Disqus - Latest Comments for dmueller

Re: why does the web need to be “social”?

Derek Mueller — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 13:34:46 -0000

I've felt a comparable lurch/hitch the "social" appended to "social media." And I've mostly attributed it to Latour's thoughtful qualification. After Reassembling, social cannot circulate as freely or durably as an unchecked adjectival good. Do you have any thoughts about alternative phrases? I was thinking something like dopple/double might capture the tightly packed, back-to-back motivations wrapped into so-called social media, partly oriented toward interpersonal connection and partly driven by consumerism/advertising saturation. But taking such rephrasing seriously fades quickly in the shadow of "social media" as the reference that has perhaps too commanding a terministic dominance.

Re: what is the topic of composition?

Derek Mueller — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 10:40:26 -0000

I'm curious how you see alternatives to topical invention fitting here, Alex. I'm thinking primarily about chora, though I don't see chora in itself substituting for topoi necessarily. I've oftentimes found topical approaches to writing instruction too itinerant (often stiflingly so). But when composition encompasses disparate inventional methods (or hodoi), it seems to me to become more exploratory, attendant to contingencies, and generative, as well. Foregrounding methods/paths/hodoi cannot altogether eclipse topics, of course, but it might set topics in faint relief, positioning them more as a backdrop to focal concerns, e.g., research and writing methods, rhetorical considerations, genre circulation and performance, etc. Maybe? Possibly this is not far off from what you mean by "the primary task of teaching the disciplinary practices of rhetorical and compositional analysis."

Re: pursuing a busted ontology

Derek Mueller — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:33:35 -0000

"What kind of inquiry begins with the questions answered?" Terrific question, Alex. What /kind/, indeed.

I wonder if it's useful to factor in the degree of bustedness, or an alternation between bustedness and fitness. Unchecked ontologies and legacy theories are expedient, and their expedience seems to me a useful resource /in some cases/. Investigating these matters takes time. It is slow-going, inefficient, costly even. I pose this not so much because I wish to smooth out the presumed value in speculative realism but because your entry got me thinking about what Latour explains in Science in Action, that the opening of black boxes is resource-intensive. Reckoning with busted ontologies seems similarly demanding.

Re: Reactions to CMU strike: From anger to support - themorningsun.com

Derek Mueller — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:34:42 -0000

I didn't mean to trivialize the strike by calling it a chicken fight, speechcreature. I wasn't thinking only about CMU's faculty, either. My point is that these strikes happen as a matter of course and they are resolved relatively quickly because both sides of the table are deeply invested in resolution. I am fully behind the FA, and I think it is tremendously important for the FA to exercise the strike option when the administration is tightening benefits unjustifiably. So, no, I don't want to appear to be taking the strike lightly. But I do think there is also a degree of posturing (from both sides) to acknowledge in faculty strikes, and I doubt this one will last longer than other recent strikes at universities in Michigan.

Re: Reactions to CMU strike: From anger to support - themorningsun.com

Derek Mueller — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 02:06:15 -0000

These strikes are unfortunate chicken fights. But when was the last time a faculty union strike lasted more than a few days? Most don't (the longest in history have gone just over 80 days). They are a means of calling the administration's bluff when there is clear, convincing evidence that the university can reasonably accommodate requests from the union. I see the anger as misplaced and unhelpful. It does nothing to improve the situation or move it toward resolution. Instead of raging about money spent (or reporting on such raging for that matter), there ought to be more exploration of and explanation of the root disagreements. Here's hoping everyone in Mt. Pleasant can take a deep breath and settle this.

Re: How to Use Barcodes at Conferences (and Why You Might Want To)

Derek Mueller — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 08:20:36 -0000

There may be minor solutions for this, Nels. I used QR codes in my CCCC poster in early April. The codes linked to audio files I'd hosted in YouTube, and YouTube allowed me to provide the full transcripts of the audio clips using closed captioning. So, while the poster "spoke," there was a full-text script available. And as an alternative to the codes, for folks who couldn't scan the codes with their smartphones (or who couldn't pick up a hotel wifi signal), there was a direct link on the poster, so those materials would be available another way. Granted, it's not perfect, and it doesn't answer every one of the accessibility concerns, but there are reasonably robust solutions that require of QR-users only a few additional steps.

Re: the database and the narrative

Derek Mueller — Sun, 03 May 2009 15:40:43 -0000

Seesmic video reply from Disqus.

Re: disqus and seesmic

Derek Mueller — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:25:24 -0000

Does it work?