Month: March 2007

UMR’s name change conversation is about to become more public

Some of you have read on this blog (or on Karine Joly’s, or Robert French’s) about the proposal to change the name of my employer, the University of Missouri-Rolla. At 11 a.m. today, that discussion will become more public. That’s when UMR Chancellor John F. Carney III plans to announce the recommended he has submitted to the University of Missouri and its board of curators.

Since sending out a media advisory Thursday afternoon, the Name Change Conversations blog has been moderately abuzz, with traffic surging from an average of about 110 unique visitors per day to 353 yesterday. Commenting has heated up, too, but some of those comments — from “insiders” who have gotten the scoop — are being held until after the 11 a.m. announcement.

Fun times to be a higher ed blogger.

onBeing: Washington Post’s video experiment

onBeingJust found out about onBeing, the Washington Post’s experiment with video vignettes from ordinary people. onBeing’s Jennifer Crandall explains the purpose on the site as follows:

onBeing is a project based on the simple notion that we should get to know one another a little better. What you’ll find here is a series of videos that takes you into the musings, passions, histories and quirks of all sorts of people. The essence of who they are, who we are.

There will be a new video every Wednesday, so check back often. In the meantime, feel free to add your thoughts to the comments section and tell us about someone you’d like to see in onBeing. Over time, we should end up with a pretty cool community. — Jenn

I’ve just clicked on a couple of videos, so it’s too early for me to form a judgment. But my overall impression is that the videos, while interesting, are too long. But at least the people at the Post are trying something, so good for them.

Other views from blogdom:

Pro: “All in all, it has a very iTunes-like feel. Totally un-newspaper-like.”

Con: “It’s like some undergrad documentary project that’s not interesting enough to make it onto the 3 a.m. slot of a third tier cable network and not edgy enough to get noticed as modern art.”