(16) An image into the Blog???

Exhibit 1.6.1 Hofstadter and Escher: in support of multiple worlds and tangled hierarchies - (Hofstadter, 1980: 690)

Hmmm - I have tried three ways to get the tangled hierarchies image into this blog. I could do it by photographing it but there must be a better way.

I did not find a way to save a graphic from Word so that it could be upload as an image.

I tried to use "Publish this file to the web" and it came up with MSN as a place where it could be published but publication failed.

I need to talk with Gordon or Derek or the help desk - but this is not a high priority.

(14) Blog vs wiki - wondering

I know they have different functions - and I can see how this blogging helps my thinking - it is a web-log after all - and it allows me to record things for future reference and to think things out online.

But it is cumbersome to go back and find stuff that I want for easy reference - unless I can recall that I posted material already (which I can't) - maybe if I used tags more effectively it might do the trick.

The wiki seems to allow for easier reference and hyperlinking and the development of a knowledge structure.

Perhaps one tool is synchronous (blogging - sequential) and the other more ephemeral (non-sequential but expressing current knowledges and perceptions - non-permanent but existing as a knowledge source).

(8) "Techie" and other key labels

These are the main labels I am using or plan to use as labels for postings. I will also use specific labels for postings that deal with particular issues (these will usually be defined in my glossary wiki rather than here).

• Techie - I have already defined it as refering to both e-technical stuff and things to do with the conventions I am using in this blog.
  
• Thesis - this refers both to (a) my PhD thesis as it was published in 2003 and (b) the ideas that flow into and from the work of the thesis. I see the thesis as a living document (oral, mental, and text - as in within this blog). The thesis is the backbone (the spine, the warp, the magnet) that provides continuity, focus and tempts me to return to discussing the ideas around the central themes of collective praxis, teacher education, complexity, pragmatism and practice. .
  
• Personal - even though the thesis is philosophic, academic, professional, I cannot separate it from the personal because I see the world and my ideas holistically. I am my ideas and my ideas are personal as well as collective. I am not going to use this space to be wildly personal but my person and my networks are part of my being.
  
• Conversations - some entries will be parts of ongoing conversations with one or more other people.
  
• Links - some entries will simply introduce other spaces.
  

(5) Organising a blog - emerging knowledge and "techie" stuff

The way this blog will be organised is emerging slowly, and will continue to emerge. This is an example of how new knowledge is created - it emerges as a result of exploring and wondering, watching what is happening and researching (investigating) how other blogs work and what kinds of things I think are worthy of the effort of being typed up.

Within this blog I am using "techie" as a term that refers to technical stuff (to do with e-spaces, sites etc. as well as the technical workings of both software and hardware). But I am also extending the term to describe the conventions I am developing for working within this site. I want to identify about half a dozen (seven at most) labels, one of which will be attached to each blog entry (I could add more and different labels but each entry will have one of the key labels. This is because, in the past when I have experimented with using blogs I have kept generating labels (or tags) so that they got out of hand.

This rule will place some requirement to classify around what topics I talk about without constraining me. It is an example of a liberating constraint (a notion from complexity thinking - it is the idea that certain constraints can actually foster creativity).

Glee - I've found out how to add pages to a wiki

Yahoo - what a name! I have found I can add one-pagers and other formatted documents to a wiki space so am delighted to be able to rationalise my thinking around what spaces I actually need to do the job of linking all my thesis related material together.

My next step is to find out how I link from here into urls. The expected link is not apparent. This is, by the way, a temporary post - I will delete it all when I put in a posting about the structure of my network of spaces. Here is Takahe's blog

4. On time and date of publication

For the record, I am publishing this from New Zealand where it is early evening on 31 March - sometime about 6.30pm. It appears as though it is being written from the Western Seaboard of USA, I think.

Yes - to translate the apparent time of posting to the actual time you need to add one day and subtract four hours.

2. My use of colour in blog writing ...

On the use of colour:

• green - these are terms that will appear in my glossary of terms that will be a wiki which will be linked from this site. One of the problems with my story is that there are many words I use in particular ways that are not in common use (except in specialist conversations) yet the ideas are not difficult. My glosses wiki is designed to give a simple explanation of how I use the term followed by some discussion about its use (possibly from texts and possibly conversations that are about to emerge in e-space).

• rust coloured - these are insights that have emerged for me during the writing. What I want from this exercise is to be able to document my writing in ways that open it up to ongoing conversation. As I do this I am learning. The rust colour highlights those little insights of the moment that accumulate, over time, into learning.

• blue - these are (potentially, in the future) links to e-spaces. I plan to link into various spaces I have already set up (other blogs or wiki spaces) and some I have yet to build (a website where I can make formatted documents accessible).

• Purple - these are ideas that I could expand on in later blog entries. If people ask me about them, then I will reply. Otherwise, they might or might not emerge later as I get into the habit of musing on whatever whenever.