675 - Unit 1

The collection of objects that I would like to discuss and which I think may be of interest of others with a shared fascination of history are objects related to the Sutro area in San Francisco. My collection will consist of some photographs and possibly a few drawings and films. This site is located in an area known as Lands End on the western coastal side of San Francisco. The land is federally protected, but it used to have a large glass bathhouse that was built in 1894. The bathhouse burned down in 1966, but luckily instead of being developed as was the original plan, the federal government became the custodian of the land so that the ruins of the baths remain. I have long held a fascination for this site and have taken several photographs over the years. While none of the glass remains, the foundation and pools are still there, and is one is brave enough you can walk around the periphery of the large dark green pools.

People interested in ruins, San Francisco history, naturalists, etc, may find these objects of interest (hopefully!). My master's thesis was about the ruins of a 1923 movie set in the Guadalupe dunes on the central coast of California, so I've continued my fascination for these unique environments by trying to capture images of the Sutro Baths. I think some of the terms that could be used might include Adolf Sutro, Lands End, Cliff House (another institution created by Adolf Sutro, and still in business after more than 100 years), San Francisco & ruins. I might also include some postcards of the original baths that I have collected, as I think this will make for a more varied taxonomy.

Unit 12 - the end...

Plan and do from PMBOK guide reiterated what I’ve learned in 673 on project management. Timelines are essential, as are the lines of communication. This was emphasized by the first reading, Cervone’s project risk management. I think this is one of the best reasons to have a CMS for managing projects within the organization. Within a CMS you can track all the projects with which you are involved. The leader of an organization should be able to go into a CMS and view the various stages of projects within programs throughout the organization. Our University Librarian does this with our CMS – if one is viewing it a certain way then one can gain something of a snapshot of programs and projects going on throughout the organization.

Cervone contends that when making a decision two forces are at play - the courage to make a decision along with a sense of caution about the consequences. I couldn't agree more with this summation. You have to be brave as a decision maker, but you also have to be frugal and conservative to some extent; you have to consider how that decision will affect others and the organizational workflows, but at the same time if you want to nurture a creative and dynamic organization then you need to be able to make decisions that will help the organization grow and flourish.

I also appreciate Cervone's point that if you wait too long to complete a project that it may turn into a totally different project. I think this idea ties in nicely with Unit 8 and how we explored the difference between long-term strategic planning and the shorter timelines inherent in technology plans. With our rapidly changing technological landscape it seems wise at every juncture to ask "why are we doing this?" Modifying a plan as it progresses is an important part of change management, as is insuring that the project is executed in a timely and organized manner.

Unit 11 & looking back

I honestly wish I hadn’t struggled so much with FTP during this past unit so that I could concentrate more on the structure of PHP. I did do the standard lamp installation quite a while ago in unit 7, but I still wasn’t seeing the /var/www directory in fugu. Thus I typed everything out in the command line using sudo nano (this was actually quite fun, as the tags light up in the command line – they do in text edit/dreamweaver as well, but it’s not quite the same as in the command line you’re seeing it against a dark background – it was the only light I could see, so to speak, in my very gloomy confusion. But this is how we learn, right?

For the most part I feel pretty good about what I’ve learned, but I know it’s just the tip of the iceberg. I don’t feel as though I can comprehensively articulate everything I’ve learned because it’s all yet swirling around me like a sea of numbers & words. I think there are many people in the class who are able to pick up this information much more quickly, so I’ve felt somewhat less skilled than in my previous two digin courses. With my 50-hour work weeks I’ve found the course load a bit daunting, but that’s the feeling I expect from a graduate program too – it’s not supposed to be easy.

I do agree with prof. Fulton that we should consider picking up certain programming languages, if even just one or two, in order to become proficient. Personally I really liked learning XML and Mysql: XML because of its flexibility and omnipresence in the current work of digital curation, and Mysql because I particularly enjoy its regular expressions and Boolean operators. It also goes hand in hand with this week’s PHP exercises.

I’m looking forward to immersing myself in my final project paper and wrapping up the course over the next 7 days (thank goodness for some furlough time this week!), and I must say that I will miss the rigor that this course has provided – I also appreciate that prof. Fulton has been so available to the class, emailing back seemingly 24/7 when students are struggling with the activities. Anyways, I think it’s time to end my blog as I just did a control + c on a word doc as I would on the VM! Time to go to sleep.