Crossposted from Greenhouse Studios Since the 1970s, scholars in fields as varied as sedimentology, ornithology, sociology, and philosophy have come to understand the importance of self-organizing systems, of how higher-order complexity can “emerge” from independent lower-order elements. Emergence describes how millions of tiny mud cracks at the bottom of a dry lake bed form largeContinue reading “Collaboration and Emergent Knowledge at Greenhouse Studios”
Briefly Noted for August 21, 2018
Test everything; retain what is good. 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 5
Briefly Noted for August 10, 2018
Hugh Trevor Roper on specialization in history… Today most professional historians ‘specialise’. They choose a period, sometimes a very brief period, and within that period they strive, in desperate competition with ever-expanding evidence, to know all the facts. Thus armed, they can comfortably shoot down any amateurs who blunder… into their heavily fortified field… TheirsContinue reading “Briefly Noted for August 10, 2018”
In their own words: How tech leaders can help you argue for the humanities
I firmly believe the case for the humanities is best made on its own terms. Rather than bending pretzel-like to explain how the humanities contribute to the prevailing values of techo-industrial capitalism, we should argue first and foremost for the humanities as good in their own right. We should be strong in our conviction thatContinue reading “In their own words: How tech leaders can help you argue for the humanities”
The Pseudoiterative Academic
With the semester having just ended, many of us are settling into new summertime routines and hoping those routines supports both some research productivity and some measure of relaxation. For me, in addition to the transition from semester to summer, I’m also transitioning into a more active period for our Greenhouse Studios initiative: our firstContinue reading “The Pseudoiterative Academic”
When UConn broke up with Adobe: A parable of artists and copyright
One of the things I try very hard to do in my DMD 2010 “History of Digital Culture” class is to teach students that their technology choices are not inevitable nor even determined primarily by what’s “best,” but rather that their technology choices are values choices, reflections of their ethical commitments and those of theContinue reading “When UConn broke up with Adobe: A parable of artists and copyright”
My new outfit: Greenhouse Studios | Scholarly Communications Design at the University of Connecticut
Looking down the page, it seems I haven’t posted here on the ol’ blog in nearly three years. Not coincidentally, that’s about when I started work on the initiative I’m pleased to announce today. It was in the fall of 2014 that I first engaged in conversations with my UConn colleagues (especially Clarissa Ceglio, GregContinue reading “My new outfit: Greenhouse Studios | Scholarly Communications Design at the University of Connecticut”
Elevator Pitch
Last week I had the pleasure of serving as facilitator at the first Mellon-funded Triangle Scholarly Communication Institute (SCI) in Chapel Hill. For the better part of the week five diverse teams of scholars, librarians, developers, and publishers came together to advance work on projects addressing challenges ranging from data visualization and virtual worlds toContinue reading “Elevator Pitch”
What The New Yorker Got Wrong About Lawrence Lessig
In its October 13, 2014 article about Lawrence Lessig’s Mayday PAC, The New Yorker writes: In 2001, Lessig co-founded Creative Commons, an alternative copyright system that allows people to share their work more freely. In fact, this isn’t quite right. Creative Commons is not an “alternative copyright system.” It is a licensing regime that usesContinue reading “What The New Yorker Got Wrong About Lawrence Lessig”
Getting into Digital Humanities: A top-ten list
Today I’ll be joining a roundtable discussion hosted by the New York Council for the Humanities for its incoming class of public humanities fellows. I was asked to prepare a “top-ten list” for public humanists looking to get started in digtial humanities, and with the help of friends on Twitter, I came up with theContinue reading “Getting into Digital Humanities: A top-ten list”