Discussion: View Thread

Dear Colleagues,

There have been many repeated posts of prior posts in recent issues
of Mg-Ed-Dv. One or two items have been repeated over a dozen times,
sometimes two or three times in the same post!

May I request that members of this list do not carelessly repost
earlier messages? Careful editing will make the Internet a better
place to live.

One of the great email irritations is careless posting to lists that
are better served by selective editorial attention.

In the old days, when we wrote on paper or pressed cuneiform wedges
into clay, we used a technology called "quoting."

A quote was a selective passage taken from a relevant text and
applied to the topic or theme at hand.

Back in the Temple of Uruk, the head scribe instructed us on how to
do this. We were taught to take a passage of text, surrounding it
with the little double-wedge signs of quotation. The scribe
instructed us to do this, "so that my name should be established for
distant days and never fall into oblivion, so that my praise should
be spread throughout the Land, and my glory should be proclaimed in
the foreign lands."

Then we would bake the tablet and hand it to a runner who would take
it on the post-road that served as a pre-electronic Internet located
in the linked highway nodes, river routes, oases, and cities of our
physical world. (The physical world involved a kind of reality that
existed before virtual reality.)

In modern academic world, these functions happen using electrons to
transfer messages at the speed of light. Nevertheless, the habits
once instilled by the temple scribes and carried forward into the
eras of papyrus and parchment would do well here.

We are still close to the era when Thomas Sprat of the Royal Society
wrote that good scientific and scholarly communication required, "a
close, naked, natural way of speaking; positive expressions; clear
senses; a native easiness."

Needless clutter defeats the plain language and clarity we ought to encourage.

Those who write carefully are more widely read and far more useful
than those who litter notes with carelessly repeated headers,
footers, forwarding arrows, and nested passages of clutter.

Those who write carefully will join the great Sumerian who
proclaimed, "Wherever I look to, there I go; wherever my heart
desires, I reach. By the life of my father holy Lugalbanda, and Nanna
the king of heaven and earth, I swear that the words written on my
tablet are true!"

Best regards,

Ken Friedman



The Sumerians also had careless forwards and reposts. This is my
favorites, found in level 3 of the Suen excavations,

>> I entered the E-kic-nujal like a mountain
>> kid hurrying to its habitation, when Utu spreads
>> broad daylight over the countryside. I filled
>> with abundance the temple of Suen, a cow-pen
>> which yields plenty of fat. I had oxen slaughtered
>> there; I had sheep lavishly butchered there. I had
>> cem and ala drums resound there and caused tigi
>> drums play there sweetly. I, Culgi, who makes
>> everything abundant, presented food-offerings there
>> and, like a lion, spreading fearsomeness from the royal
>> offering-place, I bent down and bathed in flowing water;
>> I knelt down and feasted in the E-gal-mah of Ninegal.




--

Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Technology and Knowledge Management
Norwegian School of Management

Visiting Professor
Advanced Research Institute
School of Art and Design
Staffordshire University

Dear Ken,

My bandwidth is cheaper than my time.

Perhaps some of us haven't set our browsers to
display the new message above the old, though I
haven't seen this on this list.

Best wishes,
Romie

--- Ken Friedman <ken.friedman@bi.no> wrote:
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> There have been many repeated posts of prior
> posts in recent issues
> of Mg-Ed-Dv. One or two items have been
> repeated over a dozen times,
> sometimes two or three times in the same post!
>
> May I request that members of this list do not
> carelessly repost
> earlier messages? Careful editing will make the
> Internet a better
> place to live.
>
> One of the great email irritations is careless
> posting to lists that
> are better served by selective editorial
> attention.
>
> In the old days, when we wrote on paper or
> pressed cuneiform wedges
> into clay, we used a technology called
> "quoting."
>
> A quote was a selective passage taken from a
> relevant text and
> applied to the topic or theme at hand.
>
> Back in the Temple of Uruk, the head scribe
> instructed us on how to
> do this. We were taught to take a passage of
> text, surrounding it
> with the little double-wedge signs of
> quotation. The scribe
> instructed us to do this, "so that my name
> should be established for
> distant days and never fall into oblivion, so
> that my praise should
> be spread throughout the Land, and my glory
> should be proclaimed in
> the foreign lands."
>
> Then we would bake the tablet and hand it to a
> runner who would take
> it on the post-road that served as a
> pre-electronic Internet located
> in the linked highway nodes, river routes,
> oases, and cities of our
> physical world. (The physical world involved a
> kind of reality that
> existed before virtual reality.)
>
> In modern academic world, these functions
> happen using electrons to
> transfer messages at the speed of light.
> Nevertheless, the habits
> once instilled by the temple scribes and
> carried forward into the
> eras of papyrus and parchment would do well
> here.
>
> We are still close to the era when Thomas Sprat
> of the Royal Society
> wrote that good scientific and scholarly
> communication required, "a
> close, naked, natural way of speaking; positive
> expressions; clear
> senses; a native easiness."
>
> Needless clutter defeats the plain language and
> clarity we ought to encourage.
>
> Those who write carefully are more widely read
> and far more useful
> than those who litter notes with carelessly
> repeated headers,
> footers, forwarding arrows, and nested passages
> of clutter.
>
> Those who write carefully will join the great
> Sumerian who
> proclaimed, "Wherever I look to, there I go;
> wherever my heart
> desires, I reach. By the life of my father holy
> Lugalbanda, and Nanna
> the king of heaven and earth, I swear that the
> words written on my
> tablet are true!"
>
> Best regards,
>
> Ken Friedman
>
>
>
> The Sumerians also had careless forwards and
> reposts. This is my
> favorites, found in level 3 of the Suen
> excavations,
>
> >> I entered the E-kic-nujal like a mountain
> >> kid hurrying to its habitation, when Utu
> spreads
> >> broad daylight over the countryside. I
> filled
> >> with abundance the temple of Suen, a
> cow-pen
> >> which yields plenty of fat. I had oxen
> slaughtered
> >> there; I had sheep lavishly butchered
> there. I had
> >> cem and ala drums resound there and caused
> tigi
> >> drums play there sweetly. I, Culgi, who
> makes
> >> everything abundant, presented
> food-offerings there
> >> and, like a lion, spreading fearsomeness
> from the royal
> >> offering-place, I bent down and bathed in
> flowing water;
> >> I knelt down and feasted in the E-gal-mah
> of Ninegal.
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic
> Design
> Department of Technology and Knowledge
> Management
> Norwegian School of Management
>
> Visiting Professor
> Advanced Research Institute
> School of Art and Design
> Staffordshire University


=====
Prof. Romie F. Littrell, Ph.D.
Department of Managaement
Fh-Aalen University of Applied Sciences
Beethovenstrasse Nr. 1
D-73430 Aalen
Germany
Fax: (49)7361-576-330

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