Ruby (on wheels)

I headed in to Edinburgh today, which is unusual for me on a Saturday, but there was a bike rally on and I thought I’d show some support. Although this wasn’t an SMC event, several SMC members turned up to support the general biking community (in particular, Edinburgh bikers and those who, like myself, commute into Auld Reikie every day). We met up at Hermiston park-and-ride – first time I’ve ever been there and I can’t say the experience tempts me to rush back; something to do with no coffee machine and the toilets locked …

A sizeable group gathered and at 12 noon we headed off, following the police car and flanked by police riders. There had been a few rumours about the police wanting to get this over with ASAP, but we actually kept a fairly slow 10-15mph for most of the route. Every so often we got some waves from friendly pedestrians, who most likely had no idea what we were doing. The busiest area was the Grassmarket; plenty of people watching us and bemused tourists obviously wondering if they should look as if they expect this sort of thing every Saturday in Scotland’s capital. We reached the end of the route at Holyrood Park without any incident; the police outriders had done a fab job. There were a couple of speeches, urging us to lobby our councillors or (if we live outside Edinburgh) one of the ones marked on the sheet for general receipt of letters. The SMC contingent retired to a nearby coffee shop and sat in the sun to tell tales of biking daring-do.

Did we achieve anything? Difficult to say so yet, but hopefully some lobbying will make some waves.

Was it worthwhile? I’d say yes – seeing quite a number of people there does give the feeling that there’s enough motivation to get something done, and hearing the examples of other places in England where the idea has been successful does give a sense of purpose and hope for change.

I thought it was brilliant seeing the huge range of people – young racers, parents with kids, middle-aged sensible types (hmm … wonder who they could be …) and there were great photo opportunities Oh – and the sun came out!

At the beginning of August I attended a really stimulating PALA conference (I have to add that I’ve never yet been to an un-stimulating PALA conference) and my ego was thoroughly boosted by people actually coming to my presentation (even though it was on the last slot of the last day …). I’m still working on the conference proceedings – when ready I’ll be putting a copy on my Mendeley profile but will let you know about that later. Oh – OK – here’s a rough outline:

My presentation was about analysis of text in Second Life (SL). I gave a quick overview of what SL is (with screen-shots mainly provided by my excellent colleague and SL-wizard, Fiona Littleton). The rest of the talk was in three parts:

• a rather tongue-in-cheek examination of how conversations in a virtual world could be likened to creating fiction, and thus could be examined with analogies to text-world theory
• a specific example of discourse/conversation analysis of an episode where politeness theory was demonstrated (this and the other excerpts from our conversations would not have been possible without the expert input form my colleague Clara O’Shea. Yes – you are already beginning to wonder how much of this presentation was actually mine. I wonder too)
• examples of the types of humour present in SL conversations; these I have found to be different from email discussions but similar to chat forums, even in an academic session

So hopefully that’s whetted your appetite a bit …

Anyway, the next ego-booster at the conference was some other participants who approached me afterwards and asked if I could contribute something to a volume. Of course I said yes, and of course I’m now panicking …

So off to SL and books and theory, and exploration of literature in SL (as this is, after all, a PALA discussion). My explorations so far have not uncovered very much of interest in the literature in SL. It seems that there’s a general consensus that the idea of SL came from a novel (as with many great ideas that came from science fiction, I’m led to believe). I’ve also discovered that there are quite a few “libraries” in SL, and some publishing houses also have “stores” (one of which is an Irish pub). But the books themselves – what a let-down! Awful. What happens is: you find a book (on a shelf, or on a poster) and you click on the object. Then a window with text opens up, ready for you to read. That’s it. You read this g**-awful font in a pathetic wee window.

So I think it’s about time we created some really innovative literature in SL.

How about a narrator (the author?) who appears and invites you to listen to the story? There must be some kind of variation on an audio-book that would be interesting? And why not have you whisked off to a location where scenery unfolds around you as you “read” the story? I don’t think I’d like to have avatars acting out the story (Mr Darcy would just not work) so we could leave that out. And would it be possible to have interactive stories where you create the next part? Oh, yes, that’s right – already been done (but the people who are creating books in SL seem to have forgotten this particular literary device).

Personally, I think that even given the drawbacks of paper (it can get soggy if you read in the bath; it’s hard to hold up when you have to shield your eyes from the sun on the beach) I still like the old-fashioned books. But I’d really like to try out something new and different too … new stories in new formats.

I’ve got some ideas for the story I’ll be writing …

PS if you’d like to see an example of an innovative multi-media narrative, try Inanimate Alice

It’s not often that you meet people who just seem to be at the epitome of humankind … but David Crystal is currently my favourite person. Here are some reasons:

• he’s clever with words
• he’s written lots of books – highly readable (at least, the ones I’ve read so far)
• he has a really interesting life-story (which you can read about in his recently-published Just a Phrase I’m Going Through)
• he knows about language
• he demonstrates how language and culture intertwine
• he’s not “young” but is up to date with technologies
• he supports various charities
• he lets you take photos when he gives a conference talk – and even stands with people to have a photo take alongside
• he works hard but also takes time with wife and family
• he’s got a nice accent
• he looks kind (maybe the beard?)

I’m sure there are other reasons, but that’ll do for now. He spoke at the Canterbury “Cutting Edges” conference, and is going to be talking about his autobiography at the Edinburgh Book Festival. His abstract at the Cutting Edges conference:

New discourses in electronically mediated communication
How does electronically mediated communication alter our notion of discourse? There are some continuities with traditionally spoken and written text, but also important discontinuities. Differences with speech include new patterns of turn-taking, the use of emoticons, and new conversational rhythms. Differences with writing include issues of persistence, animateness, hypertext linkage, and framing. A pragmatic perspective brings to light new kinds of text, such as those which include features to defeat spam filters or to ensure a high search-engine ranking, or those which raise ergonomic or ethical issues. Electronically mediated communication also raises the question of how to handle texts whose boundaries are continually changing, as in forums and comment postings. Issues of responsibility arise relating to who is the author of a text, especially in contexts where there is moderation or interactivity (as in wikis).

If you haven’t already heard him speak, you should get your tickets for the Book Festival ASAP.

He’s already married *sigh*

Link: A very quick summary of events at a recent conference on “the future of education” (thanks to Mark Pegrum for the link). I was interested to note that Howard Gardner (of “multiple intelligences” fame) was speaking.

There are also some interesting videos, including a panel discussion on copyright and intellectual property.

Finally got to the Edinburgh Coffee Morning. I always pick up some interesting tips, and it’s great to find out what people are doing and looking into with software and widgets.