Providers vs. Platforms — Why Must We Move?
Apple’s apparent abuse of its platform dominance may signal a basic incompatibility between providers and platforms.
Permanence and Accountability — Why Publishers Need to Modernize Their Approaches
With more and more science being tested and communicated outside traditional outlets, we may face a moment when faith in the existing system breaks down.
The Beatles 3000 — An Exercise in Historical Drift Based on Incomplete Records
Scottie Pippen was a Beatle? Scholars a thousand years from now might just find evidence to suggest as much.
J.C. Penney's Black Hat SEO and Google — Why the Network Doesn't Justify Impact Proxies
The outer ring of citation remains a point of vulnerability for quality proxies, as does reducing complex things to simple lists or numbers. When will we learn?
Scientific Papers Named After Movies and Songs — Variations Abound in Google Scholar
Authors use movies and songs to inspire the titles of their papers, often to unintentionally silly effect.
Gladwell Tackles College Rankings: The Perils of Comprehensive Heterogeneous Systems
Why do smart people continue to seek simple rank-order listings of inherently complex phenomena?
Crowdsourcing, Reference Works, and Peer-Review: Some Surprising Connections
A new study suggests that reference works can be created cheaply and effectively through only mildly organized collaborations. Have we been missing a critical contribution of peer-review? Does it suggest that post-publication won’t review won’t be very effective?
"It Sounded Stupid When I Said It" — The Today Show Encounters the Internet ala 1994
How do you pronounce “@”? How do you read out an email address? These were tough questions in 1994, as this video reveals.
Will Reference Books and Journals Survive? A Debate
A debate at PSP reveals much, especially after it ends.
QR Codes in a Journal — Printing Little Computer Programs for Mobile Integrations
A renowned surgery journal experiments with QR Codes to leverage the mobile Web. Will it work?
The Journal of Universal Rejection, and Suggestions for Improving It
While the JofUR may represent a culmination of many trends in publishing, there’s still room for improvement.
Apple's New Mac App Store, the Individual, and the Integration Expectation
Launched just weeks ago, the Mac App store is elaborating on themes the iPhone started, bringing product integration to a new level.
Should Our Information Experiences Be Dependent or Independent?
John Battelle wonders if we’re painting ourselves into a corner with crude tools of identity. Instead, is there another way?
How Many Spaces After a Period?
What do you do? (a poll)
The Healthy, Wealthy Corner — What 200 Years of Scientific Progress Can Do
While we can tied up in the minutiae of scientific reporting and pursuits, the grand overall effect is impressive, as this video shows.