Semantics, Linked Data, and the Future of Academic Publishing

The rules for academic publishing really haven’t changed in centuries. Once, there was a large percentage of the populace who were skeptical of academic research when Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society started began its publication life in 1665. To make the system work against that pushback, the method had to be codified. As a result, access to research material was difficult to attain, to the extent that scientists as late as the 19th Century actively condoned criminal behavior just to have access to corpses for study and presentation.

Read More

Active Searching for Taxonomy Resources

“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” So muses American businessman Harvey MacKay.

We have no choice in the matter. Time cannot be “saved” …only spent. Our responsibility is to determine how we wish to best allocate it. Otherwise, time will not only be spent but also wasted. How valuable, then, are those skills and tools that help us distribute our time in ways that we consider most useful and productive!

Read More

Covered In Metadata: Semantic Fingerprinting

Once upon a time, there was a real art to finding something in a library, and the card catalog, in a way, was the medium. Those giant wooden cabinets were filled with mysteries to be uncovered, but the first mystery was how to navigate it. There were always the artists—the librarians—who could help you through it, but that is really only viable for a limited amount of content; librarians have other duties, after all.

Read More

Fingers in Every Pot — Metadata Through the Publishing Pipeline

Nobody is going to deny that publishing is and always has been a sometimes messy process, but sophisticated uses of metadata and taxonomies can help clean it up. It fascinates me how intimately it can work in every step of the process to make it easier on everybody, from the author writing the piece to the institution that publishes it, all the way to its marketing and use.

Read More

Inline Tagging Facilitating Linked Data

Access Innovations recently debuted Data Harmony Version 3.9 and, within its new features and fixes, is a sneakily clever module called Inline Tagging. On the surface, it does exactly what the name says; it allows the user to see in a piece of content, quickly and clearly, what concepts in the text got triggered and tagged by the software. It seems simple enough, a handy tool, but upon closer inspection, it really opens doors for the user.

Read More

E-Books and the Evolution of Publishing

Not that long ago, getting published was the big hurdle for a writer to overcome. You could produce all you wanted, but unless you knew how to get somebody to read your random submission, or you were rich enough to self-publish, your writing lived in a drawer, waiting for you to give it to a friend who doesn’t want to read it.

It’s hard to believe how fast technology has opened publishing up to people. Now, anyone with an opinion has a platform, and while it’s as tough as ever to make a living writing, the platform, in many cases, is totally free. So that changes the hurdle from publication to recognition. If everybody has a voice, how do you get heard?

Read More

Taxonomy in the Pipeline, Part 3: Positive Feedback Loops

In her 1996 paper, The Rage to Master: The Decisive Role of Talent in the Visual Arts, Ellen Winner presents a concept she calls, well, the “rage to master.” The idea is that intellectually gifted children have a natural inclination to focus on a subject and immerse themselves in it until they reach mastery.

Read More