According to Arthur C. Clarke anyway. My own blogging has had to take a back seat over the past month as I have been busy with teaching related activities and getting the websites associated with my various courses up and running again after an over enthusiastic rm-ing session on the wrong web server last summer. I had kept MySQL dumps of everything but not of the various sites themselves so I had the content but not the presentation and it takes time, a precious commodity, to get these things going. Anyway my
argumentation site is up and running, as is my
linux site and my
agents site, covering the three broad topics that I am teaching this year. The plan has been to use publically accessible blogs, rather than blackboard, to keep a record of everything that occurs in relation to each of my modules. I have an adverse reaction to the locking up of knowledge inside little blackboard websites because they are distinctly not open. When I have been interested in various modules being delivered by my colleagues I have had to go through a process of getting added to the module lists so that I can get access. When all I really want to do is read through the slides to satisfy some sort of academic craving.
What are the plans for this year you wonder. Well no resolutions. Some half-hearted, fairly vague, back of the mind ideas for things I want to do over the next year or so. Some of these things are fairly practical;
- getting to inbox 0 (currently at inbox 2 as I have 2 emails from friends that I want to give thoughtful and considered replies to) and other hacks to increase my productivity,
- getting a fellowship application in (although this is actually half-hearted as it would mean little or no teaching for 3 years or so and I now realise that it is the healthy balance of teaching and research activities that currently make me (reasonably) happy in my job),
- getting some research funding (this is more whole hearted as I want to stop self-funding my visits, get some better equipment and books, and because it is a necessary part of getting onto the career ladder as a scientist - it is not solely about what you know but increasingly about how much money you can bring to the table),
- getting those two journal papers off of my desk that have been in various states of done-ness for too long,
- getting my small publishing business up and running (as it has been in the back of my mind for a couple of years during which time several friends have written and print-on-demanded various books but would rather have turned that over to someone they know to manage so that they could write more). It should be noted that this is also a strategic move in that it looks increasingly as though only those who have a business interest in copyright will have any say in the near future over how the copyright landscape erodes. By developing a non-traditional publishing model based off of openness and sharing perhaps it will give me a stronger basis from which to argue against increased restrictions,
- finally get my personal consultancy changed over from a sole trader business into a limited company and try to build an extra income stream,
- get some new websites up and running. I have one on cooking (partnering with a friends baking website (which I also have to get running)), one for the publishing company, and one for my book blogging.
I think that that is enough to get started with...
