A handy and short evaluation of blog services

Here.

Is Google taking HCI more seriously?

Perhaps, if evidence from this blog - The Noisy Channel - is anything to go by.

(h/t: Penny Swan)

A new Blog

Music in Movies. Strongly recommended!

Blog comments

Norm has some interesting points to make about Blog comments. I broadly agree with the views expressed, and its not dissimilar to to my view, although I do allow comments, but moderate them. This hasn't been a problem for me so far as the number of comments for this blog has been very low.

Music Search Techniques classified

Here, by Donald Bell. It lists a number of internet Radio stations such as Pandora and Slacker which cannot be played in the U.K. It also contains some links to subscription services which I will not evaluate, such as Napster. Various blogs are mentioned including HypeMachine, Mog and Pitchfork. Other systems mentioned in the article will be evaluated later.

Political Blogging (pt 2)

Stephen Pollard has some interesting things to say about the effect of Blogging as against the effect of the MSM in information dissemination. Oliver Kamm, takes a somewhat different line.

Political Blogging

Here is a confrontation between Micheal White of the Guardian and Guido Fawkes (of the said blog) on Newsnight, which raises some interesting points:

Blogs - the negative side

The Guardian Guide had an article on Blogs which slag off various celebs including:

• Bono


• Madonna


• Sarah Jessica Parker

None of them are obsessed with the celebs they hate, which is why they have blogs, websites to express their indifference. LOL.

More.

Collaborative Knowledge Generation

Here's an interesting idea, Open Source Learning:

Creating textbooks using a 'Knowledge Eco-System'. Open source tools and content. But how do we get the right people on the content i.e. how have domain knowledge and can create a useful and accurate textbook? This is a significant issue. Here is an example of a problem. I recently went to see Blade Runner: The Final cut, and this make me do some searching on the film to find out the actors in the film. In Daryl Hannah's Wikipedia page, someone edited her page with the following inaccurate information "She has recently had several notable roles, but was not in the movie Kill Bill, as is commonly believed.". This is wrong! The information was corrected - "She has recently had a number of notable roles including the Kill Bill series.". This is confirmed by another source, in case you haven't seen either film. She played Ellie Driver, a one eyed assassin. Richard argues for peer review at the end - I agree!

Which brings me on to the issue of Wikipedia - here's a talk by Jimmy Wales:

"Giving people access to the sum of all knowledge". Providing its accurate that is. I do like the idea of Wikipedia, but it always will have limits to its usefulness, for all the tools for tracking changes provided. For an example, see above. Oliver Kamm makes a number of valid criticisms of Wikipedia here and here.

Harry Barnes gives a Reasonable response to Kamm, but Jimmy Wales doesn't. No Jimmy, you must respond clearly and coherently to criticisms such as these.

Mena Trott on Blogs

Get your hankies out:

ok, its an entertaining talk and she makes some important points on the postive effects blogs can have.

Geras vs. Kamm on Blogging

Further to my post on New stories and Blogs, Norman Geras (who writes in defence of blogs) has kindly posted an article on Aquinas on blogging which gives a link to various posts in which he defends blogs (political blogging in particular):

• Blogging as a democratic resource - a response to a post by Oliver Kamm


• In defence of political blogging - a further response to Kamm's views


• Blogging sui generis - yet another response to Oliver Kamm


• Long live the blogosphere


• The culture of the blogosphere - a response to Joan Smith (post no longer available on the Indy's blog). More responses to her on The Dailey Ablution

I'm with Norm on this one, his arguments are much more persuasive. Kamm uses a political blog to put forward his arguments, so one can assume that the arguments he uses against political blogging do not apply to him - very much a case of special pleading. If my assumption is false, why does Kamm write on a political blog? [Note: Kamm is not against all blogs, he makes this clear in an update at the end of this article.]

This isn't to say that Kamm's views are totally off beam - I think there are instances where (as Geras points out) the behaviour of some bloggers and commentators to blog is nothing short of appalling (e.g. an anti-Semitic post on Cif which I will not link to even if I had time to find it again). Norm points out that this is a failure not so much of blogging, but the standard of behaviour expected on them (a lot less than say a public meeting).

But isn't this an argument of free speech? If an argument on a blog is poor, relying on poor or no evidence, can we not use a blog to shoot it down? I quote Geras "And no one is forced to be a consumer" - you are free to ignore blogs.

More links to this issue:

• Daniel Finkelstein responds to Kamm.


• Stephen Pollard responds to Kamm.


• Mr Eugenides has a very short reponse to Kamm.


• Anonymous reponse to the Kamm/Geras dialogue.


• Calcum Carr responds to Kamm.


• Quaequam Blog responds to Kamm.


• Jon Worth responds to Kamm.

Footnote: the post was in response to is Philosophy good for the soul?, which is where the reference to Thomas Aquinas in Norms blog comes from.

News Stories and Blogs

I have a particular interest in doing research on blogs, and this paper looks very useful:

http://informationr.net/ir/12-4/paper327.html

I hope to get time at some stage to tackle some of the issues that Blaise Cronin and Oliver Kamm have said about blogs, and the other side of the coin (e.g. Norman Geras).

To give a flavour of Cronin's view, see:

http://www.slis.indiana.edu/news/story.php?story_id=958
http://www.slis.indiana.edu/news/story.php?story_id=965

Here are some of the (somewhat) annoyed replies to these polemics:

http://www.arrington.us/?p=177
http://www.librarian.net/stax/1315/so-you-call-me-crassly-egotistical-and-then-get-huffy-when-i-call-you-a-fool/
http://freerangelibrarian.com/2005/04/28/blaise-cronin-gormangate-wannabe/

enjoy.

UPDATE:

Found this on the same online journal:

http://informationr.net/ir/12-4/paper323.html