Below are the remarks I prepared for “Sci-Hub the Disruptor: Piracy and Publishing in Academia,” a panel being put on Thursday here at Lehigh University as part of our International Access Week offerings. Unfortunately, a family situation prevents me from
My own students would troll me if I buried the lede, so I won’t. I got a letter from the Lehigh University provost today confirming the Board of Trustees had approved his recommendation for tenure. So as of next month,
This was a tweetstorm that I turned into a blog post …. Spotlight’s Oscar victory for Best Picture honor was a double win. First, most important: it’s a victory for the victims of these terrible crimes who deserved to have
This morning brings horrifying news about someone shooting two Virginia journalists in cold blood while they were doing a live interview on a TV newscast. It’s so shocking and senseless that I have trouble summoning words for it. The journalists were young and
Update: When I wrote this, I was down 12 pounds in a month. Now, as of 5-1/2 months, I’m down 65 pounds. I know it’s common for tech companies to proclaim all their products world-changing. HBO’s Silicon Valley has a really funny
It seems every few months there’s a new service clamoring for our finite attention. Facebook carved out the detailed social network niche, whereas Twitter has locked in those who like it for scanning information and discussion quickly. Instagram took off
Much will be written about Jon Stewart’s decision to leave The Daily Show, both from a historical and cultural impact. This will not be one of those thinkpieces, probably. Instead I want to briefly share some upcoming research about Stewart’s
First, a reminder your papers are due by the stroke of midnight, and next week is a paper-discussion week. We’ve spent three weeks poking around the personality of the Internet. I like to start this way because it offers a
This is my second semester teaching a senior seminar on Web culture here at Lehigh. This semester’s JOUR 325 The Culture of the Internet is (I hope) an improvement on previous semesters. One thing I tried last time that worked OK but
Google ended the Glass Explorer program last week, halting sales while simultaneously saying that the program itself is not dead – whether the last part is true or not remains to be seen. People have asked me what I think, and