Per listserv email:

Hi folks!

(1) I forgot to remind everyone last night to please provide feedback to one of the three discussion leader presenters (per the past three weeks) as well as to the person you did not hear (read and comment). For the presenters, please pick one of your peers to read& comment.

(2) Week 9 & 10 – presentations
Each student will have 8-10 minutes to present; there will be time for 2-3 minutes discussion. If you like, we can order-in pizza one or both weeks (please bring cash to chip in).

The schedule for Weeks 9 & 10 is on the home page & the students page:

Week 9
:: Chris, Harry, Matt, Paolo, Renee, Rebekkah, Rubi, Vera, Ziwen

Week 10
:: Brian, Chao-Wei,  Christy,  Filiz, Jeff, Jen,  Michael, Pei-Chieh, Peter, Ross, Suna, Yu-Hsuan, Yun Li, Xiaoqy

(3) The gradesheet has been refreshed to show readings and discussion leaders through week 6 (last week).

(4) Rubi was correct – I should have started last night with the positive rather than the negative. I was trying (not successfully, perhaps) to show that there were common issues, so that if one of those was identified on your paper, you wouldn’t feel like you were the only person.

Look for an email from me later today with your paper attached (Word doc). Be sure to turn the comments feature “on” to read the comments!

Content of tonight’s email:

(1) I have changed the due date for the first paper on the home page and Catalyst tools to Thursday at 9 pm.

(2) Extra-Credit Opportunities
Many of you have asked about extra credit opportunities. The answer is yes and is two-fold:

(a) As mentioned in class (and I think in email) you can write extra questions (beyond the two sets required)

(b) You can participate both in- and out of class (more commenting than asked by me). I’ll need you to provide some documentation for this (also, if you do not speak up in class, you should be commenting outside of class … and please provide me with some documentation).

(c) You can post two reading essays the next two weeks (instead of the one that is required).

(3) I forgot to click “submit” last night, so I had to recreate your thoughts from my memory. Take a look — if I missed your group’s contribution (not really an “if”) consider appending it — or anything you’ve thought of in the interim — as another comment.

(dadgumit – my second set did not post either!)

http://com546.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/week-6-class-notes-2/

Per email to listserv:

Hi, folks! Three quick points …

First, I found myself humming the theme song from Bonanza as I was putzing around the kitchen after I got home. Matt’s revenge! ;-)

Second, on the drive home, I was thinking about Ross’ observation that time zones were implemented by a private industry, adopted by local municipalities, but then appropriated by the federal government. And when were they appropriated? During WWI! (And following Germany’s lead.)

That led me to muttering to myself, not for the first time, about the impact that the military/defense has on communication and culture.

Third, some of you may be interested in this meeting Thursday:

UW Digital Media SIG meeting
Thursday, 29 Jan, from 3-4:30 PM in OUGL 220

Speaker: John Vallier, Head of Multimedia Services in the Odegaard Media Center, will talk about how he’s expanding access to the library’s media collection. There also will be time for conversation, whether it’s a problem you’re trying to solve, helpful hints that you want to share, or thoughts about the challenges and opportunities in the new year.

**Additional Agenda Item: UW Web Council members will join us for a discussion about central storage and publishing of video and images.

https://wiki.cac.washington.edu/display/MediaSIG/Home
Warning: FF doesn’t like the security certificate and you should first be logged in to MyUW before trying to access the page.

####

Last week, I mentioned that time zones were an artifact of the rail system, because coordinating clocks is important when trains share tracks or when passengers need to plan to catch a train at a local station.

Someone asked – so what did people do before time zones? My guess — off the top of my head — was that time was set locally and according to the sun (“high noon”).

That guess was pretty accurate.

How America Got Time Zones

Before the need for coordinated time, cities set their clocks by the position of the sun. And although noon is the time when the sun is highest in the sky, even towns close to one another would have slight variations in time, especially if they were not on a north-south meridian. But with no need to coordinate activities across large distances, this variation caused no social or economic hardship.

According to Eviatar Zerubavel (1982), in 1784, Britain began scheduling its mail coaches, which meant that the British Post Office needed to coordinate time across many localities. It did so by requiring mail coaches to conform to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), because “the Royal Observatory in Greenwich was the most reliable observatory in Britain.”

Nevertheless, local time remained the norm for most people in Britain until the middle 1800s, when the development of a national communication network brought with it a need for coordination.

Railroad Time
Britain, which was the western world’s economic and technological leader in the 1800s, was the first nation to establish standard time zones (Zerubavel). A time zone is a geographic area that has a uniform time set by man, not by the sun.

Brian Winston’s (1998) “supervening necessity” that spawned time zones was travel by rail. The year was 1840, and by 1847, almost all of Britain’s railways ran on London Time. In 1880, the legal system followed suit when the Statutes (Definition of Time) Act went into effect (IDEA, 2008).

In America, the telegraph allowed observatories to coordinate time between two distant locations. In the 1850s, some observatories began using the telegraph to provide “time services” to local communities. However, most communities stuck by the sun; there may have been as many as 8,000 time conventions in the U.S. in the 1870s. A U.S. Senate report from 1882 concluded “it would appear to be as difficult to alter by edict the ideas and habits of the people in regard to local time as it would be to introduce among them a novel system of weights, measures, volumes and money” (White, 2005).

Despite America’s demonstrated reluctance to coordinate time, on 18 November 1883, railroads in both Canada and the United States implemented four time zones in order to standardize their schedules and avoid wrecks (History.com, 2008; White, 2005). Not only was this more than 40 years after a similar system went into effect in Britain, it was more than 70 years after a similar idea was proposed to Congress! In 1809, William Lambert, an amateur astronomer, recommended Congress establish time meridians (Townsend, 1874, p. 565). In 1870, Charles Dowd proposed that Congress establish four time zones (Time zone, 2009).

Although schedules and wreck-avoidance seem important for efficiency, what might have pushed the railroads to finally act? William F. Allen, who headed a trade association of railroad managers, began lobbying for railroads to take the initiative in standardizing time in 1881. Connecticut passed a law making New York City time the state standard; in 1883, Allen cited the Connecticut example when he warned that railroads should not “entrust” standardizing time to “the infinite wisdom of the several State legislatures” (White, 2005). In other words, Allen argued that railroads should control their own destiny and develop a standard — a system of time — that fit their needs.

The railroad innovation spread rapidly throughout the country, probably the result of network effects and in contrast to the gloomy expectations of the U.S. Senate. According to Zerubavel, “Of the 100 principal cities in the United States [in 1883], 70 adopted Standard Railway Time immediately. By the following October, 85 percent of all American towns of more than 10,000 inhabitants had adopted Standard Railway Time.”

As in Britain, U.S. law followed (not led) social norms. Standard time zones were not established in the U.S. until the Standard Time Act of 1918, which was really about Daylight Saving Time. Congress adopted the railroad time zones and delegated authority for regulation to the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). In 1966, Congress transferred that authority to the Department of Transportation.

Daylight Saving Time
Any discussion of time would be incomplete without acknowledging Daylight Saving Time, the act of moving clocks an hour “forward” during sunnier months. The result is that afternoons have more natural sunlight and mornings less.

Daylight Saving Time was controversial in inception and remains controversial today. Few people realize that it is rooted in World War I and the early days of electrification.

LOC Image Via Wikipedia

Germany and Austria implemented Daylight Saving Time on 30 April 1916, as one way to conserve electricity. City-wide electrical generation was in its infancy (Bellis, 2009).

This was during World War I, and other involved countries jumped on the bandwagon: Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Manitoba, Netherlands, Norway, Nova Scotia, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, and Tasmania. In 1917, Australia and Newfoundland implemented Daylight Saving Time (IDEA, 2008).

In 1917 the U.S. entered the war, and the U.S. Congress passed a concurrent resolution in March 1918 “to save daylight and to provide standard time.” The U.S. law was repealed the following year, when WWI was over. Then in 1942 (World War II), the U.S. Congress instituted daylight savings time once again; this continued until the war was over in 1945 (IDEA, 2008).

Thus, in the U.S., Daylight Saving Time was associated with conservation and a war effort.

With states and localities free to choose whether or not to implement Daylight Saving Time, “radio and TV stations and the transportation companies had to publish new schedules every time a state or town began or ended Daylight Saving Time” (IDEA, 2008). And yet the ICC did not step in to help smooth the waters of commerce.

This hands-off policy meant that by 1966, more than half of all Americans observed some form of Daylight Saving Time, but the form was based on their local laws and customs (Zerubavel). To bring order (standardization), Congress passed, and President Lyndon Johnson signed, the Uniform Time Act of 1966. This law stipulated that Daylight Saving Time would begin on the last Sunday of April (“spring forward!”) and end on the last Sunday of October (“fall back!”).

But there was an “out” — a state could opt out of the system if a legislature and governor agreed (passed a law). Arizona and Hawaii are the only states to opt out (Rosenberg, 2008).

In response to the energy crisis resulting from a major jump in gasoline prices, for two years Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. was extended. On 4 January 1974, President Richard M. Nixon signed the Emergency Daylight Savings Time Energy Conservation Act of 1973. Two days later, Americans moved their clocks ahead one hour. On 5 October 1974, Congress amended the Act, and Americans moved their clocks back an hour on 27 October. The following year, Daylight Saving Time extended from 23 February 1975 to 26 October (Aldrich, 2007).

The next change in Daylight Saving Time came in 1986, when Congress extended the period. Clocks were moved forward on the first Sunday of April and back on the last Sunday of October (Aldrich, 2007).

The most recent change in the U.S. occurred in 2007. Today Daylight Saving Time extends from the first Sunday in March until the first Sunday in November (Aldrich, 2007).

In most of Europe, Daylight Saving Time extends from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October (IDEA, 2008).

There you have it! Standardized time – a fact of modern life that we take for granted, has its roots in the early days of electrified communications.

Sources:

Aldrich, B. (2007). Saving time, saving energy. The California Energy Commission. Retrieved 25 January 2009, from http://www.energy.ca.gov/daylightsaving.html

Bellis, M. (2009). Electricity milestones. About.com: Inventors. Retrieved 25 January 2009, from http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blelectric2.htm

History.com. (2008). November 18, 1883. This Day In History. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved 25 January 2009, from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=4341

Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement (IDEA). (2008). Daylight Saving Time. Retrieved 25 January 2009, from http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/.

Rosenberg, M. (2008, September 22). Daylight Saving Time. About.com: Geography. Retrieved 25 January 2009, from http://geography.about.com/cs/daylightsavings/a/dst.htm

Time zone. (2009, January 22). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 25 January 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Time_zone&oldid=265608293

Townsend, G. A. (1874). Washington, Outside and Inside. J. Betts & Co. Retrieved 25 January 2009, from GoogleBooks.

White, M.W. (March 2005). The economics of time zones. Unpublished paper, Wharton School, University of PennsylvaniaRetrieved 25 January 2009, from http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu/mawhite/Papers/TimeZones.pdf

Winston, B. (1998). Media, Technology and Society, A History: From The Telegraph To The Internet. Routledge, London.

Zerubavel, E. (July 1982). The standardization of time: a sociohistorical perspective. American Journal of Sociology, 88(1). Retrieved 25 January 2009, from JSTOR, DOI: 10.1086/227631.

Per listserv email

Hi, Folks!

(1) I have provided feedback on everyone’s initial reading essay. Please let me know if you would like additional feedback.

(2) If your final proposal does not include citations (evidence that there is a body of research to draw on), please edit. Part of the rationale for having the in-class exercise after Jessica’s presentation was to help prepare you for this final proposal assignment. :-)

For examples, see
– http://sunagurol.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/project-proposal/
– http://renee219.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/final-proposal/
–
http://rebekahp.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/final-project-proposal-crafting-in-a-digital-medium/

(3) I’ll be returning to the 3×5 cards over the weekend, for those of you who included personal notes. That said, I’d appreciate feedback on the website design tweaks (noted in the prior post-class note).

On a totally different note, my new MacBookPro is now (finally) fully configured (applications, documents, preferences, etc.). It’s lovely to have a new computer on warranty-replacement, but it’s still a pain to get everything back ‘the way it was.’

If anyone is considering a new MacBookPro, here are my first thoughts:
http://wiredpen.com/2009/01/22/mbp-first-thoughts/

Enjoy the weekend! It looks like the weather may finally have changed. Sunshine in Lynnwood. :-)

Persuasive Presentations – how to get the response you need by Nick Souter, Sterling Publishing

• Chapter 2 – The Who
• Chapter 3 – The What

Presentation Zen – Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds, New Riders

• Chapter 3 – Planning Analog
• Chapter 4 – Crafting the Story
• Chapter 6 – Presentation Design (look through the presentations at the back of the book)

Both books are well worth reading and rereading. The chapters mentioned above are the source of my two presentations to you. If you have extra time, include Reynold’s Chapter 5 on Simplicity.