- ScriptCover — open source Javascript coverage tool.
- Using the $35 Tablet from India (VentureBeat) — nice description of the tablet and what it’s like to use. What makes the Aakash tablet different is that its creators didn’t strive for perfection. Instead, the emphasis was on getting the product into the market quickly so it could be adopted, tinkered with, and improved over time. As Wadhwa said, “to get the cost down, you have to make some compromises.”
- Royal Society Journal Archive Free to Access — the Royal Society, the world’s oldest scientific publisher, has made its journal archive permanently free to access. They also announced an open access journal.
- Intellectual Property in ACTA and the TPP: Lessons Not Learned — ACTA, therefore, as the closest thing we have to a “high protection consensus”, ought to be seen as a kind of ceiling to what is possible or desirable for the present. As I will further show, however, this is far from the approach being adopted by the US in the TPP negotiations. The US’ apparent determination to treat its existing FTAs, and ACTA, as a floor, rather than a ceiling, may well undermine the whole purpose of the TPP negotiations. (via Michael Geist)
"publishing" entries
Thoughts on ebooks triggered by the appointment of Andrew Savikas as CEO of Safari Books Online
Subscription is the right model for heavy users, pay-per-view works for occasional users, ad-supported appears to be the best way to fund fast-changing current content, and of course, some content is better rendered as an app than a book.
Five ways to improve publishing conferences
Conferences get stuck in ruts because we treat them like conferences.
Keynotes and panel discussions may not be the best way to program conferences. What if organizers instead structured events more like a great curriculum?
Sensors, data, UI and the future of publishing
Tweets and related information from Tim O'Reilly's Silverchair Strategies 2011 presentation.
In a recent keynote address, Tim O'Reilly looked at how sensors, data and interfaces will shape information delivery.
Four short links: 27 October 2011
Javascript Coverage, Cheap Tablets, Open Archive, ACTA vs TPP
Wrap-up from FLOSS Manuals book sprint at Google
Mixtures of grassroots content generation and unique expertise have existed, and more models will be found. Understanding the points of commonality between the systems will help us develop such models.
FLOSS Manuals books published after three-day sprint
Joining the pilgrimage that all institutions are making toward wider data use, FLOSS Manuals is exposing more and more of the writing process.
Day two of FLOSS Manuals book sprint at Google Summer of Code summit
As a relatively conventional book, the KDE manual was probably a little easier to write (but also probably less fun) than the more high-level approaches taken by some other teams that were trying to demonstrate to potential customers that their projects were worth adopting.
Day one of FLOSS Manuals book sprint at Google Summer of Code summit
Four teams at Google launched into endeavors that will lead, less than 72 hours from now, to complete books on four open source projects.
FLOSS Manuals sprint starts at Google Summer of Code summit
Four free software projects have each sent three to five volunteers to write books about the projects this week. Along the way we'll all learn about the group writing process and the particular use of book sprints to make documentation for free software.
Harvard's Berkman Center hosts star-studded forum on media and the "vast wasteland"
May 9, 1961 marked the first public appearance of Newt Minow as FCC
chairman, where he achieved immortality by raising the claim that
television was a "vast wasteland." The phrase entered American life so
thoroughly that citing it has become almost reflexive in media
commentary over the intervening fifty years. Last night, the Berkman
Center held a gala event re-examining media, and the main guest of
honor was…Newt Minow!