Blogs

It's all about peer pressure.

Well, it's really all about others getting involved (or getting others involved) on the CIC web site. I've been working on it for almost a year now and it's been a lot of effort. Today's meeting with Lev and Kyle about our approach for the site this fall was really refreshing for me. We agreed that core functionality--accommodating what people REALLY use on the site--is our main objective. Hurrah!  … Read more »

After the devastation of New Orleans by hurricane Katrina, a few students here tossed around the idea of helping out where we could. A few days into our informal chats, Rebecca Carter, and I, Kyle Conner decided to act on our desire to help. We applied to the Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning (http://www.umich.edu/%7Emserve) for project funding to send 4 graduate students from the School of Information (http://www.si.umich.edu) at the University of Michigan to New Orleans to help out.  … Read more »

I've been busy planning the Annual Gathering. Hopefully you will come!

Shokufeh has been bringing the insight of a New Orleans girl. Her parallels between Katrina and The Great Chicago Fire are well taken. Cities are impermanent collections of buildings, people and services, and can be constructed in any way we choose. Taking the historical perspective of what shapes a city's landscape seems a necessary step in designing what comes next.

I'm just starting work with Catholic Relief Services. I think there will be lots of work for me here once they realize what I do. Because they focus on basic assistance (food, shelter, emergencies) they do not have a strong ICT or even information culture. For now I am learning. I hope that by the time the annual gathering comes around I'll have things to share and concrete questions to ask.

For now, all I can say is that though information issues seem obvious to us and are easy to recognize, there a people and organizations who just don't get it.