Parallel Production Sucks

Despite being totally aware of the consequences I am now stuck (again) with the job of writing several things in parallel. In the next two weeks I need to finish my open access report for Lund, two book chapters and a licensing booklet. The actual content is not the problem – what is the problem is despite all efforts to the contrary deadlines have a tendency to expand and contract to finally collect themselves in nasty little clusters that force the whole writing process into an attempt to beat text from the dead mind of the writer.

So how does this happen and can it be avoided? To answer the last question first: Of course it can be avoided. The simple trick is to only do one thing at a time. The cost of this approach will be to radically diminish my writing output. So this does not feel like an option.

The first question (why?) is more complex. It can be attributed to bad planning but this is only part of the truth. For many years I would explain my deadline stress with the words bad planning but I have come to realize that this is not the whole truth. No matter how good my planning is life has a way of throwing small surprises (not all pleasant) dates change, new tasks are assigned and often unrealistic work loads lead to delays.

The results of these insights should maybe be to attempt to change – but how can you change the unforeseen? How much planning must be included for that which you cannot know? And in the end isn’t it all a waste of time? After all:

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans – John Lennon

New book: Wikiworld

The works on the causes and effects on the “new openness” are coming in fast. My most recent find is Juha Suoranta & Tere Vadén (University of Tampere, Finland) who have published an open access book entitled Wikiworld – Political Economy and the Promise of Participatory Media:

In the digital world of learning there is a progressive transformation from the institutionalized and individualized forms of learning to open learning and collaboration. The book provides a view on the use of new technologies and learning practices in furthering socially just futures, while at the same time paying critical attention to the constants, or “unmoved movers” of the information society development; the West and Capitalism. The essential issue in the Wikiworld is one of freedom ­ levels and kinds of freedom. Our message is clear: we write for the radical openness of education for all.

It sounds interesting and  I will download it as soon as I get to a better connection. Right now I am on a train surfing via mobile not the best thing for downloading books… its online here.

Boyle Book Cover Competition

Via an email list I found out that James Boyle, the new Chairman of the Board at Creative Commons and a founder of Science Commons, is holding a contest to design a cover for his new book, The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind. In the book, Boyle argues that more and more of material that used to be free to use without having to pay a fee or ask permission is becoming private property — at the expense of innovation, science, culture and politics.

Details, including specs and a link to some great source material for imagery, are available at the Worth1000 website. Both the book and the cover will be distributed under a CC Attribution-NonCommercial license.

Boyle is a great writer and enjoys exploring legal questions surrounding property in a way which makes it accessible and interesting to the reader. His book Shamans, Software and Spleens: Law and the Construction of the Information Society was a real eye opener for me. I am definitely going to get his new book.

When my PhD was almost finished I announced a similar competition for the design of the book cover and was lucky to get it widely publicized. The whole idea of the competition was actually quite resented and discussed on my blog. Professional designers felt I was cutting them out of the market by asking for free work. Interesting discussions ensued. The results of the competition were posted on my blog and the winner was chosen by popular vote and used on the cover of my PhD.

Moan, moan, moan

Still no broadband at home and the next two weeks are going to be supremely hectic. Today I returned from Norway and gave a lecture, tomorrow I am off to Gävle to interview librarians and discuss Open Access. On Wednesday I am interviewing in Göteborg on Thursday I am going to Halmstad to interview and on Friday I am lecturing in Göteborg.

The next week is a presentation at a Stockholm lecture, Tuesday is a meeting in Lund, Wednesday is Umeå. Thursday & Friday are lecturing in Göteborg. All the while I will be working on a report, a book chapter, and completing a short book.

That makes 2676 kilometers mainly on trains and the first leaves in six hours. Its time to switch of and go to bed.

Vuxenpoäng

The first time I came across the concept of vuxenpoäng was when a friend of mine bought new plates and since then the idea has been developing. I am not sure if it is a real concept but it is something that my friends and I tend to use. The basis of the concept comes from the realization that we are getting older but not necessarily growing up.

Vuxenpoäng is translated inelegantly as adult points and there are certain actions in life which give a large amount of adult points. These are not the typical, semi-inevitable, moments in life like getting a real job, having children or buying a car but the more subtle actions which could be avoided and were, earlier in life, seen as unnecessary acts of adulthood.

Here are some examples of what the concept of vuxenpoäng entails. It is however important to note that all of these acts must be carried out voluntarily. Being forced into an act by partner, friends, parents, family pet greatly diminishes the whole value of the act. Adulthood comes from within.

Buying a large new sofa, but not from Ikea (or similar discount store) is an action which will earn you a mass of adult points. As trivial as it may sound many of us go through a large part of our lives without buying a new sofa and are not stigmatized by this. Therefore the act of buying the new sofa is not social pressure or basic necessity, but is, in a word, adult.

Spending money on certain objects is very adult. Deciding that hard earned cash should be used to invest in new plates and/or cutlery is adult. You have plates to eat off. You don’t need new plates and yet you decide to invest money in this instead of new technical stuff, clothes or vacation.

Moving house/apartment within the same region and still using professional movers. The realm of friends helping in the move and rewarding them with beer and pizza afterwards is one of the bastions of anti-adulthood.

Curtains. Curtains are generally a vaguely adult concept but there are two areas which make curtains particularly adult. The first is spending more than 15 minutes on deciding which curtain rails you would like to have. Curtains exist. Even the immature have them. But spending a large amount of time deciding upon the style in which they should defy gravity is an act filled with adult points.

Curtains: The Sequel. Having and using extra curtains. Lots of vuxenpoäng in this activity. Actually any activity besides drawing and opening the curtains once they have been installed will probably entail vuxenpoäng.

grownups.png

This reminds me, have you seen this one from XKCD?

So do you get the concept? What about you? How adult are you?

How to listen

It’s good to be back! My absence from this blog has been due to a move. My broadband has not been connected and despite the fact that their are plenty of wifi networks none are open – what is the world coming to? Don’t people agree with this?

Anyway this is not what I was going to write about. While catching up on my reading I came across a list of 11 things that will enhance the lecture experience, the list included some very good tips. Number 8 is my favourite:

Listen. Yes, I know you’re supposed to listen, but engage with your own mind as the lecture moves along. Ask yourself questions, try and evaluate points through what you already know, get involved in the meat of the topic even though you’re just listening to another person speak.

This is really a good reminder even when listening outside the lecture hall. In my case this is especially true if I am on the phone since my mind tends to wander…

Check out the entire list at The University Blog.

Photo: Paulgi (CC BY-NC-ND)

Design of Dissent

Milton Glasher and Mirko Ilic’s The Design of Dissent is a phenomenal repository of political poster art (and more). The book contains 200+ pages of explosive and provocative political art divided into sections that range from “Ex-Yugoslavia” to “Food” to “U.S. Presidential Election”.

The images are part historical testament, part marginalized voice, and part pop culture intervention. Together they make up a book that is an essential for anyone interested in political art, dissent, democracy, and the spirit of creative visual production to pry open the closed spaces of culture and community. (Art Threat)

The school of visual arts in NY has also created a site highlighting some 100 of the political posters curated by Glasher, you can view it here.

Top misleading open access myths

Biomedcentral has a list of top misleading Open Access myths

In the evidence presented to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into Scientific Publications, many dubious arguments have been used by traditional publishers to attack the new Open Access publishing model.

Myth 1: The cost of providing Open Access will reduce the availability of funding for research

Myth 2: Access is not a problem – virtually all UK researchers have the access they need

Myth 3 :The public can get any article they want from the public library via interlibrary loan

Myth 4: Patients would be confused if they were to have free access to the peer-reviewed medical literature on the web

Myth 5: It is not fair that industry will benefit from Open Access

Myth 6: Open Access threatens scientific integrity due to a conflict of interest resulting from charging authors

Myth 7: Poor countries already have free access to the biomedical literature

Myth 8: Traditionally published content is more accessible than Open Access content as it is available in printed form

Myth 9: A high quality journal such as Nature would need to charge authors £10,000-£30,000 in order to move to an Open Access model

Myth 10: Publishers need to make huge profits in order to fund innovation

Myth 11: Publishers need to take copyright to protect the integrity of scientific articles

Hopeful news

My living problems may soon be resolved. Today I live in a very small place (30 square meters) on the bottom floor of an ugly concrete high rise (not too high though) surrounded by other concrete buildings. It’s a one room affair so I can lie in the bed and listen to the fridge humming away. My current living situation is depressing but reasonably cheap.

Things I miss in my living situation today:

  • Sofa (actually a whole living room)
  • Ability to open the curtains without passers by looking in
  • A view
  • Waking-up without seeing the washing-up
  • Having my books in shelves inside rather than in boxes in storage
  • Ability to invite people over

The operative word is maybe – so I am keeping my fingers crossed.