:: Sir Tim and the Semantic Web ::

As this Technology Review article notes, Tim Berners-Lee did not gain a lot of financial advantage from his inventions of the World-Wide Web but has certainly been reaping status and other things as a result of it.

The truly notable thing though about this article is more the definition it provides of Sir Tim's latest baby, the Semantic Web. While I've heard a colleague extol the virtues of the semantic web for a few years now, I never really understood it that well or its advantages until I read this article.

Rather than botch my own explanation of it here, I encourage you to go read the article and learn about it and Sir Tim yourself.

:: Skepticism and vigilance ::

I've been told that I'm overly cynical of the members of the Fourth Estate, given that I once had aspirations myself of being a journalist, or at least a columnist.

Stories like these about the invented news that crops up in respected media channels give me food for my skepticism.

Cynical? No. Critical? You bet. And so should you be too. As the article states, "Today's reporting needs to be read with a great deal of skepticism and vigilance".

:: Another tool in the copyright wars ::

I came across a tool called Copyscape that boldly claims it provides "Interent Infringement Protection".

While I'm not sure exactly what they mean by that, I think it is an interesting tool for authors to add to their arsenal as they attempt to stem the tides of cultural appropriation in the war to preserve the Industrial Revolution's concept of copyright.

:: Blog of note ::

Jean Burgess is a graduate student who maintains a blog called creativity / machine centred around the emerging academic field of Internet Studies, the same field I want to hurry up and become a formal part of.

In any case, his blog is thought-provoking and definitely one to watch.

:: Cat lovers galore ::

People say I pay too much attention to my dog, Sandy. I have tons of pics of her (though strangely none have made it to this blog) in my wallet, my tube at work, on my laptop.

But, dog lover that I am, even I would not have had the weird but cool brain turn to come up with something as interesting, odd, photograph-filled and waste-of-time-yet-addictive as the Infinite Cat Project.

Brings to mind the Big Red Button from early 1995. You just can't stop hitting that "Next Cat" icon...

[thanks to Teri for the link]

:: Online resources ::

Once again, blogging to capture a link to Terri Senft's excellent journal - might provide me some links that would be useful for this semester's research into digital community.

:: Personal webpage = ?? ::

For my first real blogpost in a while, I've chosen to blog this musing from a british academic David Brake on the difficulties in defining the term personal webpage. This is a term that I thought had fallen out of favour but apparently not. David is working on a project in which a definition of this term would be useful and he has the admirable desire to consult his fellow academics for their take on the term.

While browsing his post, also go and check out the Habbo Hotel he mentions. I don't claim to have fully grokked its concept yet, but I will take a closer look at it when I start working intensively on my deliverables for my Community Studies class in sociology this fall. Could prove interesting and useful then.

:: Blogging, take 3 ::

As often happens for me, now that school has restarted for this year and now that I'm taking a few courses that require me to pay attention to various happenings, places and interactions on the net, I'll be blogging intermittently but with more frequency.

So consider this my blog, take 3. And...yes...I may once again be blogging for marks. More details on this to come in the upcoming days...