Epistemographer

Come work with me:
This is a one- to two-year position (depending on funding) at the rank of Research Assistant Professor at the Center for History and New Media (CHNM), which is closely affiliated with the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University. A PhD or advanced ABD in History or a closely [...]

All the online world’s abuzz over the seeming resurgence of enthusiasm around web development; Jeffrey Zeldman’s Web 3.0 post notwithstanding, it can seem as though the past six years didn’t happen and all is sunshine, roses and optimism for the online world. While the move toward dynamic scripting and web applications is clearly changing the [...]

For the first time in a good two years, the beginning of the semester is bringing with it that rush of excitement tinged with uncertainty that only comes when you’re teaching a class for the first time. In this case, a colleague referred me to the folks over at American University’s Department of History, and [...]

Just upgraded to Wordpress 2.0. All sorts of new bells and whistles behind the scenes.
Total time to upgrade = 15 mins (mainly thanks to the slow airport wi-fi connection I used to upload the new files).

While I was gone, CHNM went and set up a listing of all staff blogs, and several of my colleagues seem to have started blogging without me realizing it. The particularly great thing about this (aside from the general satisfaction of others drinking the same kool-aid) is that I get to see a very different [...]

Shearing Layers (from Stewart Brand’s “How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built”)
* Buildings have layers, each of which change at different rates (fast change on inside, slow change on outside)
* Applies to NDIIPP – nested shearing layers from fastest to slowest
** Media shelf lives are short – fast change
** Format
** OS
** Architecture
** Essence of [...]

Back in the states, though not at home. Thanks to the miracle of crossing the International Date Line, managed to work about 28 hours of travel back from New Zealand into a single day last Thursday, and the the weekend was all about getting the various strands of my life back into some semblance of [...]