Journalist skills: Learn command line usage

Bellingcat provides a workshop for people with no experience using the command line. The idea is to gain essential skills that will open up the possibility of using a range of other digital tools toward open source investigative work. You can find out more and sign up from this page. This command line workshop is …

Continue reading "Journalist skills: Learn command line usage"

Mastodon Social Media Instances of Interest

The Mastodon social networks have attracted a lot more attention recently. I posted on concepts behind Mastodon, ActivityPub, and this federated style of social media a few years ago. To help anyone that is thinking of trying out Mastodon, the rest of this post highlights some Mastodon communities (instances) that are worth your while to …

Continue reading "Mastodon Social Media Instances of Interest"

Open Access in Our Lives – Seer

The Concordia Library is presenting an interactive digital experience, Seer, which asks people to “explore questions about our world through open access research sources. Seer helps people discover, in a playful context, how open access benefits everyone.” Learn what went into making Seer, here. OA Week 2022 (October 24-30) presents an opportunity to show that …

Continue reading "Open Access in Our Lives – Seer"

Creative Commons Workshop for Concordia Students

If you’d like to learn how to get, collaborate on, and share open access research or creative content with Creative Commons (CC) licences, then you should register for my next workshop happening on Tuesday, 26 October (during Open Access Week 2021). The workshop will help you get a better understanding of how to find CC-licensed …

Continue reading "Creative Commons Workshop for Concordia Students"

Much Better Ways of Studying

Paul Penn’s article, How to Study Effectively (Psyche Magazine) provides insights on why common study techniques fail us. Research shows that cramming doesn’t work well for gaining knowledge before a test but there are other techniques that do work. Penn makes the point that: “Using our memory effectively is less about maximising exposure to a …

Continue reading "Much Better Ways of Studying"

19th Annual Concordia Library Research Forum

The 2021 Concordia Library Research Forum will take place on the 27th and 28th of April. There is an excellent lineup of presentations and posters (like always) addressing library or archive research (completed or in-progress). In the past, the Forum took place in a physical venue allowing a sizeable but limited group of attendees. We …

Continue reading "19th Annual Concordia Library Research Forum"

Companies Can’t Just Put Surveillance Tech into Libraries

There’s a good read about a few oligopolistic publishers that proposed unethical surveillance technologies for academic libraries. I thought that the original article, while addressing a lot and from a variety of people, was missing some perspective from librarians on the subject. I wrote some points about this third-party potential for breaching confidentiality in a …

Continue reading "Companies Can’t Just Put Surveillance Tech into Libraries"

Proctorio Legal Aggression

A Learning Technology Specialist at UBC was rightly critical of Proctorio so the company is suing him. Considering the ethical, technical or other transgressions of automated test proctoring/surveillance tools like Proctorio, it’s worth thinking about how this situation is unfolding. He’s set up a GoFundMe campaign for some support and if successful, proceeds would go …

Continue reading "Proctorio Legal Aggression"

Think about Algorithmic Test Proctoring

Read Shea Swauger’s article, Our Bodies Encoded: Algorithmic Test Proctoring in Higher Education. It identifies deep concerns about algorithmic test proctoring. Right now, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing everyone to quickly adapt to different ways of doing things, students are facing their final exams. Within universities, I know many people at all levels that are …

Continue reading "Think about Algorithmic Test Proctoring"

Creative Commons Certificate Program

If you have an interest in learning more about the Creative Commons and open access licensing issues. This year, the Creative Commons began offering an online certificate program, which helps you learn about all things CC. It started as a sort of beta offer but has matured. The certificate originally targeted educators and librarians, which …

Continue reading "Creative Commons Certificate Program"

Using CC Licences for Collections & Remixes

This short presentation helps distinguish the idea of a collection of work versus “remixing” and adapting work. This presentation is available as a LibreOffice odp file here.

What Makes a Creative Commons Licence and How is it Useful?

If we open a Creative Commons licence up, what do we find? Here’s a brief Prezi presentation that gets into the guts of CC licences or a PDF download.

Some Tips on NC, SA, & ND attributes in Creative Commons Licences

Here are three things about various attributes that can be found in Creative Commons licences, which I find are not necessarily obvious, but good to know (details on the CC site). First, when a CC licence has a NonCommercial (NC) designation, it means, roughly, that employing the work for a commercial use is not permitted. …

Continue reading "Some Tips on NC, SA, & ND attributes in Creative Commons Licences"

Open Access Week 2018

International Open Access Week spans 22 – 28 of October this year. It’s a great time to find out more about open access initiatives that you can both benefit from and participate in. Open Access enables people to learn from a much greater commons of research and knowledge than would otherwise be possible. It’s a …

Continue reading "Open Access Week 2018"

Briefly, about Copyright Law & CC Licences

Copyright gives the people that create various works, certain legal controls over those works. As the name suggests, it limits copying (thus various forms of usage) to those authorized to do so. Depending on jurisdictions, it also codifies things such as moral rights. The Creative Commons licences simplify an author’s ability to authorize copying and …

Continue reading "Briefly, about Copyright Law & CC Licences"

Timeline Leading to the Formation of the Creative Commons

Paywall Is A Compelling Documentary, Advocates OA

Last Friday night, I watched the new documentary, Paywall: The Business of Scholarship. If you're involved in research, scholarly communication, or even just concerned with the availability of knowledge (especially as it results from public funding), then I recommend watching this film. You can easily stream it and, in-line with its subject matter, it will not cost you anything.

Switch to a Mastodon Social Network

The Mastodon social network system is the most promising advance I’ve seen recently toward establishing a better, more compelling social networking system. I’ll explain why I think it’s worth leaving closed networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, etc. for Mastodon. I’d also like to say a little about how Mastodon works and mention something nice …

Continue reading "Switch to a Mastodon Social Network"

National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

Today marks the 1989 massacre of fourteen women studying engineering in Montréal. We need to remember this tragedy. Tonight a memorial will take place on Mont Royal. Also, The Parliament of Canada established today as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

Try the Engineering Academic Challenge (Concordia Student Event)

The Engineering Academic Challenge asks students to figure out answers to a variety of interesting engineering questions by using databases with Engineering Village and Knovel. There will be an event at Concordia for engineering students to try the challenge (it includes food). Competing against universities from all over the world, you can also win some nice …

Continue reading "Try the Engineering Academic Challenge (Concordia Student Event)"

Comment on Mass Replicability by Ephemera and the National Memory – Phy-d’eau

[…] continue to be concerned with what I once called digital cultural amnesia. Though in reflecting on the word “amnesia” I no longer think it’s the best way to express […]

Comment on Google Plus – A Few Early Thoughts by Joshua Chalifour

In reply to <a href="https://www.knowfore.ca/pundit/products-info-tech/2011/google-plus-a-few-early-thoughts/#comment-5">edgeArchitect</a>. Likewise, I wish I had invites to send out (I don't). :-)

Comment on Google Plus – A Few Early Thoughts by edgeArchitect

Very true, I've also been having doubts about Google's Invite way of doing things. I've loved Wave, but the lack of people on a Social Network has a DeathOnArrival written all over it. I do still use the Wave, but only for taking quick notes or exchanging ideas with 2-3 collegues. Still waiting for my G+ Invite, :S

Comment on Wave’s Death Could be Preparation for a Rebirth by WaveLook

Google Wave is dead, but Wave is alive and well at http://wavelook.com We have: - Wave integrated into Outlook (available today) - Wave web app (coming soon, sign up for beta) - Wave server (coming soon) if you need anything else, please let us know: support@wavelook.com

Comment on Done Waiting for Bing Wow by Phil D

Hi Josh, If you're looking for a fresh take on internet searching, please take a look at this prototype. www.beyondadze.com The long term goal of the company behind beyondadze is this: The search engines we have at the moment are simple flint tools in comparison with what we really need and what will be available in 10 years time. beyondadze aims to develop a number of specialised search tools that really make a difference to the user's ability to find relevant information. Currently, beyondadze has only one tool, but it's potentially quite a powerful one. ThreeCore was developed to combat the problem of trying to find useful websites (note: websites, not pages). The problem you face if you're trying to identify a website that has a wealth of high-value information on a range of related topics is that, using the current search engines, as you increase the number of search terms, so the value of the pages they find plummets. Suppose you're looking for a number of good articles on medical research. So you type in "medical research cystic fibrosis oncology asthma". The chances of a single page on the internet having high-value information on all these three topics is very remote. ThreeCore, beyondadze's first offering solves this problem. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Comment on Start the Wave: Disintermediating Social by Daniel Graversen

You are right bulding wave servers are an order of magniturde more complex than Email and it is interesting the protcol is open. Even google is trying to not control the Wave it seems like they are the largest power in charge of it. Will be interesting to see which other parties are involved with Wave.

Comment on Dell Mini & Ubuntu Love by Matt

Thanks. I just figured it out. Right click on an open part of the panel, select 'add to panel,' and add 'main menu.' I didn't try that before because I thought the 'main menu' was what I already had (with the words).

Comment on Dell Mini & Ubuntu Love by Josh Chalifour

Oh, if you right click on the panel it gives you the option of removing the wordy menus and adding the other type of menu. I'm forgetting exactly what it's called offhand because a few weeks ago I wiped the mini clean and installed the latest Kubuntu jaunty beta. The latest KDE interface is really slick and almost everything has worked flawlessly on the Dell mini. The only real exception is I haven't figured out how to make the wireless connection remember my password automatically.

Comment on Dell Mini & Ubuntu Love by Matt

I just received my Mini 9. It shipped with Dell's custom Ubuntu, but I almost immediately wiped it clean and installed plain vanilla Ubuntu 8.10. I tried the UNR, and while I like the general idea, I prefer a plain desktop. I like how you have the main menu (just the Ubuntu "circle" icon instead of the Applications, Places, and System words taking up space). Dell's custom Ubuntu also had the menu like you have it, but I can't figure out how to configure it that way. Could you tell me how you got it to look the way you have it?

Comment on Dell Mini & Ubuntu Love by Josh Chalifour

Ricardus, the only way that I'm aware is to use the standard Ubuntu desktop as opposed to the remix one that has Maximus. But I don't know why it would maximize all your windows still since it sounds like you're already using that interface. You might check the <a href="http://www.ubuntuforums.org" rel="nofollow">Ubuntu forums</a> or I found this <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/UbuntuMini/browse_thread/thread/935ed363694817ac/5cb517a62b81908b?lnk=gst&q=maximized+windows#5cb517a62b81908b" rel="nofollow">group</a> useful. Here's a <a href="http://mydellmini.com/forum/how-to-stop-window-being-maximized-all-the-time--t4164.html#p34344" rel="nofollow">link</a> that sounds like your same problem. And this explains how to <a href="http://www.ubuntu-eee.com/wiki/index.php5?title=How_to_use_Ubuntu_Eee_8.04.1%27s_Regular_Desktop_mode_instead_of_the_Netbook_Remix_interface" rel="nofollow">stop maximus</a>.

Comment on Dell Mini & Ubuntu Love by Ricardus

Is there a way with Ubuntu on the Mini 9 to get it so that it doesn't maximize every window when you open it? I'm using the standard (Classic) Ubuntu desktop.

Comment on Dell Mini & Ubuntu Love by Leslie Satenstein

Josh, Have you managed to put kde 4.2.1 (I believe it is the very latest). I am waiting to put a SSD card into my desktop machine. It has the ASUS motherboard that supports a direct boot to a mini-linux supporting webbrowser and email . I am a Fedora Geek Leslie

Comment on Dell Mini & Ubuntu Love by Josh Chalifour

hehe, yes I'm looking forward to the opportunity of putting the new KDE4.2 on it. I'm using it on another non-mini computer and like it quite a bit.

Comment on Dell Mini & Ubuntu Love by john f

My wife has been using hers for 3 months, finally she said to change the Ubuntu, she finds it looks like WIn98 and its depressing as hell. She wants it to look like our other home computers which run PCLinuxOS w/KDE3.5 and Mandriva w. KDE4.2 and a few loose Puppy here and there. Ive never been prouder of my little Windows addict :-)

Comment on E-mail Replacement Idea by John

Well.... First, blogging is more like publishing a paper than writing a note. If I want to write you, I don't need to publish it for the whole world to see. Yes, through security you can control who sees what content. However, what you are doing is using a publishing system and then hacking it into a messaging system. Possible? Yes. Ideal? No. Second, with blogging, the intention is to leave content available on a server forever. While this might satisfy US archiving requirements I don't think people are going to be happy about leaving their deep dark secrets (sent to one person) on a blogging server forever and hope that the security always works for time immemorial. Third, email has many problems besides spam. Encryption, for one, is a major problem with email today. It is just too difficult for the masses to adopt it. I guess you could handle this through the security system mentioned above. Fourth, people love the offline convenience of email composing. You could compose in an HTML editor but how many people want to do that? If you use something else, then when you connect it is not just hitting send/receive but rather you must setup everything when you are online. This moves more work from being able to be done offline to requiring it to be done online. I do agree that we need a replacement for email. Spam, authentication, encryption/privacy, delivery notifications are all major issues needing to be solved. However, I think there is already a replacement out there. Check out http://TrulyMail.com and you will see what I mean.

Comment on Wiki While You Work by Dario

Hi Josh, thanks for the nice words on Wikka. I agree that the popular security concern ("in a wiki everyone can edit and read anything") is truly unjustified. Several 2nd generation wiki engines (including Wikka, but surprisingly not MediaWiki) offer fine-grained ACL allowing admins to determine who has privileges do access specific kinds of content (e.g. who can read/write/delete a page, read/write/delete a comment, upload/download a file etc). We'd love to hear more about your experience using Wikka: if you want to share some ideas or requests, feel free to start a userpage on our website or pop by on our #wikka IRC channel at freenode.net

Comment on Wiki While You Work by Josh Chalifour

Lee--very interesting example. The electronic storage nightmare that is discovery, is something I've become well-acquainted with in recent times. I call it a nightmare, not because I think there's anything inherently bad about it, but because it's a huge amount of work. When I read your comment, at first I thought "who would want to add to that?" but considering it more, I agree with your comment about the "relatively controlled" environment enabled by a wiki. (actually I think, perhaps it would have been smart to implement one a long time ago, but that's another story). I'm wondering whether a wiki coudl actually make some aspects of discovery easier and more clear for all the parties involved. If nothing else, it could centralize and give order to a lot of chaos in a way that e-mail archives or instant messaging or a file server can't. But I think it might be able to do more too. Our electronic communication methods now record and disseminate all kinds of communication in ways that nobody used to think about or intend. I believe you essentially said that this can lead to errors, and I would guess, often errors that take place this way can come about even through good-intentioned efforts. It's a massive amount of work to find and understand what these electronic artefacts are and mean. With e-mail, it's sometimes hard to understand the path of the message. Has it been forwarded outside of a work account? Who has been copied on which messages, did they see the entire string of messages or only part? At which points? Did the person forwarding a message change any part of it before forwarding it? Was the content of an attachment accurately represented or received? There are more issues, but e-mail is wild. It gets passed around very easily, and often though innocently, with little understanding of what the actual content (including things like tone of voice, intentions, etc.) of the e-mail message may mean or refer to. Unlike e-mail, wiki pages are not so easily sent to outside mail accounts, nor can they (if set up this way) be changed from person to person without the open and visible tracking of those changes. In an e-mail, people might be prone to summarize or leave out important points because these points might not be necessary to their particular message (though perhaps very important in some other way) or they don't take the care to recopy all the information needed or are just careless. Maybe they don't have the most up-to-date information to refer to in their messages. Again the easy linkability of wiki pages encourages people to link to the same, already existing pages (rather than reinvent the wheel). If they need to, they can correct and update those pages (of course, the history is typically tracked by the wiki with the person's name, a timestamp, and before/after views), which are then also available to other people that need them. In other words, instead of having many copies of some information that could be inaccurate, there could be a page that many eyes refer to and visibly maintain its accuracy. A wiki might also decrease the confusion that results when someone innacurately responds to a forwarded or group e-mail, because s/he didn't read the entire string of messages or certain key recipients were left off and didn't have full knowledge of what was being written about. I suppose there is no guarantee that anyone will read an entire wiki page either, but at least there is just one version of the wiki page rather than any number of copies of different e-mail accounts. The wiki, though it feels at first glance like a lot of chaos, actually imposes a transparent control on its content which e-mail, instant messaging, shared file servers, etc. lack. If people were to use a wiki more frequently and e-mail less frequently maybe it would ultimately save a company a lot of work during a legal discovery process.

Comment on Wiki While You Work by Lee Ward

Hi Josh Really excellent post. I am a senior manager at a very large regulated company (pharmaceuticals). There is, in my opinion, inordinate concern within the firm about the legal exposure of permitting wikis within the firewall. The argument is apparently that we are increasing the volume of potentially inaccurate information that might be discoverable in any legal proceeding. For example, in a scientific wiki, it is possible that the safety profile of a medicine under development could be incorrectly or prematurely stated. My opinion is that such posts in relatively "controlled" environments such as wikis pale in comparison to the rubbish that can be broadcast via email, instant messaging and the like--all of which is also discoverable in such situations. Any thoughts on this, or any information that might be useful on this topic? Best regards, Lee

Comment on Wiki While You Work by Mark Wiseman

Josh Great to see a real life example from someone, who has set up a workplace wiki. I think each workplace will make its choices based on its own needs and the ideas of the wiki champions who introduce the idea. There is not a lot of shared experience out there yet, so it was good to see your story. Mark

Comment on Mass Replicability – Part 2 by David

Here's my thought, and I may be talking through my hat: The Platonic tree (say) can only have clarity if there are enough "real" trees (copies) to give it a shape. Thus, a nice paradox: the more copies there are (I'm assuming imperfect copies, although that might not be suitable for your discussion), the more well-defined the Platonic ideal becomes. My 1 cent plus a copy.