2020-01-20: I used to find the Blue Screen of Death to be disconcerting on giant screens in public places, then …
2020-01-19: Really like a German compound noun I heard Patricia Williams use in a talk last week: Waldeinsamkeit …
2020-01-17: For those in the Boston area: To commemorate the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment, we …
2020-01-16: Patricia Williams pushing back against the problematic mental state of our age of smartphones and …
2020-01-14: New issue of my newsletter: “Humane Ingenuity 13: The Best of Both Worlds”—Historians are no …
2020-01-14: On the first What’s New podcast of 2020, I talk with Jessica Silbey about her forthcoming book, …
2020-01-13: How are books like breakfast cereal? The ones that are on eye-level shelves in libraries are taken …
2020-01-11: I don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows
2020-01-09: Kate Eichhorn’s keynote at the Coalition for Networked Information meeting in December, “Forgetting …
2020-01-06: From a distance I took this photo of a family at sundown, and now I really wish I had their contact …
2020-01-06: Eye-opening survey by @ianmilligan1 reveals the changing practice of historians: Over 90% now use …
2020-01-05: I like how my web host, @reclaimhosting, has a server for installing new software called “Fugazi,” …
2019-12-28: “What will the new decade bring? Ducks, I hope.”
2019-12-25: As the father of boy-girl twins, I consider Star Wars to be an extended metaphor.
2019-12-23: Winter at its most beautiful is more beautiful than any other season.
2019-12-19: World’s greatest holiday gift: my colleague Deb Smith’s 2020 calendar featuring her bunnies, Ella …
2019-12-18: Toilet-paper ribbon-cutting ceremony to open new bathrooms in our library today. In related news, I …
2019-12-17: On the final What’s New podcast of 2019: a trio of young researchers and their innovative work …
2019-12-16: Look at this beautiful new gadget I just put on my desk
2019-12-12: A new issue of my newsletter is out: “Humane Ingenuity 12: Automation & Agency”—can we …
2019-12-11: Belle is having thoughts
2019-12-11: Current status: I have been invited to a “Ride with the Rabbis” spin class.
2019-12-08: The moon is perched right on top of the Boston Commons Christmas tree
2019-12-05: It was a pretty punk move. I was paid $50 that December.
2019-12-05: Whenever I see a “Best of the Decade” piece, I am reminded of when I was an intern at Spin in 1989, …
2019-12-04: New issue of my newsletter is out: “Humane Ingenuity 11: Middle-Aged Software”—what can we learn …
2019-12-04: Some good things going on at our library this week (aside from, or to help with, the stress of final …
2019-12-03: Inequality has many deeply troubling effects on individuals and society, but one that is spoken of …
2019-12-02: I love this note about how Nobuyuki Siraisi designed the 1979 version of the New York City subway …
2019-11-25: New issue of my newsletter is out: “Humane Ingenuity 10: The Nature and Locus of …
2019-11-22: The universe is filled with great imponderable mysteries, such as the fact that these three songs …
2019-11-19: On the latest What’s New podcast, we look at the mysterious and complex nature of human sight—“How …
2019-11-18: Here at @NortheasternLib we have an opening for an Engineering Librarian, who will design …
2019-11-12: The view from Northeastern’s library is spectacular right now
2019-11-12: New issue of my newsletter is out: “Humane Ingenuity 9: GPT-2 and You” — The act of reading in …
2019-11-11: I think GPT-2 says less about artificial intelligence and more about how human intelligence is …
2019-11-10: Teaching your kid how to drive is like being in a movie about a video game in which losing means you …
2019-11-05: New issue of my newsletter Humane Ingenuity is out: “Ebooks: It’s Complicated”—what went wrong with …
2019-11-05: On the latest What’s New podcast, we go inside CERN and the Large Hadron Collider with …
2019-11-04: Belle has gotten good at blocking the stairs so you have to pet her.
2019-10-30: Belle is concerned about the giant spider and dragon that have appeared on our neighbor’s porch
2019-10-30: As the dean of a library, the possibility of a raccoon invasion is why I got a coonhound this year.
2019-10-29: “You choose the web you want. But you have to do the work.” —@brentsimmons (Yep.)
2019-10-25: Fall has reached the Post-Impressionism stage
2019-10-22: My sister’s dog is so droopy he melts into the rug
2019-10-22: New issue of my newsletter is out: “Humane Ingenuity 7: Getting Weird with Technology to Find …
2019-10-22: On the latest episode of the What’s New podcast from the Northeastern University Library, I …
2019-10-20: Fall symmetry
2019-10-20: Belle is enjoying a nice fall morning
2019-10-16: Picked up a copy of @hodgman’s Medallion Status for my flight today and I’m sorry to report that it …
2019-10-16: Love this initiative from @AV_DiscoTech et al.: the Memory Lab Network, putting …
2019-10-15: This week my “Humane Ingenuity” newsletter comes to you from the Digital Library Federation forum, …
2019-10-14: My favorite slide from the first day of #DLFforum
2019-10-13: Fun airport security line this evening on my way to #DLFforum: Doris Kearns Goodwin was right behind …
2019-10-12: “Go thou my incense upward from this hearth”
2019-10-12: Walden Pond
2019-10-11: Given that there are now over a half-million podcasts, and visibility is largely dominated by big …
2019-10-10: I know this is hard to believe, but there is a dog in this photo, camouflaged with the floor
2019-10-08: New issue of my newsletter Humane Ingenuity is out—more on the use of AI/machine learning in …
2019-10-08: On the latest What’s New: supply chain expert Nada Sanders, who explains why many CEOs (like …
2019-10-02: Our hound puppy now has a distinctive three-note bay that rivals the NBC chimes.
2019-10-01: I was on The Agenda on TVO Monday with two other academics to talk about “The Lost Art of Reading,” …
2019-09-27: My iPhone just autocorrected “weekend” to “Weeknd” we are doomed
2019-09-26: My teenage daughter just watched her first live television show.
2019-09-26: Cormac McCarthy’s tips on how to write a great science paper (broadly applicable and not just for …
2019-09-25: New issue of my newsletter Humane Ingenuity is out, featuring a bit of a love letter to Micro.blog; …
2019-09-24: This week on the What’s New podcast: How ballet dancers communicate spatial information to …
2019-09-23: The technology of the printing press with moveable type arose during Leonardo da Vinci’s lifetime; …
2019-09-19: If you want to get away from the world/social media, I wholeheartedly recommend Northeastern’s …
2019-09-18: Some good notes and links from @mia_out about a workshop this week on museums and artificial …
2019-09-18: We’re hiring a project archivist to work on the Civil Rights & Restorative Justice …
2019-09-17: I met Cokie Roberts when Carla Hayden was sworn in as Librarian of Congress, and chatted with her …
2019-09-17: The third issue of my newsletter Humane Ingenuity is now out, on using artificial intelligence in …
2019-09-16: 10 points to the University of Chicago for having “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” as one of their …
2019-09-16: The third issue of my Humane Ingenuity newsletter, which will cover in depth the use (and potential …
2019-09-15: Boston suburbs have an M. Night Shyamalan vibe today
2019-09-11: After 9/11, Ruth Sergel and Here is New York set up a private booth so that people could record …
2019-09-10: A corollary is that the remaining online venues that bring me agita, not joy, are free.
2019-09-10: I’ll write about this in a future issue of my newsletter, but it has struck me recently that the …
2019-09-10: My favorite RSS feed right now is Stereogum’s “The Number Ones,” which is going deep on every …
2019-09-10: If you’re new to the What’s New podcast, you can subscribe in your favorite podcast app …
2019-09-10: The third season of the What’s New podcast starts today, with my conversation with Christo …
2019-09-10: Subscribe to the Humane Ingenuity newsletter to get every issue delivered straight to your inbox. …
2019-09-10: While you are waiting for Apple to unveil new gizmos, you can read the second issue of my new …
2019-09-09: Northeastern University is also seeking a full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty member with a …
2019-09-09: ICYMI: We’re doing a faculty cluster hire in digital humanities here at Northeastern …
2019-09-07: Belle and her extra-long legs are having a lazy Saturday
2019-09-04: JR’s digital mural at SF MOMA, featuring over a thousand San Franciscans, is pretty incredible, and …
2019-09-04: Today I’m launching a newsletter on technology that helps rather than hurts human …
2019-09-01: Just finished reading Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists and loved the way it traced the rise and …
2019-08-28: We’re hiring a Research Data Analyst at the Northeastern University Library to join our …
2019-08-26: The old hotel where I’m staying makes you feel at home with some nice touches from The Shining
2019-08-24: Can’t I just enjoy my Saturday morning coffee?
2019-08-23: A proto-VOIP conference call from 1978, oddly featuring a Dan Cohen. (via David Crotty)
2019-08-19: A glorious excerpt cabinet. (This one happens to be Leibniz’s. From the book Paper Machines: About …
2019-08-15: Taxonomy!
2019-08-13: Australians have made millions of corrections to the rough text generated by the digitization of …
2019-08-13: In case you’re wondering how scholars access articles at a large research university, …
2019-08-12: Great to see the return of the NetNewsWire RSS reader and its commitment to the open web. I …
2019-08-11: Still confused by the size and function of Belle’s legs
2019-08-06: Who’s a good hiking companion? Belle’s a good hiking companion
2019-08-04: There’s this sign for the “OCR World Championships” nearby and I had to google it to make sure that …
2019-08-02: Pretty sure this covered bridge is actually a time portal
2019-08-02: Every sign on this trail sounds like an amazing Johnny Cash song
2019-08-01: Over @kottke, a sampler of recent writing on how algorithms are draining serendipity out of our …
2019-07-30: With Boris Johnson assuming the office of Prime Minister of the U.K., we’ve got a rebroadcast and …
2019-07-29: This is like finding out that Abbey Road is an actual road
2019-07-26: Starting in November, Macmillan will let each library system, including those that serve millions of …
2019-07-25: I have successfully completed the mandatory parent training class so that I can teach my twins how …
2019-07-25: Using computer vision to analyze the visual style and composition of Bewitched and I Dream of …
2019-07-24: A bald eagle has moved into our neighborhood
2019-07-23: I told her to sit
2019-07-23: New on my blog: “Engagement Is the Enemy of Serendipity”—a seemingly minor change to the New York …
2019-07-22: Recording a podcast today with a human/robot movement scientist, I asked if she could train a robot …
2019-07-21: Free local history talk
2019-07-19: Nearby lake looking nice this evening
2019-07-18: Good series on the Space Age and the race to the moon this week on News@Northeastern, which includes …
2019-07-17: Was the “Use the Force” moment at the end of Star Wars, when Luke switched off the computer and went …
2019-07-16: On our second rebroadcast + update of the summer, @podcastwhatsnew revisits an interview with an …
2019-07-16: Kind of sad to see music and theology as lacking relationships with other fields in this …
2019-07-16: Kudos to @jjkaraganis and @clured for this incredible update to the @opensyllabus site, now with …
2019-07-16: Here are the 50 most-assigned authors in economics courses in the United States (three are women).
2019-07-16: Here is the new and improved Open Syllabus project site I mentioned earlier, now live: …
2019-07-16: The Open Syllabus Project is undergoing a major upgrade, now with over 6 million college syllabi and …
2019-07-16: Screenshot of the FrameMaker book-writing software for NeXT computers, 1989 (via @moritz)
2019-07-15: just another manic monday
2019-07-15: “From 1982 to 2017, the share of Americans with bachelor’s degrees who had read even one work of …
2019-07-15: The percentage of American adults who have read a book in the last year has fallen to its lowest …
2019-07-13: Of course my local Little Free Library has a copy of Practical SGML
2019-07-12: “Data Beyond Vision: experimental physical representations of humanities data” (via @suttonkoeser, …
2019-07-11: The Digital Library Federation 2019 Forum schedule is now up and there’s still time to …
2019-07-11: The Apollo 11 command module looks pretty cool in the lobby of my library. (Thanks, Smithsonian, for …
2019-07-11: Wally Grotophorst analyzed DNS queries to see how many academics were routing around paywalls for …
2019-07-10: Wondering what my fellow Micro.bloggers make of Darius Kazemi’s “Run Your Own Social”
2019-07-09: Also note that most government records are already digital, as I explained in my piece on the Obama …
2019-07-09: That’s a fairly bold transition to electronic records that some may have been missed during …
2019-07-09: Under a new directive from the Office of Management and Budget and the National Archives and Records …
2019-07-03: For a deeper dive into the Touch This Page exhibit and these tactile systems (including the many …
2019-07-03: The latest 99% Invisible podcast covers tactile reading systems for the visually impaired from the …
2019-07-02: Does anyone else’s dog gnaw on its own foot when a chew toy isn’t available?
2019-07-02: Spoiler alert on the Hydro-Pneumatic-Pulsating-Vacuo Engine
2019-07-02: Yes please, I want to read this proposed book by @robotnik on the most notorious fake perpetual …
2019-06-26: This summer we’re rebroadcasting a few of the What’s New podcast episodes in which there …
2019-06-25: I cannot believe the New York Times app got rid of swiping between sections. What a bad and …
2019-06-25: My puppy has become an extra large praying mantis
2019-06-24: Send someone an e-postcard from the largest collection of postcards in the United States, thanks to …
2019-06-21: From the excellent Apollo 11 exhibit at the Houghton Library, the first published photograph of the …
2019-06-16: Been thinking a lot about this too since receiving my personalized story from @robinsloan’s …
2019-06-16: “Recently, I used an AI trained on fantasy novels to generate custom stories for about a thousand …
2019-06-13: The first in a series of posts by @msmollyebrown @NU_Archives about the incredible Boston Globe …
2019-06-12: Hey everyone, we have two great positions available at the Northeastern University Library: 1) …
2019-06-11: X-Dog: Red Avenger
2019-06-10: Great to see @kfitz generously thinking aloud about her next book project, which seems like it could …
2019-06-08: OMG the story I just received in the mail, generated by @robinsloan’s AI program based on my …
2019-06-07: I’m still at work but I see that my dog has eased into the weekend
2019-06-06: New on my blog: “On the Response to My Atlantic Essay on the Decline in the Use of Print Books …
2019-06-06: Interesting: A new report from the British Library outlines five possible options for “a single …
2019-06-05: John Wihbey's Recommendations to Journalists for Countering Misinformation Some good concrete suggestions from @wihbey for countering misinformation in the media if you are a …
2019-06-04: I’m sure I’m not the only one who wishes that Apple had named their version of Google Street View …
2019-06-04: 100 years ago, on June 4, 1919, the U.S. Congress passed the 19th amendment, granting women the …
2019-06-03: Excited to receive an AI-generated story from @robinsloan’s coding/fiction wizardry, esp. …
2019-06-03: My first walk across the Richard Serra-esque bridge that now connects the library with the …
2019-06-03: May you all find a love like my puppy has with a sock she found in the park.
2019-06-01: This from Samuel Johnson should be the epigraph for every book, not just those by @ayjay.
2019-06-01: In the Letters to the Editor section of @TheAtlantic, readers of my essay on the decline in the use …
2019-05-30: One of my favorite things we used to do at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media was …
2019-05-29: Good overview from Cliff Lynch of the ways that the privacy of readers (of ebooks, online articles, …
2019-05-28: For more on the idea of “collective collections” of books that I mentioned in @TheAtlantic, see …
2019-05-26: My latest piece for @TheAtlantic looks at the hidden and steep decline in the use of books within …
2019-05-25: Can’t wait to read Cut/Copy/Paste, the forthcoming book by @whitneytrettien on 17th-century …
2019-05-23: I was walking through Central Park today and thought I hallucinated this but it’s still on my phone
2019-05-21: Chronicling America, the initiative to digitize historic American newspapers (sponsored by the …
2019-05-21: The best and most up-to-date article I’ve read on the possibility and challenges of storing …
2019-05-19: In a parallel universe, the game company Milton Bradley became a trillion-dollar tech company after …
2019-05-17: Nice evening in Boston, finally
2019-05-17: Single purpose electronic devices from the 1980s are my jam, like this lottery number picker I found …
2019-05-15: My middle-aged neck would like to know how this is a comfortable resting position
2019-05-14: TIRED: The New York Times “Gen X” feature. WIRED: @ftrain’s funny/sad bildungsroman of nuclear …
2019-05-13: Playtime with my puppy is indistinguishable from BASIC programs in which the last line is always …
2019-05-13: “What’s New Season 2 Wrap-up” — looking back on the diverse topics we covered this …
2019-05-13: Thinking about writing a (nonpolemical) piece on college students wanting to be around books but …
2019-05-11: Beautiful morning for hounding around
2019-05-09: Tomorrow @Northeastern: “About Face: The Changing Landscape of Face Recognition” — conference on the …
2019-05-08: Pupdate: legs now too long to fit on the ottoman
2019-05-08: This post by @ayjay on the typos and other errors you find after publishing a book is so incredibly, …
2019-05-08: My niece @person_1123’s clever and fun game, Situations, where players co-create an absurd …
2019-05-06: Over 50 years ago, a student borrowed Alice in Wonderland from our library and never returned …
2019-05-03: 2019 Northeastern University commencement!
2019-05-01: Bipedal tree
2019-05-01: More May Day Morris dancing near the University Church this morning in Oxford
2019-05-01: Morris dancers celebrating May Day at dawn this morning in front of the Bodleian Library
2019-04-30: Johann Remmelin, A Survey of the Microcosme, 1695, with numerous 3D flaps
2019-04-30: A printed sheet of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, reproduced on a Bodleian letterpress in …
2019-04-29: Having dinner with some fellow librarians at the Divinity School in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. …
2019-04-26: I’ll be at the Bodleian library next week and can’t wait to see two exhibits, one …
2019-04-26: Fascinating talk by @phonedude_mln on the hidden and disturbing instabilities of web archives, with …
2019-04-24: Want to be at the intersection of digital scholarship, important community and newspaper archives, …
2019-04-24: It’s nice to see some new deals between libraries and journal publishers that account for both …
2019-04-22: It has finally happened, I have been Kondoed by my offspring
2019-04-22: Me: “Could you run some errands with me?” My daughter: “Running errands with you no longer brings me …
2019-04-21: There are no meals during Passover—only constant noshing. —Yiddish proverb
2019-04-20: Squirrel!
2019-04-18: Y’all do know that Google Drive can OCR PDFs, right?
2019-04-17: “The principles for a Shared Digital Europe, a proposal for a new framework for thinking about the …
2019-04-16: “The abundance of data from large scientific experiments, such as earth observation programs, radio …
2019-04-16: As the tense process of Brexit winds on, I talk with Mai’a Cross (@keapuolani), Professor …
2019-04-16: And here’s maybe the most evocative image of Notre Dame I found via @dpla: what looks like a …
2019-04-16: Here’s a customized search for images of Notre Dame cathedral, from the oldest to most recent, …
2019-04-16: “Oh, is this your chair? Are you sure? Maybe it could be my chair.”
2019-04-15: And if you haven’t read his trilogy on slavery, starting with The Problem of Slavery in Western …
2019-04-15: David Brion Davis was a groundbreaking and great historian, but you wouldn’t have known it from his …
2019-04-15: #BostonMarathon
2019-04-15: Whoa the finish of the men’s race is going to be crazy with 15 runners within 5 seconds of each …
2019-04-15: Worknesh Degefa in the lead by two minutes (!) at the base of Heartbreak Hill #BostonMarathon
2019-04-11: I am only now realizing that it is National Pet Day. Here is my dog Belle sleeping.
2019-04-11: Thanks so much to everyone who contributed to our library today—still time to drop a small (or big) …
2019-04-11: If I could time travel to 1982, I would definitely buy an Apple computer from Sherman Howe
2019-04-11: Prince, with Sheila E. and Cat, 1987
2019-04-11: Metallica, 1984
2019-04-11: Hall & Oates, 1982
2019-04-11: Donna Summer, 1981
2019-04-11: Devo, 1980
2019-04-11: Anyhow, some other fun things from our Boston Phoenix archive to follow.
2019-04-11: I was looking through our archive of the Boston Phoenix today, and the topic of their comedy column, …
2019-04-11: BONUS OFFER: If we get 50 donations of any size ($5 is a-ok with me) from the distant lands of the …
2019-04-11: Hey all, if you like some of the things that come out of my library, including the What’s New …
2019-04-10: More on the design and functionality of that “next-generation paper,” and how the prototype travel …
2019-04-10: Prototype of a new kind of paper that has Bluetooth embedded in it—books made of this paper can …
2019-04-09: I am confused, Denver
2019-04-09: New by me @TheAtlantic: “Obama’s Presidential Library Is Already Digital”—When the record of a …
2019-04-08: “Why You (A Humanist) Should Care About Optical Character Recognition” by @ryancordell #cni19s
2019-04-08: Really looking forward to hearing @kfitz talk about her book Generous Thinking, live at #cni19s. …
2019-04-06: OUT: Betting on the Final Four IN: Betting on your dog’s DNA test
2019-04-06: “I’m sorry, this couch is taken”
2019-04-05: We’ve just added banks of these portable chargers, which can power a laptop and several devices, to …
2019-04-04: New to me, from the Touch This Page symposium on tactile reading systems, which we’re hosting …
2019-04-02: oh, hello
2019-04-02: On the latest What’s New podcast, my guest is the vice-chair of the International Committee …
2019-04-02: Loving our new, and very meta, laptop stickers
2019-03-29: “I’m on the couch. I’ve got my bone. Do I look like I want to take a walk?”
2019-03-26: I remain confused about our new dog’s oversized legs, but she’s a cute octopus.
2019-03-25: Delighted we are hosting a conference on how to enable and pursue digital scholarship, a joint …
2019-03-22: All of these phishing scams are going to make it hard for me when I actually need my staff to send …
2019-03-20: “Has the emergence of facial recognition technology proven that surveillance technology has finally …
2019-03-20: Alyssa Loyless on how to create a highly detailed model of York Minster cathedral through …
2019-03-20: For the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web, I spoke with @KyleKCourtney, legal scholar …
2019-03-17: My daughter is trying to convince me that I’m a robot
2019-03-13: Finished a book chapter and a couple of long-ish blog posts this week and, as always, it feels good …
2019-03-13: “Robin Sloan’s Fusion of Technology and Humanity”—in which I look at why @robinsloan abandoned a …
2019-03-11: I’m eating ice cream straight from the container and my daughter just asked me if I was going …
2019-03-10: “Presidential Libraries and the Digitization of Our Lives”—My deep dive into the analog and digital …
2019-03-08: Our last two dogs were dachshunds, so Belle’s legs are hilarious
2019-03-06: Read an abandoned draft of the 1st chapter of @robinsloan’s novel Sourdough and have some …
2019-03-05: On the latest What’s New podcast, “How College Students Get the News,” we dig into the …
2019-03-04: We’ve got a little room left for those who would like to attend the @cni_org/@ARLnews Digital …
2019-02-28: “Kathleen Fitzpatrick’s Generous Thinking” — my review of @kfitz’s important new …
2019-02-25: Let’s ditch our smartphones for phones from 1983
2019-02-22: Start of the 2019 baseball season! @RedSox vs. @Northeastern
2019-02-19: .@davidlazer tracked down a representative sample of 16,000 Twitter users from across the political …
2019-02-15: There’s a good section in Linda Colley’s Britons, for instance, on how early …
2019-02-15: Opportunity traveled farther on Mars during its lifetime than most people traveled from their …
2019-02-14: I believe my puppy is now teething
2019-02-13: If you haven’t had a chance to listen to last week’s @podcastwhatsnew, “Seeking Justice …
2019-02-13: With the addition of a letterpress lab, an exhibit on tactile writing systems, our wide variety of …
2019-02-12: I’ve been introducing my new dog to other dogs in the neighborhood, but her favorite new friend is a …
2019-02-12: “February 12, 1809, and Wikipedia’s Evolution”—Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born on …
2019-02-12: One more from @Huskiana
2019-02-12: Loving the trays of type @Huskiana (nice combination of Futura Bold and old letterpress tech)
2019-02-12: At the launch of @Huskiana, @Northeastern’s new letterpress lab, the brainchild of @ryancordell. So …
2019-02-12: Does anyone know how to reset the PRAM on a coffee machine?
2019-02-10: Google hasn’t paid much attention to Google Books for years, and it’s really starting to show.
2019-02-08: There are no scarier words in the English language than “I have just registered my kid for …
2019-02-05: I just love this evocative book in @zetamathian’s office. It’s the 2nd volume of …
2019-02-05: 1000s of African Americans were murdered as the civil rights movement arose—a brutal continuation of …
2019-02-05: Read a story aloud and have it illustrated on the fly with art from @metmuseum (uses the Met’s 300K …
2019-02-04: Registration is now open to everyone (not just members of the Association of Research Libraries or …
2019-01-31: Like all responsible dog owners, we already have a hundred nicknames for our new pup, including …
2019-01-31: I mentioned this talk when I saw it in December, and the video is now available: an incredibly blunt …
2019-01-30: Sure, those two guys made it across Antarctica, but many of us survived the journey to get our mail …
2019-01-28: If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the latest What’s New podcast on tactile reading, it’s …
2019-01-22: On the latest What’s New podcast, I talk with @SariAltschuler about the fascinating origin and …
2019-01-21: #LunarEclipse
2019-01-17: We have another opening @ClubSnell: Global Campus Outreach & Online Learning Librarian — come …
2019-01-17: Delighted that we will be hosting a conference on 3/25-26, sponsored by the Coalition for Networked …
2019-01-14: Meanwhile, “In a truly landmark development, the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary (OPEN) …
2019-01-14: We may have mistakenly adopted a kangaroo instead of a hound
2019-01-10: Ever have that nagging feeling you’re being watched?
2019-01-10: Next Wednesday evening, January 16, I’ll be a panelist at “Conversation in Civic Innovation: …
2019-01-10: The first What’s New podcast of 2019 is with Dan O’Brien, author of the new book The Urban …
2019-01-08: 911 is for emergencies, but many cities now have 311 for citizens to report issues and request …
2019-01-07: Coming later this month to @ClubSnell: “Touch This Page! Making Sense of the Ways We …
2019-01-06: Say hello to Belle, a hound we just adopted from a rescue.
2019-01-03: Not-to-be-missed exhibit: “Empresses of China’s Forbidden City,” currently at the Peabody …
2018-12-30: For New Year’s Eve, the British Library has a tutorial on how to party like it’s 999
2018-12-29: Mark Twain: “A copyright term of an author’s life and 50 yrs will satisfy any reasonable …
2018-12-28: The U.S. Potash Company commissioned Ansel Adams to make a photographic portrait of their Carlsbad, …
2018-12-28: Love this photo of Georgia O’Keeffe taken by Ansel Adams (at the MFA Boston Ansel Adams exhibit)
2018-12-28: Spent this week doubling down on going back to the indie web. Finally moved everything to the great …
2018-12-27: Indeed, that software interpolation makes the parallels between They Shall Not Grow Old and The …
2018-12-27: .@tcarmody is of course right about the general problem(s) with Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not …
2018-12-26: I didn’t realize that the government shutdown includes the National Endowment for the …
2018-12-24: Snowboarding on Christmas Eve is the new Chinese food on Christmas
2018-12-23: Good tip (and lede)
2018-12-22: The full cold moon is out tonight, so bright it’s almost like the sun
2018-12-18: My Own Personal Stonehenge is also my favorite Johnny Cash cover song
2018-12-18: Today is the day of my own personal Stonehenge, when the sun sets perfectly into a notch between two …
2018-12-18: Researching fonts for the visually impaired for a show on multisensory reading I’m recording with …
2018-12-17: Hey all, we’re looking for a Marketing & Events Coordinator in our fine library @ClubSnell …
2018-12-17: A project by @dasmiq, newly funded by @NEH_ODH, will compare multiple digitized copies of books to …
2018-12-14: The jokers in my library’s fabrication lab made me a little something out of wood
2018-12-10: David Rosenthal’s summary of where Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (and blockchain technology in …
2018-12-10: “Bitcoin’s Academic Pedigree: The concept of cryptocurrencies is built from forgotten ideas in …
2018-12-10: Alan Jacobs has launched a newsletter, to which I insta-subscribed. I also recommend his latest …
2018-12-10: Hidden in Cliff Lynch’s opening keynote at #cni18f was the premise of a science fiction book …
2018-12-07: You look nice this evening, Boston
2018-12-06: “By centralizing your writing, photos, and other web pages at your own domain name, you can control …
2018-12-06: Finals are here, so bubble wrap has returned to our library. (Stress reduction dogs are coming next …
2018-12-06: You can read my piece and nine other perspectives on this great milestone on the Europeana 10th …
2018-12-06: “The Past, Evenly Distributed: Europeana at 10” — It was an honor to be asked by @Europeanaeu to …
2018-12-05: Idea: pumpkin spice latke
2018-12-05: “Why an Age of Machine Learning Needs the Humanities,” by @Ted_Underwood
2018-12-05: Meet the Axolotl, or Mexican walking fish. If hurt, it automatically regrows the wounded area, and …
2018-12-04: Thirty years ago I took a course with Elaine Pagels, “Spiritual Autobiography.” Tragically, her …
2018-12-04: On the latest episode of the What’s New podcast, I talk to three young researchers who are …
2018-12-03: A conference on imaginary maps from Thomas More’s Utopia to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle …
2018-12-03: We’ve got another opening at the Northeastern University Library: Digital Metadata and Ingest …
2018-12-03: “At best the Internet Archive has collected 0.39% of the web.” @edsu reminds us, with @bergisjules, …
2018-12-01: My niece Noa Chazan has launched a very cool and fun card game on Kickstarter that has echoes of …
2018-11-23: My in-laws have had a productive year writing books
2018-11-21: We are having turkey tomorrow, but we are also having a large brisket, and I swear by the sous vide …
2018-11-21: Next step in going indie with my social media: Goodbye, Instagram, hello indie photo sharing. (With …
2018-11-21: We have two openings @ClubSnell @Northeastern right now, with more to come soon: Web Developer: …
2018-11-20: Speaking of books, for some reason I felt that I should read Yuval Noah Harari’s new book (somewhat …
2018-11-20: Looking forward to reading Jason Farman’s new book Delayed Response: The Art of Waiting from the …
2018-11-20: Congrats to Hillary Chute, a colleague here @Northeastern, for having her book Why Comics? selected …
2018-11-20: On the latest episode of @podcastwhatsnew: “Bridging the Academic-Public Divide Through Podcasts” — …
2018-11-20: As part of my ongoing separation from centralized social media, you can now follow me on Mastodon …
2018-11-20: This year I’m buying all of my holiday gifts from the 1981 Sears Wish Book
2018-11-18: I accept the challenge
2018-11-06: Hey all, we’re looking for a WordPress/Web Developer to join our friendly, collaborative …
2018-11-06: BONUS: If you listen after the credits, Gov. Dukakis recounts how he met his wife Kitty while …
2018-11-06: On today’s special Election Day episode of the What’s New podcast, I’m joined by Michael …
2018-11-06: My favorite vote button in @amhistorymuseum’s extensive collection (found via @dpla)
2018-11-05: My candid conversation with three-term governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael …
2018-11-04: I know I am being sonically manipulated, but yes, I will buy more groceries when Earth, Wind & …
2018-11-04: New on my blog: “Bridging the Academic-Public Divide Through Podcasts”—my keynote at the Sound …
2018-11-01: There’s been a lot of concern about “deep fakes,” using machine learning to fabricate …
2018-10-31: Speaking of podcasts, a reminder that I’ll have three-term governor and 1988 Democratic presidential …
2018-10-31: I believe the Sound Education conference at Harvard, for educational audio producers & …
2018-10-30: As part of our Neighborhood Matters series @ClubSnell, we’re screening a documentary today on …
2018-10-29: Harvard’s Library Innovation Lab has finished digitizing 360 years of American case law, and …
2018-10-28: Borges jokes are my coping mechanism
2018-10-28: They have every car imaginable
2018-10-25: I think the most relevant work in Bruno Latour’s field for what’s going on right now in our …
2018-10-25: Interested to see the launch of the Library of Congress’s crowdsourcing platform, and to note …
2018-10-23: Great to meet @RepJoeKennedy today for the launch of a new NSF-funded program for women and …
2018-10-23: Good article in today’s @nytimes about communities battling fracking in Colorado with a referendum: …
2018-10-23: Like science fiction, but real: nanosensors roam your bloodstream, identify chemicals & report …
2018-10-19: Recording a podcast today that’s probably the most science fiction-y—but actually …
2018-10-17: Good time to revisit @tcarmody’s excellent @kottke post, “Facebook Is Wrong, Text Is Deathless,” …
2018-10-16: Summary of the current state of copyright law and the legality of text mining books, by @bc_butler: …
2018-10-16: Love this Newton’s 3rd Law of Feedback by @elliedickson: “For every suggested improvement, there is …
2018-10-16: New on my blog: “What We Learned from Studying the News Consumption Habits of College …
2018-10-16: I’m a co-author on that large study of the news consumption practices of college students, and …
2018-10-16: “Students are feeling at sea about how to navigate the news today. The rebirth of a more in-depth …
2018-10-15: 50 ways to start thinking about library and archive collections as data (PDF) #DLFforum
2018-10-14: On my way to #DLFforum. Hoping to catch some of y’all there.
2018-10-12: Here’s a side-by-side comparison of a map of all of Boston’s building lots in 1648, …
2018-10-11: Between Page And Screen is an augmented-reality book of poems. You open the book in front of a web …
2018-10-10: How to use the iOS Measure app correctly (courtesy of @DaveyCraney on Microblog)
2018-10-10: “Stable Random Projection: Lightweight, General-Purpose Dimensionality Reduction for Digitized …
2018-10-09: Here’s Chris Glass’s recreation of the 1848 daguerreotype of Cincinnati, using a large Hasselblad …
2018-10-09: “In 1848 Charles Fontayne & William S. Porter photographed Cincinnati from atop a building in …
2018-10-09: On the latest What’s New podcast, I talk to an 80s rock star who became a copyright lawyer about the …
2018-10-07: Boston skyline
2018-10-04: This is a good piece by @lorcanD about “collective collections”—how we can now visualize large-scale …
2018-10-02: (The last two links are from ARL/CNI.)
2018-10-02: Looking forward to reading this new Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation, as …
2018-10-02: A complete rundown of the (mostly anti-public-domain) copyright implications of the new …
2018-10-01: Dark Mode would be cooler if Apple had named it Goth Mode
2018-09-29: My sister adopted a new hound. It may be half manatee.
2018-09-27: Idyllic outdoor class @Northeastern today
2018-09-26: Back to School Night: Revenge of Comic Sans
2018-09-26: You look nice today, Mt. Rainier
2018-09-25: You look nice today, Seattle
2018-09-25: On the latest What’s New podcast: How artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms …
2018-09-24: There’s always money in the banana stand
2018-09-21: This photo by Ramsay de Give in this article going behind the scenes at the opera is so great.
2018-09-20: Reading this piece by Brian Lavoie reminded me how much I love the map of potential “mega-scale …
2018-09-20: When they announced the search for a Prince archivist, I envisioned someone obsessively creating an …
2018-09-20: Really great to see that the @hathitrust digital library now supports computational analysis of all …
2018-09-18: So it’s a good time to subscribe to What’s New by clicking on your favorite podcast app …
2018-09-18: New on my blog: “What’s New, Season Two” — we’ve got a great fall lineup, including …
2018-09-17: You can customize your memoji in any way you want, except to look older than 30
2018-09-14: Good catch, kid
2018-09-14: Excited to join the lineup of speakers at the Sound Education conference for educational podcasts …
2018-09-14: I have a weird fascination with trying to walk to airports, so it was good to see this post by …
2018-09-13: Went to a faculty talk today on the rapid advances in autonomous drone swarms and I’m doing …
2018-09-12: For a company that’s “at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts,” Apple is really bad …
2018-09-12: Second week of classes and virtually every seat in @ClubSnell is taken. Always impressed by the …
2018-09-11: Seventeen years on, some may not know about the September 11 Digital Archive, which we did @chnm …
2018-09-11: We’ve got some cool new music on the podcast and some great guests coming up, including Tina …
2018-09-11: On the 1st episode of the new season of the What’s New Podcast, I talk with journalism …
2018-09-07: Switched from CrashPlan (which is getting out of the personal backup business next week) to …
2018-09-06: They’re all good dogs, but Lowla was our good dog. We will miss her deeply.
2018-09-04: Cultural History Baseball Cards from @JSTOR Labs links player profiles to academic essays written …
2018-09-04: Like this: CincyFlags is a community-driven project that’s desiging a unique flag for each of …
2018-09-04: I don’t post photos of my kids on social media, but they looked pretty awesome heading off to …
2018-09-04: Convocation, start of the new school year here @Northeastern
2018-09-04: European funding agencies announce Plan S, an uncompromising push toward true open access for …
2018-08-30: Particularly interested in this article: “Geo-Locating Census Micro-Data: Segregation, Clustering, …
2018-08-30: Good to see the launch of Current Research in Digital History from my old friends @RRCHNM.
2018-08-30: Welcome Week begins today @Northeastern, and the campus is looking great, as usual, thanks to our …
2018-08-29: Love that Microblog now has a dog channel.
2018-08-29: Think about it: An archaeologist or paleontologist providing daily updates and finds from a summer …
2018-08-29: Academia could use more blogs like this one: plasma physicist David Pace providing daily updates on …
2018-08-29: Like this new visualization by @ClubSnell’s data viz specialist, Steven Braun, of the topics that …
2018-08-29: Thinking about a one-sentence pitch for Micro.blog After listening to @manton on @monday with @macgenie, I think Micro.blog could use a clearer …
2018-08-27: Redwood Library and Athenæum, the oldest lending library in the United States (Newport, RI, …
2018-08-27: In western Ireland I drove on a small road that took an unexpected turn, one that tells us about the …
2018-08-26: Pretty sure that’s the first blog post I’ve written in the second person.
2018-08-26: New on my blog: “The Narrow Passage of Gortahig” — In southwestern Ireland, a road threads its way …
2018-08-25: Tonight’s dinner conversation with my kids: the pros and cons of running off and joining the circus
2018-08-24: Sure, there were a lot of prominent felony convictions this week, but Weezer still haven’t been …
2018-08-23: “Students are abandoning humanities majors, turning to degrees they think yield far better job …
2018-08-20: Ebook sales declined by 36.7% between 2013 and 2017. Or did they? Still think I identified …
2018-08-20: Really excited after seeing some of the early prototype projects from our Boston Research Center, …
2018-08-18: Most people don’t understand who gets paid for a popular song like “Respect,” so it’s good to see …
2018-08-17: Recorded an episode of the What’s New podcast with @dankennedy_nu this morning for our fall …
2018-08-17: OK, my posts to social.dancohen.org now syndicate to Micro.blog (@dancohen), Mastodon …
2018-08-17: Just a test to see if my posts to social.dancohen.org now make their way over to Mastodon as well as …
2018-08-16: More than you know, Safari
2018-08-16: Long before the spectacle of blockbuster movies, there were panoramas, giant painted scrolls that …
2018-08-16: I love finding floppy disks in the back of books.
2018-08-15: As I’ve noted recently, if you are reading this on Twitter, I’ve already decamped to …
2018-08-15: 3rd-party developers & early adopters created the entire grammar of Twitter, from @-replies …
2018-08-14: The @librarycongress has published its 2018-2019 recommended formats for preserving different media, …
2018-08-14: I recently came across a series of 1960 photos like this one in the USC Digital Library (via …
2018-08-14: I’m probably the only person who didn’t know that. Anyway, I discovered this listening to the very …
2018-08-14: Feeling disoriented after learning that both UB40’s “Red Red Wine” and the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer” …
2018-08-13: “More than 2.6 billion people currently use email; on an average day 215 billion messages are sent.” …
2018-08-13: These and other new episodes of @podcastwhatsnew will be out starting in September, so subscribe now …
2018-08-13: Starting to record the new season of the What’s New Podcast today w/ interviews w/ an …
2018-08-09: It’s time to demote Twitter usernames as the canonical @-names online. @davextreme (on both …
2018-08-09: Interesting: Creative Commons awarded Arcadia grant to create the Commons Collaborative Archive …
2018-08-09: Love this idea from my colleague here @Northeastern, @dietoff: Create high-resolution sound maps of …
2018-08-08: I enjoyed reading David Sedaris’s Theft by Finding but I’d really like to see an unabridged, …
2018-08-08: How did I not know about chessboxing? There should be more sports that come from performance art.
2018-08-08: I’m thrilled and deeply appreciative that @NEHgov has generously awarded @Northeastern Library …
2018-08-06: Reading “Library Values & Privacy in our National Digital Strategies: Field guides, Convenings, …
2018-08-06: Micro.blog friends: is there a convention yet for identifying a username on another service where …
2018-08-05: Well now I know what our dog did while we were on vacation
2018-08-04: From the top of the last mountain we climbed in western Ireland you could see the Skellig Islands, …
2018-08-03: My daughter wrote a poem about me: You are the rock over which I clamber to get to the top
2018-07-31: Muckross Abbey
2018-07-29: In the mountains of Killarney National Park, Ireland
2018-07-25: Biked today through landscape that can only be called mythical, on the way to one of the westernmost …
2018-07-24: Hiked this mountain today in Connemara National Park. From the top you could see almost all of …
2018-07-23: You look nice today, Galway
2018-07-20: I missed the launch last month of the Newberry’s new site for its digitized collections, which …
2018-07-19: It’s really worth keeping an eye on webmentions. Most promising web technology I’ve seen in a long …
2018-07-19: Got a letter from my son at camp: “By the time you read this, I will be home.”
2018-07-19: Autocorrect has finally conceded that I almost always mean “oy” rather than “it”
2018-07-17: I wrote a little ode to email, which has revealed itself over time to be better designed than …
2018-07-17: New on my blog: “In Praise of Email” — It’s worth reviewing just how much the email …
2018-07-17: An occasional reminder for those reading this on Twitter that I am now doing the social media thing …
2018-07-17: “If, thirty years from now, someone decides to offer the equivalent of the Internet Archive’s …
2018-07-15: A nice pairing: John Chiara’s photographic negatives of New York City in the New York Times …
2018-07-14: The Internet Archive’s Open Library just added full-text search inside the 4 million books they have …
2018-07-14: Is there a “reply all” function on Micro.blog? (If not, that would be helpful in some cases, …
2018-07-13: The saddest thing: my dog constantly wandering the house looking for our other dog, who passed away …
2018-07-13: Library Journal covers our launch of the Boston Research Center including an interview w/ me about …
2018-07-12: Google, March 6, 2017. Never forget. (via @benmschmidt)
2018-07-12: New on my blog: “Looking Back at Season 1 of the What’s New Podcast, and Ahead to Season 2” — …
2018-07-11: Been a little down on the New York Times crossword since they had “Emo rap”
2018-07-11: Strange things are going on at Google Books, but since it’s an opaque project we can’t be sure …
2018-07-11: The ability to use Markdown is just one of the countless ways that Micro.blog is better than …
2018-07-11: Everybody loves the Magna Carta, but did you know that there were hundreds of other Cartas before …
2018-07-11: Memes are not that new. (Punch Magazine, 1849.)
2018-07-08: We had to say goodbye to our sweet companion of 16 years, Mini. It’s going to be really hard to look …
2018-07-07: I love soccer and I love Earth, Wind & Fire, but I hate the “September” soccer chant.
2018-07-05: Current status: Straight outta
2018-07-04: Glass room cantilevered over the Thames
2018-07-03: Just watched that England-Columbia game in a barn in the English countryside and during the penalty …
2018-07-03: A church Lewis Carroll preached in
2018-07-02: A key point by @manton about the social media architecture we should aim for — or truly, return to: …
2018-07-02: Oxford at night
2018-07-02: Yale University Press has already sold 50,000 copies of the Voynich Manuscript.
2018-07-01: St. Catherine’s College, Oxford
2018-06-28: “A Guide to Micro.blog For People Who Have A Love/Hate Relationship With Twitter” …
2018-06-28: Here’s an outline of that Brown University talk, with a link to the video of the whole thing: …
2018-06-28: Giving a talk on Monday in Oxford about collaborative intellectual activities and the role of …
2018-06-28: Bad result for England, but good result for me as I can now watch their knockout round game from the …
2018-06-28: This is cool: Matthew Lincoln’s Mechanical Kubler uses the Rijksmuseum’s digitized collection, …
2018-06-27: Europeana has a new blog series and project on “Reading Habits in the Past,” with some great …
2018-06-27: “Memes as News Sources? Uncovering and understanding the information-seeking behaviors of high …
2018-06-27: ICYMI, yesterday I wrote about my new social media setup, using social.dancohen.org as my hub, and …
2018-06-26: You look nice this evening, Fenway Park.
2018-06-26: New on my blog: “Going Indie on Social Media” — why and how I’ve gone to an independent …
2018-06-23: Crystal Light is the cryptocurrency of camp.
2018-06-22: On to high school for my kids. Feelings probably better captured by a German compound noun than by …
2018-06-21: Larry Bird, style icon
2018-06-21: Great to see this come to fruition: “DPLA launches Open Bookshelf, a Collection of Free …
2018-06-20: My thanks to my good friends @kfitz and @ayjay who have also jumped over to personal …
2018-06-20: For those reading this on Twitter, you will still get all of these posts as (cross-posted) tweets, …
2018-06-20: This is the first in a series of notes to let you know that I am trying to move off of …
2018-06-20: Received a very good note from my kids’ 8th-grade English teacher about the power of writing, …
2018-06-20: This is just a test to see if posting to social.dancohen.org makes its way over to Twitter.
2018-06-19: People think Make Way for Ducklings is a cute make-believe children’s book, but at this time of year …
2018-06-18: Genesis 1:1
2018-06-18: I am sure that I have configured my DNS correctly to have microblog.dancohen.org point to …
2018-06-15: Saw this presentation live and recommend it for very interesting applications of machine learning to …