Today the White House held a press conference announcing a new “big data” initiative pledging $200 million dollars to new efforts. Agencies involved include the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, Department of Energy, and US Geological Survey.
A PDF of the press release and a fact sheet is available at the Office of Science and Technology Policy website.
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Here’s a list of interesting items that crossed my radar in the last week. I don’t have much to add to what’s said below, this is more a manner of keeping track of my interests at this point in time.
The future of humanity
Some thoughts on interesting technology
Creating a new educational/learning world.
Creativity
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The year has to come to a very quiet end here at chez Suomela. I finished my third of four terms on December 18, drove home to Minneapolis on the 19th, and spent the last twelve days relaxing, reading, watching TV, and exchanging gifts with the family.
To be thankful for:
What went right in 2006?
Some of the best weblog entries from the past year:
Happy new year!
The list is its own genre, discuss?
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Another month has come and gone on this blue globe. The annual marks of mortality have left another ring and my weblog has been mostly silent. It’s not because I don’t like you, all half dozen of you who have subscribed to my feed, it’s because I pretend to myself that I’m busy, that there are other demands on my time. It’s a poor excuse my friend.
In “real life” I’m nearing the end of my third semester as a master’s student at the School of Information at UMich. I think this may be the best academic semester I’ve had so far, at least as far as the asymptotic union between my own interests and the classes I’ve taken. The professors have been top-notch. The topics just as good. Information Ethics took a decidedly psychological turn, but in a very interesting way. Information Culture nicely balanced history and sociology. Intellectual Property felt a bit disperse but still grounded in important questions. The next two weeks will be the big push to finish up all the papers and finals.
The Thanksgiving holidays were enjoyable. I went out for dinner and a movie on Thanksgiving with my friend Josh and stopped by his house for turkey dinner on Friday. It would’ve been nice to travel back to Minneapolis for the annual get together but neither money nor the time were available.
Looking back on the month there’s not much to report on my writings here at Eccentric Eclectica.
Here are a couple of lists that caught my eye:
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There are more social bookmarking sites today then anyone is really able to keep track of. For me the best sites are:
October was a sparse month for weblog updates. To the few who might be reading, I’m sorry. I’ve been putting my head down and plowing through a bunch of midterm papers, exams, and presentations. The last major one was today.
In theory that would give me a week to relax, but the inevitability of looming deadlines at the end of the semester make any relaxation feel like procrastination. Pleasure just turns into anxiety. Such is the life of a student.
What I did write about this month, in reverse chronology:
Enjoy the rest of the year. 2006 is drawing to a close.
It’s the end of another month and time to review my mind. A lot less material has been published on this site since school began at the beginning of September. My classes are finally starting to feel like a routine. I’m currently taking Information Culture, Information Ethics, Recommender Systems, and Intellectual Property.
The month began with a look back at what I learned through half of my MSI program at Michigan. Then it was the beginning of classes.
I’ve spent a lot of time this month trying to define my continuing academic interest in information science. The closest parallels seem to be with the philosophy of information. Another parallel is computing and philosophy. There was a course this term that covered some of that material but it conflicted with another class.
A couple of events prompted short entries this month. Eric Rabkin spoke on science fiction and nanotechnology. Theodore Porter on Victorian Scientists. Jon Udell on apprenticeship and library superpatrons.
Udell’s talk prompted some more thoughts on electronic identity, which may eventually lead to some thoughts about how we shape and present ourselves on the web. Barter and knowledge exchange was another blip on the radar.
Finally a note about the tension between technological and economic determinism arose out of a class discussion on information culture.
I’ve been toying around with LinkedIn this month, adding connections from work and school. If you think we should reconnect you can find my profile here.
The summer is at an end. It’s time to roll out the Keats and reflect back on the last month. This was a slower month at chez Todd than intended. As I wrote a few days ago allergies returned with a vengeance and slowed down my toils.
The month began warm and sultry but is ending up rather cool. I doubt this summer has broken any records for heat in Southeast Michigan, but what do I know, I’ve only been here a year. The weather service has the real data if you want it.
August is a reminder for me of the foolishness of man and the oftentimes silly hopes that we embody in our fictions. More thoughts on education continued to burble up. Including some thought on building new learning communities and the possibility of an academic utopia.
The big political story of the month, the foiled terrorist attacks on airplanes crossing the Atlantic, prompted an intemperate burst of outrage over the stupidity of the media. Luckily I quickly recovered and found some things to laugh about. Philosophically I was concerned with reflection, the density of the other, and a pocketful of -archies. I had hoped to extend my ideas about reflection into a longer form, but that project will have to wait.
A grab bag of external stimuli made an impression over the month, prompting some thoughts on the legacy of Carl Sagan, visualizations of income distributions, the evolution, or lack thereof, in groups, autocratic personalities, metaphors for librarians, the sources for Wikipedia
