Weekend Reading

Found around town #loveislove🌈

A photo posted by Kate Spaulding (@shortandsweets) on Jun 24, 2016 at 10:50am PDT

Happy Friday! I hope you all had a good week. I spent a lot of time in what my family calls "house manager" mode this week - phone calls, grocery shopping, bills, etc., along with school and work. So, a pretty tame week I suppose.

Of course, the UK took care of that feeling last night. APW's point has really stuck with me:

now scores of people—including those who graduated college a month ago and thought they were entering into an exciting, open new world—can’t travel or work in 27 countries! When 75 percent of those ages 18-24, 56 percent of those 25-49, 44 percent of those 50-64, and 39 percent of those 65 and older voted to remain, it’s a little hard not to be super pissed that older generations are making decisions that my contemporaries and our children will have to live with for decades

Now, granted, people in the UK will still be able to travel, at least for pleasure, though it will be more complicated than it's been. But I think the point is still a valid one. It's especially upsetting in the face of reporting about how people didn't know what they were voting about. 

Other things worth clicking on:

An online calculator that determines the cost of being a stay-at-home parent. Whether this applies to your situation or not, Go Look. The dollar amounts are staggering. To me, they add up to a million (more) reasons to institute paid family leave, flexibility, affordable and high-quality childcare, and compassion. 

I haven't gotten through the whole series yet, but a reporter spent four months working as a guard in a private prison and then wrote about it. Journalists aren't welcomed in prisons, so this was his "in." The editor's letter is worth a read as well. 

In lighter news, this week, winners from the kitchen included no-bake energy bites (if you make them, use jarred pb, not the grind-your-own-kind, as it didn't seem to have enough oil to hold together), veggie pad thai (warning: crashy website), and pasta "alfredo."

This made me happy. Still not on Snapchat, but it was the best reason I've seen thus far. 

A school library in rural California asks for Just One Book. 

This week, I enjoyed reading The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson, set in England before and during WWI. I'm about halfway through The Confidence Code, which is interesting. I'm hoping for All the Answers in the second half. 

My stuff: a bit about the Arab Spring & social media resources for LIS peeps. 

Some of these links are affiliate links.

The Arab Spring as an Information Community

Tahrir Square, Egypt via: http://www.nato.int/docu/Review/2012/Arab-Spring/Squaring-circle-Arab-uprisings/EN/index.htm

During the fall semester last year, I took a class exploring the idea of information communities. We had discussions throughout, and our final assignment was a research paper about the information community of our choice. As part of our discussions, we had to write short, directed blurbs and share them with the class. Even though that class is well behind me now, I still find the ideas fascinating, and so I wanted to share some of my ideas here.

So this is the first in a series, and in this post, I present the idea that the protesters who participated in the Arab Spring were an information community.

________________

The Arab Spring was a series of protests, demonstrations, riots, and civil wars that first began in Tunisia in December 2010. From there, dissent spread throughout the region, and, ultimately, events ranging from marches to civil wars took place in twenty-two countries. Syria, Iraq, and Libya remain embroiled in civil war, while many of the other countries involved experience various levels of turbulence to this day.

Conflicts by country. via: http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=9600

The use by protesters of cell phones and social media to incite and organize their fellow citizens and to document their treatment by government forces was revolutionary in its own right. Facebook, especially, but also Twitter and text messaging were used to share information amongst protesting citizens and with the rest of the world. Social media has an inherent “multiplier effect for stakeholders” (Fisher & Durrance, 2003, p. 659) in that communication between two or more people defaults to public access. This means that any conversation amongst a small group can be seen by the social circles of each participant. The information is easily shared multiple times without corrupting it (no game of telephone here; it’s word-for-word sharing), which ensures that any interested parties have the right information at the right time. Protesters, journalists, and other “diverse groups” (Fisher & Durrance, 2003, p. 659) were able to converge upon city squares with precision, as well as share information, updates, and results.

via: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-16212447

This social media uprising came about as a way for ordinary citizens to get out from under the thumbs of authoritarian regimes. The governments of these countries had long suppressed free speech through laws, intimidation, force, and censorship. Protesters use of Facebook during the Arab Spring formed “around people’s needs to access and use information” (Fisher & Durrance, 2003, p. 659) out from under the umbrella of state controlled media outlets. This virtual meeting space “removed[ed] barriers to information about acquiring needed services and participating in civic life” (Fisher & Durrance, 2003, p. 660). In other words, the protesters use of Facebook and other social media allowed them to speak freely and share information about participating in demonstrations against their authoritarian governments.

Having an online information community of protesters helped cause the domino effect that spread unrest through the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa because it “foster[ed] social connectedness within the larger community (Fisher & Durrance, 2003, p. 660). That “larger community” also included much of the world, which helped bring international attention to their causes and international outrage over their treatment. 

via: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=374756

Fisher, K., & Durrance, J. (2003). Information communities. In K. Christensen, & D. Levinson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of community: From the village to the virtual world. (pp. 658-661). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. 

Weekend Reading

hi friends! How was your week? I've been doing a lot of adulting lately (talking to the bank and ordering blinds and filling out forms and registering for classes and applying for jobs and internships and ... things), so I'm looking forward to some nephew time this weekend (because 11-month-olds have no patience for silly paperwork) and walking over to the annual town carnival/festival/thingie.

So, perhaps with your weekend you wanna do some reading? Here's what I've liked of late:

The Economy of You by Kimberly Palmer - definitely worth a read if you're interested in a side gig/multiple income streams

Generous Hearts & Social Media Shaming - a post about empathy on the internet (and in life)

My research fail

Amazing looking chocolate chip cookies.

A podcast from a former classmate, Lauren Fadeley about her move from Pennsylvania Ballet to Miami City Ballet

Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. Not super new anymore (2008), but definitely motivational and a nice change from "exercising makes your body healthier"

Related: Could Thinking Positively About Aging Be the Secret of Health?

I've been binge reading this series by Estelle Ryan featuring a smart, strong leading lady whose hyper-analytical brain helps save art (and people. and the world, really)

Me, in the career development world

Have you read/seen/listened to anything noteworthy lately? Tell me more, tell me more!
Have a great weekend!

Some of these links are affiliate links.