PUBLIC MARKS with search discussion

Karl, La Grange le 21 décembre 2009

La discussion est difficile car elle mélange les genres.

1. La politique de nombreux éditeurs face à leurs auteurs est digne de l’exploitation. N’oublions pas que sur le prix d’un livre l’auteur ne touche qu’environ 10% des droits (sauf dans certaines maisons d’éditions numériques).

2. La disponibilité des titres épuisés qui ne seront jamais réimprimés par un éditeur est un gros problème.

3. L’impossibilité pour certains auteurs de jouir de leur texte une fois cette édition épuisée est anormale.

4. Google indexe les livres des auteurs sans le demander est en effet à discuter.

5. Google empêchant l’accès aux livres tombés dans le domaine public qu’ils ont numérisé est anormal. (Au moins le gouvernement français a négocié avec les mormons pour les microfilms d’état civil d’en avoir une copie libre d’utilisation)

Finalement, toutes ces batailles légales ne protègent pas les auteurs mais le gagne-pain des maisons d’éditions qui font un revenu plus ou moins important sur une économie d’échelle. Et c’est cela qui dérange certains auteurs.

Les professions qui auront dû mal (ou vont en partie disparaître) dans les années qui viennent :

* libraire

* éditeur

* imprimeur

Les auteurs (la littérature) continueront de vivre. Ils ne gagnaient déjà pas leur vie avec les livres.

nl is a python library, that exposes a declarative API that allows us to build sentences and rules. These are used as input for a knowledge base built on the CLIPS production system. CLIPS builds a Rete network with the rules and sentences, which can then be queried for the consecuences of those in a most efficient way.

The main claim of nl is to offer a syntax that can accommodate any coherent theory that we may build with the natural language (in the same sense as something like the semantic web's OWL-Full would), while at the same time being based on a simple finite domain first order theory. This theory is NL, a discussion of which can be found here. This discussion is probably required reading to understand the breadth and the limits of nl, but not to start using it.

Description: Discussion group for designers and developers creating prototypes using purely HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Vanilla is an open-source, standards-compliant, multi-lingual, theme-able, pluggable discussion forum for the web.

Martha asks a number of questions about RDF in the article. Even the title is a question: "Can Bibliographic data be Put Directly onto the Semantic Web?" (Answer: it already is ) Martha is conducting an admirable gedanken experiment about the future of cataloging, creating her own cataloging code and trying to mesh her ideas with concepts coming out of the semantic web community. The article's value is not only in her conclusions but in the questions that she raises. In its unfinished state, Martha's thinking is provocative and just begging for further discussion and development.

Recently InfoQ did a good summary of the debates around the apparent (to some) limitations of REST when it comes to creating good Web services. At issue is that REST APIs seem to expose "CRUDy" services that fly in the face of years of good services design, particularly when they are just read/write interfaces instead of the richer, full REST architecture (more on what this is later.) The discussion was spurred by Arnon Rotem-Gal-Oz's assertion recently that CRUD is bad for REST, which in my opinion is close but not quite right.

Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya, widely known as Africa's largest slum, remains a blank spot on the map. Without basic knowledge of the geography and resources of Kibera it is impossible to have an informed discussion on how to improve the lives of residents. This November, young Kiberans create the first public digital map of their own community.

Theme of the symposium was “la ville cartographiée” (the city map), and to give our contribute to the discussion, we were warmly welcome to the ‘Cité des sciences et de l’industrie‘; built in the 19th arrondissement, just beside Parc de la Villette, ‘La Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie’ is one of the world’s largest and most visited science museums, and looks as an impressive modern site which offers a wide variety of exhibitions and shows.

15 Questionnaire

It would be very interesting if you could share a mockup, template of your questionnaire. Or if specific to each projects you are creating, at least, the type of questions in the questionnaire.

On the side of the No No for projects, setting a deadline for delivery of the projects or even a step without having all the materials which guarantee the delivery date.

We have to be very careful when committing to dates, to also set the right expectations of the client. Too often, in a project, it is possible to say, let’s release this section at this date YYYY-MM-DD, the materials will be given to you in the next two weeks. Red flag. It is often better to say, once given this list of items (deliveryDate), we will be releasing this section at “deliveryDate 10 business days”.

In middle size agencies, there is also an issue of resources management. There is more than one project in parallel. Explaining to the client that if he/she misses a particular window, the project will be delayed.

Keep written records of every discussions you had, put down the RESOLUTION and the ACTION. After each meeting, send your meeting minutes to the project participants and the client. It is often better to have a scribe. If you get phone calls from the clients (which is fine), send a summary of the discussion just after.

If you are using a project management system (be mail, sharepoint, basecamp, etc. anything), if the client says “It is not the way I work”, rise a red flag again.

Be careful also of the “just this time” or “just for once” on a exceptional work issue, because if you authorize it once, the client will keep the foot in the door, to reuse it again.

posted at 10:38 am on October 21, 2009 by karlcow

Places & Spaces: Mapping Science is meant to inspire cross-disciplinary discussion on how to best track and communicate human activity and scientific progress on a global scale. It has two components: the physical part supports the close inspection of high quality reproductions of maps for display at conferences and education centers; the online counterpart provides links to a selected series of maps and their makers along with detailed explanations of how these maps work. The exhibit is a 10-year effort. Each year, 10 new maps are added resulting in 100 maps total in 2014.