jdupuis | July 25, 2012I'm on my annual summer hiatus for the month of July so I'll be only publishing my weekly Friday Fun posts as well as re-posting some of the interviews I did a few years ago on the old blog with people from the publishing, library and science worlds. Not that my posting of late has been particularly distinguishable from the hiatus state, but such is the blogging life after nearly ten years: filled with ups, downs, peaks, valleys.
This interview with CJ Rayhill, then of Safari Books Online, is from September 27, 2007.
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Welcome to the latest installment in…
jdupuis | July 20, 2012Academics aren't exactly known for their sartorial splendor. And that may be the understatement of the year.
A fun article by Daniel J. Myers in Insider Higher Ed from a few weeks ago: Faculty Fashion
Here's a quote:
What message might academics be trying to send when they flout the dictates of fashion and good taste, and ignore the color-clash pain they inflict on others? Well, it flows from the same reason we drive beat-up cars (rust-buckets that are still only automobiles in the academic sense) and refuse to edge our lawns. These choices are rarely driven by financial necessity, but rather…
jdupuis | July 18, 2012I'm on my annual summer hiatus for the month of July so I'll be only publishing my weekly Friday Fun posts as well as re-posting some of the interviews I did a few years ago on the old blog with people from the publishing, library and science worlds. Not that my posting of late has been particularly distinguishable from the hiatus state, but such is the blogging life after nearly ten years: filled with ups, downs, peaks, valleys.
This interview with Mike Morgan is from April 24, 2007.
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It's time for another in my occasional series of scitech publishing/…
jdupuis | July 13, 2012This one is from the "kids today" file: Dubstep is "extra-terrestrial communication" NASA scientists reveal
My musical tastes are pretty catholic, but I gotta admit i don't get electronic music.
NASA today revealed that interstellar communications from an alien lifeform have been mistakenly interpreted as music, spawning a new sub-genre known as ‘Dubstep’.
*snip*
But popular music experts point out that it’s not the first time something has been wrongly interpreted as music to critical acclaim. A recording of an owl trapped in a wind chime shop recently topped the charts after being…
jdupuis | July 11, 2012I'm on my annual summer hiatus for the month of July so I'll be only publishing my weekly Friday Fun posts as well as re-posting some of the interviews I did a few years ago on the old blog with people from the publishing, library and science worlds. Not that my posting of late has been particularly distinguishable from the hiatus state, but such is the blogging life after nearly ten years: filled with ups, downs, peaks, valleys.
This interview, with Jane of See Jane Compute, is from February 20, 2007.
It's worth noting that Jane moved to ScienceBlogs in 2008 where she continued blogging…
jdupuis | July 6, 2012This one is both kinda funny and kinda sad, from the "so funny it cycles around the funniness circle to not really funny anymore" file. It's basically a bunch of survey questions that someone can take to figure out if they're a troll. And they're a pretty good indicator.
Do you dare? Do I dare? Have at it: How to tell if you’re a troll
Here are a couple of the questions. You'll have to check out the link for the possible answers and the scoring system.
1. You read something on the internet you disagree with. How do you respond?
3. You read a new book recommended by others but you don’t…
jdupuis | July 5, 2012I'm on my annual summer hiatus for the month of July so I'll be only publishing my weekly Friday Fun posts as well as re-posting some of the interviews I did a few years ago on the old blog with people from the publishing, library and science worlds. Not that my posting of late has been particularly distinguishable from the hiatus state, but such is the blogging life after nearly ten years: filled with ups, downs, peaks, valleys.
This interview, with Eugene Wallingford, is from July 9, 2008.
I'm hoping to get these out weekly, but we'll see. They're mostly cobbled together in odd moments…
jdupuis | June 29, 2012One thing you have got to give to the more-than-slightly unhinged staff at The Cronk of Higher Ed is that they have a bizarre and hilarious take on the most important issues in higher education.
And sort of dead-on too.
This is a case of So Funny It Hurts.
U-Va. Rector Dragas Aims to Remove God from Notre Dame
“Notre Dame has been operating like an exceptional university of higher learning,” said Dragas in her announcement. “Unfortunately the world has changed and colleges need CEO-minded leaders. God is a great motivator, but He’s no CEO.”
As an example, Dragas explained that God had been…
jdupuis | June 29, 2012A follow up to my post from a couple of days ago. It's nice to know that sometimes these stories have the potential for happy endings.
UVa Digital Archive of Materials Relating to the Resignation of Theresa Sullivan
University of Virginia Board Reinstates President
University of Virginia Reinstates President After Outcry
The Right Way to Lead Higher Education Through the Digital Age
U-Va.: The ouster of Teresa Sullivan
Disruptive Innovation: Rhetoric or Reality?
Episode 89 — Strategic Humanism at UVA
University of Virginia Reinstates President, But Colleges Face More Drama Ahead
U.Va. Board…
Around the Web: Archives as discovery zones, Khan Academy reconsidered, Credit for datasets and more
jdupuis | June 27, 2012
Archives as Discovery Zones
Don't Use Khan Academy without Watching this First
Credit for Datasets
Digital Makeover in Your Future? (eportfolios)
Are Apps The Future of Book Publishing?
The Finch Report in a global Open Access landscape
Why Johnny Can’t Add Without a Calculator
To Remain Relevant, Libraries Should Help Patrons Create
Media beyond the marketplace
A practical guide to the Georgia State eReserves Copyright Case for Librarians
Open Access to the Scientific Journal Literature: Status and Challenges for the Information Systems Community
AppleU Idea for Apple's Low-Paid Store…
jdupuis | June 26, 2012This collection of posts is only the tip of the iceberg of reaction to the ongoing controversy at the University of Virginia. For more, see the first item in the list for a digital archive.
I consider this particular crisis a very interesting one to follow, one with implications for all universities and similar in scope and importance as the McMaster and Harvard Libraries controversies were for libraries. I guess I'll have to come up with one of these posts for the Harvard reorganization too. The current crisis at the Library and Archives Canada seems to have larger implications as well,…
jdupuis | June 23, 2012
WSJ explains the economics behind lending Harry Potter ebooks by Amazon
Money Talks — How Audience Priorities and Publishing Incentives Can Lead to Unusual OA Behaviors
#scholpub, PeerJ and Tim O’Reilly
The coming revolution in STM #scholpub
Why doesn’t Moore’s law apply to #scholpub?
Who is the Steve Jobs of #scholarlypub? Whence comes the needed disruption?
Top 10 reasons why professors leave: elephant in the lab series
Whose Intellectual Property?
Conflicted: Faculty and Online Education, 2012
Mending Fences (university presses & librarians in wake of GSU decision)
Penguin, 3M Test…
jdupuis | June 22, 2012Since it's convocation season, I thought I'd share this one from the ever-amusing, never-lets-me-down-late-on-a-Friday-afternoon-looking-for-something-anything-to-post-for-Friday-fun.
Family of Graduate Sets New Standard in Love-Showing Unruliness
Families at Kennebunkport State University’s commencement ceremony left in shame, realizing they had failed to show enough love for their respective graduates.
“After watching the Forrester family’s display of support for their son Lester, we realized the unworthiness of the flowers and gifts we brought for our graduating daughter Jessica,” said…
jdupuis | June 22, 2012The title of this post might be a bit misleading. I don't really think it's much of a question.
Of course it's ok to get paid to promote open access.
My university pays me to be a librarian. I have faculty status. I can decide what I think are the most important issues in my field. I can advocate for solutions to those issues. I have decided that one of the most important issues in my field of science librarianship is the broken scholarly communications system. I have come to the conclusion that a system of open access to the scholarly literature is much fairer and probably ultimately much…
jdupuis | June 21, 2012
Why Twitter Matters: Tomorrow’s Knowledge Network
Available now: a guide to using Twitter in university research, teaching, and impact activities
If you don’t have social media, you are no one: How social media enriches conferences for some but risks isolating others
Twitter: My go-to learning network
How Will MOOCs Make Money?
Not Free, Not Easy, Not Trivial — The Warehousing and Delivery of Digital Goods
University Students Are Unaware of the Role of Academic Librarians
Patrick Nielsen Hayden Explains eBook Territorial Rights For You
The Publishing Buffet: An open-access journal with an…
jdupuis | June 19, 2012
Loud Debate Rages Over N.Y. Library's Quiet Stacks
Shh! Scholars Fight Over Library Plan (more on NYPL renovation plans)
Editors With Ethics
One Culture. Computationally Intensive Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences: A Report on the Experiences of First Respondents to the Digging Into Data Challenge
Disintermediating preservation
Amazon’s markup of digital delivery to indie authors is ~129,000%
What's Right With Publishing
Business Schools: Who Are Your Competitors?
Howard Rheingold on how the five web literacies are becoming essential survival skills
An Open Letter to the Guys…
jdupuis | June 15, 2012I always thought Wolfgang Pauli's famous remark was the ultimate insult to scientists, but apparently I was wrong. Perhaps I was not even wrong given the plethora of scientific insults you can find out there.
In any case, many "thanks" to the Knoepfler Lab blog for their descriptive, specialized, perhaps overly ambitious but somewhat derivative middle-author list of insults. The moderate length list shows their solid commitment to being good science educators. They seem to be very good scientists to have come up with such a list, but their trainees don't seem as rude and insulting and…
jdupuis | June 13, 2012
PeerJ Press Release
Scholarly Publishing 2012: Meet PeerJ
New Publishing Venture Gives Researchers Control Over Access
PeerJ launches open access into a new realm
An interview with the founders of PeerJ, an innovative new academic publishing startup.
PeerJ launches & More PeerJ musings
New OA Journal, Backed by O’Reilly, May Disrupt Academic Publishing
Pay (less) to publish: ambitious journal aims to disrupt scholarly publishing
Journal offers flat fee for ‘all you can publish’
New front in "open access" science publishing row
PeerJ
PeerJ Raises $950K from Tim O’Reilly’s Ventures To…
jdupuis | June 12, 2012Welcome to the most recent installment in my very occasional series of interviews with people in the publishing/science blogging/computing communities. The latest is with Peter Binfield and Jason Hoyt of PeerJ. PeerJ is a new startup in the scientific publishing industry, using a rather unique business model whereby authors will be able to pay one fee and they get a lifetime of publishing their articles in PeerJ.
Please see my post with the PeerJ press release for more details.
I recently had an opportunity to ask Peter and Jason some pre-announcement questions about PeerJ and I've included…
jdupuis | June 12, 2012I'm not one for posting publisher press releases on this blog (and embargoed ones at that!) but sometimes you just have to try something a little different. And this is such an occasion.
Below is the press release for a new science publishing startup called PeerJ. It is founded by Peter Binfield, formerly of Public Library of Science, and Jason Hoyt, formerly of Mendeley. The core idea is that scholars will be able to pay one fee (starting at $99) and be able to publish on the PeerJ platform for life. The truly interesting aspect of this is that PeerJ is peer reviewed. It's kind of like a…