Short, Silent, and Stunning — Comparing Earthquakes By Energy Release
A silent infographic showing the power of moving tectonic plates. Unexpectedly dramatic.
Blinded by Ideology — Open Access Advocate Continues to Fight the Battles of Yesteryear
More tired OA rhetoric, this time wielding an argument that copyright approaches of some OA publishers aren’t pure enough to qualify as “real” open access. Get ready to feel the burn.
Ask the Chefs: "What Was the Best Conference You Attended This Year, and Why?"
Conferences are a vital place to exchange information and ideas for publishers and other information specialists. Which meetings stood out in 2011?
Little Printer — Possibly a Big Disruptor
Can a cloud-based printer with a small footprint insert print back into daily information flows?
Healing the House Divided — A Side-Effect of Shifting to the Attention Economy?
Editors need to act more like publishers, and publishers need to have more editorial skills. Will the demands of the Age of Attention finally mend the editorial-business divide?
Butt of the Joke — A Review Article Parody Proposes Smoking for Endurance Athletes
The vaunted review article gets a neat little send-up, and reminds us that part of the value of humor is that it keeps you loose and helps you retain a skeptical perspective.
Giving Thanks By Blog
As Thanksgiving envelopes the US in turkey, tradition, and rituals of all sorts, its good to take stock of where the Kitchen finds itself, and to thank its most important element — its audience.
Science Increases Wonder — Robin Ince and the Power of Reality
The universe is magical, but we tend to take it for granted. This TED Talk will get you back into the zone of amazement.
The World's English Mania — The Power of Pull and Opportunity
With the largest English-language countries emerging in Asia and billions of people acquiring English language skills, what will the future hold? Are we losing more than we’re gaining? Or gaining something that has eluded our predecessors for centuries?
The "Open" Prescription — Why It Doesn't Always Make Sense
The rhetoric of “open” seeks to rally science to some higher state, but it’s not clear what “open science” means, why it’s any better, and what the risks of its adoption might be.
The Internet Can Be Touched — The Physicality of Cyberspace
The Internet was built and is being built. This fascinating little video shows the unique characteristics of this construction project, including why some big buildings are so important to its existence.
Is Anyone Immune? "Race Against the Machine" and Today's General Purpose Technologies
General purpose technologies are broadly applicable, and when they double in effect like IT has been doing for decades, they can start taking fast tracts of land. Is there anything safe as we “Race Against the Machine?”
Are Open Access and Traditional Publishers in the Same Business?
We’ve lived long enough with the proposition that OA publishers compete with traditional publishers. Perhaps they do not. Some major indicators suggest a non-competitive coexistence.
Ask the Chefs: "Who Will Win the Future — The Small, the Mid-sized, or the Big Organization?"
Does the future belong to the small and nimble, the flexible mid-range, or the large and powerful? The Chefs reflect on this question in our second installment of this monthly feature.
Siri and the Resurrection of the Semantic Web
Siri may be many things — cool feature, Google killer, source of amusement — but it is perhaps the ultimate expression of the semantic Web. And it’s still in beta.