-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Free Texts: Sources
,----[ Quote ]
| There are a few interesting things to talk
| about surrounding free and open textbooks.
| Quality is one. Usability is another. Why
| to write one (and/or, why not) is certainly
| critical. But where can you find these
| disruptive, open texts?
`----
http://opensource.com/education/10/2/free-texts-sources
The Tragedy of the Antibiotics Commons
,----[ Quote ]
| What this emphasises is that antibiotics
| form a kind of global commons - a resource
| whose benefits we all share. But if one
| party overexploits that commons - in this
| case, by recklessly handing out antibiotics
| as the article suggests - then the commons
| is ruined for *all* of us.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2010/02/tragedy-of-antibiotics-commons.html
Why some smart people are reluctant to share?
,----[ Quote ]
| You might think the reasons for this may
| be:
|
| * they donât have time
| * they are selfish
| * they donât care
| * they donât have an incentive to do it
|
| I was perplexed on this and over the last
| six weeks I spent some time talking to many
| of these smart people to understand what
| could be the reason. The results were very
| interesting. The rest of the article is
| based on those findings.
`----
http://www.lifebeyondcode.com/2009/12/26/why-some-smart-people-are-reluctant-to-share/
Can Gifting Economies Scale?
,----[ Quote ]
| It's pretty clear that the societal drivers
| of tribal gifting economics and the
| mechanisms of enforcement didn't survive
| the transition to a global social system
| composed of billions of members. Simply,
| the connections between any two individuals
| (outside of immediate familial
| relationships) are too abstract for these
| drivers and enforcement mechanisms to be
| relevant. As a result, market based
| mechanisms for economic interaction have
| gained dominance.
`----
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2010/02/can-gifting-economies-scale.html
The future of web publishing, part seventeen million and six.
,----[ Quote ]
| As of the end of this month, I have
| published sixteen novels, a handful of
| novellas, and almost a hundred pieces of
| short fiction. It's been critically well
| received, garnered me some praise and a
| handful of awards, and has performed
| modestly well in terms of what the
| publishing industry refers to as "the
| numbers."
|
| Like every other narrative-prose writer on
| the planet who does not have the covers
| pulled up over her head (and believe me,
| the temptation is enormous) I am trying to
| figure out how the heck to continue doing
| what I am good at--what I have spent twenty
| years learning how to do at a professional
| level--in the face of developing
| technology.
`----
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/02/the-future-of-web-publishing-p.html
Of Open Science and Open Source
,----[ Quote ]
| I'd go further: if you won't release them
| and *share* them, then you're not really a
| scientist, because science is inherently
| about sharing, not hoarding knowledge,
| whatever kind that may be. The fact that
| some of it may be in the form of computer
| code is a reflection of the fact that
| research is increasingly resting on digital
| foundations, nothing more.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2010/02/of-open-science-and-open-source.html
Peer review: What is it good for?
,----[ Quote ]
| Whatever value it might have we largely
| throw away. Few journals make refereeâs
| reports available, virtually none track the
| changes made in response to refereeâs
| comments enabling a reader to make their
| own judgement as to whether a paper was
| improved or made worse. Referees get no
| public credit for good work, and no public
| opprobrium for poor or even malicious work.
| And in most cases a paper rejected from one
| journal starts completely afresh when
| submitted to a new journal, the work of the
| previous referees simply thrown out of the
| window.
|
| Much of the commentary around the open
| letter has suggested that the peer review
| process should be made public. But only for
| published papers. This goes nowhere near
| far enough. One of the key points where we
| lose value is in the transfer from one
| journal to another. The authors lose out
| because theyâve lost their priority date
| (in the worse case giving the malicious
| referees the chance to get their paper in
| first). The referees miss out because their
| work is rendered worthless. Even the
| journals are losing an opportunity to
| demonstrate the high standards they apply
| in terms of quality and rigor â and indeed
| the high expectations they have of their
| referees.
`----
http://cameronneylon.net/blog/peer-review-what-is-it-good-for/
University finds free online classes don't hurt enrollment
,----[ Quote ]
| The university's Independent Study
| offerings have been attractive to students
| who are unable to make class regularly,
| either due to geographic distance or
| because of scheduling conflicts. Its Open
| CourseWare section offers the general
| public six classesâthree university courses
| and three high school coursesâthat anyone
| on the Web can step through. (May I
| personally recommend the Financial Planning
| course? A lot of people could use it these
| days.) Of course, you won't get any credit
| for taking the course for free, and that's
| why BYU hopes you'll pony up the cash and
| enroll.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/02/university-finds-free-online-classes-dont-sap-enrollment.ars
Recent:
The Indispensable Man of Open Science: A Talk with Cameron Neylon
,----[ Quote ]
| Could you please tell us a bit of your
| background? What kind of scientist are you,
| for instance?
|
| I started off in what was at the time fairly
| conventional metabolic biochemistry doing an
| undergraduate project looking at what food
| molecules platelets selected from plasma
| when given the choice. Then I moved more
| towards biophysics and biotechnology during
| my PhD, looking at ways to manipulate DNA to
| make what were then large libraries of
| variants of the gene specific protein,
| trying to figure out how to make protein
| copies of all of those genes and then select
| the one or two out the billions that did
| what we want. The theme since then has
| really been about developing new ways of
| applying physical techniques from physics
| and chemistry to looking at protein
| structure and function.
|
| My current job at the Science and Technology
| Facilities Council in the UK is an
| interesting mix of developing new
| techniques, using these to tackle specific
| structural problems, and working with the
| scientists who come in to use our facilities
| to help them solve problems. I enjoy working
| with other people and this job gives me a
| good opportunity to do that and for that to
| be valued, something that is often missing
| in university settings.
`----
http://significantscience.com/2010/01/28/the-indispensable-man-of-open-science-a-talk-with-cameron-neylon/
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
iEYEARECAAYFAkt0dQcACgkQU4xAY3RXLo6uNwCeLzfoEIKtZl4MrZezkshNd2IN
KhUAnRdGODuh8f76Ku7/v+K1iDK2yI/u
=8/pp
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
|
