Greetings, humanoids. Today I successfully defended my dissertation, "Dissertations: Past, Present, and Future." Overall, I was pleased with my performance. I was able to pretty much include all but one of my major academic interests in the diss (copyrights, hackers, wikis, new tech, politics, etc.) Anyway, I thought some people might want to hear it, so I made an audio recording of the whole thing and will make it available for you to stream or download. I also have the original PowerPoint presentation here (zipped because of photos). You may be interested in the questions I got asked and some of their responses--I had two scientists present, and their takes on the issues were quite distinct from the English professors in attendance. You also hear Moxley making some "Moxleyisms," though I won't mention my favorites...I think you'll discover which ones I'm talking about if you give it a list! Finally, if you want to read the whole dissertation (though keep in mind it still needs revision), that's available as well. Three of the committee members want to see it again before it goes into the depository, so I have quite a bit of work left to do on it...I was told that this wasn't because it wasn't any good, but rather that they're so interested in my work that they insist on seeing the changes I make. ;-) For sanity's sake, I'll take their word for it!

I'll agree with Street Tech:

I don't know what the designers of this site were smoking (moldy barn-hay, apparently), but this is one of the weirdest and most wonderful virtual storefronts I've seen in awhile. I'm not really sure what the connection is between hillbillies and high-tech gadget bags, but who cares?

This is one of those things that has to be experienced to understand, and I'm still not sure why I like it??? Be sure to try the various buttons (use the chain if you press the nerds button). Kudos to the designers at Sputnik Agency for their off-the-wall creative design.

The Institute for the Future of the Book has announced the competition "Born Digital 1: Illumination" which "calls for a reinvention of the illuminated manuscript." They're seeking submissions of a sample illuminated page that demonstrates "the unique possibilities of the digital medium while preserving the classic illuminative relationship between text and image." Grand prize is $1000.

Computers and Composition: An International Journal invites contributions for a special issue.

Multimedia Composition: Pedagogies, Production, Possibilities

Guest-edited by David Blakesley and Karl Stolley

Deadline for submissions is May 1, 2005.

Multimedia composition is the craft of inventing, shaping, producing, and delivering text, audio, video, and images purposefully. As a craft (or art), it is a set of skilled practices for integrating content that may appear in various forms—words, sound, moving and still images, even physical objects—all in the interest of communicating, entertaining, or persuading. Producing multimedia used to be the sole province of high-end specialists with expensive technologies. Now, however, the creators of content—authors, designers, artists, musicians—are closer than ever to the means of delivering rich multimedia content to audiences. New technologies have made it possible for people who aren't technical specialists or professionals to compose multimedia. Yet the technical challenges remain significant. The tangible incentives seem disproportionate to our desire for composing and disseminating multimedia. We have yet to articulate a rich theoretical basis that would rationalize teaching multimedia as a new, if not primary, form of composition.