don’t think so. Nicholas Carr’s article, in The Atlantic, brings up some interesting points about the future of information gathering and how online searches are changing the way we process information.  

The human body can adapt to any situation in order to survive. To survive in this age of information our brains are adapting to the tidal wave of data that is splashed upon us daily. The Internet provides most of us with more information than we need. Because of this our brains are perhaps learning to sift and filter out what is necessary for our survival—individually and collectively.  

Carr states he is not reading as many books and has a hard time paying attention when he does read. Maybe this is becoming true of many people. I say. So what? I feel we are in an information age revolution. To be in it is to be online. Google is at the forefront of this revolution. They are changing the way we think. But I don’t believe they are controlling the way we think. We are the information architects. We can build and construct a life online, and in turn it can be financially rewarding. But only for those who can assimilate themselves in a digital world.  

Perhaps people are forgoing book reading because it is a passive activity. In reality, books don’t help us pay bills or do the laundry. Unless a person is pursuing a scholarly endeavor, you can probably get by without ever picking one up. Today’s pertinent information is digital, it moves fast, is multiple media-authored, and makes people money. I do not believe Google or any digital medium is making us stupid. It is changing the way think, and how we process information within our brains. That’s an information revolution!

I can’t relate so much to the larger aspect of the retrieval issue as it pertains to big business IS and IT systems. But I have been privy to a few issues when it comes to selling IS or IT system and/or support in the business world. Competition is high and often times salespeople representing information systems will sell a bill of goods that doesn’t meet the company’s needs. Without going into great detail, I know my wife spends a lot of time helping clients get out of such poor information systems. I thought of this when I reviewed the stats of hardware failure rates amongst large companies contained in the latter half of this article.

I thought this quote stood out the most in regards to information retrieval. “The answer is that developing a good question, searching to find the right resource, plus a viable methodology to get the result is quite enough to get nearer to the answer.”

I think there is a motto here, or at least until technology can out pace information production…Ask more questions. Request less information.

From the shoreline of the blogosphere sea, I have geared up (thanks to cabala.com) and have decided to head into the mountains in search of big game bloggers. I want to bag a trophy blog and have it mounted to my browser so I can proudly see it everyday.

The first big game blogger that crossed my cross-hair sites is media giant cnn.com. CNN has ten blogging sites to visit. I decided to check out Jack Cafferty’s blog, caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com. Cafferty’s site invites me to “join the conversation.” This is interesting because he offers up a question, people respond, and that’s the end of the conversation. I assume he uses these comments to get a sense of what his audience is thinking about. The comments posted are the most thought out and interesting I have encountered so far in the blogosphere. I still am not motivated at all to chime in with my two cents. That is what my blog is for. Anyway, Mr. Cafferty does have a book out titled, It’s Getting Ugly Out There (I am sure it can be purchased on amazon.com). I’m going to let this one get away and keep on hunting.

I am starting to get hungry. I decide to zoom in on food blogging sites. I chase down foodnetwork.com. But I am disappointed that the only blogs they offer are behind the scenes blogs and blogs about the “Next Food Network Star.” Nothing of any sustenance there, I choose to move on.

I decide I better explore familiar territory and pursue a blog that may be of interest to me. I put my gun away and give up on bagging a trophy blog. I opt for a camera. BestBuy.com is a great place to shop for cameras. I decide to get a close up of Anthony Bourdain. For those of you who do not know him, Anthony is a Chef, a world traveler, and a best-selling author. I admire the man, enjoy his outlook on life, and love his hit television show on the Travel Channel, travelchannel.com, called “No Reservations,” travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Anthony_Bourdain. I snap my picture with my Canon Power Shot A590 and mount it on my browsers wall.

My discoveries in the blogosphere have revealed to me the world of blogging. Unfortunately, I am still unclear why it is such a popular activity. But I do understand that people really enjoy writing about their life—that’s cool. And there are blogs about everything—can’t complain about that. And most anyone can comment on most blogs—not a fan of that.

I plan to keep exploring blog sites, adding to my blog site, and researching the possibilities (if they don’t exist already) of blogs that maintain an active dialogue with their audience i.e. a blogger posts something, people comment, and the blogger responds to the posted comments. My adventure will continue in the blogosphere and happy blogging to you.

Word cloud #1: 

http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/205004/Word_Collage_from_OceanUp.com

Word cloud #2:  

http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/205034/Word_Collage_from_CNN.com._morning_ticker_blog

Compare and contrast the choice of words used in each and guess the demographic.

I think these clusters of words are revealing. This simple exercise can easily help advertisers figure out their target demographic.

“The monkey in the corner wrote the lesson in his book.” Roger Waters

It seems to me that people love to write about me. No not me, but many bloggers rant, write, and offer personal insight with their blogs, and there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, writing is healthy and therapeutic. Nonetheless, I don’t think all this personal information from others is necessary, especially when most of it is followed up with lame commentary. But this is only my humble opinion, and anyone can make some lame comments on my point of view if they feel it is important to do so.

What is captivating to me are the persons, places, or things everyone is blogging about. What would it be like to be the center of every ones blogging attention? Maybe it’s what people want from the blogging world. They want to be the smack shot into a junkies vein, the politician, the musician, the writer, the actor, the radio show host, the destination people travel to; the bird, the word, the poet, the comedian, the restaurant, the wine, the bar, the car, perhaps a particular star, Mars, the moon, a baby baboon… 

The lists of blogs and blog topics are endless and vast as the universe. With a good telescope you can catch a glimpse of what is out in the universe. A blog host site is an excellent telescope. Like the ones you can find at www.telescopes.com (there’s a 30% off sale going on right now). The blog host offers a chance to use a telescope and catch a glimpse into “other worlds” in the vast universe of the blogosphere.

Where does a new blogger start? I have chosen to gracefully belly-flop into the sea of blogs wearing a pair of plaid Ron Jon board shorts, ronjons.com, and the appropriate snorkeling gear from Body Glove, bodyglove.com. If your about to make a complete ass out of yourself—do it in style.

While wading through this sea of words I thought I would take a look at the bigger fish first. For two consecutive days a blog called, oceanupped.wordpress.com, has topped the charts. Please visit this blog and make sense of it for yourself. It seems to me this site is for people who like to see pictures taken of them and then people make insightful and well thought out comments such as this: hbewf says, “MAYBE KEVIN IS SOMEWHERE ELSE. fuck people automatically assume everyone hates kevin. CHILL. im sure he was off somewhere else having fun. nick is hott. selena is not that pretty. and whos wedding is this?”

Hbewf’s captivating comments and loquacious lexicon have scared the bubbles out of me. I have got to get to the surface for a breath of air.

Swimming closer to shore and in a bit more murky water I visit the second most popular blog, mudflats.wordpress.com. The writer for Mudflats lives in Alaska and is a professional writer. The blog is well written. His home blog page is elegant and well organized. The blogger is a democrat and privy to what is going on politically with Sarah Palin and Alaska. All of these reasons are why this blog is popular. However, the waters are cold near Alaska and I would need to purchase more gear from bodyglove.com to survive in the dark deep depths off the shores of Alaska.

Welcome to Randy’s blog. This blog entry is the first in a series of three. The methodology behind blogging is a mystery to me. I plan to search for answers to my questions by visiting blog’s and reporting what I’ve learned along the way.

First, I have to start with the word blog. Has anyone ever questioned this word before? Think of the words you can make ending with og: frog, bog, fog, grog, hog, slog, nog, smog. With the exception of dog (a cat lover may disagree) og is not a pleasant sounding letter combination. Where the hell did this word come from? Well someone dropped the “we” from weblog and now we have blog.

It’s strange to me that the we was removed from weblog. The host for my blog is http://wordpress.com. I searched wordpress using the words—why blog? There are almost 25,000 blog entries answering this question. I scanned several blog entries. The overall vibe I’m picking up is: connectivity and a place where people can share thoughts. O.K. If this is the case, have bloggers completely forgotten the we in weblog? The pronoun we is defined as a speaker and others. Sadly, there seems to be a lot speakers and not a lot of others. I am basing this on the lack of (in most cases none at all) comments posted after most blogs. There seems to be mostly me in the blogging world and not much we.   

Call me a narcissist, but if I’m going to wax poetically or ramble on incessantly about this or that then I want to know for certain someone is listening, reacting, responding, and most importantly paying for what I have to say. Otherwise, I’m shutting up…

At least until me blog’s again.

Have a seat. Let’s talk about blogs. 

After reading this article a question comes to mind about Meta sites. Will sites that have a kind of “monopoly” on information need to be broken up so the distribution of information is not controlled and distributed by one Meta site? Large websites are often driven by advertising dollars. Advertisers, especially those that provide sufficient capital to a company, may have influence over the information that is provided on the Meta site. Jarien refers to this in the article when he says, “The hope seems to be that the most Meta site will become the mother of all bottlenecks and receive infinite funding.” The capitalist system will dominate web culture, but it remains to be seen that any one company is creating a “monopoly” on information or ever be able to do so.