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February 28, 2005

Greenwich Dream Time - Full Article

(ZipUSA: Greenwich, Connecticut) David Rakoff. National Geographic Feb 2004 v205 i2 p118(5) (1075 words)


http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0402/feature6/index.html
National Geographic, Feb 2004 v205 i2 p118(5)
06830: Greenwich dream time. (ZipUSA: Greenwich, Connecticut) David Rakoff.


Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2004 National Geographic Society


With its rolling lawns and elegant buildings, the campus of the Greenwich Academy is as imposing and beautiful as many full-blown universities. Founded in 1827, Connecticut's oldest school for girls, teaching preschool through grade 12, is a dream of academic girlhood. Even the lacrosse field seems an expanse of perfect, implausible green.


It is an implausible green, as it turns out. The grass is artificial, an indestructible carpet woven atop a bed of synthetic mulch. Reaching down, nay fingertips bring up a fine trace of the "soil," a particulate mix of black rubber crumbs. A student walks along, singing a refrain of a song in French. Her lovely voice carries out over the field to a group of stretching athletes. I jump a few times on the ersatz turf and feel a springing weightlessness.


Perhaps this buoyancy is nothing more than the boundless sense of possibility brought on by the affluence that permeates this town. A scant hour from Manhattan by train, Greenwich, Connecticut, is synonymous with wealth in America. A particular kind of wealth; specifically, Old Money--in some sense older than the nation itself. When Paul Revere rode through in 1774 (a year before his famous ride), Greenwich was already 134 years old. Were he making the trip today, he would surely have traded in his nag at the Bentley or Porsche dealerships in town.


Along Greenwich Avenue, the main commercial strip, the sense of longstanding privilege glows as if frozen in amber. The street is redolent of an idealized past (Gap and Banana Republic notwithstanding). Uniformed officers call out "Cross!" when it is safe to do so. The 75-year-old Subway Barber still sports its sign of art deco steel letters; in the front window, chairs in the shape of tiny red convertible roadsters seat its youngest customers.


For purest nostalgia, however, nothing compares to Best & Co., a children's apparel store full of antique toy cars, rocking horses, girls' wide-brimmed straw hats, and boys' seersucker jackets in impossibly small sizes. The original store, established in New York City in 1879, gave up the ghost in 1971. The Greenwich incarnation is all of six years old--not that one would know it. It's a High WASP movie set, a brilliant simulacrum of burnished wood, miniature sofas, and glass display cases imported from New York (as are many of the town's residents). Ironically, Best & Co.'s owner and chief designer is Susie Hilfiger, whose ex-husband, Tommy, has made a fortune outfitting hip-hop kids, the spiritual opposite of this starched primness.


Concern with appearance, contrived or not, fits with the town's reputation as exclusionary. It's an image that wearies and chagrins some residents. One woman asks if I'm going to write "the usual slam," while another leaves a message, hoping I won't be too "sarcastic" People feel duty bound to drive me through Chickahominy, one of the town's working-class neighborhoods. They point out the renovation of a charming old redbrick building for the Boys & Girls Club for underprivileged youth--a project entirely funded by private donations.


"There is ego here, but almost no arrogance," says Diane Terry, a 15-year resident and mother of three who runs an adventure-travel business. Her nuanced distinction is worth understanding. One needs at least a modicum of ego to make upwards of a million dollars a year--which many residents do--while arrogance would be woefully out of place in a town where there is always someone with a good deal more, and a good deal older, money.


That Old Money dominance has shifted, however. Dozens of investment firms have been established in Greenwich, making it a hedge fund capital rivaling Manhattan. More people commute into town than out of it, and only 28 percent of today's residents were even born in Connecticut.


Parsing the Old Money-New Money distinction is ultimately futile. Yet more than one person makes a concerted effort to apologize for the arriviste "McMansions" springing up everywhere. The rap on these newer houses is that they are too opulent, striving vulgarly for Old World legitimacy. But to an outsider they seem indistinguishable from the more established manses. A gray-shingled colossus on the water built with telecommunications money seems no larger and no gaudier than, say, the century-old blinding white replica of the Petit Trianon palace of Versailles.


It's an interesting concept: astronomical wealth as great social leveler. It might explain the marked lack of competition among the 25 debutantes and their parents at the annual Greenwich Cotillion, a fund-raiser for the Junior League. All is a happy buzz as the girls mill about in their long white dresses with bouquets of pink peonies. They wear surprisingly utilitarian hairstyles--lots of sensible comb-outs or plain barrettes. "Most cotillions in America are society driven, with girls included only by invitation or lineage;' says Junior League president Laura Geffs (a "post-deb" from South Carolina). "We don't turn anyone away." Indeed, every senior high school girl is invited. Each participating debutante is required to do community service (and each family is required to pony up $5,000 for a table for ten).


There are military campaigns less carefully planned and executed than the Greenwich Cotillion. At 7:47 the debutantes line up. At 7:55 their fathers enter, peeling off one by one to the strains of "When the Saints Go Marching In." At 8:05 the young ladies and their escorts advance to "Thank Heaven for Little Girls." It's amusing, this use of beloved standams as subtextual commentary: But what can it mean when the music shifts to the beautiful albeit ill-advised choice of the Gershwins' song for the lovelorn, "But Not for Me"?


At 9:08 the debutantes waltz haltingly with their fathers. The couples bump up against one another sweetly, like apples in a bathtub. The evening's light drizzle has graduated to full-on torrential. It sounds like applause against the walls of the enormous tent.


In 1640, when Greenwich was founded, the settlers had little idea of the nation whose birth was more than a century away, or of how Greenwich itself would become a shining symbol of that new republic's most bountiful promise. Even now, the place appears as an almost unattainable dream.
06830
POPULATION OF ZIP CODE:
24,552
HOMES WORTH A MILLION DOLLARS OR MORE:
Nearly 2,000, or 47%
MEDIAN FAMILY INCOME:
$105,500
PEOPLE LIVING BELOW POVERTY LINE: 1,350

Posted by arosenst at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)

Greenwich Dream Time

Greenwich dream time
by: David Rakoff
from: National Geographic Magazine, February 2004 v205 i2 p118(5)
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0402/feature6/index.html

Article abstract: The article introduces life in Greenwich Connecticut and explores the issues surrounding life in an exceedingly wealthy town including egos and arrogance. In Greenwich, the fight between old and new money has become a social equalizer.

Greenwich Facts from the Article:
• Zip Code: 06830
• Population of Zip Code: 24,552
• Homes worth a million or more: Nearly 2,000, or 47%
• Median Family Income: $105,500
• People Living Below Poverty Line: 1,350
• Located just over an hour from Manhattan by train
• Today, only 28 percent of today's residents were born in Connecticut

Ego and Arrogance
In Greenwich, there is a sense of longstanding privilege evident in the very structure of their city. Appearance is so important to some people, that they feel obligated to drive out-of-towners through a working-class neighborhood, where they point out the Boys and Girls Club building – a project supported completely by private donations.

Town residents say, “There is ego here, but almost no arrogance.” Appropriate for a place where there is always someone with a more, and older, money.

Old Money and New Money – Social Equalizer
Greenwich’s wealth, specifically Old Money, is in instances older than our Nation. However, Old Money is on the out as new investment firms take root in Greenwich, creating a hedge fund capital rivaling Manhattan.

With this increase of firms and people with New Money, astronomical wealth has become a social equalizer.

Everyone in Greenwich is rich.

Summary
Greenwich is a symbol of the Republic’s promise.

Suggestions to improve the article for Web experience:
Sentences should be shorter and easier to scan. In addition, sentences should be able to stand on their own.

Visually, the article needs more than just a girl in a beautiful dress on an elegant stairwell and a picture of a large estate. Graphs illustrating their wealth compared to Middle America and a picture of the town’s ego and arrogance would be helpful.


How the information changed for my version.

I had to leave out a lot of the language that made me want to visit Greenwich. The language in the original article illustrated the uniqueness of the city and created an image of people who just happened to be extraordinarily wealthy. I wanted to be able to visit Greenwich and marvel at the wealth. For this version, I hope that people researching Greenwich as a vacation spot, will see it as the city that captured the American Dream.

Posted by arosenst at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)

February 27, 2005

A Style Guide for Data Smog

This is a style guide for my blog and my report on Data Smog. I will try to follow the APA manual for writing. Additionally, I referenced the Web Style Guide by Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton. T

Lynch, Patrick J., & Horton, Sarah (2001). Web Style Guide. New Haven: Yale University Press.

General Guidelines

The design will be simple and uncomplicated. Pictures and other visual elements will break up and support the text. There will be no dead-end pages, each page will be able to stand on its own, and there will be minimal vertical scrolling and no horizontal scrolling. This will place the majority of the text above the fold and increasing usability. The text will be divided in a logical format.

Specific Guidelines


Typeface

Type Size
All titles will be roughly the size of Heading One. Subheadings will be one size smaller, Heading Two. Text size should be between 10 and 12.
Typeface
I will use Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif for the typeface for all text on the site.
Alignment
All content will be left justified, which is easier on the readers eye. Headings will also be left justified.
Line Length
To make the site readable and to avoid eyestrain, I want the line length to be roughly three inches wide.
Indented Paragraphs
I will use blank lines between paragraphs and not indented paragraphs.
Emphasis
To emphasis text I will consistently use bolding, spacing, and lists. Italics, underlining, capitalization are all methods of emphasizing, but none are appropriate for this subject matter.
Color
Text color is black: #333300.

Background Color

Background The background color is a light blue: #9999FF.


Page Information


Footers
Footers will be on every page and will include a link, my name, the assignment name, class title, and the date created.
Lists
When appropriate, I will use bulleted and numbered lists. This will help facilitate scanning.
Layout
There will be a navigation bar on the left side of the page containing links to all of the text. The main text will be left justified next to the navigation bar. There will be a divide between the navigation bar and the text box.
Hyperlinks
When creating hyperlinks, I will choose a descriptive word or phrase to act as the link and never use a phrase like “click here for more information” as a hyperlink. All hyperlinks will be displayed as underlined text in the following colors:

    Links Links are white: #FFFFFF (not displayed)
    Visited Links Visited link are a light vibrant blue: #CCFFFF
    Active Links Active links are a dark blue: #6666FF


Content


Grouped together in a logical format, content is logically organized and conveniently navigated


Writing


The subject requires simple and active sentences. Complex terms and long sentences should be avoided.

Data Smog also requires the use of scannable text. All text should be written to allow the reader to easily scan every page. Bold text, spacing, lists, and bulleted items should be used to facilitate scanning.

The APA Style Guide should be referred to when questions arise.


Visual Materials


Pictures and Images
Pictures and other images will support the text. They will be located appropriately. Pictures and images should try to be placed above the fold.
Borders
Borders between the navigation bar and the textbox will provide a division making reading easier.
Captions
Picture or image captions should be left justified under all images.


Terms


Data Smog
Data Smog will be capitalized at both the beginning of sentences and within the text.
Information Overload
Information Overload will be capitalized at the beginning of sentences and within the text.
Dates
Dates will appear in this order: day, month and year. This is a more internationally accepted method of writing dates. Periods will also be used in place of slashes. An example of Valentines Day written in this manner is 14.2.05.

Posted by arosenst at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)

Evaluation of Corante’s Architecture and Navigation

At first glance I was very impressed with Corante’s website, specifically the Text Size function found on the homepage’s upper right corner. The layout is user friendly; there are enough white spaces so that I am not overwhelmed with text, and images are used appropriately. However, the organization of information is not conducive to maximize usage.

Usability
The page design is consistent throughout the site. There always appear to be three sections. For example, on the homepage there are two tables with a box in the first table. The box is outlined and has a darker color background than the table it sits in, giving the appearance of three sections. Additionally, the pages are easy to scan. The site’s navigation tools are easy to find. The two or three white dropdown boxes, the breadcrumbs, and the colorful headlines and links make navigation simple.

Design
Corante’s page design crates a strong and consistent visual hierarchy, emphasizing important elements and logically organizing context. The pages are broken down into three sections that effectively use contrasting background colors, headlines, color and images. The page design is balanced. Headers and font color are used effectively as are the dropdown menus. This design applied to all of the pages within the site, making the site consistent and allowing each page to stand on its own. This supports the sites credibility.

Organization
I do not like the site’s organization of information. Corante has a lot of information, but I believe that listing Industry Insiders and Weblog Columns is not the most effective way to break down the information. I could not find a site map anywhere in the website. I think that the site is too non-linear and confusing. Currently, the Regional section is listed under Industry Insiders. I am sure that New York is not the only region with Industry Insiders (a number of their own editors and writers work on the west coast).

How could the content be better presented?
Because the page design is clear and easy to navigate, the information should be as well.

One suggestion might be to move the information from the dropdown menus to the left column and to separate out Regions. Then, for example, when the reader moves the mouse over the Industries Insiders link, the Web Columns and Regional links would move down and the Industry Insiders links appear as a secondary list. If they did this, then they could move the Corante Blog to the right table and get the shameless advertisement off the homepage. Buy Corante Reprints is a poor use of this space.

What would I suggest to improve the site?

On the homepage have Back to Top links or shorten the page. Scrolling takes away from the usability. The Text Size function should be applicable to the dropdown boxes.

What works?
The Text Size in the upper right corner of the homepage is a great function. Also, the grey boxes on the homepage with More, Recent, and Entries for each new article makes scanning easy.

Posted by arosenst at 02:58 PM | Comments (1)

Learning Style Test Summary

The idea that people have unique learning styles and techniques is not a new concept for me. I believe that it is advantageous to understand this concept and to be able to apply the knowledge of your learning style to your everyday work. It is also equally, if not more, beneficial to understand or anticipate the learning styles of your audience. This understanding will help you mold your context into a form that the majority of the readers will be able to understand without miscommunications or difficulty. Understanding and apply your knowledge of learning styles to your communication is one way to ensure effective communication.

Test Results

Visual – 13
For me, I thought this score would be higher. I believe that I am a visual learner. Most times, I need to see pictures and images in order to grasp a concept.

Aural – 14
I am actually surprised how high this score is. I use to play the trumpet and I enjoy attending concerts from the symphony at Duke to the Walnut Creek Amphitheater, but I would have never guessed that I would use this in my learning.

Verbal – 11
I enjoy public speaking, but I know my vocabulary needs improving, so this is not a surprise.

Physical – 16
I can understand how this relates back to the use of images. If I can physically touch something, then I can usually understand how it works. I also get some of my best ideas working-out.

Logical – 9
This score surprises me. I thought I used logic quite a bit in my learning. Perhaps my logic does not fall in line with ‘normal’ logical learning?

Social – 18
This score does not surprise me at all. As difficult as group work can be, I enjoy working with small groups. I miss being in a classroom setting, and feel that online courses miss out on opportunities to engage in class discussions because the interaction is not immediate.

Solitary – 16
This score does not surprise me either. As much as I enjoy working with groups and being apart of the ground, I need my time alone. I take pride in things that I accomplish on my own. I have never been one to participate successfully in a study group. I would prefer to go to the group, get my assignment, finish it on my own and then bring my work back to the group.


How the results might affect how I plan my content
As previously mentioned, I believe that it is important to try to understand not only where I am coming from in my learning style, but also where others are coming from. These test results will defiantly influence the way I present my content.

Data Smog is an issue that needs to be address concisely. This will require several drafts and rewrites on my part. Additionally, the subject requires a logical organizational design – another issue for me that will require an additional set of eyes. Visually, Data Smog is an interesting concept to work with. Do people need to see information in a cluttered mess and then in a clean format to understand the idea of smog? As a person who learns with pictures and images, I will include them - but will try to do so in a fashion that complements the text instead of substituting. For example, the numbers illustrating the jump in average word-per-day read by individuals would make a wonderful graft. This use of images would help illustrate where we were ten years ago compared to where we are today.

Posted by arosenst at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2005

Paper Outline

After some feedback from Brian, I realized the scope of my paper was too big. Here is an outline (rough though it may be) that will help me focus the paper. Focus is a good thing.

    1. Introduction

    2. Where did we begin and where are we now?

      a. I want to find data (Ideally from the UN/US Government/etc) charting the amount of information we are exposed

        i. I want to prove that there really is more information available today than before

      b. I want to discuss the people that believe that technology solves all issues and answers all questions versus the other extreme – the people who don’t engage with IT at all

        i. I think it’s important to give both sides a (short) voice in the debate.

    3. Limits of information in the ITR
      a. What are the limits of information / are we better off / more productive?

      b. How do we process the information?

    4. Tunnel Vision as an effect of information overload
      a. How our information is divided

        i. No more card catalogue to peruse when looking for paper topics

      b. How our society is divided

        i. Consumer tribes, online communities, market targeting.

    5. Conclusion


Resources for now include:

Shenk, David. (1997). Data Smog: Surviving the information glut. London: Little, Brown and Company.

Brown, John Seely & Duguid, Paul. (2002). The Social Life of Information. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Posted by arosenst at 07:22 AM | Comments (2)

February 13, 2005

Bad Headings and More

Poor Headlines, Lists, and a Website

Poor Headlines

Original: Fort Bragg Barracks to get $30M Worth of Repairs

Better: Fort Bragg Will Receive Repairs to Barracks Worth $30


Original: Police Investigate Shooting at Raleigh Shooting Plaza

Better: Police Investigate Shooting in Raleigh Plaza


Origional: Oscar Nominees Break Bread Together

Better: Oscar Nominees Dine Together


One article on the Web that you think can be improved with the use of lists.

Love Doc: Kissing Is Best Valentine's Gift

BEFORE
Sound a little advanced? Step one: Relax.
"Slowing way down is really helpful, getting really focused, really feeling into your own heart," she said.
Step two: Make eye contact and deliver a message perhaps of love or tenderness.
"Whatever that message is, it needs to be carried into the quality of the kiss," she said.
Step three: Forget multitasking; pay attention.
"Focusing is essential and it means all of you, right down to the curling of your toes needs to be engaged in this," she said.
If after all that, the kiss fails to deliver, maybe you should find another Valentine. A bad kiss, Byrd said, "foretells the kind of disconnect that might be happening should the relationship continue."

AFTER
Sound a little advanced?
1. Step one: Relax.
"Slowing way down is really helpful, getting really focused, really feeling into your own heart," she said.
2. Step two: Make eye contact and deliver a message perhaps of love or tenderness.
"Whatever that message is, it needs to be carried into the quality of the kiss," she said.
3. Step three: Forget multitasking; pay attention.
"Focusing is essential and it means all of you, right down to the curling of your toes needs to be engaged in this," she said.
If after all that, the kiss fails to deliver, maybe you should find another Valentine. A bad kiss, Byrd said, "foretells the kind of disconnect that might be happening should the relationship continue."


A Web page I feel expertly uses all or many of the tools discussed in this module.

The BBC site uses many of the tools discussed this week.

Interface Design
The links are prolific, making information is easy to access. Navigation is simple. Each page within the site is freestanding and links nicely back to others (no dead-ends that I’ve found).
Site Design
This site is a jumping off point for all the other BBC sites and therefore follows the Web Organization structure. Additionally, this site captures the reader with ease. The categories are logical breakdowns and make it very easy for me to navigate. The homepage is a grouping of menu-like lists (which makes since – text sites like this are easy to change, something BBC would want).
Page Design
This page design is simple, balanced with color and text. The pictures are in safe areas and the typography is easy to read and appears web safe in my browsers.

Posted by arosenst at 11:55 PM | Comments (1)

February 06, 2005

Paper Proposal

Information Overload in the Informational Technological Revolution (ITR)

SUMMARY

Technology continues to change the way we interact with information. Today, technology helps us produce more information than it is possible to process, making information overload a common phenomenon. At what point does information begin to decrease our quality of life?

“Information overload crowds out quiet moments and obstructs much-needed contemplation. It spoils conversation, literature, and even entertainment. It leaves us more vulnerable as consumers and less cohesive as a society.” (David Shenk, Data Smog, surviving the info glut. Technology Review, May/June 1997, p. 18-26.)

Bombarded with new technologies and encouraged to live a digital lifestyle, it is important to assess this phenomenon instead of blindly embracing it. Today, information is a commodity; it is bought and sold. Information surrounds us at a level previously not experienced. Information comes at us from every direction; we have no control over it, no ability to filter it, reduce it, or master it. The quality of our thinking should exceed the quality of our available information, and not the other way around.

This research paper will explore the effects of information on our society - specifically socially, politically, and emotionally - by exploring the reasons why, with limitless available data, we seem to be lost in a Data Smog.

SOCIALLY

Neil Postman said in his “Informing ourselves to death” speech that there is no escaping from ourselves. The human dilemma is as it has always been and we solve nothing fundamental by choking ourselves in technological glory.” Technology, on its own, cannot and will not make life better. Technologies, like the computer, can reduce the time it takes to accomplish a task, but they also increase the amount of tasks we are expected to complete.

We now process an extraordinary amount of information compared to ten and twenty years ago. In 1971, the average American was the target of 560 daily advertisements. In 1991, the average American was the target of 3000 daily advertisements. (David Shenk, The first law of data smog. Living the information age, Erik Bucy, p. 159.) We cannot keep up with the flow of information, nor can we process all the available information.

Our information leaves us stagnant and our society suffers for it. In our attempts to filter information, we divide ourselves into “distinct consumer tribes” and “humankind begins to loose the most valuable thing it has ever had: common information and shared understanding.” (David Shenk, Data Smog. p. 121.)

POLITICAL

On the personal level, individuals have greater access to our governmental officials whose offices are flooded with emails and faxes. Lobbyist are no longer an elite group of individuals, but anyone with the inclination to send their representative an email. On a larger scale, we are all - even the politicians - experts in our distinct tribes and not at all well informed on issues as a whole. While our political system benefits from immediate political communication, we suffer from poor decision-making.

The question of our time now is: who controls technology, the government or the private sector? Technology makes gathering personal information easy and cheap. The corporate world uses this information to analyze what we buy, why we buy, and how they can better target consumers so that we buy more. As long as the law allows for this kind of information gathering, individuals have no protection from the corporate world.

EMOTIONAL

McLuhan said that every technology has a service and a disservice. Our environments are cluttered with technologies that have both a positive and negative impact on our lives. Affects of the ITR include increased cardiovascular stress, weakened vision, confusion, frustration, impaired judgment, decreased benevolence, and overconfidence. (David Shenk, Data Smog. p. 37-38.) We suffer from Information Anxiety. As a result, we spend less time processing information and more time attempting to manage information.

INTEREST

I have always been personally interested in understanding the consequence of technology on society. By examining the informational overload affect technology has on our society’s social, political, and emotional wellbeing, I hope to find a balance between information process and information overloading. My goal is to learn how to keep the quality of thinking as great as the quantity of information.

Posted by arosenst at 09:41 AM | Comments (2)