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.
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
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 […]
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 […]
Applications, Not Publications
Don’t develop publications, develop applications!
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.
Read at Work — Clever, Clever, Clever!
Thanks to a Twitter from Jill O’Neill, I was introduced to a very clever little gimmick that turns out to be more than a gimmick. Read at Work is a parody of Windows that buries poems, novels, and satires in […]
Twitter — One Month Later
One month ago, I wrote on this blog that I would begin using Twitter for a month, and see how it worked, both technically and practically. Now, one month later, here are some reflections: Overall, I liked it. I added […]
Lois Smith: “Comment-ier” Isn’t Better
Commenting is one option among many for measuring the success of a blog.
The Perfect eBook?
A design competition winner suggests we’ve scrolled back.
Printeractivity — A Forgotten Constant?
We’ve all been amazed at the interactivity of print. What?! Yes. The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest. Need I say more? Well, yes, I do. Or, more interestingly, I can. Take This Old House, a magazine derivative from the PBS […]
Info at your fingertips (without a screen or a keyboard)
Is it possible for people to have information at their fingertips without being tied to the usual web brower or even a book or journal? In her talk “Just-in-Time Info” Pattie Maes, Associate Professor, MIT, Program in Media Arts and […]
Stuart Brand’s Gift
In an interesting interview with John Markoff, author of “What the Dormouse Said,” Stuart Brand is described as having the uncanny ability of showing up at the right place and right time to influence major ideas. One of these cases […]