Why Anti-Social Media Will Fail in the Coming Years
Social media is becoming the norm. Will laggards be viewed as anti-social in 2010?
Get a Whiff of Google’s Augmented Reality Stickers
Do stickers point to integrated data in the real-world? Or is augmented reality easier to accomplish? What could data integrated into the real world mean to science and research?
The Expense of Online? We’re Still Coping With the Internet’s Early Compromises
What early design compromises in building the Internet are still with us today? How does it add expense to running sites? Can we upgrade an entire planet?
A First Look at the Nook: An Also-Ran That Can Barely Get Out of the Box
The new Nook is over-packaged, and has design and technical issues that keep it from competing well with the Kindle. Too bad.
Google Will Begin Adding Real-time Search Results in the Next Few Days
As Google adds real-time Web features to its search over the next few days, it may be the last nail in the coffin for publisher-centric commodity information.
ScienceBlogs and “National Geographic” — A Partnership of Online Strengths
In addition to print’s continuing decline, blogs in science are mature, profitable, and going local, as SEED, ScienceBlogs, and National Geographic show through their moves.
Is the Apple Tablet Being Previewed by “Sports Illustrated”?
“Sports Illustrated” is showing off a new reading tablet for TIME properties. Is it also a preview of an Apple tablet?
The Scholars’ Catalog Project
A new initiative for a unifying online catalog of resources is underway. Can it provide a substrate for future innovation?
arXiv Receives $883K Stimulus Grant
A three-year NSF grant will create new tools for arXiv e-print repository.
How Many Books Dance on the Head of an e-Pin?
Can the model used in the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records be extended to embrace e-works? Or should it be trimmed instead?
The e-Book Revolution — If At First You Don’t Succeed . . .
E-books are changing the world of publishing, but rather than creating something new, too much emphasis is being put on re-hashing failures of the past. The changing market doesn’t have to be a zero sum game, and the rise of new forms may not spell the death of the book as we know it.
How Meaningful Are User Ratings? (This Article = 4.5 Stars!)
Are user rating systems a good way of measuring the quality of an author’s research? More and more websites are abandoning 5-star rating systems as the results they give are deeply flawed. PLoS’ approach will probably suffer the same problems.
Publishing in the Google Ecosystem
Complaints against Google miss the point — it’s the Google Era, and publishers who work well with this major upstart have plenty to look forward to.
iPhone + Book = PhoneBook
A mixture of traditional and new that is effective, simple, and rather astounding.
Thriving in the Age of the Informavore
The accelerated, real-time Web has some people worried about its cultural effects. Given the alternatives, I’ll take it.