kfitz

kfitz, 19 days ago to random

Y’all are going to love this. cc @mpe

kfitz, 20 days ago to random

New post: Rebranding the Commons
Last week, the Commons team made the transition to our new brand identity: Knowledge Commons. On first glance, this is a pretty cosmetic change: we have a new logo and new color palette (both gorgeous, if you ask me). But the name change is one with deep significance for us.
We might immediately point to our expanded disciplinary inclusiveness. While we have always had folks outside the humanities
https://kfitz.info/rebranding-the-commons/

kfitz, 1 month ago to random

I recently had the privilege of participating in an excellent conversation with Erin VanLaningham and John Barton as part of their podcast, Callings. Huge thanks to them for thinking with me!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1282658/14998494

debcha, 1 month ago to random

I am exceedingly proud that my book HOW INFRASTRUCTURE WORKS: INSIDE THE SYSTEMS THAT SHAPE OUR WORLD, has been longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award for Non-Fiction! Just look at that company, my goodness!

https://www.massbook.org/mass-book-awards

kfitz, 3 months ago to random

New post: Limit Case
I argued back in Planned Obsolescence that the limit case of scholars' belief in collaboration was the co-authored dissertation; if we could not imagine such a thing -- how it would work, how it would be assessed, how it would be valued and rewarded -- we would at least unconsciously maintain the pre-eminence of the individualistic single-author/Great Man mode of production within the academy.
I r
https://kfitz.info/limit-case/

kfitz, 3 months ago to random

If you’ve got a wordpress-dot-com blog and are thinking about pulling it down, might I suggest creating a site at https://hcommons.org and importing there? We are academy-owned and community-governed, we’re ad-free and anti-extractive, and we’re committed to keeping our values at the forefront of all our decision-making. (We’re also on spring break this week, but we’ll be happy to hop in and help out as needed once we’re back!)

kfitz, 4 months ago to random

I just saw a post go by remarking on the floppy disk skeuomorph that still stands in as the icon for "save." I get it! Totally anachronistic. But say we drop that icon. What do we use instead? How do you visualize "save" when it's all waves hands clouds and SSDs?

kfitz, 4 months ago to random

A warning for the ages.

kfitz, 4 months ago to random

You know, if you think the corporation behind Facebook is likely to be a good partner for your open science endeavors, you may wish to have a conversation with some folks in the social sciences who have found this path less than satisfactory. Or, perhaps consider any other action that corporation has ever taken across its entire history. Just saying. #subtoot

VCP, 5 months ago to random

Somebody posted a link to T-Pain's concert at the Sun Rose, and specifically his cover of War Pigs. I've been listening to the whole show today and it's so good. Thanks to that person! For some reason I can't find the OP. Better than the Tiny Desk concert, & though i'll always love his work on "On a Boat," this concert is the best!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=91ck0vJBygo&t=48m56s

kfitz, 5 months ago to random

Thinking about Joan Westenberg's "How to Quit Capitalism" (@Daojoan) and what it means for scholarly communication: https://kfitz.info/quitting-capitalism/

kissane, 5 months ago to random

Hi fedi! @darius and I are digging into our governance research, and we have a great starter list of server admins to potentially talk to about governance and administration models and challenges, but very unofficially, I’d love to hear suggestions, too.

We’re looking at active servers ranging from ~100-2,500 users with some flex on either end of the range, and we’re building our list with an eye on structural, geographic, demographic (along multiple axes), and linguistic diversity.

kfitz, 5 months ago to random

Chachra notes that renewables may have high initial costs to implement, but that they “don’t have incremental costs, where every joule of output has to be paid for, because the raw energy input — sunlight, wind, running water, the heat of the earth — doesn’t require making a payment to the oil company” (200). It’s the solution, but it’s also perversely the problem, at least in capitalist culture: if no one’s profiting from it, who’s going to put the energy into developing it? And in fact might those who profit from it not coming into being instead actively work against it? Capitalism is, after all, built on scarcity rather than abundance, even while claiming precisely the opposite.

https://kfitz.info/cui-bono/

kfitz, 5 months ago to random

More on How Infrastructure Works: Chachra makes the connection between the social purposes and effects of infrastructures and the importance of ensuring appropriate systems for the governance clear: infrastructure is "a collective form of care," which is "why there is a relationship between well-maintained systems and effective governance, because this governance is how we make that diffuse power actionable and allow for collective decision-making." But getting into a position in which we can build that effective governance -- and thereby create "the capacity to decentralize power in a community" (176) -- is no easy trick.

https://kfitz.info/infrastructure-and-governance/

kfitz, 8 months ago to random

Continuing some thoughts -- or rather, backtracking to where they got started -- on the blog this morning: Open Matters. https://kfitz.info/open-matters/

Sheril, 8 months ago to ai

My first grader wrote a story today. Appears the kids have some doubts about #AI

video/mp4

kfitz, 9 months ago to random

“The new community is barely started, it has a long way to go. But what we build now on the Fediverse is ours to keep and it will keep growing.”

This is why I am so dismayed to see communities I care about embrace Bsky. It may grow faster but it won’t be ours.

https://turtleisland.social/@Yehuda/111020499455172161

kfitz, 9 months ago to random

This is an amazing piece of research. (h/t @mpe) https://tylervigen.com/the-mystery-of-the-bloomfield-bridge

kfitz, 11 months ago to random

Got offered an invitation to the fancy new club being started up by the guy who ran the last one, until it was taken over by the unseemly element running it now. Said no thanks, I’m good over here where I am. An hour later found out that the old guy had endorseyed a conspiracy theorist for high office. No. Just no.

kfitz, 11 months ago to random

Hello friends! If you have academic friends seeking a congenial, collectivist refuge from whatever seems to be happening over on Melonhead's site, may I suggest hcommons.social? We operate with a set of server rules that we take seriously (https://hcommons.social/about) and we have an amazing local feed. Tell your friends!

kfitz, 11 months ago to random

Can anyone tell me how customized Quarto's version of reveal.js is? Are the modifications all handled through available plugins? #Quarto #Reveal

Sheril, 1 year ago to books

You know that feeling when you’re within 100 pages of finishing a beautiful story & notice you’re a bit sad because you’re not ready to say goodbye to such enchanting characters?

I’m at that part of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. It’s the most magnificent book I’ve read in years. #books