1. Status histories

You can now see how the status of each job listing has changed over time. You can look back to see when users reported that applications had been acknowledged, when they reported that interviews had been scheduled, etc.

To see the status history for a job listing, find the job listing on the main wiki page. Hold your mouse over the “View status history” link in that listing and wait for the popup. You’ll see a table showing every time someone reported on the status of the job, including: the status that was reported (e.g., “first-round interviews scheduled”), the date and time that the report was made, and the IP address of the user who reported it. (Clicking on the IP address will take you to InfoSniper, a free web service that provides detailed information about IP addresses, including geographical location, the institution that owns the address, etc. We have no affiliation with InfoSniper.)

You can also see the status histories on the standalone page for each job listing. (You can reach the standalone pages through the RSS feed or by clicking comment links on each job listing.) Check out the page for the listing for Georgetown’s opening in applied ethics for an example.

The “ditto” effect

When the job wiki was hosted on wikihost.org, users would often “second” a report by adding ‘ditto’. For instance, you might have seen something like this under a job listing: “Called to arrange APA interview (12/4); ditto (12/5).” Among other things, this helps confirm the validity of reports.

The status history allows us to simulate this ditto effect. If you would like to “second” the current status of a job, mouse over the pencil icon and click the current status again. For instance, suppose you go to the wiki and find that your favorite school’s status has changed to ‘First-round interviews scheduled’. While you’re drowning your sorrows, the school calls you to schedule an interview! After celebrating, go to the wiki and do exactly what you would if you were the first person to report that the school had scheduled first-round interviews: mouse over the pencil icon, wait for the popup, and click on ‘First-Round Interviews Scheduled’. When other users look at the status history, they’ll see that two people (with different IP addresses) both reported that interviews have been scheduled. In other words: “Ditto.”

2. Comments

You can now post comments about job listings. If you report on a job listing, the rest of us would appreciate it if you post a comment specifying how you heard (e.g., email, phone, carrier pigeon) and any other information you received (e.g., “the department will make a decision by mid-December about APA interviews”). If you want to spread, confirm, or dispel rumors about a job, you can do that in comments, too. But please don’t spread rumors. It’s not nice.

To read and post comments on a job listing, find that listing in the wiki and hold your mouse over the ‘comments’ link for that listing. You’ll see a list of comment titles, along with links to read the comments or post one of your own. If there are no comments for a post yet, you’ll just see a link to ‘Post comments’.

Comment titles and dates are now also included in the RSS feeds.

3. Personalized RSS feeds

You’ve been able to get an RSS feed of updates to the job wiki since we first launched the wiki. Now, you can create a personalized feed containing just the schools that interest you. To do this, you’ll need to create an account with us. Accounts are free. It takes less than a minute to create one. We’re never going to sell your information or spam you or do anything like that. (You can read our privacy policy if you’re concerned about that sort of thing.)

Once you’ve created and logged into your account, you can subscribe or unsubscribe to individual job listings by clicking on the RSS icons in each listing. The icons are semitransparent for listings to which you’re already subscribed. If you hold your mouse over an RSS icon, you’ll get a popup telling you explicitly whether you’re subscribed, giving you the option to (un)subscribe, and providing links to relevant information, including the personalized feed itself.

You can read more about RSS and our personalized feeds here.

Good luck to everyone in a very difficult market!

1. Status histories

You can now see how the status of each job listing has changed over time. You can look back to see when users reported that applications had been acknowledged, when they reported that interviews had been scheduled, etc.

To see the status history for a job listing, find the job listing on the main wiki page. Hold your mouse over the “View status history” link in that listing and wait for the popup. You’ll see a table showing every time someone reported on the status of the job, including: the status that was reported (e.g., “first-round interviews scheduled”), the date and time that the report was made, and the IP address of the user who reported it. (Clicking on the IP address will take you to InfoSniper, a free web service that provides detailed information about IP addresses, including geographical location, the institution that owns the address, etc. We have no affiliation with InfoSniper.)

You can also see the status histories on the standalone page for each job listing. (You can reach the standalone pages through the RSS feed or by clicking comment links on each job listing.) Check out the page for the listing for Georgetown’s opening in applied ethics for an example.

The “ditto” effect

When the job wiki was hosted on wikihost.org, users would often “second” a report by adding ‘ditto’. For instance, you might have seen something like this under a job listing: “Called to arrange APA interview (12/4); ditto (12/5).” Among other things, this helps confirm the validity of reports.

The status history allows us to simulate this ditto effect. If you would like to “second” the current status of a job, mouse over the pencil icon and click the current status again. For instance, suppose you go to the wiki and find that your favorite school’s status has changed to ‘First-round interviews scheduled’. While you’re drowning your sorrows, the school calls you to schedule an interview! After celebrating, go to the wiki and do exactly what you would if you were the first person to report that the school had scheduled first-round interviews: mouse over the pencil icon, wait for the popup, and click on ‘First-Round Interviews Scheduled’. When other users look at the status history, they’ll see that two people (with different IP addresses) both reported that interviews have been scheduled. In other words: “Ditto.”

2. Comments

You can now post comments about job listings. If you report on a job listing, the rest of us would appreciate it if you post a comment specifying how you heard (e.g., email, phone, carrier pigeon) and any other information you received (e.g., “the department will make a decision by mid-December about APA interviews”). If you want to spread, confirm, or dispel rumors about a job, you can do that in comments, too. But please don’t spread rumors. It’s not nice.

To read and post comments on a job listing, find that listing in the wiki and hold your mouse over the ‘comments’ link for that listing. You’ll see a list of comment titles, along with links to read the comments or post one of your own. If there are no comments for a post yet, you’ll just see a link to ‘Post comments’.

Comment titles and dates are now also included in the RSS feeds.

3. Personalized RSS feeds

You’ve been able to get an RSS feed of updates to the job wiki since we first launched the wiki. Now, you can create a personalized feed containing just the schools that interest you. To do this, you’ll need to create an account with us. Accounts are free. It takes less than a minute to create one. We’re never going to sell your information or spam you or do anything like that. (You can read our privacy policy if you’re concerned about that sort of thing.)

Once you’ve created and logged into your account, you can subscribe or unsubscribe to individual job listings by clicking on the RSS icons in each listing. The icons are semitransparent for listings to which you’re already subscribed. If you hold your mouse over an RSS icon, you’ll get a popup telling you explicitly whether you’re subscribed, giving you the option to (un)subscribe, and providing links to relevant information, including the personalized feed itself.

You can read more about RSS and our personalized feeds here.

Good luck to everyone in a very difficult market!

1. The Standard Route, in which one surveys the philosophical topics in a business ethics textbook (e.g., whistleblowing, employee privacy, discrimination, sexual harassment, advertising, the environment, etc), or
2. The Humanistic Route, in which one focuses on larger questions about the place of business in our lives and happiness, usually within a general Liberal Arts framework.

I haven’t seen many of the latter, but the former strikes me as altogether too conservative. Virtually every business ethics textbook just assumes the business is (ought?) to be done in a capitalist system. Certain practices within that system are discussed, to be sure. But the larger questions of well-being, fairness, and equality under that system go untouched.

I only know exception to these textbooks: Shari Collins-Chobanian’s Ethical Challenges to Business as Usual (Prentice Hall, 2004)—the title is self-explanatory. It’s worth pointing out, though, that one friend confessed that when she taught the book last semester, “the students caught on to me!” She says they quickly saw the (largely) Marxist bent of the readings, rejected them out of hand, and became indignant in the class against her.

I think there’s some worth exposing students to arguments they haven’t seen before and asking them to reflect critically on things they take for granted—that’s what I always did in philosophy courses. But I think there’s also an argument for providing students with a more standard course, comparable to similar courses at other schools.

In looking at the Lehman catalog, I was pleased to see a fairly broad description of the course:

Social responsibilities of business organizations. Analysis of ethical, moral, and social issues stemming from the interaction of individuals, businesses, and government.

With this larger, social-political frame in mind, I focused the class around four units that proceed in historical and conceptual order:

1. Moral Sentiments and Material Interests—an overview of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, in which we’ll pay special attention to how Smith conceived of his system as a whole, with individuals  arranged to compete and produce goods and wealth for the whole society, while providing a sympathetic safety net for whose who might fall through
2. Work, Well-Being, and Wealth—a survey of Marx’s Capital, with its somewhat different account of human nature, and more recent literature on economic justice
3. Corporate Responsibility—which focuses on the dominant business unit of the 20th Century, the corporation, and considers its responsibilities, accountability structures, and possible punishments
4. Topics in Business Ethics—where we finally arrive after asking broader questions about human nature and the nature of business. (I’ll give my students choice over which topics we cover.)

My sense is that this strikes a balance between the standard topics and the need to—in this course, if only this course—step back from the practice of business and consider its more theoretical foundations.

The full syllabus is up on the course page.

This commentary strikes me as something beyond my usual Phylo blogging—much more associated with research on the history of the field than the development of Phylo itself—and I also have the occasional desire to blog about certain ideas or developments in the field. In short, it’s time to start a new blog that frees up space for different content.

Since I think my work with Phylo is of significant research interest, I’ll be cross-posting those entries here as well (thank you WP-o-Matic) and collecting this research blogging together with my other professional materials (e.g., CV, teaching documents, contact info).

This is my first time using WordPress as a CMS (content management system) to run an entire site, including static pages on each of my courses, as well as a teaching statement. I’ve debated using some CMS for my site for a long time, especially given how easily it’s updated. As usual, I was drawn to drupal, but since the research blog will receive the most frequent updates, blogging-oriented software seemed most appropriate. So far, I’m pleased with the results.

The site theme is based on ClockWorkSimple by ClockWorkBlogger. I’ve made several modifications, mainly to accommodate pages vs. blog posts.