A report on my personal and so far successful campaign to get organized. If you’re of a certain age or you’ve studied the Reagan era, the name Fawn Hall will mean something to you. As Oliver North’s secretary, she shredded documents related to the Iran-contra affair. She also had memorable hair and was fined for… Continue reading »
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Open Peer Review in the Times (and, oh yes, in the Chronicle)
Today’s New York Times has a front-page story about scholars challenging the old-school system of peer review (“Scholars Test Web Alterntive to Peer Review”). The story focuses on an experiment at Shakespeare Quarterly, the leading journal of Shakespeare studies. The journal put some submitted articles online and opened them up for public comment before deciding… Continue reading »
Hyperabundance and Scarcity, or Enough Is Enough
There’s a stack of publishers’ catalogs on my desk at work nearly a foot high. There are 5, 645 messages in my mail inbox. My family’s digital photo archives contain about 13,000 pictures–and my kids are only in elementary school. You don’t want to know how many scraps of paper I have on my desk… Continue reading »
Hacking the Academy
There’s an intriguing project under way right now called Hacking the Academy. The basic idea is to crowd-source a book in a week. The topic? How to overhaul/undo/redo/reshape the mechanisms that govern scholarship and how it is created, taught, and shared. Read the details here. It’s not my place to suggest answers but I can… Continue reading »
Libel and Lemonade
My kids had a lemonade stand a couple of weeks ago. They made a little money–enough to clear a profit and pad their piggybanks a little. Neighbors and passers-by stopped to chat and have a cup of lemonade and a freshly baked gingersnap. It was a pleasant scene–who doesn’t love lemonade on a hot day,… Continue reading »
