Drape's Takes

[Originally posted on May 1, re-posted on June 6 - in an attempt to both garner additional etiquette sightings from you and to further generate additional conversation. Remember, I'm definitely not the guru on this stuff, but we are.]

In response to Sue Water's recent post and in follow up to our final discussion in OpenPD regarding a few of the intricacies of blogger etiquette, I have decided to write a series of posts concerning the matter. I will focus all discussion of etiquette upon what has come to be termed the edublogosphere - or educational blogging - because I think that we actually have our own standard, our own set of rules, and should (more often than not) set the proper example for others.

It is my hope that such posts promote a healthy discussion about current blogging and educational trends, as well as advancing us toward a normative view of edublogger etiquette - if that’s even possible.

Several items of note:

• The entire thread of edublogger etiquette posts (that I write) can be viewed by clicking here.
  
• Any comment addressing the whole should most likely be assigned to this post.
• All posts that I write addressing this topic will contain both a copy of the logo I've created for this thread and a link to this post (the index post, if you will).

Feel free to participate in this discussion by:

• Adding your voice to the comments of any post.
• Adding your voice by writing a post on your blog or on any social network. Please tag related posts with the 'edubloggeretiquette' tag and feel free to include the logo.

Any posts I identify as being connected with this topic will be aggregated here:

• Citations
• Is linking to a photo an adequate way to cite the author?
  
• Image Attribution
• Is it necessary to use extensive citations in our blog posts?
• How do I cite screenshots of photos?
• What about Kwout? Are the citations that it creates for screenshots adequate?
  
• Deep Linking
• Is deep-linking to photos, icons, or other content appropriate?
  
• Embedding Video
• If a video is on YouTube, does that mean that it is now fair game for posting on a blog?
• Does it matter if the content of your post is educational?
• Does it matter if the original video doesn't specify copyright restrictions?
  
• Responding To Comments
• Are there rules of etiquette that intrinsically govern the way bloggers should respond to comments?
• Is there a time when a blogger might be exempt from responding to the comments of his/her readers?
• Healthy Debate
• How does one identify the line between a healthy debate and a downright ugly brawl?
• What rules are inherent to such discussions?
  
• Inappropriate Comments
• When does a discussion of a product turn into an unacceptable advertisement?
• As the creator of a blog, what should one do to discourage such behavior?
• Online Reputation
• How is an online reputation any different than a person's reputation in the physical world?
• How might actions taken online affect a person?
• How does one improve their online reputation?
• What kinds of behaviors taint an online reputation?
• Seeding the Conversation
• What is an appropriate "rule of thumb" when posting in a non-school-affiliated space that is nonetheless open to the public?
• Twitter & Self-Promotion
• When do a person's advertisements (on various social networks) for activities they may be promoting become an undesirable display of self-promotion?
• What are the rules of etiquette - if any - that might apply to the combination of educational blogging and Twitter use?
• Student Blogging
• Must precautions be taken when posting student information to blogs (and/or other websites)?
• Is there a set of rules that one could follow that would ensure that proper publishing protocol is followed, independent of the blogger's national, state, district, or school restrictions?
• What are your rules for publishing information related to children that you know?
• Thinking Globally
• If a blog is publicly and globally accessible, should its author consider the background and cultural diversity of its readers?
• What steps can and should be taken in connection with addressing a diverse readership?
• Enforcement
• If the blogosphere is "to maintain a set of communal standards" regarding etiquette, what mechanism of enforcement can be implemented?
• What are some ways that etiquette is currently enforced throughout the blogosphere?
• What are some steps that could be taken to ensure a more consistent mechanism of enforcement?

Technorati Tags: edubloggeretiquette education technology blogosphere

Clay Shirky states that:

... for any group determined to maintain a set of communal standards some mechanism of enforcement must exist.

A few related questions:

• If the blogosphere is "to maintain a set of communal standards" regarding etiquette, what mechanism of enforcement can be implemented?
• What are some ways that etiquette is currently enforced throughout the blogosphere?
• What are some steps that could be taken to ensure a more consistent mechanism of enforcement?
  

Reference: Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everybody. New York: The Penguin Press, p. 50.

Image Source: Flickr user jrbrubaker

Technorati Tags: blogosphere twitter shirky edubloggeretiquette

Flickr user Aldo has created an equirectangular projection of the surface of the Earth, effectively demonstrating that differing points of view bring different facets of perspective.

Of course we're used to look[ing] at the earth from the outside in, not the other way around. I made this image a couple of years ago as a better view of the earth surface, from the inside out. The water of the oceans is transparant, so you get to look in to space.

This differing point of view expresses an idea of Earth's landscape not frequently anticipated by many observers. Likewise, because blogs can be accessed by people from all around the world, a number of cultures, languages, and perspectives are potentially inherent in nearly any publicly-accessible blogging conversation.

A few thoughts regarding the global nature of blogging:

• Cheryl Oakes has written a post describing several Signs of Spring in Education (2008) that she has noted. To begin her post, she calls attention to the fact that seasons, times, and dates are dependent upon geographic location.
  
• Gary Stager has called edubloggers to task (2008) because they haven't written more about the fact that Reading First has "failed to improve the reading comprehension of American students." While he doesn't openly address his post to Americans specifically, a quarter of the people that have commented on his post (3/12) are not American edubloggers.
• Jane Nicholls has proclaimed (2007) that "the most empowering factor of [podcasting] has to be the global audience." She continues with an important question (originally asked by Tim Tyson) that should be asked of every blogger, regardless of geography. "What do you have to say that the world needs to hear?"
• Graham Wegner elaborated in his Olympics Effect Theory (2007), "Unless you live in a smaller country, you can’t see that many of the issues pushed as being important around the edublogosphere are actually focussed towards the biggest participating nation and its education system."
• Julie Lindsay, in a comment here (2008), has described a few egocentric behaviors as she has observed them.
• Gabriella Grosseck writes from Romania. Some of her posts, nevertheless, include pieces in languages other than Romanian. This post (2008), for example, contains sections of Spanish, English, and Romanian.
• Silvia Tolisano has written an extensive post (2007) listing a number of recommendations for "being a globally friendly blogger." Included in her list are suggestions to take local measurements into consideration, be aware of national holidays, and stay away from global stereotypes.
  

Now for the questions:

• If a blog is publicly and globally accessible, should its author consider the background and cultural diversity of its readers?
• What steps can and should be taken in connection with addressing a diverse readership?

Image Source: Flickr user Aldo

Technorati Tags: edubloggeretiquette blogosphere education technology flickr

The American Wild West was a time and place characterized by confusion, strife, and widespread vigilante justice. Wikipedia currently uses the following phrase to describe the prevailing anarchy that accompanied the era:

Buffalo hunters, railroad workers, drifters and soldiers scrapped and fought, leading to the shootings where men died "with their boots on".

As time went on, the legends of the Old West grew to create a lasting impression on American culture, permanently embedding in the minds of many an attitude that lawlessness can never lastingly translate into perennial blissfulness.


And so it was that fifty years ago, Johnny Cash released a song about life in the the American Wild West. Little did he know that his message would fitfully apply today, in a figurative sense, to new bloggers everywhere and their quest in understanding how to appropriately participate in the blogosphere.

"Don't Take Your Guns To Town"

A young cowboy named Billy Joe grew restless on the farm
A boy filled with wonderlust who really meant no harm
He changed his clothes and shined his boots
And combed his dark hair down
And his mother cried as he walked out

[Chorus]
Don't take your guns to town son
Leave your guns at home Bill
Don't take your guns to town

He laughed and kissed his mom
And said your Billy Joe's a man
I can shoot as quick and straight as anybody can
But I wouldn't shoot without a cause
I'd gun nobody down
But she cried again as he rode away

[Chorus]

He sang a song as on he rode
His guns hung at his hips
He rode into a cattle town
A smile upon his lips
He stopped and walked into a bar
And laid his money down
But his mother's words echoed again

[Chorus]

He drank his first strong liquor then to calm his shaking hand
And tried to tell himself he had become a man
A dusty cowpoke at his side began to laugh him down
And he heard again his mothers words

[Chorus]

Filled with rage then
Billy Joe reached for his gun to draw
But the stranger drew his gun and fired
Before he even saw
As Billy Joe fell to the floor
The crowd all gathered 'round
And wondered at his final words

[Chorus]
Don't take your guns to town son
Leave your guns at home Bill
Don't take your guns to town

If only young Billy Joe would have listened to his mother and adhered to a few simple principles, he could have easily avoided the kind of trouble that experienced gunfighters had come to understand all too well. Knowledge and observance of some of these rules may have saved Bill's life:

• If you take your guns to town, you'll likely encounter trouble.
• If a dusty cowpoke at your side begins to laugh you down, you'll likely be forced to draw on him.
  
  And most important:
  
  
• No matter how quick and straight you think you can shoot, there's always somebody that's faster.

Ironically and to the detriment of more than one young Billy Joe, when the West was wild there were no written rules governing behavior related to gunfighters. Nevertheless, certain rules did exist. But the only way to learn those rules was through experience. Trial and error. Relying on intuition, come what may.

In considering our newly created Global Wild West, I can't help but wonder: Is that really how we want to force our teachers and students to learn? By relying on intuition, come what may? Or have we learned from the past, now enabled to provide a better way for those that follow in our footsteps?

I understand that we're tired, and I understand that implementation could never be compulsory. But as I have come to answer this question for myself, my answer has been simple: There's got to be a better way!

So with hopes of a better way in mind, I've set out to identify potentially problematic behaviors as they have been openly displayed throughout the blogosphere. I've then left the interpretation of such behaviors entirely up for discussion. At no time have I prescribed or condemned any type of blogging behavior. Rather, I have made a conscious effort NOT to, leaving it up to all of us to provide our thoughts, with hopes that in healthy discussion we can identify the kinds of etiquette we expect each other to follow.

Again, it is my hope that in providing such a list of etiquette to new and interested bloggers everywhere - a non compulsory inventory of recommended guidelines, if you will - then they will be able to avoid some of the pitfalls that have plagued any number of Blogging Billy Joes up to this point in the short history of the blogosphere.

If you would like to participate in the discussion, I welcome your contributions. Trial and error, come what may.

Image Source: Great Train Robbery still, public domain film (1903), Wikipedia Commons

Technorati Tags: edubloggeretiquette blogosphere education johnnycash

Al Upton has been blogging for years with his students. Upon attempting to take his student blogging to the next level, he invited the educational blogging community to mentor his students. The idea was for the adult mentor to occasionally visit the student blogs, leaving a positive comment.


In the course of events, however, his blog was "disabled in compliance with DECS wishes (Department of Education and Children’s Services - South Australia)." Further insight from Al includes:

It seems that this blog in particular is being investigated regarding risk and management issues. What procedures should be taken for the use/non-use of blogs to enhance student learning will be considered.

At this point in time, Al and his miniLegends have returned to blogging, having agreed to abide by a prescribed set of publishing guidelines:

There will be no photos or names of students - no identifying information at all.

Until further notice, only Al will add posts or pages to this blog.
Subscribers may add comments. These will all be moderated by Al. As administrator I [Al] reserve the right to not approve comments - there will be no justification.

minilLegend students may only refer to themselves by ‘mini’ followed by a number eg mini17, mini24.

Now for the questions:

• Must precautions be taken when posting student information to blogs (and/or other websites)?
• Is there a set of rules that one could follow that would ensure that proper publishing protocol is followed, independent of the blogger's national, state, district, or school restrictions?
• What are your rules for publishing information related to children that you know?
  

Image Source: the miniLegends 08

Technorati Tags: edubloggeretiquette blogosphere minilegends education

David Jakes has written a post on his blog entitled Tragedy of the Commons. In it, he claims:

At its best, Twitter is a place to share a resource, a link to a new blog post, or an insight, and even a place to have a little fun. It’s a place that could be about learning. At its very worst, Twitter is a self-indulgent exercise in self-promotion and pettiness.

Right now, I think we are watching Twitter change right before our digital eyes. Be the first with the tool (Diigo, for example), be the first with a post, be the first with the wiki, be the first to uStream, stake your claim in a never-ending game of name building and recognition. Take advantage of the commons, go ahead.

While the post itself is chiefly about Twitter and what Jakes considers to be "over the top self promotion," the comments to the post have sparked an interesting discussion about personal growth, extending oneself beyond the echochamber, getting involved as an educator, and becoming a catalyst for change.


A few questions about etiquette to consider in light of this discussion:

• When do a person's advertisements (on various social networks) for activities they may be promoting become an undesirable display of self-promotion?
• What are the rules of etiquette - if any - that might apply to the combination of educational blogging and Twitter use?

A few additional questions to consider, as asked by Bill Ferriter in the comments of this post:

• Do you think that the idea of "offensive self promotion" takes care of itself in the very act of "following?"
  
• Do we simply "un-follow" those who's level of self promotion bothers us or whose intent we question?
• Better question: Is the standard for reasonable self promotion something that varies by reader?
  

In the Interesting Side-note Department: Partly because of Jakes' push (and mostly because I have always thought this would be an important discussion), I have decided to take this topic to NECC in the form of a facilitated discussion at the first-ever Fringe Festival (Concurrent Session 10). If you would be interested in participating with me, I would love to have you join me.

Image Source: This image is a tag cloud that I created from the text of the 93 comments to Jakes' post.

Technorati Tags: edubloggeretiquette education technology blogosphere twitter necc08 edubloggercon08

John Connell included a Creative Commons licensed photo in one of his posts. To attribute the author of the photo, he linked to the photo's page in Flickr. He failed to actually mention the name of the photo's author in his post. She got mad, he said sorry, and ultimately removed the photo from his post.

• Is linking to a photo an adequate way to cite the author?

Image Source: Flickr user Rashunda

Technorati Tags: edubloggeretiquette education technology blogosphere

First, I think we can all agree that sources should be cited. John Connell demonstrated one extreme of the image attribution can of worms. Here are two other examples that illustrate the other extreme.

David Warlick cites all of the sources he uses for his blog posts (images and other content) using formal MLA protocol. While I don't know this for sure, I'm pretty sure he uses the Son of Citation Machine to formulate his citations - after all, he created it!


Sue Waters has also gone the extra mile when citing her sources. When she includes Creative Commons licensed photos in her posts, she not only lists the name of the author but also includes the date the photo was uploaded and the license the photo possesses. Sue uses John Johnston's newly created Simple CC Flickr Search to create her citations.


Now for the questions:

• Is it necessary to use extensive citations in our blog posts?
• How do I cite screenshots of photos?
• What about Kwout? Are the citations that it creates for screenshots adequate?

Image Sources Within The Screenshots:

• M, Andriy. “Vancouver Kaleidoscope.” Dubesor’s Photostream. 19 Jan 2008. 22 Apr 2008 .
• Photo from Flickr uploaded on October 4, 2007 by metz79 licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0.

Technorati Tags: edubloggeretiquette education technology blogosphere

Deep linking is defined by Wikipedia as follows:

Deep linking, on the World Wide Web, is making a hyperlink that points to a specific page or image on another website, instead of that website's main or home page. Such links are called deep links.

Continuing on why deep linking might be negatively viewed:

Some commercial websites object to other sites making deep links into their content either because it bypasses advertising on their main pages, passes off their content as that of the linker or, like The Wall Street Journal, they charge users for permanently-valid links. Sometimes, deep linking has led to legal action such as in the 1997 case of Ticketmaster versus Microsoft, where Microsoft deep-linked to Ticketmaster's site from its Sidewalk service.

That said, I wonder if deep linking might be - at times - acceptable. In following Leo Laporte's example, I have chosen to include a listing of my user profiles as I have created them on other services. I do this to not only help people find content I am sharing using other online services but to also indirectly advertise that such sites can be used to share content.


The only real issue here is that the icons I've used to identified such services are actually hosted on the websites themselves (they are favicons).

• Is such a practice inappropriate?
• Should I host the favicons on my own site and link to them there?
• Is this more of an issue for Leo Laporte (with his blog's millions of monthly visitors) than it is for me (with my blog's three or four uniques)?
  

Technorati Tags: edubloggeretiquette education technology blogosphere

In a recent post on Students 2.0, Arthus Erea has embedded a YouTube video. The contents of the video include a 1971 interview of Muhammad Ali conducted by the BBC.

While it can be argued that content wouldn't be on YouTube if it weren't meant to be shared, the movie Arthus and I have posted is clearly an infringement of copyright. Or is it?

• If a video is on YouTube, does that mean that it is now fair game for posting on a blog?
• Does it matter if the content of your post is educational?
• Does it matter if the original video (the BBC interview, for example) doesn't specify copyright restrictions? Here's a hint, if you're interested in my opinion.

HUGE can of worms here, I know. Hall, lay down the law for us, would you please?

Technorati Tags: edubloggeretiquette education technology blogosphere

Will Richardson is an extremely popular edublogger. Will has, at times, failed to publicly respond to comments made on his blog. For example, the last time Will has written a public comment on his own blog was April 25. Since then, he has written six posts (which have accumulated 77 comments and trackbacks), none of which addresses any topic that may have arisen in the comments of or trackbacks to his posts.

While every blogger likely lapses - from time to time - into a nonproductive "blogging funk", is it possible that in ignoring the comments of one's readers, a message of elitism may be exuded (particularly to that timid teacher that may have just posted the first comment in his/her entire life)?


With comments in mind, it is important to remember that there are multiple ways to respond to a post's comments - giving your readers a sense of validation, building a deeper relationship of your readers, and actively participating in the discursive field we call the blogosphere:

• While not public, some bloggers choose to respond to blog comments through private email conversations (including Will - likely this is how he has chosen to respond to comments made on his blog during the last week).
• If a response to a comment will result in a particularly lengthy retort, it is often the practice to reply by writing an entirely new post.
• With emerging forms of communication and conversation, additional forms of feedback (like Twitter) are also used to reply to both blog posts and comments.

A few questions:

• Are there rules of etiquette that intrinsically govern the way bloggers should respond to comments?
• Is there a time when a blogger might be exempt from responding to the comments of his/her readers?
• In a recent comment, I told a blogger, "It's your blog, you make the rules as to how you respond to your readers' comments." Was I actually telling the truth?
  

Technorati Tags: edubloggeretiquette education technology blogosphere twitter

Graham Wegner wrote a tongue-in-cheek post about spelling. Hailing from Australia, Graham finds it funny that "the Wikipedic wisdom of crowds defines the right spelling" for him.


Matthew K. Tabor wrote a post in response to Graham, claiming that "spelling isn't a matter of opinion". In his response, Matthew not only critiques the ideas of Graham but also those of the people that made comments to Graham's post. A somewhat tense discussion ensues in the comments of Matthew's post, on the blogs of some of the comment writers, and also in the Twittersphere.

• How does one identify the line between a healthy debate and a downright ugly brawl?
• What are the rules inherent to such discussions?
  

Image Source: Graham Wegner

Technorati Tags: edubloggeretiquette education technology blogosphere twitter

Stephanie Sandifer wrote an informative post about stu.dicio.us, an online tool that "provides a very simple to use interface for keeping class notes." In the comments of the post, "Josh" writes two comments that are blatant advertisements for his website.


Neither of his comments add to the educational nature of the discussion.

• When does a discussion of a product (or a website or any other professional service) turn into an unacceptable advertisement?
• As the owner of a blog, what should one do to discourage such behavior?
  

Technorati Tags: edubloggeretiquette education technology blogosphere

David Wiley wrote a post describing a number of issues related to the Flat World Knowledge licensing model. In the post, he addressed a number of concerns that other people have expressed. Interestingly, he also included what he has called a "Pre-Response to Stephen". This is interesting for several reasons, two of which I will list:

1. Few bloggers actually anticipate - in writing - the response of their readers.
2. Apparently, Stephen has manufactured an online reputation that has caused David to assume that Stephen will immediately react to David's post.

In considering online interaction, it is important for all bloggers to realize that what they publish - either in a blog post, in a comment, or in any other form of online behavior - contributes to how others perceive their words, actions, and persona.

A few questions:

• How is an online reputation any different than a person's reputation in the physical world?
• How might actions taken online affect a person?
  
• How does one improve their online reputation?
• What kinds of behaviors taint an online reputation?

Image Source: Flickr user shaymus022

Technorati Tags: edubloggeretiquette education technology blogosphere