📺 Another Web Bites the Dust | YouTube

Watched Another Web Bites the Dust by Alan Levine from YouTube
A salute to just 35 once vibrant free web sites that have bit the dust. Read their names (below) the next time someone raves about some site that will host your content for free. I'm prepping to do an updated version in 2018- please add dead webs to include in the comments.
An awesome little concept to highlight corporate silo site-deaths.

📺 Open science: Michael Nielsen at TEDxWaterloo | YouTube

Watched Open science: Michael Nielsen at TEDxWaterloo by Michael NielsenMichael Nielsen from YouTube

Michael Nielsen is one of the pioneers of quantum computation. Together with Ike Chuang of MIT, he wrote the standard text in the field, a text which is now one of the twenty most highly cited physics books of all time. He is the author of more than fifty scientific papers, including invited contributions to Nature and Scientific American. His research contributions include involvement in one of the first quantum teleportation experiments, named as one of Science Magazine's Top Ten Breakthroughs of the Year for 1998. Michael was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of New Mexico, and has worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, as the Richard Chace Tolman Prize Fellow at Caltech, as Foundation Professor of Quantum Information Science at the University of Queensland, and as a Senior Faculty Member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Michael left academia to write a book about open science, and the radical change that online tools are causing in the way scientific discoveries are made.

Sadly this area of science hasn’t opened up as much as it likely should have in the intervening years. More scientists need to be a growing part of the IndieWeb movement and owning their own data, their content, and, yes, even their own publishing platforms. With even simple content management systems like WordPress researchers can actively practice academic samizdat to a much greater extent and take a lot of the centralized power away from the major journal and textbook publishing enterprises.

I can easily see open web technology like the Webmention spec opening up online scientific communication and citations drastically even to the point of quickly replacing tools like Altmetric. If major publishing wants something to do perhaps they could work on the archiving and aggregation portions?

What if one could publish a research paper or journal article on one’s own (or one’s lab’s) website? It could receive data via webmention about others who are bookmarking it, reading it, highlighting and annotating it. It could also accept webmention replies as part of a greater peer-review process–the equivalent of the researcher hosting their own pre-print server as well as their own personal journal and open lab notebook.

We need to help empower scientists to be the center of their own writing and publishing. For those interested, this might be a useful starting point: https://indieweb.org/Indieweb_for_Education

 

 

Watched Getting Started With the Open Science Framework from YouTube

Have you heard about the Open Science Framework? Do you want to organize your research with this free research management tool? This video will teach you the basics of navigating the OSF and creating your first projects.

The Open Science Framework (OSF) is a free research management software that is created by the Center for Open Science (COS).

Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/
Center for Open Science: https://cos.io

📺 WIKITONGUES: John speaking Lojban | YouTube

Watched WIKITONGUES: John speaking Lojban from YouTube

Lojban is a constructed language that emerged in 1987 as an offshoot of Loglan, which was developed in 1955 to test the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (that the structure of a language affects the cognitive processes of its speaker). Lojbanists sought to refine Loglan's structure as a logical language, void of the subjective ambiguity inherent in natural languages. It is therefore considered to be a 'syntactically unambiguous' tongue, and has been proposed as a potential programming language and means for machine translation.

📺 re:publica 2018 – Jim Groom: Domain of One’s Own: Reclaim Your Data | YouTube

Watched re:publica 2018: Domain of One's Own: Reclaim Your Data by Jim GroomJim Groom from YouTube

A Domain of One's Own is an international initiative in higher education to give students and faculty more control over their personal data. The movement started at the University of Mary Washington in 2012, and has since grown to tens of thousands of faculty and students across hundreds of universities. The first part of this presentation (5-10 minutes) will provide a brief overview of how these Domains projects enable not only data portability for coursework, but also a reflective sense of what a digital identity might mean in terms of privacy and data ownership.

The second part of this presentation will explore how Domain of One's Own could provides a powerful example in how higher education could harness application programming interfaces (APIs) to build a more user-empowered data ecosystem at universities. The initial imaginings of this work has already begun at Brigham Young University in collaboration with Reclaim Hosting, and we will share a blueprint of what a vision of the Personal API could mean for a human-centric data future in the realm of education and beyond.

A short talk at the re:publica conference in Germany which touches on the intersection of the Domain of One’s Own which is very similar to the broader IndieWeb movement. POSSE makes a brief appearance at the end of the presentation, although just on a slide with an implicit definition rather than a more full-fledged discussion.

Toward the end, Groom makes mention of MyData, a Nordic Model for human-centered personal data management and processing, which I’d not previously heard of but which has some interesting resources which look like they might dovetail into some of what those in the IndieWeb are looking at. I’m curious if any of the folks in the EU like Sebastian Greger have come across them, and what their thoughts are on the idea/model they’ve proposed? It looks like they’ve got an interesting looking conference coming up at the end of August in Helsinki. There seems to be a white paper outlining a piece of their philosophy, which I’ll link to below:

MyData: A Nordic Model for human-centered personal data management and processing by Antti Poikola (t), Kai Kuikkaniemi (t), Harri Honko (t)

This white paper presents a framework, principles, and a model for a human-centric approach to the managing and processing of personal information. The approach – defined as MyData – is based on the right of individuals to access the data collected about them. The core idea is that individuals should be in control of their own data. The MyData approach aims at strengthening digital human rights while opening new opportunities for businesses to develop innovative personal data based services built on mutual trust.

Based on a quick overview, this is somewhat similar to a model I’ve considered and is reminiscent to some ideas I’ve been harboring about applications of this type of data to the journalism sphere as well.

📺 5 Amazing Bike Inventions You Need To See | YouTube

Watched 5 Amazing Bike Inventions You Need To See from YouTube
Links:
01- Swytch : http://www.swytchbike.com
02- Jolt Electric Bike : http://igg.me/at/jolt-electric-bike/x
03- VELLO BIKE+ : http://www.vello.bike
04- Rubbee X: http://www.rubbee.co.uk
05- Halfbike : http://halfbikes.com/

📺 A closer look at the Halfbike – the pedal powered answer to a Segway | YouTube

Watched A closer look at the Halfbike - the pedal powered answer to a Segway from YouTube

Like a penny farthing made love to a tricycle, the Halfbike is one of the cutest modes of non-motorised transport around. Here's my review.
Check out the Halfbike on www.halfbikes.com

📺 Why to buy a Micro Pedalflow | YouTube

Watched Why to buy a Micro Pedalflow from YouTube

It was time to reinterpret and revise the modern fun machine. The new aluminium rims are one of the most notable changes. In addition to being very chic, they are much more resistant and robust than the original spokes. The pedals were also strengthened and the pedal crank widened, lending extreme stability to the chain system. The bicycle chain was lengthened and now facilitates even simpler acceleration. In short, it is now even more stable and capable of meeting the heavy demands of Pedalflow fans.

But don’t panic, even those of us who are less sportingly inclined can enjoy the Pedalflow. It’s still very easy to ride and, thanks to its light weight of only 7 kg, suitable for commuters or a pleasant trip around town. It can be folded with ease and its compact design stowed away without difficulty.

📺 Bicycle? Scooter? Meet the new Stike. my-stike.com | YouTube

Watched Bicycle? Scooter? Meet the new Stike. my-stike.com from YouTube

Stike is a new generation human powered short range vehicle. Its elegant and handy design enables a smooth ride on asphalt and concrete surfaces. Stike converts rider's body weight directly to power by its saddleless structure. Standing riding position and pedaling cycle similar to walking motion presents a brand new experience you never met before. Stike adds joy to your life!