Today’s Podcast

Today’s word, Potemkin, is an entertaining political term. I have seen it on Boingboing.net many times. Recently it appeared in a post about the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin was an 18th century Russian military officer and politician. Who was rumored to have built fake villages along the banks of the Dnieper river in order to impress Empress Catherine II. Potemkin, who had recently conquered the area, wanted to impress Catherine II by demonstrating the value of the area he had captured by showing off a wonderful village.

Today the term potemkin village or just potemkin is used to describe a staged, deceptive or hollow event. Particularly hollow or deceptive political maneuverings.

That brings us to the governator. According to SFGate.com this past May the governor went out to San Jose and filled in a pot hole to demonstrate to the citizens of California the state’s increased spending on transportation projects. As you probably guessed the pot hole was dug by a city crew only a few hours earlier. While it may not be a lie is sure is dirty.

Another BoingBoing post using potemkin directs our attention to stickers you can put on your SUV to make them look like you have been off-roading.

In Potemkin’s defense modern scholars doubt he had a village built. It is more likely he had the villages spruced up a bit and may have passed off a few unfinished projects as finished.

Technorati Tags: arnold | governator | Schwarzenegger | Grigori | Aleksandrovich | potemkin | village |

Today we have a quote sent in by a listener. It is a quote I really appreciate because I am guilty of the behavior described. The words are from John Kenneth Galbraith a Canadian economist just like me.
Here is the quote:

Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
-John Kenneth Galbraith

I doubt I am the only soul guilty of this tendency. Hopefully this quote will make us more aware of our stubbornness and more willing to forego the proof.

As I write this I am reminded of an entertaining Galbarith story I heard earlier this year. Galbraith earned is undergraduate degree from a small Canadian agricultural school that he described as “probably the worst college in the English-speaking world.” He went on to be one of the most influential economists of the 20th century. He helped President Roosevelt manage the war economy, advised Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, wrote for Fortune magazine and was a Harvard professor. Later in his career he apologized to his alma mater for his derogatory comment saying he was wrong, Arkansas A & M is the worst school in the English speaking world. He just wasn’t aware at the time Arkansas was teaching in English. That is harsh.

I would like to thank Dave Goodman for sending me those fine words from from Dr. Galbraith. Dave has an interesting blog over at DKGoodman.com/blog.html. He also has a nice sidebar full of quotes and several words of the day.

I apologize for the shortage of posts this week I am experiencing some distracting technical difficulties.

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Another neologism for today. The word is captology. Captology is an emerging field of study related to the design, theory, and analysis of persuasive, not pervasive, technologies. It is the study of technologies that change attitudes and encourage behaviors instead of forcing behaviors. Captology lies at the intersection of computers and the art and science of persuasion. It is a sub-discipline of human factors or (HCI) human computer interaction. It is the study of technologies that change attitudes and encourage behaviors instead of forcing behaviors.

It is such a new discipline a Google search for captology barely returns 30,000 result pages. Wikipedia’s entry only offers four lines on the subject. But I think it will be an increasingly important discipline.
Some examples of the application of the discipline include:

• Baby Think It Over- A computer-doll that simulates how hard it is to care for a baby. It cries at irregular intervals and registers certain acts of abuse.
• Hygeine Guard- A sensor system to be placed in bathrooms at hospitals and restaurants. The systems records when employees use the bathroom and whether or not they spend time by the sink before exiting. It doesn’t force you to wash your hands. It persuades or motivates you to wash your hands. Or at least stand around the sink for awhile
• Nagscreens in shareware/donationware- This is the example we are probably most familiar with. The screens that pop up try to persuade you to buy or contribute to their cause. These screens often have messages like “Keep this software free by donating.”

On the web there are countless examples for captologists to study. It seems that every podcast that doesn’t run ads in their podcasts has a button for donating. In fact Today’s Podcast has such a button. I should probably study a little captology because no one has ever donated.

UPDATE (09/02/05): Reading through Standford’s credibility site I learned the etymology of captology. “The term captology is based on the acronym: Computers As Persuasive Technology.”

To learn more about captology you can visit the leading institute for captology- the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab. Or you can check out B.J. Fogg’s book

Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do. Fogg is the leading thinker in the field of captology and website credibility. He is on the faculty at Stanford.

Technorati Tags: persuasive | bjfogg | b | j | Fogg | captology | podcast | Stanford | Persuasive | Technology | Lab |

Today’s word, wonk, was spotted at boingboing.net.

The dictionary describes the noun wonk as an excessively studious student, a nerd or a geek. The modern connotation is more nuanced. Today wonk usually connotes a someone well versed or at least very interested in the details and rules.
The BoingBoing post describes Ben Hammersley as an RSS wonk- someone who know a great deal about the inner working and details of RSS. I suspect Dave Winer is the ultimate RSS wonk. Dave wrote the specs for RSS and along with Adam Curry created podcasting.

Typically I find the word policy very close to the word wonk. A policy wonk is person who closely follows government policy. Wonkette.com is a blog by a female, hence the -ette suffix, washington insider. If you ever think you know what is going on in Washington and the U.S. government visit the Wonkette for an alarming look at how much goes on behind the scenes.

The etymology of wonk is murky to say the least. According to Wikipedia its origin may be the reversal of the word know and was used in the British Navy to refer to an inexperienced sailor. I bet it was derogatory.

Today’s Podcast needs your help and a new name. Please send your suggestions to scott at todays podcast.com

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Today we have a great new word that is both a neologism because you won’t find it in a dictionary and it is a portmanteau because it is a combination of two other words. It is screencast.A screencast is a recording of a computer screen. It is usually narrated. Screencasts are often used to explain or demonstrate a software feature. For example if you want to see how I record my podcast I there is a link to a screencast of me recording this podcast.If you want to see a more interesting screencast check out Jon Udell’s screencast of the history of the Wikipedia article on Heavy Metal Umlauts. By the way Jon coined the term screencast just last year and the umlaut is the two little dots above a vowel. Jon’s screencast is wonderful. It demonstrates how articles in Wikipedia grow and change. The light hearted subject of heavy metal umlauts is also very entertaining. Fans of Spinal Tap will particularly appreciate the screencast and the article even though they don’t go to eleven.I used the freeware Windows application Wink to create my screencast. The result is a Flash file which seems to the screencast file format of choice. If you would like create your own screencast check out Jon’s Screencast How To over at O’reilly.I am still looking for a more descriptive name for Today’s Podcast. Please help me with some suggestions.