As I have mentioned a couple of times before, I gave a presentation recently (Sunday, actually) where I talked about EMUtalk.org. The conference was the annual Computers and Writing conference, this year hosted at Wayne State University. My presentation was titled “Situation, Exigence, and Blogging: The EMU-AAUP Faculty Strike of 2006 and The Birth of EMUtalk.org” and
it is available at this web site with three basic versions:
- the script of my talk with a few key slides pictures included (the version I’d recommend for most readers);
- just the script with numbers where I inserted the slides; and
- the Keynote slides saved for the web.
Obviously, I’d be curious to find out what people here think. And I also would be curious to find out what people think about some of the questions I raise at the end of these presentation. Let me quote those last sentences here:
One of the benefits from this (meaning this study I’m starting), I hope, is to learn more about how to make EMUTalk.org a more productive forum. Like I said, I think that EMUTalk.org has been largely productive and positive, but I am concerned about its future. As the moderator/sitedad of the forum, what role should I take in encouraging participation without censoring those who are already invested in the site? How does the site become a space to promote the positive things about EMU and less an opportunity to whine and to host a pity party, and yet maintain itself as an important outlet to point out real problems and to simply vent frustrations? Is it possible to “change the toneâ€? of the forum so it does not collapse into just another internet-version of a talk radio diatribe, or is that sort of communicative entropy inevitable in open-ended community discussion forums?
Oh, I should mention that one thing I’ve concluded from all of this is it would be problematic to use EMUtalk.org as one of the “case studies” for my research. So y’all aren’t going to be my guinea pigs here. But I do hope to attempt to apply what I do learn to better moderate/direct this forum.
Emutalk.org is and always will be an experiment. By that I mean there are a limitless amount of things that Emutalk.org could morph itself into.
For example, this website could expand into a tool/device for the following:
1) Online Polling: As we see with EMU Student Government’s use of the Students tab on emich.edu
2) Suggestion Box: While there exists the tendancy to complain and vent on here, this website could also be a way to gather up ideas and suggestions for solving problems on campus.
As someone who was never a faculty member of EMU, just a past student and current alumni, I have no idea how much freedom faculty members have in improving their working conditions or the classroom teaching process.
However, assuming there are some small improvements that individual faculty members can make without having to go through an elaborate approval process, turning emutalk.org into a suggestion box could be huge.
It’s the old “What works for me quite well might also work for someone else in a different department.”
3) EMUTALK.org if the community so chooses could also be political in nature (No not local/federal politics), but political in uniting the Alumni Donors + Faculty + Students to join together on a big project/idea.
The way I see it is that students by themselves find it difficult to move an idea forward and faculty members by themselves also find it difficult at times.
But, if students and faculty members share the same feelings towards this “IDEA” then emutalk.org has the potential to become Ground Zero to unite the Student Body with the Faculty and perhaps with Alumni Donors to politically petition the Administration to take some action on the “Big Idea.”
Essentially… This website can be whatever you all want it to be in the future. It doesn’t have to just be a News Posting + Commenting section blog.
It can be the tool that the EMU PIPELINE should have been, but never was.
” … what role should I take … ”
Enlist a few stringers.
Encourage short posts.
Continue to support diverse opinions.
Nice presentation. I enjoyed reading it. Although I don’t always agree with what everyone says here, I like that this site exists and people are allowed to express their opinion. I do think there is some bullying by some people when different opinions are offered, but it just makes people explain what they mean better. I personally give up trying to sway opinion after a while and trust that the people can formulate their own opinions with the information provided when I feel that I am being shouted down.
I think it would be nice to add an edit option so that people can go back edit their own posts. I have often found typo’s and mistakes in how I was trying to say something, but there is no way to edit the post to fix it. I would also encourage people to find more positive things to post about as well. Not suggesting that people can’t vent about problems/issues, but I also like reading about the good things that happen at EMU.
Just my thoughts and thank you for keeping this site up and running.