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.
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 […]
The “h-index”: An Objective Mismeasure?
A “mystical belief” in simple math and hard numbers like the h-index can mislead smart people.
The Future That Never Was
For a lighthearted and informative time, I’d recommend a visit to Paleo-Future, a blog providing “A Look Into the Future That Never Was.” Does this look like a city near you? At Paleo-Future, you’ll see predictions from Criswell, drawings of […]
Britannica’s Tepid Move
Image via Wikipedia Forgive me, but I think the recent news that the Encyclopedia Britannica is adopting a modified Wiki approach reveals not a brave embrace of new online realities, but rather a tepid response to the threat they are […]
AP vs. Blogs: Spoiler Alert!
The AP is taking on blogs. They won’t win by fighting.
0 = Initiate Final Algorithm
You may have heard of this elsewhere, a site called “You’ve Been Left Behind” (www.youvebeenleftbehind.com). It’s been created in anticipation of the Rapture. The site will store many megabytes of documents and send these materials under certain conditions to up […]
Applications, Not Publications
Don’t develop publications, develop applications!
Alex Wright on “The Web Time Forgot”
If you attended the keynote for the SSP’s 2008 Annual Meeting, you heard Alex Wright of the New York Times give a fascinating talk about Paul Otlet. Now, in an article in the Times, Alex drills down into some of […]
Information Overload = Too Much Dog Food
An old Silicon Valley maxim exhorts technology firms to “eat their own dog food” (aka, use their own technology). Now they’ve realized they’re eating too much. And so are we.