Notebook of Sand

• Recent Publications
• Recent Projects
• Conferences & Speaking
"Comparing Spatial Hypertext Collections"
  ACM Hypertext '09
"Archiving and Sharing Your Tinderbox"
  Tinderbox Weekend London '09
"The Electronic Nature of Future Literatures"
  Literary Studies Now, Apr '09
"The World University Project"
  St. John's Col. Cambridge, Feb '09
"Ethical Explanations,"
  The New Knowledge Forge, Jun '08
Lecture, Cambridge University
  Tragedy in E-Lit, Nov '07
Hypertext '07: Tragedy in E-Lit
Host for Tinderbox Cambridge '07
Keynote: Dickinson State Uni Conf
Upper Midwest NCHC'07: Speaker
eNarrative 6: Creative Nonfiction
HT'05: "Philadelphia Fullerine"
  Nelson award winning paper
NCHC '05:
 Nurturing Independent Scholarship
Riddick Practicum:
  Building Meeting Good Will
NCHC '04:
  Philadelphia Fullerine
  Lecture on American Studies
WWW@10: Nonfiction on the Web
NCHC '03: Parliamentary Procedure
ELL '03 -- Gawain Superstar
• (a)Musing (ad)Dictions:

Ideas. Tools. Art. Build --not buy. What works, what doesn't. Enjoy new media and software aesthetics at Tekka.

Theodore Gray (The Magic Black Box)

Faith, Life, Art, Academics. Sermons from my family away from home: Eden Chapel!

My other home: The Cambridge Union Society (in 2007, I designed our [Fresher's Guide])

The Economist daily news analysis

Global Higher Ed blog

• Hypertext/Writing

Writing the Living Web

Chief Scientist of Eastgate Systems, hypertext expert Mark Bernstein. (Electronic) Literature, cooking, art, etc.

Fabulous game reviews at playthisthing.

• Stats

Chapter I: Born. Lived. Died.

There is a Chapter II.

Locale: Lancaster County Pa, USA

Lineage: Guatemala

Religion: My faith is the primary focus of my life, influencing each part of me. I have been forgiven, cleansed, and empowered by Jesus Christ. Without him, I am a very thoughtful, competent idiot. With him, I am all I need to be, all I could ever hope for. I oppose institutional religious stagnation, but getting together with others is a good idea. God is real. Jesus Christ is his Son, and the Bible is true. Faith is not human effort. It's human choice. I try to be the most listening, understanding, and generous person I can.

Interests: Anything I can learn. Training and experience in new media, computer science, anglophone literature, education, parliamentary debate, democratic procedure, sculpture, and trumpet performance. Next: applied & computational linguistics, probably.

Education: Private school K-3. Home educated 4-12. Graduated Summa Cum Laude from Elizabethtown College in Jan 2006. As the 2006 Davies-Jackson Scholar, I studied English at St. John's College, Cambridge University from 2006 - 2008.

Memberships: Eden Baptist, Cambridge Union Society, ACM, AIP, GPA.

Alum of the Elizabethtown College Honors Program, sponsored by the Hershey Company.

Two Guys and a Background
Wednesday, 13 Oct 2004 :-:

My brother and I are parliamentarians.

This weekend, we get to train a college's student senate in the proper attitude, philosophy, and operation of parliamentary procedures as explained in Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised 10th Edition(RONR).

Many people despise parliamentary procedure. When they think, "Robert's Rules," they think of meetings gone bad, ones where the goal of a minority got railroaded through by use of clever procedure. They think of the parliamentary geek (there's usually one in every organization), who insists on using rules that no one knows. They think of horrible meetings, where people argued and bickered, meetings which caused problems and harmed relationships.

When I think of parliamentary procedure, I think about the same things. Except, I'm not blaming them on the rules (as obtuse as RONR may be).

Instead, I see parliamentary authorities as the best panacea to these kinds of organizational decisionmaking problems. The rules aim to create an environment where people are empowered. The rules aim to encourage people to work together, to build consensus, and put their effort toward the good of the assembly.

For example, RONR page 52 makes the following statement about unanimous consent:

"Unanimous consent" does not necessarily imply that every member is in favor of the proposed action; it may only mean that the opposition, feeling that it is useless to oppose or discuss the matter, simply acquiesces. Similarly, when a member responds to the chair's inquiry, "Is there any objection....?"" with "I object," he may not necessarily oppose the motion itself, but may believe that it is wise to take a formal vote under the circumstances.

Who in their right mind would oppose unanimous consent for a proposal they want to pass?

Someone who is concerned for the opinions of those who may oppose it. Someone who is interested in the health of the assembly. RONR is chock-full of little statements like this, remindind people to think beyond the motion they want to adopt, but to think about the health and further continuance of their organization.

** * **

For those who feel intimidated by the hugeness of RONR, you may want to consider Robert's Rules of Order, In Brief, a recent publication by the RONR authorial committee that explains the basics used by most members and provides cross-references to the main compendium. It's very cool.

But my brother and I do not recommend using RONR for your organization (if the main document of your organization already calls for RONR, by all means keep it). We recommend a much easier-to-read, more lucid work called The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure.

** * **

The college wanted to film our presentation. We declined, suggesting audio instead.

I think I cited the mental anguish experienced by viewers after an hour-and-a-half of "two guys and a background".

** * **

I think we have now found the name for the imaginary gospel singing group the two of us have joked about forming. We thought about calling ourselves, "The Ransomed Brothers," but that's already taken.

"Two Guys and a Background" sounds appropriately garage-ey for our tastes. Coming to coffeehouses soon!