Janet D. Stemwedel
Janet D. Stemwedel (whose nom de blog is Dr. Free-Ride) is an associate professor of philosophy at San Jose State University. Before becoming a philosopher, she earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry.
jstemwedel
Posts by this author
February 3, 2010
Here are some of the thoughts and questions that stayed with me from this session. (Here are my tweets from the session and the session's wiki page.)
The panelists made a point of stepping away from the scientists vs. bloggers frame (as well as the question of whether bloggers are or are not…
February 1, 2010
I have, of late, received a number of emails asking advice on matters somewhere in the territory between ethics, etiquette, and effective communication with members of the tribe of science. While I'm no Ann Landers (as has been noted before), I'll do my best to answer these questions on the blog…
February 1, 2010
Here are some of the thoughts and questions that stayed with me from this session. (Here are my tweets from the session and the session's wiki page.)
One of the things I found interesting about this session was that the session leaders' approach to the broad issue of promoting gender and ethnic…
January 29, 2010
This, our first week of classes of the Spring semester, also marked the return of regular publication of the daily student newspaper. Since I'm not behind on grading yet (huzzah for the first week of classes!), I picked up yesterday's copy and read one of the front-page articles on my way to my…
January 29, 2010
The elder Free-Ride offspring, always a fan of mustelids, has lately taken a particular interest in ferrets.
Given that Casa Free-Ride is located in the great state of California, this interest in ferrets has also spurred an interest in state law. In California, it's illegal to keep ferrets as…
January 28, 2010
... to the student in my "Ethics in Science" course.
Today was our second class meeting, which is essentially the first real class meeting -- the one in which, instead of just focusing on the overall arc of the course, and the assignments you'll be doing, and the mechanics of finding the…
January 27, 2010
It's true that I recently returned from a fairly geeky conference, but I just found out about one happening practically in my backyard. And, given that I don't yet have any papers to grade, I figured I should check it out.
(Today is the last day to register without paying the late registration…
January 26, 2010
While I meet my students and try to mitigate freak-outs about enrollments, I offer for your consideration some of the search strings that brought people to this blog during the month of January:
sloth jokes
3 toed sloth cocktails
pandemic flu rationing
shark on beach eating seals
the cheating is…
January 25, 2010
(As before, I'm still not sure whether, in the metaphor, the factory is building monkeys or staffed by monkeys. Perhaps, really, we're in the business of making educated monkeys, and the problem is that our administration views this as akin to making widgets. Anyway, the point is: Explosions!…
January 22, 2010
Early this month, my better half got something for the Free-Ride offspring that is somewhere in the realm of "this will be edifying, but maybe they'll find it cool, and if they don't then at least the grown-ups will have fun playing with it".
So far, it has been all of the above.
It's a human…
January 21, 2010
In a comment on a post at Henry Gee's blog (I'd link the comment itself, but for the life of me I cannot figure out where the permalink is), Ed Yong offers his view on the relation between politeness and civility. Quoth Ed:
My objection comes when people mistake politeness for virtue rather than…
January 20, 2010
Back in December (or as we academics call it, Exam-Grading Season), esteemed commenter Ewan told us about a horrifying situation that was unfolding for him:
Probably not totally relevant, but frankly I'm still in a little shock.
Graded exams Friday evening before heading out for weekend. Noted…
January 20, 2010
There was one session at ScienceOnline2010 which I did not Tweet as it was going on -- the session I led with Sheril Kirshenbaum and Dr. Isis. Here's how that session was described in the conference program:
Online Civility and Its (Muppethugging) Discontents - Janet Stemwedel, Sheril Kirshenbaum…
January 20, 2010
1. The barometric pressure has dropped from what it was last night (when it was raining).
2. The Doppler radar map indicates that this is where the action is.
3. It sounds like squirrels are tap-dancing on the roof.
4. There are no longer any wool socks in my sock drawer.
January 19, 2010
Session description: Much of the science that goes out to the general public through books, newspapers, blogs and many other sources is not professionally fact checked. As a result, much of the public's understanding of science is based on factual errors. This discussion will focus on what…
January 19, 2010
Session description: The conference timing may keep some attendees away in their hometowns participating in local MLK activities. Therefore, we are introducing a session to promote the principles of Dr King in the context of online science communication: promoting social justice and eliminating…
January 18, 2010
Session description: What is a sellable idea? How do you develop one? Is your idea enough for a book, is there more you can do to develop it, or should it just be a magazine article or series of blog posts? This will be a hands-on nuts and bolts workshop: Come with ideas to pitch. Better yet, bring…
January 18, 2010
Session description: We will be talking about how the history of science and the history of the open-access movement have intersected. Steven Johnson touches on this theme in his latest book, The Invention of Air, in that 18th century British polymath Joseph Priestley was a strong advocate of…
January 18, 2010
Session description: Over the past several years, the Internet has tangibly changed the way that movies and TV shows are produced and marketed. Blogs will call out ridiculous scientific errors found in stories and the critique can go viral very quickly; therefore, science advising is on the rise in…
January 18, 2010
Session description: Debris in the North Pacific Gyre received unprecedented attention in 2009 with voyages from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, Project Kaisei, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Each voyage integrated online outreach into its mission, but emphasized very…
January 18, 2010
Session description: Our panel of journalist-blogger hybrids - Carl Zimmer, John Timmer, Ed Yimmer Yong, and David Dobbs- will discuss and debate the future of science journalism in the online world. Are blogs and mainstream media the bitter rivals that stereotypes would have us believe, or do the…
January 18, 2010
Session description: We will introduce programs that attract wider audiences to science, math, and engineering at various institutions/education levels, programs that mentor students (high school, undergrad & grad students) in research and education excellence. How Social Media tools can be…
January 18, 2010
Last night I arrived home safely from ScienceOnline2010. As expected, the conference was tremendously engaging and useful, as well as being a rollicking good time -- so much so that the only blog post I managed to post while there was the Friday Sprog Blog. (Major props to the elder Free-Ride…
January 15, 2010
Longtime readers of this blog may recall that the elder Free-Ride offspring has a fondness (occasionally verging on obsession) for Pokemon cards. This means I had no choice but to involve my offspring in Dave Ng's Phylomon project:
[W]hat can we do to get kids engaged with the wonderful creatures…
January 11, 2010
Today, on account of the fact that I'm pinned down doing course updating activities, I present you with a poll. In answering the question, go ahead and use whatever is your preferred definition of "civility".
For which topic do you expect online civility to collapse the fastest?(survey)
Of course…
January 8, 2010
Dr. Free-Ride: What have you been learning in science?
Younger offspring: I've been learning how to make fossils, and imprints.
Dr. Free-Ride: Tell me how.
Younger offspring: Well, we got some salt dough --
Dr. Free-Ride: What's in salt dough?
Younger offspring: Flour, water, and salt.
Dr. Free-…
January 7, 2010
Sometimes I think the whole question of civility and incivility (online or offline) boils down to the question of am I welcome in this space?
Do you think I belong here just as much as you do?
Do you think I don't really belong here? Are you going to exert the effort to run me off, or are you…
January 6, 2010
Coming up with a good definition is hard. And it's not obvious that people are even really talking about the same thing when they identify an action or a situation as displaying civility or incivility.
So I'm wondering what kind of insight we can get by looking at some particular situations and…
January 5, 2010
In preparation for our session at ScienceOnline2010, Dr. Isis asks:
I talked to my two lovely, delightful, and beloved comoderators last night, I couldn't help but think that we were approaching this from different experiences and, potentially, with different goals. That made it hard for me to…
January 4, 2010
In the comments on my last post, a number of people made the suggestion that something about the nature of online interactions may encourage people to say things they would never say to someone's face, or to be more impulsive in their responses, or surf on waves of free-floating anger, or what have…