Three points to consider

The You Tube channel I was talking about this morning is Veritasium. He makes lots of engaging, highly viewed science videos, interspersing himself talking with images of what he is talking about. Take a look at a few of them. Could our site have videos something like those? 

As you critique your websites, remember a point that Dallin, I believe, brought up. Not only should a site let us know what it is about, it should convey some idea of it being about something different and better than other sites. That sense of something different and better could be something, which Plato would like, that we grow in an understanding of. But right away we should have some sense of that. For Plato, his dialogues contrasted standard ways of covering a topic with better ways. Every dialogue was about a better way to consider a topic.

Also, remember that Plato wrote in forms that others could distribute for him. Does your website have content, in forms, that lends itself to being shared by viewers? 

How to record screen capture on Quicktime Player

Record your screen

You can use QuickTime Player to make a video recording of your screen, or just a region of your screen to save as a movie file for later viewing. This can be helpful for showing others how to perform a task or workflow, or for training.

Choose File > New Screen Recording. To start recording what's occurring on your Mac's screen, click the round record button.

You can record some of all of the screen:

• If you want to record the entire screen, click anywhere on the screen to start recording.
• To record just a smaller portion of the of the screen, drag your pointer to select the region of the screen you want to record, then click the Start Recording button within the region.

To stop recording, click the stop button in the menu bar, or press the Command-Control-Escape key combination (all at once) on the keyboard.

Clicking the triangle in this window gives you additional options, such as letting you choose whether to use the built-in microphone on your Mac, or another connected microphone, or no microphone at all. This menu also lets you select whether or not your mouse clicks are shown during the recording (the pointer is highlighted when you click). You can also choose where to save your screen recording when finished.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201066

Writing Posts on Philosophers

1. Start with a brief history of the philosopher.
2. Include a brief explanation of his ideas.
3. Then, in the light of his ideas, explain:

• what is a social website? - in one sentence
• what makes a social website good? - in one sentence, followed up by an explanation of all the parts of that sentence
• how do we make one?

Screen captures

Plato wrote dialogues to invite people into the conversation. For a website critiquing social websites, we could use screen captures. Is someone willing to post a screen-capture video? Here is an example on You Tube, explaining how to screen capture on a Mac: Quicktime Player X isight and screen recording, Mac. And here is a screen capture with text appearing over black: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVtCO84MDj8

Thoughts on the blog

Authenticity
In our class discussion we touched on the importance of authenticity in making a social website good. A reader of our blog posts would probably have a difficult time in feeling comfortable without a clear explanation of what we are trying to accomplish and why. By being up front with the reader we can help the reader understand  our sincerity.

Purpose
This relates to a second difficulty the reader may run into: understanding the purpose of our blog. Could they understand in 3 seconds what we are trying to accomplish? I don't think so. We should have a clear message that is easy to see that explains the unifying theme and motive for all content on the blog.

Unified Theme
This leads me to my final point: there should be a unifying theme among posts and content. Because the posts are coming from different people, we need to make a special effort to have some unifying factor other than the fact that we are all talking about philosophy.

In addition, I think a good way to structure the blog to teach readers about Plato's application to social websites would be the following:

1. VERY brief history on Plato
2. Brief discussion of Plato's theories
3. In depth application of Plato's theories to modern-day social websites

Good Definitions

A good definition of X is one that agrees with the cases we feel sure about as being X or not and helps us decide cases we are unsure about. A good definition of X is one that explains why something is an X.

"Planets are large objects" is a bad definition because suns are large objects but not planets.

"Sleeping pills are pills that have a sleep inducing effect" is a bad definition because it won't help us decide cases we are unsure are sleeping pills.

"What is right is what God approves of" is a bad definition, according to people in one of Plato's dialogues, because God approves things because they are right; they aren't right because he approves of them.

Why would Plato object to this definition:
Good shoes are ones that people like.


How would Plato define a social website?
How might he define what a good social website is?
What might he say are qualities that will make a social website a good one?