Tag Archives: What I’m Reading

Wikipedia as shared worldview

I’m still reading Here Comes Everybody. On p. 279, Shirky writes: Wikipedia, which looks like a reference work to the average viewer, is in fact a bureaucracy given over mainly to arguing. The articles are the residue of the argument, … Continue reading

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Empathy, 2 year olds, and the free rider problem

I heard this story on NPR recently, and then when I saw this tweet by @hrheingold, I remembered that I’d wanted to look up the article in Nature, which I did: Fehr, E., Bernhard, H., & Rockenbach, B. (2008). Egalitarianism … Continue reading

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Make Way for Obsessives

Now that I’ve fessed up to being bothered by the mystery bunny in Peter Rabbit, I feel a great weight lifted off my shoulders. So now it can be told… something has been bothering me for months about Make Way … Continue reading

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Have you seen this rabbit?

Note: This is a re-post from Charlotte’s blog. You know that you’ve read a book too many times when… things like this start to bother you. Charlotte has recently rediscovered The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and now we’ve been reading … Continue reading

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Thoughts on meeting Abby Blachly and reading The Long Tail

I was on a panel earlier today at the LAUNC-CH Conference, which I think went well, though I killed the conversation at one point, never a good sign. Anyway, Abby Blachly of LibraryThing was the keynote speaker, and I had … Continue reading

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Democracy is Communism

This is another spring cleaning post, last updated October 2005, apparently. But it seems appropriate to yesterday’s post. Sure, you’re saying, upon reading the title of this post. And freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength. But actually the title … Continue reading

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Niches and filters

I’m reading The Long Tail (the book, not the article), and something struck me. On p. 119, Anderson writes: As the Tail gets longer, the signal-to-noise ratio gets worse. Thus, the only way a consumer can maintain a consistently good … Continue reading

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Intellectual debates in public forums

In the latest issue of JASIST is an article by Marcia Bates, which is a response to an article by Birger Hjørland, which is a response to an article by Marcia Bates. Bates’ first article was published in 2006; Hjørland’s … Continue reading

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Cost of collaborative development?

Today in our faculty reading group we read the Report of The Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control. In that report there are many comments along the lines that we need more data on the … Continue reading

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Thoughts on one very small part of Weinberger’s Henderson Lecture

I went to see David Weinberger‘s talk on campus earlier today, and this post is a reaction to that. Before I go down that road though, let me just say that I really enjoyed the talk. I just finished reading … Continue reading

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