The Subtle Conflicts of Interest All Humans Face
Not all conflicts are monetary. Sometimes, the pressure to do something good can lead to biased behavior.
Uninformed, Unhinged, and Unfair — The Monbiot Rant
An inflammatory essay reveals its author to be neither well-informed or fair.
Does Access Create New Types of Scarcity?
A compelling essay points out some interesting wrinkles to the access debate.
The Amazon Boycott — Power, Taxation, Big Companies, and Intertwined Economies
A boycott is being organized in California against Amazon to oppose Amazon’s resistance to collecting state sales tax. But Amazon may be too interwoven in the world today to be effectively opposed.
Is "Dissemination" Mission-Worthy Anymore?
Dissemination may be necessary but not sufficient as an element of an information mission in today’s world.
What Happens to Your Online Social Self . . . After You Die
What happens to your online persona after you die? A surprising number of people are thinking about this.
Sometimes We Post Pictures of Cats, and Sometimes We Speak Truth to Power
The network effect is a peculiar thing. It can be about lolcats or insurrection. Either way, it’s a new and different power.
The New Face of Social Media
Social media continue to evolve, with Google Plus being the most recent conspicuous entry. Scholarly publishers may find these new platforms can be useful in evolving new forms of communications.
Will Open Data Solve Peer Review Concerns?
All primary data should be made openly available, a UK government report recommends.
The Attention Economy — Coming To a Theater Near You
The attention economy gets a theatrical/thriller treatment. Time is money.
What Happens If Science Becomes a Low-Yield Activity?
Smaller animals, smaller planets, smaller elements, and fewer effective drugs — is science becoming lower-yield, even at the paradigm level?
NASA's Vital But Forgotten Role: Stimulating the Pursuit of Frontiers
NASA makes us look up and inspires young children to pursue science, all for 1/2 a cent on the tax dollar. Why are we letting it slip into oblivion?
Is Something Fishy Going On? Citations Suggest Correction Comes Slowly, If It Comes At All
Rebuttals are cited less, don’t change citation patterns for original papers, and generally fall flat. And you thought science was self-correcting?
A Bizarre Approach to Accessing JSTOR Earns Federal Charges for an Internet Activist
An Internet activist hacks MIT to hack JSTOR, even though he had access through Harvard. Now, he’s facing federal charges.
Patterns In and Across Aggregated Data — Is "Anonymous" Collaborative Filtering Really Safe?
New research demonstrates that there’s a decent likelihood that your data exhaust can be used to find out sensitive things about you.