Big Data: Bad science on steroids? – Health, Science-ish – Macleans.ca.
Big Data: Map
digital
White House Open Access Memo Strong, Could Be Stronger | Electronic Frontier Foundation.
“The memorandum gives government agencies six months to detail plans to ensure the public can read and analyze both research and data, without charge. Both open access and open data are key to promoting innovation, government transparency, and scientific progress.”
Another publisher accuses a librarian of libel | Inside Higher Ed.
For the WTF file.
“Librarians should play a critical role in alerting academics to publishers that have taken advantage of this environment for several reasons, Beall said in an e-mail interview. “First, for tenure-track researchers, promotion and tenure committees may not recognize work published in low-quality venues. Second, when one’s work appears side-by-side with other works that contain author misconduct, such as plagiarism, image and data manipulation, etc., it devalues the work of the honest author.”
Digital preservation can be a low priority for such publishers, he added, meaning that a scholar’s work could disappear along with a journal, should it go out of business.”
Not a personal life manifesto, but still worth thinking about.
Guerilla Open Access Manifesto
Guerilla Open Access Manifesto
I invite you to consider the Open Access Movement in light of the following:
How Aaron Swartz paved way for Jack Andraka’s revolutionary cancer test | The Vancouver Observer (posted January 29, 2013).
““My research should serve as a testament to free online research (…) It was hard to get what I needed without the costs. People should take note and because of this project, we should make a move toward more inexpensive or free Online research,” Andraka said.”
Aaron Swartz and Too-Comfortable Research Libraries – Library Hat.
Some good questions from Bohyun Kim. Let’s answer them.
“Many academic libraries offer computers, which are necessary to access electronic resources of the library itself. But how many of academic libraries keep all the computers open for user without the user log-in? Often those library computers are locked up and require the username and password, which only those affiliated with the institution possess. The same often goes for many electronic resources. How many academic libraries allow the on-site access to electronic resources by walk-in users? How many academic libraries insist on the walk-in users’ access to those resources that they pay for in the license? Many academic libraries also participate in the Federal Depository Library program, which requires those libraries to provide free access to the government documents that they receive to the public. But how easy is it for the public to enter and access the free government information at those libraries?”
Are our academic and research libraries fulfilling their civic duty by providing access to information? Or are they too comfortable?
“Too-comfortable libraries do not ask themselves if they are serving the public good of providing access to information and knowledge for those who are in need but cannot afford it. Too comfortable libraries see their role as a mediator and broker in the transaction between the information seller and the information buyer. They may act as an efficient and successful mediator and broker. But I don’t believe that that is why libraries exist. Ultimately, libraries exist to foster the sharing and dissemination of knowledge more than anything, not to efficiently mediate information leasing. And this is the dangerous idea: You cannot put a price tag on knowledge; it belongs to the human race. Libraries used to be the institution that validates and confirms this idea. But will they continue to be so in the future? Will an academic library be able to remain as a sanctuary for all ideas and a place for sharing knowledge for people’s intellectual pursuits regardless of their institutional membership? Or will it be reduced to a branch of an institution that sells knowledge to its tuition-paying customers only? While public libraries are more strongly aligned with this mission of making information and knowledge freely and openly available to the public than academic libraries, they cannot be expected to cover the research needs of patrons as fully as academic libraries.”
Emphasis is mine.
I expect more from our libraries. Do you?
Watch “My 3 Cents on Cancer: Jack Andraka at TEDxSanJoseCAWomen” Video at TEDxTalks.
The possibilities of a connection culture are astounding. Nurturing ideas, saying yes, connecting with others…can save lives.
Jack Andraka from Crownsville, Maryland. Grand Prize Winner of the 2012 Intel Science Fair. Age: 15.
Just like real life.
Haters Gonna Hate. What’s a Woman to Do About It? – The Cut.
Please read this. It’s not just for and about female empowerment. It’s for those of us who take social justice work dearly and seriously.
Crossing paths with snarky, ignorance-laden, bigoted commentary, online and off, this late in the 2000s, still bothers me a great deal. Don’t get me wrong. I like a good, irreverent laugh as much as anyone. And I struggle daily with my own internal biases, blind spots, and prejudices. I think we all should take stock and do personal inventory at least once a week. But I still hear things that makes me want to say, “do you understand the words that are coming out of your mouth?” When that happens, the world becomes a smidge bleaker and colder.
I sometimes feel overcome by the hate. It saps me of my strength and will. Like, what’s the point? And the point is, I do what I do because it brings me to life. I keep doing what I do because I want to get better at what I do. Haters will hate no matter what. So let them. Take heart. You are not alone.
“That doesn’t mean I consider all of my critics to be haters. If I get negative feedback from people who are close to me, strangers who actually care about my work, or experts in the field, I listen. Those people push me to work harder, too. But nothing motivates me like haters. The hierarchy just helps me to compartmentalize them. It’s not that I stop caring altogether, it’s that I care much less about the least consequential among them.”
Friedman’s Hierarchy of Haters
The White-Savior Industrial Complex – Atlantic Mobile.
“[T]here is much more to doing good work than “making a difference.” There is the principle of first do no harm. There is the idea that those who are being helped ought to be consulted over the matters that concern them.”
Diabetes Art Day 2013 | Diabetes Art Day.
“Your future is cloudy.” I hope not.
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