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September 28, 2004

Remember the Weblog Directories

This is post is a reminder to webmasters. When the design changes went into effect, the weblog directories were removed from the page to streamline the content. This contribution to simplicity turned out to have negative effects on search engines and directory listings. To fix this problem several links are going to be placed at the bottom of this index page. Right now, the major directories have been added including Technorati, Blogshares, Blogstreet, and Blogwise. Later today and tomorrow, the rest will be added. Webmasters have to remember to keep updating the background search engine information for pages, because as the popularity of organizations having web pages increase the visibility of all web pages decreases.

115 words posted by nels lindahl at 03:56 AM | Copyright | Reader Comments (0)
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September 16, 2004

Photograph of civic virtue assignment

Ideas like civil society, civic engagement, and civility all have definitive meaning in academic literature. Each of these ideas might have somewhat different meanings depending on which author is describing them. One of the most common questions the Civic Honors Project sounds like, “How do you take pictures of people helping other people in the community.”

Being able to get out a camera and take a photograph of civic virtue is actually a very difficult task. Next time you are talking to an academic about civil society, civic engagement, or civility suggest a class assignment for students to describe what the perfect photograph would look like. Some students will have no problem describing what civil society, civic engagement, or civility looks like, while other students will find the assignment very difficult.

One example of a potential photograph is of Graduation with Civic Honors. Next may when the first class graduates with civic honors from Johnson County Community College is an example of a perfect opportunity to take a picture. All of the students who received civic honors will have spent time throughout the last working to increase the level of civic engagement they are capable of while using reflective thought to define the current state of civility.

Taking a picture of civic virtue is a very challenging assignment for students of civil society, civic engagement, or civility. Describing what a photograph of civic virtue would look like is probably a more reasonable assignment for academics. The important part of this assignment is providing the lesson to students of what it is like to try to visual the ideas of civil society, civic engagement, or civility in a very real concrete way. Application of ideas to society is the most important way to make sure academics discussion lives up to a certain degree of validity.

304 words posted by nels lindahl at 11:51 PM | Copyright | Reader Comments (0)
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September 15, 2004

Election Politics: What about Civic Engagement?

The history of debate and discussion about civic engagement is rich with academic fervor and insightful observations. Part of advocating for the increase of civic engagement in society is paying attention to popular media discussion. Every four years the news cycles get shorter and the media focuses on the major issues of the day. Where is the discussion about civic engagement during this election? In general, the popular consensus is that the issue is not political. Either political party at anytime can reference civic engagement, civil society, or graduation with civic honors.

Advocates who use online public forms for interactive dialogue and discussion have to recognize that to achieve lasting change keeping the issue active is important. These same advocates can expect that structurally every four years election politics will generate a significant degree of media attention. Organizations exist that are interested in studying, promoting, or facilitating dialogue to increase civic engagement. This dialogue has to focus on the practical application of real world solutions. Graduation with civic honors is an example of how to energize, mobilize, and provide recognition for a new generation of society.

Modern media is not going to change style or focus in the near future. Politicians are not going to be campaigning on the virtues of civility. Politicians focus on programs that resonate with voters. Fortunately, building stronger communities and helping increase civic engagement in society are positive issues with voters.

The debate about civic engagement has to transition form being a dialogue driven discussion of civil society. Dialogue is important to helping promote understanding. Thinking about election politics as providing a possibility for action is a positive step forward. Right now to strengthen the social fabric, advocates have to focus on legislative solutions that can resonate with politicians during periods of election politics. Debating the virtues of civility does not fund implementation of programs to increase civic engagement.

314 words posted by nels lindahl at 10:03 PM | Copyright | Reader Comments (0)
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September 13, 2004

New Webpage Design

The Civic Honors Project online presence has changed again. This is the new color scheme that the project will be using. Changing the focus to content and driving information to the people about the graduation with civic honors project. Change is a part of working toward the future.

48 words posted by nels lindahl at 10:05 PM | Copyright | Reader Comments (0)
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September 03, 2004

Rough Draft Update

A new draft of the Nels Lindahl original book, “Civic Honors: The Possibilities of Community,” will be available shortly. A rough draft will be made available in the form of an Adobe PDF file to preserve formatting. It has been over a year since the first online publication and several new and interesting ideas have been added to the chapters. The goral is to eventually have an interactive version of the book online to facilitate encouraging civic engagement while providing background information on why civil society is important to building a stronger social fabric for the future of society.

99 words posted by nels lindahl at 08:15 AM | Copyright | Reader Comments (0)
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The Civic Honors Project

Right now things are changing for the Civic Honors Project. If you have been following along you know that Johnson County Community College is currently starting a pilot program to introduce graduation with civic honors to the state of Kansas. This is good news and will provide first hand accounts of what graduation with civic honors means to people. Over the course of the next academic year the Civic Honors Project will be working to achieve several measurable results.

1. Develop and implement an online civic attitudes test.
2. Interview actual graduation with civic honors participants.
3. Interview members of the general public about graduation with civic honors.
4. Interview academics about the future potential directions online civic engagement advocacy could take.

Implementing these simply measures will help define how graduation with civic honors is perceived by the public mind. This is the first step in providing a template for broad online advocacy of civic engagement through discourse and public discussion.

161 words posted by nels lindahl at 06:49 AM | Copyright | Reader Comments (0)
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