Is It Up or Down?
The stakes for downtime are increasing, and nobody is immune. Not even the people at downforeveryoneorjustme.com.
Wildfire or Tipping Point?
The notion that a small group of highly-influential people are responsible for trends may need to be replaced by a more random notion that any person can start a trend when the conditions are right.
Will Data Beat Hypotheses?
The scientific method may be challenged by a new approach based on data crunching and discovery.
Vacations Are Worth Preserving
It’s high vacation season here in the United States, and a little political movement aiming to recapture the very idea of vacations caught my attention. I thought it might be worth getting a little motivated to going off-line in a […]
Versions — NISO’s New Recommendations
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has released its recommendations on versioning of journal articles. It is a document worth looking over, for a great deal of careful thought has gone into it. The document also reflects the schizophrenic relationship […]
Reputation Matters
A new (and flawed) study reveals that reputation matters. In fact, it’s core to scientific expression.
Oxford’s Open Book on Open Access
Claire Bird provides a refreshingly agnostic and evidence-based approach to open access experiments with Oxford University Press.
Bulk Publishing Keeps PLoS Afloat
PLoS sees bulk, low-cost publishing as way to financial independence
Bomomo — Etch-a-Sketch 2.0
OK, time for another Friday timesink, this time a drawing tool called Bomomo. The little balls find your cursor. Holding it down makes them bigger. Dragging makes them do things. Have fun! Draw yourself some 4th of July fireworks while […]
Truthiness and Pablumonium
Image via Wikipedia Yesterday, I published a post containing a neologism — pablumonium — that caught people’s attention. I was pleasantly surprised by the emails and feedback since it was a long post and a wry insertion of a strangely […]
FCC Misses Both Forest and Trees
Image via Wikipedia The San Francisco Chronicle (and other sources) recently reported on an initiative from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to examine embedded advertisements in TV programming (“product placements”). Examples rolled out by reporters and the FCC itself include […]
Market-based Solution to Info-glut
Finding a solution to a glut of information and a scarcity of attention can work for email and scholarly publishing.