I really wish more academics would realize that time boundaries (making sure we have breaks at events, classes finish on time, evenings/weekends are protected, we don't expect answers to non urgent emails in 24 hours) are about INCLUSION & not a nice extra, but the strict minimum
Free mango kulfi with my takeout order for the weekend. Perfect balance of spices, fruit and not too much sweetness.
Sure I have to work over the weekend but working on my own (sole-authored) article and research is a luxury when so much of what I do has to be done in collaboration or supporting others.
After the disappointing message that we could not develop a new educational program due to budget cuts, I needed to find another task. 🔍
Yesterday, I asked my manager for an extra period of unpaid leave (1 day a week, a year long) for continuing my studies on complex systems, relating them to my research on technology for nurses in the hospital (before long covid paused my research), writing my findings. ✍🏼
Possibly a weird question. Do any academics use software to keep track of their network of colleagues, to make it easy to answer questions like "if I want to ask someone I know about X, then who should it be?" I'm terrible at keeping track of this stuff in my head. #AcademicChatter
I hate - HATE - Concur with the power of a thousand suns. The simple recording of 3 receipts (hotel, airline ticket, conference fee) becomes a two-hour time trap in a labyrinth Stanley Kubrick would admire. #academia#academicchatter
Kamna Patel resigns from Research England as equity, diversity and inclusion expert after being investigated for "extreme views":
"I cannot remain... and legitimate the bad decisions of RE and UKRI... there is an ongoing genocide... Since the Secretary of State’s claim these words constitute “extreme views”, the International Court of Justice concluded genocide of Palestinians in Gaza is a plausible risk... you have (been) played." 🔥
Question of the day. Is the whole beautiful mass of free and open Internet knowledge now to be considered as the satanic mills of AI Gen Big Tech? At their mercy, to do with as they please.
@DrPen Yes, just as with humans, why should an algorithm not be allowed to use free and open accessible data , the concentration of power in big tech is the real problem not the free accessible data they can (mis) use
@ErikJonker Yes exactly. If, for example, we had technosocial contracts between cities or nations and global tech companies to operate for the public good, then the internet of knowledge could be a vast system of interactive learning networks, delivering knowledge in different ways to different search spec's through interoperable apps. Just think what that would be like.
@DrPen@fediversity Good afternoon, thank you for your message! Of course! Please check our website 👇 https://commons.ngi.eu/ you can 📩 also subscribe to our newsletter and check the event page. We might organise an @NGICommons event next to where you live. Speak soon!
Closed out the paperwork for the Spring term yesterday and, with my first post-semester deadlines approaching, I'm realizing that I seriously under-budgeted the amount of time I would need to stare into near space.
Interviewing PhD candidates for the first time and the role reversal feels... weird! All the candidates bring something different to the table and it's such a tough call to decide who makes the cut.
Fun things that can happen at a conference: tomorrow there will be a heated discussion about the correct way to remove a foreground from an extragalactic observation - the sort of life and death fights you have in astronomy 😅
But guess how many experts in the actual observation and foreground modelling are present at this conference:
ZERO.
So chairs are likely going to be thrown for nothing...
I feel increasingly angry/frustrated at how academic conferences insist we 'join them on XTwitter' to follow the conf. Why should we have to do that? Why arent they providing an open social web alternative? Why are they so beholden to private monopoly Big Tech? This happened recently for the Networked Learning Conference, an initiative that claims to be dedicated to open networks of learning. How can they possibly think it is ethically acceptable to only use XTwtr?