Tim Berners-Lee on the Web Today

Tim Berners-Lee’s "Manifesto on the State of the Web" begins with this: "The world wide web went live, on my physical desktop in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 1990. It consisted of one Web site and one browser, which happened to be on the same computer."

OK, so I stole the title "Manifesto" from other reviewers. The piece at issue here is actually an article titled "Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality," and ran in the recent issue of Scientific American.

But "Manifesto" sounds so much more dramatic, yes? And the issues raised in the article have very dramatic implications - though they are treated in a very measured and logical way by Berners-Lee. I find one of the most intriguing discussions is that of the balance of control and freedom. Simplistic, one-sided arguments are much more likely to generate passionate responses. But they are also much more likely to generate naive, short-sighted and generally useless responses. And, according to Berners-Lee, the issues are too important for such responses:

"The Web is critical not merely to the digital revolution but to our continued prosperity—and even our liberty. Like democracy itself, it needs defending..."

You can find the article here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=long-live-the-web&page=5 - Enjoy!

Recursive Pizza?

My daughter sent me the link below, commenting on how often she finds stuff from "my world," that is to say, the world of rhetorical theory. Many of my colleagues would probably respond that such discoveries should be expected because "Everything is rhetorical!" And indeed, I am likely to agree with them. When my friends and I converse using only quoted lines from Seinfeld, Shakespeare or The Andy Griffith Show, I am quite aware of the rhetorical and cultural framing, self-identifying discourse communities, and terministic screens at work in our chit-chat.

But whudathunk Pizza as a ontological examination and revelation of social construction and community? well, This guy (John Riepenhoff), that's who. Enjoy the rhetorical cheesy goodness of this unusual blog entry...

 

Adam Kuban's Article from the SLICE Blog

Preston Tucker (and Marshall McLuhan)

Tucker
Originally uploaded by RandyNickatNite

The Tucker! and what is that inscription above the car? Marshall McLuhan? You don't say. "The car has become an article of dress without which we feel uncertain, unclad, and incomplete." The techne of the car culture is integral to an understanding of the fabric of the general culture of "Americans."

Check out the "Tucker Club of America" here: http://www.tuckerclub.org/

The Rhetorical consideration of Setting (According to John Stewart)

If indeed, rhetoric is anything like "finding the available means of persuasion in a given situation," (and let's assume, for the sake of argument, that it is something like that,) then some things are both obvious and important:

• know who you are talking to (audience)
• know the situation and setting of your communication (kairos)
• know the network of cultural & communicative exchange of your audience (language)

It is sometimes easier to see how important these considerations are when they are done wrong, than it is to see when they are done right. For example, suppose you were to speak to a group of 11-year-old school kids - would you communicate the same as if you were speaking to a group of university faculty? No? I didn't think so.

You'd think this would be obvious. You'd be wrong.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Obama Speaks to a Sixth-Grade Classroom
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Vancouverage 2010

You know how much 6th graders love to meet bureaucratic heads of various government departments....

A couple of "rules of thumb" for rhetorically sound communication:
1) Don't bring a knife to a gun fight.
2)Don't bring teleprompters to a middle school classroom.

The Rhetorical Consideration of Audience (According to Twain)

Audience: A key component of Rhetorical Compostion, Literary Analysis, Usability Testing, Experience Design...

I offer here a little advice on making the most rheotrical hash of this substance. But it is not my advice - no, it is advice from the "great one' himself - Mr. Samuel Clemens. So, enjoy Mark Twain's take on the proer consideration of "audience."

---------

Whenever I am about to publish a book, I feel an impatient desire to know what kind of a book it is. Of course I can find this out only by waiting until the critics shall have printed their reviews. I do know, beforehand, what the verdict of the general public will be, because I have a sure and simple method of ascertaining that. Which is this—if you care to know. I always read the manuscript to a private group of friends, composed as follows:
1. Man and woman with no sense of humor.
2. Man and woman with medium sense of humor.
3. Man and woman with prodigious sense of humor.
4. An intensely practical person.
5. A sentimental person.
6. Person who must have a moral in, and a purpose.
7. Hypercritical person—natural flaw-picker and fault-finder.
8. Enthusiast—person who enjoys anything and everything, almost.
9. Person who watches the others, and applauds or condemns with the majority.
10. Half a dozen bright young girls and boys, unclassified.
11. Person who relishes slang and familiar flippancy.
12. Person who detests them.
13. Person of evenly-balanced judicial mind.
14. Man who always goes to sleep.
 

These people accurately represent the general public. Their verdict is the sure forecast of the verdict of the general public. There is not a person among them whose opinion is not valuable to me; but the man whom I most depend upon—the man whom I watch with the deepest solicitude—the man who does most toward deciding me as to whether I shall publish the book or burn it, is the man who always goes to sleep. If he drops off within fifteen minutes, I burn the book; if he keeps awake three-quarters of an hour, I publish—and I publish with the greatest confidence, too. For the intent of my works is to entertain; and by making this man comfortable on a sofa and timing him, I can tell within a shade or two what degree of success I am going to achieve. His verdict has burned several books for me—five, to be accurate.
-------

Excerpted from "Who is Mark Twain" by Mark Twain, which can be found at http://www.dailylit.com/books/who-is-mark-twain

America is... a Nation of Cowards?

Sound bite of the day...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Persuasion depends on handling well matters of Ethos, Kairos, Pathos, and Audience?

Some say you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar...
Jethro said that you catch even more with a dead 'possum.

The Rhetorical Power of Narrative in the Campus Tour

The New York Times recently ran an article describing a shift in College tours from mere fast-paced, fact-quoting, run around a predetermined course to a more leisurely, story-filled experience.

You can see the article "Colleges Seek to Remake the Campus Tour" here.

The thing that stood out to me is power of narrative - i.e. mythos, story, telling, etc.

"Something there is that loves a story
That sends the heart swell up to meet it
That perks the ears to listen
And opens the heart wide enough for truth to pass..."

Apologies to Mr. Frost, but the smell of universality is rich around the use of story.

I remember taking my daughters on college visits and the obligatory campus tours. There was one incident when my daughter said, "You wanna do something else with the rest of the day? 'Coz I'm not coming here." This college, which we will call "In Why You", belabored stats in a overly self-important manner.

Yet, on an other tour, the conclusion was "This is awesome - lets get a T-shirt!" (T-shirt being a sort of engagement icon.) The tour of this school, which we will call "Yell," was led by a young man who was a student there, and chocked full of stories - both historical and personal woven into a sort of, dare I say, Grand Narrative? (Gasp!) It ended on the spot where he had made his decision to attend that institution. He finished by reading the engraved words that he had read a few years before - "For God. For Country. For (insert name of school here)." I felt goosebumps and a lump in my throat - and not simply for wondering how much this would cost!

It was the power of the STORY, mythos, narrative!