Maremel’s blog has been quiet of late.  As its primary writer, I’ve been entangled with too many hours working on research projects about 1) attitudes about technology and 2) search as a new context learning need in formal education.  I also have been too addicted to my own community of engagement and attention in Facebook, which has been a real help in much of my current work.  (Thanks!)  We’ll try to stir the pot here more regularly as our current media and education projects heat up.

Dr. Alea Fairchild of the Constantia Institute sent us these two links as food for thought:

The first piece was a clear presentation of old news that many Internet users don’t clearly understand in their vision of a lovely, neutral web.   NPR has created a very easy-to-understand piece that walks readers/listeners through how these elements — cookies, ad networks, etc. — all work together.

The second was a breath of fresh air and one of the growing numbers of websites that in a creepy way can show you who has information on you or tells you how to disentangle yourself.  I have considered myself fairly good about blocking or checking cookies, but found that nearly every one of NAI’s member companies had cookies tracking me.  With a Check All and Submit, an opt-out cookie was set in place for each of them.  I now should go into my master cookie list and see what’s all there.

Do I care?  Should I care?  I care in that those cookies limit what I actually see and try to craft my experience on the web toward their products.  These companies also connect my dots together, which makes decisions about me whether I want those conclusions driven or not.

Thanks, Alea!

Past Tidbits and Explorations

Augmenting My Mind

How much in technology is augmenting me versus being a digital vampire? How much is one tool or another improving my life vs. taking time and control away? I'm now about 21 months into having short-term memory problems. I had some kind of a memory degradation when I...

From Music in LA to Digital and Music in Austin

We've just ended the second cycle of our Future of Music in LA projects at the Center for Music Innovation at UCLA Alpert.  We helped run a half-day symposium with the City of LA Dept. of Cultural Affairs and the UC Digital...

Playing with Facebook Stories Camera Effects

My Facebook friends must be thinking I'm nuts (again).  I've been tinkering with Facebook Stories and its Camera Effects.  In fact, I've been playing so much I'm also looking into the Camera Effects and AR (augmented reality) developer group. First, here's some of the...

Craft, Process, and Thinking of Becoming

Today I'm working on taxes for our two college students' FAFSAs and watching "Abstract: The Art of Design" on Netflix in the background.  Christoph Niemann is both in his story and telling his story about craft and life.  He is a character and an animated...

HUD: Stories on How We Work and Decide

Gigi enjoyed sharing thoughts over YouTube and the US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) OCIO Learning Series.  This session was recorded in January and ran as a webinar on March 17.  You can find it now...