Keith Dawson has a suggestion for disambiguating “in-law,” which can refer to (for example), your wife’s brother or your sister’s husband. He’s got near-in-laws and far-in-laws. Very handy.

And it raises the question of why English doesn’t already have an easy way of making this distinction. Are we so binary about our family relations that we just don’t give a damn-in-law?

7 Comments »

You don’t have to fully understand these two brief videos from 15 years ago (I don’t) explaining solutions to tech problems building a 3D game (3D as in Quake, not as in putting on the funny glasses) to be reminded how hard it can be to do things that seem simple, and how damned clever our tech is.

3 Comments »

The weekly Berkman Buzz, as compiled by Rebekah Heacock:

• Peter Suber reviews the open access movement in 2010: link

• Ethan Zuckerman ponders how to rewire Facebook for serendipity: link

• The OpenNet Initiative covers the recent DDoS attacks on Tunisian government websites: link

• Harry Lewis discusses the implications of computer vision: link

• StopBadware is holding an “unconventional T-shirt design contest”: link

• Weekly Global Voices: “Our Most Read Posts in 2010” link

Be the first to comment »

The Berkman summer interns program is pretty wonderful. We always get an amazing group, and they seem to have a fantastic time together. So, here’s the official announcement:

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is currently accepting applications for our 2011 summer internship program. We are looking for students fueled by intelligence, enthusiasm, and humor to join us for 10 weeks of shared research and exchange.

Information about the summer program, participant eligibility, and application procedures can be found here. The application deadline for Summer 2011 internships is 11:59 p.m., ET on Sunday March 13, 2011.

The bad news is that a lot of people apply for not so many spaces.

[Two days later: I’m leaving in the spammy comment (the first comment) because I enjoy thinking of ways in which the summer interns’ program is like The Jersey Shore.]

2 Comments »

I met today with Aaron Price, who’s with the American Association of Variable Star Observers, a group celebrating a hundred years of gathering data from amateurs and professionals about variable stars. AAVSO has an archive of over 19 million variable star observations. Aaron is particularly interested in enabling and encouraging amateurs to become increasingly involved in the scientific process, ultimately collaboratively writing publishable articles. (I’m putting this my way, not his, so don’t blame him for my infelicities.)

We talked a bit about who should be called a scientist. My own view is that if you have this discussion without any context, then you look to paradigmatic scientists — works in a lab (perhaps), designs and runs experiments, formulates hypotheses, has academic credentials, wears a lab coat. In such cases, when there is no actual need driving the question, arguments about edge cases can’t be resolved. On the other hand, if something hangs on the question — does the person get funding, get invited to address a conference, is allowed access to equipment, get to claim a particular standing in an argument, etc. — then the question is more likely to be settle-able. For that reason, most discussions about whether citizen scientists are scientists (or, are “citizen journalists” journalists, etc.) should be addressed (in my opinion) first by asking, “Why do you ask?”

This seems to me to be an illustration of the way everything (well, almost) is becoming a network. In the old days, when science was a lot like publishing, the line between scientist and layperson was fairly well (but certainly imperfectly) drawn. In a networked world, it’s not simply a matter of redrawing lines, so that now citizen scientists are inside the Circle of Science. Rather, the nature of the lines is different. All members of a network are connected. The question is the nature of the connection, and that can change instantly based on interests, skills, credentials, and the project underway. The old lines disconnected; the new ones connect. And that makes it far more difficult to come up with persistent answers to questions like “Who is a scientist?” or “Who is a journalist?”

Often, in a networked world, it’s better not to insist on an answer. More important than deciding exactly who is inside the charmed circle is figuring out how to make the network smarter — which almost always means extending the network as far as it can possibly go.

8 Comments »

Over at the Harvard Library Innovation Lab blog I’ve posted a video from NotionInk showing their Adam tablet UI at work. Seems elegant and usable. [Hat tip to Gianluca (again).]

3 Comments »

As Gianluca Baccanico (who pointed me to this) says: What do you get when you mashup Google Maps, GPS, and PacMan?

From the SourceForge page on the project:

PacMap as a location based game for Android devices. To play the game you need a GPS signal and a working internet connection. There also have to be some streets nearby. Your goal is to eat all the dots. For each dot you will get a point. But beware!

What next: Google Theft Auto?

Be the first to comment »

Joyce Appleby makes the case for returning fillibusters to their old role as a moral trump card played when a matter of real principle was at stake. The Senate was not intended to require a 60-vote majority, and conservatives ought to join with liberals in honoring the Constitution. (The “Coffee Party” has a link that’ll get you your Senator’s contact info.)

1 Comment »

Peter Suber has posted his year-end round up of what’s happened with Open Access. It’s a massive record — Peter acknowledges at the outset that there’s too much happening for a full acounting — but in section 10 there’s some highlights and lowlights.

There is a lot going on — much of it quite good.

Be the first to comment »

British voice coach Gareth Jameson explains how to talk like an American:

Accents:
How To Do An American Accent

Pretty good! Where I come from, “banter” and “banner” don’t sound identical, but otherwise I think he nails us.

Gareth has a bunch of other videos, some of which are better than others. (As for his “how to yodel” video, it pretty much comes down to “Sing low, then high, then low.”)

Be the first to comment »