Seb's Open Research
|
Saturday, November 09, 2002
|
|
| |
The "Big Ball of Mud" design pattern
While much attention has been focused on high-level software architectural patterns, what is, in effect, the de-facto standard software architecture is seldom discussed. [...]
A BIG BALL OF MUD is haphazardly structured, sprawling, sloppy, duct-tape and bailing wire, spaghetti code jungle. We’ve all seen them. These systems show unmistakable signs of unregulated growth, and repeated, expedient repair. Information is shared promiscuously among distant elements of the system, often to the point where nearly all the important information becomes global or duplicated... [la grenouille]
This kind of design is truly timeless and universal. It is not unique to software; it predates computers and is found in pretty much all areas where humans have gotten involved. If there's a single design pattern we all ought to be familiar with, it is the Big Ball of Mud (also known as shantytown). The paper also presents six other patterns that often accompany the Big Ball of Mud.
 8:24:21 PM
|
|
|
|
|
Friday, November 08, 2002
|
|
| |
The First International Conference on Trust Management
This interesting-looking conference has recently showed up on my radar. It will take place in Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 28-30 May 2003. The proceedings will be published by the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series of Springer Verlag. According to the call for papers, the conference aims:
- To facilitate the cross-disciplinary investigation of fundamental issues underpinning computational trust models by bringing together expertise from technology oriented sciences, law, philosophy and social sciences.
- To facilitate the emergence of widely acceptable trust management processes for dynamic open systems and applications.
- To facilitate the development of new paradigms in the area of dynamic open systems which effectively utilise computational trust models.
- To help the incorporation of trust management elements in existing standards
Papers, short papers, panel, special session and tutorial proposals are solicited in the following list of areas which is indicative and not exhaustive:
- The ethics, sociology and psychology of trust
- Cyberspace freedom vs. safeguarding consumer confidence and trusting relations.
- Legal issues underpinning the management of trust
- Trust in Contract, service level agreement negotiation and management, organizational networks
- Models and semantics of trust
- Trust specification, analysis and reasoning
- Trust based on recommendation and reputation
- Design of trust based architectures and decision-making mechanisms for e-community and e-service interactions
- Monitoring trust
- Relationship between trust and risk
- Relationship between trust and security
There's also going to be an interdisciplinary workshop on reputation systems at MIT, but I think the deadline for participation is very near.
10:59:44 PM
|
|
|
|
|
Thursday, November 07, 2002
|
|
| |
HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux. A recent addition to the Linux Documentation Project's HOWTO collection sets out to tackle a seldom-acknowledged problem in the Linux community: women who use or are interested in Linux are often discouraged from getting involved in the community and/or learning more, by the attitudes they encounter. More generally, the same problem also applies in computing generally, the author argues. [kuro5hin.org]
3:25:33 PM
|
|
Free Online Scholarship becomes an overtly recognized threat
In today's Chronicle of Higher Education Scott Carlson reports on a PR campaign by scholarly publishers designed "in part, to quash a newfound enthusiasm among some librarians for self-publishing research results online, a practice that lets scholars bypass slow, costly academic journals."
According to Marc Brodsky, CEO of the American Institute of Physics, the campaign will focus on the advantages of publishing in traditional priced journals: "money for marketing, the prestige of a well-known journal, the expertise and mediation of an editor, and the management of peer review." (PS: As if open-access journals are not peer-reviewed, lack editors, need marketing, or cannot be prestigious. Is this the best argument priced journals have? Stay tuned for details on the campaign itself and other signs that the FOS movement is succeeding.) [FOS News]
Many scientists are still unaware that they would benefit from distributing their papers for free and of how easy it has become. Since the main problem in moving towards Free Online Scholarship is raising scientists' awareness of that possibility, the commercial publishers are in all likeliness helping speed up the transition with campaigns such as this. Way to go!
2:06:45 PM
|
|
How To Pick Eagles.
All available research indicates that the ability of a manger to predict how a future employee will perform, based upon a one hour interview, is very low. [read more] [Tony Bowden: Understanding Nothing]
1:55:03 PM
|
|
Frontierless
My good friend Philippe Beaudoin has finally succumbed to a growing urge to start a weblog, which I like to think was partially encouraged by my own initiative. Unsurprisingly, I find his blog extremely interesting. Here's the link:
] frontierless [ - Alternatives to cultural protectionism
There's a deep connection between some of what Philippe does and my own work. We share a concern with finding ways of exchanging ideas across cultures so that they enrich one another, instead of being oblivious to one another.
Philippe has already written a revealing about page, telling who he is and why he's doing this. Some of his initial posts include:
8:26:41 AM
|
|
Information Architecture Overload
David Crow reports on the Information Architecture Overload problem:
There were over 20 new titles on the book shelf about information architecture, usability, interface design, web usability, flash usability, and accessibliity. Somebody tell me am I supposed to buy a copy of every one of these books so that I can effectively recommend them to my clients and students?
7:45:58 AM
|
|
Books on the science of networks
Wired has a list of books that are similar to Smart Mobs. Related books include:
Digital Biology by Peter J. Bentley, 2001
Beyond Chaos by Mark Ward, 2001
Emergence by Steven Johnson, 2001
The Moment of Complexity by Mark Taylor, 2001
Linked by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, 2002
Nexus by Mark Buchanan, 2002
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, 2000
Six Degrees by Duncan J. Watts, 2002
The Wired article summarizes the main contribution of each book. The general theme is that the role of the connections between objects in emerging networks can account for everything. Remember back to dynamic systems, differential equations and probability, no, well these are the basis along with biology for a new generation of patterns and ideas. [David Crow]
7:43:39 AM
|
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, November 06, 2002
|
|
| |
More of that Bogdanov Stuff
Bogdanovs Chronicled. The Chronicle of Higher Education has a piece on the Bogdanov Affair. ... [Musings]
I especially like these parts from the Chronicle piece:
"Nobody on the [thesis] committee had any deep understanding of the ideas." They relied on the journal referees who had accepted Igor's papers for publication in order to judge the finer points of the work. [...]
The agreement to use publications as the critical benchmark for granting a degree is "ass backwards," says Frank A. Wilczek, a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It's a real cop-out by the committee and totally unacceptable." [...]
The scientists who sit in judgment often will not acknowledge that they cannot assess the work of their peers. "It's a very human thing," he says. "Nobody likes to admit that they don't understand something, especially if it's very fashionable." [...]
There is one way, though, for physicists to measure the importance of the Bogdanovs' work. If researchers find merit in the twins' ideas, those thoughts will echo in the references of scientific papers for years to come.
Currently, a leading database of scholarly work in high-energy physics shows that the Bogdanov brothers have earned only one citation, in an unpublished manuscript written by a nonacademic. Had it not been for the rumor of a hoax, says Mr. Verbaarschot, "probably no one would have ever known about their articles."
11:49:41 PM
|
|
Exploring the K-logs - learning connection
Spike Hall is on a roll, theorizing the relationship between k-logging and knowledge making. Good stuff. See these posts in particular:
We need processes, concepts and standards for providing supportive and useful responses as we see other's processing struggles with knowledge-making efforts. I would also suggest that we must take pains to show our knowledge-making efforts, not just our finished products.
Knowledge grows a) from the foundation of prior knowledge and character and b) in response to the demands of problem-centered activity and in proportion to the frequency of access to relevant information. As will be argued below klog-based knowledge making in formal or informal groups can be expected to result in the most accelerated learning.
11:36:34 PM
|
|
Reinventing MCB University Press. It is ironic: a journal publisher founded by dissatisfied academics is now targeted as one of the major causes of the rapid rise in the price of academic publications. This article tells the story of MCB University Press and how it became Emerald Fulltext. "'The outrage over what ... MCB did with New Library World still has not subsided,' wrote Hamaker, adding that the current subscription price for the journal (which had been $80 when Emerald acquired it) is $5,799 for 12 'issues' and 7 'dispatches.'" As a result, Emerald has alienated its readership base. "It seems reasonable to assume that the increased profits are as a direct result of charging more for what's essentially the same product." Yes, but also: the service created by academics continues to be supported by academics, writers who do not know or do not care how much the journals are charging for their contributions. By Richard Poynder, Information Today, September, 2002 [OLDaily]
11:19:12 PM
|
|
For how long can you sell creativity?
Pascale Soleil confronts big questions that I think many creative people have to face one day or another in Reclaiming My Life: A Declaration of Intent.
[...] I have sold my brains, I have sold my ideas, I have sold my vision, my persuasiveness, and my enthusiasm. And I have turned my best impulses into a commodity which, ultimately, has become a practice I despise. [...]
I'm getting off the achievement train. I'm no longer going to look to the marketplace for my success, even the rarified marketplace of the arts. I'm giving up on the concept of "making my mark." It will be enough for me to be valued in the lives of my friends, to contribute in some modest way to the betterment of my community, and to enjoy the passage of time.
If I make something wonderful, great. It will have been made because I enjoyed making it, and other people will know about it because I felt moved to share it with them. If I wind up selling some of it, that will because people want it and it will help support the process of making more, NOT because I need it to survive. I am going to play more, and worry less about whether what I'm doing is important.
I wish you best of luck, Pascale!
11:07:54 PM
|
|
Online community issues: imperfection and readability
Here's a thought-provoking post by Jennifer Klyse following the recent O'Reilly article on building online communities (which I thought I'd linked earlier but can't find). Highlights:
a "planned" online community is similar to a planned community in real life; anyone who has visited Reston, Virginia (a model "planned community") will understand what I mean--while it is clean and organized and neat, it lacks the character that make spontaneous, evolved communities so interesting. [...]
Communities with a lot of life in them are messy; the same goes for parties. I find this observation to be especially true in the research world.
One thing that isn't discussed in depth in the article, though, is the extent to which the underlying technology sets the tone for the community, aside from a brief warning about keeping the posting process simple. In my mind, the posting process is less relevant to the resulting community development than the reading process.
A similar observation is behind our group-forming mailing list's impending transplantation into a blog + threaded comments medium.
10:55:52 PM
|
|
HP, MIT Delve Deep With Digital Library. I don't want to sound too cynical, but it sounds to me like MIT has re-invented the Open Archives Initiative and slapped its own brand on it. "Called DSpace, the new system is essentially a centralized, electronic repository for the massive amounts of intellectual property created by research institutions." Not that I think they've done a bad thing - this is exactly the sort of project that should be encouraged (especially once we get them networked). But it would have been nice to see the years of effort at OAI get some credit. By Michael Kanellos, News.Com, November 4, 2002 [OLDaily]
Here's my page on the Open Archives Initiative.
2:52:35 PM
|
|
How to nurture a knowledge logging community
Here's more goodness coming from Phil and the Knowledge Board. For more background, you may want to check out my quick klognet resource page before you read this.
Roles and tasks of a community manager.
So "klognets" are little ad-hoc communities in blogspace. Suppose you want to support and nurture them? What do you do?
Sift Online Communities Insider posted these key roles and tasks to the Knowledge Board's Communities of Practice SIG.
Amongst the key roles of the community management function are:
- A visible custodian of the user's experience on the site
- A focal point for the creation and development of both content and functionality
- A driver for 'added value' content and services
- A source of leadership, standards and 'netiquette'
- A pro-active stimulator for interest, engagement and participation
- A co-ordinator of partner relations, contributions and offerings
- A public champion for the site
- A strategic thinker capable of visioning, planning, reviewing, measuring and developing the community
Depending on the nature, role and audience of your community, the tasks associated with community management can be individually identified:
- Strategic planning
- Content management
- Member relations
- Value creation
- Event scheduling
- Partner relations
- Driving revenues
More details on each of the tasks, enough to create a job description.
As klognets are embraced by project management culture, project workers will step into these roles and do this work. Expect a variation of this description to become a project communication checklist.
[Phil Wolff: community via thomas n. burg | randgänge]
Personally, I think the "community manager" appellation is a misnomer. You don't manage a community. You care for it. You nurture it. Same goes with knowledge. How about calling this role "community gardener"?
2:27:40 PM
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, November 05, 2002
|
|
| |
Leadership as releasing the energy of others
Being a characteristically lazy person, I found that the description of leadership given below really fits my style. Whenever I'm thinking of getting something done, I try to find where the energy surrounding the issue is piled up and try to find one easy orange to pull from the bottom of the pyramid. Sometimes it reminds me of that "maximum efficiency" principle from judo (though I've never done any of that stuff).
Writing a literature review for the new version of my PhD proposal, I looked at The adult learner book for a citation. Random page brought me to the chapter titled Making things happen by releasing the energy of others, a reprint of Malcolm Knowles' earlier paper. While I look at half a year back blue outlining, it becomes clear that this is the best representation of beliefs driving my PhD ideas. Beliefs don’t fit in the formal proposal, but they are perfect here.
It's about leadership, but for me this is the essence of KM:
...the highest function of leadership is releasing the energy of the people in the system and managing the process for giving that energy direction toward mutually beneficial goals.
Malcolm Knowles calls it creative leadership and proposes several characteristics of creative leaders (note – every paragraph is different citation; pp.203-209).
Creative leaders make a different set of assumption (essentially positive) about human nature from the assumptions (essentially negative) made by controlling leaders.
Creative leaders accept as a law of human nature that people feel a commitment to a decision in proportion to the extend that they feel they have participated in making it.
Creative leaders believe in and use the power of self-fulfilling prophecy.
Creative leaders highly value individuality. They sense that people perform at a higher level when they are operating on the basis of their unique strength, talents, interests, and goals than when they are trying to conform to some imposed stereotype.
Creative leaders stimulate and reward creativity.
Creative leaders are committed to a process of continues change and are skillful in managing change.
Creative leaders emphasize internal motivators over external motivators.
Creative leaders encourage people to be self-directing.
[Mathemagenic]
11:02:01 PM
|
|
|
|
|
Monday, November 04, 2002
|
|
| |
Google API Relation Browsing Outliner
Since a few people in my blog neighborhood have a knack for both Google and outliners, I figured I should post this. It came out last spring, so you may already know about it. GARBO
"lets you enter a URL, and uses the Google API to search Google for pages that are either related to (using the related: keyword) or linked to (using the link: keyword) that URL. You can then click on the triangle next to any of the results to find pages that are related or linked to those results, and so forth and so on."
Enter your blog's URL and then click away at those triangles!
12:25:13 AM
|
|
|
|
Copyleft
2006
Sebastien Paquet.
Last update:
4/22/2006; 12:07:11 PM.
This theme is based on the SoundWaves
(blue) Manila theme. |
|
|
