Mike's Digital Workspaces

What I do

I guess before I can really talk about my digital work spaces, I should give an overview of the types of work I do:

1) Right now, I'm a writing consultant at MSU's Writing Center 2) I'm also teaching myself the Adobe Suite and dabble in design projects (print and web) 3) I read and write constantly in both social and academic contexts.

The Writing Center

A lot of what I do in the writing center is traditional black-ink-on-white-paper sorts of stuff. Writers bring in their printed work, we sit at a workstation, discuss their concerns, canvas the text, discuss processes and techniques, etc.

But we also have an online writing center on SecondLife which is unique in many ways. The photo to the right is a screen capture of our virtual writing center's space.

Procedurally, writers email their work to us, we upload the paper to Twiddla, a webservice that creates unique URL's for shared documents of all sorts and facilitates collaborative e-meetings. Once uploaded, we meet in the virtual center, use one of the "projectors" in the center to project the paper and discuss writing either through voice-chat or standard text-chat depending on the writer's preference and technical capabilities.

There are lots of logistical issues associated with this sort of work. First, unlike web-based programs -- say, Twiddla or Gdocs -- SecondLife requires a downloaded interface and an account. This means first time users often spend a good chunk of their first session getting set up, getting to the virtual writing center (which involves getting 'tagged' by a moderator-type person) and creating their avatar.

In terms of affordances, there are many: see-ability (the ability to see the paper, as it is at that moment, together); hear-ability (voice chatting); malleability (making changes, tracking changes, taking back changes); identifi-ability (not a word, I know, but writer's are able to create their own identity, which I think is important in a personal process like writing).

Outside of SecondLife, we have other digital elements related to the writing center: an online scheduling system with consultant bios, a writing center blog, delicious libraries with all of our print materials, a Smartboard for facilitating presentations, and a Dropbox with all of our presentation materials.

Designing my future

Lately I've been trying to learn as much as possible about the Adobe Creative Suite. On the one hand, I think it's a very marketable skill (if the private sector ever calls my name). But I also think its valuable in terms of its semiotic affordances. The CS allows writer-designers to use a host of semiotic modes to create meaning. Before I got to MSU, I was almost strictly an alpha-numeric writer. Linear writing was my go-to. Now, though, I see the value in being multimodal, so I'm trying to incorporate new skills into my repertoire.

Here's a shot of my desktop today, complete with a open Illustrator and Photoshop project.

Generally speaking

When I'm doing the academia-thing, I still tend to work digitally. I read PDFs, take notes in Text Edit, search for said notes and keywords with Mac's Spotlight feature, collaborate on projects in GDocs, etc.

I like to use my Macbook when I'm doing linear-sorts of stuff: reading articles, writing text-based documents, etc. But when I'm doing more visual things, I like to use the Writing Center's Power Mac and it's massive screen which affords me a better view of each pixel. See photo below...

Of course I e-mail, but I do so either on my Macbook or on my Blackberry, depending on the context of the e-mail - more formal, lengthy e-mails usually get typed on my Macbook, while shorter replies are pecked on my phone because of the differences in "type-ability."

Common Denominator

If I were to characterize my digital work spaces succinctly, I'd say they're all (with the exception of SecondLife) designed to save my time, energy and sanity. SecondLife's the exception, probably because it's not the easiest route to sharing a document and discussing its elements. In reality, it'd probably be easier to just share a googledoc and chat about it, but, pedagogically, the writing center is committed to linking the identity of the writer to the writing they're doing.

I try not to incorporate new technologies just to add pizzazz to my life or to spice things up; instead, I only make changes when I think they're efficient and worthwhile in navigating the world (e.g. why I started learning the Adobe Suite).