Participated in my first Scrabble tournament tonight...

I participated in the Niagara Region Literacy Council's Scrabble for Literacy fundraising tournament tonight, my first Scrabble tournament ever. It was a ton of fun. Great buffet dinner, followed by three games of Scrabble. Silent auction, penny sale, and door prizes, too (I won a package of gourmet jelly beans -- 28 flavours!).

I had no idea of the scale of the event... there were at least a couple hundred people there, and they had a waiting list for registrations. For next year they say they've reserved double the space!

Scrabble-wise, it was a new experience. It was a team Scrabble event. 20 minute games, they provided the first word, and then each team/table worked together to fill the board. All tiles were face up. Quite a lot of fun... twenty minutes for a game, plus time to score, made me think this team Scrabble format could easily be adapted for use in schools.

So I'm definitely planning on doing it again next year. Next time, though, I'll be more organized, and get a whole team signed up, with our table reserved well in advance.

Overall, I had a blast playing Scrabble, ate a great meal, and supported a good cause. Time well spent.

My Debut as a Videographer

This past Saturday, I made my debut as a videographer. Well, I ran the video camera at least. ;-) I was at the Ontario NDP leadership convention with Ish Theilheimer of StraightGoods.ca, running the camera while he conducted interviews.

It was an interesting experience. I saw a lot of familiar faces at the convention; labour activists and NDP members have a definite membership overlap. Just like going to ETFO AGM, provincial meetings of occasional teacher Locals, or my local Labour Council, attending the NDP convention helped give me a different perspective on my work. It's easy to become myopic and think all the issues we face as occasional teachers are specific to our workplace, but our issues are really universal. Attending big events lets you know you're not just a lone voice in the wilderness, and reassures you that you've got a whole lot of people with similar values standing behind you.

One of the people we interviewed was a cab driver who'd filed a complaint under the Employment Standards Act because he was being paid less than minimum wage. He won his complaint, but he never worked for that company again. His story really resonated with me, because occasional teachers who try to uphold their contract rights will never again teach in the school where they complained. The complete lack of accountability for employers, and the lack of protection and recourse for employees who are victims of this kind of passive, invisible reprisal are issues that need to be addressed.

"It’s time that part-time, casual, cultural, and migrant workers are recognized as the real workers that they are!" - Andrea Horwath

Which brings me back to the NDP convention. In her final speech to delegates prior to the commencement of voting to choose the new leader, Andrea Horwath said "It’s time that part-time, casual, cultural, and migrant workers are recognized as the real workers that they are!" I'm glad somebody is putting out this message. Part-time work is what keeps many people afloat, and we need to address the fact that part-time workers are often paid less than their full-time peers, have lesser benefits or none at all, worse working conditions, and receive much less respect from their employers. This divide between full-time and part-time workers is not acceptable.

Amazing Harvard Commencement Address by JK Rowling

JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, recently gave a commencement address at Harvard University and was awarded an honourary doctor of letters degree.

This is an excellent read, and gives great insight into the books. Of course, I was also happy to read that she was a Classics major (as was I). What was truly enlightening regarding the books, though, was her recounting of her experiences while working for Amnesty International. I'd say that those experiences very clearly informed the darkness present in the books.

Two themes she addresses very well are the importance of failure, and the importance and power of imagination. I strongly recommend reading this commencement address, whether you're a Harry Potter fan or would simply enjoy an insightful essay.

Addendum: Here's the video.

Business Energy Efficiency (and lack thereof)

An article on The Register recently reported Intel as promoting energy efficiency in business IT departments. Purportedly, businesses are taking their environmental impact more seriously in the wake of the Stern report out of the UK. Yet empty office towers still light up the night sky.

I work the night shift in a call centre (doing tech support). There's only about ten people in the building at night, yet all the lights are left on: on the production floor, in the cafeteria, meeting rooms, hallways, and the washrooms. All the computers are left on as well (hundreds of desktop computers with nobody sitting at the desk for over 12 hours each day).

When I'm bored, I can wander through the building turning off computer monitors. Approximately 40% of the computers are not set up to power off their monitors after an inactivity period, so they run 24 hours a day (at ~100W consumption each for CRTs).

I'm certain that a much higher percentage (probably >95%) don't have their hard drives set to power down after inactivity, so that means the hard drives spin 24 hours a day too (~10W power consumption, plus hard drives die regularly).

If monitors and hard drives were set to power down after 1 hour of inactivity, they probably wouldn't inconvenience anyone by powering down at all during the work day. But those two simple settings would mean each computer would consume over 1200W less power in a day if the computer powered down for only 12 hours of the day.

Multiply by several hundred (or thousand) computers per business, multiply by the number of businesses fitting this profile, and we'd probably be able to shut down a few power plants, breathe cleaner air, meet Kyoto targets, and be seen internationally as environmental heroes. (And that's before we start turning off lights in empty buildings!)

It would be even better if workers also set their workstations to enter standby or hibernate mode after a period of time, but monitors and hard drives would be a good start. (You should do this with your home computer too.)

Just right-click on your desktop, choose Properties, go to the Screen Saver tab, and click the Power button by the EnergyStar logo. Then choose how long you want the computer to wait before it powers down when you're not using it.

Simple measures like this can really make a difference. We all need to engage our brains and act collectively for the greater good. If you need more incentive than lower taxes (power plants are extremely expensive to build and maintain), cleaner air (which reduces health care costs and saves lives), and helping to address global warming... then think of all the money you'll be saving on electricity bills.

Addendum: If you don't trust me, take it from the Google Blog.

Wikipedia, Credentialism, and Control

It seems that the latest trend by defenders of the status quo is to criticize Wikipedia. Here's one such article:

http://news.com.com/2010-1038_3-6104446.html

The core criticism and theme of this article is that Wikipedia is unverified (not blessed by people with expensive pieces of paper on their walls), and therefore is not credible. That's simply faulty logic, and certainly a misunderstanding of the word credible.

Whether something is credible or not is entirely dependent upon the reasoning faculties of the person interpreting the information.

Now, "unverified" may indeed result in lower quality of information; however, for probably 95% of Wikipedia users, the quality of information present is more than sufficient to meet their needs. Due to the constant review process that's inherent to its model, it's also not exactly accurate to say that Wikipedia is unverified information.

Of course, this entire debate arises from people who are stuck in the old paradigm: the privileged few controlling and disseminating information.

Wikipedia uses a new paradigm of distributed and shared expertise. Existing hierarchies are threatened by a system in which an individual's actual knowledge counts for more than the pieces of paper on their wall and the letters after their name. Credentials are used to silence people and restrict access, yet lose their power in Wikipedia's model.

Consider how most people go through university: reading as little as possible, doing all-nighters to finish assignments they didn't bother starting till they were nearly due, cramming for exams and then promptly forgetting everything they learned as soon as the exam is finished. Really, the exalted status we give to those holding credentials is quite laughable. Of course, credentialism has been on the rise due to a confluence in recent decades of businesses abdicating their responsibility to train their own people for jobs, and of post-secondary educational institutions becoming mere businesses.

Wikipedia scoffs at credentialism, which impedes the free flow of information by restricting it to privileged classes. That is the crux of the issue. Those with a vested interest in perpetuation of old-style control of information by the few, or who prefer hierarchical organizational structures, will continue to criticize Wikipedia. People who embrace the paradigm of shared information and equal access will recognize that Wikipedia represents the future.

In a sense, it all boils down to control. Those who value telling others what to do instinctively dislike Wikipedia. Those who value freedom instinctively love it.


Addendum: Nature (the science journal) conducted a blind peer-review investigation of the accuracy of Wikipedia articles versus Encyclopaedia Britannica articles. They found that the number of errors present in each was comparable; four errors per Wikipedia article compared to three errors per Britannica article. Of all the errors found, only eight were considered serious, and they were distributed equally: four for Wikipedia, and four for Britannica. Here's the Nature article.