1. art and entertainment
2. books and literature

UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA Faculty of Law Fall 2013
THE LAWS OF ROBOTICS An inquiry concerning the nature of law, technology and values
CML 4112B HOW TO (USE THE) BLOG professor ian kerr classes: thurdays 13:00-­‐15:50 (brooks 302) office hours: mondays 11:30-­‐12:20 (ftx 363) or by appointment iankerr@uottawa.ca The Robots Blog The robots blog is hosted at http://thelawsofrobotics2013.iankerr.ca. The blogspace has two purposes: (i) it is a place for asynchronous discussion and therefore a means of prompting ideas and discussion for an upcoming class. It is also a means of carrying on discussions commenced but not completed in prior classes. Sometimes our best ideas occur to us after the fact. Asynchronous discussion accommodates this human deficit; and (ii) it is the venue for posting class assignments. The details pertaining to the timing of this second form of posting are set out in the course syllabus. The robots blog is a WordPress blog. WordPress is a very popular blogging platform and you can find tons of information and user guides around the web via Google. To get you started there is a fantastic beginner’s user guide for WordPress here. Focus on the information under the headings “Posting in WordPress” and “WordPress for Beginners.” This document offers some basic information and advice about blogging and about how to use our robots blog. Blogging is a form of publication that makes broad dissemination simple and speedy. Like other forms of online digital content, there are several implications and a couple of things worth keeping in mind. First, the medium is ephemeral and should therefore not be used as a place to store your work. Instead, you should compose your blog posts using your usual word processing software, storing and backing it up as you would with all of your other important documents. Second, conversely, given the ease of copying and transmission, it is prudent to treat any online content that you post as “immortal.” In other words, the content that you post today may find itself in strange places years from now (long after you have forgotten about it). Moreover, because iankerr.ca has a high pagerank with Google, your blog posts will likely bubble to the top when people search for your name. This may be something you appreciate, or not, depending on a number of factors. This practical reality should inform the context, style and tone of your writing. Always be careful and thoughtful. Even though you can always 1 edit it or remove your posts from the site, there is no guarantee that someone else has not “mirrored” the content elsewhere. For these and other reasons, some of you may prefer to blog under a pseudonym. The default settings associate your posts with your username. Included below are instructions on how to change these default settings for pseudonymous blogging. While the use of a pseudonym makes it more difficult to locate the identity of an author, it is nowhere near true anonymity. For one thing, the administrator of this website has access to the actual username. In any event, bloggers using this site should always act with integrity, should treat interlocutors with respect, and understand that you are accountable for your words and deeds. How to log in You can login to the blog by following the link in the right hand menu of the blog under “login/admin”. Your username will be your uottawa email address without the @uottawa.ca (e.g. If your email is jmill053@uottawa.ca you will use jmill053 as your username all lowercase). You should login and change the password asap. (If you didn’t receive a password, contact jason@iankerr.ca) How to change your password Once you have logged in, you can change your password by following the menu item “profile.” Following that link will take you to the profile editor where you will be able to: change your password; change your displayed name (you can post anonymously); enter a description of yourself, and so on. Posting under a pseudonym You can post under a pseudonym by editing your profile settings. Typically when you post to the blog the default settings publish the post under your blog username (the username you log in with). However, to post under a pseudonym you will need to create a nickname and change your profile settings to publish under your nickname. Follow the “Your Profile” link to your profile page. In the profile page you will see that your username cannot be changed. Your nickname should be set to the same as your username. Change your nickname to whatever pseudonym you want to use in the blog. This will make it more difficult for other users to link your nickname to your username. 2 Below the nickname entry field you will see a “display name publicly as” selection box. Click it and select your nickname. Click save changes at the bottom of the web page. Post something short to test the settings. You definitely want to test this before posting something you wish had been posted under a pseudonym! (Remember to delete your test post!) How to post to the blog Again, this will get you up and posting in no time. It’s a link to the WordPress beginner’s guide on “posting” and it is very straightforward. Remember to use “tags” in your blog. Tags will help others get a quick idea of what your blog is about in broad strokes and will also help others find your work from clicking on the tags in the “tag cloud.” Check out some other blog posts to see what tags are being used. You can always add tags after you post to the blog. In fact, you can change anything you want even after the post is published. Commenting on a post You can comment on any post in the blog. However, you must be logged in to comment. This is to prevent outside (random) comments on blog postings and focus the discussion to other class members. You can also reply to comments left on your postings. All commenting is done at the bottom of each blog post, just scroll down and enter your comment once logged in. Questions? Let Jason know if you have any questions at all. He will be able to guide you in the right direction. You can reach him at jason@iankerr.ca. 3