Unit 5 Report

First of all, I have to say that I LOVE the idea of selling books in vending machines - I just may move to Paris to experience the thrill of going to buy a book in the middle of the night! Everyone makes fun of me because I have books ALL over my house - I have books in every room! Sometimes, you just have to READ! It brings up the idea of being able to access information anywhere, at any time. I know we all have the Internet and can pretty much read about anything we want whenever we want, but there's just something about holding a new book in your hands and Maxi-Livres appreciates that! It seems that when we think of the 'information age' we think of digital information, but we need quick access to other forms of information too!

The article on Finnish technology was great - I know that Finland is the home of hackers everywhere, but I didn't know that their government was so involved with keeping everyone connected. One great thing I learned from the article is how every aspect of the Finnish government is getting involved with information technology and putting money behind it. They also see the importance of testing out new technologies on university students - they are truly the perfect audience for this - they don't have a lot at stake and they are adept at using technologies.

The website also mentioned Finland's famous ftp download site: ftp.funet.fi - I have downloaded software from here, many, many times. But Finland has always been a leader in technology - Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, is from Finland and many, many hackers call Finland home. Finland is seen as the leader in open source technology - here's part of an online book from Salon - that talks about Finland as an open source society - well actually, they call it THE open source society. It is also the mother-ship, so to speak, of hackers everywhere. Pekka Himanen, another famous Finnish technologist, even wrote a book entitled 'The Hacker Ethic'. Finland is where most "good" hackers go - by good I mean those who do NOT hack for evil and they are huge proponents of an open source society.

For the US to be this supportive of technology, the government would have to step in and WANT to conquer the digital divide. At this point, I'm not so sure that our politicians care about getting information available to people on the other side of the divide - those who cannot access the Internet. If our government would take responsibility for this problem and put some money behind, we could all be better leaders in the information age.

The Bologna Declarations was interesting to read - but I got the most out of the Wikipedia site. I had no idea that European higher education systems were so different! I can't imagine the difficulties that arise from speaking different languages, having different histories and cultures. Every University has its own traditions that should be honored but it is important for the European countries to have a system so that degrees can be transferred across countries.

The Domesday Book by King William the Conqueror has both good and bad qualities. If I were one of the people living in England it would be very bad - who wants to be taxed by a king you don't want ruling the land? However, the fact that he ordered such a survey and was successful is amazing. By ordering two sets of people to go to each home, it must have taken a LONG time! I found this map on Google that shows all of the places survey data was taken from:

Can you imagine sending 2 people per area all over England question everyone?! They even ranked land owners, essentially created a hierarchical class-based system - yuck! History Magazine has this drawing of King William online:

I love the fact that I can see these documents online, read about the history, and see pictures of the actual book (below)! The beauty of the digital age is that it's easy to learn about other cultures and the histories of other places all in the comfort of your home! Of course, I would love to go visit all these places we have seen online, but until I win the lottery, that's just not possible :). I think it is a great resource for kids and adults who are interested in history and want to absorb as much information as possible. Digitizing documents and histories like this supports lifelong learning - and that is always a very good thing.

On to the British Library! I have fallen in love with the British Library's learning site! I mean, look at this:

It's a star-chart from Medieval times and shows how people viewed the body in relation to astrology! Very cool! And here we have Virtuvius's image of the perfect beauty:

Apparently, he believed in the beauty of nature and symmetry. I love that he respected nature so much - especially when it comes to the body. This is a little off topic, but I hate the fact that today's media images do NOT respect nature at all - we're supposed to starve our bodies to be beautiful (at least in their eyes) - and I HATE that. It makes me want to take over the marketing world and fix it! And you MUST click on the Victorian Freak Show gallery!

Now back to the topic - check out the BL's disinformation section. They have a disinformation movie that purposefully tells you both truth and lies about history and you have to figure out which is which. They call it the British Lie-brary! They mention a lot of things you would never hear in the United States - we get lied to daily by everyone from our parents to politicians to media. I posted this on blackboard, but I think it is worth re-iterating!

When I looked through BL's "Memorable Front Pages" I was very saddened by the Titanic pictures - apparently the newspapers reported 'No Lives Lost' for a few days until the harsh truth came in. It's fascinating to think how hard it was to get information back then, when we have so much available to us now. And it is not just the Internet that helps as much as it is the fact that we are constantly connected. The news is changing - there are bloggers everywhere who keep us all informed and up to date! Dan Gillmor's book "We the Media" discusses how journalists and bloggers started out at war with each other and how news sites (like CNN and the BBC) have bloggers of their very own. The book is available online and I highly recommend it! Dan Gillmor actually visited SILS a couple of years ago to talk about blogging and media. (Again I posted this on Blackboard but I want to reiterate! - I think everyone should read this book!)

The French National Library had a beautiful websites and their digital expositions were incredible! It is yet another place for me to get lost in! My favorite thing to do when I'm poking around on the Internet is to look at the Louvre's site. It is a place I could stay lost in for hours! They don't just show the paintings and sculptures - the website gives you a full history and artistic analysis for them! One of my secret loves is Greek and Etruscan art:

I love looking through this site as a way to take a break for school work!

As always, I enjoyed the tourist-y videos - it gives a personal feeling to the places we are electronically visiting! I am going to Tumbleweed when I go to Paris! I found their website and I will be ordering soon! I think I wrote a little too much about this unit but I really enjoyed learning about Western Europe. There are just too many different things to talk about!