Farewell

I'm sad to announce that this will most likely be my last blog post, at least in the foreseeable future. I would consider continuing my blogging after this class but I'm leaving to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints come January (and no, I didn't get called to the Provo Utah Referral Center Mission). This post isn't announcing my mission farewell, but rather it's a farewell to my Digital Civilization class as we come to the close of the semester.

Final Project Recap
I meant to make a separate post on this but just decided it would fit nicely into my reflection. Our presentation went very well. The whole thing was recorded on Justin TV but if you don't have time to watch the whole event, we highlight just our presentation and posted it on our group website. We didn't end up using the Prezi I made but I was totally fine with that; I liked the way it turned out more anyway, at least for the five minutes we had to fit into.


Highlight Reel
Here are a few posts I made throughout the semester that I think exemplify the course objectives fairly well. You can click on a picture to view it closer up and if you find one that looks interesting that you didn't get the chance to read all of, feel free to search it and read the whole thing.

Historical Content
Naturally, as the semester came to an end, a lot of our historical content wasn't from history anymore. But since this post is a reflection of the whole year, I can highlight a few of my earlier posts that I think covered this course objective pretty well.

Digital Culture
(Continued after midnight early Saturday morning)
I personally don't consider myself to be the most tech-savvy guy. I started this semester knowing virtually nothing about computer programming, yet for some reason I find Computer Engineering to be at the top of my list as far as choosing a major goes. I took this class simultaneously with an Intro to Computing Systems class and an engineering New Student Seminar, and that combination taught me so much about digital culture, including the history, present, and possible future aspects of it.

Self-Directed Learning
This has come to be one of my favorite aspects of the class: consume, create, and connect. It took me until the very end of the semester, when we did our final projects, to realize that this was a lot bigger than doing a certain number of blog posts every week and finding something interesting just so you can bookmark it on Diigo. We really are "revolutionizing learning".

Conclusion
This semester has been so much different from any other. I wasn't even planning on attending school until I got my mission call in early September and found out I wouldn't be leaving until the middle of January. Consequently, this whole semester has been a time of preparation for me. I've had numerous milestones in my life in just these past three and a half months, and this class was a unique opportunity to cultivate those experiences. Probably the most direct way I got to express myself was through the final project, working directly with the local missionaries and the returned missionaries in my group. Many of the tools and skills we've learned throughout the class will be vital to making a difference in this age we live in. Before this class I didn't even know where to go to start my own blog, I had never bothered to try it, and I still thought Skype was something you had to pay to use. Now I've not only learned how to use things like Prezi, Google docs/calendar, and even some HTML, but I've also been a part of an event that was broadcasted by us students to hundreds of people online. I didn't realize how new some of this stuff was to most people until the end of our event. My dad was blown away by some of the stuff we've been doing in class, and now he wants to try and incorporate some of the key aspects into a school he's helping to organize. One major theme of this class that has stuck with the most is the idea of Free Software and Open Source technology. It never made sense to me before how or why people would donate so much of their time to developing something that they would, in the end, just give out for free. Yes, there is altruism, but eventually people have to make a living. I've learned through this class, however, that some things, reputation for example, can be a much better investment in the long run.

Sorry if that seemed to drag on too long. You made not have even read the whole thing, which is okay. I just wanted to say, thank you for all the things you've taught me Professors Burton and Zappala. I'm really glad you guys took the challenge of creating this class, and I hope the administration will let you keep teaching it. This really is a Digital Age we're living in, and what you guys are teaching is relevant to any area of study nowadays. I'll miss this class and I look forward to applying my new knowledge in the future.

The Evolution of Missionary Work

Here's a Prezi I'm working on for the historical content of our final project. It will probably update automatically so I may just edit this post when I get the finished product.

The Evolution of Missionary Work on Prezi

I'm still unsure if I should keep the arrows or if they just make it look cluttered. Also, I'm planning on adding more to the online part of it (I'm not exactly sure what yet) before the showcase. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

EDIT 12/1/10:
I added the part on how we can help. Thanks for the post Kurt, I used a lot of what the missionaries gave us at the fireside, in a very summarized fashion of course.

Project Showcase

It's official. Each group in my Digital Civilization class at Brigham Young University will be showcasing our final projects.

December 9th, 2010

7:00-9:00 p.m.

3108 JKB (Jesse Knight Building) BYU

Refreshments will be served.

This will be a great opportunity for anyone in the Provo area to learn a variety of ways they can get involved in today's digital world. We will also hopefully be able to stream it onto the internet for those who can't make it. 

Our projects range from Microfinance to exploring how being digitally literate is affecting Tibetans in India. We've done a lot of work planning it so it should turn out to be a great experience for everyone. Please come if you get the chance!

DigiMissionaries

In our Digital Civilization class we split into groups for final projects, and mine is doing one the Mormon presence in the Digital Age. So far we've created a website to gather and share ideas - Sharing the Gospel in a Digital World - and tonight we'll be hosting a fireside at BYU to show members just some of the things we can do to help further online missionary work. It may not be well known that the church actually has several full-time missionaries working completely online. At our fireside we'll actually Skype them in to talk a little about some of the things they do and also what we can do.

As there is still a "Civilization" in the class name, my main job in the group will be to apply the historical aspect missionary work to the project. We're still brainstorming, but our first order of business will most likely be to add to the "Historical Content" area of the website. We want to compare and contrast how missionary work was done when the church was formed (maybe even earlier) to what it's like now.

At the end of the semester, on December 9th, each group in our class will be presenting our final projects. They will be on a wide variety of topics from class so I encourage anyone who would like to learn more about Digital Civilization to come. I'll most likely be putting more information into a comment on this post soon.

Online Republic

Last month I wrote a post on the possibilities of having an Online Democracy. Throughout the semester, however, my views on that have changed a great deal. First of all, contrary to most American thought, we are not a true democracy, we're a republic. If you have time I highly encourage you to watch the following video, it will explain this better than I could.



There are many more reasons the Founding Fathers created a republic rather than a democracy. Sometimes the majority can't always be trusted. People are too human. This is why we have elected officials.

My original question still remains. How can we use the internet to strengthen our government? Surely it can be used to help congressmen be closer to those they represent. Nowadays we have senators that Tweet and others that keep blogs. But there are other ways to bring us even closer to those in Washington. A couple ideas I had were:

1.) Frequent, non-binding votes online sent out by members of the House to those they represent. This would give the representatives a much more precise and current idea of what the people want. They wouldn't necessarily have to agree with the people (that would ruin the whole point of having representatives), but they certainly could take it into consideration.

2.) I'm kind of doubting of this one myself, but possibly live streaming of congressional sessions? (When there's nothing confidential involved of course.) I honestly don't really know much about what goes on in the Capitol Building, but it would be interesting to see if those we vote for really do what they say they will.

If you have any other ideas or opinions let me know. I'm still sorting my thoughts out myself so there's a chance you may be seeing another post on this in the near future.

Impact of the LASER

First thing's first, for those who may not know, the word 'laser' is actually an acronym standing for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. For the purposes of this class, I won't delve deep into the physics of it, but rather list a few of the impact this discovery has had on our modern society.

The first concept of a laser wasn't thought up for recreational, medical, or even for simple lighting principles. Physicist Charles Towne was an expert in spectroscopy, or as dictionary.com puts it, "the science that deals with the use of the spectroscope and with spectrum analysis". (If you're like me that didn't help clear it up at all, basically it's the study of radiation, visible or not, and its sources). Nowadays our uses for lasers vary from making slits in baby bottles to measuring the distance between the earth and moon. Here are some other neat (obvious and not-so-obvious) uses for lasers you may or may not have known about.

How much trust do you put in a stop light?

We spoke the other day in class about an idea called Game Theory, which is a way of predicting or manipulating people's actions by combining a limited number of options with assumed rational thinking (a more thorough explanation can be found in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

To demonstrate, many people use the Prisoner's Dilemma. Say two people, Bob and Alice, are arrested for committing an armed robbery. Each has enough evidence to convict the other, and the chief inspector give's them both two options: confess or refuse. If they both confess, they will both spend five years in prison. If one confesses and the other stays silent, then the confessor goes free and the other spends ten years in prison. If neither one confesses then they both spend two years in prison.

		Alice
		Confess	Refuse
Bob	Confess	5,5	0,10
	Refuse	10,0	2,2

The tendency for most people in this situation is to confess, because they want to play to their best strategy, which makes this a stacked game.

I noticed a connection between this and our global driving system. I've often marveled at how hundreds of millions of people have all been taught the same way to drive. Not only that, but for the most part we all comply with the same laws even though they sometimes may be a hindrance. What keeps people from running stop lights? Why do we drive on the right side of the road if no one's coming the other way? The answer is simple, self-preservation; the road system is there to protect us. A similar table could be drawn for this situation.

		Alice
		Run red light	Don't run
Bob	Run red light	0,0	10,0
	Don't run	0,10	7,7

In this case, a 0 represents a crash, 10 means getting to your destination as fast as possible, and 7 is getting to the destination but having to wait a little longer. Occasionally people do run red lights when they feel the risk of getting in a crash is very low. Add on to that the possibility of getting pulled over by a policeman and we have a rather reliable roadway.

Reflection #2

You may have noticed as well as I have that my posting slowed down a bit during October. I had a lot of personal things going on then but I'm trying to make up for it this month. Here's my reflective blog post for the second portion of class.

Peer Blog Review: Jeffrey

Dear Jeffrey,

Great job with your blog this term. It's clear you've been busy blogging this term. The more time you spend creating, the more the readers will want to spend consuming. A few of things stuck out quite a bit to me while I was going through it. First, I love the enthusiasm. You seem to be really enjoying the class and taking full advantage of the self-directed learning. I really like how you've made a goal since the last midterm to improve your blogging and stuck to it. You've been doing great with your links and variety of posts. I had a hard time finding things to improve on, especially comparing it to mine, so I had to be picky. For your hyperlinks, I would recommend using a different color, something that sticks out just a little bit more. I noticed when I was reading through something quickly it was easy to overlook one or two of them. Your post on What Makes Me Unique was one that caught my eye. I really like how you managed to incorporate a broad spectrum of the topics we've gone over in class while also apply it something as current and personal as a job interview. The Blog Checks are also a creative way of both keeping your work relevant to class and creating a sort of table of contents for your reader.

There was one other downside that I noticed, which in a way is somewhat of a compliment: there weren't enough comments. I've struggled with the same problem. It's harder to write when there's no audience. I don't know how much commenting you've done on classmates' blogs but that can be one good way of getting your name around. Another solution, one that I'm thinking of doing myself soon, would be to link your blog to Facebook (if you haven't already, and if you have an account). There's a great how-to on our class blog if you don't know how already. My biggest piece of advice would simply say, "Keep up the good work." Continue keeping variety in your posts and pushing yourself to try new things.

Sincerely,
Chase

Hiroshima: The Trigger of the Atomic Age

In the summer of 2009, I had the opportunity to go to Japan for two weeks on a student exchange with a few other friends from my high school. While there, we spent half a day in Hiroshima where we visited the rather "depressing" (to quote my journal for that day) Atomic Bomb Museum. Here are some pictures and videos from my experience. Forgive the shaky camera, just pause it if you need to get a better look. I encourage anyone who gets the chance to visit this amazing museum.

 

This pillar is at the entrance to the museum.

This video shows a before and after model of part of the city where the bomb hit.

The T-shaped bridge was the target of the bomb.

This is where the bomb exploded.

"I fought with myself for 30 minutes before I could take the first picture. After taking the first, I grew strangely calm and wanted to get closer. I took about ten steps forward and tried to snap another, but the scenes I saw were so gruesome my viewfinder clouded with tears."

 - Yoshito Matsushige

This was one of the most staggering pictures for me. It's the mark left by a man who was sitting on the stair when the bomb went off.

One of the only buildings they preserved.

I had one more video I wanted to show but I guess it's too long to upload from my computer. To summarize, it showed the city a year after the bombing. The population had recovered to about 180,000 people, a black market arose, a former military installation became a new housing area, open-air classrooms were organized, the Aioi bridge was reconstructed, and "the city made progress under a goal of becoming a City of Peace."

Nobody began the Atomic Age more literally than these people. The greatest thing I got our of this experience wasn't the sickening feeling of the effects of atomic warfare, but rather the lack of hatred from the Japanese people. There were no signs of grudges they still might be holding. They remember the past not to avenge it, but to learn from it.

A Logic Named Joe

Here's a really interesting short story we were assigned to read in class. I haven't finished it all myself but I got as far as I could today and wanted to post on it while it was still fresh in my mind. It's written by an American writer named Murray Leinster in 1946. Not only did I enjoy the subtle humor throughout, but in a way he predicts the invention of the Internet with his sci-fi "Logics". Enjoy!



P.S. If you want to know how to embed a web site like this, I learned it from Blogger Tips & Tricks.

Nietzsche, Hitler, and Modernism

Image from Photobucket

During the height of the Modernist movement, two radicals emerged that would arguably change the course of the future. Nietzsche, in his book titled Thus Spoke Zarathustra, coined the "Übermensch", or "overman", meaning the one who is willing to risk all for the sake of enhancement of humanity. This is in contrast to the "last man", or "one whose sole desire is his own comfort and is incapable of creating anything beyond oneself in any form". Adolf Hitler then used the principles of the Übermensch to form his idea of the "master race", igniting the Holocaust. 

Image from Spartacus Educational

As Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe stated, this "dealt a mortal blow to modernism. It shattered the modernist dreeam and defiled the impulse that sustained modern art." While progressive modernism sought to improve all of humankind, Hitler twisted both this and Nietzsche's philosophy into an excuse for genocide.

With the consequences of modernism fully evident by the end of World War II, primarily the industrialization of warfare, modernism began to gradually dissipate beneath the rise of the Atomic Age, a direct result of the war it followed.

Fractals

We recently talked about fractals in class and I thought I'd share a brief example of one I made in my high school physics class. According to several online sources I found, the shapes on a CD when you microwave it are fractals. Here's a picture of one that my exchange student and I tried ourselves. It only takes about 5 seconds in the microwave and then the whole disk lights up with what looks like blue lightning forming the lines you see. Unfortunately I can't currently prove that it truly is a fractal, but as far as I can tell it didn't ruin my microwave so feel free to try it out for yourselves. The way things are headed now, CD's will be obsolete soon anyway.

Prezi

I'm probably not the only one who felt that my simple Wordle failed to do William Manchester's book, or even the first section, justice. I doubt this Prezi presentation will add much more (keep in mind that it's not meant to be entirely self-explanatory), but I wanted to try it out both to add a little more structure to the ideas in The Medieval Mind, and simply to experiment with Prezi. For those who aren't part of our class, Prezi is a unique online type of power-point tool that's free for the basic version and can be used for a huge variety of presentations.

The Medieval Mind on Prezi

Mini Book Club - Creation

The Medieval Mind

Rather than simply doing a book report on Manchester's A World Lit Only by Fire, I decided to combine it with a digital literacy lab on Wordle. This is a free online program that lets you write in or link to any amount of text (as far as I know) and it will automatically arrange them in countless ways as you can see above. It also lets you alter things including word size, font, color, layout, etc, if there are particular words that you want to stick out more than others.

I only did this one on the first section of Manchester's book, "The Medieval Mind", that sets up much of the physical and ideological background leading up to the Renaissance. I didn't have access to the book online so I couldn't just copy and paste the whole section, but instead I simply picked out words as I read that seemed to describe some of Manchester's major themes. I'll let the rest speak for itself.

Mini Book Club - The Decision

Ok, so it didn't really take us a week to decide what book we're going to read. We made our decision last week but I kept putting off writing this post. Our group chose A World Lit Only by Fire by William Manchester (one that Brandon had presented to the group).

Recommended by our professor and said to be, "One of the most lively, engaging history books you will ever read," this book not only looks like a very exciting read (unlike some history books that I've read), but I'm also very interested in finding out what historical events and ideas led up the "creative explosion" of the Renaissance.

Mini Book Club - Brainstorm

Our class has been split into groups of three with each group being required to do a miniature "book club" on a book of our choice, as long as it's on one of the historical eras we've covered (Renaissance, Enlightenment, or 19th century/Industrial Revolution). Here are a few of the books that I found as possible choices for our group.



The Creation of the Modern World - Roy Porter
This book looks at the Enlightenment in Britain rather than the places we usually hear about such as France, America, or Scotland. It's said to cover a lot of ground at a fast pace but it also examines many different aspects of the Enlightenment.







Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture - Ross King
From what I can tell, this book doesn't focus so much on the architectural details of Brunelleschi's dome, but rather on how he did it during that time period. It looks like a very interesting story.





History of Urban Form: Before the Industrial Revolution - A.E.J. Morris
In this one, Morris writes more about urban life leading up to the Industrial Revolution rather than on the Industrial Revolution itself. Being a solid history book, it doesn't look quite as exciting as the other two but I'm sure it still has some interesting information.

Online Democracy

In Ancient Greece, the idea of a republic (from the Latin res publica, the "public thing"), primarily that of Athens, was taken quite literally, with the citizens gathering on a daily basis to vote on legislation and bills, rather than electing certain people to do it for them. Part of the reason this was able to work was because of their close proximity; within just one city it is relatively easy for voters to gather regularly.

When America was forming its government, it was quite impractical to have a national government in this form. The area of the United States of course is eminently larger than that of Athens, and the form of transportation had not made many significant improvements. In the last few decades, however, an alternative way of gathering has formed.


Assuming we had reliable ways of keeping out hackers and ensuring that every person only got one vote, how would opening up the government to the people, or at least certain parts of it, through the use of the internet affect our nation?

A Selfish Economy

In my Senior Seminar class in high school, one of the philosophers whose teachings we discussed was the Dalai Lama, both a religious and political leader of Tibetan Buddhism. One of the many virtues he promotes is altruism, which a friend of mine, Estée Arts, compared and contrasted to the teachings of Ayn Rand, a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter, on selfishness.

Rand severely criticizes the tradition of so called “altruistic” morality, and the lack of liberty it permits. When the Dalai Lama states that the “Basic joys and comforts of life such as food, shelter, clothing, and companionship are all dependent upon other sentient beings,” He is wrong in the way he chooses to state this. Although other beings may provide food and shelter, etc. via their career choices, it is still up to the individual to attain these things for themselves. Altruism emphasizes that you are supposed to help everyone, but it does not say exactly what you are supposed to do. True altruism consists of complete focus on another being. If the Dalai Lama believed in true altruism, he wouldn’t have the eight verses of Training the Mind on how to change your own attitudes and perceptions because evidently it really wouldn’t be about you, but about everyone else. But if everyone were to ask: “What do you want me to do?” Whomever they ask will reply, “Well it’s not about me, it’s about you. What do you want me to do?” and nothing will ever be done for anybody. The individual is responsible to do what is good (and rational) for themselves and this is what Rand says will result in happiness. If the welfare is not focused on the individual, there is a collapse in morality because in reality not only would the individual not be able to achieve exactly what is best for everyone else, but they would be left with their own wishes unfulfilled—and there’s the catch. It’s not about their wishes anyway: “He may hope that others might occasionally sacrifice themselves for his benefit, as he grudgingly sacrifices himself for theirs, but he knows that the relationship will bring mutual resentment, not pleasure—and that, morally, their pursuit of values will be like an exchange of unwanted, unchosen Christmas presents, which neither is morally permitted to buy for himself. Apart from such times as he manages to perform some act of self-sacrifice, he possesses no moral significance: morality takes no cognizance of him and has nothing to say to him for guidance in the crucial issues of his life; it is only his own personal, private, “selfish” life and, as such, it is regarded either as evil or, at best, amoral” (Rand, 1964). Where is the morality in this? This lifestyle diminishes human dignity and rights. When the individual is forced to rely solely on others to provide for them, they lose purpose. Now you may say that their purpose is for the common good, but in fact it is not. It has already been established that the individual is not capable of providing the desires of another being and is therefore useless to others and ultimately to themselves. This is why Rand argues that true morality is where individuals strive for their own (rational) wants. Rand characterizes altruistic beings as one who "permits no concept of a self-respecting, self-supporting man-- a man who supports his life by his own effort and neither sacrifices himself nor others. It means that altruism permits no view of men except as sacrificial animals and profiteers-on-sacrifice, as victims and parasites-- that it permits no concept of justice" (Rand, 1964).

Many of these thoughts tie in very closely with Adam Smith's idea of the free market. It's because of self-interest that the economy functions the way it does. People often dream about utopia's where everyone is willing to give everything for the good of others. Would that work? Even if we take money out of the equation, like the "gift market" is beginning to do, there would still be capitalist motives driving the economy. Until the Millennium, it seems that the only way to make up for the natural human instinct is to, indeed, capitalize on it and let the "invisible hand" do its thing.

P.s. I would really like some feedback on this one. I'm still trying to sort out my thoughts. And if you can't see two chunks of the quote, let me know. I was having some formatting problems with this one.

Reflection

This is a personal evaluation of my first term of blogging for my Digital Civilization class at BYU. It doesn't contain any new research or profound insight, but if you like to simply hear me think out loud...

Experimenting with Google Docs

As the "Leviathan" of Google grows, more people are being are being introduced to the many applications of it. I've heard numerous times about the use of Google Docs for different purposes so I decided to try it out for myself. (I realize that my last Digital Literacy Lab was also on a function of Google, but being a long-time Gmail user I feel that it's long overdue to learn this).

Once again I began by using lynda.com to learn the basic layout. It's fairly straightforward, and when you begin creating or viewing a document, you will probably notice that it's very similar to Microsoft Word, just with fewer operations. Rather than spending my time with the common text documents, I decided to test a few of the less familiar areas of Google Docs.

I first started creating a Google Form. Using that I was able to make a more advance version of those infinitely long junior high email quizzes that ask all those random questions about how well you know the person. I had fun experimenting with the different formats for writing questions (text, multiple choice, check boxes, choose from a list, scales, etc.). You even get to choose from a number of themes. My final step with that was to send it to a few of my friends and view their results. One downside, however, was that there was know way of entering in the correct answers and having it automatically graded (at least as far as I could tell).

My final test was something Google probably didn't intend when they created Google Docs. Underneath the Create New Form tab, there's a tab for Drawing. A friend of mine was logged onto gmail at the time so the two of us began playing hangman online. It was neat being able to edit the drawing simultaneously and use all the random tools available. It's not something that has quite as many applications to Consuming, Creating, and Connecting as, say, working on a group paper together, but it does give a good idea of what Google Docs is capable of.

Video Games' Influence on Language

I've been searching for articles about the influence of video games on popular culture, primarily on language, but it seems like the topic hasn't been researched enough to provide the solid evidence that some people demand.  The closest thing I found was a blog written by a student at Stanford University but even that is still a work in progress.

Increasingly over the past few years there have been a number of words from gamer lingo that have managed to slip out into pop culture (although I haven't been around long enough to know the exact origin of each).

- Noob
- Woot
- 1337
- Fail (as an interjection)
- pwn
- epic (not poetic kind)

...and possibly more that I'm also not aware of.

Many people that have picked up these words have no idea they came from video games. They may have never even played one in their life. I'm anxious to study this phenomenon more in depth and figure out not only how these words go from the virtual world to reality, but also why some words make it and others don't.

What can you do with a Wii remote?

Many people don't realize how powerful some of the technology we own can be (myself included). Here's a fascinating demonstration on what one guy learned how to do with a simple Wii Remote, which is now one of the most common computer input devices in the world. My mom is actually the one who showed this to me. She wanted me to set it up for her so she could use it in her classes. I still haven't gotten around to it though. If you are short on time, I recommend at least watching the second video, it's probably the most applicable to everyday use (e.g. teaching a class, business presentations, etc.). And the best part about it? It's free! Johnny Lee teaches you everything you need to do to create something like this on your own, another great example of open educational resources and the free software movement.

http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/

The Glorious Revolution, Open Government, Free Software

In 1688 the unthinkable happened. A bloodless revolution in England, known today as the Glorious Revolution, led to the overthrowing of King James II and established Parliament as the primary power of government. Despite the fact that the United States of America had not even formed yet, this event is crucial in our country's history.

 

 Image taken from http://www.thegloriousrevolution.org/

For many years, England strove to perfect their laws. The Whig Party, England's first political party, which formed not long before the Glorious Revolution, had "a dark view of human nature" (39). They struggled with the prospect of a few corrupt men trying to manipulate Parliament. With the help of teachings from Aristotle, they noted that "if one mixed and balanced power among rival authorities in a constitutional system, chances were that no single one of them would accumulate enough power to do the others harm" (39).

The same principles are being applied in multiple ways today. First, there is the idea of Open Government, which focuses on eliminating government secrecy and allowing increased public input and participation. A recent website called Challenge.gov has been set up and funded by the government to find solutions to many of the country's challenges today. It's free to participate and prizes are given for the winners of each challenge.

Also, there is the Free Software movement which is pushing to make as much software open to the public, not necessarily free of price, but freedom to run it, freedom to study how it works and make changes if one wishes, freedom to redistribute, and freedom to distribute modified copies. Much like challenge.gov, this capitalizes on the fact that the more eyes there are on something, the more likely it is for an improvement to be found, and that person in turn can open it up to others for enhancement. See gnu.org for more information.

These three events and movements are only small victories in comparison to what the world would be like if we successfully managed to fuse the world's intellect together into one giant mastermind.

How to Calendar

For my Digital Civilization class at Brigham Young University we have what we call "Digital Literacy Labs" in which we choose or are assigned a certain lab (e.g. bookmarking or screencasting) and then go off on our own to not only learn the skill, but be able to apply it to our interactions with the digital world today.

My first lab is on Calendaring, of which I'm going to demonstrate as briefly as I can a few of the basics.

Journals

I had the great privilege to read a paper written by my Digital Civilizations teacher, Dr. Gideon Burton, titled Our Mormon Renaissance. By the time I had finished it, my mind was overflowing with my own thoughts and comments that I thought I should add my two cents to his. I mean neither to boast of my own accomplishments nor lessen the value of Dr. Burton's words with this rough draft, but simply to share my own experience with the "Mormon Renaissance".

Anyone who has ever asked me the cliche question "If your house was on fire and you could only save one thing on your way out, what would you take?" should know that, without any hesitation, I would save my journals. I have been fortunate enough to have at least one successful New Year's resolution which happened on January 1, 2003. I resolved to write every day in my journal, and although I occasionally have to catch up on a day or two, I've kept my goal.

For many years it remained a very basic day to day summary of what I did. In fact, it still feels like that occasionally, but that's part of being in the "Mormon Renaissance".

The one thing I am not afraid to do in my writing is scribble. One glance through the pages of my journals show "the thousand dying bodies of those false attempts, the skeletons of first or worst ideas".

President Spencer W. Kimball once said, "What could you do better for your children and your children's children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had finally achieved?"

To sum up some of the benefits of writing in a journal, I will take from list in an article by Salli Hollenzer to which I can also attest to.

• Having a written family record of details that are a practical source of information.
• Having a clearer, richer memory of the past.
• Having a practical method of setting, tracking, and following through with goals.
• Having a therapeutic means to resolve emotional, social, and spiritual issues.
• Improving writing skills.
• Having a form of personal scripture.

Blogs are also becoming a very popular medium for keeping a journal. By the time I have kids and they're old enough to be keeping a journal, maybe handwriting it will be obsolete.

Experience

"So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the pith of a man's genius contracts itself to a very few hours." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am currently taking a class on Digital Civilization which, in a nutshell, is looking at western civilization through the eyes of the digital revolution. One of the very first readings we were given was "The Painter" by Leonardo Da Vinci. What stood out to me the most in this essay were his comments on experience. People nowadays often get so caught up in memorizing facts and simply learning to regurgitate someone else's work, that, like Emerson said, there is "very little time to entertain a hope and an insight which becomes the light of our life."

As I still consider myself new to the whole college experience, this idea that I am now expected to create my own insights that can not only be shared with, but possibly be entirely new to my peers, my professors, and now even the rest of the web, is somewhat daunting. It wasn't more than a year ago when I was in high school was reading through and citing articles written by college students with roughly the same education I have now. 

I guess the time of preparation and routine is nearing its end.

A Brief Introduction

Aside from being fortunate enough to travel all over the world, I have lived in the same house in Provo, Utah my entire life. I graduated with the class of 2010 from an unusually small high school, where I got to experience every end of the spectrum: student government, drama, math contests, and four different sports (yes, it was a four-sided spectrum).

I'm still making up my mind as far as my major goes, but so far Computer Engineering seems to be the best for me. Now I'm just getting a few more credits in before I leave in January on my two year LDS mission to Maceió Brazil.