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METAFORIX MAIL Volume 1, 47 July 19, 2001 Sites and insights for the Information Age Apologies for our erratic publication schedule in recent weeks. We're resolving some logistical problems and doing our best to get back on a regular weekly schedule. Meanwhile, thanks for your patience and thanks for reading. CONTENTS AT A GLANCE: ON
MY MIND: Etiquette ON MY MIND [From the Editor] Mother of the Groom We got some wonderful, if not unexpected, news last weekend. My son, Doug, proposed to Carrie, and she accepted. My husband (Doug's stepfather) and I love Carrie and are delighted to have her as a member of the family. This weekend, we're going to meet her mom and a few of her seven siblings.Now for the complications. I know nothing -- but nothing -- about the formalities of engagements and weddings. This is my second marriage, but I wasn't really engaged either time, and neither wedding qualified as "traditional." I don't know what's expected of the groom's family or, for that matter, what's absolutely forbidden. My husband, Larry, has repressed all the details of his first wedding, so he's no help. My friends don't seem to have experience with traditional weddings, either. Doug and Carrie are planning a rather traditional wedding. They and Carrie's mom have already -- "E-day" plus 4 -- begun looking at possible wedding venues for the big day next September. Since Carrie is the seventh of eight children, her mom has had quite a bit of experience, and that's reassuring. But there are other complications. I haven't really had a conversation with Doug's dad and stepmother in several years. Regardless, Larry and I want everything to go smoothly and happily for the kids. Of course, we've let them know we'll do whatever we can to make that happen. True to form, I decided to do some research. There must be some information on the Web about the etiquette of weddings and engagements in an era with a fifty per cent divorce rate. Well, of course there is. But almost all of it seems to be written from the bride's point of view. As for dealing with two sets of parents-of-the-groom, I learned that they are not to be seated in the same row. Even I had figured that one out. In the absence of "expert" counsel, I suppose I'll have to accept my daughter Julie's wise advice. I'll take pleasure in Doug and Carrie's happiness, let the kids run interference with their father, buy a dress that's compatible with the wedding party colors, and keep the worry to a minimum. But if you happen to find a Web site that has good information for clueless, divorced parents of the groom, could you please let me know?
Cordially, Lois C.
Ambash, Editor
INFORMATICON Making
the Most of e-Learning Investments "It's never easy to give up control, but that's what has to happen for e-learning to fulfill its promise. The idea that companies can fully anticipate the learning needs of their employees is so twentieth century. Back in the old days, people usually learned a skill and then rode it on into the sunset. In that environment you could plan their skill requirements. Today, it's a joke to think you can anticipate all the skills that a knowledge worker will need. "The only answer is to surf the shift in power-from the control of instructors and designers, to the control of the learners and performers themselves. Learning is no longer a precondition to doing something. Learning happens anywhere and anytime, even when you may not want it to. The best you can do is to create a rich, multi-dimensional environment with clear performance expectations; the rest is up to the learner."
MEDIA All Confused, All the Time? Yesterday, Wired News ran a piece on how the Internet is affecting schools of journalism and another on changes in broadcast news and sports that "[mimic] the personal computer."The two may not have been planned as companion pieces, but they certainly function that way. Both highlight how rapidly our conventional understandings of news and information are changing, both in print and broadcast media, and how high the stakes are for those seeking to shape or even predict their future over the next few years. The battle in journalism schools, says author Alison Schafer, centers on finding the proper balance between traditional reporting skills and digital presentation skills in the limited number of course hours available. Some professors fear that the pressure created by the Net will lead J schools to produce technically sophisticated, journalistically incompetent graduates. Others, such as George Rorick of the Poynter Institute, are obviously direct descendents of Marshall McLuhan: "The presentation delivers the message. If you don't know how to present something, you are lost in today's marketplace." And students are demanding digital skills that will make them competitive when they graduate. More fundamental questions include whether, or how, the Net is changing the essence of journalism. Is online journalism inherently more specialized? Does it report news, or merely repackage it? Do multimedia capabilities and the physical shape of the computer screen fundamentally affect story layouts? Schafer concludes that journalism professors are teaching students to emulate print reporters in some ways and TV reporters in others. Like print reporters, budding Web journalists are urged to concern themselves with headlines and to use the past tense. Like broadcasters, they are reminded to "present quick, easy-to-digest news nuggets." Easy-to-digest news nuggets? The piece on broadcast news and sports, taken from the Associated Press wire, begins with a question: "Read any good television lately?" Over the next two months, both CNN Headline News and ESPNews will add a great deal more scrolling text to the picture on the screen. In the case of CNN Headline News, business news, headlines, and a weather map will take up almost half the screen. According to the AP, this trend is attributable to the personal computer. It provides "the kind of immediacy and choice [viewers get] online" and paves the way for truly interactive TV. When that technology becomes available, viewers will be able to click on the part of the screen that interests them to get more detailed information. Both CNN and ESPN tested their new formats with focus groups. CNN found that their target audience, "18-49, 25-54," responded positively, while older people found the format confusing. ESPN found that even among its target audience, there was an initial sense of information overload. But once people became familiar with the format, they were able to find the information they wanted. ESPN also found an upper limit to the amount of information the screen could hold. UCLA cognitive psychologist Philip Kellman reports that "people can learn to accept data-dense television," although absorbing so much information is "probably a bit stressful." Perhaps hip young consumers will welcome, or at least adjust to, the new data-rich TV screen. But what about the people who pay the bills? ESPNews will run its expanded data displays even during commercials and CNN Headline News is considering doing so, as well. One industry expert argues that running the data scrolls during commercials is potentially favorable to advertisers, because consumers are less likely to switch stations. Another expert counters that advertisers are not paying to have viewers' attention diverted. So. We have more text on TV; more graphics in journalism; greater market influence on curriculum, content, and format; and a weather eye on the Web. Just another form of convergence.
Access previous issues of Metaforix Mail by date by visiting our archives. Or use the search box on any page of the Metaforix site (www.metaforix.com) to search by keywords. MORE: Chris and Luke Make The New York Times ! "Cool, Blond and Young" And now for the latest update on Chris and Luke, the Haddonfield, NJ, high school seniors who launched a web site last summer with the goal of finding corporate sponsors for their college education.When we last checked in on them, Chris and Luke had accepted an offer from First USA, one of the largest credit card companies in the nation. The two will serve as "corporate ambassadors" for First USA, in exchange for education packages worth $40,000 a year apiece. "In the meantime," says The Times, "they are also attracting millions of dollars in free publicity with an image that is cool, blond and young." In fact, the theme of the Times article, by Kate Zernike, is how well this arrangement reflects the commercialization of American education. The deal is "a perfect synergy between media- and marketing-savvy teenagers and companies desperate to capture the lucrative, yet elusive, youth market." Chris and Luke chose the First USA deal, they said, because it required them to deliver a message, rather than sell a product. They liked First USA's message, because "Everyone can relate to money." Stay tuned.
Newsletter of the Librarians' Index to the Internet The Librarians' Index to the Internet" is "searchable, annotated subject directory of more than 7,900 Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries." This means that -- unlike the list of results you get from a search engine -- all of the resources you find on this site have been examined and categorized by information professionals.Director Carol Leita has recruited and trained a team of about 100 California librarians who index and maintain the site. Anyone may suggest a resource for consideration if it meets the guidelines posted on the site. Each week, Carol Leita issues a free weekly newsletter, highlighting the "top 20" resources added to the index during the previous week. The list is eclectic, the annotations are accurate and concise, and many of the sites turn out to be real finds. Of course, I can't say that my find is your find. Why not follow the link below to begin your free subscription? http://lii.org/search/file/mailinglist
Please note that the links contained in Metaforix Mail are current as of the time of publication. Some of them may no longer be operative at the time you access past issues. To
Volume 1, Issue 46 July 5, 2001 |
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