OLDaily

Would you recognise yourself from your data?
Carl Miller, BBC News, 2019/05/30

Author Carl Miller doesn't recognize himself from his aggregated data - not surprising, given that he is characterized as "young and struggling", no "regular interest in book reading", and a "Netmums - women trying to conceive". So, OK, the technology that collects data about us hasn't fully matured yet. But should we be cheered or spooked by the prospect that it will eventually get it right? Even more concerning, it is difficult (and getting more difficult) to know how these companies are depicting us. Whether or not they get it right, we should be able to see the data. This data will be how employers assess our competencies and credentials in the future; companies that collect and create this data have an obligation to get it knowably and openly correct.

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What does it mean to have a shared culture? A wrapup from this year’s CC Global Summit
Jennie Rose Halperin, Creative Commons, 2019/05/30

This is a self-congratulatory post summarizing the Creative Commons summit, and while there is no mention of "shared culture" beyond the headline, it makes for feel-good reading. It was the "shared culture" clip that caught my eye - what 'open' means - or at least, should mean - is not that we all share one culture, but rather, that people from many different values and cultures can share with each other. The more Creative Commons embraces a single shared-culture view of openness, the harder it will be to actually be open.

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The realities of journal publishing: a view from Canada’s not-for-profits
Canadian Association of Learned Journals, University Affairs, 2019/05/30

The Canadian Association of Learned Journals (CALJ-ACRS) has posted an opinion piece in University Affairs saying, essentially, that they are important and people should continue to pay for subscription-based journals. In particular, they criticize CBC coverage of the issue: "The CBC could have provided a more complete story if they had reached out to members of CALJ, who would have highlighted the cost-effectiveness of the Canadian journal publishing environment." But they're not cost-effective. Some of them, like the former NRC Research Press, should never have been charging subscriptions in the first place. And from where I sit, the CALJ editorial misrepresents the work that publishers do - it is the authors and reviewers to edit, typeset (yes, we must format them exactly right), fact-check, link-check, and the rest - everything, in fact, except 'build a brand' (and arguably, we do that too). Sorry - the CBC coverage is accurate. The CALJ editorial is rather less so.

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Why a New Kind of ‘Badge’ Stands Out From the Crowd
Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2019/05/30

Business wants badges. Because that's how they wrest control of credentialing from institutions. That despite the reassurances of Goldie Blumenstyk is what motivates the credential developed by Capital CoLAB (Collaborative of Leaders in Academia and Business). "Capital CoLAB is now working to create a common logo for the certificate and has hired a vendor to develop a digital badge that could eventually be read by automated HR systems and used on sites like LinkedIn." See also MIT's Digital Credentials initiative (more) (because of course MIT would reinvent something like open badges and brand it with its own logo).

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