danah boyd

I recently had to do an assignment for my Women and Computers class regarding the research of a woman who has contributed to new media. I chose danah boyd as she seemed interesting in that the only information I had about her before my research was that she worked for Microsoft doing research. When I started to read about her through her blog and through her Web site, I was hooked. She is simply fascinating. She is very cut and dry and seems to be of the "no bullshit" type, which is hard to find these days in the time of ass-kissing to get up in the world. I did my multi-media presentation on her which does her no justice, I realize, but gives a brief background about her life, and some of the research she has conducted.

End of the Semester Blues

Now I am not saying that I have the hardest schedule by any means but I am just about exhausted with undergraduate school. I graduate in less than three weeks and still have so much yet to do. Do you ever feel like no matter what you do, you are all caught up on everything and yet still so far behind? It's a never-ending vishish cycle of work but luckily it is almost over. I think what makes it the hardest to deal with is that I have had so much happen to me healthwise this year that one would think that I had to have made it up because it seems like way too much to be happening to one person in such a short period of time. But it's what happened and so I am trying to pull everything back together by trying to make sure that I remain at the very least all caught up on things.

Learning How to Place Videos into Blog from YouTube

I had discussed getting my wisdom teeth out in an earlier post and this is how I felt after I woke up.





I thought this was really cute of the little boy as well. Here is the URL for the video on Youtube as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs

Low-Income Urban High School Students and Financial Aid on the Internet

(http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.jenkinscomputers.com/jenkins%2520computers%2520logo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.jenkinscomputers.com/&usg=__Dzy5lZf0D88DPNiXghfbCuOftTI=&h=480&w=517&sz=62&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=WDWqU2q9SInRUM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=131&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcomputers%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den)

In summary, the article, "Low-income High School Students' Use of the Internet to Access Financial Aid," by Kristen Venegas, discusses the sturggles and lack of opportunities that prevent students from filling out financial aid forms online which is becoming a much more general common practice. The importance of being able to both access these forms online as well as understanding how to complete them online lies in the fact that, "FAFSA applications completed online receive faster decisions about student aid packages than those that are completed on paper." (http://www.nasfaa.org/Annualpubs/Journal/Vol36N3/KristanVenegas.PDF) The problem does not only lie within the access to Web-linked computers, despite their decreasing numbers in schools with high levels of low-income students, but also in the ability to properly use the Internet, access the proper Web sites, etc. According to the article, "Increased number of computers in low-income schools does not guarantee use: if the students are not given time to use them, if students as well as teachers are not properly trained on how to use them," and end up being considered, "engines of inequality" because of these reasons."

Another reason why it is important for these low-income students to be taught about the financial aid online application process is because the financial aid programs are increasingly choosing to use the Internet more and more for reasons such as: to decrease application mistakes, expidite the review and processing of Web-based forms, save materials, postage and processing costs for government and postsecondary institutions, allowing for more money to be dispersed into the aid. While this is all very good, if not given the same opportunitites, the author argues that this process perpetuates the cycle of lack of access for some people and creates advantages for others. She states that "culture plays a role in the acquisition of financial aid knowledge," and labels such culture as, "influences, resources, and expectations affect students' ability and drive to acquire financial aid."

The author discusses the "cultural framework" that families, home environments, peers, school envrionments, and communities have on students' decisions to enroll in or seek funding for higher education. (For my own personal opinion, those who are around parents who have either been college-educated or educated themselves on the process for their children create environments that encourage such applications to be done. Envrionments play a large role in general on almost everything we do.)

6 Barriers these students face in trying to complete online financial aid applications:

1. "low income" status renders the possibility for not owning a computer or having Internet access at home, and thus only relying purely on school resources.

2. Access to Web-linked computers in general for low-income schools.

3. Cultural frameworks such as school, family, peers, etc.

4. Slow Internet Access/problems with freezing computers.

5. Inability to understand the Web sites when they access them.

6. Not being properly trained to use computers and the Internet, if they are given access to use them.

Blood Clot

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for being so understanding about my recent condition. It has been a long week and a frustrating struggle with multiple doctor's giving multiple opinions and offering differing advice on treatment. I am trying to stay as caught up as I can from my parent's house down in the cities and I am allowed to return to school with some restrictions for walking on Monday. I hope everyone is doing well and thank you again for your kind words and expressions of concern and understanding. I greatly appreciate it. :-) Just to keep people up to date, I have a DVT which is a clot in my leg and it is in the right femoral vein. I was also just recently scanned for a pulmonary embolism which is a clot in the lung. I am waiting for the results of that testing. I am taking two forms of blood thinning medication right now and will need to be getting my blood checked every few days as the dosages of those medications will need to be adjusted accordingly to my INR. That is all the information that I have right now, if you have any questions about my return or need something from me that I am late on or an idea of when I will be getting back on track, please feel free to contact me at any time.

BLog #2 Analysis

In summary, the blog entitled, "Reappropriate: a personal and political blog written by an angry Asian American woman," is very advanced, in my opinion. She offers a variety of topics that are discussed through her blog posts and those contributing authors. She has a tab bar consisting of, "home, About, Ads, Policy, Contact." There is high-quality imagery of animee on the site. ONe can click on links to the most recent posts and see recent comments of those posts. There are ads on the site. For each post she has a link to a printer-friendly version of the post. She offers an "Archives" section as well as a "blogged ratings" section in which her rating as of now is "8.0" and a link to where you can place your own rating. The author also offers a list with links of some of the blogs that she follows and a "directory" of various blogs. She offers lists of blogs that are broken into such categories as: "Random Amusement," "Vagina Revolution," and, "Yellow and Brown." I would say that of the content of the posts, they mostly focus on topics covering issues revolving around women. She also offers a place for people to search for specific posts, a link to her Facebook page and what her current status is, and a section with a topic that is headlined "Spotlight."

Review:

In reference to the content of the blog postings, one of the major strengths of both of the blogs that I have looked at, is that they cover a range of topics and analyze the content differently than what is being done in mainstream media. This means that they are looking at the questions that are not being asked and analyzing why that is and offering suggestions about what should be being asked. I think that a strength of the posts on this site in particular is that each post is clearly authored by the main author and then there is a link to the comments from contributing authors. This helps to clearly strucutre the site and its posts and everyone is given credit whether it is anonymous or not. I like this. I also like that each post is printer-friendly capable and that she has labeled them into categories which can be found under each posting title. For example, a post entitled, "Bobby Jindal Defend Criticism of Obama," has a category label of, "U.S. Politics and Politicians." This can make your searching easier if you are searching for posts that could be found under a certain category. And this same example also shows how she is looking at not only issues of women of color but also men of color, namely, the President of the U.S. and the racial intolerance of our counrty.

In terms of the site's organization and ease of use, I think that it is immaculate. Everything is very clearly organized in to categories as I have mentioned a few times in the above information. I think that another strength of the site is that under the "About" tab, she offers some specific background information about herself such as, "My name is Jenn. I am female. I was born in August of 1982." The reader at least now gets some sort of an idea of the basics about the author. She goes on to offer information about where she's from, where her parents are from, etc., in the form of a question and answer interview, making it easier to see her answers and the questions being asked. I think that the reader also gets an idea about the reasoning for this site's beginning.

Finally, in reference to the site's weaknesses, I honestly did not see any. I liked that there were various topics represented and that the analysis offered questioned what was being said in the mainstream media and voices. I liked the printer-friendly posts. I thought the site was very well organized and offered places for people to contribute their thoughts. If you wanted to contact her directly she offered you information to do so. I really enjoyed this site and the postings that I read. I have no weaknesses to offer.

Blog #1 Analysis

In summary, the blog entitled, "The Angry Black Woman: Politics, Race, Gender, Sexuality, Anger," is very organized and offers critiques that are insightful and question the larger picture of various topics being discussed by multiple women. One example of this would be the "Ongoing Conversations" section with links to various topics that have been discussed multiple times and by multiple people. There is then the main section which offers a scroll-down menu of all of the blog submissions and their content. Then on the right hand side there is a section with links to the latest submissions, simply a quicker way to get to them instead of having to scroll down and then go to the next page of submissions, names and links to "guest bloggers" who regularly participate on this woman's site, a list of links to her "Blogroll" which is the blogs that she is following, and some photos that you can upload from flickr. I think that this site offers a way for people who may feel that their voices are otherwise unheard, to speak about topics that they share within their community and then express issues that may be occurring in some communities and not others and then offers an opportunity to discuss why that is.

Review:

In reference to the content of the material that is discussed on the site, I would have to say that the issues and topics revolve mainly around those that would affect Black men and women, mostly women. For example, one article that nojojojo discusses (which I believe is the main author of the site), is that of new law being passed in Italy after three rapes occurred in one weekend which were believed to have been committed by "foreingers." This law, nojojojo quotes, will include automatic life sentences in the cases of the rapes of minors and those rapes that ended in death. Trials for rape victims will be sped up as well. Nojojojo offers her opinion that these aspects are great, but the last one she mentions, about citizen street patrols by unamed and unpaid volunteers, could be problematic in terms of racism and oppression of certain groups of people. That is merely one example, topics of discussion range anywhere from analysis on why people are so angry at the octuplet mom, to Chris Brown and his domestic violence against Rihanna, to discussion on a racist cartoon found within the Post. I think that this shows that they are talking not only about issues revolving around Black men and women but also women and men of color in general which I find to be a very positive attribute. The writers are also offering different insight than that of what is being offered within the mainstream media which is good since such opinions are rarely heard.

In terms of the way the site is set up and its organization of content; I think that this site is extremely organized and very accessible for its readers and participants. I mentioned this set-up in the summary of the site. I like that links are offered to other sites that the main author follows, as well as to those of the contributing authors. I like that the most recent submissions can be easily accessed through the links and also just by scrolling down. There is also a "category cloud" which we have discussed in class and is useful for people who might searching for a specific topic through keyword search.

Finally, in reference to the author's tabs in her navigation bar. These are helpful if you want to know a little more about the author herself. Under the "About" tab, the reader gets a bold statement about how one can contribute their opinions and stories of interest. The author discusses how, "just because I am angry does not mean I hate everything." The author's opinion about the main reason behind the site is for purposes of anti-racism and anti-sexism, as these are the main reasons behind her anger. She goes on to say that this is a safe space for expression of opinions, even those that oppose what is being discussed but she, "will not tolerate abuse here." Finally, the author refers to her other tabs by stating, "Before you go commenting on this blog, I suggest you refer to the 'Required Readings.' It's required for a reason. I also suggest you check out the 'Rules,' because whether you break them in ignorance or not, you'll still be treated the same way." Thus another example of her bold statements. Some of the readings that the author, "requires," include titles such as, "Anger Does Not Equal Hate," and, "A Concise history of race relations in the USA." Some of the rules that the author states under her "Rules" tab include moderated publishing of blogs on her site because of problems due to racist and sexist publishers, and the ability to remain anonymous because there is no need to register or sign up for the site. I find all of these attributes about this site to be very helpful and keep things organized and shows a sign of respect and creates a safe envrionement for people to have discussions about controversial topics.