2008 & Belated Hogswatch present ideas

And would you look at that - it’s 2008. Happy New Year!

I’m currently up to my eyeballs in essays (2 down, 3 to go) so things will remain quiet around here for a wee bit more. My [lack of] academic organisation, let me show you it. Sigh. It’s one of my goals for 2008 to be more organised in general and specifically in academia, which you’d think I’d be better at the second time round, but no.

Instead, I shall leave you with the hope that 2008 is a excellent year for you and this thought: Is it to late to hope that the Hogfather will bring me this boardgame as a belated Hogswatch present?

How can I resist “the world’s first board game about books which comes with your own bookshelf, library card, bookshop, and your own set of tiny books to collect.” How?

Happy Hogswatch

I’m off on my annual trip back to the Batcave shortly and thus silence shall reign here for a wee bit. May be on twitter, depending on how my essay related procrastination tactics go but otherwise, have a Happy Hogswatch.

Happy Birthday, Blogs!

Weblogs rack up a decade of posts

I started blogging in 1999 and I’ve moved in and out of it (although I have always had some form of blog) and used a variety of different blogging tools (hand coded, scribble.nu, blogger, greymatter, livejournal, movable type, wordpress) over the years.

In some ways, the internet is my memory.

If I feel like embarrassing myself, I’ll have a poke about in my backups and see if I can’t find any of the scanned articles about blogs that I took part in.

Data loss petition

I remain firmly on the fence as to the…clout of the E-Petitions ^[1] towards actually making any change, particularly after receiving several responses to petitions I’ve signed that left me wondering if they were assuming that the average age of the signatory was approximately four years old and incapable of rational thought. But, that said, I also work on the principle that we don’t know if things will work unless we try them. So, with that in mind, here’s an interesting petition to consider and sign.

Petition to require all organisations to notify customers immediately of any personal data loss.

The petition calls on the Prime Minister to place a legal duty on public and private sector organisations, so that affected customers are informed immediately if the security of their personal data has been compromised.

1. Can we please stop adding the prefix “E” to things that are online? What is this? The 1990s?

Knol

Google’s blog has announced a new project. Calling itself Knol (a term for one unit of knowledge, apparently) it seems like it will be a combination of the wikipedia communal editing and a more “expert” based author.

“The key idea behind the knol project is to highlight authors. Books have authors’ names right on the cover, news articles have bylines, scientific articles always have authors — but somehow the web evolved without a strong standard to keep authors names highlighted. We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content.”

Currently, it’s invitation only but anyone will be able to write when it opens but they also say

Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line.

They also admit that they don’t expect every “knol” to be high quality and they will be allowing the inclusion of google ads in the knols (with a substantial kickback to the author…hrm.) so this is certainly something I’ll be keeping an eye on if and when it becomes publicly accessible.

They provide a screen shot of a knol and it does look very slick but still user-friendly, which is something we’ve become used to from Google. I wonder if they’ll release the code to be used off-Google or as part of something like Google domains because I could see it being partly useful for know-how systems in small law firms.

Breaking the Rules

I’m up to my eyeballs in the British Library’s Strategy, Policy and Programs at the moment, courtesy of an essay. It’s actually thrilling stuff. The BL is one complicated beast!

But that’s not actually what I’m posting about. While taking a break from staring at the Legal Deposit reports, I discovered that the curator of the Breaking the Rules exhibition is blogging along side. You can read his blog here and it’s an interesting mix of personal, exhibition and day to day life at the BL blogging. (although, beware the snap preview. Urgh.)

I’m finding it all rather fascinating.

Ignore the person behind the curtain

Content to come but much like my namesake, Barbara Gordon rises from the ashes.