Category Archives: Intellectual Property

I Endorse These Messages

Remember when people used to use blogs mostly just for shout-outs to other bloggers? Ok, they’re often still for that purpose, but it seems to me that Twitter serves that function far more efficiently. Also, with my own bloggorhea, I’ve … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Digital Humanities, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Intellectual Property | 5 Comments

Lead On

Princeton University restrains its faculty from giving away copyright on journal articles to academic publishers.

Posted in Academia, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Intellectual Property | 4 Comments

Adaptation

I really love the idea of courses which combine trying to apply a body of knowledge to a practical problem with exploring why said practical problem actually poses intellectually challenging questions with no clear answer. I’ve mentioned before at the … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Intellectual Property, Popular Culture, Sheer Raw Geekery | Comments Off on Adaptation

History Swallowed Whole

Last week was a busy time, so I got behind in my blogging. As is often the case, by the time I can get around to finishing a piece, the point I intended to make has been made. As is … Continue reading

Posted in Blogging, Intellectual Property | 4 Comments

The Emperor’s New Interface

A beginning-of-the-semester raft of posts is on the way. Let me start off with a little appetizer of outrage before I get on to the long-winded equivocating, though. It seems like most librarians are willing to kiss and make up … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Intellectual Property | Comments Off on The Emperor’s New Interface

Customer Dissatisfaction

I made a few comments on a thread at Inside Higher Education concerning UCLA’s recent decision to stop the streaming of video materials for classes behind password-protected course management systems, in response to pressure from the Association for Information and … Continue reading

Posted in Information Technology and Information Literacy, Intellectual Property | 7 Comments

Everybody Out of the Pool

Modest proposal: not just Google, but every single multinational company offering online products and services should get out of China. Not as an embargo designed to force improvements in human rights, but out of self-interest. Why operate in a country … Continue reading

Posted in Information Technology and Information Literacy, Intellectual Property, Politics | 3 Comments

Digital Search II: A User Perspective on Database Design

If I’m anxious about Google becoming a database vendor, it’s partly because the user experience with existing databases has been so dismal to date. On the other hand, Google’s understanding of and commitment to usability is head and shoulders above … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Intellectual Property | 1 Comment

Digital Search I: Google Poisons the Well

I am apparently not the only person who feels a bit bait-and-switched by the state of Google’s digitization projects after the settlement. So much so that Sergey Brin himself has sallied forth to defend the current terms in the New … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Books, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Intellectual Property | 6 Comments

Course Zero

There’s an interesting article at Inside Higher Education about the new breed of peer-to-peer style sites for collecting student notes and course materials, officially for the purposes of providing study aids. In reality, at least some of the sites in … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Intellectual Property, Swarthmore | 4 Comments