Newest thoughts →

July 2020

Government has just announced that it is backtracking on reopening loads of other types of businesses on Monday because it isn't safe... But they are still stopping all support for shielding of vulnerable individuals. https://x.com/DrFrancesRyan/status/1289159033048506374

https://eve.gd/2020/06/24/on-the-easing-of-shielding/

The guidance from Primary Immunodeficiencies (PID) UK is that “if you are highly vulnerable then you are thought to be at risk of more severe disease, so avoidance of getting COVID-19 is the key. This is why shielding is so important”

It would have been eminently feasible for the government to underwrite a “furlough-like” system to ensure this group can survive economically. But they have indicated no willingness to do this and, as a result, people will die.

Local lockdown strategy is going to be impossible under this government.

People resent local lockdowns anyway: it feels they are being unfairly targeted. But when the measures are absurdly incoherent or designed just to protect the economy, hard to see people taking it seriously

I'd forgotten that episode 2 of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION is the one where there's a sex pandemic aboard the Enterprise

Looking again at the procedure for complaining that technological protection measures inhibit the ability to benefit from a copyright exception and it's no surprise that nobody files these things

also, your right to benefit from a copyright exception in the UK is dependent upon whether it was reasonable to expect corporations to allow you to do so 🤔

You might think that if your pension scheme's poor investment had caused members to go on strike for several weeks in the past year that senior executives might feel some shame...

"Since 31 March 2018 the scheme’s funding position has worsened on the technical provisions basis. In the two years since the
2018 valuation, the scheme’s deficit is estimated to have increased from £3.6bn to £12.9bn as at 31 March 2020."

Clearly merit huge salaries.

Today I:

* Wrote 1,000 words of book
* Worked with COPIM team members on a report
* Published a set of Orbit book reviews
* Had various online admin meetings
* Wrote almost all of the first video lecture for my autumn Masters course

Reading today was these two

Also answered a load of emails and (not pictured) drank beer in the garden. A good day really!

Christ. There is terrible hold music for this rheumatology video clinic. It is loud, bad banjo playing at present. The usual wait time for this clinic is over an hour. The music cannot be disabled.

I just used the new Crossref deposit system in @janeway_systems for the first time and it's amazing seeing it deposit citation data, poll for status etc. I mean, I shouldn't be amazed as I wrote the code that did it, but seeing it actually working on live is great!

This afternoon I have my first ever rheumatology clinic by video call. This is helpful but I do not envy the consultant having to use this system with patients, many of whom will not be tech savvy.

This morning's reading is the preservation and piracy chapter of James Newman's _Videogames_ (second edition).

It took 8 hours and 40 minutes of hacking at it, but I finally got back to inbox zero after annual leave.

It lasted 2 minutes.

In my external examination reports this year I am urging universities to consider, now, what they intend to do about assessment principles for the coming year.

It is highly likely, given the COVID-19 situation, that students will struggle, at various times, to access physical library resources. Unless early attention is given to this matter, we will find ourselves in emergency no-detriment policies again next year.

For instance: how are we going to handle a lack of secondary research, if students couldn't get physical access? This needs planning, right now.

While I'm in grumpy mood, the OPERAS survey on Diamond publishing models for Plan S is, I am told, directed at the _journal_ level, not platform level, so OLH should not respond. However, there is _no way_ that our editors will know the answers to these Qs https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GZQDBT5

They will also have zero inclination to spend 30 minutes (I think it will take a lot longer) to answer these deeply involved questions. Most of them couldn't name _a_ digital preservation system, let alone accurately naming the one that we use.

Cambridge University Press wants me to sign a "work for hire" agreement (when they didn't pay me) for exclusive rights to a video presentation, waiving all moral rights... on open access. No thanks. We need to call this nonsense out.

Contract highlights:

* "For good and valuable consideration" (there is no good and valuable consideration offered in return)

* "I waive all ‘lending rights’, ‘rental rights’ and ‘moral rights’"

* "shall constitute a so-called “Project made for hire”"

Getting my weekly exercise cycling mileage up. A trifle artificial as I'm not leaving my garage, but better than nothing!

Right, Monday, let's be having you. 1,000 research words written. Almost time to face the inbox.

Stats:

Triage time to sort: 1 hr
Emails that require action: 64

Better than expected!

Approximately 800 received over the leave period.

I've been wracking my brains for it all morning, but can anyone remember the name of a game that, when cracked, began to alter the gameplay? I think it was a racing game and the DRM turned off gravity in the physics engine.

This morning for the #piracyaesthetics book I am writing about the interplay between piracy, DRM, and modified game dynamics.

Good on this history: Favale, Marcella, Neil MacDonald, Shamal Faily, and Christos Gatzidis, ‘Human Aspects in Digital Rights Management: The Perspective of Content Developers’, SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016 http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/23010/1/Human%20Aspects%20in%20DRM.pdf

A classic instance of legitimate users wanting the modified 'DRM experience' that they would not normally receive -- so they made a mod to spawn the anti-piracy elements for genuine users https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=259074771&searchtext=

I had a piracy joke... and I cracked it

Heidi pig on the 303

because, as a friend put it, all the best 303 patterns sound like a pet just randomly walked over the buttons

Today is my grandmother's 99th birthday. She was born just after the flu pandemic of the early twentieth century. Such a shame that we cannot see her today.

We did a WhatsApp video call with her!

Companies with data breaches seem to learn nothing from each other.

Every post-mortem I've seen of these incidents features someone saying: "our biggest problem was that we didn't communicate with our users".

Someone at @Garmin will be writing those apologetic words very soon.

"Even once it is determined that we can open up some of the teaching estate safely, some students and teaching colleagues may not be able to attend in person if they are in lockdown, shielding, required to self-isolate or are concerned about the risks of passing the virus"

"Birkbeck prides itself on ensuring access to higher education to all those who can benefit from it."

"In line with our mission, the College has decided to guarantee to our new and continuing students that they will be able to both start and complete the 2020-21 academic year online with some exceptions" - Prof David Latchmann, Master of @BirkbeckUoL

I have just now submitted the manuscript of my book _The Digital Humanities and Literary Studies_ to OUP. Hurrah!

sliding into Friday 5pm...

Not planning on going into any shops, but in case we have to go anywhere (say a hospital) in a rush, I am now masked and ready to go. Except we got the ones with valves. Doh.

the t-shirt is designed to aid with social distancing as nobody wants to come within 3m of me

Some more good news in this terrible year: my debilitating auditory neuropathy seems to have stabilised. It could be a combination of physical healing and mental retraining, but my hearing has actually improved quite substantially.

I may still struggle in noisy environments with lots of people but, funnily enough, that isn't proving a major concern this year...

As a disabled academic with several serious health conditions that put me in the extremely vulnerable category, the past few months has been an anxious time. @BirkbeckUoL has done a good job of protecting me throughout, though. Latest communication is "no return until it's safe".

@BirkbeckUoL The university has committed to offering all courses online for the coming year in order to protect students and staff. It has paid extensions to funded PhD students due to submit during this period. The College has focused on retaining jobs, including through redeployment.

@BirkbeckUoL My university has been extremely realistic about the challenges of the coming year. Compared to what I'm hearing from colleagues at other institutions, not everywhere is taking such a pragmatic stance. I really hope it doesn't go wrong later this year.

I've taken the first few days of my annual leave this week to try to rest, recharge, and refresh. I've been reading the new David Mitchell novel (mixed views on this). Today I did a bit of writing, editing this chapter on David Foster Wallace into shape https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/32199/

The ERC withdrawal from Plan S feels, to me, concerned with evaluation. The implied problems faced by early career researchers are, presumably, career progression if they can't publish in high-prestige titles? I suppose it could also be the perceived focus on APC models?

To give an idea of how difficult the winter is going to be for those going back to in-person teaching, whether at school or university level: every time someone gets a minor cold an entire bubble will have to go into an isolating lockdown until cleared.

I've had my first academic conference of summer 2021 pushed back to 2022 and, although it feels like such a long haul, it is good to see colleagues recognising the severity of the situation.

At the same time: brings home the lengthy timescales for any kind of return to the old world.

Annual leave? Yes please. Off away from HE government news grimness to recharge. Obviously not actually going anywhere but taking some downtime.

God @MDPIOpenAccess are a total mess. They just emailed 238 people on a non-blind CC looking to buy journals.

The government seems to have just posted its strategy for how it will reshape the Higher Education sector as universities go bankrupt under COVID-19 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-restructuring-regime

Para 5: HE is a market with student choice being important, apparently, but the government wants to direct institutions to deliver "strong graduate employment outcomes in areas of economic and societal importance, such as STEM, nursing and teaching."

as though universities can deliver job opportunities, rather than this being totally dependent on the economy -- which has been wrecked by COVID-19.

an attack on student unions in para 6: " The funding of student unions should be proportionate and focused on serving the needs of the wider student population rather than subsidising niche activism and campaigns"

"we are actively considering how to reduce the burden of bureaucracy imposed by Government and regulators"... OK, that would be good.

Para 7: "In every case this must involve a much stronger alignment of the courses delivered with the economic and societal needs of the nation".

If this government had designed "sex education", it would now be called "sex training".

Para 14: government will intervene when it feels like it. Or rather, "There is a clear economic and value for money case for intervention: not all providers will be prevented from exiting the market"

also: "The failure of the provider would cause significant harm to the national or local economy or society".

Basically broad enough that Gov can arbitrarily choose which HE providers to support and which to let go bust.

Para 16: "Any financial support provided will be in the form of a repayable loan. An assessment of the provider’s business model will determine the precise terms and conditions"

"We will also require assurance that providers are fully complying with their legal duties to secure freedom of speech under section 43 Education (No.2) Act 1986"

They are seriously still banging on about this.

P19 "The assessment will particularly look at supporting the provision of high-quality courses, with strong learner outcomes that develop skills that are aligned to local and national economic and social employment needs"

See @dkernohan for those non-existent low-quality courses

Research* is spot on when it described the government's universities policy this AM as "disowning disadvantage"

AHRC COVID-19 urgent grant scheme. Told it had a 10-day turnaround for decisions and required start within a fortnight. Submitted 15th May. Still waiting for a decision two months later.

Approaching 3 hours down out of 7 on video calls today. Currently on the OPERAS Special Interest Group around business models, to continue yesterday's theme...

Exciting spreadsheet modelling of revenue models for OA monographs with @ScholTom this morning. Good to have a hobby. 🤓🤓🤓

It's looking like a long haul for social distancing for us with my immunodeficiency. Does anyone have any recommendations for outdoor heaters so that we might be able to see people this year?

"This is a work of friction, and the resemblance of characters to any real persons, living or dead, is purely mechanical"

Another entirely inappropriate statement from the UK PM.

"They’ve [universities] had to cope by saying they will have to do a lot of teaching online through Zoom. [...] I would like to see universities come back in the Autumn like schools. It should happen, it must happen."

The #1 priority of universities is to protect their students and staff. Not to cater to the arbitrary timetable of a man who is bored of dealing with the difficult economics of a pandemic.

a recent post by @kfitz sprang to mind: "your institution does not deserve to survive unless you are committed to the survival of the people who make up and serve that institution first, foremost, and above all" https://kfitz.info/your-institution-does-not-deserve-to-survive/

"Visitors can return to Disney World in Florida starting on Saturday"

"Florida emerges as world's new epicenter for COVID-19"

"Minister to signal further lockdown easing"

"Pandemic 'still accelerating' and 'not under control' - WHO"

I'll believe it is a good goal when they also say: "It is our intention that 50% of the children of cabinet ministers should not go to university"

In normal times, today would have been our end-of-year drinks at the Birkbeck School of Arts. Calendar reminders popping up from happier and safer days.

"The body that represents A&E medics, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, is urging the public to behave sensibly by not drinking to excess or getting into fights."

Why do I have such a terrible feeling about this?

'NHS England has already warned hospitals and ambulance services that they are in for a busy weekend, with demand for care likely to reach “that of New Year’s Eve” on Saturday evening.'

It's so frustrating to see UK universities on the one hand derided for educating broader groups and told they are leeching money from those who "don't deserve education" while on the other praised for offering research at below full economic cost, subsidised by student fees. https://x.com/FiJMcIntyre/status/1278372988128239617

note how the recent research rescue package -- while, in itself, welcome -- was _not_ about protecting _universities_. It was, though, a recognition of the forms of cross-subsidy that underwrite our research economies.

I think my phrasing above was clumsy. It's always phrased more subtly than "don't deserve education". I think we're supposed to say "those not suited to university study" or similar.

An interesting few lines in the R&D Roadmap published today on review of QR and cutting bureaucracy. Perhaps no mid-2020 REF in any recognisable form? Perhaps wishful thinking.