Masquerade paper faces on parade…

In the musical the Phantom of the Opera the first song in the second half is called Masquerade. This song comes at a point in the musical where the opera company has been closed for the off season and they are having a party to bring in the new season.

That being said… the song itself is a wonderful song about how people are walking around pretending to be something they are most certainly not. The title of this blog is the first line of the lyrics. Masquerade Paper faces on parade Masquerade, take a look there’s another mask behind you…

This struck me as so closely related to our classes. I say classes because both classes have discussed the topic of user identities and how they relate to the person on the other side of the keyboard. In Dmitri’s class we discussed how the users are able to take on a user identity. This identity is like that paper mask. If you already know someone, then you are not likely to be fooled by a paper mask. You see past it, beyond the paper and fill in the person’s features that are obscured.

I think this happens online with user ID’s as well. When you know the person on the other side of the keyboard you are able to fill in and see around the obscured information. You can see how that person really is, but someone who doesn’t know this person, would be prevented from really knowing them at least initially because of the paper mask. The mask creates a step of removal that can at least give the person the illusion of anonymity if not actual anonymity. I know this issue of actual vs. imagined anonymity could be debated but to do so would be beyond the scope of this blog.

The song continues and in true operatic style there are many little side ‘conversations’ that occur to clue the audience as to what has happened while they were out having a cocktail at intermission. This seems to also relate to the behaviors that people display online. In most chat formats, there is a way for people to converse outside the group so they can have private conversations. This behavior provides a more intimate knowledge about the person and creates additional emotional links therefore further investing the person into the website. By the way, in the musical this also creates an emotional hook for the audience to help them to reengage into the story line… the cocktail doesn’t hurt either.

Then there is the Troll, who messes up the whole party. This person comes in to the party and disrupts all the activity that has been going on and redirects all attention onto him… please tell me you know who this is in the musical. Through the use of a much more elaborate disguise, the Phantom is able insinuate himself into the conversations without fear of discovery of his true nature underneath. In the online world this also occurs and it usually takes significant effort to alleviate the original participants of the troll’s interference.

I think this analogy is very interesting and I could probably delve deeper into the psycho-social implications that it raises… but I am out of time and the show must continue on!

…and the lucky shrimp goes straight through to the Sheller…

That was what he said… really!

These were my brother’s words when I was eavesdropping on his conversation with his classmates.

My brother is working toward an MBA from the University of Florida via an on-line program. He was utilizing a couple of programs to have a group session with his classmates, who happen to live in different parts of the country. His emphatic declaration that it would be that shrimp’s lucky fate to end up getting to the Sheller first that highlighted the fact that it is easy to forget about all the technology that is being utilized and focus on the task at hand – shelling that lucky shrimp.

The group session occurred on a Sunday afternoon. They were using Elluminate and Scype to show each other parts of their assignment and talk as if they were in the same room. My brother was working with his classmates on a distribution problem and he was emphatic that his analysis of the problem was correct. He was vehemently defending his argument because one of his cohorts did not understand why some shrimp were ‘luckier’ than others.

I had been curious about how his classes worked with the technology the school had given them, as well as, how the lectures worked and felt. He told me that the navigation of the technology was easier than he had expected. I must qualify this with a comment that he is VERY tech savvy. I asked him what it was like taking classes online. He said that it was different to view an online lecture and then do the homework before meeting with his classmates to discuss the answers and then return a finished product to his instructor. He indicated that it wasn’t any more difficult than a normal class, just different.

I was also interested in how he felt about developing working relationships with his classmates. He said that he is not as close has he has been with other classmate settings. This is consistent with what we discussed in class with Dmitri about how 1:1 contact is always likely to be the best form of communication. That being said, it would seem that being able to hear the emphasis in my brother’s voice impacted the other participants. This would not have been possible in a setting such as just text base communication such as IM. It is also possible that seeing the calculations in tandem with the vocal inflection was the persuasive mitigating factor.

For me, it was the fact that the shrimp was going to be scampi sooner. (P.S. I was hungry)

OT Stories

Last year I took a class for my MA in OT called Story Making. The general idea behind the whole class was to recognize that all stories have certain elements with the purpose of getting an idea from one person to another. We focused mostly on how to understand and interpret both spoken and unspoken language to understand our patient’s need. In hindsight, I find it funny that there would seem to be a whole school centered on this idea.

Maybe it seems like an “err, duh,” but I had not linked the idea of communications with therapeutic story making, until now.

In class, we spoke about how drama is comprised of peripeteia and resolution. We focused on how to translate the actions and minimal words of a 4-year-old autistic child into an understandable need. We focused on helping an older adult who struggled with the idea of never living alone again. We focused on how to tell a mother how to feed her preemie child after the child is having trouble eating. These are all roles of occupational therapists. My focus going into this program was to help OT’s communicate amongst themselves and with those outside the field.

What I had not thought about was how vast and impactful communication is in our lives. It had not occurred to me that the mere positioning of houses on a street would influence how the community would interact. I had not thought about how I was going to communicate the design of my on-line community to programmers, or how to design it so it would accomplish the vision I have in my head.

So, I am sitting here, reading and writing about communication and some of its facets, trying to get my head around the fact that the basic function and design of the space right down to the font kerneling can have far reaching affects on my community’s ability to perform the lofty goals I have set out to accomplish. I am in awe of those who have already done this for their niche communities.

Nevertheless, for now, I have to take it one-step at a time and focus on understanding the successes and failures of those who have gone before me, and try to learn from their choices. I will find the resolution to this peripeteia, I assure you. I might die in the process. And yet, as many of my friends will attest, I am far too stubborn and I have come too far in my life for a mere website to take me down.

Roller coaster Enthusiasts

Roller coaster Enthusiasts! Enjoy! {smirk}









And for something that is different but really cute!



Admit it - Chad's got talent! You go Bro!

This and that... a bit of rambling - Enjoy!

Well, hmmm. What do I say this week! Well, I sat down and perused some very interesting sites. Unfortunately, my second-life avatar is still flying around in circles. I am sure this is easy to rectify if I would, say… click the stop flying button. However, what fun would it be to say, “I can’t get off the stupid island?” It is reminiscent of ABC’s LOST. Just about the time you figure out how to get off the island… they go and renew you for another season and ya have to go back, the audacity!
Anyway, I am at a loss for words. So many of my classmates are accomplished writers and I barely passed English 101. Granted, I have spent some time writing papers since then, but I am quite intimidated at the idea of writing papers, even now. I find it funny that I am in a communications program and I struggle to communicate. It is interesting how life takes you in directions you would never have guessed at, or for that matter designed.
The general tie I saw in this week’s assignments was the creation (or is it recreation?) of self. In these games or environments, we create our ‘self’ within the parameters of the site. I am a fan of Stargate (a sci-fi TV show for those who care). In the related fan site, I am known as DrKeller, Oh, I know what you are thinking – how uncreative. In my defense, there is a character on the show named “Dr. Keller” and better still, she is a girl. So, I figure since I aspire to become Dr. Keller and they went to all the trouble of creating a character named after me… I should honor the irony of the situation, and choose DrKeller as my handle. It seems logical to me. My point being, no matter how far or bazaar the setting is, wherever we find ourselves we are all still human, even in… scratch that… especially in cyber space.
I know this is not a revelation, in fact, I believe in one (or maybe more) of these classes we spoke about this idea. I have been thinking about it, and I think the point of the conversation was to focus on how we are what we pretend to be… even if we do not want to believe it ourselves.
Last week I was playing with Kingdom of Loathing having a wonderful time beating the crap out of bunnies. What can I say…? I like beating the crap out of things, thugs, or heavy bags… whatever is available and in need of a good beating. What does that say about me? Well, I am not sure…but you might not want to be holding a bunny and following me in a dark alley… I know Karate!

The OT Extravaganza

On Saturday, I was a presenter at the USC Occupational Therapy first annual OT Extravaganza. {Honest that is what they called it…} I was talked into this by my roommate who was on the hosting committee. She assured me that all I had to do was show up and talk about my project.
What project, you might ask? Well allow me to jump up on my soapbox and give you the flare of what I presented.
It was for my Occupational Therapy Doctoral (OTD) project. I presented it to my instructors, fellow classmates and friends and family members that attended the event, so they can get the idea of what I am doing. I explained that for my OTD project I would create an online community for occupational therapy and occupational science. This community would serve the needs of the occupational therapy and science profession.
Since I was there anyway, and I really do want input from my intended audience, I took the opportunity to survey members of this community for input regarding the look and feel as well as the content that they would like to have in their community.
They had many questions and I was really quite pleased with myself for knowing many of the answers. Most of the questions I fielded related to explaining how this was different from the large number of list-serves that are available through the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) web site. I addressed this by explaining that there were many differences between the two. I explained to the best of my knowledge and gave some examples of how an online community can offer so much more than a list-serve.
They also wanted to know what an avatar is since I had listed it on my questionnaire. I just wanted to get a sense of where the current OT community was at regarding the look and feel of a setting that would utilize avatars. Repeatedly they asked what an avatar was. I found this surprising since I thought it was fairly common knowledge what an avatar is. Even some of my friends that are often on their computers, were asking me about avatars.
It was an interesting and significant piece of information about the members of the OT community. It is not important if the online community utilizes an avatar, but it is important to keep in mind the readiness and willingness to learn a new way of interacting. When I design my site, it is of the utmost importance that it is not intimidating to my OT cohorts who are not accustomed to using the internet in this capacity.
In the end, though it took all day Saturday and I had to prepare the presentation for most of Friday, it was worth the time because it gave me a significant insight plus several dozen completed surveys that I can utilize in the creation of this online community.

Is there anybody out there?

Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone at home?" - Pink Floyd