About Stuff...

About Humanistic Informatics

People often ask: 'What's humanistic about informatics?'

... and that's a good question.
In fact, it's a question that should be asked once in a while, otherwise we may loose track of why we go through such effort to build new technologies.
One might argue that there's nothing humanistic about information systems: it's basically about building fast and efficient systems for information. There's some truth in that. On the other hand, the reason we have information systems is so that we can communicate, and communication is clearly something we deal with inthe humanities.

So - in Humanistic Informatics we look at information and communication technology from a humanistic perspective. But equally important, we use methods and theories from computer science to deal with problems wihtin the humanities.

About Facebook

 Facebook seems to really divide people into two categories: those who love it - and those who shake their heads. I'm intrigued. And certainly Facebook has achieved what many of us are only dreaming of... E.g. At my University we have for years tried to build portfolio systems that will allow students to document their learning process as they move along. We do this because we believe it's a great way to learn. Problem is: our systems don't work!Well, some of the systems do work (!) but poeple tend to not use them.

But I can't help noticing that even just a few days before the semester rapports are due, and even during week assignments (the two most stressful situations for any student) many of my students still post comments, take quizzes, do vanity searches and look for possible future dates on Facebook!

How is that possible??
What kind of persuasive force can do that? And how do we learn from it??

 

 

This is actually the result of a Strange Attractor... most people see a man waving his hand.
A good friend of mine sees an armchair, though...