February 25, 2008
Chronicle Tech Forum: The Very Public Professor
Tampa, Fla. — When Henry Jenkins was growing up, he wanted to be an expert in many things. His models? The Disney cartoon duck Ludwig von Drake (who bragged in his signature song about knowing everything about science and art), and the professor from Gilligan’s Island on TV. “He knew everything,” Mr. Jenkins told a luncheon crowd at The Chronicle’s Technology Forum in Tampa, Fla., “except how to get off the island.”
Mr. Jenkins, director of the comparative media-studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, did have a weightier theme than cartoon birds and televised castaways. How does technology enable a professor to project expertise beyond the private classroom and into a public space, he asked?
His ideas on this are complex, but one could gloss them this way: Just throw it out there.
He did that a few years ago with an essay about violence that was intended as Congressional testimony, but when he put it up on the Web it went viral and was published all over the place. And published not in the form he originally intended. But that didn’t really corrupt his ideas, Mr. Jenkins said. “The ideas gained greater power as I lost control over them.” —Josh Fischman
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Publish something on the Web, and, depending on who you are, what you say, and where you say it, people might send your piece around? Yeah, OK, I think I understand.
Now what about buying or selling products on the Web — is that possible?
— S. Britchky Feb 26, 12:21 AM #
Given that the written word is probably the WORST way to communicate with other humans, I don’t think anyone should be surprised…
— David in Darkest PA Feb 26, 05:07 PM #