Questioning Our Assumptions in Publishing Innovations: Inspiration from the Story of Indigital
Mikaela Jade and the Indigital app inspire us to question our privileged assumptions of “the user” in information design.
Guest Post — A Look at the User-Centric Future of Academic Research Software — And Why It Matters, Part 2: Implications
Part 2 — how will the rapidly evolving world of researcher software impact scholarly communications?
Guest Post — A Look at the User-Centric Future of Academic Research Software — And Why It Matters, Part 1: Trends
Part 1 of a two-part look at the rapidly evolving research software space and how it is changing scholarly communication.
Agile isn’t Always Cheaper, But it Should Mitigate Risk
A lot of people talk about Agile project management and how effective it can be. They also talk about how hard it is to get executive buy-in. The disconnect is caused by a lack of understanding of how Agile reduces risk.
What is the Blockchain Really, and Should You Care? A Guide for the Perplexed Scholarly Publishing Citizen.
Here’s your 12 point guide to blockchain. Written for non-technically minded scholarly publishing folk
All Things Coko: A Step Towards a True Shared Infrastructure for Scholarly Communication?
At this years annual STM Week in London, there was a strong focus on collaboration and shared infrastructure. I bunked off one of the days to check out the All Things Coko meeting. Is this the start of a new way to look at scholarly publishing technology?
Mapping Open Science Tools
A fresh mapping of open-science tools for the researcher workflow reveals numerous gaps and opportunities for software solutions in the name of scientific progress.
The Global Battle for Attention and Authority – Have We Already Lost?
As we learn more on an almost daily basis about the growing power and influence of social media and Facebook in particular, Alison Mudditt spoke recently with Siva Vaidhyanathan about the intricate relationship between media and democracy, and the critical role that cultural institutions – including scholarship, publishers and libraries – need to play in countering this pernicious hold on our attention.
Building Healthy Online Communities — An Interview with Rachel Happe
Community management has become a key part of social media and online publishing, whether we realize it or not. In this interview, an expert in the fields shares some views of how organizations can benefit from a more singular focus.
The Multifarious Book
The book is asked to perform many tasks, some of which are not necessarily the best use of the book format, whether in print or electronically. The long-form text, which may be print or digital, is a different matter, and is likely to remain with us and be called “a book” for some time to come.
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.
The Tyranny of Amusements — Science, Spectacle, and the Lowly PDF
Do scholarly and scientific publishers risk more than they realize when they embrace modern media spectacle and seek to marginalize the PDF?
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.
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.
Rethinking Authentication, Revamping the Business
IP authentication is the most important mechanism for authorizing access to licensed e-resources resources. Substantial business and policy issues for libraries and publishers alike connect up to IP authentication. Today, there is substantial interest in eliminating IP authentication, so it is timely to examine the implications if we were soon to see its end.