My social media timeline has started filling up with angry reactions to the news that several academic publishers have been licensing academic works to AI companies for training purposes without having consulted the authors of those works. I can understand the anger and frustration that this news have generated, so Read more…
It is trite to point out that the launch of ChatGPT and the subsequent deployment of other language models such as Bard have created quite a stir in different fields. The capability of asking questions and writing prompts, and receiving a large chunk of text, has proven to be useful Read more…
This may seem like an odd title given the fact that I write a blog and I also have an active social media presence. But the question of public engagement is one that does come up often in academic circles, where we are increasingly encouraged to generate impact and communicate Read more…
Citations. Bibliographies. Footnotes. References. Academic publications are filled with them. They serve a number of purposes: Lend support to a statement and give authority to a line of argument. When disagreeing with an author, it is a good practice to cite the source so that others can corroborate that you Read more…
Since 2004 I have been the technical editor of SCRIPTed, the open access journal of Law and Technology published by the SCRIPT Centre in Edinburgh. This involvement has survived all other Edinburgh-related commitments, and has become one of the most rewarding aspects of my academic life. Every four months I Read more…
Regular readers may have noticed that I have been rather quiet for the last month or so. Besides taking a bit of a well-deserved break after a hard semester of teaching, this has been a rather busy time. Back in August 2010 I presented my resignation for the post of Read more…
(via Ernesto Priego) Just finished reading a delightful post by Mary Churchill entitled “Why Do Academics Write?” Highly recommended if you are an academic or interested in academia generally. While the article tells the story of academic writing from an American tenure perspective, it still resonates this side of the Read more…
Here is my presentation for this year’s BILETA Conference. I have a soft spot for BILETA, it was one of my first academic conferences, it is where I met some of my mentors and IT luminaries, and it is to blame in great part for me being in Edinburgh. In Read more…
Brilliant background from Mark Goetz. Given the fact that today I’m working on 4 presentations for the next couple of weeks, I am afraid I might have feline blood on my hands.
I’m in Costa Rica for the rest of the month. Why am I away? As the always excellent PhD comic accurately comments, nobody in academia works in December: Now, where did I put the suntan lotion?