Posts from — August 2003

I Was Early, the Train Was Late. Which meant I had to spend almost two hours waiting at New York's Penn Station. I couldn't actually leave the station: I didn't know when exactly the train might arrive, but I did know that my husband would be disembarking… [Invisible Adjunct]

Doughnut aesthetics is a grossly underappreciated field, but everyday life indicates it should be otherwise.

Presents of Mind. The Unemployed Philosopher‰¥ús Guild began in 1992 when two students of philosophy found their inner creativity in the midst of a dwindling academic job market. As it turned out, fulfilling gift giving needs proved to be almost as satisfying as probing eternal questions. They offer such items as “Freudian Slippers”, “Nietzsche's Will to Power Bars”, “Brainy Beanies”, and “Dorothy Parker Martini Glasses”. [MetaFilter]

I've had this in my links list forever… it is just full of classic nonsensical gifts.

Deans world has a question for all women:

what do you like about men?

the answers are somewhat surprising, somewhat overtly sexist, but i'm not sure that's always bad anymore.

in any case, go read and respond.

Misuse of Science. In a report recently complied by Rep. Waxman (D-Calif) and the minority staff of the House Government Reform Committee's special investigations division areas in which the Bush administration has manipulated science to the benefit of his political agenda are highlighted. The report has an accompanying website. [MetaFilter]

The site mentioned above reveals that the bush science policy is basically anti-science to the extent that if anything infringes upon prior belief or faith, it is not supported. In short, you can clearly see that this regime relies on something other than science, which has been clear for some time actually.

On the Futility of Reading. KF is writing about the need to re-read. Well, here's a disconcerting thought: reading is a woefully inefficient way of processing information. (I know, I know: who reads just to “process information”? But bear with me a moment.) Let's say… [Matthew G. Kirschenbaum]

books yes, but what about the journal articles, ick. if it weren't for conferences, i doubt i'd be able to keep up with what's going on.

Users Rights to Communications Services.

The Commission for Communications Regulation, Ireland has released a new publication Users Rights to Communications Services (Protecting Users in a Developing Communications Market), which is the decision governing the regulatory framework for the protection of users of electronic communications services. This decision follows their consultation 03/26 (Protecting Users in a Developing Communications Market Implementing Measures under the National and EU Communications Framework ).

The consultation focused on how the national regulatory framework in this area would evolve in light of changes in the EU framework, in particular, the EU Directive on Universal Service and Usersâ Rights. It dealt with measures such as transparency of information for users, operator codes of practice for complaint handling, contracts and the publication of quality of service information.

[ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]

This seems to be an interesting report, but i think it forgets that profit is tied to knowledge, and if users don't know, they pay more. not that it is right, but that is the way profit works.

The Technoarchy.

Technoarchy: a form of oligarchy where society is controlled by those who use technology the best. Unlike traditional oligarchies technoarchies are generally emergent. For the most part they are not created deliberately, but rise out of the properties of the dominant technology of the time, ie the networked computers of the 21st century.

According to google it was used with a potentially similar meaning once before, in an essay I have yet to get my hands on. If anyone knows of any other prior uses, please let me know. Same goes for other words with a similar meaning.

Expect an essay in the near future.

[Abstract Dynamics]

saint-simon wrote significantly on technoarchies, interesting things, as they may even rule without being the apparent rulers, but they need not be oligarchical, they can be polities or democracies. it all depends on the technics and the education

Conference web site software.

Further to my post about a conference web site.  Thanks to Jeremy Hunsinger, I set up a good enough site in about 10 minutes.  Actually, the underlying code is pretty awesome and the HCI is very nicely done, especially on the back end.  My first impressions are very positive.  There is some tinkering I'd like to do around the edges, but for now that can wait.  Our professional development people are going to like this since it can support multiple conferences, although I have it running in single conference mode right now.

Given other pressures, the impending term and my currently comatose computer, this will work.  I'll put my perfectionism to one side.

By wccartd@wc.cc.va.us (David Carter-Tod). [Serious Instructional Technology]

glad he found it of use, the public knowledge project out of canada is where i sent him, it has sofware for journals and for conferences, much like the software i worked on at the cddc, but there is much less user intensive, and thus more friendly. i think that in general, i'll be using and extending there software.

Oligonomy Defined. Hannaford lays the groundwork for a new theoretical model of business economics — the oligonomy. It's a curious conundrum and I've never seen any of the free-market thinkers address this phenomenon of growth. Where does it lead, and what does it mean?

Oligonomy defined

The vocabulary of economists has no word to describe an increasingly common phenomenon. An oligopoly, as you know, is a market sector in which there are few sellers. An oligopsony is a market sector in which there are few buyers. But there are an increasing number of market sectors in which the same companies are both oligopolies and oligopsonies. This situation I propose to call an oligonomy.

As I see it, oligonomies are spreading in almost every market and market segment. Being both an oligopoly and an oligopsony is a very advantageous position. But it is also, for many companies, a necessary defensive move. [Oligopoly Watch]

[b.cognosco]

This sounds very much like the anti-market distinction that Braudel proposes and Delanda pursues in his papers.

Erpanet and Daedalus have launched the Erpanet ePr …. Erpanet and Daedalus have launched the Erpanet ePrints Service, an open-access repository for the cultural and scientific heritage community. [Open Access News]

This is great news for the digital preservation community. It will be interesting to watch the take up of this new technology.