BUDAYA DIALOG ANTAR AGAMA JALAN MENUJU PERSAUDARAAN DAN PERDAMAIAN DI DUNIA MASA KINI

Kehidupan budaya dialog antaragama manusia dewasa ini cenderung merosot, karena terjebak dalam konsep pemikiran kebenaran agamanya sendiri. Semakin manusia tertentu dengan gigih mempertahankan kebenaran ajaran agamanya dan tidak terbuka pada agama lain, maka dialog akan terputus atau tidak berjalan dengan baik. Dalam situasi manusia yang demikian, maka penting dilakukan budaya dialog sebagai jalan menuju persaudaraan dan perdamaian antar umat beragama, seperti yang sedang “viral” yang dilakukan oleh Paus Fransiskus. Dialog Paus Fransiskus menuai hasil yang sangat terpuji teristimewa tawarannya untuk membangkitkan nilai perjumpaan, persaudaraan, dan perdamaian antar umat beragama, khususnya pada umat Islam masa sekarang. Semangat yang menggelora dalam diri Paus Fransiskus untuk meretas kesulitan-kesulitan yang dihadapi umat beragama yang jarang berdialog agar berani menjadi umat beragama yang terbuka pada kebaikan dan kebenaran agama lain. Berlandaskan dokumen: “Abu Dhabi” mengenai persaudaraan manusia untuk perdamaian dunia dan hidup bersama. Tujuannya membawa perkembangan pola hidup dalam berelasi dengan umat manusia di dunia ini. Melalui pengalaman Paus Fransiskus dengan tokoh agama Islam dunia, perjumpaan menjadi jalan menuju perdamaian dan persaudaraan sebagai ciptaan Tuhan

The Quick Response (QR) Code: Graphic Potential for Libraries

The convergences of Web-ready mobile tools and applications have changed how we interact with our physical and virtual environments. Web-ready mobile devices (particularly smartphones, but tablets and Wi-Fi ready MP3 players are also on the increase) have supplanted the traditional desktop computer. According to IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, a February 7, 2011, press release noted that “Smartphone manufacturers shipped 100.9 million devices in the fourth quarter of 2010...PC manufacturers shipped 92.1 million units” (IDC). For the first time ever, smartphones have outsold traditional desktop computers. This is telling on several levels, the most salient being that our mode of interaction with information in any form (play, work, school, homework, etc.) has shifted from a static environment (wired computer) to a highly mobile one. We are moving (literally!) to on-the-go computing and manage a great deal of our everyday affairs via mobile handheld devices

Using Google Apps to Teach an Online Course

Boise State uses Blackboard as its main content management system. Moodle is another. But we are free to use whatever platforms we choose. I have been teaching the main online UNIV 106 course since 2005. Since then it has evolved from a single, paper-based course into a hybrid of courses taught by several librarians. UNIV 106 is offered several times during the school year and delivered in a variety of formats: some are offered online, some in person; some are paired with English 102 courses (known as PoWeR: Project Writing and Research); and others are offered based on subject-specific areas (see our complete offerings at http://guides.boisestate.edu/univ106). So we have flexibility as to the way and means we can deliver UNIV 106, both in person and online. But Blackboard has been the primary vehicle for delivering online courses at Boise State University. While Blackboard provides a strong means for creating, organizing, and managing both in-person and online course assignments and coursework, I didn’t particularly like its lack of mobile-friendly output, the use of frames (where the web page are broken up into various areas), and lack of an autosave feature

Counseling and Therapy in Video

Counseling and Therapy in Video (CTiV) offers two models––purchase or license. The outright purchase varies, but ranges from $10,400 to$35,000, depending on annual materials budget and FTE; the annual Web Access Fee costs $250. Subscription options range from$1,500 to $3,600 per year depending on number of concurrent users, with$3,600 being the unlimited price option. Discounts are offered for consortial purchases, and a variety of package pricing options are available

Deep Visual Instruments: Realtime Continuous, Meaningful Human Control over Deep Neural Networks for Creative Expression

In this thesis, we investigate Deep Learning models as an artistic medium for new modes of performative, creative expression. We call these Deep Visual Instruments: realtime interactive generative systems that exploit and leverage the capabilities of state-of-the-art Deep Neural Networks (DNN), while allowing Meaningful Human Control, in a Realtime Continuous manner. We characterise Meaningful Human Control in terms of intent, predictability, and accountability; and Realtime Continuous Control with regards to its capacity for performative interaction with immediate feedback, enhancing goal-less exploration. The capabilities of DNNs that we are looking to exploit and leverage in this manner, are their ability to learn hierarchical representations modelling highly complex, real-world data such as images. Thinking of DNNs as tools that extract useful information from massive amounts of Big Data, we investigate ways in which we can navigate and explore what useful information a DNN has learnt, and how we can meaningfully use such a model in the production of artistic and creative works, in a performative, expressive manner. We present five studies that approach this from different but complementary angles. These include: a collaborative, generative sketching application using MCTS and discriminative CNNs; a system to gesturally conduct the realtime generation of text in different styles using an ensemble of LSTM RNNs; a performative tool that allows for the manipulation of hyperparameters in realtime while a Convolutional VAE trains on a live camera feed; a live video feed processing software that allows for digital puppetry and augmented drawing; and a method that allows for long-form story telling within a generative model's latent space with meaningful control over the narrative. We frame our research with the realtime, performative expression provided by musical instruments as a metaphor, in which we think of these systems as not used by a user, but played by a performer

From the Fringe to the National Fabric: A Resurgence of Disinformation and How to Neutralize It

GAME OF THRONES CALLING OUT POLITICAL CLIMATE? Imagine you are sitting at home having just finished Sunday dinner when there is a knock at the door. Your friends have arrived to watch the Season Finale of your favorite show, Game of Thrones. The finale revolves around a number of warring houses whose past betrayals and chicaneries have made it difficult to join together and unite against an unimaginable threat

The Undue Cost of Academic Publishing: Democratizing Information Access

Many scholarly articles that contain research useful to the public are locked behind expensive subscription databases. Coupled with existing publishing and tenure/promotion practices, these contribute to a system that excludes the majority of citizens from accessing current academic findings. However, by publishing academic articles in open access journals instead, faculty at colleges and universities can play an important role in making it easier, and less expensive, for the public, media, and local leaders to read their work. This requires faculty to make different choices and a concurrent shift in how academic departments evaluate faculty publications