j’s scratchpad

Scott Johnson’s blog Scott on Feedster is gone. While deleting the blog seems to make a lot of sense because he doesn’t work at Feedster anymore, it also removes a lot of information about and some of the history of the search engine from the Web. Where did that corporate history go? I’ve linked to [...]

Those of you who have been reading the scratchpad or blogging on Harvard’s server for two to three years might remember the now defunct global stats and rankings pages some of us used to watch. Many of us have been hoping we could find a similar ranking tool for our blogs or some other measure [...]

The Librarians’ Index to the Internet, one of my favorite metasites and an important resource for librarians and Web surfers, is facing a 50% budget cut. They have a survey to try to figure out what to do. They’ll be gathering data through Thursday, March 16.
From Question 3:
"LII is facing a 50% budget cut in [...]

On Talk of the Nation Wednesday, JJ Sutherland explains why National Public Radio decided to start a blog and how they hope people will use it. From the first post, which also introduces JJ:
"But perhaps most importantly this is an attempt to engage in an ongoing conversation with you. Send us email, leave us comments [...]

I just read Berkman’s events e-mail. Next week is a full week.
Tuesday’s lunch guest is Roger Dingledine, who will talk about Tor, an anonymous Internet communications system.
That evening at 7 pm, Dan Gillmor will speak about citizens media in 102 Pound Hall.
David Weinberger will talk about Wikipedia and authority on Wednesday at 6 pm at [...]

Gary Price is in town for some talks, so we’re doing dinner Thursday night (3/9) around 6 pm at Santarpio’s, 113 Chelsea Street, East Boston. It’s near the Maverick stop on the Blue Line. Gary claims this restaurant, which has been serving for more than 100 years, serves some of the best pizza. Join us [...]

If you’re more into wikis than Gary Price, go to Grafton Street tonight (3/8) at 6 pm for some wikilicious discussion and drinks instead of going to a wonderful discussion about Web tools and search engines and stuff at Simmons College. Either will probably be equally satiating.
sj, of course, will be at Grafton. He claims [...]

I know a few of you readers either work remotely, telecommute at least some of the time, have home offices, etc., etc., whateveryoucallitthesedays, so I thought this post from Scott about managing remote workers and a follow-up conversation are worth reading. (He calls telecommuting workers "virtual workers," but that’s too close to saying someone is [...]

The Motley Fool, an entity known for financial wisdom, discusses Wal-Mart’s use of bloggers for public relations following some negative press about the practice and how some bloggers potentially and perhaps intentionally misled some of their readers by not disclosing they were blogging for the retail giant. The Fool’s article has some great links and [...]