Wires Crossed

How to Make Yale Facebook Even Better

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:57:16 -0400

by Emmanuel Quartey

photo credit: susanvg via photo pin cc

In a recent post, I criticized the Yale Facebook site (a web app that allows students to look up information about their classmates) for looking like it hadn’t been updated since the early 90s. It seems like someone was thinking the same thing. Barely 3 days after the post went up, Yale Facebook has been given a gorgeous facelift. It’s easier on the eye, and the functionality is much improved. Here’s an idea to make it even better: evolve it from a simple student directory, into a tool for facilitating student collaboration.

Yale Facebook helps answer many of the questions students have about each other. It tells us find out people’s class year, their major, their residential location and even their birthdays. Beyond these basic facts, however, there’re other things that Yalies want to know about each other. Things such as what student groups they’re affiliated with, what skills they posses and what their professional and academic interests are.

Imagine, for instance, that you’re the business manager of a student group, and you need someone to take high quality photos of your next performance. If you’re lucky, your best friend might know her way around a camera, or someone might take pity on you and respond to your pleas for help on Facebook. More likely, you’ll have a difficult time finding someone with the skills you need. It would be awesome to be able to go into Yale Facebook and search for skills.

Or imagine that you’re really enjoying class about the Roman Architecture. You should be able to go into Yale Facebook and look up people who share similar interests. Who knows, you might even find that there’s a Roman Architecture Appreciation Club that meets every other Thursday.

Of course, tools already exist for doing something like this. IdeaMash, for instance, aims to help students find collaborators from among their peers. The advantage that Yale Facebook has over these other services, however, is that literally everyone is already on Yale Facebook.

Yalies are already finding each other and collaborating to create incredible performances, lectures and even startups. There is a real opportunity for Yale Facebook to make it even easier for these kinds of connections to happen.

Want to connect with Wires Crossed? Follow us @wires_crossed or email us at wirescrossedblog@gmail.com.

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Three Takeaways from Teaching with Technology Tuesday

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 02:30:00 -0400

by Emmanuel Quartey

Last week, the Wires Crossed team had the opportunity to present the project to staff members at Teaching with Technology Tuesday. The following is a round-up of three ideas that emerged during the Q&A session after the presentation.

1) There is an incredible amount of student talent out there. With the right incentives, that talent could be directed towards making some really cool, useful things.

In a recent interview with Jared Shenson and Charlie Croom (the creators of Yale Bluebook), they remarked that the Yale College Council App Challenge motivated the creation of Bluebook. Other App Challenge winners include YaleMobile, Yale Travelogue and Roammeo.

What this goes to show is that given the right incentives, Yalies are willing to take on the challenge of making something that solves a problem. For every Bluebook, however, there are many potential services that simply don’t see the light of day. How do we incentive such acitivity? Maybe there should be greater University acknowledgement of Yalies who make things like Travelogue. Or maybe there should be a formal system for connecting student developers and designers with ITS staff who would be interested in working with them.

2) Student-made apps are better-looking, and they do a better job of getting feedback from students.

Another interesting factoid from the interview with Jared and Charlie: upwards of 90% of the freshman class has used Bluebook. They ascribe this to their willingness to rapidly iterate the product based on the feedback they get through email or even Facebook comments. They respond to every single comment, and they try their best to acknowledge feature requests.

The biggest difference between student-made apps and “official” apps is that student apps have a human face. I’m more willing to send in feedback because I know that my comment isn’t going to go down some blackhole where no-one is going to ever read it. If something about Bluebook bothers me, I know how to have my concern addressed (and I know that a fix will be up within a few weeks). I don’t bother letting anyone know about my frustrations with official apps because I’m not quite sure anyone cares.

This is easily solved by prominently assigning a real person to each University application. Simply knowing that my email is going to a real person who actually cares about improving the product would make me more likely to vocalize improvements I would like to see.

Another big difference between student apps and official apps is that student apps just look better. If you haven’t tried Travelogue yet, you should. It’s gorgeous. Yale Facebook, on the other hand, looks like it hasn’t been updated since the early nineties (UPDATE: since this post went up, Yale Facebook has had a HUGE facelift. Check it out!).

This is not just a matter of things needing to look pretty. Travelogue’s appearance signals to me that it is a labor of love - that someone actually cared enough to create moments of delight. Additionally, it looks like it’s running the latest technology, and that gives me the confidence that its makers are skilled. All this is in sharp contrast to the university Facebook, which looks like an abandoned project.

There is an important caveat to this: students actually have a high tolerance for a work in progress. An app need not be “finished” or “perfect” on launch, as long as there is evidence that a passionate group of people is constantly working to improve the product.

3) Students aren’t as tech savvy as they would like to be.

I’m going to write a much longer post about this, but Spark Notes version: there is a new computer literacy, one which involves knowing at least some HTML/CSS and image/audio/video manipulation, and Yalies feel like they don’t have the basic skills necessary for navigating a changing world.

The popularity of Hack Yale proves that people are willing to take on the equivalent of an extra class, without credit, in order to come away knowing how to code a simple website.

Want to connect with Wires Crossed? Follow us @wires_crossed or email us at wirescrossedblog@gmail.com.

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Inside a Yale Summer Session Online Class

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 21:55:06 -0400

by Emmanuel Quartey

We recently interviewed Richard Collins (Yale Summer Session Online Manager), who told us all about how students will be able to take Yale courses online for credit this summer. This video gives you an inside view of what an online class actually looks like.

Want to connect with Wires Crossed? Follow us @wires_crossed or email us at wirescrossedblog@gmail.com.

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PROFILE: Susan Gibbons (University Librarian, Yale University)

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 16:38:00 -0400

by Emmanuel Quartey

Susan Gibbon has only been University Librarian for under a year, but she has quickly made her presence felt with a series of events and study breaks aimed at familiarizing Yalies with the resources available to them, and introducing them to the custodians of Yale’s famed collections.

In the following interview, Gibbons explains:

How the Library is incorporating eBooks into its collection.
What is missing from the Open Access Journal debate.
Why Yale alums now have access to JSTOR.
Why the Library is rethinking its website.
How the Orbis (application that lets you search the library catalog) interface will evolve.
The motivation for the creation of the brand new Center for Science and Social Science Information
Why the Library is now more active on social media channels.

and lots more. Enjoy!

Interview with Susan Gibbons, PART 1.

Interview with Susan Gibbons, PART 2.

Interview with Susan Gibbons, PART 3.

Want to connect with Wires Crossed? Follow us @wires_crossed or email us at wirescrossedblog@gmail.com.

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Box 63 and the Modern Restaurant

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:28:49 -0400

If you read Wires Crossed, you’ve probably thought once or twice about how social media has changed your life. But how has social media changed the expectations for small business? Wires Crossed sat down with Caroline Condon, social media director at Box 63, to find out.

Situated just off Broadway in New Haven, Box 63 American Bar & Grill is the quintessential American eatery. Rustic wood and steel accents compliment the rugged brick structure to establish a delightfully blue-collar aesthetic. The menu includes burgers with pineapples, fried chicken with waffles, and macaroni with lobster, All-American classics with a hip twist.

But the Box experience is much more than that. The staff at Box 63 embodies a comforting sense of hospitality and kindness that is rare in this day and age. Owners and cousins Tom and Carl Carbone frequently welcome guests at the door, greet them by their first name and create connections the old fashioned way.

While their courtesy will always be acknowledged, the staff of Box 63 has created a connection with the community in modern ways as well. And it’s not just a Twitter account and a Facebook page. Inside the building, Box provides their patrons with the ability to vote for the next song on the sound system via smartphone. Enter your phone number ten times at their Connext tablet - which will periodically notify you of deals and special offers via text - and you get a free dessert. Outside the building, Box maintains their friendly demeanor, offering free birthday dinners via personal Facebook wall posts.

More examples of Box perpetuating a network of participation are abundant. It’s a strategy crafted by the Carbones and carried out by Caroline Condon, the social media director at Box 63. That’s right, restaurants have social media directors now. “For us, it’s about getting people in the door. Once they’re in, we know they will enjoy our vibe.”

That confidence has been with Box since day one, when they set up shop on Elm & Park. The marketing plan included subtly separating Box 63 the eatery and Box 63 the bar, the former geared towards community families and the latter tailored for local college students. As a result, the young enterprise was able to make a big impact. The area had been lacking a standard American grill for decades, and there was a dire need for a cleanlier watering hole than the popular nightclub Toad’s Place.

But Condon stopped us there. She was clear in her assertions that Box 63 didn’t view Toad’s as a competitor. Box’s advanced social media portfolio wasn’t even influenced by the lack of a similar entity at Toad’s. It was always part of the plan.

So is this “plan” the expectation for small business these days? Condon thinks so. “If what we’re doing isn’t the standard, it should be.” Getting connected with the customer at an unbeatable price is at least attractive to the average restaurant owner. Given the proper devices and access, we should expect to see commitments to social media not unlike what we’ve seen through Box 63. It’s what Condon calls a “no-brainer.”

Photo Credit: Earl Lee

Want to get in touch with Wires Crossed? Shoot us a message @wires_crossed or wirescrossedblog@gmail.com!

PROFILE: Jared Shenson and Charlie Croom (Co-founders, Yale Bluebook)

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:37:00 -0400

by Emmanuel Quartey

Jared Shenson ‘12 and Charlie Croom ‘12.

This is an epic 3-part interview with Jared Shenson ‘12 and Charlie Croom ‘12, co-founders of Yale Bluebook, in which they talk about the experience of making Bluebook, and Yale’s growing startup community.

In Part 1, Jared and Charlie talk about what motivated them to create Bluebook, and what kind of response they’ve seen from students (spoiler alert: 70% of the undergraduate class and 90% of the freshman class used the application this Spring).

In Part 2, the guys talk about the challenges they faced in pulling off the project. They also speak to how the culture of entrepreneurship has evolved at Yale in just four years, and how the University administration can support Yale’s startup community.

In Part 3, Jared and Charlie answer the question “What happens to Bluebook after you graduate?”

BACKGROUND

Yale Bluebook is a browser-based application that allows students to access Yale’s Course Database. It provides an alternative to the official university interface called OCI (Online Course Information) and it takes its name from the Yale College Programs of Study book (commonly known as the Bluebook).

Photo credit: Catherine Chen (via The Yale Herald)

Screenshot of Yale Bluebook interface.

The thing that makes Bluebook so awesome is the way its inherently social. When checking out a class, Bluebook lets you know what other courses people shopping that class are interested in. Say you look up Kleiner’s “Roman Architecture” course - Bluebook let’s you know that you might also be interested in Matthew’s “Roman Empire.”

GLOSSARY

1) YCC App Challenge: The Yale College Council sponsors an app challenge that invites student designers and developers to create tools of value for the community. First prize is $1500. Jared and Charlie credit the YCC App Challenge for fueling the recent burst of innovation.

2) HackYale: HackYale is a series of student-run lectures and workshops to teach Yalies technical skills such as HTML/CSS, Ruby on Rials and iOS Development. Jared and Charlie both teach for HackYale.

3) IsItChickenTendersDay.com: Bay Gross ‘13 created this website to provide a definitive response to the question every Yalie wants an answer to.

Want to connect with Wires Crossed? Follow us @wires_crossed or email us at wirescrossedblog@gmail.com.

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PROFILE: Diana E. E. Kleiner, Founding Project Director and Principal Investigator, Open Yale Courses

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:48:00 -0400

by Emmanuel Quartey

Diana E.E. Kleiner, Founding Project Director and Principal Investigator, Open Yale Courses; Dunham Professor of History of Art and Classics, Yale University.

If you’re curious about the changing nature of higher-ed, you absolutely can’t afford to miss this fantastic interview with, Diana E.E. Kleiner as she discusses the lessons learned from spearheading the Open Yale Courses project. Near the end, she also hints at a fascinating new initiative from OYC.

This post is particularly topical because OYC announced the addition of SEVEN new courses today, which coincides with the publication of the first three books in The Open Yale Courses Series - the result of a collaboration between OYC and the Yale University Press!

1) Kindly introduce yourself and your role in Open Yale Courses.

I am the Founding Project Director and Principal Investigator of Open Yale Courses and also a faculty participant in the initiative. My Roman Architecture course was recorded for Open Yale Courses in spring 2009.

2) What is Open Yale Courses?

The purpose of Open Yale Courses is to share Yale’s academic treasures with the world by providing free access via the Internet to a selection of the University’s best undergraduate lecture courses. The courses range widely over the arts and sciences and consist primarily of introductory level college courses. Each course, recorded in its entirety as it was presented to Yale College students, is taught by one of the University’s most distinguished faculty members and offers the full experience of the Yale classroom. Participants may select courses by professor, course title, and recording date, and watch lecture videos directly from their browsers with the most up-to-date embedded video format. Open Yale Courses may be accessed at http://oyc.yale.edu and the video lectures can also be viewed or downloaded at iTunes U and through YouTube.

3) Where did the idea for Open Yale Courses come from and how did you come to head it?

While Deputy Provost at Yale, I was the University’s Liaison for Faculty Programs at AllLearn, Yale’s first online venture in partnership with Stanford and Oxford. Together, we created programs of one to eight weeks that were offered first to our combined alumni and then to the general public for a small charge. In 2006, we decided that a better approach was to share a selection of our undergraduate courses for free over the Internet; the result was Open Yale Courses. Over the last ten years, I have authored three online programs for AllLearn, my Open Yale course on Roman Architecture, and on-campus Web portals for my two undergraduate lecture courses, Roman Art and Roman Architecture (see the Wires Crossed review of the Classesv2 site for Roman Architecture).

4) How large is the Open Yale Courses team? Is there a full-time staff of videographers and editors dedicated to the project?

The Open Yale Courses Team is very small. I am Project Director, Christine Costantino is Project Coordinator, and Matt Snyder is Media Content Developer. The project is produced and supported by the Yale Center for Media and Instructional Innovation (CMI2). We hire expert videographers from the Yale Broadcast and Media Center, as well as a versatile group of Yale student assistants.

5) Why do you think that it’s critical for something like Open Yale Courses to exist?

Yale’s primary mission is to create and disseminate knowledge. Up until recently, that was done primarily through the publication of faculty research. With the Internet and the development of digital technology, faculty can now also share their courses more broadly, which is another way to exchange ideas and receive feedback from an even larger community of learners. It also allows the University to increase its international presence and to partner with other universities globally. Furthermore, since Yale’s aim is to encourage students “to lead and serve in every sphere of human activity,” Yale must be a leader in digital education.

6) What is the most popular Open Yale Course?

Every one of our courses has a strong following, with certain courses more popular in some parts of the world than others. Because of global interest in the economy, our courses on Financial Markets, Game Theory, and Financial Theory are popular everywhere. Civil War and Reconstruction Era, The American Revolution, Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Ancient Greek History, and Astrophysics often top the charts and China Public Radio has indicated that his course on Death has made Shelly Kagan the best-known foreign teacher in China.

7) How are the classes chosen? What is the process by which a Yale class becomes an Open Yale Class?

Open courses at Yale are not selected arbitrarily but with an eye to creating a comprehensive and varied liberal arts curriculum, which emphasizes close analysis and critical thinking. In every faculty recruitment cycle, I seek courses on both timely and timeless topics that range broadly across disciplines and approaches and are, above all, taught with engagement and passion. Every year, I try to add to the number of academic departments and to deepen the coverage of those subject areas already online. I also regularly introduce courses with complex technical or intellectual property requirements so that the project can continue to evolve and innovate.

I update the course catalogue every year. We released ten new courses in April 2011 and added another seven in April 2012, which include a course on African American history, another on three of America’s most iconic authors - Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner - and other exciting offerings in The Philosophy and Science of Human Nature, Atmosphere, Ocean, and Environmental Change, The Early Middle Ages, and Organic Chemistry (Orgo I, Orgo II). One of the challenges is what to do about updating courses in subjects as mutable as economics. Among the just released Open Yale Courses, for example, is an updated version of Robert Shiller’s popular Financial Markets course, which reflects changes to the worldwide economy since 2008, and focuses on the greater social purpose of financial capitalism.

8) What kind of feedback have you gotten from faculty, students and the non-Yale affiliated learners who take the courses?

Participating faculty remain enthusiastic and some consider their contribution to Open Yale Courses to be among their most meaningful Yale experiences. Yale College students appreciate having access to the materials, and surveys and emails attest that participants worldwide are enthusiastically “taking” our courses in full, replicating the on-campus experience more than in most other open educational projects, and that they perceive the complete course as particularly characteristic of Yale. In short, Open Yale Courses has become an essential part of Yale both on and off campus. The project has also received extensive press coverage worldwide since 2007 and was recently named one of Time Magazine’s best websites for 2011.

9) What has been the biggest challenge you encountered while working on Open Yale Courses?

Starting the initiative from the ground up and striving to sustain the project financially.

10) What has been the most surprising thing you’ve discovered while working on the project?

Even though journalists sometimes describe a dumbing down of contemporary culture, there are millions of people worldwide who love to learn for the joy of learning. As the Internet magically links these individuals, the circle of learning expands exponentially. I learn something new everyday from the people who write to me about my course and about the project and I am full of wonderment.

11) What are your thoughts on the changing nature of education? What is the optimal relationship between technology and learning?

A greater number of academic institutions are creating online courses and lectures. Most of this material is being used for self-directed learning but collaborative learning will grow with new technological advances like the iPhone and iPad. What excites me most is that online education makes it easier to learn at all times and in

all places and thus situates education where it should be—at the epicenter of everyone’s lives—not just during the student years but as a lifelong endeavor. I am thrilled at the part Yale has been able to play in that evolution.

12) MIT recently announced the launch of MITx. What’re your thoughts on accredited online learning?

I think there is real potential and I look forward to learning from the trajectory of MITx.

13) Is there a relationship between Open Yale Courses and Yale’s new accredited online learning program?

Open Yale Courses and the Yale Summer Session online are different programs although I hear that two Yale faculty are using elements from their Open Yale Courses in the 2012 summer program. A partnership I am especially enthusiastic about is that between Open Yale Courses and Yale University Press. The launch of seven new Open Yale Courses on April 5, 2012 coincides with the publication by the Press of the first three books in The Open Yale Courses Series, which is designed to bring the depth and breadth of a Yale education to a wide variety of readers at affordable prices. Based on the Open Yale Courses Program, these books cover a broad range of topics across disciplines in the social sciences, physical sciences, and humanities, and offer accessible introductions. The first three titles are: Theory of Literature by Paul H. Fry, Death by Shelly Kagan, and New Testament History and Literature by Dale B. Martin.

14) What’s next for Open Yale Courses?

In the belief that teaching and learning are among the most interactive and transformative human activities, we want to continue to offer opportunities that allow learning beyond the conventional classroom. We are incubating a new idea, which I’ll be happy to discuss down the line in a follow up conversation.

Want to connect with Wires Crossed? Follow us @wires_crossed or email us at wirescrossedblog@gmail.com.

More posts by Emmanuel.

What do we mean by "eTextbooks"?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:27:00 -0400

by Emmanuel Quartey

photo credit: Stanford EdTech via photopin cc

This post is the result of three things.

Firstly, after years of watching from the sidelines, I’m using DC Comics’ massive reboot as an opportunity to get into comics for the first time. As part of the reboot (all DC titles are reverting to issue #1), the digital versions of the comics go out on the same day that physical versions hit the stores, so I’m following the Justice League, Green Lantern and Aquaman on my iPad (you can do the same through Comixology).

Secondly, I read this old Brain Pickings round-up of 10 great examples of graphic non-fiction. These are books which discuss serious issues (the aftermath of Katrina, a biography of the Dalai Lama) through the medium of sequential art.

Brooke Gladstone’s “The Influencing Machine” is a graphic novel that explains the history of the media.

Finally, I stumbled on Smarter Comics, which provides comics versions of works like Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Machiavelli’s The Prince and Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail.

It all got me thinking about different ways of learning, and how mobile devices might evolve into massively popular, viable learning tools.

From what I can gather, it seems that when people talk about disrupting the textbook market, they’re essentially talking about taking the same content and putting it on a screen. This lack of imagination is absent in other discussions about the future of books. Craig Mod’s fantastic essays on the future of publishing should be required reading for anyone who cares about words (you should start with Books in the Age of the iPad) and Wired magazine’s iPad app has been applauded for being a truly multimedia experience. All this, and yet when it comes to textbooks, we seem unable to do more than wish that all our ConLaw books came in one huge PDF.

While we’re rethinking the nature of textbooks, why don’t we go ahead and question whether acres of text is actually the most effective way to convey information in a memorable way?

I imagine that some subjects lend themselves to being taught through prose rather than other media, but I truly believe that if we allowed ourselves to think beyond prose, we could hit on some very interesting learning solutions. What does it mean for the next chapter of your microecon textbook to be in the form of a massively multiplayer online game? What happens when the next unit of orgo chem is a choose-your-own adventure story?

Maybe I’m being infantile in assuming that everything should, by necessity, be fun. Maybe some things are just unpleasant, and that’s just how it goes. Maybe. All I know is that while I love reading on my iPad, reading black text against a white screen hurts my eyes, at any font size, but I can legit read comics on the same device for hours.

Want to connect with Wires Crossed? Follow us @wires_crossed or email us at wirescrossedblog@gmail.com.

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Rebtel Is An International Student's Best Friend

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 01:14:29 -0400

by Emmanuel Quartey

Once in a while, something comes along that solves a painful problem so elegantly that it leaves you speechless. For me, the pain point was the intensely unpleasant process of using international phone cards to call my family in Ghana. This is the story of how Rebtel allowed me to call my family more often (and basically saved me from being disowned).

Before I discovered Rebtel, I used Zaptel to call home. Zaptel sells phone cards that allow you to make international calls. The problem with Zaptel is that there are a confusing number of card options, the rates are high, and the process of using the card is a multi-step ordeal. Enter Rebtel.

You can use Rebtel by downloading the application to your iPhone, Android, Blackberry or computer. You can also use it via landline. Once you have Rebtel downloaded, you can call international numbers for very low rates, and call other Rebtel users for free.

Rebtel connects to your phonebook, so you don’t have to punch numbers in by hand, and it also lets you know which numbers you can call for free.

When making a call with Rebtel, it gives you the (cheaper) option of whether to make the call over Wi-Fi, or whether to make it using local minutes.

I can’t emphasize enough what a pleasure it is to use the Rebtel interface. The “Account” section tells you exactly how much credit you have left and shows you your account history. Additionally, you can quickly check up on call rates to different countries, and Rebtel makes it extremely easy to add funds. Anyone who has had to suffer through Zaptel’s purchase forms understands how amazingly convenient this is.

You can top up your credit right from in-app, and if you run out while in the middle of a phone call, an automated voice springs up and walks you through adding more money using the touchpad. It’s fiendishly efficient, but when I’m in the middle of an important conversation with my mother, I appreciate how easy Rebtel makes it for me to keep talking.

Ever since I got Rebtel, I’ve been in better communication with family. It’s easy to put off the important phonecalls during the school year, but once you experience how painless Rebtel makes the experience of calling internationally, you’ll wonder why you ever resisted the idea of calling more regularly.

Reminder: call home. They’re eager to hear how you’re doing.

Want to connect with Wires Crossed? Follow us @wires_crossed or email us at wirescrossedblog@gmail.com.

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REVIEW: Yale Dining Fast Track App for Android

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:33:00 -0400

by Emmanuel Quartey

It took a few months, but Yale Dining finally released a Beta version of its Fast Track app for Android a few weeks ago. It’s not perfect, but it’s still worth adding to your app tray.

First, it’s worth pointing out that I wasn’t able to find the application in the Android Market. It seems that the only way to get the application is to download it directly from the Fast Track page on the Yale Dining website. This isn’t too much of an issue - the page clearly states that the Android app is still in Beta, so I expected it to be a little rough around the edges - but I did spend over thirty minutes searching the Android Market for different word combinations.

The app allows you to quickly pull up all kinds of useful information about dining at Yale, everything from hours of operation to detailed nutrition information. I wonder why it’s called the “Yale Dining Fast Track app,” though. Why isn’t it simply called the “Yale Dining app?” That’s how most people refer to it.

My favourite feature of the Fast Track app is the way it shows you the current seating capacity of the dining locations. It does this by looking at the number of people who have swiped into a dining hall within a certain period of time. Anyone who has tried organizing a dinner with a large group of people understands how super useful this is.

Overall, I found the app instinctive and easy to use. I have only three pet peeves. Firstly, it’s not immediately clear what the magnifying glass icon in the top right of the screen above does. It takes you to the contact page for the relevant dining location, but I associate that symbol with a “search” function, so I’m always surprised when I hit it and the app takes me to the contact page.

Secondly, the app lets you select a favourite dining location, but there’s no way to check what that selection is. The first app screen displays a list of all the dining hall locations. Touching the star in the top right corner marks one of the locations as a “favourite,” except there is nothing on the screen to indicate which location I’m supposed to have selected. It’s also unclear what marking a location as a “favourite” means, since making a selection doesn’t appear to change my experience in any way.

My final pet peeve is that the Eli Bucks and Order 2 Go buttons abruptly take you out of the app and open up external web pages. I think it would be better if I could do everything without having to leave the app.

One more cool thing. When on the Contact Page, touching the dining location address pulls it up on Google Maps, touching the phone number allows you to make a call straight from your phone, and touching the name of a Manager allows you to email them directly.

Want to connect with Wires Crossed? Follow us @wires_crossed or email us at wirescrossedblog@gmail.com.

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Yale Wiki Is The Most Comprehensive, Living Archive Of Yale Lore On The Internet

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:43:00 -0400

by Emmanuel Quartey

Remember EverythingUseful, the compilation of great-to-know tips for life at Yale? Well multiply that ten-fold and what you get is Yale Wiki, ” a centralized place to organize all Yale-related knowledge.”

As a senior, this is yet another thing I wish existed four years ago. It’s insanely useful, and the wiki format allows Yalies to help each other discover lifehacks that you didn’t even know you existed. Here’s the launch email:

Dear Yale,

Everything we know is now being compiled on Yale Wiki, a centralized place to organize all Yale-related knowledge. Since last semester’s release of EverythingUseful, our compilation of useful Yale tips, we’ve grown our site tenfold. Articles range from basic facts on Yale Dining and Where to Buy Things to one senior’s advice on Making the Most of Yale.

We believe that the way people share information is outdated. Our goal is to make life easier by pooling together knowledge that normally takes years to build up. Yale Wiki works just like Wikipedia in that anyone can add and edit articles (How to contribute), and that’s allowed our team to generate so much over the past month, for example:

Did you know that:

Everyone should get an unlimited meal plan.

Anyone can eat two lunches every day.

Atticus Bakery gives away its free leftover bread everyday at ~10pm

DocuPrint is much cheaper than TYCO especially for printing posters in bulk.

Yale provides free/discounted software/hardware repairs.

You can get YaleMobile on your iPhone.

Guides on how to:

Use and remove yourself from a panlist/mailing list.

Easily and cheaply use MetroNorth and other public transportation.

Get a driver’s license in Connecticut.

Back up your files and using Yale’s File Transfer service.

Print with Yale computers.

Get fit at Yale.

Lists on:

New Haven coffee shop hours

Student discounts for New Haven businesses

Lunch Buffets and Specials

Sushi and Late Night food restaurants

Links to dining hours, menus, everything else

All the links Yalies ever need

Have your own useful tips and advice? You can help by contributing articles. Anyone can log on with their NetID and start adding and editing content. You can also send us content directly by typing into the form at the bottom of this email (we want to make it as easy as possible!). Yale Wiki is a collaborative effort and still very much a work in progress. We’ve just scratched the surface of allYale-knowledge, and only with your contributions can it grow.

We are also working on a Freshman Handbook, which will condense all this knowledge into a booklet given to the Class of 2016. If you are interested in contributing content or helping with layout, please email us back — the Admissions Office is interested in possibly paying students to work on this project. Articles on basic information for prefrosh, like Things Prefrosh Need to Know, CampYale, Pre-Orientation, profiles on Residential Colleges, and Old Campus could use your contributions!

If you have trouble viewing or submitting this form, you can fill it out online: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEZzbnhNcFAyS2FJSndTdWdlWFNydV E6MQ

Want to connect with Wires Crossed? Follow us @wires_crossed or email us at wirescrossedblog@gmail.com.

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Help Redesign The Yale Library Website

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:24:41 -0400

by Emmanuel Quartey

photo credit: garden beth via photopin cc

The Yale Library is redesigning the homepage of its website, and it wants to know what you think. The survey literally takes less than 5 minutes to complete, and your suggestions will actually have a huge impact on the outcome.

Is there something about the site that has always bugged you? This is your chance to let them know so they can fix it!

Take the survey here.

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Optimize Yale Dining Website for Mobile

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:10:00 -0400

by Emmanuel Quartey

This is what happens when I try browsing the Yale Dining site on a Samsung Galaxy S II.

The central image awkwardly covers items at the bottom.

This is what happens when I try to bring up the list of links in the Quick links drop-down.

Again, the central image obscures important navigation items. I should also mention that the size and the placement of the Quick links button is sub-optimal, because unless you zoom in really closely, it’s very easy to tap the button above it by accident, which takes you to the Student Financial and Administrative Services website.

This is what it looks like on an iPad2. Womp.

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PROFILE: Richard Collins, Yale Summer Session Online Learning Program Manager

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 09:51:00 -0400

by Emmanuel Quartey

A few weeks ago, I discovered that Yale will be offering accredited online classes this summer. I met up with Richard Collins, Yale Summer Session’s new Online Learning Manager, to discuss how the University is approaching it’s first accredited online learning initiative.

Wires Crossed: Thanks for taking the time to talk to Wires Crossed, Rich. Could you begin by outlining the project?
Rich Collins: Yale Summer Session is an opportunity for Yalies to take classes for credit during the summer break, and for non-Yalies to be able to take courses with Yale professors. This summer, we’ll be offering nine YSS classes online. These classes are capped at 25 students, and are open to both Yalies and non-Yalies. The list of online classes is up on the Summer Session website, and applications are currently open for interested students. The applicants to the Online Yale Summer Session will undergo the same application process as applicants to our non-online learning classes.

WC: And could you tell us a little about your background?
RC: I have a background in Information Technology and higher education (13 years). I also have a Masters in Curriculum and Instructional Technology, and was Director of Online Learning at Springfield Technical Community College up in Massachusetts for the past four years. I’ve been heading Yale’s online learning program since February of this year. I’ve found that my varied skillset has been instrumental in administrating a high quality online program. Having the technical experience coupled with many years of working with faculty, allows me to serve the needs of the faculty and students.

Log-in screen.

WC: What is the motivation behind the initiative?
RC: The idea behind the Yale Summer Session Online Learning initiative is one of access. Students who cannot be on campus in the summer now have the opportunity to take courses with Yale professors. The University ran a pilot program last summer with two classes, and the positive response from that experiment gave us the confidence to expand the program this year.

WC: How were the nine classes chosen?
RC: The class selection was faculty driven. All nine instructors are extremely interested in exploring the possibilities of online learning, which is a critical requirement for a great class. We’ve worked closely with them to ensure that all their needs are met, and that they feel equipped to deliver a quality of instruction equal to what they could give in a physical classroom.

WC: So I’m a student taking a Yale online class this summer. What can I expect?
RC: Technically, all that is necessary is a computer (laptop, desktop), a quality Internet connection, and a headset with microphone attached. Each of the courses could be structured differently but the common components would be
required reading and written assignments; review of pre-recorded lectures, asynchronous threaded forums where students are required to contribute and respond to each other; and finally each week culminates in live-stream session(s) where all the members of class the meet up virtually to discuss the week’s material.

Above: a video tour of what an online course looks like.
WC: What distinguishes Yale Online Learning from other distance learning programs?
RC: First and most important, the online classes will be taught by Yale professors. Secondly, we have a heavy emphasis on live interaction (via web conferencing / virtual classroom technology), this allows for real time discussion of class topics that allows the class to come together as a group.

WC: Which Learning Management System will you be using to run the program?
RC: We’ll be using the Pearson Learning Studio, which is a web based platform for providing instructional content, organizing the forums and hosting the live session.

Screenshot of pre-recorded online lecture.

WC: Other schools have been experimenting with accredited online learning for much longer.

RC: In general, community colleges and public universities have really taken the lead in exploring online distance learning. This is because they’ve historically been tasked with multiple missions serving their surrounding communities, so they’ve had an incentive to explore ways to instruct people who have obligations that reduce their time on a campus.

WC: How are you measuring success?
RC: First, success will be found in the satisfaction of faculty and students with their online experience. Also, we’ll gauge demand by the number of people who sign up for the courses.

WC: What has been the most challenging thing about getting this off the ground?
RC: In general, there is the mistaken assumption that online classes are somehow easier than on-campus classes. Online classes are not “school-lite.” In fact, if conducted properly, an online class can actually be more demanding due to the nature of the medium. We’re going to be working hard at educating people about what distance learning education actually entails. In the end, our best advocates are going to be the students and the professors who actually go through the program. If we get it right, they’ll be spread the word and correct some misconceptions.

WC: Have you been working with the Open Yale Courses initiative?
RC: Two of our professors, Craig Wright and John Rogers, will be including media elements in their Summer Session Online Course that are also made available through the Open Yale Courses project.

WC: How do you see the program evolving?
RC: It’s early yet, but for the foreseeable future, we’ll assess the feedback from the summer programs, and make changes as appropriate. For now, we’re focused on ensuring a high-quality education and a great experience.

Screenshot of live session interface.

Have more questions about Yale’s accredited online learning initiative? Contact Rich at richard.collins@yale.edu.

Want to connect with Wires Crossed? Follow us @wires_crossed or email us at wirescrossedblog@gmail.com.

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Required Twitter Follows for Students: Political Science

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 23:14:00 -0400

By Henry Furman

Despite Mom’s gripes about technology, Twitter is a great source for news and education when sifting through the Times isn’t going to fit into your schedule. But it goes deeper than following CNN Breaking News. Here’s a few of our favorite accounts for aspiring presidents and lawyers.

1. @nprpolitics & @foxnewspolitics

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, stay one step ahead in the debate by keeping up with the other side. If you’re blood red or true blue, you might even get a few laughs out of what your opposition deems worthy of 140 characters.

2. @ChuckTodd

Mr. Todd is NBC’s White House Correspondent, usually keeping the tone light and humorous. He’s also known for consistently responding to questions from his followers, which often leads to a timeline packed full of witty banter.

3. @Rex7

We’re not really sure who deemed Rex Gradeless the voice for law school students, but the Saint Louis University Law School graduate seems to be very up to date on the latest important litigations.

4. @POLITICO

5. Politico is the prototypical 21st century political blog, with a long roster of contributors from all around the country. Disclaimer: Liberals will be comfortable with most of the tweets, conservatives will probably be disgruntled.

6. @ewerickson

Erick Erickson is the Editor-in-chief at RedState, the nation’s most prominent conservative blog. His tweets will be a nice compliment to Politico’s left-leaning tendencies.

7. @jeiseman

Yale’s own Jason Eiseman is a prolific law librarian and shares his knowledge with the world via Twitter. But watch out for the occasional football tweet from the avid New York Jets fan.

8. @mittromney & @newtgingrich & @ricksantorum

As the GOP Convention draws closer, keep up with the three Republican candidates as they campaign for a spot on the November ballot. But don’t be fooled by Newt Gingrich’s impressive following, apparently more than 80% of his followers were “purchased” through an agency specializing in Twitter promotion.

Want to get in touch with Wires Crossed? Shoot us a message @wires_crossed or wirescrossedblog@gmail.com!

Review: Goodreader

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:25:32 -0500

By Salvador Fernández

Now, you might be thinking, “We’ve already talked about Goodreader! This isn’t new.” Well, that was brief. Time to go in-depth!

As mentioned previously, Goodreader is an awesome PDF annotator on the iPad. I have used it for all my Cell Bio notes, especially because all the lecture slides are posted online before the lecture. If your lecture does this, I would highly suggest checking it out.

This is how I interpret scientific terms, with exclamation points and arrows.

That little toolbar on the side tells you what kind of tools you got. Add text, highlight, underline, squiggly underline, strikethrough, straight line, straight arrow, a rectangle, a circle, and freehand. The freehand is actually the best part, because you’re not limited to simple shapes. Scribble all over the screen, and you’re good! This works best for science classes, where you often have to draw diagrams or pictures for notes to make sense. If thee PDF is online, just upload it (when you use Safari to view the file, a tab on the top-right corner says “Open with Goodreader”) and add whatever randomness makes sense to you.

Another plus is the file management system. You can organize all those PDFs into folders within folders within folders. Now, those scribbly notes are saved for later, in a nice, organized way (as someone who is usually unorganized, believe when I say how awesome this part is).

And here’s a feature I recently discovered: you can back-up your annotated PDFs online! If you have an iPod touch or an iPhone, you can even download Goodreader for iPhone and view those uploaded annotations, or add your own!

While on the iPhone app, I tried it out. It took a little getting used to, simply due to the limitations from the smaller screen. It was neat, but it doesn’t really seem to be extremely useful (what I mean is: do not rely on the iPhone app as your main notetaker).

With all this awesomeness, it can be easy to forget that Goodreader is mainly a PDF reader. If you want to start from scratch, possibly because there is no PDF online for notes, you are SOL. While Goodreader includes the ability to create TXT files, you lose features such as freehand drawing. Aside from that, you can’t create a new, blank PDF. You probably have to switch to a different app for those other classes.

Also, syncing the PDFs is a hassle. I kept trying to figure out how to sync annotations made from the iPod to the iPad, to no avail. Complete pain in the neck.

But for Android owners, this is all completely irrelevant, because there is no Android app. C’mon Goodreader, Android owners (like myself) take notes too! We demand equality!

Last, but not least, the price. $4.99 for iPad, another $4.99 for iPhone/iPod. In terms of useful apps, this isn’t horrible. Although I would definitely question whether the iPhone app is worth it.

Goodreader is good at what it does, being a PDF reader/annotator. If you can get PDFs instead of buying a course packet, this app is definitely for you. If you want/have to have some sort of notebook, this app WILL NOT do that. I wouldn’t bother with the iPhone version, particularly with the annoying syncing, and Android owners are screwed.

I give it 7/10 wires, especially with all the help it’s given me in Cell Bio.

Want to get in touch with Wires Crossed? Shoot us a message @Wires_Crossed or wirescrossedblog@gmail.com.

It's Time to Rethink the Résumé

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:01:00 -0500

by Emmanuel Quartey

photo credit: scottkellum via photopin cc

Real talk. I think it’s time to rethink the role that the one-page résumé plays in the recruiting/job search process. Here is the problem: after many hours spent trying to distill a lifetime of experiences, passions and accomplishments into a single 8.5” x 11” sheet of paper, I feel like this document barely begins to adequately represent my interests or by abilities.

IN DEFENSE OF THE RÉSUMÉ

Before I lay out my critique, I should mention that I think that the act of composing a résumé can actually be a pretty instructive exercise.

Every update to my résumé is an opportunity to reflect on my life, evaluate the activities I’ve been involved in, and articulate what I learned from those experiences. It’s a process of curation, and my decisions about what to leave out say as much about me as what I choose to include.

It’s not the idea of the resumé that I have trouble with - it’s the idea that it should consist of only a single sheet of paper.

I AM MY TASTE GRAPH

Everyone understands that résumés don’t tell the entire story about a person. At best, they’re an introduction, after which cover letters, interviews and other tests help round out the story. The problem is that while I’m pretty happy with how my paper résumé looks right now, I still think that it barely begins to articulate my passions.

The “taste graph” is one of the ideas that came with the emergence of the social web. PandoDaily editor Sarah Lacy defines it as “The amalgamation of not only who you know, who you’ve worked with or who you may be related to, but what you like. The sum total of your aesthetic…” As someone who has a pretty active online presence, every blog post or tweet says something about me - a “taste graph” of my passions and interests. I wish there were a way for all that to count towards my résumé.

Take my Twitter. That’s where I go to share articles that resonate with me, and to pose questions to people I admire. Similarly, my Pinterest and my answers on Quora say a lot about the things I’m into.

photo credit: Graela via photopin cc

The reality is that recruiters often have the unenviable task of going through anywhere from hundreds to thousands of applications. They can’t reasonably be expected to go through the bazillion social media profiles of every applicant. But it is equally true that people’s taste graphs say an incredible amount, and it’s a shame that in many cases, all that metadata is completely absent from the evaluation process.

A PROPOSAL

Some companies have started asking applicants to include a link to their blog as part of the application requirements, but again, this approach is unsustainable. It would be cool if there were an easy, scaleable way to get a better sense of applicants’ interests through their social media activities. Let’s call this hypothetical service Resume.ly.

The way it would work is that as part of the application process, applicants could include links to their social media profiles. Resume.ly scrapes the profiles and creates a portrait of the applicants’ interests based on keywords and actions.

Resume.ly is imperfect (arguably, it unfairly favors people with a strong social media presence), but this is me thinking through a way to account for the fact that in aggregate, my digital life gives a pretty good idea about my interests, and I think those aspects of myself should somehow be reflected in my applications.

BABY STEPS

Until something like Resume.ly happens, this is what I’m doing to humanize my one page résumé.

Wires Crossed: Resume

At the very bottom, I’ve added two unconventional sections: People I admire and Favorite websites. Hopefully, this goes some way to make this a more human document that gives a better sense of the ideas I surround myself with.

Notes:

1) The next iteration of this will include my twitter handle. Maybe that piques someone’s interest enough to get a sense of my taste graph.

2) Skills comes close to the Resume.ly concept (it scrapes professional networks like Github and Stack Overflow), but it’s focused on technical jobs.

3) Some companies are doing away with one page résumés all together.

Want to connect with Wires Crossed? Follow us @wires_crossed or email us at wirescrossedblog@gmail.com.

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You Need to Check Out Yale's Facebook Timeline

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:26:21 -0500

by Emmanuel Quartey

If you haven’t gotten around to it yet, you really should take a look at the Yale Facebook Timeline. At first, it looks like any other Facebook fan page in the new timeline layout, but if you look to the right, you’ll see that the timeline encapsulates all of Yale’s 300 year history, all the way back to 1701, when the University was founded.

I love how the Timeline provides interesting tidbits of information about the University’s history and accomplishments. It’s really cool to be able to take a guided virtual tour of major moments in our past. Yale isn’t unique in using Timeline in this way, though - that other school has something similar.

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Foursquare at Yale

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 22:21:00 -0500

by Emmanuel Quartey

I finally got around to checking out Foursquare. This is what I found.

1) Deals and discounts: I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a number of local businesses are offering rewards for checking in on Foursquare. For instance, Box 63 offers two Foursquare specials, a Flash Special, where “You buy the meal, [Box] buy the drink!!” and a Friends Special, which gets you 50% off an appetizer.

Be mindful of the small print, though. The Flash Special is invalid on Saturdays, and the Friends Special is invalid on Fridays as well as Saturdays.

2) A replacement for the “Where is everyone?” text/email: Foursquare allows you to see where your friends have checked into, which is perfect for quickly deciding which parties to head to (or avoid). If you’re in an unfamiliar place, Foursquare suggests local venues your friends have visited.

3) Tips and comments: The comments section of checkin pages are a goldmine of information, even for venues you thought you already knew. For instance, a regular warns that Elm Bar is “CASH ONLY. Cards not accepted. ATM in the back if you need it.” and another FroyoWorld enthusiast advises that “If you want to get out of there for less than $4, fill in the cup less than halfway. Still plently of deliciousness.”

My favorite example of Foursquare use is by the Best Delegate blog. The blog is a resource for Model UN teams, and the blog organizers curated a handy Foursquare list of venues for delegates who attend the Yale Model United Nations and Security Council Simulation at Yale conferences. Each venue features a useful tip for a delegate looking to strategize with others , catch a quick meal or learn more about Yale.

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Yale's eBook Lending Program Is A Great Idea, But Room For Improvement

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 16:25:00 -0500

by Emmanuel Quartey

I should preface this by saying that when I first saw the posters announcing Yale’s eBook lending program, I cheered. I want the initiative to succeed. I really do. But after after trying it out, I’m sorry to say that it fell short of expectations.

BACKGROUND

The Yale University Library has partnered with OverDrive Media to allow Yalies to download eBooks and audio books onto their mobile devices. The way it works is that you first download the OverDrive app onto your phone or tablet. After this, you can browse for content through the library website and download it into the app or onto your Kindle.

It’s a great idea, but there is much to be desired about this specific implementation.

VERY LIMITED SELECTION OF TITLES

photo credit: nsub1 via photopin cc

The first deal-breaker is that the eBook lending library has a surprisingly limited selection of books. Maybe I’ve grown soft from the knowledge that Yale’s library system probably holds close to a bajillion books, but it seems bizarre to me that there are only 423 non-Public Domain titles in the eBook library. I got this number by adding up the available titles under each major category, but I would love for someone to go over my math (24 fiction Audiobooks, 16 non-fiction Audiobooks, 143 fiction eBooks and 240 non-fiction eBooks), because this just doesn’t seem right.

I’m taking Douglas Rogers’ “ANTH 436: The Production and Consumption of Culture” seminar this semester, which requires us to read a book a week. After conferring with my bank account, I realized that I couldn’t afford to purchase all of the required texts, so I was thankful for the OverDrive library, thinking it would save me the hassle of fighting over the single book on 24 hour reserve at Bass.

I quickly realized that none of the books I needed were on OverDrive.

While it’s understandable that obscure texts about culture theory might not be within the scope of the eBook library, there are other glaring omissions that simply confuse me. Why does the eBook library have neither the Steve Jobs biography nor any of the Harry Potter books in eBook or Audiobook form? These are popular books that people are eager to return to again and again. If I go to OverDrive and type in the title of the publishing event of the decade, and it comes up with nothing, that signals to me that little thought has been given to the range of title options available for download.

ARTIFICIAL SCARCITY

photo credit: >Rooners via photopin cc

After a frustrating hour of punching titles into the search box, I decided to browse the books that were available. I was pleasantly surprised that the eBook library had a bundle of the first four books in George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series (YES!) except the library only had 9 available copies, all of which had been checked out, and the wait-list was 5 people deep (What?).

I am so confused.

I’m confused because one of the explicit promises of eBooks is convenience. While I’m sure that there are elaborate rights issues that make it difficult to provide an unlimited number of virtual copies of these texts, from a consumer standpoint, it makes me want to pull my hair out. I thought the promise of digital texts was that we wouldn’t have to deal with the constraints that makes physical scarcity in libraries a sad reality. Why would we recreate those same frustrations online?

FRUSTRATING CHECKOUT RULES

photo credit: basykes via photopin cc

You can only check out a maximum of 5 items at a time. I don’t know how many physical books I’m allowed to check out of SML, but it’s a lot. A 5-title cap for eBooks is almost comical.

Some Kindle titles download with minimal fuss, but others display the notification: “Due to publisher restrictions, this book cannot be delivered wirelessly and must be downloaded and transferred via USB.” Why? Why???

CONCLUSION

The eBook library is a great idea in need of better execution. Here’re a few ideas for making it an invaluable resource for Yalies:

1) Stock more titles: People will only use the service if there is a reasonable chance that they’ll find the books they’re looking for. If they repeatedly fail to find what they’re looking for, they’ll stop coming, and they’ll tell their friends not to bother.

2) Stock titles that are relevant to my classes: I’m willing to bet that the majority of Yalies who check out the eBook library will come looking for eBook versions of the texts assigned to their classes. As a student, the most attractive thing about the eBook library is that it’ll save me money on textbooks.

3) No artificial scarcity: The eBook library is useless to me if it reproduces the same frustrations I experience whenever I need to check out a book from Bass library, and realize that someone has already checked it out.

4) No distinction between Public Domain and Non-Public Doman Titles: It took me forever to realize that the OverDrive library hosts an additional 15,000 titles which have been declared to be in the Public Domain, including Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckeberry Finn and H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. The Public Domain works are bundled into their own section, however, so they don’t show up in the default search. You essentially need to know that a book is in the Public Domain in advance, before you’ll be able to find it. It would be more convenient for all the texts to be in the same archive, and for the Public Domain texts to be indicated by a symbol.

Last words: an eBook library that actually served my needs would be a godsend. I would even be willing to pay a small sum for the convenience of being able to get eBook versions of all the books I needed, whenever I needed them.

I applaud the University Library for taking the first steps towards making eBook lending a reality. I’m very aware that there’re multiple forces acting on this technology, and that in the scuffle amongst publishers, libraries and middlemen, objectives become warped, and the final user experience suffers.

Still, I really do hope that Yale finds some way to help eBook lending realize its full potential on campus. I’m looking forward to trying out the next iteration of the project.

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