With the beginning of week 9 here at UMW, we’ve officially crossed over the half way mark for the semester. The wire106 internauts have been amazing, they’ve published more than 1400 posts so far and created six original radio shows that have been broadcasting live on ds106radio this week (with the last two shows airing tonight from 8 -10 PM EDT). Given how intense the semester has been, Paul Bond and I figured it was a perfect time for all of us to slow down for a moment and reflect on the work done that has inspired us so far.

To that end, we premised week 9 of wire106 on listening and responding to the radio shows on ds106radio, as well as featuring work from around the ds106 community that has inspired. Featuring someone else’s work in the ds106 community that inspired you will be a staple for the last eight weeks of the course—is there a better way to build community?

How do we do this? The ds106 itnernauts are asked to blog about the work that inspired them, but also add the piece to the ds106 Inspire site that was created back in 2012 by ds106 alum Linda McKenna and Rachel McGuirk. A site created by students, for students, to feature the work that spoke to them creatively. How cool is that?

One of the real benefits of this process is that with more than 1400 posts no one in the class can be expected to read everything, but as 27 individuals we can filter the work we enjoyed, effectively curating what’s happened so far so so we all can get a better sense of what folks are creating. Additionally, I would argue in builds  a stronger sense of community in this online class, as well as motivation to create more and better art!

I couldn’t be more inspired by the work that’s happening right now in wire106. This crew is bringing their A-Game all the way!