Harvard University will stop printing its course catalogs, faculty and student handbooks, and results of course evaluations after this semester, The Harvard Crimson reports. Starting in the fall, these guides will be published exclusively on the Web.
The move will save “tens of thousands of dollars,” according to The Crimson. In addition, the course catalog “is significantly out-of-date before the first copy rolls off the presses,” admits Barry Kane, registrar of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, in an unusually candid comment.
The online system will be much more dynamic, said Jay M. Harris, Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education, and will give students access to analysis of course evaluations and data not offered in print versions.
[via Chronicle of Higher Education]
April 2, 2009
Does Tweeting at Work Make You More Productive?
Here is one to tell your boss next time you are tweeting on Twitter or friending someone on Facebook while at work:
According to a study of 300 workers conducted by the University of Melbourne, Australia, those who surf the Internet for personal reasons during office hours are about 9% more productive than those who do not.
Brent Coker, of the University’s department of management and marketing, said "workplace Internet leisure browsing," helped to sharpened workers' concentration.
"People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration," Coker explained on the university’s website. "Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a day’s work, and as a result, increased productivity."
Among the most popular workplace browsing activities are searching for information about products, reading online news sites, playing online games and watching videos on YouTube.
[via wired.com]
According to a study of 300 workers conducted by the University of Melbourne, Australia, those who surf the Internet for personal reasons during office hours are about 9% more productive than those who do not.
Brent Coker, of the University’s department of management and marketing, said "workplace Internet leisure browsing," helped to sharpened workers' concentration.
"People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration," Coker explained on the university’s website. "Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a day’s work, and as a result, increased productivity."
Among the most popular workplace browsing activities are searching for information about products, reading online news sites, playing online games and watching videos on YouTube.
[via wired.com]
Three Websites to Help Celebrate Earth Month
April is Earth Month. Here are three websites to help with all aspects of going "green" regarding technology.
GoodCleanTech
GoodCleanTech is one of blogs maintained by the PC Magazine Digital Network. It focuses on news and reviews of environmentally friendly technology.
Ecofont
Looking to save money (and resources) when printing? Instead of using standard fonts like Arial and Times New Roman, you may want to download and install Ecofont. Ecofont places tiny circles within letters to help use up to 20% less ink.
Electronics Recycling Superguide
This excellent guide by Jennifer DeLeo of PC Magazine covers all aspects of recycling used electronic equipment, from recycling initiatives by specific equipment manufacturers and retailers such as Best Buy, to websites where you can recycle your used equipment for cash.
GoodCleanTech
GoodCleanTech is one of blogs maintained by the PC Magazine Digital Network. It focuses on news and reviews of environmentally friendly technology.
Ecofont
Looking to save money (and resources) when printing? Instead of using standard fonts like Arial and Times New Roman, you may want to download and install Ecofont. Ecofont places tiny circles within letters to help use up to 20% less ink.
Electronics Recycling Superguide
This excellent guide by Jennifer DeLeo of PC Magazine covers all aspects of recycling used electronic equipment, from recycling initiatives by specific equipment manufacturers and retailers such as Best Buy, to websites where you can recycle your used equipment for cash.
Spam Makes up 94% of Email
Spam – those ever-present and annoying drug ads, announcements of lottery winnings, or dating services that show up in your inbox – make up about 94% of all email, according to The New York Times. This is back up to the level of last October.
Briefly, at the end of 2008, the amount of spam traffic was cut by 70% after the large Internet providers knocked offline a California web-hosting server that spammers were using to coordinate email attacks.
According to The Times, this year, average spam volumes have increased about 1.2% each day. And, “what the spammers have been using to rebuild is more technically advanced than what got taken out and is itself a more resilient technology,” explains a spokesperson for an email security company.
Briefly, at the end of 2008, the amount of spam traffic was cut by 70% after the large Internet providers knocked offline a California web-hosting server that spammers were using to coordinate email attacks.
According to The Times, this year, average spam volumes have increased about 1.2% each day. And, “what the spammers have been using to rebuild is more technically advanced than what got taken out and is itself a more resilient technology,” explains a spokesperson for an email security company.
Using Excel to Write a Short Story
A while back, The Tech Desk staffer Mary Hojnacki wrote about using using Microsoft Excel to make a music video.
Now, here is one one blogger's attempt to write a short novel using the same software.
Excel: it's not just for spreadsheets anymore.
[via boingboing]
Now, here is one one blogger's attempt to write a short novel using the same software.
Excel: it's not just for spreadsheets anymore.
[via boingboing]
April 1, 2009
Online Journalists See Reasons for Optimism in News Industry
Journalists who work online are more optimistic about the future of their profession than are news people tied to more traditional media platforms, according to a new survey of Online News Association members by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.
Overall, the online journalists surveyed are less likely to think journalism is headed in the “wrong direction” than are journalists from traditional media. They are also more confident that online news will find a self-sustaining revenue model.
Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed, who come largely from websites linked to traditional media, say the Internet is “changing the fundamental values of journalism.” Some of the biggest changes, the respondents said, were a loosening of standards and more carelessness in online news gathering, and an increased emphasis on speed.
But not all of the changes were considered worrisome. Some journalists praised the growing diversity of voices, the potential of technology, and in some cases, even the move toward more overtly ideological points of view at news sites.
Overall, the online journalists surveyed are less likely to think journalism is headed in the “wrong direction” than are journalists from traditional media. They are also more confident that online news will find a self-sustaining revenue model.
Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed, who come largely from websites linked to traditional media, say the Internet is “changing the fundamental values of journalism.” Some of the biggest changes, the respondents said, were a loosening of standards and more carelessness in online news gathering, and an increased emphasis on speed.
But not all of the changes were considered worrisome. Some journalists praised the growing diversity of voices, the potential of technology, and in some cases, even the move toward more overtly ideological points of view at news sites.
Wikipedia Puts Another Competitor Out of Business
The first non-print reference source I ever owned was Encarta, Microsoft’s digital encyclopedia, launched in 1993 as a direct competitor to print powerhouses like Encyclopedia Britannica.
When I first purchased Encarta, it was a CD. It later moved to the web. The encyclopedia grew quickly in its first few years, as it offered images, sound, and internal links at a fraction of the cost of a multi-volume print encyclopedia.
Now, Microsoft has announced that it will discontinue Encarta on October 31.
According to TechCrunch:
Encarta's failed strategy of "opening" its pages to users to submit suggestions for articles reminds me of Britannica's recent attempt to become more responsive to its users, in order to compete with Wikipedia.
When I first purchased Encarta, it was a CD. It later moved to the web. The encyclopedia grew quickly in its first few years, as it offered images, sound, and internal links at a fraction of the cost of a multi-volume print encyclopedia.
Now, Microsoft has announced that it will discontinue Encarta on October 31.
According to TechCrunch:
“In the 2000s Encarta’s popularity died out, largely due to the incredible growth of Wikipedia, the free web-based encyclopedia. Wikipedia is updated by a community of users from around the world, and is far more efficient than traditional encyclopedias and their online counterparts, which are edited in-house. In 2005 Encarta tried to take the middle ground by allowing users to submit suggestions for article updates, but these were not integrated into articles until they had been approved by Encarta editors.
For a full history of Encarta, be sure to check out its comprehensive Wikipedia entry, which has already been updated to reflect Encarta’s shutdown. Encarta’s entry on itself doesn’t mention anything about its demise, and actually seems to have less information than the Wikipedia article.”
Encarta's failed strategy of "opening" its pages to users to submit suggestions for articles reminds me of Britannica's recent attempt to become more responsive to its users, in order to compete with Wikipedia.
Fun Wednesday: April Fools' Edition
Happy April Fools' Day! Many companies, especially Google (remember Gmail Paper?) and NPR, love to add fake features and news to their content during this holiday. Have fun looking around for these today, and if you find anything very funny, let everyone know in the comments section!
One of my all time favorites was on NPR's All Things Considered in 2003:
In real news, it appears that the Conficker worm has failed to cause major computer problems today.
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