Read | Chris Aldrich

Read Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the meta-utopia by

Metadata is "data about data" -- information like keywords, page-length, title, word-count, abstract, location, SKU, ISBN, and so on. Explicit, human-generated metadata has enjoyed recent trendiness, especially in the world of XML. A typical scenario goes like this: a number of suppliers get together and agree on a metadata standard -- a Document Type Definition or scheme -- for a given subject area, say washing machines. They agree to a common vocabulary for describing washing machines: size, capacity, energy consumption, water consumption, price. They create machine-readable databases of their inventory, which are available in whole or part to search agents and other databases, so that a consumer can enter the parameters of the washing machine he's seeking and query multiple sites simultaneously for an exhaustive list of the available washing machines that meet his criteria.

Doctorow apparently drew out the roadmap for Twitter, democracy, and the future of society in 2001.

If everyone would subscribe to such a system and create good metadata for the purposes of describing their goods, services and information, it would be a trivial matter to search the Internet for highly qualified, context-sensitive results: a fan could find all the downloadable music in a given genre, a manufacturer could efficiently discover suppliers, travelers could easily choose a hotel room for an upcoming trip.
A world of exhaustive, reliable metadata would be a utopia. It’s also a pipe-dream, founded on self-delusion, nerd hubris and hysterically inflated market opportunities. ❧

Apparently this also now applies to politics and democracy too.
Annotated on August 06, 2020 at 09:12AM

When poisoning the well confers benefits to the poisoners, the meta-waters get awfully toxic in short order. ❧

If we look at Twitter as a worldwide annotation tool which is generating metadata on a much tinier subset of primary documents (some of which are not truthful themselves), this seems to bear out in that setting as well.

ref: Kalir & Garcia in Annotation
Annotated on August 06, 2020 at 09:17AM

Schemas aren’t neutral ❧

This section highlights why relying on algorithmic feeds in social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can be toxic. Your feed is full of what they think you’ll like and click on instead of giving you the choice.
Annotated on August 06, 2020 at 09:23AM

It’s wishful thinking to believe that a group of people competing to advance their agendas will be universally pleased with any hierarchy of knowledge. The best that we can hope for is a detente in which everyone is equally miserable. ❧

The fate of true democracies.
Annotated on August 06, 2020 at 09:33AM

↬ Jeremy Keith Replying to a tweet from @hdv (2020-08-06)

Read Improve Your Remote Collaboration With P2 by

Miguel Lezama (The WordPress.com Blog)

P2 powers internal collaboration at WordPress.com — and now it’s free for everyone. As more collaboration is happening remotely and online — work yes, but increasingly also school and persona…

It looks like Automattic is dusting off their old p2 / o2 theme projects for a new remote working platform? Here’s hoping that they consider Webmention support for true distributed cross-site @mentions.

Replied to Why I Started Microblogging by

Bryan (Bryan Sebesta)

So, I’ve started to microblog. I was inspired by Alan Jacobs’ recent article, getting back to the open web via micro.blog. One of the big reasons he supports starting a microblog this way is is because he owns the content; it’s part of his own domain, his turf. And that’s appealing to me. Ad...

Welcome to the game Bryan! Curious why you’re hosting your microblog separate from your main site instead of running them both from WordPress (not that you need to/have to)?

I’ve enjoyed linkblogging. When I read something, I can share the link along with a quote or reflection on how it affected me. It’s a great space to think out loud. ❧

Annotated on August 05, 2020 at 01:51PM

As Austin Kleon notes, blogging is a great way to discover what you have to say. My microblog has given me a chance to have thoughts, and this longer blog has given me a space to figure out what it means–to discover what it is I have to say. In other words, my microblog is where I collect the raw materials; my blog is where I assemble them into questions and, perhaps, answers. It’s a place where I figure out what I really think. ❧

Annotated on August 05, 2020 at 01:54PM

Read Aldrich Name Meaning, Family History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms (HouseOfNames)

See the Aldrich surname, family crest & coat of arms. Free Search. Uncover the Aldrich surname history for the English Origin. What is the history of the last name Aldrich?

The many generations and branches of the Aldrich family can all place the origins of their surname with the ancient Anglo-Saxon culture. Their name reveals that an early member worked as a the Old English personal name Aldrich, meaning old ruler, and refers to "a son of Aldrich." [1]

Early Origins of the Aldrich family
The surname Aldrich was first found in the counties of Sussex, Suffolk, and Surrey, where the Aldrich family held a family seat from very early times. The family had the Saxon spellings of Alderich, Ealdric, or possibly Aelfric before the Conquest.

Aldridge is a town in Staffordshire (now the West Midlands) that dates back to the Domesday Book where it was listed as Alrewic and literally means "dwelling or farm among alders" having derived from the Old English word alor + wic. [2]

The parish was originally in the union of Walsall, in the hundred of Offlow, comprised 7,752 acres and was anciently held by Robert, a tenant of William fitzAnsculf and was worth 15 shillings. [3]

Early History of the Aldrich family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Aldrich research. Another 34 words (2 lines of text) covering the years 1647, 1710, 1566 and 1507 are included under the topic Early Aldrich History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Aldrich Spelling Variations
Before the last few hundred years, the English language had no fast system of spelling rules. For that reason, spelling variations are commonly found in early Anglo-Saxon surnames. Over the years, many variations of the name Aldrich were recorded, including Aldridge, Aldrich, Alderich, Alderidge, Eldrich, Elderidge, Elderich and many more.

Read Surname Database: Aldrich Last Name Origin (The Internet Surname Database)

This interesting name is derived either from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal compound name "Aedelric". or the later town of Aldridge in Staffordshire, or Aldridge Grove in Buckingham, or from some 'lost' medieval village known to have existed near Worcester. The original personal name was composed of the elements 'adel' meaning noble and 'ric'- a ruler (noble ruler), and it is hardly surprising that in ancient times it was one of the most popular given names. This affection was transferred into the later 12th century surnames, although how many originate from the name and how many from former residence at one of the places so-called is not very unclear. The place names do derive from the Old English 'ale-wic', translating as 'the farm (wic) amongst the alder trees', and the Staffordshire town, then a single farm, is also recorded inthe Domesday Book. It is not clear as to precisely how many surnames have been created from the various sources, but they certainly include Aldrich, Aldrick, Aldridge, Alldridge, Allderidge, Elderidge, Eldridge, Elrick, Oldridge, and the dialectally transposed 'Arlidge'. The name, as a given name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 in the spellings of Ailred, Aldret and Eldred, whilst early examples of the surname include Richardus Alurici, in the charters of Warwickshire in the year 1209, Robert Alrych in the former county of Huntingdonshire in 1279, and William Eldrich in Surrey in 1336. Drogo de Alrewic in the 1202 Pipe Rolls of Stafford, most certainly originated from the town. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hugo Aelrici, which was dated 1095, in the rolls of the abbey of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, during the reign of King William 11, known as 'Rufus', reigned 1087 - 1100. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.