Updating Asimov — How Do We Regain Control In the Digital Age?
Algorithms behave in ways even their creators can’t understand, yet they dominate how we share and see information. Do we need a “Three Laws for Algorithms”?
The Information Landscape — How Do We Tackle the Problems Caused by Silicon Valley?
Science’s historical progress can’t be assumed. It has to be reclaimed, re-established. That’s more difficult in a fragmented information space geared for extremism.
Updated Figures on the Scale and Nature of Researchers’ Use of Scholarly Collaboration Networks
A new survey provides an updated view of how and why researchers are using scholarly collaboration networks. Charlie Rapple shares key findings.
The Tincture of Time — Should Journals Return to Slower Publishing Practices?
Most journals have adopted rapid publication processes, but with the rise of preprint servers and new trends among readers, maybe they can return to a slower, more considered pace.
Platforms, Networks, and Information Literacy
In the kind of digital community envisioned by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, information literacy skills ought not to be treated as an afterthought.
Book Review: “The Death of Expertise” by Tom Nichols
The new book by Tom Nichols, “The Death of Expertise,” is not perfect, but it is an important exploration of existential threats to science, education, and representative democracy.
How Many Grains of Salt Must We Take When Looking at Metrics?
In the quest to measure everything, authors are now presented with all kinds of metrics. This post reviews common sources for citation, attention, and usage metrics. Not all the tools are up for the job leaving authors wondering how to quantify the impact of their work.
Have You Looked At This? Nuzzel.com
It was named as one of the top apps of 2016 by both The New York Times and Time magazine. But what makes it cool?
The Future of Authorship
Dismayed by the loss of trust in facts, and seeming preference for half-truths that appears to be driving our political present, Robert Harington decided to catch up on his reading over the weekend, and stumbled across a stimulating article in Publishers Weekly, entitled How to Sell Nearly a Half-Million Copies of a Poetry Book, by Anisse Gross.
Guest Post, Jose Luis Ortega — Academic Social Networks: Collaborative Environments or Diogenes Clubs?
Quantitative analysis of researchers’ use of scholarly networks shows that they are more likely to be used for individual interests than for collaborative purposes.
Ask The Chefs: Where Is The Balance Between Security, Authentication, Marketing, and Privacy?
How much privacy are you willing to relinquish for convenience? How much effort are you willing to expend for security? This month we asked the chefs: Where Is The Balance Between Security, Authentication, Marketing, and Privacy?
Economics, Silicon Valley, and Information Warfare — Is Accuracy Becoming a Luxury Item? Or a Casualty?
Information warfare is both tactical and strategic, with much of its success stemming from the weakened economics of the current information economy. Scholarly publishers have experienced this in many ways, from Google Scholar to predatory publishers to pre-print archives — all answers to the calls for “free information” and all revealing tactical and strategic vulnerabilities as accuracy and facts become luxury items in the information war.
How’s That "Abundance" Thing Working Out For You?
The age of information abundance may have fundamental flaws — barriers to entry that create false equivalence; dissemination tools that conflate fake information with responsible sources; self-reinforcing loops of conspiracy and paranoia; and social fragmentation that makes societal disruption more likely. What can be done? Here are a few ideas.
The US Election, a Need for Curation, and the Power of Story
A post election look at what publishers can learn from the process.
Why Technology Will Not Get Cheaper
The long-desired hope that digital publishing will be cheaper gets more cold water, as infrastructure and personnel costs continue to rise, with no real end in sight.