Banjo, DIY Citizenship, music knowledge
In Reflections on August 10, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Over the last month, all my writing effort has been going into the development of my thesis proposal, which in part explains the decline of blog posts here. In fact, I can already foresee that over the next year, I will pay a lot less attention to leaving online breadcrumbs. I will strive to post at least a monthly-update as I have continued to do, but I won’t try to do any more than that. It’s a combination of the thesis work, as well as the random ideas I tend to throw around actually catching and slowly growing. It’s the mind-boggling excitement that a parent experiences when their child stands on their two feet for a few seconds before falling on their butt, or when that child finds their first playmate. It’s hardly worth noting in the grand scheme of things, but they are milestones that keep you going along a pursuit that is mostly unglamorous, and if it weren’t for love, no sane human being would put themselves through it.
In addition to proposal writing, some old thread are getting picked up. Click here to read on.
design, music knowledge, process
In Design, ICTs on July 18, 2010 at 8:15 pm
In the design of an information or knowledge-based system, values are built in to the fundamental assumptions about what information and knowledge actually is. Such values can be understood in an overarching and philosophical sense, as well as in a situated sense within certain communities, organizations, and particular types of users. In fact, such fundamental reflections are an essential first step to ensure that the knowledge-based initiative has a clear trajectory to follow. The design of knowledge organization — not the adaptation and implementation of standard or popular classification systems — is a phase that most people ignore out of convenience for a quick launch of a beta version, or a tight budget that needs to be spent for a clear ROI. The benefits of designing a knowledge organization strategy (which may involve conducting domain analysis, user studies, genre and document mapping) are not concrete, but it is fundamental to the long-term success of any information and knowledge-based undertaking. In fact, the whole process might not be that different from engaging in a philosophical discourse on epistemology, or a reflection about the nature of knowledge, but situated in a real-life context with design implications (whether that’s system design, website design, or library design). In effect, you are developing a model of knowledge (in my case, a model of music knowledge) that is conceptualized to serve a particular community (in my case, online self-taught musicians). I also articulated this in about 7500 words, this post is a coles notes-to-myself!
First Nations, music knowledge, ODBS, Oxford
In ICTs on April 6, 2010 at 10:21 am
Greetings mates, from the British Isles, which might explain why my usual monthly report is a bit late. That and the fact that March was completely monopolized with helping Prof. Nadia Caidi design and implement a public event for the On-Demand Book Service, in collaboration with K-NET. It has been an experience that opened my eyes to the world of First Nations in Canada, and the challenges of information service delivery that bridges geographical and cultural differences. Below you will see the equipment and demos being setup at the Keewaywin First Nation School. It consisted of a computer station, an all-in-one colour laser printer and scanner, a thermo book binder, a DIY book binder. What you don’t see is Daniel Reetz’s DIY book scanner, as well as the Adobe software that was purchased and installed on the machines.
The Reading in First Nations multi-node video-conferencing event was a success. The event is being archived, but the experience itself is much more than the footage.
music knowledge, research
In thesis on January 19, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Lay out the key features of the research interest that calls out your name. Given that, how would a canonical sociologist (a traditional, quantitative-minded social scientist) design or “set up” this research question? What kind of data would be sampled or gathered? How would the hypotheses be tested? What kind of steps would be taken to guard against bias, and to make sure that the data were generalizable?
I would like to study the learning and information-seeking behaviour of individuals who are trying to learn a musical instrument, using guitar as an example. “How do guitar students learn how to play the guitar by using Information Communication Technologies (ICTs)?”
In order to achieve a ‘random’ sample, controls for variables need to be considered by collecting a wide range of data about age (young prodigies to mature hobbyists), literacy or education level (ability to read or follow instructions, experience with music education), physical or mental capacity (small hands, visually impaired, etc.), physical location (city, suburb, small town), comfort level with ICTs (information addict, technology luddite), Data, data, more data…
music knowledge, research
In thesis on January 13, 2010 at 6:45 pm
(As part of my research methods class, there is a weekly reflection assignment based on the textbook with the same title as this blog post. I will be posting them here to document my process.)
What question concerning the social world would you like to investigate if you were absolutely guaranteed you would not fail? Be as ambitious and wide-ranging in your thinking as you want.
I want to investigate the way music intersects the different dimensions of human experiences. This is an old rant and sounds perhaps a bit frivolous; more like a day dream than a research or investigative agenda. Yet, the musical dimension of our existence — history, culture, philosophy, art, sciences, engineering — gives me an entry point in exploring just about anything in this world. In the context of the social science, and perhaps more specifically in the tradition of information science and related fields, I want to investigate the nature musical knowledge. What do I mean by that?
