Anyone who’s ever attended a class or taught in the humanities has experienced a cultural commons, be it students sharing their writing, professors sharing their favorite works of literature, philosophers sharing and debating ideas. Sharing is part of what makes us human. Technologies have facilitated this sharing in a variety of ways (the quill and pen allowed a voice to traverse time and space; the printing press allowed quick and reliable reproduction of texts), but digital media present a special case. Through networking technologies and digital transmission, we now have available an historically unprecedented capacity to share our cultural resources and to contribute to what humanists have called “tradition” since the ancient Greek era of oratorical and sometimes print culture. No longer restricted to dusty tomes in library stacks, tradition is now dispersed and rewritten on websites, blogs, in wikis, on video- and audio-sharing sites, through podcasts, and even over portable devices such as PDAs.

Social networking websites and software have transformed our culture and models for business, and are quickly impacting our universities and academic practices. In this issue of Currents, our first as a strictly review publication, we examine a number of social networking software and websites and how they may be applied to the classroom and academic research. Instructors across the curriculum have discovered innovative and useful ways of integrating these tools, largely already familiar to many students, into collaborative learning experiences.

John Slatin’s Legacy

by Peg Syverson

It is a bittersweet privilege to provide the introduction to this issue of Currents, which is a tribute to John Slatin. Although we are still struggling with his loss, the remarkable work of his former students gathered here is a testament to his living legacy. It is a tribute that would have meant the most to him. He was a consummate teacher, who delighted in the successes of his students, and I know he would have been so deeply touched to know that they remember him with such gratitude. I will not repeat here what I have said in other places about John’s contributions to our field, and his innovations in computers and writing. I will say that our conversations and his example always supported and inspired me in my teaching. The outpouring of responses from his students when we offered the invitation to contribute to this issue was another reminder of the love and affection expressed by so many people throughout John’s illness and passing. The range of these pieces gives some sense of the scope and diversity of John’s scholarly and pedagogical interests and influence. In keeping with John’s love of experimentation, creativity, imagination, and exploration, the projects here are rich and diverse.