Demonstration against French nuclear tests in 1995 in Paris. Wikipedia Commons.

This week I have been contemplating the line between personal and professional since my CMST 275 class online communication class is discussing the project of Total Recall, and the process of digitalizing all the memories and moments in one’s life. Although the authors of the text Your Life Uploaded, Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell both promote life-logging, the private act of storing digital memories for one's own consumption and enjoyment, our society is leaning toward life-blogging, a public presentation of our digital memories and life moments. If you are interested in the discussion regarding life–logging VS life–blogging, feel free to listen to the short podcast I made for my students on this topic, below.

This distinction between what is personal and what is professional is profound, and it is a timely discussion as well. For example, just last week many of us were reading about how some employers were asking for employee’s passwords to their social media accounts, in order to… Spy? Eavesdrop? Although the outcry was loud, and laws are now being passed against this intrusion of privacy, it does appear as if the assumed line between the personal and the professional is being actively renegotiated. Indeed, last year there was a great deal concern about a budding new practice where employers were asking potential employees for their credit report.

To control the lives of one's employees is not a new thing. Consider the great capitalist Henry Ford. Ford was ruthless in how he worked to control his workers personal, professional, and spiritual lives.  Indeed, there is always been an attempt by many employers to control their employees fully, to make one's personal life fall in line with the expectations of one's professional life. If you can control an employee, then you can better control how your company is "branded" out in the real world. After all, society doesn't want their K-12 teachers also moonlighting in strip joints. It just looks bad.  Businesses don't like to look bad.

But we have to decide how much power we, as employees, will give over to businesses and corporations.  This is not a one-sided negotiation, but very much a two-sided discussion. The recent issue regarding whether or not businesses can decide who can get what medications through Insurance, is another huge topic on the table. The issue? Birth control.  Besides being a religious debate, as many businesses are claiming the issue of morality within their decision-making, this debate has the potential to affect and encourage selective medical decision-making regarding what medication is good for whom.  It is bad enough that insurance companies make these medical decisions, individuals who have no medical degree, to right to "doctor," but we certainly do not need our employers making this decision as well. I'm not suggesting that denying birth control becomes an absolute slippery slope, but the door is open to then start denying other forms of medical care .... should this company or that person deem the care immoral. Since employees pay a good portion of their medical insurance coverage at most companies, it seems to me that this issue should remain private (between the patient and his or her doctor), not public (between the patient, the doctor, and the patient's employer).

Many of these issues come down to how we view public vs private spheres of living and life. As technology starts to erode many of our assumed moments of privacy, and private spaces, this situation also creates problems regarding private versus professional life and living.  In your opinion, where should this line between the personal and the professional be drawn? How much control should a company be allotted over its employees? I would be interested in your thoughts on this.

Cost Benefits of a Total Recall Project

Not long ago, I read a post over at ProfHacker, the Chronical's Blog, on the 200 rule: Templeton suggests that we should write 200 words a day, a reasonable commitment, in order to keep our writing chops going. Many instructors, myself included, tend to write less during the school year. For myself, I have three classes this term with approx. 90 students. Since two of these classes are English Comp courses, I will have my hands full reading many, many term papers. But I would like to create this new habit of 200 words a day, and today is the first day of the rest of my life!

In all three courses this term, I am teaching the theme of Lifelogging or Total Recall based on the book, Your Life Uploaded, by Gordon Bell. The premise of this text is simple: digitalize and record everything in your life you possible can, download all that information onto a hard drive or cloud service, create a data base so you can start to search and track your e-memories. In the process, you will become clutter free, have a better account of your life and doings, can help your weak bio-memory and so on. The idea is inspiring and I have worked at implementing it in my own life. When I teach this theme, however, I tend to get two objections to the process: 1) I do not want to have my life public, and 2) it is too expensive.  Let me discuss each objection to this process.

1) Your Life Public:

I do not want my life to be publicly broadcast on the Internet! This is a fair objection but one that tends to miss the clear distinction between "life-logging" and "life-blogging." Gordon Bell makes this distinction clear at the beginning of this text when he states:

Those who put their lives up on the web for others to view are called life bloggers (blog being short for "web log"). I am a life logger, not a life blogger. That is, I log my life into my e-memory. I may be old-fashioned, but it strikes me as foolish to publish too much, especially to an unrestricted audience. (P. 20)

I agree with Bell, although I likely have published much more to the web about myself than he would. Indeed, I tend to be a bit of both: Life logger and a life blogger. But you do not have to broadcast your life to life log. Most of us life log as it it, but we do it on a smaller level. we take the occasional picture, keep the occasional voice mail message. Keep old letters, emails, papers we wrote in school and so on. So the question is not so much "do you life-log," but to what degree do you life log and have you made the digital jump yet?

2) It costs too much.

Poppy cock (I always wanted to use that word in a post).  I have found that I saved money because of my Total Recall work.  Indeed, I got rid of so much clutter and physical stuff that I was able to move into a small space.  This cost less in rent, utilities and just about everything!  I saved so much money.  And I enjoy memories more because I see them more by looking at pictures displaying across my computer and TV!  Also, I can find my memories super fast.  Regardless, let us look at the basics needed to start a total recall project:

•  Purchase a scanner to scan pictures and documents you now have on paper.  You can use a smart phone application, such as Genius Scan PDF scanner, or a real scanner.   If you have a smart phone, you can get the genius scan, or a similar app for free, or you can spend as low as 100 for a portable scanner.  When I started my Total Recall project, I purchased a 100 dollar scanner and now I rely on my genius scan PDF scanner.  ($100 or less)

• A computer that allows you to somehow organize, tag, and start to sort your info.  This is the most expensive expense, but in today's world, in Western Society, a computer is often a devise you likely have.  If you cannot afford a new computer, consider a used one.  Cost varies.

• Next, you will need storage for your digital documents.  But the good news is that external hard drive storage is super cheap now!  Indeed, you can get one terabyte worth of storage for as low as $66.00 - amazing!

• Time.  At the start of your Total Recall Project, it will take your time.  You need to scan, sort, and go through your stuff.  This takes time.  When I did it I spend my nights watching TV and scanning/tagging documents. I had boxes upon boxes of journals, pictures and memories to scan.  It took about over 3 months to complete most of the work.  I still have some pictures to scan actually and I am thinking of going to a business that scans images. So put your own price on the time.

That is all you really need to start your  Total Recall project.  The rest, a smart phone, super computer, massive storage (over 1 TB), and so on, are all icing on the cake.  If you want to spurge, the best devise for your e-memory/life-logging work would be a smart phone.  These range from $99 - $400.0 depending on specials, and contracts with a phone company.  But what makes the smart phone great is that it can support amazing applications that integrate the collection of memories, images, scanning, and other life-logging needs.  It also makes collecting of your memories easy and spontaneous. Some of my favorite smart phone Apps include:

• Genius scan
• Evernote (web, desktop and mobile app)
• Momento 
• moesnotes
• reeldirector
• voice memos
• reQall
• social media applications (Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, and so on)
• food and health programs
• exercise programs
• headache trackers (I use iheadache for tracking my migraines)

And there are many more!  

Life Clearance

Cleaning out your life and your stuff is a bitch (excuse the language).  First, I had no idea how much stuff I had gathered over the years, and it is not all my stuff but also my folks (mom and Lee-Dad*) stuff and my grandparent's stuff from my Dad's side of the family, and Lillian's stuff!  Who is Lillian?  She was a lady who rented an apartment at a building I managed some 15+ years ago.  She died without family or a will.  the landlord was taking and selling all her stuff because she thought it was right (I mean the woman died and cost her 1/2 month's rent - can you hear the sarcasm I am presenting here?). I could not stand to let this woman's story dissapear and so I put her most important pictures and letters and documents in a box and I have been carrying it with me ever since - from Seattle, to Orlando, to Fort Launderdale and back to Seattle again.  What to do with it now that I am moving into a 30' RV?  Scan it.

The problem with scanning her stuff and my stuff is this - I do not have the time or the money to scan it all and so I must start to edit what will or will not be scanned.  Scanning takes time, a lot of time, and organization, tagging and note taking on each scan take's more time.  My 2 scanners (one does pictures well and the other documents) only scans one document at a time and so it is slow moving.  I looked into taking it all to a professional scanning place but these folks want .25 cents to one dollar a page to scan - I wrote that it was gouging and I still mean it.  I cannot help but link the gouging to a market that is consciously against the digital revolution - consider what is happening with books (Google books and the grief they are getting), magazines (my sister's industry is in great danger, which is a consistent worry to her), paper industries, music and so on.  Going digital and assisting in the transition means a loss of industry and jobs.  This is likely part of the resistance to medial records becoming digitalize even though it would save the medical industry millions.  No one wants to offer a service counter to their self interest - egoism and capitalism work well together.  The problem is that these folks are going to have to change to meet the reality of where our world is going.  Pragmatism should be adopted over egoism - learn how to adjust to the flow and adapt for capital potential.  Who the hell will bring all their back taxes in to be scanned for a buck a page?!  Not I!

Anyway, it is a huge problem and I hate the fact I must edit some of my life because I do not have time or money to scan everything - Lillian, what shall I do with you stuff?!  So far I have my mom's letters and journals scanned.  Working on my journals now and next I will do my mom's publications.  I have scanned almost 100 pictures three times a week and have, oh soooooo many more to go!  

Another issue, people do not want to offer us a fair price for our stuff.  Now I know I should not care and just get rid of it, but we need the extra money to get on the road!  One guy haggled about our kitchen table block.  It is solid wood, strong, holds wine glasses and, this is cool, can fold down for storage!  He offered five dollars.  I was like . . .WTH??  Listen, I am not expecting full price or even half prices but $5?  I can get more by giving it away to a charity and taking it off my taxes.  But the guy sounded like he was in a hard way financially and so I offered it to him for 10 dollars.  Then he haggled over whether it was "new looking."  New looking?  No . . . it used furniture.  He went from saying ok to 10, back to 5, down to 4.  I said: "have a good day".  I suspect we can easily get $30 for the piece, it is that nice.  I was trying to be nice to the guy but could not stand all the haggling.  I suggested he look in the free section of craig's list :) 

I am not looking to make a killing with what little furniture we have, but we could use a bit of start up cash to help us with the transition of our living space and afford some digital equipment for the adventure and my documenting it.  We are hoping for a better digital camera, we need a back up camera that will also serve as video recording/security for the rig (found one for $150.00), AC for the truck (or my animals will get ill in the summer time), mifi card from Verizon (almost $300 dollars - lord- without a 2 month commitment.  I would do the two year internet commitment but many of the places we will be working offer free wifi - I only need the card for in-between times.) I think all of this is will be accomplished with the selling of our items and the other savings I have.  We will soon have an open house sale! 

That is it for the moment.  I must go back to scanning.  The rest of my week will be spent doing jury duty and so I will be document, what I can, of that! 

R

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*Lee-Dad is my step father who passed on this last July 1st, 2009.  My mom died in 2001, in NYC.  I refer to my biological dad, who is still in my life, as Fred-Dad so to avoid any confusion!  Fred-Dad is alive and well and, I hope, reading this blog!  LOL