Now it is my turn to say: Thank you Celso!

Sun Nov 14 13:27:16 UTC 2010

Dear Bessie and Teun, well, thank you for thanking me for the CRITICS Netvibes site, but ;-), really, it hasn't been that difficult at all to set up. Those of you who haven't visited it yet may be a little lost with this explanation, but I'll try to summarize: 

1) It of course does not and cannot substitute for the list for exchange of ideas. It is a site only for resources. There is a "Wall" option where people can post notes, post-its, but I haven't tried it yet. 
2) It is VERY provisional; it's a pilot page, just to give an idea. I haven't done anything but organizing links, many taken from Teun's pages. So, Teun, your Critics Project description was linked only as a sample. 
3) It would need one or two persons dedicated to it, let's call them manager(s). But one ain't gonna be me ;-), sorry. I am not reliable ;-) . I get tired of projects and get overwhelmed by even the smallest responsibility (I've reverted to an adolescent attitude). I can help whomever wants to take over at the beginning, to explain how it is managed. It is VERY easy. Well, almost very. If you know how to select a "widget" (module), place it where you want it, copy and paste links, and type a text, you know how to do it ;-). Those of you who have used Moodle for teaching, for example, know what I'm referring to. Now, Netvibes is EASIER than Moodle. 
4) The role of the Netvibes manager would be to gather links, announcements, etc., both from the list, from the Internet, or from private email. So, yes, people could contribute things, but not directly by posting stuff to Netvibes. The LINGANTH website works like that: the site manager gets materials from the list discussions. It would seem that this means duplicating information, but not really: Lists, even the ones hosted in a place with a search engine, such as in LINGUIST, organize the material very differently. Netvibes is mostly visual. 
5) Yes, it is possible to host profiles from CRITICS members, either by linking to external pages or by adding pages in Netvibes from scratch. 
6) All work is done online, without having to install anything, from any computer with Internet access, just like a blog. A blog system could be used instead, but in my experience it is more complicated to manage: you have to type and modify lists of links, whereas the point of Netvibes is to quickly add resources individually. For example, Teun has a page with an enormous and enormously useful list of links to researchers' web pages, http://www.discourses.org/resources/furtherresources/. In Netvibes, each link is a module, a little box. They can be added independently by dragging-and-dropping the URL. So, maintaining and eliminating broken links is easier than editing the list file, reloading, etc. 
7) Links (modules) can be copied from OTHER Netvibes sites. I haven't found any other specifically on discourse (perhaps one), but as more people join Netvibes and make their own resource pages, more resources may show up. 
8) It is possible to "pass on" managing the site temporarily to someone in order to develop a specific section. For example, if someone has lots of Classroom Resources that would like to share (bookmarks, available materials on the Internet, etc.), instead of sending the links, s/he could organize them in the Netvibes site and then pass on the site to someone else. Credit could be given to whomever contributed those materials in the corresponding section. 
9) Many potential sections are missing; for example, Educational Programs, Classroom Resources, Personal Websites, Technology Resources, Special Topics, etc. etc. 

There are many possibilities. The main thing is that someone be willing to play around with the site for a while. I encourage you! Again, I will help, even by giving them a short "remote tutorial" (1-hour) through Skype, for example. 

-celso 

De: "Teun A. van Dijk" <teun at DISCOURSES.ORG> 
Para: CRITICS-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL 
Enviadas: Domingo, 14 de Novembro de 2010 12:44:29 
Assunto: Now it is my turn to say: Thank you Celso! 

Dear friends, 

First of all, now it is my turn to express thanks: To Celso for his extraordinary fast and extremely practical proposal for a CRITICS netvibe! As usual, he is much too modest: As it is the site is already very complete, with many useful links, and ready to receive more content that may be useful to all of us - as well as our students. ... 

Celso was so kind as to offer the whole setup for me to take over, but as I mentioned earlier, I simply am overburdened with urgent other work (the journals, various websites, PhDs, my own research -- for which I have less and less time) and right now the setting up of a new master program (in Spanish) for Spain and Latin America, Discurso, Comunicación, Sociedad, whose very detailed plan needs to be ready soon for national evaluation, so that we can start in September 2012. 

So, I asked Celso to provisionally keep control of the site until some of us declares her- or himself a candidate for that role. 

If the international CRITICS center I am now starting to (try to) set up ever materializes here in Barcelona, and if we are able to get secretarial and other assistance, we might be able to play a more active role in the management of the CRITICS netvibe, a website, a List and other activities mentioned in the document on the CRITICS Foundation and activities kindly already posted on the CRITICS netvibe by Celso. 

Incidentally this (old) document would need another Postscript of 2010, saying that most of the aims of the original CRITICS ideas and plans are still relevant today, that (even tiny) CRITICS centers of a few scholars and PhDs could and should be set up locally around the world, each with its own website or netvibe, thus forming a global network. Dramatically better than in 1991 (when I still referred to sharing information with diskettes!!!), and even better than in 2004, today the possibilities of the internet and other new media are such that many of the earlier plans can now much easier be realized. 

For instance, the new CRITICS netvibe may be extended by at least three important resources: 

1. Documentation of scholars in CDA/CDS, each represented by a standard (easily updatable) bio-bibliographical note, with links to an online personal website and/or List of Publications. 

2. Library of CDA/CDS papers. List of links to (online) papers in PDF format on various fields and topics of sociopolitical (critical) research in language, discourse and communication. Each member would be able to "drop" such links on the appropriate place of the netvibe. 

3. CDA/CDS Bibliography . A CRITICS aim from the start. The complete bibliography of CDA/CDS is of course much larger than papers that are available on line, and also needs to include books and many other references. Again, each member should be able to add her or his references on CDA/CDS in a fixed format (e.g., APA) to form a collective, searchable bibliography (ideally with keywords for each reference to make searches independent of titles). 

During the last two decades I have built up a (plain text, APA format) personal bibliography of language, discourse, communication, cognition, society etc. of more than 600,000+ titles (many with keywords), with thousands of titles in CDA/CDS, and which I use to provide instant bibliographies for students, colleagues and journal authors (using a small search program that I had made for my personal use). I could make this bibliography available for public access on the CRITICS netvibe site, but I guess a useful bibliography should be in the format of records with various fields (Author, Title, etc.) and a standard bibliographical program for searches. 
There are already many useful content categories on the netvibe presented by Celso, and I hope that you all will contribute -- and especially also ask your students to get engaged, propose contents and become active to make this site a success. The site is especially also a very useful research for students -- especially when locally there are not CDA/CDS specialists to supervise their research. 

Warm regards 

Teun 
___________________________________________________ 
Teun A. van Dijk 
Pompeu Fabra University 
Dept. of Translation and Language Sciences 
138, Roc Boronat 
08018 Barcelona, Spain 
E-mail: teun at discourses.org 
Web: www.discourses.org 

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