Seb's Open Research
|
Saturday, August 16, 2003
|
|
| |
Ontologists, do you eat your own dogfood?
EEK again: "In general, I've found that ontologists are very poor at explaining what an ontology is. This is somewhat ironic, given that ontologies are supposed to clarify meaning in ways that a simple glossary can not."
And then, just the kind of thing you'd expect Doug Engelbart to say.
He often asked, "How does the ontology community use ontologies?" If ontologies were so crucial to effective collaboration, then surely the ontology community used ontologies when collaborating with each other. Sadly, nobody ever answered his question.
Well, the Ontoweb ontology seems to be a first stab in that direction, thogh at the moment it appears as little more than a glorified directory.
 9:29:13 AM
|
|
Three Rules of Nonsense
A grandiose synthesis if you ask me. This is profound.
- The source of nonsense is that for every piece of nonsense there exists an irrelevant frame of reference in which the item is sensible.
- The persistance of nonsense comes from rigorous arguments from inapplicable assumptions.
- The diffusion of nonsense results from the fact that people are more specialist than problems.
[via McGee's Musings, via Column Two]
Somewhat related reading: Incompetence (on Wikipedia).
8:34:56 AM
|
|
Every place becomes more like itself
Ross points to a kickass article on diversity (or, rather, lack thereof) by David Brooks. Part of it touches upon the state of affairs in academic settings.
Many of us live in absurdly unlikely groupings, because we have organized our lives that way.
It's striking that the institutions that talk the most about diversity often practice it the least. For example, no group of people sings the diversity anthem more frequently and fervently than administrators at just such elite universities. But elite universities are amazingly undiverse in their values, politics, and mores.
(Jote: in the above, "unlikely" should be read as "non-random".)
I was just reading Shelley's comments (in NotWiki, and I think elsewhere) on including more non-technical people in the discussions surrounding the P/e/a syndication standard, and found myself wondering how much of a challenge it might be to make the crowd of participants more diverse than it currently is.
Part of the appeal in homogeneity is that fewer words suffice to understand one another and get "forward motion". It is remarkably difficult to succeed in integrating viewpoints from across the map. Still I think it ought to be attempted.
8:21:29 AM
|
|
|
|
|
Friday, August 15, 2003
|
|
| |
What's wrong with this picture?
Jay observes that there no longer exists such a thing as "regular Crest" toothpaste.
Some idiot brand manager in Cincinnati has decided that you must pick your market segment before you buy your Crest.
10:20:27 AM
|
|
What kind of blogger are you?
Jill writes:
Roy'd like bloggers to please participate in a survey to aid his honours research on blogs - you do have to invent answers to some questions, but they're not too demanding: "How do you explain blogs to a friend" is one we've probably all had to deal with already.
10:07:48 AM
|
|
Does blogging improve writing skills?
Michelle Housley at the University of Calgary is "dying for some solid research" on blogs as an effective way to increase writing skills in students. I'm interested too. Please leave a comment here or contact her if you're aware of such work.
10:05:31 AM
|
|
|
|
|
Thursday, August 14, 2003
|
|
| |
Buzz about BloggerCon
Berkman Center executive director John Palfrey comments. They're trying to find ways to manage the cost issue.
I don't know if it's a fair comparison, but the BlogTalk conference cost 30 or 45 euros per person, lasted two days, and a great time was had by all. I wonder how they did it. I believe Thomas managed to find a number of sponsors to "bring in the talent", and had this connection with the owner of the Karolinenhof hotel.
5:52:21 AM
|
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
|
|
| |
Paul Valery. "What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves." [Quotes of the Day]
11:38:41 AM
|
|
World's Longest Palindrome?
A palindrome is a string that reads the same in reverse. This one, created by Peter Norvig (who is Director of Search Quality at Google) starts with "A man, a plan, a caddy" and ends with "Steele, Roydd, a canal, Panama". The middlepoint letter is a Y.
9:28:28 AM
|
|
eLearning Forum discussion: August 15
I plan to attend this session remotely. Jay Cross will interview Knowledge Management pioneer Verna Allee, then practitioners from Intel, Novell, ChevronTexaco, and KAPS Group will share their perspectives on the convergence of KM and eLearning.
eLearning and Knowledge Management: Best Practices and Case Studies
You've heard of Knowledge Management, but do you know how to put it into practice? How would you apply it to an eLearning strategy? Join us when two of the Bay Area's premier organizations in KM and eLearning join forces for a lively and interactive exploration of best practices and case studies at the convergence of e-Learning and Knowledge Management.
9:07:42 AM
|
|
|
|
Copyleft
2006
Sebastien Paquet.
Last update:
4/22/2006; 12:13:16 PM.
This theme is based on the SoundWaves
(blue) Manila theme. |
|
|
