listening to repeating

I’ve been reading up on biographical data as of late, something I never thought I would do in order to write a dissertation chapter.  Dates and numbers galore.

For now, the bio work is on Burroughs. Still, it’s all rather subjective when compared to the graphed-out quanta-time-space I came across when Googling “burroughs joan vollmer” just a few moments ago:

Sometimes it’s just too difficult NOT to jump on the Google praisewagon.  I consumed a good part of my day reading biography and then compiling my own hand-written timeline of Burroughs-related events.   From Word Virus, I even learned about the “high-colonic enema” called “The Cascade” and its Burroughs-coined motto, “Well done!  thou true and faithful servant!” (10).

I was feeling productive.  And even rewarded. A product hand-written, not typed, in ink, not ones and zeroes.  Then I discover these Google timelines and the  “alternative view” project.

Well, before I begin hand-writing and inking away with Virginia Woolf:

I might as well get more personal:

Slowly but surely, it seems as if scrolling the web will become a chore for the average reader.   That said, this entry sure is long…

I’m in the process of looking for any research on how “ALT” attributes and metadata, generally speaking, influence the search for images and video online. Particularly, I’m interested in the digitization of race, gender, and sexuality and how often they are included in tags.

If you know of any such research, then let me know. I’d like to use it for the technoculture studies course I’m teaching in the fall, as well as for facilitating some undergraduate research. What’s more, I can’t find much, at least in relation to race, gender, or sexuality, and I’m honestly surprised. Maybe, ironically enough, I’m using the wrong search terms?

Here’s more on meta tags and searching, and below is a video (from Google), featuring Matt Cutts, on “ALT” attributes and search optimization: