Sociotechnical Road Show
I'm off to Troy, NY tonight to wave the sociotechnical banner at an NSF workshop. I'll be giving a short (~10 minutes) talk on Thursday afternoon, and I'm working on my talk notes. Some of you already know I like to give a different kind of talk - minimalist slides, helpful pictures and videos, lots of movement - but I'm not sure how such a talk with fly at this workshop. I chickened out in 2005 when I gave a talk about RideNow at the GROUP Conference, but I'm going for gold this week. The role of graduate students in these workshops is unclear to me, but it's obvious that I have an audience I wouldn't normally encounter.
Here's the white paper I submitted. One of the organizers must have liked it because they invited me to come and talk during the doctoral student forum. I'll be talking about how the data generated by wireless sensing technology may be used/studied for understanding the structural health of our civil infrastructure (think bridges). Real-time data about the health of a structure could be immensely useful for engineers monitoring its needs for repair, for rescue workers responding to a fire or other calamity, and researchers looking for ways to improve structures (and wireless sensing, for that matter). It's pretty easy for me to get excited about studying how first responders and rescue workers would use such data and the information flows it produces, but I think I need to stay closer to engineers in this talk. We'll see though, I guess.
I admit, I'm nervous about the workshop. Every list of invitees or participants that I've seen is incredibly male- and computer science-dominated. I'd rather not deal with gender and disciplinary politics at every turn, but such is life. I'll try not to let the various layers of politics derail me this week. I've been given an interesting opportunity in being invited, but I'm not quite sure what that opportunity offers. I'll follow up from Troy later this week.
A confession
I confess. I have spent about $80 at Wal-Mart in the last week. I honestly cannot remember the last time I spent money at Wal-Mart; I'm not even sure when the last time I walked in to a Walmart was. But, I'm in northwest Iowa, and Walmart has run the other stores (Kmart, Shopko, White Drug) out of town. On my first trip, I was accompanying a friend who needed (yes, needed) the audiobook of the new Harry Potter. The local bookstore was sold out of everything Harry Potter, so Walmart was the only local option. I bought sunscreen and deodorant. I should've gone to HyVee instead, but I was lazy. I'm ashamed.
Then, yesterday, I was in Wal-Mart because my brother insisted that we go there to buy a socket set because he knew they'd have it, and we desperately needed to fix the SeaDoo. While waiting in line to buy said socket set, I noticed the Walmart optical center and wandered over; I found they had the contacts I'd just paid through the roof to have overnighted to me from VisionDirect. I returned to the lake house to poll my friends about whether or not I could justify canceling my internet order and buying my contacts at Wal-Mart. Meggie, an alternative medicine student, checked, and sure enough, I was experiencing pretty nasty eye strain. Those of us at the house then decided it was ok for me to return to Wal-Mart and buy my contacts if I offset my indiscretion by donating to a worthy cause.
So, now I'm looking for somewhere to send my $70. That's how much I saved by shopping at Wal-Mart, and since I was shopping there to get my contacts 2 days earlier, we decided I should donate the price difference. So, where should my $70 go? I suggested maybe the Michigan Democratic Party, but Meggie pointed out that charitable organizations are having some trouble this year because so many people are sending their charity dollars to campaign-related pots. The Dems will have to wait until fiscal 2008 to get any of my money, I guess. Where would my $70 be most useful and most likely to offset some of the damage I did by shopping at Wal-Mart? Here are some ideas, and I'm interested in your suggestions:
- First Book - a nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books
- Food Gatherers - exists to alleviate hunger and address its causes in our community by: reducing food waste through the rescue and distribution of perishable and non perishable food; coordinating with other hunger relief providers; educating the public about hunger; and developing new food resources.
Here's an article from Money magazine that talks about the evil-not evil debate that's in my head.
Where did all the senses of humor go?
Hillary Clinton cracks me up. She posted (or had someone post, whatever) a funny video to YouTube that you should go watch - only 53 seconds. What's even more funny than the video are the comments. Unfortunately, the comments are funny-sad, not funny-haha like the video. I can't imagine taking myself so seriously that I think Hillary Clinton would not be speaking tongue-in-cheek when asking me to help her pick a campaign song. shpongolina, kamason86, and company might just need something to complain about.
While getting those user profile links for the cranky commenters, I learned that kamason86 is a Ron Paul supporter. sphongolina's a Dennis Kucinich guy/gal. Hm, ok.
Libby = still undecided
Oh, Canada
Some friends invited me on a last minute trip to Toronto Saturday, and of course, I went. This was my first trip to Toronto, and I had a wonderful time. I took a lot of pictures. My favorite place on our whirlwind tour was definitely
They have yummy oysters and a fantastic beer selection (250+). The bar staff was super friendly and helpful. One of them (d'oh, I can't remember his name!) makes homemade hot sauces that are fantastic. I highly recommend oysters with his papaya habanero sauce and a little lemon juice. I would've eaten all they had if my stomach and wallet had room.
The real reason for our trip was to catch the True Colors Tour at the Molson Amphitheatre. The tour supports the Human Rights Campaign. HRC works for equal rights, and you should support them too. Jolie's friend Tara road managed The Gossip for this tour, and she hooked us up big time. We got VIP passes, free tickets, and to stand BACKSTAGE ON THE STAGE during Erasure and Margaret Cho. We would've been there for Cyndi Lauper too, but Ms. Lauper actually asked us not to come out on stage. The stage manager freaked and asked us to leave. I think Ms. Lauper just wanted us to stay put, not that she wanted us to walk away, but whatever.
Here's the video produced for HRC and the True Colors Tour:
Feminism shouldn’t be dead
I've begun to pay more careful and meaningful attention to gender and gender politics lately. Those of you who know me know that this is not an earth-shattering change for me. What's different about this change is not that I'm thinking about gender politics but that I'm getting frustrated. I even emailed with my mom a couple weeks ago about a number of misogynistic encounters I'd had recently. I was asked illegal questions about my age and gender in a job interview. I heard my colleagues use "young" to describe a woman and "inexperienced" to describe a man - the two were nearly indistinguishable on paper. I watched Shut Up and Sing and was appalled to see that calling women "sluts" for exercising their civil rights was considered acceptable behavior. And tonight, I read an article on Forbes.com that made me cranky.
Here it is: In Pictures: How to network without saying a word
You'll notice that the first few tips are about how to use one's tie and jacket to make an impression as "strong." Argh! So many things happening there. I read the text version of the article too, just in case it was less gendered. While it helpfully provides "he or she" instead of just "he" when referring to what a person might do, it does not succeed in speaking to or for women. I'm not letting this get to me too much though because the whole premise of the article offends me. People should not be treated as means to ends, but this article encourages readers to "appear authentic." Why not just be authentic? Wouldn't that be better?
Where did the feminists go? Our work is not done.
For Girls, It's Be Yourself, and Be Perfect, Too (from the NY Times)
Male-female gap in income grows (from the Denver Post)
RE: The Power of Green
I've gotten back into the habit of buying a Sunday New York Times and picking my way through it. This morning, while hustling on the eliptical trainer at the Ann Arbor YMCA I read an article in the Magazine that made my $5 purchase a bargain. Thomas L. Friedman wrote The Power of Green, and you should all read it. Friedman's essay is a welcome addition to the energy policy literature. He clearly explains how America can leverage our knowledge, market share, and public policies to "reknit America at home and reconnect America abroad." His essay will leave you wanting changes in government subsidies, scrutinizing your own carbon footprint, and itching to write to your Representatives and Senators.