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What a feeling
I absolutely love this feeling of freedom. No obligations except to myself means no stress. What a wonderful feeling. Only problem is that my money runs short.
BlogTalk paper on line
Finally, after a few days of camping and spending more days at my parents' place since the rain wouldn't stop falling, I'm back on line and able to publish my BT-paper: Understanding Weblogs: a communicative perspective.
Abstract This research investigates what form of communication is made possible through the weblog and what its uses are for the future. Taking Habermas’ theory, it will be investigated whether blogs offer a platform for what he calls the ‘ideal speech situation’. Conditions for the ideal speech situation are that everyone has equal access to the communication, that there are no power differences between the participants and that the participants act truthfully towards each other. To answer the question whether weblogs can satisfy these conditions, the framework of communication capacities of Van Dijk (1999) will be used and extended with two concepts. Based on these communication capacities it can be concluded that weblogs do offer a platform for the ideal speech situation. Future use of weblogs lie in the three formal world perspectives Habermas distinguishes: self-expression (subjective), sharing knowledge (objective) and social criticism (inter-subjective). From these three domains networks will emerge from people with shared interests, who will reinforce social interaction by using the weblog as a communication hub, a fixed marker on the internet where multiple communication channels for dialogue will be offered. (N.B.: this paper is a summarized translation of my Masters Thesis for the University of Twente, The Netherlands, with the title: Een goed gesprek onder miljoenen ogen: het weblog als knooppunt voor on line interactie.)
All I can say is enjoy reading it and let's start a discourse!
Catching up on some reading.
After graduating I promised myself a couple of weeks of relaxation. The last year I didnt have much time and space in my head to read. These weeks it's time to catch up with my reading. I'm only allowed to read easy and fun things, although it was very tempting to buy a book from Popper yesterday when I was in the bookstore. But I managed to convince myself to stick to my promiss to myself. Only fiction for now. I 
just finished reading The Postman by David Brin. It's an older book, written in 1985, but since it's science fiction that doesn't matter much. It's an easy read, but nonetheless very entertaining. Brin sort of makes an idea experiment what would happen to mankind when everything we're used to have is destroyed; especially when there is no electricity to use all the machines we're so comfortably with. The result is total chaos and primitive war. I love books that speculate about those things. Brin does a good job, but twenty years later there would be some things descibed quit differently I think. For instance the explanation why nobody has managed to get airplanes running. The lack of fuel (impossible to obtain oil) is never mentioned. With all discussions going on about the rapidly shrinking oil supply this was something I missed in the book. Still a recommendation. Next in line: Studio zes, Liza Marklund (given by a friend, in Dutch)
Now what?
OK, I've got a degree. What does that mean? Does this mean I can find a better job than most people? So now I'm a communication expert, right. Let's see what companies are looking for at the moment in the field of communication. Oh, when I select 'communication' some companies seem to believe that I'll probably be able to be a software engineer. Uhm, I'm a communication scientist, anyone heard of? Oh, here's a company that is looking for a communication advisor. Oops, sorry, I don't have five years of working experience in the field. I just recieved my degree. Maybe I should aim less high, looking for jobs that don't require an university degree. Let's see....Ah, still in the software business. Nope! But here's another frightening word: marketing specialist. Most times I pronounced in the past the M-word it's not in a positive sense. I don't think I was brought to this world to sell other peoples business.
What am I looking for? On the one hand I have a vision, on the other a total lack of experience. Where can I find a job where I can learn about the real world and in the mean time don't get brainwashed by that same world and lose my vision? Is this Utopia or is it within reach?
Drama in Beslan
Just half an hour ago I put on the TV for my daily portion of news. I was confronted with the filming of the liberation of the children and others that have been held hostage at a school in Russia since wednesday. While listening to reporters on the scene you could hear gunfire and explosions. It brought me to tears actually. It's events like this in the world that make me want to crawl under my bed and ignore the evil world around me...
