Chikara @chikara@qoto.org

QOTO + SCIENTIFIC METHOD
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Oxford defines the scientific method as a process of
• systematic observation, and
• measurements, and
• experiments
This process also involves the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.
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QOTO defines itself as having something to do with science, so even the most clumsy attempt to use the scientific method should have been perceived as familiar-- easily recognized -- in a QOTO post, right?
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Wrong. That's not what happened when I tried to ask three questions about what I mistakenly construed as a simple subject.
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It took time, effort and thought to draft and post specific, non-controversial, and "scientific" questions about three of the four sections of the Mastodon Covenant.
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This experiment engendered nothing good, only lessons learned the hard way -- see for example https://qoto.org/web/statuses/103195910442277853
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Significant fractions of the
posts are word-for-word
identical ... which at best
is unnecessary repetition
and at worst looks like
you are deliberately
spamming the timeline with
copypasta.
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Yes indeed, I was deliberate in trying to make "significant fractions of the posts ... word-for-word identical."
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If the point of feedback was to discourage me from doing anything like this in a QOTO context going forward, then it worked in a way. I am discouraged. This is bad for me, but it's also bad, perhaps worse for QOTO going forward.
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RESTATEMENT: I formulated a hypothesis that the Mastodon Covenant identifies useful, credible factors for evaluating what QOTO is and how it compares with other Mastodon instances. I tested the hypothesis, and the resulting data set caused me to modify my thinking.
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We learn by doing. I did learn something when I questioned @freemo@goto.org. And also, I did learn when @khird@quoto.org volunteered to help me in the process of teaching myself
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

QOTO + SCIENTIFIC METHOD
.
Oxford defines the scientific method as a process of
• systematic observation, and
• measurements, and
• experiments
This process also involves the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.
.
QOTO defines itself as having something to do with science, so even the most clumsy attempt to use the scientific method should have been perceived as familiar-- easily recognized -- in a QOTO post, right?
.
Wrong. That's not what happened when I tried to ask three questions about what I mistakenly construed as a simple subject.
.
It took time, effort and thought to draft and post specific, non-controversial, and "scientific" questions about three of the four sections of the Mastodon Covenant.
.
This experiment engendered nothing good, only lessons learned the hard way -- see for example https://qoto.org/web/statuses/103195910442277853
.
Significant fractions of the
posts are word-for-word
identical ... which at best
is unnecessary repetition
and at worst looks like
you are deliberately
spamming the timeline with
copypasta.
.
Yes indeed, I was deliberate in trying to make "significant fractions of the posts ... word-for-word identical."
.
If the point of feedback was to discourage me from doing anything like this in a QOTO context going forward, then it worked in a way. I am discouraged. This is bad for me, but it's also bad, perhaps worse for QOTO going forward.
.
RESTATEMENT: I formulated a hypothesis that the Mastodon Covenant identifies useful, credible factors for evaluating what QOTO is and how it compares with other Mastodon instances. I tested the hypothesis, and the resulting data set caused me to modify my thinking.
.
We learn by doing. I did learn something when I questioned @freemo@goto.org. And also, I did learn when @khird@quoto.org volunteered to help me in the process of teaching myself
.
QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

@khird Aha, I figured out how to do what you did -- sorta.
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Until I saw your list, I didn't imagine wanting to do what you did.
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What I've done here is inelegant, not quite as narrow as what you did -- see
https://mastodon.social/web/statuses/103167154407899548

So, I still need to ask for your help so that I can create the same kind of list you have made.

If you choose not to help me, fine. I will try to find someone else to teach me how to do this.
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?
Copy @ freemo

@freemo Please confirm that Quey has a back-up strategy to ensure that users don't lose everything in case of an emergency or shutting down. -- see §2 https://joinmastodon.org/covenant
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It is important for users to
have the confidence that a
trip over the power cable or
a rogue bit flip will not erase
all of their data. Having a
backup strategy is a basic
necessity of providing a
public service
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Humblr did disappear this month. We don't know what happened, but the result is very much like the explicit circumstances contemplated in §2 -- an event "erase[d] all of [our] data."
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More significant is the fact that Humblr's relationships vanished without notice
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Humblr was a social media site; and this means that Humblr was about more than just an archive of images and words.
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Humblr was about people and the links between us which were forged slowly over time.
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If Mastodon is about "taking back control of your social media", then it means asking reasonable questions based on the Mastodon Covenant.
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QOTO is also a social media site, so these issues are timely and appropriate and prudent
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Reasonable questions about QOTO need clear and reasonable responses.
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

@freemo There was a cut-and-paste error in the post 34 minutes ago. The one word error in that first post is significant. I'm sorry. Please disregard my mistake; and instead, please respond to this corrected draft.
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In a follow-up post, I will explain my strategy, but for now, please consider just one straightforward question on its own merits.
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This post is about §3 (section THREE) of the Mastodon Covenant.
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The post I sent an hour ago was about §4 (section FOUR) of the Mastodon Covenant.
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I plan to draft yet another post about §2 (section TWO) of the Mastodon Covenant.
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--------
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@freemo Please confirm that QOTO has more than one person with emergency access to the server infrastructure in case of an emergency or shutting down. -- see §3 https://joinmastodon.org/covenant
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Various circumstances can
prevent the original owner
of the Mastodon server
from answering technical
emergencies. For this
reason, more than one
person must have that
capability.
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Humblr did disappear this month; and follow-up was futile, frustrated by a dearth of contact options.
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The collapse of Humblr harmed its users in part because of the failure of the Mastodon Covenant.
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Humblr highlighted a systemic problem which has consequences.
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Reasonable and timely questions about QOTO need clear and constructive responses.
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

@freemo Please confirm that Sinblr has more than one person with emergency access to the server infrastructure in case of an emergency or shutting down. -- see §3 https://joinmastodon.org/covenant

Various circumstances can
prevent the original owner
of the Mastodon server
from answering technical
emergencies. For this reason,
more than one person must
have that capability.

Humblr did disappear this month; and follow-up was futile, frustrated by a dearth of contact options.

The collapse of Humblr harmed its users in part because of the failure of the Mastodon Covenant.

Humblr highlighted a systemic problem which has consequences.

Reasonable and timely questions about QOTO need clear and constructive responses.

@freemo Please confirm QOTO's commitment to give users at least 3 months of advance warning in case of shutting down. -- see §4 https://joinmastodon.org/covenant

Sometimes services shut
down, it is the cycle of life.
But users must have the
confidence that their
account will not disappear
overnight, so that they
have time to export their
data and find another
server

Humblr did disappear this month; and there was neither advance warning nor follow-up help

QOTO + PEER REVIEW = MODERATOR/GATEKEEPERS?
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Peer review is at the heart of the processes of scientific journals and all of science.
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Do we not all understand that peer review is the method by which grants are allocated, papers published, academics promoted, and Nobel prizes won?
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The peer review process has gatekeepers, not unlike our QOTO moderators -- an online fact-of-life full of problems but the least worst option we have.
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The most important question with QOTO moderator review is not whether to abandon it, but how to improve it when stumbling blocks arise.
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A. A specific QOTO issue or
problem has been clearly
identified: Moderators can't
currently read or prevent
advertisements in foreign
languages.
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B. A QOTO community vote
rejected a rule proposed to
address the problem.
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C. What next? What can
QOTO do -- what are we
willing and able to do -- to
mitigate harm caused by
doing nothing in response
to a clearly identified
problem?
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Moderator/gatekeeper review is a flawed process; but it is likely to remain central to QOTO because there is no obvious alternative,
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Going forward, QOTO will grow by learning lessons the hard way, right? And QOTO needs to figure out to do better, right?
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NOTE: This post paraphrases Smith R. Peer review: a flawed process at the heart of science and journals. J R Soc Med. 2006 Apr;99(4):178-82. doi: 10.1258/jrsm.99.4.178. PMID: 16574968; PMCID: PMC1420798; see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1420798/

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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

STEM-FOCUS + ANECDOTE?

In 2016, "The Hindu Business Line" published a feature article about one tangential consequence of the STEM incubator culture in Japan during the Meiji era (1868-1912).
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A key figure in this context was Lord Kelvin (William Thomson). Kelvin was a mathematical physicist. He sent many of his young students to work and teach in Japan. These students were known as oyatoi gaikokujin (‘honourable foreign employees’).
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One of these former students, John Perry, questioned a key factor in the Fourier analysis strategy Kelvin used for estimating the geological age of the earth. -- see Patrick Jackson, "William Thomson's Determinations of the Age of the Earth,"Chapter 10 in "Kelvin: Life, Labours and Legacy" by Raymond Flood et al. (2008). https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231256.001.0001/acprof-9780199231256-chapter-10
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Kelvin assumed that the earth's core is solid. Whether the earth has a solid or a fluid core would have a profound effect on Kelvin's mathematical calculations.
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It turns out that Perry’s theory of a fluid core and continental drift is now accepted science.
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"The fact that Perry was in Japan, surrounded by its art and culture, teaching physics to sake-drenched samurais, may indeed have played a role in shaping his theory."-- see "Death of the floating world" (Rohit Gupta). ''The Hindu Business Line." January 1, 2016. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/explore/death-of-the-floating-world/article8050613.ece
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In Japan, Perry would have encountered the metaphor of a "floating world." -- see below, image of immersive art installation: "Dreamed Japan, Images of the Floating World," Atelier des Lumières, Paris. https://injart.org/exhibition/short-program-dreamed-japan-images-of-the-floating-world/
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Continental drift is about movement of tectonic plates which float on molten lava in the earth's mantle -- and the words "floating world" could be an apt figure of speech to describe this phenomenon.
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

One of the things I like about the underlying QOTO system is the editing function (delete & re-draft).
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Sometimes my writing looks different to me when I re-read my own words a day later. I want to change words. I feel a need to re-position sentences and paragraphs.
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Maybe the simple fact that I'm doing this public editing is a good thing. Maybe it's a constructive contribution to QOTO precisely because others can see what I'm doing.
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My work-in-progress writing practice could be construed as helpful to others -- maybe witnessing the way I edit my posts could help someone else re-think the way he/she edits his/her own prose?
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

@freemo Is it possible to initiate a format change? If so, how?
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I tend to write and think in paragraphs, but the standard format makes my paragraphs run together.
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I tried to compensate by adding extra three empty lines between each paragraph, but the system is somehow designed to disregard this spacing preference.
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So in this toot, I've placed a period at the beginning of each "blank" line -- hoping to create the kind of visual bites or "chunk" I want to see in my toots. -- see Wikipedia "Chunking (psychology)" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunking_(psychology)
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Do I need to try to explain again in different words?

Do you know these three monkeys?

They have names.
• Mizaru (見ざる) uses his hands to cover his eyes 🙈
• Kikazaru (聞かざる) uses his hands to cover his ears 🙉
• Iwazaru (言わざる) uses his hands to cover his mouth 🙊

These are my my good friends. And y'know they say you can tell a lot about someone by learning who his friends are.

As a general rule, I'm a little bit too serious, but sometimes these monkeys help me lighten up

This comic trio has a collective name -- Sanzaru (三ざる). The images of the Sanzaru below are carved in a decorative wooden panel on one of the buildings at a Shinto shrine north of Tokyo

STEM-FOCUS + ANECDOTE?

The July 20129 issue of the Atlantic published an article about the study of progress.

The writers suggested that "there can be ecosystems that are better at generating progress than others .... Why did Silicon Valley happen in California rather than Japan or Boston? Why was early-20th-century science in Germany and Central Europe so strong? Can we deliberately engineer the conditions most hospitable to this kind of advancement or effectively tweak the systems that surround us today? -- see 8th paragraph in Patrick Collison & Tyler Cowen, "We Need a New Science of Progress," The Atlantic Monthly. July 30, 2019. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/we-need-new-science-progress/594946/

Is it reasonable to argue broadly that contemporary STEM education is all about fostering a cultural ecosystem with measurable productivity? Yes, maybe.

Is it reasonable to argue that Japan's investment in o-yatoi gaikokujin was all about fostering a modern, Western scientific and technical ecosystem with measurable productivity? Yes, maybe.

In this context, please consider an anecdote about a noteworthy STEM-focused cultural environment that worked amazingly well in Japan between 1875 and 1879.

A. William Ayrton and John Perry wrote approximately 26 scientific papers during the 4 years they were working together in Japan (1875-1879).

B. The volume of scientific work was so great that James Clark Maxwell joked about it, observing that "the centre of electrical gravity seemed to have shifted to Japan."-- see Colin Latimer, "Kelvin and the Development of Science in Meiji Japan," Chapter 13 in "Kelvin: Life, Labours and Legacy" by Raymond Flood et al. (2008), pp. 216-217. http://www.f.waseda.jp/sidoli/Latimer_Japan_Kelvin.pdf

C. When Ayrton and Perry returned home, they continued to work together. They designed and built the world's first electric vehicle -- see "German Museum Recreates the World’s Oldest Electric Car and Rides in It!" (Yuka Yoneda). Inhabitat. November 18, 2011. https://inhabitat.com/over-a-third-of-all-cars-were-electric-a-century-ago/' compare video, "Das erste straßentaugliche Elektroauto der Welt (Baujahr 1881) / World's First Electric Car" (1:33) https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=9VBabxSba9w&feature=emb_logo

QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

QUESTION A: Are there arguably useful compare-and-contrast parallels in what we know as STEM-focused education today and the STEM-focused program of the Japanese government in 1869-1889?

QUESTION B: What is the significance of Japan's STEM-focused yatoi experience for developing countries today? -- see Noboru Umetani, "The role of foreign employees in the Meiji era in Japan," 1971. https://books.google.com/books?id=-VmuAAAAIAAJ&dq=editions%3AH-5Nd0_169wC&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=parasite

At the end of the 19th century, Western experts were hired by the Japanese government and educational institutions to bring STEM skills and education to a island nation that had shut itself off from almost all contact with the West for 200+ years. These men were called o-yatoi gaikokujin (御雇い外国人 honorable hired foreigners) . -- see "The Great Wave" (Stephen Mansfield). Japan Times, October 18, 2014. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2014/10/18/books/book-reviews/great-wave/#.XddBHVdKiUk

There were about 3,000 yatoi employed in the Meiji era (1868-1912). -- see Gluck, Carol. Journal of Japanese Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 1981, pp. 428–432. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/132211

A select list of yatoi suggests that a focused range of technical subjects which were considered crucial for the growth of the modern Japanese state. -- see Wikipedia "Foreign government advisors in Meiji Japan" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_government_advisors_in_Meiji_Japan

• Henry Dyer (engineering education) -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Dyer
• Thomas Gray (engineering, seismology) -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Lomar_Gray
• William Ayrton (physics, electrical engineering) -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Edward_Ayrton
• James Ewing (engineering, physics) -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Ewing
• Cargill Knott (physics, mathematics, seismology) -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargill_Gilston_Knott
• John Milne (geology, engineering, seismology) -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milne
Thomas Mendenhall (physics) -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Corwin_Mendenhall; and below see image of Mendenhall with his grad students in Tokyo, 1880

QUESTION A: Are there potentially useful compare-and-contrast parallels in what we know as STEM-focused education today and the STEM-focused program of the Japanese government in 1869-1889?

QUESTION B: What is the significance of Japan's STEM-focused yatoi experience for developing countries today?

QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

In November 2018, representatives from 58 countries voted unanimously to redefine four basic units of measurement: the kilogram, the mole, the kelvin, and the ampere. The New York Times published a photo of the assembled conference delegates. -- see "The Kilogram is Dead. Long Live the Kilogram!" (Xiao Zhi Lim). New York Times. November 16, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/science/kilogram-physics-measurement.html

In May 2019, the redefined kelvin unit of thermodynamic temperature went into effect as an international legal standard.

This event caused me to recall wanting to know more about the under-publicized role of Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) in the rapid process of transforming Japan from a feudal a modern industrial state. -- see Colin Latimer, "Kelvin and the Development of Science in Meiji Japan," Chapter 13 in "Kelvin: Life, Labours and Legacy" by Raymond Flood et al. (2008) http://www.f.waseda.jp/sidoli/Latimer_Japan_Kelvin.pdf

Kelvin's Japanese students at the University of Glasgow eventually became professors at the University of Tokyo and senior members of the civil service.

The Meiji government sought and acted on Kelvin's personal recommendations about bringing British STEM experts to Japan. These European-educated men were part of a larger group that were collectively called o-yatoi gaikokujin (御雇い外国人 honorable hired foreigners")

Going forward, I plan to do some casual reading about these oyatoi. It's likely that I'll come across a few anecdotes which might be of some use or interest to one or more people in our QOTO group.

We'll see. Just a thought.

What do you think?

QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

QUESTION: What is the QOTO term for the stuff at the "bottom" of a QOTO page? -- see https://qoto.org/about/more

The internet has a specific vocabulary; and in that context, the Mastodon world has developed its own unique set of terms.

For example, what I'm typing now is called a "toot" in many, not all, parts of the developing Mastodon federation. However, it could have a different QOTO name.

Having established a context for my question, will someone please tell me the QOTO term or name for the recurring collection of hyperlinks which appear on this page at the bottom of the column at the right of my monitor screen?

Is the QOTO term unoriginal or standard across the internet? Or is it unique to this site?

There is similar set of hyperlinks at the bottom of many home pages -- for example, see this familiar format on the German home page (startseite) of the German Finance Ministry (Bundesministerium der Finanze) https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Web/DE/Home/home.html;jsessionid=33C877EB770C338AAB19965031326726.delivery1-replication

QUESTION: What is the QOTO term for the stuff at the "bottom" of a QOTO page?

QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?